Fuzzy Skinner's page

Wow, I honestly forgot about this soon after I posted it.

Whale_Cancer: Not sure what you mean by "5 minute-work day". Is this a misplaced hyphen, or...?

Auxmaulous: I am indeed deliberately reducing the damage done by spellcasters. My rationale is that, if someone could spend the first third of their lives (the equivalent of elementary to high school + medical school IRL) learning about magic, and then be able to do the kinds of things you normally see in D&D, there'd be little reason to train people to do "normal" combat. The world would be ruled by mages, with virtually no opposition save for the few "good" mages. (This, incidentally, is the plot of both the first Elminster book and the D&D movie from 2000.)

In my setting, mages are rare (not as rare as, say, LotR); for most mages, being able to turn invisible or launch two magic missiles is a major milestone. Heck, most of the 'masses' don't even know that spells such as Monster Summoning exist. Since the more common spells are fairly weak in combat, most low-level mages don't go adventuring.

The good thing about 3.5/PF is that cantrips still have some use in combat (unlike 2e, where 'cantrip' was a single spell that was expressly defined as being unable to do anything combat-wise). And since they aren't expended when cast in PF (though I think I might limit the bard's Summon Instrument to 1/encounter), they can be used over and over.

I do like your idea of having all spells take a full round to cast; I might do that for some of the more damaging spells.

Don DM: What you're describing is very similar to the "group initiative" rule from 2e, which we used during the 2e session I ran. I basically improvised the order based on the makeup of the party; the half-elf bard's action happened first because he was fast with a fast weapon, the halfling thief went second because he was slow but had a fast weapon (daggers), and the elf mage went last because he had the slowest weapon (quarterstaff). In PF, I'll probably use everyone's initiative bonuses to determine the order of action on a particular side.

While I would prefer more "realism", group initiative is a good compromise between being quick and being less static.

I am not a fan of the 3.5/Pathfinder initiative system. Yes, it speeds things up, but I've run into the problem (as both a player and a GM) that everyone 'checks out' after they're done with their turn. So, to keep everyone focused on the game, I'm going to implement the initiative system from old-school D&D. Specifically, the one from Darker Dungeons.

For those who don't know, Dark Dungeons is a retro-clone of the 1991 Basic D&D Rules Cyclopedia (not to be confused with the 4e Rules Compendium), a book that is a damn good game in its own right. Darker Dungeons is an updated version of those rules, adding a 3e-esque unified skill system. Here's how the initiative roll in that game goes down.

First, everyone announces what their character (or, in the GM's case, the monsters) is going to do. After that's been determined, everyone rolls to determine in what order the actions occur. There are different situational modifiers; a player who waits to see what the monsters are doing before deciding what they're doing gets a -2, someone who states their intent before the monsters gets a +2, etc.

Since this is done every round, it makes the combat less static, at the expense of making the encounter play out a bit more slowly. The good thing about using the version given in Darker Dungeons is that, since it uses a d20 roll rather than d10, feats that improve initiative (like, say, Improved Initiative) still work as normal; feats that allow someone to shift their spot in initiative order would do so in a slightly modified fashion.

Now, on to my idea for altering magic. For a while, I've been thinking about one of the problems with most roleplaying games: the fact that wizards/mages tend to become far more powerful than fighter-based classes. I also think it takes away from the mystery - what makes magic seem magical - when players can throw fireballs at only 5th level.

I actually came up with a solution while I was working on an AD&D 2e campaign: slow down spell progression. In Pathfinder, the way I would implement this is by limiting 1st-level characters to cantrips. At 3rd level, they would get access to 1st-level spells such as magic missile, they'd get 2nd-level spells at 5th level, and so on. It also postpones the point where their power starts to overshadow that of fighters.

The reasoning behind this was also from a setting standpoint; the most powerful magic is only capable of being wielded by truly legendary figures, not any smart one who just lives long enough. I'd probably ban certain spells outright, or postpone their use.

Unfortunately, due to my difficulties getting enough people together in one place, I've not had the chance to try this out yet. Any thoughts from someone with more hands-on GM experience?