xDialtone's page

So I argue that this is meant to be a core book, and not the Inner Seas expansion. The ethnicities are there for people to get a general feeling and idea of who/what they are, and not full on 10 page descriptions of each or we will have a 600 page book with several hundred of those pages just back racial/cultural backgrounds.

Core books are meant to be resources for DMs to use to have in their own worlds and not just Golarian campaign setting, and I think people need to remember that (which is the issue I have with Gray Maiden faction as the test PrC amongst other things about it).

"Arcane Lore" skill sounds suspiciously like the Arcana skill, xDialtone, so maybe that's a bad example for a custom background.

Arcane Lore is explicitly called out in the lore skill section if I remember properly. Lore skill functions a bit different than the knowledge skill as well.

I'm a fan of backgrounds, I just want for there to be more of them. I mean, there are backgrounds now for a barkeep and an entertainer, but not one for a chef or a baker- what gives? We have a background for a Smith, but not for someone who was a Woodworker or a Mason or a Weaver or any other sort of craft.

I think there just need to be like ten times as many of these.

They can't just make one for every small profession, there's literally hundreds. Even 5e doesn't have that many. Which is why the legal ability to make your own and the ability to customize is important, so YOU can play that background if you wanted to.

Would it make sense to instead just add a fifth free ability boost during the "four free ability boosts" step of character creation and save space in the Backgrounds?

Since you can't double dip points from any one type of boost, this would limit the points certain things Can get.

For example in the default way of building a character:
You get Ancestry boost in Dex, Background extra boost in Dex, Class Boost Dex, Free boost Dex. That's an 18 in DEX

If you have the free boost from Backgrounds into the Free section, then you get the following:
Ancestry Boost in Dex, Class Boost Dex, Free boost dex, which makes your DEX 16 since you can't double dip the free one.

It would then force players to intentionally optimize to get 18 DEX and picking a background that gives them the DEX boost over anything else or be behind everyone playing.

For example, using the "Magical Survivor" example, above, I could envision a variation that boosts a single physical Ability score of the player's choice but grants a bonus to Perception. (Or something like that.)

Do you see what I'm trying to describe? I hope I'm making this clear.

Basically, I'd be interested in a ruleset for developing Backgrounds that are still play-balanced but not necessarily using the Ability bonus/Skill bonus/training format that they all share, at the moment.

Thoughts?

I see what you mean, and for home games I think it's fine, since they are home games. Everything is up to the DM and this system allows great versatility in changing items/spells etc into Uncommon, Rare, or Unique to change how the world feels.

What I was trying to portray though is a detailed example of how you can customize backgrounds for Legal play to allow more options for players besides the default listing. 5th Edition D&D allows customized backgrounds for their Adventure League play and I believe that PF2E should welcome this addition to allow more versatility for players other than everyone being restricted.

It seems like there's intent for Backgrounds to be a broad design space -- Doomsday Dawn includes 6 "campaign backgrounds", which are much more specific than the general ones in the CRB -- much like the campaign traits in past APs.

The Backgrounds intro text on pg 38 could perhaps be edited a bit to include more of the specificity that you provide, and also make explicit that these are examples and tables can generate their own?

I'm not too happy with the campaign backgrounds because they are mandatory if you play in it, but overall yes, the design of backgrounds seem to be meant to be simple and easy, and seems to be worded in a way where it could be an option, but isn't. Hopefully they will add the ability to add it in.

Excuse me if I post this in the wrong section, didn't see a forum space for backgrounds. Please move to proper section if need be.

So one thing I've noticed is that backgrounds are very limiting and restricted currently. The current list is workable on a small scale for general play, but in terms of differences of people's PC's sometimes they do not make sense.

