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Just Burgs
Jan 15, 2011

Gravy Boat 2k

PlasmaMan posted:

speaking of classes, I have been working on one that should work as a smith, artificer, inventor, alchemist, horticulturalist... it's still pretty heavily WIP since I am trying to give it unique gameplay to avoid just being another reskinned wizard, but I think the idea is at least far enough to post. I am kinda loathe to add to the fan class bloat, but I haven't seen any classes quite like this so I figured I'd give it a shot. ideally, while it will have some direct attacks, it is primarily a zoning-type caster class that places obstacles for enemies and fortifications for allies, something like a summoner wizard from 4e.

The Wright

I don't think you need to apologize for adding to "bloat" with ideas this unique.

It's certainly very involved, as a class concept, I definitely wouldn't recommend this class to a new player, but could certainly see having a lot of fun playing one.

Also, please give me the option to replace my arm with a tricked-out robot arm. Never mind, I see this has already been addressed, thank you.

Just Burgs fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Apr 23, 2014

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Good Username Here
Aug 20, 2012

~No devil on my shoulder!~

Good Username Here posted:

Me and a couple friends are working on a class called the runecaster and would like some feedback from the thread.

Right now it's super conceptual and the main idea is having different spells that modify a unique basic attack that they're given.

So we made a first draft of the class. It's still a work in progress, it needs playtesting and feats still. We're also considering adding some more talents. Feedback is much appreciated!

Good Username Here fucked around with this message at 11:09 on Apr 25, 2014

RyvenCedrylle
Dec 12, 2010

Owner of Mystic Theurge Publications
Reading this over now, will edit later but first, where did you find the font? And what's it called?

edit: WOW. This is really cool. I'm kinda jealous I didn't think of it. I'm a little concerned about lingering being a pain to track. "lasts x rounds" effects were taken out of 4E and 13th Age for a reason. Also, I'm willing to bet these attacks get absolutely ridiculous by the time you're using 5 or more words in an attack. Hunch is you're going to have to tone that down to max out at 4. Still, I want to try this like now.

Fish, my Zelda druid might.. disappear.. somewhere.

RyvenCedrylle fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Apr 25, 2014

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Just out of curiosity, should we make a new thread? The OP is waaaaaaaay out of date since it was made during the original round of playtesting.

Dr. Lunchables
Dec 27, 2012

IRL DEBUFFED KOBOLD



Evil Mastermind posted:

Just out of curiosity, should we make a new thread? The OP is waaaaaaaay out of date since it was made during the original round of playtesting.

I was just thinking this today. It would help to go through and grab the cool stuff for the OP.

P.d0t
Dec 27, 2007
I released my finger from the trigger, and then it was over...
I have some questions about how backgrounds are adjudicated and stuff.

Like, does the system presume that the players will just proffer their specific backgrounds and ways to use them to get around stuff, or does the DM call for rolls?

Are there guidelines for the DM picking and choosing which backgrounds can be used? Or does it often just become "make up stuff so you can use your biggest number"? Like, are your other backgrounds made useful by some mechanism/advice the game provides?

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

P.d0t posted:

I have some questions about how backgrounds are adjudicated and stuff.

Like, does the system presume that the players will just proffer their specific backgrounds and ways to use them to get around stuff, or does the DM call for rolls?
Both. The GM can say "does anyone have a background they could use to get around this?", or people can ask "Can I use <background> to help me out with this?"

quote:

Are there guidelines for the DM picking and choosing which backgrounds can be used? Or does it often just become "make up stuff so you can use your biggest number"? Like, are your other backgrounds made useful by some mechanism/advice the game provides?
Common sense prevails. You can't use your Baking background to help you sneak around in the woods.

Big Mad Drongo
Nov 10, 2006

P.d0t posted:

Are there guidelines for the DM picking and choosing which backgrounds can be used? Or does it often just become "make up stuff so you can use your biggest number"? Like, are your other backgrounds made useful by some mechanism/advice the game provides?

I can't look this up since I'm at work, but there was a great post way earlier in the thread about how backgrounds are based around how the player wants to play, not how powerful they are mechanically. I think the examples used were Batman with a +5 Batman background (pretty much succeeding like a badass at everything) with a bird-turned-human using a bunch of goofy sounding +1-+3 backgrounds and failing, but advancing the story in fun ways. Fail forward, and all that.

