Chapters 4 and 5

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moogle001's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

Well, I've been waiting for Clueless to get the PDFs of Chapters 4 and 5 up for a bit, but I'm tired of waiting. So, the RTFs should be accessible from here:

[url]wam.umd.edu/~gsorrel/4 Skills and Feats.rtf[/url]
[url]wam.umd.edu/~gsorrel/5 Magic on the Planes.rtf[/url]

Consider that a fire under your ass Clueless Smiling

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Bob the Efreet's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

Two things regarding chapter 4:
1. In the table at the beginning that lists the feats, the prerequisite for all the bladeling feats is improperly listed as 'nathri'.
2. I notice the Cipher Training feat (the one that allowed you to bypass alignment and multiclass restrictions of the monk class) has been removed. As I was rather fond of that feat, I'm curious as to the reasons for its removal.

Other than that, I thought chapter 4 was pretty good. I'm glad to see that official PW material is still being produced Eye-wink

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moogle001's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

'Bob the Efreet' wrote:
Two things regarding chapter 4: 1. In the table at the beginning that lists the feats, the prerequisite for all the bladeling feats is improperly listed as 'nathri'. 2. I notice the Cipher Training feat (the one that allowed you to bypass alignment and multiclass restrictions of the monk class) has been removed. As I was rather fond of that feat, I'm curious as to the reasons for its removal.

Actually, the prerequisites should all include racial requirements. There were a few entries I didn't add that too though. I believe that's how it's done in Races of Faerun

While I don't remember that feat specifically, I tried to get rid of "generic" feats as well as one's that I felt weren't really worth the feat cost. I may include something along those lines as a benefit of being in the Transcendent Order, though I'm not sure how much I want to get into faction bonuses...

'Bob the Efreet' wrote:
Other than that, I thought chapter 4 was pretty good. I'm glad to see that official PW material is still being produced Eye-wink

Happy to please. Not dead, just in college. Laughing out loud

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Clueless's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

I'm uploading the PDF's right now as well.

I think moogle001 and I area agreed on that these aren't the final final version of this release. We've got some editting to do to later to make sure they all look as nice and pretty as we'd like - as well as to fix the things that sharp eyed folks like you spot.

You should be able to track that down at: /products/released.php

Greshkin's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

'Clueless' wrote:
I think moogle001 and I area agreed on that these aren't the final final version of this release. We've got some editting to do to later to make sure they all look as nice and pretty as we'd like - as well as to fix the things that sharp eyed folks like you spot.

On that note, there's a sentence in the first paragraph that looks like it's missing a word:

Quote:
He was Harmonium, and though surrounded by at least a dozen men that would take great selling his corpse to the Dustmen, his air of authority was uncontested.

Shouldn't it be "great pleasure selling" or something like that?

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
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Chapters 4 and 5

Which one? Chapter 4?

Greshkin's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

Oops, forgot to specify, but yes.

Rhys's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

Death Focus for Dustmen, giving an additional +2 to spell DCs beyond the +1 from Spell Focus (necromancy), is too good. A +1 that stacks with SF is right in line. The epic feat for Spell Focus doesn't even give +2. Mages are always trying to boost save DCs, and it's not supposed to be easy to do.

In the spells, Hagan's supervising eyes is written in the spell description without the berk's name capitalized.

Planar Union is awesome.

Plague-Mort affliction is dubious to me. Does it have to be limited to zombies? What wizard with access to level 5 spells still uses basic undead? I do like the idea, though. Puts the "plague" back in "Plague-Mort."

We now have lesser seal portal. Where is seal portal found? Planar Handbook?

Astral slide, the psionic power, says you can't bring living creatures with you. What about undead, constructs, elementals, etc.? It should specify that you can't bring any creatures at all. Unless you want to make a special exception for psicrystals.

But I really like this stuff. New spells!

Meanwhile, what are you going to do with this truename magic once the new book comes out that gives rules for that (and shadow magic and pact magic)? I think it's next month.

kwint's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

Wish you would have kept the .rtf's of the chapters up, at least until you get the whole kit and kaboodle together...They're a whole lot easier to print out...
Kwint

Clueless's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

I think we still have the rtf versions floating around - I can add the links back.

Rhys's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

Oh, and I'm not looking at it at the moment but I think that the Fated feat to steal your opponent's combat style still mentions Expertise as a feat, rather than its 3.5 name Combat Expertise.

moogle001's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

Thank you for any editting notes, I'll correct them as I see them. Chapter 5 never had a real editor look at them.