So I suggest a feature similar to 5th Edition that allows the creation of custom backgrounds using specific rules. In 5e, it is legal in Adventure League to create your own following the rules they set:

Background:
• Choose 2 Skills to be Proficient in
• Choose a Mix of 2 languages or tools to be Proficient in
• Choose a Background Feature
• Up to X gp in misc. items (can't rmemeber this one properly)
• Choose a single Feature of a background to use

This is allowable in their official play and I highly suggest Pathfinder 2E allow the same, especially in Society Play so that characters can be different without going to far out of way of things and balanced against other players.

In Pathfinder 2E backgrounds are, in general, listed and described as the following.

Background:
• Choice between A or B Ability bonus
• Choice of any Ability Bonus
• Lore Skill
• Skill Feat

I suggest the following be added for custom backgrounds:

Background:
• Choose 1 Physical Ability Bonus -- STR, DEX, CON
• Choose 1 Mental Ability Score Bonus -- INT, WIS, CHA
• Choose a Lore Skill
• Choose a Skill Feat of which requires a level of no more than 1st level. -- feats requiring a trained skill can be chosen

For this, I believe Lore Skill needs to be expanded on vs something very vague it is currently so players can get some choices as an example.

In an example of a custom background:

Magical Survivor
You were once a prisoner of an arcane caster and used in magical experiments, you have escaped captivity but the scars of arcane power are still felt.
• Choose two ability boosts. One must be Dexterity or Intelligence, and one is a free ability boost.
• You gain Arcane Sense as a Skill feat and you are trained in the Arcane Lore skill.
-- As a custom Background, DEX and INT would be the two selected Physical and Mental Stats

In the example above it follows along the lines of official backgrounds and reading and acting in similar fashion.

Again I iterate that allowing custom backgrounds with a ground work of rules will help the game in the long run to allow players to FEEL like they are different from others and providing a small in game boost in the same way that traits did in 1st Edition of the game.

Thank you for reading.

I agree on the fact that it currently seems like the rogue has way to much, double skill feats and double skill trainings. They already get a ton of skill ranks and if you boost int, getting 13ish Skills at level 1 is pretty over the top on a list of 16 (2 of them are Lore, of which you get 1 for free trained as your background.)

I do not agree that rogues should be either Be a rogue, or be a jack.

Rogues are typically made to be good at one or two things REALLY well, and I'd like that to still be an option.

I don't want to be a stereotypical rogue all the time, if I want to play a rogue specialized in History Lore and magic, then I should have that option vs being pigeon-holed.

Other than that, from what I read it seems like a rogue is very front loaded on the skills department and I'd rather not get into the situation like in SFS where a single operative is better at most abilities vs everyone else at the table.

Already have most of the ideas though with personal, guild, or private contracts. You can do assassinations, bounties, convoys, and many other things through the system and it's pretty much what you're describing.

I'm thinking (along the lines of table top) of going 2Rogue|18Sorcerer.

This isn't a discussion of the difference between atheism, agnosticism or whatever. The initial question was simply if choosing a deity was required during character creation.

As far as I know there hasn't been any confirmation either way, though personally I'm hoping it won't be required for all characters.

Thank you :<

xDialtone wrote:

I did not mean atheism at all, just not following any one

I think you mean polytheism, then.

It's actually kinda fun to do. At the moment, a Life Oracle I'm playing in one campaign worships Gozreh, Sarenrae, Pharasma, and Cayden Cailean... heck, I think even the iconic Oracle is polytheistic.

No. That is not what I said or meant. I meant what I said -exactly- as I said it.

Also, the religion of Pathfinder is anything but Monotheistic, the gods exist, they show us divine powers and healing through their clergy.

Just because I know Gods exist doesn't mean I practice their rituals and rights, I just don't follow their principles and live my life without guidance of the gods.

Just because you don't follow a religion doesn't make you an Atheist.

I did not mean atheism at all, just not following any one belief, or maybe multiple concepts or ideologies.

On the note of 'Gods' and alignments, I wonder if there will be an option off not picking one at all as your main deity.

