Besides, 1st level is always Rocket Tag. Any 1st level charcater can kill any other 1st level character, because the modifiers haven't started swamping the random number generation yet. When you're dealing with 60% this and 70% that, and fighting a dozen goblins, sooner or later one will kill you. All that proves is that low-level characters and monsters are squishy.
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Besides, 1st level is always Rocket Tag. Any 1st level charcater can kill any other 1st level character, because the modifiers haven't started swamping the random number generation yet. When you're dealing with 60% this and 70% that, and fighting a dozen goblins, sooner or later one will kill you. All that proves is that low-level characters and monsters are squishy.
True.
The Casters real power doesn't really hit stride till he gets a little higher in level where he can turn off encounters and do other things simultaneously, while the rest of the martials are still just hitting things (turning off encounters in their own way).
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Maybe YOU couldn't take over the world with those powers Drift, but I damn well guarantee you I could.Better hope you find a way to have Bullet Shield up all the time.If you are allowing people to KNOW it's you taking over the world chaos, such that you have to worry about bullets, then you probably couldn't take over the world.
I wouldn't let anyone know who was doing it. Until it was done.
I have to say, I am seeing a very alarming lack of imagination here. Are you thinking that the way to take over the world is to jump up, spread your arms and say "Look out world! Here I am!" and blow your three or four spells in five minutes?
Seriously? That's how you think it would be done?
Well, and don't forget, if you're a wizard, you're not a slouch in the intelligence department either. That'll help.
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Some ideas.
3. Cap spell DCs at 20Where are you going to cap saves? I have a fighter whose lowest save is her +20 reflex.
I once had a GM that ruled all monsters had 95% spell resistance. Your rule would effectively do the same.
7. Eliminate magic mart and item creation feats and use 2nd eds item creation rules. Wands of cure light wands etc do not exist. Makes cleric/druid types actually have to use resources from daily spells known.I'm sorry Mr. Fighter, your going to die. I tapped out of healing 3 encounters ago
Essentially, your entire list of changes, most of which I won't respond to, result in an entirely different game. One that has about the same degree of resemblance to Pathfinder as 4.0 had to 3.5
If what you want is an entirely different game system, do so. Nothing stops from converting Golarion content.
No I would not cap saves and if you got +19 or higher on a save you would make your save 95% of the time. This is how it worked in AD&D and it is why blasting spells and things like the power words with no save were good spells. Wizards were still broken but they couldn't just rail road everything.
My earlier suggestions were anything from houserules to suggested rewrites of entire classes or even the PF rules. What really broke spellcassters was the change over form AD&D where a basic fighter without feats was better than the 3.x fighter with feats because of the relaxation of the restrictions AD&D spell casters had.
Even something as basic as metamagic rods break the game. 2nd ed had metamagic but you would have to cast and resolve a spell and then in the following round cast the metamagic spell you wanted to use.
The other nerf to martials was to be a good martial character in 3.x you tend to specialize a lot so if you come across something you are not optimized for you tend to suck. A crit using build at range where archery is better for example. You could specialize a bit in AD&D and depending on how many optional rules one used you could go a bit further but a fighter did not suck that much with a bow for example for various reasons even without a high dexterity.
I've been playing retroclones since late 2012 instead of Pathfinder and some of them use d20 mechanics. IMHO some of the basic idea they use D&D got right back in 1977 are better than what they done in 2000. Not claiming OSR games are inherently better than Pathfinder across the board but I think they are better in some ways even if you'ere not using a retroclone. I ran 3.x for 12 years and it was fun playing 2nd ed again recently even with the ass backwards mechanics which 3rd ed did improve IMHO. Fighter saves at level 1 for example need to be around +5/+5/+4 IMHO.
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Just thinking about the relative power and utility of full casters, I was wondering how far they would have to be nerfed before people thought they became too bad to play.
What if Wizards and clerics had a spellcasting progression like the Magus, gaining a new spellcasting level every 3 levels, would they still be 'tier 1'?
Partial casters would of course be berfed as well, in proportion.