'Rhys' wrote:
Death Focus for Dustmen, giving an additional +2 to spell DCs beyond the +1 from Spell Focus (necromancy), is too good. A +1 that stacks with SF is right in line. The epic feat for Spell Focus doesn't even give +2. Mages are always trying to boost save DCs, and it's not supposed to be easy to do.

While it may be more powerful than most of 3.5's feats, Death Focus applies to a very small subset of spells. Only a handful, really.

'Rhys' wrote:
Planar Union is awesome.

Very glad you approve. It took a lot of thinking to write up something that is so much more vague than most spells. It still needs some editting, but if you have any thoughts let me know.

'Rhys' wrote:
Plague-Mort affliction is dubious to me. Does it have to be limited to zombies? What wizard with access to level 5 spells still uses basic undead? I do like the idea, though. Puts the "plague" back in "Plague-Mort."

Honestly, part of the point is to make a basic undead more useful.

'Rhys' wrote:
We now have lesser seal portal. Where is seal portal found? Planar Handbook?

Yes. After realizing how many of our spells had been updated in the Planar Handbook, it's my stance that the book is considered a required supplement along with the core books.

'Rhys' wrote:
Astral slide, the psionic power, says you can't bring living creatures with you. What about undead, constructs, elementals, etc.? It should specify that you can't bring any creatures at all. Unless you want to make a special exception for psicrystals.

Changed so that you can only bring your psicrystal.

'Rhys' wrote:
Meanwhile, what are you going to do with this truename magic once the new book comes out that gives rules for that (and shadow magic and pact magic)? I think it's next month.

*sigh* I'm going to leave it and let DMs decide. You'll note that under the True Name Lore feat I specifically mentioned a more elaborate system could be found in Tome of Magic.

'Rhys' wrote:
Oh, and I'm not looking at it at the moment but I think that the Fated feat to steal your opponent's combat style still mentions Expertise as a feat, rather than its 3.5 name Combat Expertise.

That feat no longer has Combat Expertise as a requirement.

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nick012000's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

...

Are the lovers mentioned in the starting fiction for chapter 5 gay men? It isn't made clear...

moogle001's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

'nick012000' wrote:
...

Are the lovers mentioned in the starting fiction for chapter 5 gay men? It isn't made clear...

Yes.

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nick012000's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

Static Spell=much, much hurtyness.

How much hurtyness?

A decently leveled wizard throwing out a Static Scorching Ray will deal 42 damage automatically to anyone with a touch AC <= 10+ their ranged attack bonus, and SR <= caster level +10. Usually, the former will be, and the latter is likely.

Now, that's not so bad, granted.

Now, let's get an Artificer weilding a Staff of Disintigrate, and using the Imbue Metamagic infusion on it. Things will die.

Also, it looks like saves vs. the spells are affected as well by the current writing. If that isn't the intention, make it clear.

Fidrikon's picture
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Factor
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Chapters 4 and 5

thats not fair, artificers are naturally overpowered.

Spragg's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

The artificer was even out when most of this was written. Most of this is pretty old; 3.5 was still hitting the shelves, IIRC.

In fact, I'm not sure how much of it was written with 3.5 in mind. The assumption at the time seemed to be 3e would be the standard for some time, which turned out not to be so, for better or worse.

moogle001's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

'Spragg' wrote:
In fact, I'm not sure how much of it was written with 3.5 in mind. The assumption at the time seemed to be 3e would be the standard for some time, which turned out not to be so, for better or worse.

Yeah, 3.0 sure didn't last very long. While the originals were written in 3e, everything has been updated with 3.5 in mind. Some feats had to be dropped altogether, but the majority of feats didn't need overhauling to be 3.5 compliant as it were.

As for the artificer, that is an Eberron PrC correct? While I believe that in general these feats are balanced, I can in no way make any guarantees as how they can be combined with supplemental releases from WotC, particular since everything gets more and more powerful over time.

And no, static spell only standardizes rolls involved in the spell itself; saving throws and spell resistance are not affected. I'll make a note of that.

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nick012000's picture
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Chapters 4 and 5

The artificer is an Eberron base class.

And while wizards can't quite do the simply sick amounts of damage as artificers, the feat seems broken when you combine it with touch attack spells.

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