Yes.
I'm not going to call it crap or bad, I can't say I'm disappointed, and I can't really say I expected more. I didn't have many expectations. I can play with it and still enjoy it. The whole corruption part seems especially cool.
Yeah, the Madness rules are actually a really small section of this book, and I think there's plenty of room to mod them to actually work. I wouldn't pay money for them, surely (technically, I didn't pay money for this, either—I had a coupon!), but I would pay money for the archetypes, corruptions, and GMing advice the book provides. But I didn't have to. I had a coupon!
I must admit, I'm not expecting much from either this or Strange Aeons, and so far I haven't been disappointed. It's the first time I've skipped a hardcover release and adventure path. The mindset with the leading developers is just...not right for horror, especially mental horror. It's a simple fact of horror - if you can rocket punch it in the balls so hard it's not only killed but erased from the last three minutes of existence as something you prepare when making your morning coffee, you're the scarier thing here, regardless of whether the badguy's got a hockey mask.
Again, I'm not shocked that it's set up so a dumpstat Wizard is a mental fortress and martials are left in the gutter. Are there at least traits and feats that are more in tune with martials, or is this one of those scenarios where no one wants to play the fighter because they're screwed at the first Haunt?
Then it's good they included a whole section on running horror games and it even speaks to psyching yourself up to be scared, to play the role even though the system itself already has answers to its challenges.
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I must admit, I'm not expecting much from either this or Strange Aeons, and so far I haven't been disappointed. It's the first time I've skipped a hardcover release and adventure path.
Funny. This is the first sourcebook I've bought in years, and so far, it's my favorite purchase from Paizo since maybe my Dragon magazine subscription. :)
Our GM had us roll 3d6 as sanity stat, with a + bonus based on your wisdom modifier. This still biases the roll to wisdom casters, but it's possible to have fighter have a better sanity than a wizard. To me, sanity isn't a synthesis of your other mental stats. Smart people can be crazy, wise ones as well. One could argue that Charisma might be a better bonus modifier. We used Will saves for sanity, which I think makes sense.
I must admit, I'm not expecting much from either this or Strange Aeons, and so far I haven't been disappointed. It's the first time I've skipped a hardcover release and adventure path.Funny. This is the first sourcebook I've bought in years, and so far, it's my favorite purchase from Paizo since maybe my Dragon magazine subscription. :)
I'd love to be convinced otherwise, since I adore pathfinder and I love horror, but some of the dev staff's comments have not left me very hopeful. Horror requires a certain level of helplessness and hopelessness and, again, if you can vaporize Cthulhu that doesn't usually sound helpless or hopeless.
Then it's good they included a whole section on running horror games and it even speaks to psyching yourself up to be scared, to play the role even though the system itself already has answers to its challenges.
That sounds...potentially useful, but I'm not sure the answer is getting into a mindset to be scared. Admittedly, I'm basing it more on movies, films and games, and roleplaying is a different genre and experience, but in the few horror games I've been in that went well it was like a scary movie or book - tension, environment, roleplaying...and the knowledge that anything I threw at the bad would either bounce off or kill one of such a vast horde or horrors that it wouldn't matter in the end.
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Just read a few posts but dude, seriously, how ELSE would you run sanity? Base it on strength? It's your mental health so of course it is based on mental stats.
This was kinda my thinking while reading this thread. Mental Health attacks versus Mental stats and Will saves required; seems like a no-brainer.
Then again, I'm actually pleased with the overall framework for Sanity. It looks like I'm in the minority there (for this thread, at least). I would rather that level or HD factor into the Sanity score and I think the recovery times are kinda brutal, so those are changes I'll make.
Honestly, it might've been better off if it was based purely off charisma. Lord knows the stat doesn't do anything else by itself...
I was pushing for a Charisma-based point system early on that would boost the usefulness of Charisma and make dump-stating Charisma less appealing.