That said, as DM I let my players use their backgrounds for pretty much anything provided that can give me some backstory on how it's relevant. Last session our Rogue quickly repaired a busted wagon wheel using his Fixer skill, talking about how he learned how to fix wheels in the aftermath of a heist where everything went horribly wrong, including their getaway wagon.

Other GMs may be less generous, but if there's an interesting story behind it I'll let just about anything go in the name of Fun.

EDIT: One thing I do, if something is a little too outlandish or based on something that shouldn't have stuck with them, is up the DC if they use that skill. Yes, you can use you Equestrian background as a general skill for working with animals, but you get a penalty compared to someone with a more direct skill.

Big Mad Drongo fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Apr 25, 2014

Evil Mastermind
Apr 28, 2008

Big Mad Drongo posted:

I can't look this up since I'm at work, but there was a great post way earlier in the thread about how backgrounds are based around how the player wants to play, not how powerful they are mechanically. I think the examples used were Batman with a +5 Batman background (pretty much succeeding like a badass at everything) with a bird-turned-human using a bunch of goofy sounding +1-+3 backgrounds and failing, but advancing the story in fun ways. Fail forward, and all that.
Here you go.

Mystic Mongol
Jan 5, 2007

Your life's been thrown in disarray already--I wouldn't want you to feel pressured.


College Slice

P.d0t posted:

Or does it often just become "make up stuff so you can use your biggest number"?

That's a playstyle choice, but there's nothing wrong with it. Your backgrounds represent what your character's learned through their life experiences. If your biggest number is, "Diplomat on Diabolic Relations +5" and your image of your characeter is someone who's used to living in hell and dealing with living in hell issues, go ahead and roll against it to understand/manipulate enchanted devices that control cold, because you went through a lot of them back at your villa on the lake of screaming souls. If you think your character's not great at something, then roll against your, "Diplomat on Elven Affairs +2" to represent knowledge of bears and whatnot. And if you think your character's bad at something, don't add a background at all--if you don't get along with paladins and clerics at all, you can't add Diplomat on Diabolic Relations on a diplomacy style check for them.

Backgrounds are tools to help you realize your character concept and modify random elements of the story to scale with your conceived capabilities.

What you shouldn't do is sit down at chargen and decide exactly what skills each background represents, and under what conditions Diplomat on Diabolic Relations can be used for arcana but can't be used for diplomacy. Besides, you'd get it wrong, characters evolve during play.

Good Username Here
Aug 20, 2012

~No devil on my shoulder!~

RyvenCedrylle posted:

Reading this over now, will edit later but first, where did you find the font? And what's it called?

edit: WOW. This is really cool. I'm kinda jealous I didn't think of it. I'm a little concerned about lingering being a pain to track. "lasts x rounds" effects were taken out of 4E and 13th Age for a reason. Also, I'm willing to bet these attacks get absolutely ridiculous by the time you're using 5 or more words in an attack. Hunch is you're going to have to tone that down to max out at 4. Still, I want to try this like now.

Fish, my Zelda druid might.. disappear.. somewhere.

I found the font just by taking a screenshot of the PDF of the core and using online font analyzers, it's called Mason Serif Bold.

Yeah, I was concerned about lingering myself, I have enough trouble remembering ongoing damage I placed on monsters. At first we had all the effects just last "until the start of your next turn" with corrosion making them last one extra turn, but it turned out writing that all out was a pain, so I thought making a MTG style keyword would be easier on everyone.

One of the big concerns I've had was with the ability to stack words becoming a bit ridiculous, since the class isn't supposed to be about damage and yet as it currently stands the class can do 5d10 damage to 1d3 enemies in a group as well as make those enemies take half of that damage again if another guy hits them. The worst part of this is that they can do that every turn. Capping it at 4 would make spreading debuffs a bit harder, but it'd tone down the general power level so it's probably the best option. We're just concerned with limiting the player's options in early levels, which is why we didn't want them sitting on 2 words for too long.

Good Username Here fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Apr 25, 2014

Kenderama
Mar 12, 2003

Herding Nerds from
2007-2012

Good Username Here posted:

So we made a first draft of the class. It's still a work in progress, it needs playtesting and feats still. We're also considering adding some more talents. Feedback is much appreciated!