Speaking of Wizards, I hope they can have 'libraries' where they can store knowledge they learned and that in a certain craft you can make spell books. The higher your level in it is, the more spells you can insert into them. It would make a nice combination I think, maybe have it have a restriction compared to using a found book with the 'original' spell instead of a copied one (reduced damage, higher CD, etc).

A little disappointed, I personally see that you guys are going in the direction of 'Percent chance to dodge/block' type combat, where after a while it will just be about the numbers. (Saw the active defense abilities of evasion and think it's just a simple "increases dodge rating by x amount for y time" or "will dodge the next attack").

I hope that you push on a system of blocking or parrying that will utilize the 6 action counts.

IE: Blocking or parrying (if you're using a 2h weapon, 1h, or dual wielding) takes up 2 or the 6 actions per turn, and will block a certain % based on your armor rating (so you can't just block every attack) and each consecutive block will decrease the amount blocked but after a certain amount of time it would refresh (2 or 3 Six Second cycles maybe or even more). This way you take more damage over time and you decide which attacks you want to block.

In a PvE type environment, choosing what to block would be important as well as being able to switch out with other capable people to jump into to attack (or with another tank) while the tank is trying to refresh his stacks.

I also hope you won't be using a simple threat system like many games have been using with 'highest aggro gets attacked'. I hope you make it a little more complex than that. Make it so that different factors influence is aggro'ed (damage, utility, importance, etc) and put it in that a monster just can't walk through a paladin to get to the cleric. The mob/boss would physically attack the paladin to -get- to the cleric because the paladin is in the way, have it's ranged attacks focus on the healer since it can't get in melee range. I don't really know, I just hope it is not a simple taunt/aggro meter combat system.

Another thing I hope for when I saw the 'can carry 3 weapon sets' is that If I am currently wielding a Shield and Sword, I would -LOVE- to see that I am wearing my bow/quiver on my back and my daggers on my hip at the same time. I've never been a fan of magically appearing items, breaks immersion (It's why I got a mod for TES:V just for it).

EverquestNext is going to be a sandbox and modeled after EVE. Smedley just announced it and in his interview it sound like he is quoting Ryan.

Coincidence? I think not...

Go read his interview about wanting to start small and grow like EVE did, Kronos for game time like plex, players being the content etc etc...

I think Smedley might be Blaringer!?

I'm just happy MMO's are starting to stray from the themepark type development and starting to evolve into what they always should of been~

^I remember reading about some of the ppl living in the Himalayas and they smoked meat, then ground it almost to a powder and wrapped it up tightly. It would last a long time and be easier to transport.

Sounds like the jerky you can get in a can that's shredded up like chew.

Ha not really. Looking to spread?! I came to the official forum and asked if it carried any weight which allowed someone on the team to squash.. Which they did... Again, total over reaction here.

Again, you had -one- post on a -new- account. Anyone will see you as a troll.

Checks the other half of the building...

Nope. No collapse. Still filled with Goblinworkers making a Pathifnder MMO!

File this rumor under "BUSTED."

You sarcasm and wit have not gone unnoticed +1

Hmm, to pick up on Inns:

1. If the wilds are dangerous and Inns are refuges, that works as a "island hopping".

Believe Inns can be targets of bandits and other players and can be destroyed. So while it can be considered a haven, it's not a permanent one.

Personally this sounds like a fun situation both mechanically and from a roleplaying standpoint. I'm all for the two overlapping whenever possible.

This would be interesting, I would never carry such a rare item on my person or I would stash it nearby or with a player that I can trust as I go on about the deal incase something like this happens. If there was any hint of malice, I'd leave after negotiations failed and hide out for a bit or maybe set a few traps if they happen to be following me so I could escape.

The roleplay concept of what you can and cannot do is amazing.

I like the idea of needing food/drink to prevent weakness or to provide slight buffs or effects, but not to have them decay over time in your inventory. How would you be able to market food that starts to decay as soon as you make it?

