Joshua James Gervais's page

I could really go for a spear fighting Monk that used a combination mobility and reach.

Joshua James Gervais wrote:

You've got some interesting ideas here. You might consider making two separate lists of talents (low level talents and high level ones), and removing some of the prerequisites. That way the class will be a little bit more flexible.

The only thing that really seems off is Defensive Stance. It seems a more complex than it needs to be. I'd also like to see a similar talent that encourages moving around a lot, like Defensive Stance encourages taking a stand.

A minor issue that kind of bugs me: I think Charm Strike might be better served with a name like Charm Touch.

I'm definitely open to ideas about splitting the talents as you suggested into say, low-medium-high groups. Any ideas put forward in this regard would be appreciated. I built in the initial prerequisites so that you could build the monk as he exists in 3.5, or take "alternate branches" at major points to make the monk unique, much along the lines of alternate class abilities (but not fixed to specific levels or swap-outs).

I would only use two groups of talents, low level talents (1-11) and high level (12+). I would also remove some of the prerequisites, unless the talent really relies on another talent.

The wording for defensive stance (and actually, the entire ability) comes from the Dwarven defender, oddly enough. It is meant as an alternate idea as an opposite to Spring Attack/Fast movement monks (might be an interesting choice for Dwarven monks).

It still seems a little complex to me. The Dwarven Defender is based around that particular ability, so it's okay that it's a little complex. But as a Monk talent, I think it could be simplified a little.

Just Chiming in here with my suggestions and comments;

Give Sorcerers an Average BAB

Do NOT give sorcerers armor proficiency or the ability to cast in armor light without penalty.

Do NOT alter their spellcasting progression.

Give them Eschew materials feat at 1st level.

Give them the Summon Familiar feat or the Armored Mage (light) feat but not both and not at 1st level (perhaps at 2nd to counter the dead level from the slower spell progression).

Add some variant to just touch attacks by perhaps granting melee weapon channeling instead (Personally I think this will work better for celestial, infernal, and destined instead of touch attacks). This would also help prevent the obvious monk/sorcerer combo becoming the norm while helping to strengthen the idea of spellswords using fighter/sorcerer instead of fighter/wizard.

This is fairly close to the ways I was thinking of changing the Sorcerer.

You've got some interesting ideas here. You might consider making two separate lists of talents (low level talents and high level ones), and removing some of the prerequisites. That way the class will be a little bit more flexible.

The only thing that really seems off is Defensive Stance. It seems a more complex than it needs to be. I'd also like to see a similar talent that encourages moving around a lot, like Defensive Stance encourages taking a stand.

A minor issue that kind of bugs me: I think Charm Strike might be better served with a name like Charm Touch.

Joshua James Gervais wrote:

I don't like giving all Fighters Uncanny Dodge. It might fit some Fighters but not all Fighters.

Yes, I see what you mean. Any suggestions on an ability that might fit here? Perhaps Immunity to Fear?

A couple ideas come to mind:

- Something that works like Evasion for Fortitude saves, though I'm not sure how many Fortitude partial effect are out there.

- A counter attack ability, which might be really fun but might also slow combat down a little.

- Something else in the vein of Tide of Battle that helps the Fighter be a little more mobile and a little less reliant on full attacks.

Joshua James Gervais wrote:

I'm not sure what Competency Training is suppose to represent. The other two defense options are concrete, armor and blocking, but the competency option is a little vague.

I suppose I should clarify. Competency Training is just someone who has familiarized themselves with fighting in the most general sense possible. These fighters know so much about so many different styles that they can dodge, block, etc more effectively and can give sound advice to their allies to do the same.

Okay, that's a concept I can get behind. Though I'm a little wary about the bonus to other character's AC--it's the sort of thing I think I'd end up forgetting during play.

Joshua James Gervais wrote:

I don't like putting a cool down on combat focus (like Tide of Battle and Sight Beyond Sight do). I'm not fan of duration tracking and I try to avoid it if possible. For Tide of Battle, I'd just drop it the cool down; the character had to give up a move action to gain focus, so the ability is only changing when the character takes that move action. I'm not sure about Sight Beyond Sight though.

I suppose you're right, Tide of Battle doesn't need the cool down. Sight Beyond Sight probably doesn't either now that you mention it. The cool down was intended to be a balancing factor, but it may not be necessary.

