Rob
Cool, sounds good. Yeah, I agree that the 'tier' system with all sorts of crazy schools is too complicated. For me at least, being a priest is all about being the voice of god: I always pictured Hold Person as sort of 'speaking with a commanding voice'. Even the priest of pestilence, when he walks through the sewers, commands respect from the rats and slimes.
Yeah, buying stat points initially should be staggered (making it harder to go from 19 to 20 than it is to go from 7 to 8). I agree that it's okay to buy up your stats after char gen is over too, with skillpoints. Random char gen can still be an optional rule.
...
More critique.
I like armor absorbing damage. I like not having a lot of health points. Combat should be fast and intense and a measure of last resort.
I agree that skills like 'persuasion' and 'sense motive' are lame, but I'm happy to help draw up a list of better CHA skills. One thing that would be good is to find a way to keep guys like Jimmy Swill around and able to influence the game even at higher levels. A high CHA, high skills guy could have lots of skills to keep himself alive by not looking like a threat, able to provide help to others (cheering Slath on, insulting the orc king to distract him; imparting bonuses or penalties to skill checks, saves, initiative,...), and attracting henchmen (Jimmy't butcher knives aren't so great against the golem, but there's this minotaur guy who's sick mom Jimmy helped out after he won big at cards one night).
Races. Dwarves should have -1 DEX, half-orcs -1 CHA or INT.
Skills. The costs of some skills and abilties might need be adjusted, I dunno. Let's add some more, make some example chars, and work on it on the side over the next few months.
Why are you capping the max skill levels? And why are you capping them at abiltiy score values? I could imagine savant characters- someone who has a low CHA or IQ but writes great poems, or a great locksmith. It's also seemingly easy to become a genius artist at 1st level: just put in 10 skillpoints, you've got a level 20 artistic ability, and with a +12 penalty, a full 1/3 of everything you crap out is a work of genius?
Healing skill plus herbalism is suddenly the master combo. Healing up to 7 health points, nonmagically in two rounds (12 seconds)? That's like 40 hp in D&D or something. In just a few rounds, you can heal everyone to full, no matter what. Fuck priest potential.
Hmm, I agree with Dave. It's weird that penalties are + and bonuses -. I know that's the old school way of doing it, but I dunno. I'm partial to 3E, because I've tried it a lot, through three campaigns, and it works. But I like your way too: the skill level is what you gotta roll. Still, makes it tricky to describe a kind of bless spell that gives you +1 to everything... because in some cases it's a -1 and others a +1.
You might want to make the Hermetic casting failure a bit steeper. Also, do you roll before you get to cast, or after? If failue means you can still act that round, make it much higher. If failure means no spell goes off, make it a little higher. If failure means you lose the spell, keep it low.
Since armor damage is handled in system, make armor repair handled in system, don't 'leave it up to the GM' as it says in the skill list. By the way, this is a bitchy rule, one that hurts players (as NPCs will rarely have to repair armor, being mainly one shot foes). Also, you might include weapon damage on critical fumbles, that weaponsmithing would repair. Finally, you might consider just making this optional, as it lesses the fun of the game. I've played some games where your stuff broke and you had to eat food to stay alive. It's just a distracting, unfun hassle.
Given that health points are low, you should have strong mechanics for subdual and stunning. 20 lashes with a whip can kill a guy? Emphasize nonlethal approaches as a way to keep chars alive, and a way for interesting things to happen in games (duels, capture of opponents).
Concentration and losing spells. 'Losing' the spell is too harsh and unfun. How about if you lose concentration, you don't get to cast, but you don't lose the spell slot for the day. Losing an action is bad enough. With casting time it gets even worse. Casting time isn't that fun or great, and complicates combat. This was in D&D 1E and we never used it.
Two weapon fighting is too good, especially with ambidex. Offer some advantage to shields. In fact, make shield use better than two weapon fighting... do you remember us playing 'Gauntlet' hitting each other with sticks? Two weapon combat is really hard, and generally the other weapon is used as a shield. Frankly, I'd rather have a big ass shield than a second clumsy weapon. Mainly, because combat can be so deadly here, emphasize defense rather than offense.
Likewise, critical hits are insane now. Definitely will kill PCs. Reduce the effect, maybe just add 2 to damage or something, and have skills for better criticals: more damage, easier to get, easier to defend against. Or just have crit hits cut through armor damage.
Change you mechanics for attacking sleeping/restrained people, it's silly. Imagine I'm bound up, but I've got a great fortitude save. You keep hitting me, I keep saving, I take no damage because I'm already at 1 hp. Most bound guys are bound beause in fact they used to be unconscious.
