Reflecting my Building Classes for Kaidan thread, I am now putting together my Alpha rules, this is intended as a free download at purchase. Still a long way to go, but all dressed up in its final form - design and illustration wise.
Critique, suggest, and enjoy!
GP
Thanks for sharing! Here's my comments, don't take the things I'd change as overly negative.
1. I really like the art.
2. Definitely invest in editing.
I see it's a major part of the game, but I am very leery of the caste/reincarnation thing. Part of it is that I don't understand how it works. If someone dies they are reincarnated into someone "half the level" who is already alive and fully grown? Isn't the new guy's previous soul sad about that? And if they don't remember their formal life what is the point of this? Even if that worked out, the half the level thing is a deal killer. My gaming group refuses to even get a level penalty when dying and genning a new character, it strikes them as totally punitive. I strongly recommend reworking or entirely eliminating this part.
The half-oni are cool. It could even be a race with more variants.
The korobokuru seem like a very "unsuitable for PCs" race as written (sedentary, etc). I guess people need to get their dwarf/halfling/gnome jones somehow.
The Ryuki - half the writeup says hengeyokai, is that a cut and paste error or are they a kind of hengeyokai?
On the classes - the hatamoto is IMO an example of a "class that shouldn't exist." It's mostly a specific set of feat picks. I'd be happier as having it as a fighter with "substitute class abilities" - the ancestral weapons basically mimic weapon training, for example.
Background feats can be used for "being a noble" or whatnot and allowing you to be a samurai without artificial multiclassing restrictions.
Rather than go with 15 samurai variants - that's way too many. And at best, make them prestige classes. Rather than forcing a narrow set of abilities on someone, you incentivize them - "if you pick the 5 feats this clan is really into you get to learn their badass secretz."
Thanks for the response.
Regarding the editing - no need to worry, I have an army of editors who are ready to tackle this monstrocity of misspellings and grammatical issues, and its not costing me a thing. That part will be perfect when its completed. I am an idea man, not a prolific writer (writing is my weakest creative skill.)
As you say, the caste/reincarnation thing is a major aspect of Kaidan, so I can't scrap that. However, my thinking regarding the "half the levels" of the previous life thing, is just one thought. Another would be a single or up to four levels lost (perhaps roll 1d4 to determine how many levels are lost in reincarnation.) I'm worried that "power gamers" will get to a certain level with a class, then seek death, so they can reincarnate to something else. I didn't want life, death and rebirth as a character building tool, rather a ramification for adventuring in Kaidan. I would even consider no loss of levels in reincarnation, this is just one area, I haven't fully developed yet.
Regarding the soul/spirit of the person your soul is moving into. In Kaidan there is a limited number of soul/spirits, thus a new born that grows up to be a leveled NPC does not have a soul, unless someone else reincarnates into it, giving it a soul. The person's previous soul is not said, as it does not exist, until reincarnation soul transferance. When the new soul reincarnates in, that person still exists in the form of the newly reincarnated soul. They have the memories of the life that the soul now inhabits, its a question of remembering previous lives, whether older memories exist.
I should develop variants for the half-oni, as the oni-parent could be from many varieties, so many in fact, I have to limit somehow, though the oni-demon, is by far, the most common variant.
The korobokuru is a sedentary forest dwelling race, but has access to a number of available classes, and individuals don't have to conform to racial sedentary-ness. There are Japanese gnomes in the korobukuru and I wanted to incorporate a diminuitive race into Kaidan. Perhaps they just need some more life and variety to make them more enticing.
Ryujin are a form of ocean-bourne hengeyokai, almost the same thing really just a different set of animal forms than traditional hengeyokai. There might be some unchanged "cut and paste" text from the hengeyokai write up, I'll verify and change if necessary.
Regarding the Hatamoto, previous complainers asked for a "courtier" class for Kaidan, but Kaidan having an undead imperial court, is not a game setup for political "courtier" play. I created Hatamoto to give nobles a martial class, as well as catering to those wanting a courtier class as well. Hatamoto are a second thought to the samurai coming later in the write up. True samurai are much more bad-ass compared to hatamoto.
The ancestral weapons feat is not meant to replace the fighter's weapon training. Its replicating the idea in previous oriental settings where the samurai's inherited weapon: katana, wakizashi, or daikyu has the spirits of the previous holder within and can be "awakened" to connote a magical bonus without having to go out and buy a magical weapon to improve with the raise in samurai levels. This makes the ancestral weapons something a samurai would want to keep.
Perhaps a base samurai class with various options for prestige classes is really worth considering - at least I haven't reached that part of the write up, so I could change my initial plans with going that way.
Again, thanks for the response - the rules currently written is Alpha format, so one could easily expect changes before the final format is ready. Excellent suggestions, thank you.
GP
Another thought on the Hatamoto, isn't Paizo going to develop several new base classes for Pathfinder, including a Cavalier, that is supposed to have some social skills, moreso than the standard Fighter? If so, I could reflavor my Hatomoto as a Kaidanese version of the Cavalier. Perhaps I should develop to how I think Paizo will go with that class.
I really don't care for the Courtier warrior concept, but some people really like that sort of oriental game.
GP
PS: I could give korobokuru some kind of illusion causing ability, to make them more tricksters than just sedentary forest dwellers, which still works in from a Japanese point of view, and also making them more enticing of a PC race.