Ah rats, guess I'll just stick to Unearthed Arcana Variant.
And I would argue that folks who flippantly disregard the Vancian system simply have short attention spans and limited ability to think about resource management.
I won't agree with all the ADD stuff, but I have to say that in those cases where I witnessed the phenomenon of the 15MAD, it was by people who just kept blasting away, killing mooks with meteor swarms.
A little forethought, and the casters can last all day.
See allot of Old fans making the switch to 4E.
And good luck to them.
And who says people can;t play both?
Not me. I want the games to be different.
And thank god and the all mighty for the loss of Vancian casting, if thats a defining point of D&D than D&D needs to change.
No, it doesn't. Players need to change. Or play something else. D&D needs to stay D&D.
Are people still sitting around at a table going through Dungeons and fighting stuff and role playing as creatures that don't exist?
I won't agree with all the ADD stuff, but I have to say that in those cases where I witnessed the phenomenon of the 15MAD, it was by people who just kept blasting away, killing mooks with meteor swarms.
A little forethought, and the casters can last all day.
That's a given. My problem with spell slots is that it forced me to either use incredible cosmic powers or do nothing.
It sort of went away with Reserve Feats thought so it's no longer really an issue for me
As an aside, vancian magic is not going anywhere. I am fully versed in the benefits of moving to a point based system, but we will not be going in that direction for the Pathfinder RPG.
It's actually fine, especially if the product is meant to be backwards compatible.
I was just wondering why it's not being applied to everything at this point, but I guess I just answered my own question.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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I look forward to rage points, and prefer to keep power points, leave spells in slots. I can use both resource management methods equally well.
Hmm, that rage at will idea looks like a neat varient, let me run with it in another thread.
Please folks keep it civil.
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I really like the idea of rage points. I agree that X/day is a lame 1980's gaming mechanic that needs to go away.
I don't have a problem with keeping the vancian system for clear backwards compatibility.
There are plenty of house rules or alternate systems, like the modified UA point system I use, that work fine, and translate directly from the existing vancian system without too much work.
I find the idea of rage points a neat idea at that!
I would like some versatility in my raging. I have never played a barbarian but amiri and this whole slew of options added onto rage has put me into serious thought about playing one.
But the question becomes. Are rage points renewed daily or after the encounter is over? The latter being that the pool of rage points is regenerated for each rage that you do per encounter.
I think a per encounter deal sounds best. Maybe, maybe not. But for those doing more than one encounter per day it would be best that you don't have to worry about spending all your rage points in one encounter and then can't use them in the next battle...hmmm... I think I might make a thread of this...
I'd consider letting the Barbarian rage as often as he wants, provided he makes a will save. I'd have him make a fort save when coming out of it or be fatigued (and a fatigued Barbarian can't rage).
In rage, I'd require that he immediately attacks the most powerful opponent available to him without regard to his own hitpoints (in fact, I might not tell him how much damage he takes so that he never knows how close to 0 hit points he is). If he needs to do something in order to get to that most powerful opponent, he can (such as mowing down the enemy's minions on the way to his target or tossing away barriers).
If there's no enemy present, he can act as normal (so he can use the strength bonus to lift heavy stuff provided there's no enemy present).
It might take a round to enter rage at first level, later it'd take a standard action, then a move action, then a free action as he increases in levels.
I'd also reduce his hit points to d10s, but give him an extra +2 damage reduction and raise it by another +1 when raging. (that'd counter the problem of a barbarian who roles crap for hit points)
Only real problem I see with this is the "immediately attacks the most powerful opponent available to him without regard to his own hitpoints". How exactly would the barbarian in character know which opponent was the most powerful? He wouldnt. Perhaps change this to attack the nearest target or attack the most obvious threat (or both).
I would also require a Will save to not strike a comrade since losing it on the battlefield can lead to losing the concept of friend and foe...there are just targets and downed targets. A second Will save could bring the barbarian out of the rage, forcing an immediate Fort save to avoid fatigue. I think these are fair trade offs for being able to essentially rage at will.
-Weylin Stormcrowe
I really don't have a problem with either mechanic, but perhaps I'm weird in that way.
I didn't even have a problem with the vanician vs Per aw/e/d change in 4th (that is until I realized it was a universal mechanic for all classes, which I find boring) and wizards are typically my favored class.
The points will be good if they add more versatility and fun to the game. My judgment will be on that fact and that fact alone. My guess is they will and I will be quite happy. The ability to rage is a sacred cow for me, but if you put that cow in a hat and polish it's horns...well it's still the same cow.
That's a given. My problem with spell slots is that it forced me to either use incredible cosmic powers or do nothing.
I wouldn't go as far as calling a first-level slot incredible cosmic powers. I would go as low as 5th-level, if we talk about a small cosmos.
I'd say that the spell level/slot system allows you to use lower spell slots for easier encounters, and use the big ones for the heavy stuff.
Add to that some lesser at will powers like the stuff pathfinder schools introduce at 1st level, and you should be fine.
I wouldn't, however, require a Will save to not strike a comrade. It might be realistic, but I play the game to have fun, not for realism.
I'm with you on that one. The base classes should be playable without restrictions like that.