-Skeld
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The book in general really doesn't have a lot of support for straight martial classes, when compared to other classes. I would guess that the devs probably think straight martials are less appropriate for straight up horror type campaigns.Which is funny because most horror fiction heroes are rogues or something similar. :/
most main characters in horror novels/books are commoners and experts :)
thejeff, that is why I was bothered by how some things are statted out like the Colour out of space. In the short story, it is a horrific being. In PF, you can just beat stick it to death. Takes away everything that makes it a being of horror.
Pathfinder adventurers are more in the mold of Conan and similar pulp heroes. Fully capable/willing to punch some eldritch abomination in the face.
If you want a Color Out of Space as a nigh unbeatable enemy, you need to have characters with no more than 5 levels or so as your players. The Color out of Space is in part so terrifying because it was up against level 1 farmers and experts, on Mythos Earth where you can't expect every hamlet to have a spellcaster or two hanging around
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Tammy's colorful.
most main characters in horror novels/books are commoners and experts :)The book in general really doesn't have a lot of support for straight martial classes, when compared to other classes. I would guess that the devs probably think straight martials are less appropriate for straight up horror type campaigns.Which is funny because most horror fiction heroes are rogues or something similar. :/
lol True. Though they do tend to have plenty of ranks in Disable Device and Stealth, and always go for the sneak attack when they do decide to fight back.
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What I find hypocritical about all the "Don't dumpstat Charisma"/"teach those no-good fighters for dumping their mental stats" talk is that it's a standard that only applies to martials. Where's the search for ways to make wizards suffer for dumping their Strength scores?
Sure, basing it all off mental stats makes some degree of sense, but it's not smart from a game design standpoint and sort of shows a bit of laziness. We couldn't be more creative than that? I'm fine with PCs being vulnerable to stress. That's what I want in a horror game. But it sucks that wizards and sorcerers are going to have such a huge advantage over fighters and slayers. I want to drive everyone crazy, not just drive the martials over the edge while the optimized casters watch and snicker to themselves.
Or too dumb to know worse. ;)
And no, there's no such mechanic as far as I could see (though I only skimmed feats). It's a real shame. A trait allowing you to substitute a physical stat for your Threshold, for instance, would seem fair and balanced. Someone who takes care of themselves and stays in good health to protect their mental state.
I haven't read or purchased horror adventures yet (but can not wait to), but this doesn't seem too surprising. A lot of optional rule systems paizo produces aren't great. Personally, I think this is because a lot of the basic rules systems are solid*, needing only a few modifications.
thejeff, that is why I was bothered by how some things are statted out like the Colour out of space. In the short story, it is a horrific being. In PF, you can just beat stick it to death. Takes away everything that makes it a being of horror.
I agree with the basic message of this, some things are simply better off as unkillable plot devices. Cthulhu, Color out of Space, Dagon, etc. all should be used as lethal hazards to be avoided.
I would only use the stats for them against parties 1/3 the appropriate level or less, and then I would make it very clear that "hit it with a stick" is a bad option. In literature this seems to add up. I doubt anyone in "The Color Out of Space" was above level 4, and I similarly doubt any 4th level party could handle the PF stats for it. A 10th level party has enough force spells and magic weapons to kill it, at which point it stops being a horrifying alien being of destruction and madness and becomes a variant brute with a nasty aura.
All this said, you craft an adventure for the party. I would never send Cthulhu up against a party that I thought would probably win. Paizo gives us the monsters. That doesn't mean you're obliged to use them the same way you would use a dragon or a goblin snake.
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What I find hypocritical about all the "Don't dumpstat Charisma"/"teach those no-good fighters for dumping their mental stats" talk is that it's a standard that only applies to martials. Where's the search for ways to make wizards suffer for dumping their Strength scores?
It's not hypocritical at all. Every Ability should have a penalty for dumping it. The penalties for dumping the other stats are actual penalties (attacks, saves, AC, initiative, HP, etc.). The penalty for dumping Cha is you're bad at a few skills you probably don't care about anyway.