(Diving into the deep end) Oh come on martial dude, you know you want some caster love
4e has 'at will', 'encounter', and 'daily' spells. Its OMG Ugly.the key to balancing casters, is not to nerf their spell slots and shorten the adventuring day further, but to rewrite the magic system entirely.
if Per Encounter Casters existed and had a few decent at will powers when they ran out of their encounter powers
it would be far more balanced than trying to shoehorn a once per week nuclear explosion that is OMG, once per week.
even if the nuclear explosion was once per week, as long as it was damned powerful enough to justify being a weekly spell, it might as well be a devastating effect saved for those once in a lifetime battles such as when you need to kill a legendary archdemon to save a country.
it doesn't matter that the caster can split nuclear atoms once a week, because they have the option to do it, and will save it for the big decisive fight of the week.
at will damage, at will out of combat healing, and at will minor buffs or debuffs aren't an issue.
it doesn't matter how many spells per day you can use if they have minor game changing impact.
it is the reason the 3.5 warlock was actually balanced as a class.
i'm looking for at will and 'rechargable per encounter powers' akin to a hybrid of the Warlock from Complete Arcane, the Factotum from Dungeonscape and the Warblade from Tome of Battle
minor damage effects, minor heals, minor short duration buffs and debuffs could be done at will and scale with level akin to martial swings, even picking up iteratives with caster level
and a pool of per encounter points that can be spent to pull out bigger powers that are much more drastic
Heal or Harm would be an example of a low level per encounter power you could spend a moderate amount of points on
Fireball and Cure X wounds would be an example of at will powers
some abilities, like mage armor or resist energy, would be passive effects, potentially auras
summoning would also be an example of a per encounter power, as would crap like enervation, grease, or black tentacles
using a per encounter power before your next encounter would drain from your next encounter's point allotment
major game changers (like teleport and raise dead for example) would be rituals that require material components and open to anyone who blows a feat.
it's kinda 4e-esque, minus the daily powers and with the rest of the d20 base
instead of using X power once per encounter, you would have a pool of stamina points you can spend on per encounter powers, and can spend actions to recover a portion of them
i would also give characters access to out of combat fast healing equal to their character level plus their constitution bonus per round. removing the need for cure wands and mitigating the need for a healer.
and allow everyone a limited number of swift action second winds per encounter instead of per day. every PC has an amount of second winds per encounter equal to their constitution bonus. they grant full healing up to maximimum health.
And reducing the spell slots isn't really a big thing. People were playing casters for 25 years with limited spells and still had a blast with the game. Don't let what amounts to a marketing gimmick (to make casters more appealing, accessible and easier to play) from some Devs override your sense of class balance.Most people playing now would have hated OD&D as proven by the way the game has become more mainstream as it has evolved away from those roots.
hell. OD&D
you didn't get to choose your class
you rolled 3d6 in order, and chose your class best on your best rolls
you weren't guaranteed to have all your bases covered
and to be anything but human, you had to have high enough stats
and humans had next to nothing, because their only advantage was houseruled away almost all the time
what did a human get? OMG, i'm not blinded by a fireball, but i can't multiclass without houserules, can't use any of the awesome racial items, i get no racial abilities except for the situational advantage of lacking infared vision, but infared was a must because of all the advantages it provided
oh? i have no level cap? most campaigns don't go very far past the racial level caps, and even if they do, the level caps are houseruled away
oh, some rarely used splatbook finally gave us humans the ability to multiclass, which was already houseruled to begin with, but we could be any combination our alignment doesn't already prohibit. so with the exception of paladin/assassins we could be any combination of any number of compatible classes we pleased.
monk/samurai? yeah, monk/samurai/wizard/cleric/rogue/cavalier/fighter also doable.
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Plus tbh with you, the stats look sketchy. 3 traits?So you have to drop Elven Reflexes or Berserker of the Society or would you rather give up a feat? That or lose the Init bonus or the +3 rounds a day of Raging.
Do you know what the adopted trait is?
Avg Barb wealth 105 gp, Kikko armor (30), Greatsword (50) with 70 gp left - idk, maybe the funds were randomly generated by the app?
PFS rules are 150 gp starting wealth for all characters.
He has a ranging to-hit of +9 (+8 while using PA)...so where are you getting his +10 to hit from - he never gets to +10.
