Harrythefish's page

In regards to armor.

High dex trumps armor in 3.x/pathfinder simply because the better the ac the more it limits your dex. In pathfinder 1.0 I remember rogues gonig for bracers of defense because they were the best option due to their dex.

The simplest solution it to grant DR to armor.

You want your plate armor to have an advantage over 1/2 plate? Give it higher DR.

Simple rule

Armor give a DEX pen (not a max dex limit) which equals the DR given

Leather armor/ studded leather / other natural armors like hide) no dex pen no dr bonus.

heavier clunkier armor dex pen of 1-2 with a corresponding dr bonus.

Heavy armor dex pen of 3-6 with a equal dr bonus.

and to have those values scale, magic items bonus no longer add +1 to ac but instead lower the dex penalty by 1 (or if already 0 adds one) and increase the dr by 1.

Classes of armor stays (light medium heavy) which can still effect move penalties and also give guide lines to how much dex/dr shift there is.

Effect. High dex people are hit less but take more damage when they are, heavy armor people are hit more but take less damage per hit.

A high level character in magic +5 full plate would get dex -1 and 11 DR. Making the character in that armor seem invincible to fist level characters (because although they can hit him they cant hurt him) which seems fair and a high level character in leather +5 that is high DEX seem untouchable by low level characters due to very high AC which also seems to fit in a theatrical sense).

my two cents.

I feel that the solution that would be the middle ground between what the dev's are going for and what the players want would be something like this.

Single use items. No Resonance. To stop spamming you could do a 10 minute cool down. Use the current rules for pushing resonance for pushing single use items instead. ( in game logic the power of the scroll/trinket/potion has lingering effects that can interact with other consumables making the new one fail)

Items with charges. Use resonance to bind like just like the new wearable items rules below. Keep wands at 10 charges and lowered the rolled die of all wands by one (ie 1d4 = 1d3, 1d8=1d6 etc). This should make spamming a clw wand a thing of the past at high levels.

Wearable items. You can only equip a number of item = to resonance. No pushing as it is no longer needed. Use the rules for pushing and use them for single use items only. (using a item before the 10 min cool down).

Also I like the idea of resonance points linked to your primary stat.

Hopeful effect. until you can increase your starting stats the best you can have is 4 wearable/multiuse items. With the cost of magic being high the limiting factor for usefulness is how much money you have. As you level up you gain a more resonance but they are taken with other magic items and by late level you have the money to buy lots of magic but are limited on healing by 10 min cooldown on potions, 10 charges of less powerful wands and not being able to use multiple wands due to resonance.

I feel this system while possible more complex in that there are more rules, is way better balanced and less punitive. The potion would most often be saved to revive a fallen comrade, but they would be very low on hit points and would have to hang back or risk death (adding tension). The wand of clw would be good at lower levels but pretty useless at higher levels requiring the purchasing of more powerful wands. The christmas tree effect is still removed due to resonance. Linking resonance to your primary stat is non punitive to players who want to play a gruff character (low charisma) and seems to place a nice focus on primary stats.

Just my two cents.

Am I just missing it... or it is currently impossible for anyone to become an Expert (or better) in Light Armor? I sort of expected Fighters to get a more mutable form of Armor Mastery. I.E. Become a Master of Shields and an Armor Type of choice, and experts of all other armor types. It seems odd they can even choose Dex as their primary stat when their Class Features push them exclusively into Heavy Armor. For example, I see the bones of a 'swashbuckler's' features in the class-feats list... But cannot imagine a swashbuckler having to wear Half-Plate or Split Mail to maximize their AC. Likewise for a classic fantasy Archer, whom I usually imagine in light or medium armor.

I agree the armor proficiency upgrade should be expert in all and master of one. Also it would be nice if at expert level in a armor you got some bonus like ; light armor max dex goes up by one for the armor, medium armor the skill penalties decrease by one and heavy armor the speed penalty decrease by 5 foot (just off the cuff). Then what you get is the trained person in a armor getting the benefit of the armor but the higher skilled people getting better use of the armor (and maybe untrained getting their speed reduced by 5 max ac one less and it always being clumsy to show that you really don't know how to wear armor?)

--my two cents

Now whether Signature Skills is the right way to implement this, I'm not sure. I can see the concerns.

I'm not against some sort of restriction, I just want it to be flexible enough that you can have at least one 'bonus' Signature Skill without major investment, and more if you invest in it.

Maybe one idea: you can spend a skill

I think that maybe your background should be a signature skill for you your class gives you 1 more from a list of 3 and you get one more that you can choose with no restriction.

With this setup you have much more freedom but still will feel like a blacksmith that grew up to be a fighter.

Aside : can we please allow the characters to increase our weapon and armour proficiency's as easily as we increase our skills. a simple system that allows you to upgrade one weapon type or armour type at level x would be nice. (arcane casters gain a increase in weapon or armour type at every 6 levels would allow them to increase their unarmoured defence as they level or maybe they really want to hit something with their staff). Then you just allow only certain types of classes to advance above expert just like skills... also why can a fighter who has used a dagger all his life suddenly pick up a great axe and be just as good with it? would it not be cool/more realistic to have classes give training levels for armour and weapons just like they give out skills? then you can pick large blades, small blades and bows for your level one fighter to be trained in and just those.
- just my two coppers.

It seems that the Doomsday Dawn adventure was designed for a party of 4 PCs. What guidelines should we use for running larger or smaller parties? Chapter 5 gives equipment lists for 5 or 6 PCs. But the encounters as written are probably designed for parties of 4. Should we use the playtest rules to adjust encounters for more players? Is there a maximum party size?

ADJUSTING ENCOUNTERS

Sorry here it the passage from the bestiary:

Diff erent Party Sizes
For each character in the party beyond the fourth,
include additional creatures worth an amount of XP
equal to the Character Adjustment value for your
encounter on Table 5. Don’t adjust the actual XP the
characters each gain for defeating the encounter.
If you have fewer than four characters, use the same
process in reverse: for each missing character, remove
creatures worth an amount of XP equal to the Character
Adjustment on Table 5 from the encounter, but keep the
XP that the characters each earn the same.
It’s best to use the XP increase from more characters
to add more enemies and the XP decrease from fewer
characters to subtract enemies, rather than making one
enemy tougher or weaker. Encounters are typically more
satisfying if the number of creatures is fairly close to the
number of player characters.