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I hope that I am reading this wrong, but it appears that the Dragon Totem rage power path essentially replaces (and improves upon) the entire Invulnerable Rager archetype. It reads (to me) that if you have all 3 Dragon Totem rage powers (achievable by 10th level), then you essentially have DR 8/--, <<Some Element>> Resistance 16, Perception and Save bonuses, and flight. A 10th level Inv. Rager, by contrast, has DR 5/--, Endure Elements to one environmental type, and energy res 2 versus either fire or cold. And you get all that without having to give up Trap Sense (meh), or Uncanny Dogde/Improved Uncanny dodge. I understand that the Dragon Totem path is pretty specific, and speaks for all of your rage powers up through level 10, but I can't help but feel that the Dragon Totem gets a better deal (Animal Fury and Intimidating Glare being useful in their own right). It looks like the rage power's intent may have been to scale the Enery Res only, but that isn't how it reads to me. Thoughts?
My search-fu is failing me at the moment, and after reading several dozen threads covering nearly all aspects of and opinions regarding AOOs, I have yet to find the answer to the question of 'What kind of action is an attack of opportunity'? According to the SRD: SRD wrote:
Now, this would seem to imply that an AOO actually takes no action at all, but I can see an interpretation that argues that it is a free action. Is there an official answer for this somewhere else in the forums or in the SRD/PRD, or am I the only one who has ever been this nit-picky about it?
With the release of Ultimate Magic and the variant 'Words Of Power' system, it occurs to me that there is a niche for some manner of application that would assist with the tracking/creation/rule conformity of this new system. Before undertaking such an endeavor, I am curious to know the following:
My thoughts are to develop this from the beginning as a Open Source project (GPL license), if that matters to anyone but me :) I wanted to measure interest in the project before I undertook a project that nobody uses, so don't be shy.
I've been rolling this around in my head for some time now, and I want to see how bad this can get. I don't immediately see any enormous issues, but seeing some posts here make me think that there are some things I just can't predict. Assume, for a moment, that spell DCs are not calculated in the normal manner of 10 + Spell Level + Ability Mod, but are instead calculated as follows: 5 + 1/2 HD + Spell Level + Ability Mod
Now, with that assumption, show me your worst. Make me tremble in fear of the unthinkable brokenness of your single/multi class spellcasters that use this method. Show me that this is the worst idea I have ever had, ever. I am not trying to inflame anyone here, or start a caster vs. non-caster war. I just want to know what the possible abuses or failures of this modification could be. All classes / levels / critters are welcome as examples. Thank you in advance! :)
Yesterday was my first game session since the playtest was released, and my GM was gracious enough to allow me to try the whole thing out.
Our characters being at level 2 did cause some option deficiency from a multiple effect standpoint, but I would imagine that this is to be expected from a game balance standpoint. That being said, it is still fun to be able to hit an opponent with a little bit of (crit possible) damage along with a small de-buff. Looking at the list of words as presented, it seems that Weapon Focus (Ray) would be an enormous benefit, as would Improved Critical (Ray). One of my criticisms is that the Mass target word seems a little overpowered for just a +1. While it was enormously useful at this low level, and is probably less so at higher levels, it seems that +1 is just not quite costly enough. Unfortunately, I don't think overall that it is worth +2 either. It should be fine, but in my mind it is something that should be considered carefully when designing new words, as there could be some abuse there. A second issue that I had with the whole system was the CL requirement on Word Burning. If this is a game balance issue, then so be it, but I found in a few cases that I was wishing I had one or two more points for something truly specific to the situation at hand. Given that you can only burn one slot per day to fuel this, my opinion is that it would not be gamebreaking to offer it with no CL requirement. Finally, to end on a positive note, this does not seem like it will be as complicated and weird as some people think. As a 2nd level Sorc, I had 5 known 0 level words and 2 known 1st level words. All I needed to keep track of all my options was a simple text document that had my Words known, the cost of each Word, the cost of each Target Word, and the cost limits for each level. I had a spreadsheet containing all of the Word information (hopefully, at some point, this will be used as part of an application to help with cost/effect calculations) that I used to look up specifics, but I didn't find that remembering the Effect Word effects to be any more difficult than remembering straight spell effects (the same being for saves/SR/duration/etc.) Due to the bi-monthly nature of our game, mandatory overtime for some of our players, and the holidays coming up, I will probably not have a chance to work with the system again until after the new year, but nonetheless, I had a good experience with it from a low-level standpoint and look forward to the final release.
This site has been a source of great inspiration, wisdom, and more than a few laughs for me. With that in mind, I submit the following as contributions to the community. Hopefully, there are folks who will find these helpful: Contents are:
All of these items will be periodically updated, when time allows. |