Heya folks!
As I put the finishing touches on the 5E version of Hypercorps 2099 my next project is getting underway: Mists of Akuma!
Grab your katana and check out the Mists of Akuma Facebook page for weekly updates and previews of the next unique campaign setting being wrought by my unhinged mind. :D
So far there's the tanuki race and the wu-jen warlock pact, but every week we're releasing another preview, all the way up to the Kickstarter launch on Friday, April 29th!
EN World has an amazing preview of the Martial Arts Feats PDF we're releasing with the Kickstarter launch on Friday April 29th! Check it out!
I just skimmed a couple of the feats. My one issue is that you are adding dice to damage (and providing the average damage as option) and then stating this bonus damage dice are not multiplied on a critical. Why not just add the average damage instead of the extra die of damage then?
For example, instead of +1d4 to damage, make it a flat +2 to damage.
Alternatively, just allow the extra damage to be multiplied on a critical hit. An extra 1d4 points of damage 5% of the time isn't going to be game breaking, and it would probably be extra fun for a player that chose that feat.
Not multiplying bonus damage dice is just awkward.
In 5th Edition, all dice damage are multiplied, which is why crits from smiting paladin rogue sneak attacks with flame tongues are so brutal!
Have to say I had some interest until I saw the balancing at work. Some of the feats were way too strong even at a brief glance. The extra damage dice, one that adds two to AC plus a slew of other stuff...
Sorry, but having to go through a lot of effort to re-balance a purchased supplement is not generally something I enjoy doing even if some of the ideas are quite cool.
Yeah, I saw that +2 AC feat, plus a bunch of other things, and thought that was WAY over powered. Maybe if all those abilities were spread along 20 levels as part of an archetype or something. But a single feat? Way too much IMHO.
No. They're real, and they're spectacular!!!
What a response! Thank you all for looking over the preview and your feedback! :D
I just skimmed a couple of the feats. My one issue is that you are adding dice to damage (and providing the average damage as option) and then stating this bonus damage dice are not multiplied on a critical. Why not just add the average damage instead of the extra die of damage then?
For example, instead of +1d4 to damage, make it a flat +2 to damage.
Alternatively, just allow the extra damage to be multiplied on a critical hit. An extra 1d4 points of damage 5% of the time isn't going to be game breaking, and it would probably be extra fun for a player that chose that feat.
Not multiplying bonus damage dice is just awkward.
You know I thought I remembered additional damage getting that same weird parenthetical average treatment elsewhere (other than statblocks), but upon looking I'm not finding it so those are now removed.
I wanted to avoid multiplying almost all of the damage granted by Martial Arts Stances on a critical hit from the get-go because there's a lot of creatures in Mists of Akuma (including player races) that possess vulnerability to one or another energy type. I agree that it is weird, but that was very purposeful -- the only one that adds critical hit damage off the bat is the one that increases bludgeoning (because that's what unarmed strikes regularly do and the expectation is that monks will pick these up, particularly the monastic tradition that offers a bunch of them as class abilities). I hear you though so I've amended the piercing and slashing feats to start multiplying the second time they're taken. :)Have to say I had some interest until I saw the balancing at work. Some of the feats were way too strong even at a brief glance. The extra damage dice, one that adds two to AC plus a slew of other stuff...
Sorry, but having to go through a lot of effort to re-balance a purchased supplement is not generally something I enjoy doing even if some of the ideas are quite cool.
Don't feel bad about wanting good gaming material--I agree with you 100%! I'm sorry you found these previews untoward, but these are promotional PDFs and not necessarily what will make it into the final book.
All of my projects release playtest materials shortly after the Kickstarter funding period ends (I remember folks pirating the Veranthea Codex playtest so it's probably still on the net somewhere ~.~) and we gradually refine the content before it goes into layout (and with all the dust kicked up in the air by that article, I'm getting a lot of valuable critique going into them right now!)To that end I've dropped the Swordmaster feat's AC bonus by 1 and added some mechanical wording to clarify it ("When wielding only a single katana and no shield, your armor class increases by 1.")
If anything else jumps out at you please let me know and I'll tumble it around in my head. :)
Yeah, I saw that +2 AC feat, plus a bunch of other things, and thought that was WAY over powered. Maybe if all those abilities were spread along 20 levels as part of an archetype or something. But a single feat? Way too much IMHO.
