Mellow Greetings All,
Having just finished my first read of the Alpha rules, I thought it might not be a bad idea to post some first impressions/theories about them, then come back after playtesting to see what has changed for me and why. It’s my hope that posting a ‘Before’ and ‘After’ report will help me wrap my head around this and enable me to contribute effectively to the project. Apologies in advance for the length, and I hope this information will help out a little at least :)
I’ll try to go through this in the order written…
Races:
I hadn’t thought about further mechanical definition of the various core races, other than what was published in the “Races of…” books, but I like this information. Like so many others have stated, the half-elf and half-orc needed this badly, and it looks good.
I appreciate the addition of weapon familiarity to most of the races. It just makes sense to do it, and makes the inclusion of these weapons much easier and more appealing to players.
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Classes:
I really like the idea of different experience charts for different campaign styles. I would be interested to see how you would convert a character from one to another though. I’ve ‘imported’ PCs one campaign to another many times, and this could be an issue if makes the final rules cut.
I just now noticed the change in the feat progression. It’s a simple thing, but it makes the progression look cleaner. Everyone will appreciate an extra three feats to play with, but it shouldn’t overpower the characters either.
The Hit Dice modification is something I hadn’t really thought about. I really like the idea of tying it to BAB – simple but elegant (and an easy formula for converting other classes too!)
Of the starting Hit Point options listed (other than my standard of max HP + Con mod at first level), I really like the idea of the racial hit point bonus. My only want for that option would be a standard of some kind to convert other races from other books, but that’s all.
The new twist on Orisons and Cantrips is great. My gaming group has always tried to find ways to make good and fun uses for these spells, and now we can have even more flexibility with them.
I like the modifications to the cleric domains, and I am head-over-heels for the new version of specialist wizards! I’m plugging these changes into my Rise of the Runelords campaign, make no mistake about that :)
The changes to the rogue just put a smile on my and my game groups’ faces – the change to sneak attack alone would have been enough, but with the talents and other high level abilities, it’s just sublime…
I wish I could say the same for the fighter. I really could. Let me quantify that by saying that I do like the initial changes - I just feel (like many others do) that it doesn’t open the class up quite enough.
This has been my perception of the fighter. To paraphrase a certain Marvel comics icon, fighters should be ‘the best at what they do, and what they do ain’t pretty’. The concept of the fighter feat in 3.0 and 3.5 went a long way to make fighters into that image. However, any other character could pick up the same feats if they really wanted to and do similar things (BAB not withstanding, of course). The addition of the combat feats is an interesting idea, but I think all the requirements in order to use them might not facilitate smoother, faster battles. (I won’t know that for sure until I get a playtest battle set up, but that is my gut feeling right now.)
Instead of making new, separate feats for fighters (and, technically, any other class) to take, maybe there can be a more elegant solution. What about taking the fighter and combat feats that are out there now, and add to their description? Add more features to the feat, another level of things you can do with each one. Then, make those added features only available if a fighter takes those feats. This could solve multiple issues:
1) It helps cut down on the sheer number of feats out there, since it just adds on to existing ones;
2) It saves the heartache of having to convert 3.5 fighters over and not have immediate access to any of the new feats by ‘upconverting’ what they already have in many cases;
3) It truly gives fighters something that nobody else can do as well as they can, without killing game balance.
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Skills:
I like this version of the Skills for DM use, as allocating skill points on major NPCs is a true time-killer. However, I don’t think it’s necessarily the best fit for players. Most of the people I game with value the ability to customize their characters via their skill selections. It can be a great source of backstory and roleplay, and I don’t think that should be cut down at all. Maybe the format can be kept, with a sidebar that allows for the use of the 3.5 version as well.
I think the problem I am having is with setting up a playtest. Many of us have active campaigns going on - and many of those are the Pathfinder APs, which is as it should be ;)
This skill system does not seem conversion friendly in that regard, and I think that is why it causes me such concern. I want to be able test this out on full-fledged characters, not quick pregens made just for testing. It would seem to be the perfect field test for backward-compatibility to me, but I know I may be oversimplifying things a bit.
I am all for the skill consolidation idea – I think everyone has been waiting for a Perception skill to become official. That said, I’m not 100% sure on some of the other combinations. I need to look at this more closely before I go into details with that.
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Feats:
I like what I see for the most part. My main concerns are in reference to the fighter, and have been noted above. Many profuse thanks for folding Track into the Survival skill – I am so tired of my druids not having any clue what to do with tracks on the ground :)
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Combat:
The Combat Maneuver Bonus is going to save my sanity. One mechanic to cover all of those wonderful maneuvers, and simple enough that players will want to try using them more often – I love it. There probably needs to be some fine-tuning, but this is going in the right direction. I can’t wait to try this out in playtest.
The Broken condition is another nice addition too. I wish I had thought of that ;P
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Spells:
I want to see some of the other spells that are to be updated before I weigh in on them, but so far they look fine to me.
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Running & Playtesting:
Not much needs to be added to these. I hope to have results in the next few weeks!
As do all of us posting here, I hope this will help to generate some ideas and constructive debate.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"