My General Feedback : + Level to everything, Casters, Crafting, and more

[B.S.]

There's no gentle way to say this: I don’t like the way that nearly everything scales with character level.

It severely cheapens every other modifier. For example, it makes it so that an untrained, low Charisma, but high level Barbarian will always be a better liar than a low level Rogue or Bard. That makes no sense!

And just increasing the untrained penalty (as seen in the current errata) isn’t enough because (1) the problem pervades through pretty much every facet of the system, and (2) all it really accomplishes is increasing the already substantial incentive to become Trained in as many skills as possible, rather than actually mastering anything.

I get that you’re trying to make scaling things simple, straightforward, and linear, but this design decision takes it way too far. It makes skill levels virtually meaningless to the final result.
... I really don’t think I would play such a system long enough for a campaign to really get going, it breaks my immersion so badly. But I’ll move on now before this turns into a single-minded rant.

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Why are Sorcerers so OP? An extra spell AND spell slot of every level? Similar thing with Universalist Wizards. Not only does an extra spell slot of every level make them way more powerful than other classes, they’re way more powerful than every other subclass of Wizard!

If any spellcasting class should get a bunch of extra spells like Sorcerers, it should be the Bard, what with their focus on lore. Instead, the closest Bards can get is effectively a whopping 1 extra spell in their repertoire via Esoteric Scholar. (And the prerequisite for that should be Bardic Lore, not Versatile Performance, btw.)

Speaking of the underwhelming existence that is the Bard right now: they suck - in every way. Most of what they get is just a very minor buff, which only lasts a single round, and never scales. It’s so much weaker than every other caster as to be laughable. A good Bard design just needs to tick a few boxes: Worthwhile buffs and debuffs. Lore mastery granting extra spells (maybe even from other spell lists). Skillmonkey with a side of martial prowess. Overall versatility. But this version manages to come severely short on literally every single one of those components. The errata even made them less of a skillmonkey!

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If I’m reading the Crafting section correctly, then you always spend materials worth ½ of an item’s purchase value, and then can finish quickly by spending more materials, up to a grand total of the full value of the finished product. Or you can take your time to avoid this extra material cost.

This basically works from a mechanical standpoint, but it completely fails any notion of logic. A finished product always, Always, ALWAYS is worth more than its component parts. For example, some sticks, feathers, and scraps of metal are practically worthless, but shape those bits of metal, attach them to the sticks after smoothing them out, and fix the feathers to the other end, and suddenly you’ve got something with real Value. Crafting rules should at least come a little bit closer to reflecting this reality. And they definitely should NOT imply that doing the job quickly somehow uses up twice as many sticks and bits of metal.

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In an individual spell’s / power’s description, Please add a tag for which list(s) the spell is on. It would be incredibly cumbersome to have to flip back and forth between the spell descriptions and the spell list just to know whether an interesting spell is a valid option for a character or not.

You should also consider separating the various types of powers from the normal spell descriptions. After all, they have different mechanics and different sources.

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That’s all for now. I’ll spare you the full breakdown of the Bard’s shortcomings, etc. lol

[B.S.]

Also, a handful of nitpicks:

- Why is uncommon red, but rare is only orange? Normally, the scale goes yellow, then orange, then red, with red being the most dangerous or restrictive. It would probably be better to adhere to this convention.

- Page 102, Knockback Strike: It uses 2 actions, costs a feat, and all it does is attack and shove. It doesn’t even boost the Shove attempt. Is just negating the Shove’s multiple attack penalty supposed to be worth a whole class feat?
- - - While on the subject of Monks, it would be helpful to state exactly how their AC works on page 97.

- Please don’t split up Prestidigitation into different versions based on spell list. Come on. Either give the other lists a different, more limited spell, or else give each one the full version.

[dnoisette]

B.S. wrote:

Why are Sorcerers so OP? An extra spell AND spell slot of every level?

That's not the right question.

Sorcerers are not OP in any way, shape or form.
Bards are even more underpowered though, so I get why you would think this way.
The real question is: "Why do spontaneous casters have so few spells known?"

B.S. wrote:

Similar thing with Universalist Wizards. Not only does an extra spell slot of every level make them way more powerful than other classes, they’re way more powerful than every other subclass of Wizard!

Universalist Wizards get to use Drain Arcane Focus 1/day per spell level.

Specialized Wizards get one additional spell slot per spell level every day. They also get to use Drain Arcane Focus 1/day, on top of that.

A Universalist Wizard at level 1 has exactly one less spell par day than a specialized Wizard.

Focus Conservation (8th level feat) actually makes Universalist Wizard better because they get to cast a lot of extra spells from that feat, due to the fact that they can use their Arcane Focus multiple times per day.

At level 8, that's essentially:
- 1 extra 2nd level level spell per day
- 1 extra 1st level level spell per day

Meanwhile, a specialized Wizard uses their Arcane Focus on a 4th level spell and gain a 2nd level spell for it that day.
They're the same as the Universalist Wizard.

Universalits only become clearly better past level 11.

Besides, have you taken a good look at the other spellcasting classes?
Clerics get weapon and armor proficiencies, channel energy and domains.
Druids get an animal companion/wildshape and the like.

Sorcerers and Wizards have no weapon and armor proficiency, the worst possible saves at 1st level and lowest HP.
They have no immediate combat abilities or additional class features that will help them, short of having to multiclass.

It makes sense they would have more spells per day to keep up.

The core of the issues is that Bards are built using the same model than Druids and Clerics but none of their class features truly help them shine in any other way than casting spells and, for this reason, they end up being lackluster Sorcerers without even a bloodline to boost them.

In short, Bards are severely crippled compared to the other spellcasters.
But it's not because spellcasters are OP.
They all suck, more or less, and the Bard just happens to be on the more side of it.

[Freagarthach]

dnoisette wrote:

B.S. wrote:

Similar thing with Universalist Wizards. Not only does an extra spell slot of every level make them way more powerful than other classes, they’re way more powerful than every other subclass of Wizard!

Universalist Wizards get to use Drain Arcane Focus 1/day per spell level.

Specialized Wizards get one additional spell slot per spell level every day. They also get to use Drain Arcane Focus 1/day, on top of that.

A Universalist Wizard at level 1 has exactly one less spell par day than a specialized Wizard.

Focus Conservation (8th level feat) actually makes Universalist Wizard better because they get to cast a lot of extra spells from that feat, due to the fact that they can use their Arcane Focus multiple times per day.

At level 8, that's essentially:
- 1 extra 2nd level level spell per day
- 1 extra 1st level level spell per day

Meanwhile, a specialized Wizard uses their Arcane Focus on a 4th level spell and gain a 2nd level spell for it that day.
They're the same as the Universalist Wizard.

Universalits only become clearly better past level 11.

Having playtested a Conjuration focused Wizard at levels 4 and 7, I do not mind if Universalists have a bit more power. I wanted Augment Summoning for theme primarily, and have appreciated it in mechanics (two successful hits over the course of those modules and two fewer hits taken over those modules on summons, if my tracking was accurate).

I am very much looking forward to Dimensional Steps as a thematic and combat augmenting action choice. While Universalists may outpower me in other ways, my feeling is that I got plenty in the specialist tradeoff. Would be interested to hear the thoughts of other specialist types, and whether they liked the bonuses and tradeoffs.