Well, it's been a while since I posted on this here project, due to various issues. Having seen what's been going on while I was gone, a lot has been done, and that can only be a good thing. I applaud Robby for keeping with this project, and everyone who contributed to what can be described as very active and lively discussion on a wide range of topics.
At the same time, I have noticed quite a few alarming and rather regrettable alterations, or lack thereof, particularly where classes, but, in truth, almost everything is concerned. While being brief and concise is important, it would be best for me to explain myself as fully as possible on these issues, while trying to avoid any tl;drs.
RacesThese are all good, and I heartily approve. However, one thing that I see was unfortunately retained are favoured class mechanics, which, frankly, do not belong, and are a part of DnD that should be done away with. If this is the case, then it should probably be specifically stated. If they are still there, I propose, again, this solution:
Suggested Fix:Favoured class mechanics, as well as multiclassing XP penalties, no longer exist. If you take a level in your favoured class, you gain an additional skill point. If your first level is a level in your favoured class, you gain 4 additional skill points.
Half-elves and humans do not get this twice - their bonus skill points are assumed to be the equivalent of 'Favoured Class: Any' for this purpose.
I believe this encourages taking a race's favoured class without having to institute clunky and unfair mechanics, as they really only penalise flavour builds which don't happen to be full casters, which are the exact people we want to hurt the least.
ClassesThis is the area where the most obvious issues are visible, in particular where the hot-button topics of the fighter and the monk are concerned.
Barbarian: This is a good suggestion, and makes the barbarian distinctively different. A definite positive move.
Clerics and Druids: Both of these classes get base numerics which are made of bullshit. Seriously, while sorcs and wizards have to end up with the
worst BAB (1/2 level),
worst HD (d4)
and worst saves (one good, rest bad) in order to get
their 9th level casting, why in the name of everything sane do clerics and druids end up with
average BAB, an
average HD and
two good saves, and
still get 9th level casting,
without ASF? Yes, I realise the designers were on
some seriously wacky backy at the time when these classes were written, did not playtest them properly (just look at their sample druid in Enemies and Allies!) and thought that making these classes broken would encourage people to play them (which, by the way, does not work at all, and just wrecks the game, but it's a discussion for another time), but this is not a reason to persist with this line of thinking, particularly given that it was largely the efforts of people like the ones who frequent BG that brought this
Sparta to light. Therefore, we should not perpetuate the mistakes of the past, and should bring them back down to earth.
Suggested Fix: Clerics and Druids have bad BAB, one good save (Will for both, in my humble opinion) and a d6 hit die.
Additionally, as I have mentioned before, 2+Int skill points is insulting beyond belief on any class that isn't powered by Int. As clerics fall into this category, let us rectify this immediately.
Suggested Fix: Give clerics 4+Int skill points per level, to match the druid.
Additionally, clerics are still largely clones of one another. Aside from their domains (which represent
one spell per level, as well as a power granted at first level, which is roughly equivalent to a feat, usually), and the choice of whether to channel negative or positive energy, clerics are identical to each other. This is highly odd, and actually fairly dull. This is also what causes the 'generalism' problem of clerics, which can basically do anything. While certain other things (*cough*
divine power *cough*) do exacerbate this problem, this is indeed at its heart. Clerics of different deities need to be, well, different!
Suggested Fix: Clerics no longer automatically know all their spells, nor do they spontaneously cast
cure or
inflict spells. Additionally, clerics gain ALL the domains of their deity, up to a maximum of 5, including their powers and benefits. The domain slot is also eliminated, and clerics instead automatically know all their domain spells. At every level (including 1st), clerics learn an additional 2 spells from the cleric spell list. All clerics also have a 'favoured domain' from among their chosen domains, which they can spontaneously cast by sacrificing a spell of equal level that they have prepared.
Note: As this obviously increases with the number of supplements, if a deity would grant more than 5 domains, the cleric picks which 5 they get the benefits of. Furthermore, any deities which, at present, do not have 5 domains should be improved to having 5.