Resistance and saves. Hmm. This needs work. The spell level, the caster level, the casters stats, the victim's level, and the victim's stats all need to interplay somehow. Think about it.
Yeah, buying stat points initially should be staggered (making it harder to go from 19 to 20 than it is to go from 7 to 8). I agree that it's okay to buy up your stats after char gen is over too, with skillpoints. Random char gen can still be an optional rule.
...
More critique.
I like armor absorbing damage. I like not having a lot of health points. Combat should be fast and intense and a measure of last resort.
I agree that skills like 'persuasion' and 'sense motive' are lame, but I'm happy to help draw up a list of better CHA skills. One thing that would be good is to find a way to keep guys like Jimmy Swill around and able to influence the game even at higher levels. A high CHA, high skills guy could have lots of skills to keep himself alive by not looking like a threat, able to provide help to others (cheering Slath on, insulting the orc king to distract him; imparting bonuses or penalties to skill checks, saves, initiative,...), and attracting henchmen (Jimmy't butcher knives aren't so great against the golem, but there's this minotaur guy who's sick mom Jimmy helped out after he won big at cards one night).
Races. Dwarves should have -1 DEX, half-orcs -1 CHA or INT.
Skills. The costs of some skills and abilties might need be adjusted, I dunno. Let's add some more, make some example chars, and work on it on the side over the next few months.
Why are you capping the max skill levels? And why are you capping them at abiltiy score values? I could imagine savant characters- someone who has a low CHA or IQ but writes great poems, or a great locksmith. It's also seemingly easy to become a genius artist at 1st level: just put in 10 skillpoints, you've got a level 20 artistic ability, and with a +12 penalty, a full 1/3 of everything you crap out is a work of genius?
Healing skill plus herbalism is suddenly the master combo. Healing up to 7 health points, nonmagically in two rounds (12 seconds)? That's like 40 hp in D&D or something. In just a few rounds, you can heal everyone to full, no matter what. Fuck priest potential.
Hmm, I agree with Dave. It's weird that penalties are + and bonuses -. I know that's the old school way of doing it, but I dunno. I'm partial to 3E, because I've tried it a lot, through three campaigns, and it works. But I like your way too: the skill level is what you gotta roll. Still, makes it tricky to describe a kind of bless spell that gives you +1 to everything... because in some cases it's a -1 and others a +1.
You might want to make the Hermetic casting failure a bit steeper. Also, do you roll before you get to cast, or after? If failue means you can still act that round, make it much higher. If failure means no spell goes off, make it a little higher. If failure means you lose the spell, keep it low.
Since armor damage is handled in system, make armor repair handled in system, don't 'leave it up to the GM' as it says in the skill list. By the way, this is a bitchy rule, one that hurts players (as NPCs will rarely have to repair armor, being mainly one shot foes). Also, you might include weapon damage on critical fumbles, that weaponsmithing would repair. Finally, you might consider just making this optional, as it lesses the fun of the game. I've played some games where your stuff broke and you had to eat food to stay alive. It's just a distracting, unfun hassle.
Given that health points are low, you should have strong mechanics for subdual and stunning. 20 lashes with a whip can kill a guy? Emphasize nonlethal approaches as a way to keep chars alive, and a way for interesting things to happen in games (duels, capture of opponents).
Concentration and losing spells. 'Losing' the spell is too harsh and unfun. How about if you lose concentration, you don't get to cast, but you don't lose the spell slot for the day. Losing an action is bad enough. With casting time it gets even worse. Casting time isn't that fun or great, and complicates combat. This was in D&D 1E and we never used it.
Two weapon fighting is too good, especially with ambidex. Offer some advantage to shields. In fact, make shield use better than two weapon fighting... do you remember us playing 'Gauntlet' hitting each other with sticks? Two weapon combat is really hard, and generally the other weapon is used as a shield. Frankly, I'd rather have a big ass shield than a second clumsy weapon. Mainly, because combat can be so deadly here, emphasize defense rather than offense.
Likewise, critical hits are insane now. Definitely will kill PCs. Reduce the effect, maybe just add 2 to damage or something, and have skills for better criticals: more damage, easier to get, easier to defend against. Or just have crit hits cut through armor damage.
Change you mechanics for attacking sleeping/restrained people, it's silly. Imagine I'm bound up, but I've got a great fortitude save. You keep hitting me, I keep saving, I take no damage because I'm already at 1 hp. Most bound guys are bound beause in fact they used to be unconscious.
Resistance and saves. Hmm. This needs work. The spell level, the caster level, the casters stats, the victim's level, and the victim's stats all need to interplay somehow. Think about it.
posted by Rob @ 1:43 PM
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