To me at least, it's not at all about punishing martials; it's about making all abilities important.
Sure, basing it all off mental stats makes some degree of sense, but it's not smart from a game design standpoint and sort of shows a bit of laziness. We couldn't be more creative than that?
Basing sanity off mental abilities makes sense and that is bad. Ok.
-Skeld
What I find hypocritical about all the "Don't dumpstat Charisma"/"teach those no-good fighters for dumping their mental stats" talk is that it's a standard that only applies to martials. Where's the search for ways to make wizards suffer for dumping their Strength scores?It's not hypocritical at all. Every Ability should have a penalty for dumping it. The penalties for dumping the other stats are actual penalties (attacks, saves, AC, initiative, HP, etc.). The penalty for dumping Cha is you're bad at a few skills you probably don't care about anyway.
To me at least, it's not at all about punishing martials; it's about making all abilities important.
-Skeld
If the sorcerer is dumping strength it's pretty safe to say that he doesn't care about the penalty associated with it anyways.
And charisma is already very important being one of the three caster stats making it one of the three most powerful stat in the game.
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Basing sanity off mental abilities makes sense and that is bad. Ok.
Um, okay. Any chance we could maybe try to argue in good faith here? You know quite well the context of that statement, Skeld. Just because a choice is obvious doesn't mean it's the best choice, and in this case, you have to weigh "obviousness" with "fairness". Let's stop trying to play "Reality Simulator". It's a game. If "it's just the obvious, realistic choice" repeatedly leads to a specific type of PC getting shunted into weaker and weaker positions, maybe it's not a good principle to apply on its own. Maybe "this is the most realistic choice" is something game designers should ignore sometimes. Isn't that why we don't insist on tracking s~++ like your armor getting damaged by missed attacks and having to remember to pee every few hours?
There are plenty of alternatives that don't disproportionately hurt martials. We've already talked about a lot of them. Constitution is a logical option, since mental and physical health tend to be closely-linked, and it gets rid of pretty much all these problems. You could just base it off Hit Dice, or allow martials to substitute BAB for an ability modifier. Or you could just let them choose one ability score that provides their mental stability—the flavor for this could be the warrior who channels her stress and fear into physical exertion, or the bard who sings to keep his spirits up.
See? Creative and balanced. It's possible to be both.
Moreover, the penalty for dumping Strength is entirely identical to the penalty for dumping Charisma when you're a wizard, so that's a completely invalid argument. A mage doesn't care about melee attacks. Doesn't care much about Charisma, either, for that matter.
If we're just going to take each other out of context to make snappy one-liners, though, there's not much point in this conversation.
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Basing sanity off mental abilities makes sense and that is bad. Ok.Um, okay. Any chance we could maybe try to argue in good faith here? You know quite well the context of that statement, Skeld. Just because a choice is obvious doesn't mean it's the best choice, and in this case, you have to weigh "obviousness" with "fairness". Let's stop trying to play "Reality Simulator". It's a game. If "it's just the obvious, realistic choice" repeatedly leads to a specific type of PC getting shunted into weaker and weaker positions, maybe it's not a good principle to apply on its own. Maybe "this is the most realistic choice" is something game designers should ignore sometimes. Isn't that why we don't insist on tracking s$%* like your armor getting damaged by missed attacks and having to remember to pee every few hours?
There are plenty of alternatives that don't disproportionately hurt martials. We've already talked about a lot of them. Constitution is a logical option, since mental and physical health tend to be closely-linked, and it gets rid of pretty much all these problems. You could just base it off Hit Dice, or allow martials to substitute BAB for an ability modifier. Or you could just let them choose one ability score that provides their mental stability—the flavor for this could be the warrior who channels her stress and fear into physical exertion, or the bard who sings to keep his spirits up.
See? Creative and balanced. It's possible to be both.
Moreover, the penalty for dumping Strength is entirely identical to the penalty for dumping Charisma when you're a wizard, so that's a completely invalid argument. A mage doesn't care about melee attacks. Doesn't care much about Charisma, either, for that matter.
