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Like rage powers, when you reached a level where you got a new smite you would be able to choose an accompanying rider effect. The list will be longer than seven (hopefully at least double that 14 or more) that way no two paladins built would have to be the same mechanically, which in 3.0 the only variance on the paladin was what spells you selected and feats.Just what i wanted to know. In that case... I am Jacopo Veronese, and I approve this message. :-D I'm with you too.
Some are one per round - but only one of them. You have to choose which it will be. It's the same in the original version. Some are one per minute, so you have to choose in vs. the alternatives and also vs. use it now or later. Just 3 out of 21 are once per minute and 1 is once per day. The role-playing of resource management, whether it be rounds of rage or which powers you use or when, doesn't seem to me to be that different whether your accounting is based on points, rounds, of duration, or uses of powers. If activating a power has an additional cost, whether to activate it or not is a choice that needs thoughtful consideration, and a choice implies roleplaying. Dealing a rage point consuming powerful blow in a crucial moment of the battle is different than dealing costless powerful blows during the whole rage.
2. Role-playing is unaffected by this mechanic, or rage points, or rages per day. If a power doesn't consume rage points, you don't have to worry about the strenght you consume. I see a lot of roleplaying in keeping track of your resistance to hard exertion. It should be logic too: a normal rage taxes your strenght less than one with a guarded stance. Or dodging enemy attacks while raging is not more energy consuming than simply raging? 3. The barbarian still has to dose his strength, since most powers can be used only once per round or (effectively, because of the cooldown period) once during a rage. Do you use your 1/minute power now or later? Do you use this swift action or that one? Use it now and you can't use it later or use another alternative. Most of the powers can be used once per round, yes, but... you can use them every round. Or did I miss something? :O
I definitely don't like this system. I'm the first one to say it? That's bad. :P The majority of powers can now be used at will during a rage. The barbarian doesn't have to worry about dosing his strenght. He knows that whatever he does, he'll have that many rage rounds per day. Where's the roleplaying? Where's the unpredictability of a rage? Rage powers now grant long lasting bonus just like a spell does.
Elemental Fury doesn't seem quite right to me either. Bonus weapon damage or bypassing damage reduction because of sheer penetration I would be fine with, buy elemental damage is really pushing into the supernatural a bit more than I care for. I agree. Dealing elemental damage looks too strange. It's something you can give to a prestige class. Aligned damage, on the other hand, would be a more likely supernatural power - the power of the soul - for a barbarian (I've proposed such a power on the new rage powers thread, page 2).
Mindless Rage (Ex/Su?): The survival instinct takes complete control of the barbarian, leaving him completely mindless and capable only of furiously defending himself by engaging in melee the nearest attacking opponent. While in a mindless rage, the barbarian has immunity to mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects) and automatically fails Intelligence checks. A mindless rage ends only when all of the barbarian’s rage points are depleted. A barbarian must be at least 8th level before selecting this power. (4 rage points) Aligned Rage (Su): All of the barbarian’s melee attacks are treated as chaotic, good or evil aligned attacks (choose one) for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction and deal an additional 1d6 points of chaotic, good or evil aligned damage for one round. This aligned damage does not stack with aligned damage dealt by special weapon abilities if it is of the same type. The barbarian must be chaotic, good or evil in order to select the corresponding aligned attack. (8 rage points)
Focused Rage (Ex): The barbarian concentrates his rage against a single enemy. When in a focused rage, he can only attack the selected enemy, but he gets a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against that opponent. The barbarian suffers a -1 penalty to Armor Class against the remaining opponents. (2 rage points)
Contagious Rage (Ex): The barbarian can inspire a rage in his allies. To be affected, an ally must be able to perceive the barbarian’s rage. The effects last as long as the ally perceives the barbarian’s rage and the barbarian pays the cost. The barbarian’s Charisma modifier determines the maximum number of allies that can be affected by this power (minimum 1). A barbarian must be at least 6th level before selecting this power. (2 rage points / ally).
Duration of anything becomes easy to track if you have a combat matrix.. again, no math is involved. If an NPC barbarian begins its rage on round 2, and it lasts for 7 rounds, I simply note on my battle matrix for round 9: rage ends. But again, that is just me. I'm familiar with the combat matrix instrument, but when you have lots of spells and effects with a duration to track, it's a real mess.