EDIT: And I again realize that I can't edit my original post... and I don't know why.

Yeah, it seems the forum doesn't let you edit your posts after a while.

Joshua James Gervais wrote:

(Tangent)Am I the only person that thinks Wisdom is a better Ability for Concentration than Constitution? I've always seen it as more of a mental exercise than of physical one--kind of like meditation. (/Tanget)

In terms of simulationism, I agree. Mechanically... I misremember who now -- my mind isn't what it used to be -- but someone recently presented an excellent argument in favor of Con. Specifically, Con is a "neutral" stat for all classes, whereas using Wis rigs the usefulness of Concentration in favor of the cleric. If the OP of that argument is here, please raise a hand. Your analysis was cogent, to the point, and unassailably logical.

I think I found it, this post by Todd Johnson, which is quite persuasive.

I took another quick look, and see where I misread. I saw another reply alluding to multiclassing an (example) Wizard 2/Rogue 18 and having level 6 spells, but I guess that was just another suggestion.

That was for my post, and I was mistaken--mostly because it been a while since I've read the BoNS. Sorry about that.

The rule being outlined here is simple, elegant, and, unfortunately, far too easy to abuse, in my opinion. Think of it this way: if I can take levels in other classes and get free spellcasting to go with them, I'll give every rogue a level of wizard from now on, and every fighter a level of cleric or sorcerer. The world will be full of cleric 2/fighter 18 characters, and wizard 2/rogue 18s. The -1 to BAB doesn't come close to steering me away from all that free spellcasting. No one WON'T have a level of spellcasting. That would work for a highly-magical homebrew world, but it goes against the basic model of D&D.

Are 6th level spells really that useful for 20th level characters? I'm asking an honest question here, my games rarely go beyond 10th level, so I don't know how unbalanced these combinations could get.

In general I like it. The weapon and the defense enhancements look good, and I like the focus mechanic.

I don't like giving all Fighters Uncanny Dodge. It might fit some Fighters but not all Fighters.

I'm not sure what Competency Training is suppose to represent. The other two defense options are concrete, armor and blocking, but the competency option is a little vague.

I don't like putting a cool down on combat focus (like Tide of Battle and Sight Beyond Sight do). I'm not fan of duration tracking and I try to avoid it if possible. For Tide of Battle, I'd just drop it the cool down; the character had to give up a move action to gain focus, so the ability is only changing when the character takes that move action. I'm not sure about Sight Beyond Sight though.

I think the Monk needs some kind of tune up. Flavor-wise its a really interesting class (when I switched from 2nd edition to 3rd, the Monk was on the top of my list of things to play), but the rules fall a little short.

I'm not sure that a higher BAB and HD are the way to go, but it's certainly an option worth considering. Personally, I'd like to see a reduction in the overall complexity of the class, and the BAB boost is less the complex than some of the alternatives.

I'd also like to see a little more support for Monks that fight with martial arts weapons. A Monk that focuses on the staff or spear should be different than an equivalent fighter, but at the same time should still be a valid character.

I hadn't thought about the Bo9S side of the coin here. That does cause some serious problems when Concentration is dropped.

Maybe, instead of dropping Concentration, Spellcraft should be dropped. Just make all of the stuff about identifying and learning spells a function of Knowledge (arcana), since that and Spellcraft are both magic-related, Intelligence-based skills anyway.

This seems like a workable solution to me. Though if Concentration was its own skill, I'd like to see its function expanded a little.

(Tangent)Am I the only person that thinks Wisdom is a better Ability for Concentration than Constitution? I've always seen it as more of a mental exercise than of physical one--kind of like meditation. (/Tanget)

I think that the progression from the Book of 9 Swords would work fine for spellcasters. Basically, caster level equals caster level from main casting class, plus 1/2 all other classes. If you have multiple casting classes, they also count as only 1/2 towards each other.

So:

Wiz 4/Ftr 4 = casts at 6th level caster

Wiz 6/Clr 4/Ftr 4 = casts as 10th level wizard/9th level cleric

This is the way I would handle things if someone wanted to play a multiclass caster in one of my games, but I'm a fan of sword-mages and holy-assassins.