If we're just going to take each other out of context to make snappy one-liners, though, there's not much point in this conversation.
The most simple and most obvious choice is to have characters make Will saves. I think that's what the system has been so far; fail save, gain condition. What's presented in HA is more textured and complex. It's neither fully realistic (who was advocating for a "realistic simulator" anyway?) nor is it gamist, but it does fall closer to the realistic side because "mental attack vs. mental stats" makes sense. Doing things that make sense is not dumb, lazy, or uncreative. My guess is that "do something that makes sense" is what the designers were shooting for. That's always gonna land on the "more realistic, less gamey" side of the line.
As far as being fair to martials and casters alike (aside from the fact that ship sailed a long time ago), Corruptions would've been better served as something like a mirror of Sanity, except affecting the physical body and using Strength-Dexterity-Constitution as a point base. Then the two systems could be balanced against each other.
-Skeld
(aside from the fact that ship sailed a long time ago)
Not that I really disagree, but I don't like it when every new mechanic that I want to use makes a bad situation worse.
When you opt to use them, Insanities make a big impact on game tone and style. As such, who they affect most is a choice the game designers should have put a lot more caution and thought into than it appears they did. They chose to make casters resistant and martials vulnerable. That doesn't make much sense in the context of the genre, and it sucks for those who wanted to play a stalwart mundane (or an emotionally unstable but otherwise optimized caster, for that matter).
I think Constitution and Charisma are both lovely ideas. Constitution is already desired by everyone, so there's no favoritism, while Charisma is a fairly oft-dumped stat for everyone except bards and sorcerers. And I'm 100% fine giving bards an advantage against this stuff. That is How It Should Be.
You're forgetting Paladins, who need Charisma, and Clerics, who use Cha for channeling.
Me, I have no problem with basing Sanity on mental attributes. Makes sense. Warrior types can just take Iron Will and Improved Iron Will.
I'm also forgetting summoners, oracles, and a whole range of other classes. I wasn't being encyclopedic. :P
Also, "Warrior types can just blow two feats that won't even address the entirety of the problem" isn't a great answer. Will saves are only part of the mechanic, remember.
Seems legit to me in the context of the genre.
There have always been characters like Dr. Strange who peer into the chaos of the multiverse and come out ok. Or the clerics and casters who pierce the veil to commune directly with the other planes and speak directly to dieties and their chosen representatives... Summoners who open gates to the hells and bind their minions with confidence.
Most of the times I've seen shows and books, it's the mundanes who run screaming from the 'things they couldn't understand' and need the help of the Van Helsings and Merlins to walk them into their 'new realities..'
Besides... The game has been pushing for Martial characters to have high INT ever since the core. All those INT:13 combat feats should have dissuaded dumping mental Perception is one of the most used skills around. It sounds like Martials can still be good... you just can't have 2-3 dump stats and still be sane.
My biggest annoyance with their horror genre, is the lack of martial classes. ALL those Occult Adventures classes were casters of some sort. I really wanted to play around with them... but just finished a caster and was hoping for some martial fun :(
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Besides... The game has been pushing for Martial characters to have high INT ever since the core.
Pity there's been no similar push for casters to value more than one or two ability scores.
There have always been characters like Dr. Strange who peer into the chaos of the multiverse and come out ok. Or the clerics and casters who pierce the veil to commune directly with the other planes and speak directly to dieties and their chosen representatives... Summoners who open gates to the hells and bind their minions with confidence.
Most of the times I've seen shows and books, it's the mundanes who run screaming from the 'things they couldn't understand' and need the help of the Van Helsings and Merlins to walk them into their 'new realities..'
Unless you're referencing some work I'm not familiar with, Merlin is not exactly associated with any sort of Cosmic Horror.
