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.

Wanted critique on a rules doc I drafted up for my game.

You can find the doc HERE on google drive.

My goals were:

• Fewer rules roadblocks between a fleshed out concept and a character.
  
• Focus on letting characters be more versatile, rather than increasing vertical power. (especially martials)
  
• Make things a bit smoother and more engaging for players and easier to run for me.
  
• Don't overload players by making them need to digest a ton of complexity/specific cases before diving in. Consolidate where possible, and keep wording light.
  
• Try to keep bookkeeping and metagame planning to a minimum. It slows down the game and doesn't add much.

I would love any questions, critique or feedback you have on the rules. Also, do you have any rules that would be good to add in?

Not sure if this is kosher, but here goes. Veera is a pulp fantasy RPG I'm making that aims for changing characters, tactical gameplay and encouraging risks. I've only hammered out most of the system core, but it's mostly playable and I wanted some feedback. Here is the brief features/goals list:

• Uses 1d12 and d6 dice pool that is easy to read and not too slow to resolve.
  
• Cinematic Pulpy feel, where characters can use their motivations as justification to shrug off blows
  
• Characters that grow and change through gameplay
  
• Tactical gameplay without tracking tons of rules. (Med-crunch)
  
• Overflow damage and risk dice that drive tension and encourages taking risks
  
• Stunt point mechanic to power character abilities.
  
• Character creation that is clean and flexible.
  

> LINK TO DOCUMENT<

This is a [WIP] doc/pdf of martial character options. The intention is to increase both the in combat and out of combat options for martial characters without hurting balance.
It includes:

• nonmagical weapon modification
• weapon runes
• Traits
• Feats
• Special materials

I am working on play testing the feats, traits and materials, and doing a sweep to increase the depth/complexity ratio. I am also adding among other things:

• an equipment section (Weapons, Armor, Random gear)
• class features (shaman spirit, magus arcana, rogue talents..etc)
• More Traits, Feats and Weapon Runes
• a variant rules section

What do you like? What do you hate? What is unbalanced? What do you want to see more of? Is this project worth continuing? I would really appreciate feedback, criticism and suggestions!

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 I am a lev 16 Nature Shaman and thus get the true spirit ability:

Companion Animal (Su): The shaman's spirit animal takes the form of an animal companion of her choice, using her shaman level as her effective druid level. The animal retains all the special abilities and the Intelligence score of the spirit animal, but also has the statistics and abilities of an animal companion. If the animal is dismissed, is lost, or dies, it can be replaced in the same way as a normal spirit animal.

I am curious about what exactly caries over from the familiar. If I have a parrot familiar, can my raptor animal companion/familiar now speak?

If I take improved familiar beforehand, does that mean my animal companion gets the spell like abilities/special abilities of the improved familiar?

My current nature shaman is getting to that level and the animal companion true spirit ability has me bewildered. How does it work? Here are a few of my questions:

1.Let's just say I chose a parrot familiar. Once I get the ability, it says my parrot becomes an animal companion as well as a familiar. Does this mean I can turn my parrot into a t-rex when I get the ability? Or does it just get the boosts and feats?

2. If the answer to the above is yes, can my t-rex talk? Does it get free weapon finesse because the raven had it?

3.If the answer to the first question is yes, and I pick improved familiar, does my t-rex get the spell like abilities?

4.If the parrot stays a parrot, but gets feats and things, do I still have to use handle animal to control it in pfs.

5.Can I pick both a familiar archetype and an animal companion archetype?

6.Is my spirit animal still outsider(native)?

7.Do the natural armour bonuses stack?

8. If my character dies permanently, does the familiar/companion persist and have sentience afterwards?

9.What is the HP/skills/base saves of my familiar/animal companion? Which order are they applied?

10.What is the HD of my companion/familiar, and does this give it extra feats?