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Right, I ran a short 4 hour playest on Thursday. Despite feeling like the players completely ruined the session with "foolery", we managed to get a list of some things to discuss.
- Power Attack. According to the rules text this applies to light weapons. This way it improves dual-wielders' capability. Good thing.
- Ranged cover rules are way too cumbersome and complex. No one in the gaming table agreed on them, instantly stating them as stupid and a definite disimprovement.
- Search included in Perception. Players liked it.
- Forgery should be included to Craft, as Alchemy was included to craft.
- Devastating Blow... this needs playtesting, and a lot of it. Easily abused with scythe or pick.
- Destiny bloodline'd sorcerer's special power (mini-true strike per ally per day) was deemed too powerful. 1/2 class levels, and it'd be okay.
- Cantrips and orisons ... they should be limited, to maybe 3+int/wis/cha modifier, just to avoid the constant abuse of, well, anything. I don't say they are powerful, but they can make the game feel ridiculous.
- One player wished the fighter more abilities and slight increases to i.e. initiative and perception, and also making perception a class skill.
- Giving a +5 bonus to grapple isn't very welcome.
More results when I've processed them, hehe.
Character classes / levels / types of challenges faced?
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Character classes / levels / types of challenges faced?
Ah yes, forgot to mention those, wrote in a hurry of sorts.
All characters were level 5. One half-orc barbarian, one human destiny bloodline sorcerer, one half-elven fighter, one elf druid.
The barbarian used a greatsword, the fighter two picks, and the druid used Plant domain's Wooden Fist. Interestingly the Wooden Fist doesn't grant the Improved Unarmed Strike. If it would, the druid wouldn't have to waste a feat to get access to Scorpion Style and such.
They faced two challenges (as I said, it was short). The first consisted a remarkably easy encounter, 4 Wights (Each one is CR 3. According to the table on page 103, the encounter should have been "Hard". Truth be told, the Wight is hard only to characters *under* level 3. To correct the whole system, the CR system should be dependant on the APL. Makes stuff confusing, huh?
The other one was one Black Pudding. First note was that the grapple check was no longer +18, but +11. The whole monster was a bad choice since the rules in the 3.5 version are, well, fuzzy. What does the 'Acid' do, really? Natural weapons? Druid's wooden fist, should his hand suddenly dissolve into nothingness? The monster is so gosh-darn stupid I don't understand why it exists.. but that's not the point now. The CR was 7, so the chart suggests it was a hard encounter, which it actually was (since the ooze managed to get right next to group on the first round).
This brings me to another conclusion; if the monster's CR is lower the APL, the amount of those monster can be multiplied by maybe 2. 8 Wights against a level 5 party... 8 ogres against a level 5 party... doable. It's hard, but that's as the chart says!
Skill challenges mainly consisted of Perception rolls. But as I said, the playtest was interrupted at one point since I literally got frustrated with the 'foolery'. It ate some time away from the playing.
- Forgery should be included to Craft, as Alchemy was included to craft.
I like this idea.
- Devastating Blow... this needs playtesting, and a lot of it. Easily abused with scythe or pick.
I had thought about that too - being able to declare a 'critical' rather than, say, double damage does have the chance of abuse.
- Cantrips and orisons ... they should be limited, to maybe 3+int/wis/cha modifier, just to avoid the constant abuse of, well, anything. I don't say they are powerful, but they can make the game feel ridiculous.
I've seen daze used a lot in my playtest, but I still like the idea of unlimited cantrips. It means the magic people stay magic all day long, even at first level.
...we found that things easily degenerate into light spell slugging contests.
What does this mean?
Holy crap thats hilarious. Sounds to me like you guys were just doing that because you CAN. I'm guessing the initial delight of being able to cast zero levelers all day long will likely wear off eventually though.
Well an annoyed DM can give you an XP penalty. An annoyed Master Archmage with misbehaving apprentices can hit them with Chain Lightning.
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Well an annoyed DM can give you an XP penalty. An annoyed Master Archmage with misbehaving apprentices can hit them with Chain Lightning.
That would simply be bad DM'ing. I'd strongly suggest limiting them to x/day (3+charisma modifier+level or something) or make the effect end when the same spell is cast again. The latter would not remove the eternal spamming of Daze, however, which would be a bit too effective on earlier levels.
What would be bad DMing? Getting annoyed or handing out an XP penalty?
If your referring to the archmage, he'd probably use a metamagic feat to make his Chain Lightning do non-lethal damage.
Then say: "Next time it will be the real deal you idiots! Now quit screwing around and GET BACK TO WORK!
*mumble, swear word, mumble*
That would be AWESOME. That should happen every day. I'm sure the young mages would learn the hard lesson of using magic responsively.