Additionally, clerics no longer get turning by default. Instead, a cleric can replace one of his chosen domains' domain powers to gain the ability to turn or rebuke undead, according to his choice. This cannot later be changed.
Now, obviously, this leaves druids in all kinds of crazy-town, as they suddenly randomly know spells like
bloodsnow even if they have never
seen normal snow before, which is obviously stupid.
Suggested Fix: Druids no longer know all their spells. Instead, druids automatically know (and can spontaneously cast) all
summon nature's ally spells. Furthermore, at every level, druids learn a number of spells equal to their Wisdom modifier at the time (thus, increases to Wisdom do not apply retroactively) from the druid list.
This keeps them within sane range of the cleric spell-knowledge-wise, and stops both from being ridiculous with splatbooks.
Additionally, while the turning fix is a good one, I think it would be improved by having the same standard apply to it as other damage spells.
Suggested Fix: Turning and rebuking damage/healing is increased by 1/2 the cleric's Wisdom mod, to a maximum of 1/2 the cleric's level.
While on the subject of clerics, favoured weapons are a very cool and interesting feature, but it can be possible that a cleric whose god doesn't have the War domain is not even
proficient with his god's favoured weapon! This is clearly silly and should stop.
Suggested Fix: Clerics are automatically proficient with their god's favoured weapon. In light of this, the War domain power changes to "A cleric with the War domain automatically receives Weapon Focus with their god' favoured weapon as a bonus feat, and is considered to have fighter levels equal to his cleric levels for the purposes of the Weapon Focus feat."
I find the use of the Shapechanging variant by the druid to be a good one.
Fighter: *deep breath*
The fighter should not have 2+Int skill points per level. This is, as I have already said, insulting in the extreme.
Suggested Fix: Give the poor guy 4+Int skill points already!
Furthermore, this particular fix suffers a lot from what I term 'numericalisation' of the fighter - or, more specifically, the belief that the fighter needs bigger combat numbers. He doesn't - far from it! What he needs is the diversity that spells can provide, but his feats frequently cannot, as they encourage him to become a hyperspecialist. Thus, more numbers =/= good here, and this is frequently the problem.
Take the Art of War ability. Initially, this is a bonus you could honestly forget about. The only time when these bonuses become meaningful is by level 12 - by which time the fact that you're one size cat bigger for a bunch of checks (which is effectively what this means) actually means diddly-shit-all, because casters are throwing around stuff like
blade barrier,
greater dispel magic, or the ever-present favourite of
disintegrate. And before cries of 'but the casters don't get these things at level 3!' arise, this is a non-argument, as the
casters' level 3 abilities include things like
hold person (which by level 12 can hold someone fast for over a minute),
resist energy (which by level 12 can block 30 points of energy damage
per attack) and
scorching ray (which by level 12 does 12d6 damage), which STILL nail this ability out of the water without even trying very hard at all. Additionally, bigger numbers are not really abilities, in the sense that your character does not feel new or different at the level they are gained - he simply does what he did before, just slightly better. This is not fun or cool, and does not help matters.
Suggested Fix: Art of War (Ex) Starting at 3rd level, a fighter acquires a potent technique to aid in fighting his foes. At 3rd level, and every 3 levels thereafter, a fighter can either choose a new ability from this list, or improve an existing ability.
Armoured Freedom: A fighter with this ability reduces the armour check penalty of any armour he wears by his level or his Str modifier, whichever is less. If this would reduce the armour's armour check penalty to 0 or less, it is considered to be one category lighter for all purposes. This ability cannot be improved.
Mettle: You gents should all be familiar with this by now. If improved, it becomes improved mettle instead (which works like you expect it to). This ability can only be improved once.
Step Aside: As an immediate action, a fighter with this ability can force an attack that hits him successfully to be re-rolled, and receives a circumstance bonus to his AC against that attack equal to his Dex mod or his fighter level, whichever is less. If this ability is improved, it may be used an additional time per round, while still only consuming one immediate action.