The thing about Lovecraftian horror is that it's almost always the smart guys who delve too deep into magic and mythos who come out warped. The "summoners who open gates" and "bind their minions with confidence" don't tend to be the most stable of individuals.
I'm not sure we're talking about the same genres, here. And nothing you've said has really laid to rest the impression that these rules turn martials into sidekicks at best and nuisances at worst.
Besides... The game has been pushing for Martial characters to have high INT ever since the core.Pity there's been no similar push for casters to value more than one or two ability scores.
Str: Encumberence
Dex: Ranged ray attacks, Reflex savesCon: Hit points, Fort Saves
InT: Obvious for Wizards
Wis: Will Saves, Perception
Chr: Obvious for Sorcerers, Binding spells and general diplomacy...
I've seen every character get burned by dumping one of those things.
There have always been characters like Dr. Strange who peer into the chaos of the multiverse and come out ok. Or the clerics and casters who pierce the veil to commune directly with the other planes and speak directly to dieties and their chosen representatives... Summoners who open gates to the hells and bind their minions with confidence.
Most of the times I've seen shows and books, it's the mundanes who run screaming from the 'things they couldn't understand' and need the help of the Van Helsings and Merlins to walk them into their 'new realities..'
Unless you're referencing some work I'm not familiar with, Merlin is not exactly associated with any sort of Cosmic Horror.
The thing about Lovecraftian horror is that it's almost always the smart guys who delve too deep into magic and mythos who come out warped. The "summoners who open gates" and "bind their minions with confidence" don't tend to be the most stable of individuals.
I'm not sure we're talking about the same genres, here. And nothing you've said has really laid to rest the impression that these rules turn martials into sidekicks at best and nuisances at worst.
MEh... the Lovcraftian Horror I've read, NOBODY comes out unscathed... For every genius delving too deep into secrets... there are a dozen average schmoes who are already cultist worshiping their monsterous overlords....
nobody's ever immune.
Honestly, I think that's the biggest problem with hoping for a lovecraft campaign... Most of them I read just had the narrator facing the evil alone. There were no parties with everyone helping to defeat the monsters.
For that matter they rarely defeat the monsters... There's a lot of Lovecraft narrators who were lucky to escape with their lives and are probably living in shelters somewhere waiting the end of the world... I really can't think of any genre where a plain melee character would really BE more useless. They're always mysteries and research type stories.
Frankly, they should have just made it Will saves. That was the standard for insanity/charm/confusion spells in the past. Doesn't help any martial/caster disparity... but I don't see that happening anyway. It's all part of the same 3.x system.
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Hardly anybody even tracks encumbrance, and there are tons of ways to get around it. Mules, handy haversacks, strong partymembers, to name a few.
Frankly, they should have just made it Will saves. That was the standard for insanity/charm/confusion spells in the past. Doesn't help any martial/caster disparity... but I don't see that happening anyway. It's all part of the same 3.x system.
So you don't think basing it on Constitution or Hit Dice would have made any difference in the casters' advantages?
Hit dice would have been irrelevant if the whole party is equal level. What's the point even having a mechanic if everything is the same?
Constitution? I don't like the mixing of mental health with physical health. Con has never been attached in that way before, I don't see the reason to do it now. Giving people like Barbarians better resistance to insanity... just because smart people have too much, isn't a solution if it doesn't make sense. That just double dips Constitution and makes an already important skill MORE important.
Probably the BEST solution, would have been to create a whole new stat and give the 'horror adventures' a different point buy. 2E did something like that in skills and powers, when they started splitting up some stats... I never liked it then... but having a specific stat that does nothing but track sanity would have been 'fair' I suppose...
Though then people would complain about it hurts MAD characters more then SAD ones... so it probably wouldn't be any better.
Maybe just turn it into a new kind of non-lethal damage that interacts with the HP you already have?? If you have 50 hp... you can take 30 points of damage and 20 pts of sanity damage before flipping out...
I don't know, at some point recreating the wheel becomes more trouble then it's worth... and if it's TOO complicated or annoying, nobody is going to use it anyway.