Portable containers? Also, maybe Player Cooked Food won't be marketable on such a grand scale and be reserved to Inns and restaurants, so if you wanted that 'Dwarven Bubbly Ale' from the 'Hungry Ram', you would have to go there unless someone figured out how to make it themselves or were taught and open a place somewhere else to sell it.

Even in real life you don't see 'fresh' cooked items in the market unless it's meant to be eaten and cooked right there, or brought swiftly home to be eaten so I personally don't see a problem with having specialty foods not being up on the market like that. Refrigeration isn't a huge thing in this era and probably only extends to salting, pickling, and preserving foods. If you did that, it could be then sold a lot more widely, but then it really wouldn't be the same thing as going to a restaurant and buying a fresh meal.

A player also could potentially buy all the 'Butter Fried Steaks' from someplace and just sell it on the market so anyone in the world at a market could buy it instead of having the player go to the place it self, they would make more money than the place it was cooked in and potentially make future problems. I know I don't want someone taking my hard work, buying it all from me in a second, and throwing it up on the Market for a profit when I could of done so. I wouldn't see a need to ever go to an Inn to eat if that was the case.

I like the idea of certain styles of cooking or food being in certain regions and really only being in that area.

EDIT: By the way, how would food be named? I see a lot of people talking about certain ales and coining names for them in topics. Is there going to be some sort of system that allows players who custom brew or cook something to name and patent it? And if so, what happens if someone (by accident or by purpose) happens to create the same beverage? Will it already be named and then could be sold at a competitive rate or will a window come up saying 'Item is already under patent of <Player/Company>?

I know that all simple items that are made will probably already be simply named as 'Cooked Steak' (requires stove, 50 cooking, raw steak, salt pepper, etc), but what happens when you get into '<UnKnown> Steak' that someone threw together using different ratio of spices (if the system will allow that)? I'm very looking forward to how extensive crafting skills will be and how diverse it will be from person to person.

"Rare" implies something so uncommon as to be exceptional when seen. A chunk of Martian meteor is rare.

"Scarce" implies a thing is available, but that demand outstrips supply. Good quality diamonds, in our world, for example.

Seeing gear crafted with mithril (or other exotic materials) will not be uncommon. But those materials will be scarce. I've never seen a woman with jewelry made from Martian rock, but I've seen a lot of diamond jewelry.

Have you gone up to a woman wearing Jewelery and asked if it was made of martian rock? How many times have you done it? Could be more common than we might realize (you can ignore this post, I just wanted to ask lol).

Will there be extinction factors, where over hunting a resource would cause it to a) no longer exist, or b) take longer to respawn?

I like the idea of an extinction factor, but I would never want (in a game) to absolutely run out of a certain resource. For example, every time you cut down a tree you could gain several 'Sapling' or 'Seed' type items (multiple so it would be hard for a single person to cut down all the trees and be a barren wasteland) and could replant it.

Maybe have a forest grow back slower the more wood that is gone?

Perhaps make eating part of recovering stamina and magic, and SFaD to recover magic is a break-even proposition, or just significantly slower than packing rations? Or summoned food has a major disadvantage over iron rations, to make up for the convience advantage?

You could think of a system that made summoned food make you feel that you are 'full'. You wouldn't get any of the buffs of normal food, but your stamina or energy would go back to full with the problem that it depleted at the same rate from before.

Not sure if I can explain it properly, but for example:

You start with a max score of 100 Stamina, when you start getting hungry your Max Stamina is lowered slowly then depletes faster as you start to starve. You can decide what penalties you get from not eating, from lowered stats, slower movement, debuffs, etc.

The Levels of Hunger are (lowest to highest):
Starving (decreased or huge stat, movement speed, stamina, regeneration debuff)
Hungry (very slight stat/movement speed debuff, slightly lowered Stamina and regeneration)
Satisfied (no buffs, no regen, just the normal not hungry)
Well Fed (increase stamina regeneration as well as provide buffs depending on the food)
Overfed (if you want to go that far and would have debuffs similar to hungry).