One of the most annoying things for a DM is keeping track of the duration of the effects, especially when there are many of them. With a point system, each round is independent from the others. You have to keep track only of rage points (just one thing), instead of rages per day and duration (two things). How is Option 1 more versatile than Option 2a? Option 2a lets you pick rage powers just like Option 1, plus it lets you use them as often as you want while raging! How is being able to use rage powers without having to worry about expending resources less versatile than having to spend resources to use them? With option 1 you can rage longer if you do not select a power.
If costs and effects of rage powers undergo a severe balancing revision, I'm in favour of the current system. Most of the options are available from the beginning but the effects are level dependant (so it would be quite useless to take just one barbarian level). It's a good compromise between flexibility and level dependant power.
Converted too. Under PRPG cross-class skill new rules, four skill points per level would be sufficient. So no more skills on the skill list.
Heal, while mechanically fairly useless Heal is not as useless as it was under 3.X rules. In PRGP you can also treat deadly wounds (page 65). ;)
I think heal should be added to the skill list of fighters. Every warrior should be trained to treat his own wounds. That would be also another step toward making fighters more independant from other classes. Four skill points per level would be nice, too.
Those are just numbers. Warriors need maneuvers.
I full well intend to add some more Feats to the game that greatly expand a fighter (or other melee class') options and power at high levels. That's good news! This, however, is not yet the forum to discuss these feats. Ok. Just wanted to point out fighters needed something more and that feats are the solution. Thanks!
With the rules we have, using a sword is pretty much the same as using a flail or an axe. Only numbers do change a little. Besides, the warrior deserves more flavour and more power. He also needs to do more things that he alone can do. Giving him just a few more points in Armor Class, bravery and a to hit and damage bonus is not enough. So I suggest to create combat feats that have weapon training (page 27) as a prerequisite. A staff could be used for a flying kick, a flail to choke an ennemy with the chain, a heavy mace attack could result in a free bull rush (see Shield Slam feat, page 94) and so on.
I think the effect of guarded stance, powerful blow, rolling dodge, strenght surge and surprise accuracy (page 14/15) are too powerful and should be limited by doubling the barbarian level needed for each bonus point. Such high bonuses could easily unbalance a short fight.
Greetings! I’m a 35 years old D&D player. I’ve been mastering since 1987. Currently, I’m running a high level Birthright 3.5 campaign. I was quite disappointed by my favorite game’s fourth edition. So Pathfinder RPG is definitely my future. I don’t really have a playtest report to submit, but I’ve been examinating how Pathfinder RPG deals with flaws I’ve encountered during my 3.5 campaign. Some of them you’ve brilliantly solved, but others, IMHO, still need to be fixed. The guy who’s playing a warrior in my group complains about the lack of differentiation between weapons. Using a sword is pretty much the same as using a flail or an axe. You’ve introduced weapon training for warriors (beta, page 27)... I think you should also create combat feats that have warrior’s weapon training as a prerequisite. Axes, for example, do have a particular balancing. The superior momentum generated by an attack could result in the warrior moving after the weapon and balancing himself for another stroke. A sort of dance with something that tries to unbalance you. A staff could be used for a flying kick, a flail to choke an ennemy with the chain, a heavy mace attack could result in a free bull rush (see Shield Slam feat, p. 94) and so on. I think the warrior deserves more flavour and more power. He also needs to do more things that he alone can do. Giving him just a few more points in Armor Class and a to hit and damage bonus is not enough. There are characters that can fly or that can do amazing things when they’re in a rage out there. Poor warrior should do more. A few spells need to be fixed too. It is certainly true, as you say (p. 194), that find the path sucks all the fan out of an adventure, but the same can be said about rope trick (I think it should be eliminated) and teleport spells (you could introduce an expensive component). A lot of interesting things might happen during nights and travels. There are also spells that desperately need a saving throw to at least partially avoid the effect: ray of enfeeblement (p. 260) and touch of idiocy (p. 283) alone can easily win a battle against an enemy, especially in combination with empower or maximize feats. Same story with power words (p. 256). It is not good to see a single powerful opponent wiped out without even a saving throw. Besides, the same could happen to player characters. And these are just a few examples. By the way… I saw that you did simplify some combat maneuvers. That’s a good thing. But against a group of adventurers a single foe would spend most of his time disarmed, pinned or tripped. Maybe you could introduce a feat that helps when figthing against superior numbers… And now a few short suggestions: - Half-Elf Adaptability (p.10): Skill Focus sounds more as a specialization rather than an adaptability.
That’s all for the moment. I’ll let you know in this thread if I have more suggestions.
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