Bahumut's page

So, the way I read it, there's the unmodified 'Leap basic action', that requires no Athletics check, takes one Action, and allows you to do one of two things: (1)Horizontal 'Leap' - Jump up to 10 feet horizontally if your Speed is at least 15 feet (or up to 15 feet horizontally if your Speed is at least 30 feet), or (2) Vertical 'Leap' - jump up to 3 feet vertically and 5 feet horizontally, onto an elevated surface.

The Powerful Leap feat upgrades your 'Leap basic action', increasing your Vertical 'Leap' to 5 feet vertically and 5 feet horizontally (maybe 10 feet horizontally, depending on how you parse the comma) without requiring a check, or allowing you to jump up to 15 feet horizontally if your Speed is at least 15 feet (or up to 20 feet horizontally if your Speed is at least 30 feet) without requiring a check.

High Jump and Long Jump are Athletic skill checks that reference or modify the 'Leap basic action', dependent on success or failure, and take an additional Action to perform. If you Fail or Critically Fail, you Leap normally (perform the 'Leap basic action'), Leap then fall prone, or fall prone without Leaping; If you Succeed, you increase your maximum vertical jump height to 5 feet/increase your maximum horizontal jump distance to X feet (whatever the successful check result was), and a Critical Success increases this even farther for the High Jump.

It looks like Powerful Leap is mainly a hyper-Assurance/Action-Economy boost for the High Jump skill check, while Quick Jump is an Action-Economy boost for when you *have* to attempt a check to overcome a challenge; A DC 30 Athletics check won't be able to be made with Assurance until level 14 (with Master Athletics, to boot), while a character with Powerful Leap can pull this off at level 2, Expert Athletics, and no check needed!

I can't speak for the developers, but I'm guessing the reason a lot of feats modify things *to* a certain number, rather than *by* a certain number, is to prevent stacking shenanigans; Whether this is a Pro or Con of the system is a matter of opinion.

Luthorne wrote:

Yeah, that would be pretty restrictive, though, since only that class could use 'em, and they couldn't use any other existing veil. One idea might be that they can bind two separate sets of veils for their social and vigilante identities, perhaps with the restriction that social veils have to be passive in nature to avoid triggering the usual 'waaaaaitaminute'?

That's a lot closer to my original thoughts on the subject, with maybe a few tweaks to dual identity to make it easier to disguise veils as more common magic items or clothing accessories.

One thing I've learned over the past few years of writing is that I'm way more fond of "fiddly bits" in my classes than a lot of other players though. I like getting to move numbers around from round to round and adapting my offenses and defenses to the needs of the encounter, and just generally having a lot of agency in how my character is managed. A lot of people see that as excessive paperwork, so I don't know how well having a character that basically requires two character sheets and can move the numbers on each sheet around every round would go over to the wider audience. Thoughts like that were what led to a lot of the changes in how I structured new classes like the Nexus and organized veils. I've really been trying to keep the spirit of the system while making it a lot more accessible, and the vigilante idea of having two separate veil sets feels like a step backwards in that regard (even though I personally really love it).

Maybe I'll find myself with a little extra word count in an upcoming project where I can make a little room to experiment :)

I also prefer veils to be largely class-agnostic, so I'm more in the 'a set of veils for each persona' camp instead of vigilante-specific veils...that said, I certainly see your point about most people not liking excess 'fiddly bits'. One way I could see it going is, like other Vigilante archetypes, you replace every X-level vigilante talent with something Akasha-based (new bind, Imp. essence capacity, etc.) and add new social talents that can be empowered with essence; This helps keep the veils fully associated with the vigilante identity, while giving them something to do with their essence during social time.

Ssalarn, I've been watching your other thread about the Vigilante, and was wondering what an Akashic archetype for the Vigilante would look like. Any thoughts?