+8 to +10.
+8 not charging. +10 while charging. Standard combat rules. At any point in time the eidolon is going to pounce, the barbarian will be charging with his 1 big attack.
No, he doesn't. If using PA (non raging) he has a 75% rate and if using PA while raging it is 85%. Assuming you want that same damage output 15 min, otherwise you are doing 2d6+7:min 9 damage.
Somehow barbarians are always assumed to have Rage going when demonstrating their DPR, and assumed to be out of Rage when attempting to show another class is OP.
9 rounds of Rage at level 1 is far more than any caster has for spells.
And where the hell are you getting AC 12 as an average CR 1 encounter? Page 291 of the Bestiary guidelines - which the devs don't even follow?
The PRD.
Monster Statistics by CR.|
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what did a human get? OMG, i'm not blinded by a fireball, but i can't multiclass without houserules, can't use any of the awesome racial items, i get no racial abilities except for the situational advantage of lacking infared vision, but infared was a must because of all the advantages it provided
Dual-Classing was available for humans, but was nothing like current multi-classing.
Fear the Level 1 Bard in AD&D. He was a true badass.
what did a human get? OMG, i'm not blinded by a fireball, but i can't multiclass without houserules, can't use any of the awesome racial items, i get no racial abilities except for the situational advantage of lacking infared vision, but infared was a must because of all the advantages it providedMulti-Classing was available, but was nothing like current multi-classing.
Fear the Level 1 Bard in AD&D. He was a true badass.
1e humans couldn't multiclass without houserules, at least not the way an elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome, or halfbreed could.
they could, "dual class" which wasn't the same thing. you basically gave up "Class A" so you could change to "Class B" until you were equal in both classes. then from there. "you progressed as a multiclass character," after "years of being behind."
It depended on your eventual goal.
You still kept all your original abilities and you picked up the lower levels very quickly as you were still gaining XP at the higher level. A Dual-Classed character was typically no more than 1-2 levels behind everybody else after just 1 or 2 modules.
instead of dual classing, i would have rather, that humans got the full on unrestricted multiclassing they were houseruled to have.
Do you know what the adopted trait is?
I'm fairly certain Adopted lets you "immediately pick a Race Trait from your adoptive parents' society", but it does not give you an EXTRA trait. You still end up with two traits: Adopted, and the Race Trait, not 3.
Otherwise, what is the point of the Trait (and Race Traits in general as a category)? Since it's essentially giving anyone free, unrestricted access to Race Traits for no cost...
Somehow barbarians are always assumed to have Rage going when demonstrating their DPR, and assumed to be out of Rage when attempting to show another class is OP.
Personally I only assume that after about level 3 or 4, since at level 1 and 2 Rage is pretty limited, but not factoring it in at all would be just as bad, and that extra damage IS a capability the Barbarian has.
9 rounds of Rage at level 1 is far more than any caster has for spells.
Ehhhh, that's a bit misleading.
While it's true that 9 is better than 2 (4 for Sorcerer) it evens out to only a LITTLE bit more "Encounter per day" than a caster gets. Spells at 1st level are more a "1 and done" deal, things like Color Spray or Sleep ending the encounter in 1 round, but only usable for about half the encounters (for a Wizard, anyway, a Sorcerer can keep on chugging, that's why I like 'em).
So it comes out to around 2 encounters per day for a Wizard, and 4 for a Sorcerer.
Assuming the average 3 round combat, 9 Rage rounds lasts for 3 encounters. Though since level 1 encounters can usually be ended pretty quickly comparatively, with something like a Barbarian smiting the big guy and others getting the little ones, we can safely assume 2 rounds, and maybe 1 for some.
Generous allotment of around 4-5 encounters per day in Rage. Still a bit more longevity than spells, but not by a huge amount (in the case of the Sorcerer anyway, the Wizard gets to faceroll 2 encounters and then spam Acid Splash for the other 3).
Adopted gives you any one race trait as a bonus trait. it might look like three, but it still amounts to effectively 2, even if on paper you have 3.
the downside to the 3rd trait from adopted, is that it counts as both your race trait, and your social trait.