The increase Stamina Regeneration would not last as long as the buff from eating. The regen would only stay until you hit Satisfied, but the buff would last until you hit Hungry.

Stamina (could be) the cost of using Abilities/Skills that are not mana costing (mana abilities need stamina too, but not as much as physical ones). The Lower your Hunger is, the more it costs to use abilities and you couldn't use as many and would have to wait for it to fill back up.

Travel Food (from vendors or long durability food like rations or hard tact or even salted meat/fish) would bring Max Stamina back up slightly and would need more of it to get back to 100, and likewise it would bring your Hunger from Starving to Hungry and to (at max) Satisfied.

Cooked Food (player crafted from cooking at a camp with a short lifespan or at an Inn) would bring your Max Stamina back to 100 (with a buff if the food created has it) and your Hunger would go to Well Fed from the warm cooked meal.

Summoned Food would have an impact like Travel Food, it would bring your Max Stamina back to 100 (after eating a few of them maybe), but it can -only- increase your Hunger back to Hungry, and would not allow you to be 'Well Fed'. Which means that your abilities, skills, endurance cost would be higher than if you were 'Satisfied' but your stamina would still be at max with no debuff of Starving.

This would make summoned food easy to get, but not as good as normal carried provisions or crafted food. Just an idea.

Also, with a system like this, you can work in a 'Fatigue' like system that works well with it, as you would sit and choose to rest and eat (restores fatigue). As well as making a system that made it so that more physical activity increases Fatigue and makes you hungry.

Just my thoughts on an 'immersive' Eat Drink Sleep system, but not make it to the point of overall annoyance.

There's no reason an experienced smith couldn't begin to specialize in a more specific style. "Dwarven Smithing" gives extra bonuses to hammers and axes, while "Elven Smithing" allows for more powerful enchantments. Even individual npc settlements and kingdoms could offer a few unique recipes "Ah, I see your spear is forged in the Arcadian style. Very Nice."

Straight up designing your own weapon sounds cool but I would imagine it'd take allot of work from the developers and if it does happen, it wont be for a while. Racial or regional styles would be simpler to begin with.

I know it would take a lot of work, and a lot of time to do so. It was mainly an idea being thrown out there. I also like the idea of smiths going down a certain line of smithing depending on what they choose or based on race (dwarves getting extra boosts on dwarven items they create I.E.). Though I can't see a reason a Dwarf can't choose to learn Elven smithing instead (with some drawbacks compared to an Elf smith).

A cool idea would also be to have 'Smithing' be a main skill you can level up for all the normal items needed for maybe a skill tree concept. You level smithing up then start picking a preference which in turn give extra boosts on your preferred smith type and maybe limit what you can do in others (Dwarven specialized smith can't do much in elven and vice-versa no matter how much you level in the other).

Though, what would a human get a boost in? Steel and Iron? Knight Armor smith that provides Boosted crusader gear to all contracted knights in a city?

@Dialtone, Agreed. Even if they had only a handful of different effects between them, it'd be cool from a roleplay standpoint. "Stop by the Winking Gnome Inn, the only place to find Bilge-water Bourbon this side of the Mindspin Mountains!"

I'm sure with all the skill concepts being thought about in the release, you can easily come up with many many different combinations of buffs all ranging from Combat to Crafting or a mix between or other roleplay vanity concepts.

@Andius, it would also make foraging and hunting viable proffesions. Not sure how they'd implement the skill... There could be non aggressive animal mobs that are difficult to hit unless you have the skill. Or they could just make it so you're more likely to loot larger quantities of meat if you've taken the appropriate skill. A lumbering paladin should still be able to survive in most of the wild (though maybe not deserts or wastelands) but not nearly as easily as a ranger.

Something like a 'Hunting' skill or even a 'Butcher' like concept which allows you to cut proper pieces of food from animals which can range from 'Hazardly Cut of Meat' to 'Perfect Cut of Meat' (for stews) or 'hazardly Cut Rib-Eye' to 'Perfectly Cut Rib-eye', which can determine what can be cooked with it as well as how big the buff you can get.

