Mort the Cleverly Named's page

While I originally wanted to post a more in-depth playtest report, that is not going to happen for many reasons. Instead, I wanted to just present a few experiences on classes while playing through the first two chapters of Shattered Star (don't worry, no spoilers). We used 15 point buy, built fairly traditional characters, and tried not to dumpster dive for obscure options.

The "Fighter" character was a Half-Orc Arcane Bloodrager. In building, there were few problems. Not being able to dump Charisma took a couple points from Strength, but overall led to a more "balanced" character (that is, one that doesn't need to burn a feat on Intimidating Prowess to be scary). Overall, the class played very much like a Barbarian: extremely strong when raging, still good while not, with an acceptable amount of skills. The ability to cast spells was a nice little benefit, used mostly for vanish and the odd enlarge person. We did notice the lack of cantrips acutely, as read magic was not available so we had to look up what to do without it. Also, the Arcane bloodline is amazing: the first power and spell were basically irrelevant in our game, but being able to choose between four buffs as the second power was very strong. Blur was standard, but spider climb basically made climbing irrelevant (even at low level, with few rounds) and resist energy came into play. We didn't test the other bloodlines, but looking at them, some of them may fall behind the power and versatility offered.

The "Rogue" was an Investigator. Dex-based Elf. The big impressions were that the first few levels hurt, but it became amazing after. Inspiration ended up being spent on attacks and saves because it kept the character alive, even though the 2 point cost meant they didn't get many uses out of it. Requiring training in a skill was slightly annoying, but didn't come up much (Intelligence Inspiration was not even considered, as all skills were trained by level 3 and there were so many other, strong talents to choose). Also, really hope "Extra Inspiration" is a feat in the ACG. Anyway, the dex-based nature meant damage was fairly awful for level 1-3, making the character of minimal combat relevance. Level 4 was an amazing change, the watershed of turning points. Sneak attack kicked in, 2nd level extracts (woo, bull's strength!) came into play, and the Investigator got a talent (Combat Inspiration) all at the same time. It was a slightly rough start, with low damage and few extracts and tricks to help, but post-4 was amazing. It had been a disappointing experience compared to a Rogue, as the save bonuses didn't come up, the 2 extra skill points would have allowed skills to be trained sooner, and the extra Sneak Attack would have been noticed. But after level 4 the player would not switch back to Rogue for the world. As the hybrid classes are intended to make what would have been a multiclass option into something that works from 1, this might be an issue, as taking until 4 to really come into its own is almost Prestige Class levels.

Our "Cleric" was a Hunter, which was probably a poor choice. After much grappling with the abilities, the player chose a Strength-based melee build (as ranged and casting builds benefited little from the companion or Teamwork feats, restricting those options). It felt VERY similar to having a melee Druid, but with slightly worse skills (no Nature Sense) and special abilities. Animal Aspect was nearly irrelevant, as the duration on the skills were generally too low and the stat boosts felt weak. Owing to the fact they conflicted with Belts by the second adventure, and the small number of uses was not worth ignoring one of the "big six" items, the player chose to put the boosts into Dexterity or Constitution. The effect was minor, both because it was small and because gaining bonuses to defensive stats will never "feel" the same as gaining one to an offensive stat. The overall experience was quite negative, with the player complaining about the Teamwork stuff being weaker than an Inquisitor while not getting the Wild Shape or spells of a Druid.

Finally, our "Wizard" was an Arcanist. There is very little to report here. He felt very much like a better Sage Sorcerer, with a skill list more suited to him. The ability to change spells was nice for getting rid of sleep quickly, but didn't have much relevance to the game overall. It likely would be more important at higher level, when metamagic and specific use spells become more common. The bloodline felt so tacked on I had to look it up afterwards, but that is irrelevant since that bit appears to be getting changed.

I hope this helps. I know I skipped much of the hard data, but trying to type it all out gives me grad school flashbacks, and I doubt it would really be that interesting anyway. I have it, if anyone particularly cares, but otherwise I hope the general experiences will be of some value to the playtest.

While working on characters, I noticed several abilities I feel could use clarification (or at least another set of eyes). Rather than interfere with the general class discussions in those threads, or spam the forum with a topic for each, I figured I'd make a combined thread for minor clarifications (rather than recommendations, or "this is so great/awful it can't be intended" stuff). Mine would be:

Bloodrager:
1) What is their Caster Level? Presumably -3, but this is not stated.
2) Can you cast out of rage? I assume so, but many seem to be reading Blood Casting as a restriction, not a benefit.

Brawler: The feat requirements are vague. How liberally should they be read? Does Heavy Armor Proficiency "improve defenses?" What about Monkey Style's removal of prone penalties? What is intended to be removed by this restriction, other than ranged feats?