This is drat nice. One of the big things I see on first glance is on Lingering.. that'll be a bitch to track. Maybe instead make it a Save Ends with a penalty to saves equal to the Lingering bonus? It is still cumbersome to track, but you don't have to worry about durations.

The class is very complex, and I like that - but I think a lot of examples and description will be needed.

Kenderama fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Apr 25, 2014

RyvenCedrylle
Dec 12, 2010

Owner of Mystic Theurge Publications

Good Username Here posted:

We're just concerned with limiting the player's options in early levels, which is why we didn't want them sitting on 2 words for too long.

Don't think about it as limiting options for low-level players. Think about it as allowing room for the class to expand. They sound like they same thing, but the former tends to put you in a 'crackdown' frame of mind which often results in a bland or unimpressive class. The latter keeps your brain open to possibilities and makes you think about the evolution of the class over time.

Jolyne Cujoh
Dec 7, 2012

It's not like I've got no worries...
But I'll be fine.
Could the progression maybe be changed to 3 words at level 3, 4 at 6 and 5 at 9? That way you can get the current maximum potentials for a single word, which all seem pretty good, but if you want more than one effect you have to give up a bit of the power, no matter your level until most way through epic tier?

Edit: Wait, I can't actually tell. Do you automatically get level 1 of the stacking bonus, or is that the bonus for the first extra modifier added on. If the former, yeah, maybe 4 would be the number.

Edit Edit: Yeah, looking at it again of course the 1 is just for when it's the base move. I actually think capping it at 5 is probably the sweet spot still, though. 5D10 damage to 1d3 targets is about 55 damage per hit on average, which is nothing compared to the big damage dealers like the Rogue and Ranger, and falls a little bit short of the average Fighter even. The closest analogue is a Color-Spray wizard, who at level 9 will be dealing about 162.5 damage basically every other round, plus the possibility of the daze effect, plus at-wills. As long as I'm not missing something huge, it doesn't seem to gently caress up the math at all.

Edit Edit Edit: Am I reading this right, and the words with positive effects are meant to be used as an attack against your allies?

Jolyne Cujoh fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Apr 26, 2014

Good Username Here
Aug 20, 2012

~No devil on my shoulder!~

Kenderama posted:

This is drat nice. One of the big things I see on first glance is on Lingering.. that'll be a bitch to track. Maybe instead make it a Save Ends with a penalty to saves equal to the Lingering bonus? It is still cumbersome to track, but you don't have to worry about durations.

The class is very complex, and I like that - but I think a lot of examples and description will be needed.
Yeah, I've noticed a lot of the wording is really awkward and needs a lot of work, but it's much easier to come up for examples.

RyvenCedrylle posted:

Don't think about it as limiting options for low-level players. Think about it as allowing room for the class to expand. They sound like they same thing, but the former tends to put you in a 'crackdown' frame of mind which often results in a bland or unimpressive class. The latter keeps your brain open to possibilities and makes you think about the evolution of the class over time.
This is a really good point, actually. Having the whole class early on and just having it grow from there doesn't make it's development very interesting.

Raenir K. Artemi posted:

Could the progression maybe be changed to 3 words at level 3, 4 at 6 and 5 at 9? That way you can get the current maximum potentials for a single word, which all seem pretty good, but if you want more than one effect you have to give up a bit of the power, no matter your level until most way through epic tier?

Edit: Wait, I can't actually tell. Do you automatically get level 1 of the stacking bonus, or is that the bonus for the first extra modifier added on. If the former, yeah, maybe 4 would be the number.

Edit Edit: Yeah, looking at it again of course the 1 is just for when it's the base move. I actually think capping it at 5 is probably the sweet spot still, though. 5D10 damage to 1d3 targets is about 55 damage per hit on average, which is nothing compared to the big damage dealers like the Rogue and Ranger, and falls a little bit short of the average Fighter even. The closest analogue is a Color-Spray wizard, who at level 9 will be dealing about 162.5 damage basically every other round, plus the possibility of the daze effect, plus at-wills. As long as I'm not missing something huge, it doesn't seem to gently caress up the math at all.

Edit Edit Edit: Am I reading this right, and the words with positive effects are meant to be used as an attack against your allies?

