Ghenesh's page

One great way to fix the stat boosting would be to make them all amulets, so you can only use one... and remove the belt as a magic item slot, there are way to many magic item slots.

I do like most of the changes to the base races made in the Alpha Release 2, except for Half-Orc... i mean, stop with the useless uniformity, not EVERY race has to have a bonus to a mental ability score. Besides "Orc Ferocity" is lame for a racial feature.

I would definitely go with +2 Str, +2 Con, -2 Int, -2 Cha and "Powerful Build" for the Half-Orc. Those guys are half-orcs, not WoW Taurens, they were probably born by rape and hidden when little from the rest of the humans... they don't have comunities, or towns, or shrines... they are outcasts... they are not fit to be clerics... there's no Half-Orcville... Gruumsh didn't even like half-orcs.

The rule to have an obligatory boost to a physical stat and a mental stat has no reason to be... it's definitely a bad idea to put rules just for the sake of ruling.

I completely agree with swordslinger, it's the fighters' defenses that need a boost, that's why I like the new armor features in the Pathfinder's Fighter, it would be good if the max dex bonus would also increase.

I think that better defensive feats should be in order for the fighter, and a boost to one saving throw, but not something that grants him a good save bonus equivalent, a +3 total in the 20 levels would be good, that would emulate a medium saving bonus for reflex or will.

I have played with extra hit points for a year now, two DnD 3.5 campaigns. The first one is a very high level campaign (practically epic) with 6 players using characters with levels from 17th to 22nd, I implemented my hit points houserules a year ago when they were in the range of 14th to 18th levels and went practically unnoticed. The second campaign was with other players and started at 3rd level, in this one the extra HP was something really important, combats lasted longer (monsters also had extra hp), traps weren't save or die situations, and players felt that their characters were a lot more heroic. This also makes the world more consistent, no more 1st level commoners with 4hp dying when bit by a dog.

In short, I have tested the flat bonus to HP and it really works fine, along with other houserules. The houserules were this:

Extra hit points:
* All characters, NPCs and monsters has 10 extra hit points, for every size category above medium they add 2 hit points to this bonus, for every size category below medium rest 2 hit points to this bonus. If the creature changes its size category by any effect, this extra hit points changes as well accordingly.

No more rolling the hit points
* All classes and racial hit dice now give a number of hit points equal to half the maximum number attainable when rolling the indicated Hit Die for that class level or racial hit die. This replaces rolling the Hit Die.

The no more hit die rolling helped to make characters, NPCs and to advance monsters faster.

Ok, it seems that you're very fixated on the Leader/Commander concept for the fighter class.

A more simple rule regarding class skills would be to give the fighter any two skills as extra class skills (removing maybe perception from the fighter class skill list), after all the Fighter is the base class that covers the widest set of character concepts. This makes sense with the design of the fighter class, after all the fighter class is all about making the character yourself. Imagine a player who wants to play a more nimble fighter, he could find great use in the acrobatics skill.

About the bonus on Will saves, again it's not the idea with the Fighter class to give bonuses just to fit one concept, it is a way better idea to make this bonus eligible for any of the three saving throws, this way a player can choose to have an uber Fortitude Save, a decent reflex save or a slightly better will save, I implemented this in my campaign as a house rule (+1 bonus to one saving throw at 5th fighter level, +2 at 11th and +3 at 17th) and it's working ok, although I don't play yet with the Pathfinder rules... I am still trying to find out if they are not too overpowered.

Although I DO concur that the Fighter class is lacking defenses, I like the armor training feature, but save bonuses are precisely one of the most important form of defense in the game, anyway I wouldn't make Charisma one of the key abilities just because it fits one concept, imagine a soldier character, why would he need a high charisma score?

The feature to pierce through damage reduction seems to be ok, but I would definitely make it a feat... maybe with Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization as prerequisites.

I also think that the +2 bonus to Wisdom is totally unjustified, Wisdom is supposed to represent force of will and perception, a weird mix for a characteristic if you ask me, but half orcs definitely don't have any of those.

I do support the idea of half-orcs getting a +2 bonus on constitution and a -2 penalty on Charisma. Also a +2 bonus on Intimidate checks would be good... and getting rid of Orc Ferocity, that's totally a class feature, not a racial one.

I'm with you on the armor training, I really like that feature cause it's just like I houseruled the Fighter in my 3.5 campaigns, a competence AC bonus when wearing armor (+1 at 3rd, +2 at 9th and +3 at 15th), I did also gave him a little bonus on one Saving Throw (+1 at 5th, +2 at 11th and +3 at 17th) at player's choice and a competence bonus to attack rolls made with weapons (+1 at 7th, +2 at 13th and +3 at 19th).

I soon find out that the AC and the save bonus really helped to bring the fighter to where it belongs, as a tank it became better, the issue was with the attack bonus, a +3 at 19th level doesn't look like much, but when stacking bonuses you can really get to the roof, I know that pathfinder is gonna make base classes more powerful, but you know... when things are not broken... and I think that a Fighter's attack bonus is just fine.

What I really miss on this fighter rewrite is more skill points and a better skill list. In my 3.5 houseruled fighter I gave the class 4 + Int mod skill points per level (x 4 at first level), and two extra class skills at player's choice... worked really fine. This is because the Fighter as a class cover the most broad concept of character, you should be able to be an army commander, a skilled swashbuckler, a diligent soldier, a perceptive guard, or whatever you feel your fighter should be... so, wouldn't your commander need diplomacy and knowledge (history)? wouldn't your swashbuckler need tumble and bluff? wouldn't your soldier need concentration and survival? wouldn't your guard need listen and spot?

I think this at least should be done.

Firstly, hello all this is my first post.

DeadDMWalking, what K. David Ladage is implying is not what you tried, his 0 level doesn't imply 3 racial HD, it's just a base of starting stats to avoid frontloading the clases in an unnatural way.

I love the idea, it solves a lot of issues:

The issue of weakling commoners... i mean who can live with 4 HP? working your farm every day and not dying is pretty much amazing. First level weaklings is an issue cause make 1st level game almost unplayable, long time ago I houseruled that all creatures have a base HP according to its size, 10 for medium creatures, add 2 for every size category larger and rest 2 for every size category below... it works great.

It solves the "design bug" of good save bonus and heavy multiclassing, we all know that good save bonuses are easily abused by multiclassing, cause you get a +2 at first level, with the 0 level you can change the good base save formula to [ 1 + [class level] / 2 ]. I actually houseruled that this would be the formula of good saves bonuses for all classes, and grant 2 save points at first level, also works great.

Of course, skill points at first level, we all know that Wizard/Rogues characters took the 1st level in Rogue... with the 0 level you can toss away this by giving starting skill points based on your intelligence score only instead of your class selection. Actually giving something like 10 + intelligence score (not modifier) sounds like a good idea.

I hope that Pathfinder do something about crazily high skill modifiers, I've always hated characters having like +37 to Hide at 10th level becoming practically invisible, stuff like that happens with a lot of skills in 3.5. I would love it if they find a way to have all the bonuses pretty much set at first level and increasing slowly as you level up.