| MarkyMarc |
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Just want to voice my opinions and suggestions on the new focus system.
First of all, hats off to all of the developers. I know looking through these forums there have been plenty of complaints about trust from the developers, but if anything this playtest has shown me the exact opposite. I have loved Pathfinder and Paizo products for quite some time, but your consistent feedback and updates to the 2e system show that you all deeply care about the player base and are trying to make the best game possible. Thanks for all that you do.
As far as the new focus system, I personally don't feel it quite landed on the mark to solve the issues the old resonance system had. Namely, this was the shared pool to use and wear magic items with consumables like potions. It made players feel bad about using their new magic toys when their health ran low and suddenly their healing potion might not work. The new system seems like it moves the issue between magic items and class powers now. Oh, you want to have a meaningful effect from this magic item? Well now you can't use that new cleric feat you picked up. The two feel like they just shouldn't be mixed together. This even leads in to the idea of building towards feats that expand this focus pool, just to spend it on items and not any of the powers you obtained with them. That just feels... off.
My suggestions on this topic are as follows, and I'm happy to listen to feedback from other players and the developers to understand why the went with the choice they did for focus.
1) Keep the resonance pool (or rename it if necessary). Use 1 simple pool to track for all magic items. Use resonance to invest and don equipment, or use resonance to activate magic items. I don't know how many points to give out exactly, but it should still be tied to Charisma as a force of personality to get extra points.
2) Consumable items like potions and scrolls should not cost resonance. Really, the expenditure here should be on the gold used to purchase the item. If players invest in having emergency items to heal in combat, these should always work.
3) I love the first iteration of staves. Invest in a staff to give it some charges, and activate later to spend resonance and charges for spontaneous casting of those spells.
4) Wands are a bit tricky and might be the reason the focus system came about. I think having to invest a resonance point in a wand is fair, to then use only charges from the wand (no additional resonance for activation). The cost per spell of a wand should be less than that of an equivalent scroll for buying in bulk. Also, I think the maximum spell level and spell roll for wands will keep these in check. Especially now that something like Treat Wounds exists, I don't see level 1 wands of Heal really taking over, or even mass producing low cost wands with excess gold. The cap on spell rolls limits how well they scale into higher combats because of the new math. Out of combat, better options now exist.
5) Spell Points should stay as spell points. I don't think class abilities should be tied with magic items (with maybe the exception of some artificer class down the line). You have spell points to use cool new class powers? Great, use them on the powers.
6) In a similar fashion to the new system, the alchemist should just have his own pool for advanced and quick alchemy stuff. I think the devs really got this one right as it relates to point #5.
7) One introduction of the focus system is the idea of heightening the use of magic items. This has a lot of fun and flavor baked in. I would, however, still keep this tacked onto the same resonance pool. You can spend 1 RP to use an item, or 2 RP to get a stronger effect (or however many is deemed necessary). A variable resonance cost can be used I think in place of the "once per day" limit to track. Have an extremely powerful item in your possession? It will do wonders for you, but that's how you will choose to spend a considerable amount of your magic item pool (resonance) for the day. A variable cost already introduces a limit to the system to keep it in check. Use 20 low level activations with reduced effect, or a couple of high level activations to really drive the point home.
I like the idea of a single pool that designates how magic items are used that gives players meaningful choices contained within the realm just those items. Do I want to invest my points for a ton of static bonuses on equipment? Do I want lots of activations knowing I'll need a bunch of uses in a single day. Can I nova to really make use of the most potent item in my possession but blow my RP for the day?
Again, much love and respect to the devs. You guys are doing a fantastic job even with updates mid-playtest! And if it comes off as something different, I really do love the new 2e system. Let me know what you all think.
Cheers.
| Callin13 |
I like the resonance system to a degree. 10 slots to wear magic items is pretty nice honestly. I could wear 4 Rings, 1 Hat, 1 Armor, 1 Shoe, 1 Glove, 1 Neck, and 1 Bracer. Mix it up and have fun with my Magic Items.
I like the idea of Focus Points. I HATE that its only tied to Charisma. Charisma + Class Stat would be ok with me. Yea its Double Dipping for certain classes but those classes would have a use for all of those points so I dont see the issue with that.
| MarkyMarc |
If it's double dipping in Cha then that's functionally the same thing. All classes can use the focus points, but people with higher charisma can use it a little more. Then it's just a matter of tuning to make sure everyone has a decent base pool of focus points, but if you have a higher charisma you get a little extra on the top.