Surge of Vitality: As a move action, a fighter can call up reserves of energy and gain temporary hit points equal to his level plus his Con modifier for 1 minute. Multiple uses of this ability overlap (don't stack). If improved, the number of temporary hit points gained doubles.
And so on. I'm certain that you gents could come up with a lot more, since that took me literally like 5 minutes to think up. These are real abilities that really matter.
Now, a lot of the abilities that were added are very good indeed. However, once one reaches Foil, one has to wonder how this is supposed to work in practice. Attack rolls and skill checks are very different beasts, considering that they can have substantial amounts of divergence, which this ability does not account for at all. Additionally, the fact that it forces the fighter to be adjacent to his opponent shoehorns people away from playing a ranged fighter, which is (or, actually, should be) an archetype of the fighter.
Suggested Fix: Foil (Ex) At level 7, a fighter may foil an action that takes place up to 30ft away as an immediate action. A fighter may foil another attack, a spell (even if cast defenisvely), or a skill check. To resolve the foil, the fighter's opponent makes a Will save with a DC of 10+1/2 fighter's level+fighter's Int mod. If the opponent fails, his action is foiled, expending any limited resources (such as spell slots, components or uses), but the action itself not resolving. A fighter may only foil an action as it is beginning, and thus cannot foil an action that is already in mid-progress, nor one that began outside his range.
Note: By this token, Improved Foil works at 60ft away. Supreme Reach would not affect it.
This allows ranged fighters to work before level 15, and is also much less prone to DnD's skill craziness.
Supreme Reach, being a capstone, is distinctively damp. This is something that they could have obtained with a magic item and a spell like 10 levels ago. If anything, their capstone should be something inspiring and cool.
Suggested Fix: Supreme Warrior (Ex) At 20th level, a fighter is without peer in the martial realm. All weapons a fighter wields are considered to be one size category larger for the purpose of dealing damage, and are considered to be under the effects of Improved Critical as long as the fighter wields them. If the fighter already has Improved Critical or a similar effect for a wielded weapon, these benefits stack (a doubling of a doubling equals a tripling, and so on).
Monk: First of all, thank you Midnight, Risada and Orion. You guys did a lot right with your monk, especially in the realm of skills, and for that, you ought to be applauded. However, there are problem areas. First of all, the monk not having good BAB is a joke. Unlike bards (who get casting), rogues (who get UMD, which is essentially casting, not to mention sneak attack), clerics (who get CASTING!, which is differentiated from casting much as SCIENCE! differers from science), and druids (who get 'win the game in every orifice' as a class ability), monks get no such goodies, and should really have full BAB, because ultimately, their role is fighting stuff, like the ranger, fighter and barbarian, and should have base numbers to compare in the offensive department. Additionally, monk weapons shouldn't be set - what if someone wants to play a scimitar-master? Or someone whose fighting style revolves around spiked chains?
Suggested Fix: Monks have full BAB, proficiency with all simple weapons, as well as a number of martial and/or exotic weapons equal to their STARTING Wis modifier.
Now, the monk's AC bonus in the PHB is a total joke. It really is. Consider this: let us look at a 1st level fighter, a 1st level rogue and a 1st level wizard with a Dex bonus of 16. Now, the fighter and rogue can just plain wear studded leather, for +3 to AC at that level, while the wizard can throw down
mage armour, which gives +4. What does the monk get? NOTHING. Yes, all you screamers, he does get Wis to AC. But, unlike the above cases, he is
dependent on Wis to get anything meaningful at all. Especially on 25 point buy, a monk will be BEHIND on AC as compared to the party
wizard. Think about what this means. Note that this doesn't improve later, since the PHB monk was MAD as hell, and this one doesn't help matters. The fact that this bonus pretends to scale doesn't save it being a ridiculous joke, as it forces monks to pay out both ends to have a decent AC, while everyone else just buys armour/uses magic like every sane individual.
