I wish the magazine well. Good luck to those involved. :)
New Order of the Stick? You mean strips unique to this magazine like Burlew did for Dragon? If so thats pretty awesome.
Grabbed the bundle, read the PDF, major nostalgia attack.
It looks and feels like Dragon from the eighties.
If it keeps up like this, I'd be happy to subscribe!
Reggie.
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Feedback for the Combat Feats:
Tried to get my GM to allow them for our Rise of the Runelords game, but he didn't want to have to change some stat blocks. Another friend disliked that Precise Shot had a Dex 17 requirement. I thought they looked solid myself and will use them in games I GM.
I can certainly understand the reluctance to changing stat blocks (although really, it would not be *that* big of a deal :) The GM could always decide that monsters do not get to use the scaling combat feats - maybe only the PCs get to use them (or maybe just PCs and major NPCs, for instance). Or, for those that feel fighters need a little bump, make scaling combat feats only available to fighters! That's the nice thing about these - there are a number of different ways you can implement them in your games!
Regarding the Precise Shot scaling combat feat ... this one presented a somewhat unique 'problem'. Since scaling combat feats are based on the level/BAB scaling mechanic of feats like Power Attack and Deadly Aim, I wanted all the new scaling combat feats to conform to the same mechanic and format. Having a trigger in a scaling combat feat other than level/BAB would have gone against the idea behind scaling combat feats. Plus, it would have meant that a character could in theory take the feat but never get the scaling aspect if he didn't have the 19 Dex when he achieved the appropriate level or BAB. All scaling combat feats should scale for the character based solely on increasing his BAB, without other variables, so the Precise Shot scaling combat feat needed a little ... fiddling :)
In this particular case, Precise Shot has no minimum dexterity requirement while Improved Precise Shot requires a minimum of a 19 dexterity. I considered simply making the Precise Shot scaling combat feat require a 19 Dex, but that went a little too much against the spirit of the Precise Shot feat and made it a bit too hard to qualify for, while removing the Dex requirement altogether went too much against the spirit of the Improved Precise Shot feat, plus having no minimum dex requirement made the Precise Shot scaling combat feat a bit too easy to qualify for.
Making the Precise Shot scaling combat feat have a minimum of a 17 Dex was the simplest, must elegant solution. It's low enough that a reasonably dexterous character can take the feat (just like the standard Precise Shot feat) BUT, since the 17 Dex minimum is only 2 less then the standard Improved Precise Shot feat, it still maintains the basic feel of that feat. It was a nice, simple and balanced compromise, in other words.
As the article's introduction says, since scaling combat feat are, by their very nature, modular, you can always decide to use all the scaling combat feats but Precise Shot if you like.
I'd love to hear how scaling combat feats work out in the next game you GM, Morgen!
Thanks for the scaling combat feats Marc. I'm working them into my game. Feat trees have one problem that bugs me, they soak up the one resource Fighters have more of. Feats. Besides being logical it allows the Fighter to make the most of what he's got.