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Hardly anybody even tracks encumbrance, and there are tons of ways to get around it. Mules, handy haversacks, strong partymembers, to name a few.
C'mon now... "I don't use that limitation, so it doesn't count" isn't a strong point against worthless stats...
Strength has a purpose, and a lack of strength has seriously handicapped a lot of characters in our games... as the game intended. Having to choose which gear you carry and which you left on the mule with the wagons... How much armor and weapons you can carry? It's a real pain in the butt to play weaker characters. Movement speed alone is critical for some characters.
Not to mention they keep releasing new gear that is so awesome we all want to carry one of everything..
I'm not a fan of tracking weight with things like rations and gold pieces... but we absolutely keep track of whether you carry the alchemist lab everywhere you go... and whether we went with standard rope or splurged for the silk one.
Hardly anybody even tracks encumbrance, and there are tons of ways to get around it. Mules, handy haversacks, strong partymembers, to name a few.
I track encumbrance, at least for the most part. That's why handy haversacks are currently what my smarter players are using.
The thing about Lovecraftian horror is that it's almost always the smart guys who delve too deep into magic and mythos who come out warped. The "summoners who open gates" and "bind their minions with confidence" don't tend to be the most stable of individuals.
Another important part of lovecraftian horror is that "victory" is usually simply surviving. At the end of the story the mundanes (commoners and experts) involved are usually insane. The protagonists (investigators/rogues) usually finish their narrative as they slip into the inevitable pull of insanity. PF usually has victory as beating the badguy and taking the loot. You get to end the threat. In cosmic horror all you do is try to postpone it. So genre-wise typical heroes should be going insane at the end.
In a PF lovecraftian horror game, I would expect to end the game with my character either in an asylum or commiting suicide after a 30-page journal detailed why, or to be killed by eldritch horrors while writing a memoir.
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Hit dice would have been irrelevant if the whole party is equal level. What's the point even having a mechanic if everything is the same?
1. It's not a competition.
2. Everything won't be the same, because people will lose control at different rates.3. By this logic, hit dice themselves are "pointless". It's a weird argument to make, is what I'm saying.
Constitution? I don't like the mixing of mental health with physical health. Con has never been attached in that way before, I don't see the reason to do it now. Giving people like Barbarians better resistance to insanity... just because smart people have too much, isn't a solution if it doesn't make sense. That just double dips Constitution and makes an already important skill MORE important.
Yes, but it does it relatively equally. And barbarians' Constitutions won't be that much higher than a smart wizard's. And it makes sense. And "nobody's done it before" isn't a great reason not to do it when you're making a brand-new mechanic. Constitution had never been a casting stat before scarred witch doctors kineticists, either. :P
Sure, Constitution rises in importance. So? People needed it anyways. Personally, I think a Con/Cha combination would have been the best solution.
Though then people would complain about it hurts MAD characters more then SAD ones... so it probably wouldn't be any better.
You mean like it does now? :P
MAD characters are more often physical stats-dependent than not, is the thing. Fighters, barbarians, rogues—all MAD. Not as bad as monks, mind you, but basically every martial is by definition MAD.
I don't know, at some point recreating the wheel becomes more trouble then it's worth... and if it's TOO complicated or annoying, nobody is going to use it anyway.
None of this sounds complicated to play. To create, sure. But it's supposed to be trouble to create. That's, like, the point of good game design: It takes skill and effort.
On Encumbrance:
C'mon now... "I don't use that limitation, so it doesn't count" isn't a strong point against worthless stats...
Which is why I immdiately backed it up with the more substantive point that it's not even a really difficult limitation to overcome. That said, if the only thing making Strength tough to dump is what's essentially an entirely optional mechanic, it doesn't really square well in game balance, does it? That'd be like if we justified Charisma as a skill by citing those rules for social combat in Ultimate Intrigue that I think exist I dunno I heard something about them?