Just to let everyone know, City of Seven Seraphs is officially funded and into stretch goals, so that means the book will be published and it will include-

1) Updated and expanded rules for veilweaving and akashic magic.
2)Three new akashic classes: The nexus, a planar knight that can take on the abilities and powers of various outsiders, the radiant, an akashic healer that can invest essence directly into her allies to strengthen them and draw the essence back out to remove negative status conditions, and the eclipse, a shadowy veilweaver who combines dark magic with high skill facility and assassination techniques.
3) Over 100 new veils!
4) New vizier mystic attunements, new guru philosophies, and new daevic passions.

And maybe a few things more that we're waiting until final funding to lock in.

I saw the 'Shadewalker/Eclipse' listing in the full race/class reveal and was a bit confused by the name change. Now I find out that this Shadowcaster/Lurk inspired class will be a veilweaver, and I am positively vibrating with excitement!

Just to let everyone know, City of Seven Seraphs is officially funded and into stretch goals, so that means the book will be published and it will include-

1) Updated and expanded rules for veilweaving and akashic magic.
2)Three new akashic classes: The Nexus, a planar knight that can take on the abilities and powers of various outsiders, the Radiant, an akashic healer that can invest essence directly into her allies to strengthen them and draw the essence back out to remove negative status conditions, and the Eclipse, a shadowy veilweaver who combines dark akashic magic with high skill facility and assassination techniques.
3) Over 100 new veils!
4) New vizier mystic attunements, new guru philosophies, and new daevic passions.

And maybe a few things more that we're waiting until final funding to lock in.

I saw the 'Shadewalker/Eclipse' listing in the full race/class reveal and was a bit confused by the name change. Now I find out that this Shadowcaster/Lurk inspired class will be a veilweaver, and I am positively vibrating with excitement!

Soooo clooooose.

Right? I'm biting my nails over here...remember to spread the word on social media, as Brother Fen did on Sunday!

In case anyone hasn't seen it, there's some new and updated previews on the Kickstarter page.

Ssalarn, is this latest Nexus download the same as the old plain-text document but with layout/formatting, or are there changes/updates in there? I'm going to print it regardless (thank you, office printer!), I just wanted to see if I should get rid of my physical copy of the plain-text document.

The Nexus certainly earns its place alongside the current Akashic classes, even in its early Playtest state...I love the synergy between the various veils in the Convergence 'packages', and with every new veil available to at least one of the other Akashic classes, it greatly expands the playstyle options of those classes!

As an example, the original Vizier veil selection leaned the class slightly towards evil characters; Two of the five Vizier-exclusive Ring slot veils have the evil descriptor, as well as the Vizier exclusive Heart of the Wight, while the only Vizier veil with the good descriptor is the Loyal Paladin's Spear of Light...this is remedied by five of the ten new veils associated with the Heavens being open to Viziers.

In closing, you knocked it out of the park again, Ssalarn...to everyone else, if you haven't backed the amazing City of Seven Seraphs kickstarter yet, you definitely should!

Christen had said this week and I kind of expected it yesterday or today, so my only answer is "any time now". The class is all finished, but with GenCon going on everybody is obviously busy with a lot of different industry stuff and general con-going so it may be layout, poor internet quality, or just a lack of time to get the playtest docs sent out that's holding things up at the moment. I'll pop Christen a message and see if he's got an updated ETA, but you'll have to be patient with us since GenCon is every RPG designer's busiest time of year. Free time is sparing and the wi-fi is strained to the breaking point!

Speaking of, if you've been following the Kickstarter you may have seen Christen's minigame built into the updates where he's unlocking new additional content based on people solving his puzzles and participating in events. There's one going on on Facebook right now where a GenCon attendee has solved the puzzle but to claim the reward he needs to gather enough psychic power...

I don't know how I keep forgetting GenCon is on right now! Thanks for the quick response...in other Akashic news, any word on Akashic Mysteries updates/errata?

Btw, if you haven't heard yet, my Nexus base class will be available this week in closed playtest for .pdf level and higher backers of City of Seven Seraphs. That's a new planar themed akashic base class with 50 new veils, including support for all 3 original akashic classes. Additional information here and here.

I am so excited for the Nexus playtest, any more info on when it will be sent to backers?