The idea is that the words with beneficial effects give someone on your team a bonus, I used creature as a keyword since the book seems to use ally when you can target anyone but yourself, though looking at it the words really don't express that. For example, if someone on your team uses a word attack with ground as the base then after the initial attack they can give anything on the field a bonus to AC.
We'll probably end up capping words at 4, so with loquacious you get 5 words per word attack. Also, at 10th level the Runecaster would be doing 10d10 damage to 1d3 nearby creatures, which is still less than a color spray wizard, but it's important to note that their damage is level based.

Good Username Here fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Apr 26, 2014

-Fish-
Oct 10, 2005

Glub glub.
Glub glub.

Why not tie Lingering to the Escalation Dice? Lingering Even for the the next even value on the dice, Lingering Odd for the next odd value.

Even would be best for effects you want to stick around just a little bit longer. If you use a Lingering Even effect in the first round the escalation dice is 0, neither odd nor even. Next round is 1, an odd number. You don't hit an even until all the way in round 3.

If you cast it after round 1 it loses that punch, but that strategy would even be something you could spell out in a sidebar.

Chevy Slyme
May 2, 2004

We're Gonna Run.

We're Gonna Crawl.

Kick Down Every Wall.

-Fish- posted:

Why not tie Lingering to the Escalation Dice? Lingering Even for the the next even value on the dice, Lingering Odd for the next odd value.

Even would be best for effects you want to stick around just a little bit longer. If you use a Lingering Even effect in the first round the escalation dice is 0, neither odd nor even. Next round is 1, an odd number. You don't hit an even until all the way in round 3.

If you cast it after round 1 it loses that punch, but that strategy would even be something you could spell out in a sidebar.

I like this a whole lot. You could also have spells which are lingering until your next turn, at which point you roll a D6 to sustain them; equal or lower, etc. (Talented to roll a d4?)

djw175
Apr 23, 2012

by zen death robot

CaptainPsyko posted:

I like this a whole lot. You could also have spells which are lingering until your next turn, at which point you roll a D6 to sustain them; equal or lower, etc. (Talented to roll a d4?)

Make it sort of like the Wood Elf maybe?

Jackard
Oct 28, 2007

We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It
Many of those Words could use better names. Dominate, Corrosion, Hope, Blight, and so on.

ikks
Sep 6, 2009

You can get anything you want at malice's restaurant
The Runecaster is definitely pretty cool, but the Forbidden words stick out like a sore thumb to me. The idea of having such words is a cool idea, but having them just use other classes' spells doesn't seem all that forbidden to me. I think it'd work better if you had a "Borrowed Word" feature that just allows you to take a spell as a word, and rework forbidden words to be a lot more, well, forbidden. Maybe make them very powerful, but with serious drawbacks-- if these are the creation words used to build the universe, even a level 10 character should probably have more trouble with them than they would a spell. I am a big fan of ritual casting and talents like the rogue's Swashbuckle, so I would just put the list of words as ideas and describe their use as "an icon-like or godlike effect", with the warning that the DM will need to provide appropriate cost.

I have been slowly but steadily working on my own class, and the epic feat of the Enchanter talent is the best example of what I mean, though I'd imagine a forbidden word would be even more powerful.

Prythian
Aug 6, 2012

sweet dreams

PlasmaMan posted:

The Runecaster is definitely pretty cool, but the Forbidden words stick out like a sore thumb to me. The idea of having such words is a cool idea, but having them just use other classes' spells doesn't seem all that forbidden to me. I think it'd work better if you had a "Borrowed Word" feature that just allows you to take a spell as a word, and rework forbidden words to be a lot more, well, forbidden. Maybe make them very powerful, but with serious drawbacks-- if these are the creation words used to build the universe, even a level 10 character should probably have more trouble with them than they would a spell. I am a big fan of ritual casting and talents like the rogue's Swashbuckle, so I would just put the list of words as ideas and describe their use as "an icon-like or godlike effect", with the warning that the DM will need to provide appropriate cost.

I have been slowly but steadily working on my own class, and the epic feat of the Enchanter talent is the best example of what I mean, though I'd imagine a forbidden word would be even more powerful.

Yeah, I'll be honest, we weren't quite happy with how the Forbidden Words turned out. Originally, we weren't intending on letting them be used at all for the very reason you mentioned, and made a basic list of them just for lore purposes, but late in development we decided that at 10th level a Runecaster should have access to all of the words. That made our Lexicologist Talent do nothing at that point, so we added in learning a Forbidden Word.