I know FFXIV has a huge variety of food you can cook, they even have contests over originality sometimes with rewards. Think they are even having one on soups right now on their FB page.

It would also be cool if the cooking system allowed for brewing beer and wine as well. Nothing like a fresh pint of dwarven stout to take the edge off after a long day of monster killing.

It would interesting if the cooking system was extensive enough to make it so there were dozens if not a hundred or so different types of ale or other beverages that could be made and sold. 'Brewers' could have their own type of beer they can sell made with ingredients that are secret, it might come from a rare spice that is hard to get or takes a long time to cultivate.

I like brainstorming ~

+1

I also hope to the best extent possible you are able to permit the largest degree of customization possible when it comes to things like that. Personally I would say things like custom build able weapons (made by selecting components from a list, not so much free form customization that leads to spore's hundreds of creatures that look like particular body parts)

Love the idea of personalized weapons, though with this I hope that we won't have hundreds of different looking 'Iron Sword' weapons about. I do think that each blacksmith might have a different 'style' that can be different from each other and I would like to see a system like this idealized.

Maybe with higher tier weapons (made of hard to get and hard to use, and can choose the stats on it), full customization of it would be make each 'rare' or 'hard-to-get' item feel like it's unique to the player while dropped items from Mobs would have a 'default' look that wouldn't be much different of other items of the same type.

This would make Crafted items more sought after, since not every item will just be a mass-produced look a like, and you can even make a system that allows players a 'view' or slight control of the smithing UI so that the player could choose the stats and looks of the item crafted.

You could also make a 'sign' or 'mark' on the item that would identify it as the make of which Blacksmith it was from, and with this it could work with the thread I posted in about 'tracking' certain people with a marked item in their inventory.

Just my .02c

EDIT: could also have blades inlaid with gems that could be a catalyst for certain magics or hold mana or some or of protective charm for enchantments. (adamantine Long Sword inlaid with Diamond, I'm sure an item like that would be quite rare)

As a personal preference to be immersive as possible, I would like the idea of a hunger/hydration/fatigue system to be thought about being used, so that taverns, inns, player homes, and buildings in general can seem a bit more lively during the evening hours, or players can set up small fire lit camps out in the forest at night. Players also could 'carry' food as well (hand made or bought, which could give additional buffs) so you would not have to always find a town for food.

The only difficulty with this is that days are 4 times as fast (I think) compared to our 24 hours (so 6 hour days in game), you could make it so that you would require food every 1 and a half to 2 hours. It would be fine with food, but a fatigue system would be much harder I think, and it would be every few days before we would need to rest.

Again, personal preference, and I would love to see something like this or even discussed.

Don't forget the spell that reveals the closest item you describe. Add the arcane mark and you can track people by giving them an item that you marked and then following that item (the fact that you marked it makes it distinct)

Edit: The spell is, Locate Object.

I love this spell mainly because I want to become a Bounty Hunter type character later on, and being able to track your bounty or something else (maybe even slipping it into their inventory if you can get a skill high enough, or even a magical 'tracker' that can be identified by your target if they have certain skills higher).

It would help with being able to keep track of your target in a world where fast traveling and teleporting are available, and of course all forms of tracking are identifiable through some sort of skill, if you notice it of course.

If your skill in, per say, 'identifying' (ability to identify magical items or rare items you find), you could see an item in your inventory that is 'marked' as being tracked (or could have your inventory checked by another player perhaps). It could provide some type of counter against this as well.

I was always concerned on how players would be able to track Bounties or Assassin contracts besides a wide player intelligence network, and this sort of idea could make things very interesting.

I do kinda hope that there will be some sort of number limit for abilities, so that others can be more important to what you are trying to do in the game, but that's my own opinion on a different subject.

Loving a lot of the ideas people are posting, and even more excited on seeing people posting some 'solo' play options. I personally will probably never get into a group unless I need to, or for convenience of use or a giant world event is happening etc.

