Khevtol's page

My group was somewhat interested in this playtest, so we made some quick characters and ran them through a scenario. While there is a lot to like about this playtest, the major sticking point we had is how impact feats feel and how it affects character builds.

Background

• Feats try to act a bit more like 4e powers, so they end up defining most of what your character does, especially if you are a martial character
  
• You get 3 feats at first level (ancestry, background skillfeat, class), and roughly 1.5 feats a level
  
• You end up with around 5 ancestry feats, 11 skill feats, 5 general feats and ~11 class feats at 20th level
  
• Given most players play at lower levels, and advance at most once per session, most characters will only have a handful of feats, and wait at least a week irl to get a new one.
  

Our Issues

• Many Feats lack impact - It just doesn't feel good to spend your limited feat choice on a small skill bonus or situational action (hobnobber, diehard, experienced tracker...hell every general feat really).

• Dedication/Gate feats suck - Given you have to wait 2 levels between each class feat, having the two feat requirement really really hurts. So do adopted ancestry, and things like pirate spellcaster dedication where it feels like skipping your feat choice and having to wait a few weeks for any real abilities.

• Pushes Hyper-specialization - With so few feat slots, and feats doing so little, the system seems to encourage spending all your feats on your one "thing" and not branching out. It would help to either have more feat slots (esp skill/general) or just bundle situational abilities and make each feat a big impact moment.

• Actions locked behind skill feats - Having to tell a player that they can't try to train an animal, trick a magic item or even pickpocket someone without the proper feat sucks. For that kind of action, the feat really should improve the existing action, or let you succeed without a roll.

• Too many interesting things are use restricted or way too high level - For example getting a climb speed is apparently a level 15 thing and its flat out impossible to non-combat shapeshift without burning a resource. It would be nice to have more play defining abilities at lower levels and have more unconditional abilities in general.
  

There is a lot of good stuff in the playtest, and hopefully the feat system is improved to bring it to the same standard.

The call and calm spirit spells are accessible to the cleric and spiritualist. However I do seriously believe that the shaman ought to have those spells added as well, in addition to perhaps having feats ,alternate archetypes,shaman spirits or similar that let the shaman use some of the psychic magic abilities. It seems pretty similar in tone and tenor.

The Document.

I had some time on my hands and made a (WIP) document with new character options for Martial characters, both in and out of combat. (Because making martial characters better at damage doesn't accomplish much)

While I originally started with a Weapon modification system, I got a fair bit of feedback, reformatted things to not look terrible, fixed a lot of stuff and expanded a lot, with armor and shield mods, weapon runes, new special materials and feats. Hopefully with more time I can add even more.

What do you like? What needs to be fixed? What would you like to see? What just Sucks? Please be brutally honest. Feel free to comment on the Google Doc as well as reply to this thread. Also don't hesitate to play it or use the material however you want!

Note: I figured a new thread would be the better idea since I have expanded past the scope of the old one. However I don't believe I can delete the old one. Hopefully that doesn't qualify as spam.

Document Link Here

I am working on a homebrew doc about mundane gear modification and options for martial characters. This is really my first try at this sort of thing. If this seems fun and worth perusing, I intend to put the finished thing as a free document or a "pay what you want" pdf. (Not pretending I am even close in quality to actual third party publishers)

Does it seem fun? How is the initial balance? Is the concept worth continuing and play testing more? Are there any parts that are confusing or overtly complex? Feedback, criticism and thoughts are greatly appreciated!

If we're bringing logic into the question a better question might be why do people feel the need to makes characters that want to punch people in full suits of steel armor or creatures with inches of thick hide like dragons. Though that can be taken further too.

Because it is awesome. I think that sums it up really.

Part of the logic is that it is a lot harder and more expensive to enchant your fists. You also don't really get a choice to -not- use your fists as the entire class is based on it.

You also don't get the increased damage that other classes do using power attack with two weapon fighting, your BAB being unable to use power attack that effectively(or while flurrying) and you being unable to wield a fist with two hands. (Unless you detached your arm and beat someone over the head with it in which case it would actually only do 1d4 damage as an improvised weapon and you would be better off just punching them or using a dagger).

It is higher damage than a normal weapon, but the lack of high strength additions and additional cost to enchant makes up for the damage.