I'm not positive that Sword Master has too many abilities -- Dungeon Delver, Keen Mind, and Tavern Brawler (which I feel are all quite iconic, which was my goal with Sword Master) -- also offer four things each. The AC is now lower which I agree brings it more into balance, but Lucky is a very powerful feat and so are many others (like Sentinel or Warcaster). If you have more specific criticisms of it I'm game to hear them, but at this point I feel (more) comfortable with what that allows a player to do in comparison to Sharpshooter or Greater Weapon Master. We'll see what playtesters have to say this summer. :)
Thank you again for your feedback! There are 3 more PDFs in addition to this one (Imperial Dragons, the Mists of Akuma Primer, and Tsukumogami) with a much broader array of content and I'm not only keen to hear what else you have to say about the Martial Arts Stances but those three others as well, so please take a look when they go up on EN World or download the PDFs when they become available!
Thank you for the graceful response to our critiques. :-)
I was a little unclear on your response.
Are you:
1. changing the additional dice on your various feats to static pluses (like +2 instead of +1d4)?
or
2. are you going to allow the extra dice to multiply on a critical hit?
or
3. are you going to keep the extra damage dice, but have it not multiply?
If it's 1 or 2, cool. If it's 3, then that is going to be really awkward and kind of confusing, especially since it seems to against the elegant design philosophy of 5th Edition.
Thank you for the graceful response to our critiques. :-)
I was a little unclear on your response.
Are you:
1. changing the additional dice on your various feats to static pluses (like +2 instead of +1d4)?or
2. are you going to allow the extra dice to multiply on a critical hit?
or
3. are you going to keep the extra damage dice, but have it not multiply?
If it's 1 or 2, cool. If it's 3, then that is going to be really awkward and kind of confusing, especially since it seems to against the elegant design philosophy of 5th Edition.
You are most welcome! Thank you again for the critiques!
A) All of the damage dice wording has been fixed to remove the average parenthetical -- they are only damage dice now.
B) The feat that grants bludgeoning damage (now called "Stance of the Stout Boar" multiplies on a critical hit from the first time it is taken.
The feats that grant piercing or slashing damage (renamed to "Stance of the Striking Serpent" and "Stance of the Tiger's Claw") begin multiplying on critical hits the second time they are taken (anybody that "feat dips" into it isn't doing extra damage on critical hits).
C) The extra damage dice are still there, but only multiply on the third time the feat is taken if it's a type of energy damage (or as above if it's a type of weapon damage).
We'll see how things roll out with the backer playtest, but my table hasn't had any trouble with it (they are d4s or d6s, so unless the character is wielding a weapon or a lower level monk, the smaller die tend to stand out). I *am* strongly considering changing all of these to just stack up d4s (a la the martial arts feats from the d20 Star Wars RPG) but plan on bringing that up with my design team at our meeting on Friday. If they *do* change to 1d4--2d4--3d4 I'll let you know, though as much as I like that progression I think keeping fewer dice in play is probably the smarter choice.
@MikeMeyler: If you want a crowdsourced critique of your mechanics, you might consider linking an art free work-in-progress version on this thread.
Reading between the lines, it seems like you haven't actually licensed any of the art you're using in the previews. Do I have that wrong?
@MikeMeyler: If you want a crowdsourced critique of your mechanics, you might consider linking an art free work-in-progress version on this thread.
Reading between the lines, it seems like you haven't actually licensed any of the art you're using in the previews. Do I have that wrong?
I'm not the publisher of Mists of Akuma (I only own the intellectual property) but I'll check with Storm Bunny Studios about making the wider playtest file (which is 44 pages now I think) available to folks at large. I'm betting he'll say "no" but one can never be sure!
You are partially correct about the artwork -- there's one custom piece for the Tsukumogami that I own, but (almost) everything else you're seeing is either part of the public domain or a collage of elements taken from the public domain. Storm Bunny Studios owns the image near the Nature Touched feat.
Japan didn't get on the typable printing press train for quite a while, relying instead on the lithograph (which in turn drove the arts way off the charts) and all of the images inside of the PDFs (and on the Kickstarter page) are taken from the very talented artists of 100+ years ago (Kuniyoshi and Yoshitoshi are the most common but there's some Wang Ximeng in there too).
That's why we're doing the Kickstarter, actually -- I want to make a lot of original art orders from illustrators that are still alive (using historical images to watermark page backgrounds). :)
EDIT: To clarify -- no, I do not own licenses for most of that artwork, but that's because I don't have to because they are property of the public.
Got some screenshots of the revised content up on the EN World thread. Thanks again folks!
Another preview went up today!
There have been some more preview reveals from the Mists of Akuma: Primer and Tsukumogami promotional PDFs over on the Mists of Akuma Facebook group!
Mark the date: the Kickstarter launches this Friday April 29th and you'll be able to grab up the free goodies then! :D
The first backer goal has been unlocked with the 100th pledge!
Check out the latest Kickstarter update to see two new augmetics, the Ancestral Weapon feat, and find the link for 7 free pregenerated PCs you can use to start adventuring in Soburin right away!
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Good to see some free stuff from beyond the noir mists. ;)