Also, nothing that you said actually countered the point about it being an easy-to-bypass mechanic. Haversacks are cheap and handy, mules are easy to acquire for low levels, and it's a great way to make your Apparently Really Mentally Unstable Fighter Friend think he's useful! ;D
Look, I hate being negative about anything from this book, or, in general, about Paizo itself. I love both a great deal. But this is the sort of choice that really demands houseruling in any game where you don't want the martials to be rendered the sidekicks. "Rules for mental breakdowns" was originally one of the selling points of this book, so I wish Paizo hadn't forced all that work back on us.
It also shows a certain lack of self-awareness that I think is frustrating those of us who are tired of more and more books contributing to a certain disparity. ;)
If I ever use Sanity in PF, I'll just have them roll a seperate SAN stat (kind of like Call of Cthulhu, where SAN is based on Luck and none of the conventional physical / mental / charisma stats.)
It doesn't make sense to me that mental stability is tied to any particular aspect of a person. Just going off real-life experience with family members and friends who deal with mental illness here...
Besides... The game has been pushing for Martial characters to have high INT ever since the core.Pity there's been no similar push for casters to value more than one or two ability scores.
There have always been characters like Dr. Strange who peer into the chaos of the multiverse and come out ok. Or the clerics and casters who pierce the veil to commune directly with the other planes and speak directly to dieties and their chosen representatives... Summoners who open gates to the hells and bind their minions with confidence.
Most of the times I've seen shows and books, it's the mundanes who run screaming from the 'things they couldn't understand' and need the help of the Van Helsings and Merlins to walk them into their 'new realities..'
Unless you're referencing some work I'm not familiar with, Merlin is not exactly associated with any sort of Cosmic Horror.
The thing about Lovecraftian horror is that it's almost always the smart guys who delve too deep into magic and mythos who come out warped. The "summoners who open gates" and "bind their minions with confidence" don't tend to be the most stable of individuals.
I'm not sure we're talking about the same genres, here. And nothing you've said has really laid to rest the impression that these rules turn martials into sidekicks at best and nuisances at worst.
wait wait wait theirs no penalty for dumping dex and con? and if i ever catch one of my players with a 7 str you better belief i'm using ray of enfeeblement on them. whats that you have a 2 str now OK well your robes are to much weight for you better go nude. ...oo stiff breeze sorry on the ground you go...
Also, nothing that you said actually countered the point about it being an easy-to-bypass mechanic. Haversacks are cheap and handy, mules are easy to acquire for low levels, and it's a great way to make your Apparently Really Mentally Unstable Fighter Friend think he's useful! ;D
Haversacks aren't THAT cheap... 2000g takes a few level to get too... and by then there are usually other ways to deal with those obstacles you needed that equiptment for in the first place. Barely any cheaper then a bag of holding for that matter.
Mules can't go everywhere. Any cliff, lake, or 10' jump pretty much means you're leaving your extra gear behind and hoping it's there when you come back...
Stronger party members?? They usually have their own stuff to carry. Especially if you have real stickler of a DM wondering how he's carrying 4 backpacks completely loaded with gear... on one back. Admittedly I haven't dealt with that... but I've heard stories. Regardless, counting on other people to carry your stuff... means it goes with him. If he falls, or drowns your stuff is gone. If he drops, you have to figure out a way to drag him AND your stuff to safety... it pushes the problem to the side, it's not a solution to it.
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Sanity points = sum of all stats
Because a well-rounded person can better deal with madness
Sanity threshold = modifier of your lowest stat
Because they will attack your weakest link
Keeping Will save
Because it's iconic
Minmaxers and dumpstaters are gonna hate me :-)
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wait wait wait theirs no penalty for dumping dex and con? and if i ever catch one of my players with a 7 str you better belief i'm using ray of enfeeblement on them. whats that you have a 2 str now OK well your robes are to much weight for you better go nude. ...oo stiff breeze sorry on the ground you go...
Strength penalties don't effect your carrying capacity though.