Suggested Fix: AC Bonus: Starting at 1st level, a monk receives a +3 armour bonus to AC. This improved by +1 for odd-numbered level the monk gains. This bonus applies to touch ACs or when the monk is flat-footed.
This is much, much better, as it gives the monk decent AC numbers without forcing them to pay out the ass for them.
Combat Insight is my next gripe. Although MUCH better than the terrible excuse for a set of class abilities that Art of War is, it is still a bit lacking for very similar reasons. What you want to do is something like this:
Suggested Fix: Combat Style (Ex): At 3rd level, the monk develops or trains in a fighting style. A monk may choose any of the following abilities:
Serpent Retorts for Death of Family: Whenever the monk succeeds on a Disarm, Trip or or Grapple attempt against an opponent, that opponent provokes an AOO from the monk.
Eyeball Striking Punch: As a standard action, the monk may make a single melee attack. If it hits, the target is blinded for 1 round instead of being dealt normal damage. Creatures without eyes cannot be affected by this ability.
Claws of the Tiger: Whenever the monk hits with at least two attacks, he may tear at his target as a swift action, dealing an additional amount of damage equal to his base unarmed strike damage+his Str, Dex or Wis modifier, whichever is highest.
The Way that is No Way: As a swift action, a monk can become evasive and shifty, making him difficult to hit. Until his next round, any attacks against the monk suffer a penalty equal to his Dex or Wis modifier (whichever is higher), and every time the monk is missed by an attack, he may, as an immediate action, take a 5ft step, which does not count toward his 5ft steps in that round.
And so on. I am certain more abilities can be devised. Next up, Ki Strike. While admirable, this does not go nearly far enough to compensate for the fact that everyone's been running around with these abilities for YHWH-knows-how-long now. What you should do is something similar to this.
Suggested Fix: Ki Strike (Su) Starting at 4th level, the monk's training allows him to transform his fists into a magical weapon. The monk's unarmed strike is considered to be a +1 weapon for all purposes. At every even-numbered level after 4th, the enhancement improves by +1. Instead of an increase to enhancement, the monk may instead choose to use any amount of enhancement (to a maximum of 1 less than the total enhancement available) to apply magic weapon abilities to his unarmed strikes. For example, at 6th level, a monk could, instead of getting +2 unarmed strikes, consider his strikes to be +1 flaming weapons. The distribution of abilities and enhancement is determined each time the monk gains a level, and the enhancement on a monk's weapons cannot be less than +1 or greater than +5.
Additionally, a monk may permanently sacrifice 1 point of enhancement on his unarmed strike to give his unarmed strike the properties of any one material of his choice. This may be done any number of times.
Now, Ki Reinforce has the fundamental problem of tying damage into skill checks, which often run right off the RNG and do stupid things before they are even supposed to. Additionally, daily limitation is ungood for this. Instead, consider something like this.
Suggested Fix: Ki Reinforce (Su) Starting at 8th level, the monk may, as a swift action, bolster his attacks with ki, dealing an additional 1d6 damage per 4 ranks in the Concentration skill that he possesses with his unarmed strikes for the rest of the round. Additionally, a monk's unarmed strikes are considered to be a force effect when this ability is used.
The rest, well done, good job.
Paladin: Pretty much my thinking too.
Sorcerer: Oh dear... once again, I must reiterate:
Suggested Fix: None of this 2+Int bullshit, please. It is an insult to expect people to work with that if they don't have Int as their primary.
Additionally, the slowdown of metamagic on spontaneous casters is utterly stupid, and is an example of a phenomenon known as 'Skip Hates Sorcerers'. It makes no sense whatsoever and should not be there.
Suggested Fix: Metamagic time increase for spont-casters is dead. Dead, dead, dead.
Wizard: Frankly, in my opinion, wizards don't need MORE bonus feats already. However, given the nature of their bonus feats, I don't think it's a big issue, really.
More to come later, I've been typing this for hours! It's good to be back.