So, I noticed a couple of things when investigating the party's (frighteningly effective) wand of Enervation:
1) The effects of a negative level listed under the spell Enervation don't tally with the effects of a negative level listed under Energy Drain. Specifically, as written Enervation doesn't result in the loss of HP or spells/slots. Is it intentional that they have different effects or an oversight? If the latter, which is correct for PRPG?
2) It seems that when crafting items, you must use the creators full caster level. I recall in 3.5 that you could choose to use a CL lower than your characters actual level, but can't find anywhere in the PRPG beta that states this. Is this (again) intentional? I certainly hope so, because it'll stop all those CL 1 wands of CLW...
Both number one and two are most likely something they forgot while on their magic revision, particularly number two, since 3.5 at its core is based on the premise that players must amass magic objects like pennies in order to be any effective in the second half of the game, and on that premise it would make no sense at all to further difficult the creation of magic shinies. Furthermore, several spells have a max caster level which would make it pointless: For example, why should a lvl 15 Cleric be forced to pay caster level 15 on a wand of CLW, when the spell itself has a max caster level of 5? (as in, it cures a max amount of 1d8+5).
For example, why should a lvl 15 Cleric be forced to pay caster level 15 on a wand of CLW, when the spell itself has a max caster level of 5? (as in, it cures a max amount of 1d8+5).
This is *why* I hope the change is intentional. It actually encourages clerics to create wands of CMW/CSW/CCW instead of just the wands of CLW which are better value for money when it comes to out of combat healing...
Or we could, you know, make the spells better so they are actually worthwhile, instead of just jacking up the price leading to even more inflation in the world of D&D.
Or we could, you know, make the spells better so they are actually worthwhile, instead of just jacking up the price leading to even more inflation in the world of D&D.
Now that is somethig I'd like to see, but that isn't gonna happen. Precisely the change from 3.0 to 3.5 was a general nerf on all spell magic in order to make characters 200% dependant on magic items (even spellcasters, or perhaps starting with spellcasters).
2) It seems that when crafting items, you must use the creators full caster level. I recall in 3.5 that you could choose to use a CL lower than your characters actual level, but can't find anywhere in the PRPG beta that states this. Is this (again) intentional? I certainly hope so, because it'll stop all those CL 1 wands of CLW...
I guess it was left out because nothing changed. We'll see in the final version, or when the active playtest gets around to magic items.
I prefer the "old version", for reasons mentioned already: Why pay extra for effects that have virtually no use for you?
So, I noticed a couple of things when investigating the party's (frighteningly effective) wand of Enervation:
1) The effects of a negative level listed under the spell Enervation don't tally with the effects of a negative level listed under Energy Drain. Specifically, as written Enervation doesn't result in the loss of HP or spells/slots. Is it intentional that they have different effects or an oversight? If the latter, which is correct for PRPG?
This is probably because enervation in Pathfinder, like the 3.x versions, is a temporary suppression of life force instead of an outright drain.