Investigator: Do Empathy and Tenacious Inspiration interact? Since the two dice for Empathy are also called "inspiration dice," Tenacious Inspiration could be read as allowing two rolls of each of them. I would guess this reading is not the intention, though.

Shaman:
1)When Wandering Spirit refers to "both of the listed abilities granted by the spirit," does this mean Spirit Ability and Spirit Familiar, or were these once two spirit abilities or something? While getting the Spirit Familiar bonuses would be nice, putting both together is going to make them look weird.

2) The Waves Spirit allows one to use elemental body IV to turn into an ice elemental, and Wind allows lightning. What are the stats and abilities for these forms?

Okay, I read all the playtesting guidelines and promised myself that I would abide by them. However, a couple of hours in and after only one read through, I feel compelled to comment on the Lesser Trials.

First, I get the idea. They are little achievements, like in video games, that add up to an eventual bonus. In theory, that is great. However, in practice, I don't see much of a point. The Greater Trials seem like the important bit, while the Lesser Trails are "did you purposefully finish a combat in a specific manner?" Worse, it seems that you can get more than enough Greater Trials completed, but additional ones will not count towards your Lesser Trials. So basically, Hercules would not advance his Mythic Tier from his twelve trials, but from curbstomping some lesser enemies in between.

Second, the specific Lesser Trials seems weighted towards luck or purposefully prolonging combat. For example, unless I am missing a Mythic way to increase threat range, Critical Chain has a 1.5% chance of occurring over any three given attacks (assuming automatic crits). School Display, on the other hand, requires an 8 round combat and likely Mythic Points (as spontaneous casters likely won't know enough spells, and prepared casters will not have enough slots to accomplish it otherwise, even in a nova).

I could go on with specific examples, as there are many within each Mythic Path, however I'd like to hear other opinions before I type that all out. What is the specific purpose of Lesser Trials? Should they be a given for those that attempt them, things that require extreme effort, or the result of luck? What is the expected advancement rate of Mythic characters, and do the Lesser Trials make that more or less difficult to attain?

Inspired by this thread, I've started working on a guide to the various Wild Shape forms. Hopefully it will be an easy reference guide for finding the fastest or best combat forms at the different sizes, so you don't have to slog through three bestiaries to find the fastest small swimmer or what have you.

However, going through, I've found a question coming up repeatedly. Polymorph effects give you the natural attacks of a form, but no other abilities unless specifically listed. The question, then, is what about natural described as extraordinary abilities? Things like the Giant Frog's "Tongue," which are both special attacks and natural attacks? Or something like the Dimetrodon's Tearing Jaws, which would be out as an extraordinary ability, but would have applied if it was just contained in the stat block instead of getting a special mention later.

I'd strongly lean towards them not being usable while polymorphed into the form, but I thought I'd get a second opinion. Wouldn't want to cheat such creatures out of at least a mention for their unique abilities, after all.

The monk class description states "There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed. A monk may thus apply his full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all his unarmed strikes."

Does this mean there is "no such thing" as an off-hand attack because you aren't allowed to make them, or because they all count as main hand? If someone actually took the the TWF chain, would this force them to use a weapon in one hand or just function as a freebie Double Slice for unarmed strikes?

Basically, I want to make the 6 kick / 2 claw / bite pouncing Barbarian even more abusive by taking the Dragon Style chain. A dip into Martial Artist (the any alignment monk archetype) would make this much easier. But I can't tell, by RAW, if this one silly line of text makes the idea worthless or even better.

Guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Wow, the caravan rules look like a lot of fun. Compact and easy to use, yet with enough options to keep it interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing how they are integrated into the path.

However, I am a still a person on the internet. Therefore, I feel the need to nitpick. Here we go:

*Why have bonuses for heroes? There is no choice involved (since you can do another job too), making it a freebie +4 to everything. Except for small groups, which will be penalized.

*Higher bonuses for very skilled characters doing jobs would have been cool. The bonus limit would have kept it from being overpowered, and make the PC (and high level ally) contributions more significant. Plus, I would finally get a use out of those 10 ranks in profession (cook)!

*Traders: Useless? By my calculations, a max Resolve caravan will only pull in 26.5gp / trader / day. Subtract the wagon space and consumption, and I don't see the point.

*Merchant Mastery: Extra useless? +5 means +5gp. Alternatively, that feat slot could get me extra wagons, speed, or +1d6(!) damage in caravan combat. Not a tough choice.

*Question, not nitpick: Will we see a return of these rules for the pirate-themed AP? Replace the wagons with ships and toss in some parrots and it seems ready to go.