So seeing some good ideas of how to keep some content 'solo-able' (making an event hard or difficult because we are soloing) while also making it able to be scaled up for more people who can work together is great and excited to see what happens for solo players in game.

In other words, I'm fine with the basic precepts of MMO combat...in regards tab-targeting, auto-attack, and some sort of global timer.... but I think the typical implimentation leaves alot to be desired. I also think with the way hotbar/ability is often implimented, it actualy ends up much more of a "button mashing" excersize then anything else...which I really don't like. I think there should be ways to toggle things on your character that stay until you decide to change them rather then constantly mashing the number 4 key every 2.5 seconds.

I think I agree with you there, as long as they bring in a system that makes the combat more interesting that has more use of terrain and gives (dis)advantages instead of just sitting there auto-attacking your target, I would be okay. I also hope there won't be an 'auto-attack' in general, but that's my preference.

IMO, the proper way to innovate in this area is by designing new and engaging abilities and resource mechanics, not by using UI gimmicks.

Take GrumpyMel's Stances like "Fighting Defensively", etc. Most MMOs have stances like this. To my mind, the proper thing to do is to create a bunch of them, make them skill-based, and then create other skills that specifically counter them. You don't have to change the UI at all, but now the game is suddenly much more engaging and much less cookie-cutter.

I agree with this, a fun thing to do would be to learn info on your target as well so you can figure out his 'routine' and get abilities/perks that can counter him for certain jobs like assassinations/BH contracts.

Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine...but movement pace in many of the MMO's I've played seemed unaturaly fast to me.

I just hope that PFO won't be another 'auto attack' MMO either and hope there might be some sort of dodge, flank, or otherwise mechanic that will make combat more interesting and a little more skill based than just raising up your DEX or dodge rating and be a little more skill and reaction based.

I feel that PFO is doing a lot of new things for the MMO genre, but I also feel that if it goes back to auto attacking and sitting still combat (and hope you dodge/block) is a step backwards in retrospect.

I would personally love maybe a 'block' 'dodge' or 'parry' button or mechanic depending on several factors like positioning, stance, or distance.

Of course, you can't just sit there and block every attack, there should be only a number of attacks you can block effectively before your shield either breaks from durability lose, or the more you are attacked while block the more health you start to lose each hit.

I think he meant for 20 levels. Once you have it (the capstone), and you can not progress anymore in that archetpye, then you can start another.

This pretty much sums up everything as well as a few others posts, thank you everyone for posting and giving their information, I was confused about how it generally worked. I'm sorry about giving the misunderstanding of 'levels', I knew there was no actual leveling system persay, but there were 'level milestones' for archetypes.

I will just have to wait and see what these capstones might be or wait for a 'character builder' before I start actually building my character.

I typically go for a 'NightBlade' type custom archetype in any game I play that allows customization or some sort of multiclass system.
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Nightblade

Just going to have to wait for more information :)

As of right now, according to the blog, that you can mix and match your class up to level 20, and that if you level (say a rogue) to level 20 you get a ability that only a level 20 of that class can get.

My question is, can you later on change your classes instead of being stuck at a 'level 20 rogue'.

Can I level a rogue to 20, then later on say I don't want to be just a rogue, and change myself to a level 15 rogue (lose all the abilities of those 5 levels and level 20 ability), and level up 5 levels of a sorcerer or after that change it again to maybe 15 rogue, 2 sorcerer, 3 ranger for example (and we of course would have to spend the time to level them up).

According to the blog, it says that the plan is make it take 2-3 years for someone to reach the 20th level, and that's a long time and many people might have second thoughts later on about their class and wouldn't want to start all over with a new character just to switch a few stats/levels.

Basically, my question in a nut shell is:
"Are we stuck at level 20 with what we picked, or are we going to be able to switch in and out our classes and stats (str agl cha sta) if we want to try new abilities or make a more custom class?"

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to every bit of new news that comes out.