It completely skipped our minds to mention it in the Talent, but you CAN use these words in rituals. It's just a VERY bad idea for a lot of reasons. 1, it can affect a whole lot more than you're intending, and 2, lore-wise this is an old form of magic that fell out of favor because people started using the more powerful words and hosed everything up, so the Gods ended up actively taking action to suppress use of those words.

The main reason we added in the borrowing-spells thing was so that you had a way of using these words in combat, seeing as Ritual Casting takes place solely out of combat. We were concerned about giving people the flexibility of those larger words in combat and having someone, say, just tell every enemy to die. It's definitely the weakest thing. I like your DM-imposed cost idea for any use of those words, so it might get reworked to that in the second draft.

RyvenCedrylle
Dec 12, 2010

Owner of Mystic Theurge Publications
I'm sitting here statting up a Runecaster and in doing so, more of the class' oddities are becoming obvious.

Forbidden Words has already been covered, but I'll throw in behind the critique as well. Make it a class feature that just takes a spell, like Ranger Ex Cathedral. Waiting until 9th level for another part of my Talent to start is a real kick in the junk. Even 5th level is too far, really. You get Talents NOW. Feats are are for things you get as levels increase.

Etymologist is a really hard sell in my opinion. It's five free background points, but it has to go in a language-related Background and then in four more levels I get a counterspell. I feel like the better move would be to make a class feature that is something like "anytime you are confronted with a language you don't know, either spoken or written, and can take a short rest in the presence of that language you learn enough to get what you need to know." This gives the Runecaster the ability to read old wall-scrawlings and listen in on conversations from a stealthy position without screwing up. (In other words, when you want to hand out info through the Runecaster during downtime and make her look good, you can just do it.) On the other hand, it also means that when the goblins come screaming down the tunnel yelling "GBYZZY'K!" and waving spears, the Runecaster can't always just ruin the surprise or tension. Awesome with a little time, bets are off in a pinch.

Rune Scribing is written in a needlessly complex way. Rune does not need to be a word in and of itself. It breaks too many of the laws of word attacks. Just say "you can make a scroll for an ally or leave a trap on a nearby object. In either case, it acts like a word attack that you designate when you create the object" and leave it at that.

You need to elaborate on how Motion works as a modifier. It's not clear. Also, Noise - does that mean whose crit range is expanded exactly? Is it leaving the target vulnerable, giving an ally an expanded crit range or hitting someone and expanding the hit target's crit range (that last one would be really weird)?

The class art for this writeup requires Mako from Captain Planet. HEART!!! LOL

You need probably 4-5 more class Talents, especially if you follow my suggestion with Etymologist. It would be hard to differentiate Runecasters by their Talents alone. One of these Talents should be a steal of the Theurge's Truenamer Talent with alterations as necessary to fit the Runecaster's mechanics. It's completely appropriate here.

RyvenCedrylle
Dec 12, 2010

Owner of Mystic Theurge Publications
On to the Wright since I have time and interest. First off, Plasma, have you played Phantom Brave? Reading over the weapons table reminds me of that game. (small statue! experimental driveshaft! LOL)

I love the vibe of this class overall and the Experience feature in particular. Fantastic work.

I think the split between Satchels and Toolkits is unnecessary and fumbly. Give it a generic resources name and just go with it.

Rituals (Installation Project) should never be a Talent. Jackard taught me that one. Ritual Caster is just a feat on its own.

You can go past the magic item limit and be ok, but I'd avoid ignoring chakra limits. That could get weird in a hurry.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

ikks
Sep 6, 2009

You can get anything you want at malice's restaurant

RyvenCedrylle posted:

On to the Wright since I have time and interest. First off, Plasma, have you played Phantom Brave? Reading over the weapons table reminds me of that game. (small statue! experimental driveshaft! LOL)

I love the vibe of this class overall and the Experience feature in particular. Fantastic work.

I think the split between Satchels and Toolkits is unnecessary and fumbly. Give it a generic resources name and just go with it.

Rituals (Installation Project) should never be a Talent. Jackard taught me that one. Ritual Caster is just a feat on its own.

You can go past the magic item limit and be ok, but I'd avoid ignoring chakra limits. That could get weird in a hurry.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

thanks for the feedback! I haven't played it, but I have had my humor compared to NIS before.

I understand your concern with satchels and toolkits, but I'd like to at least test the split resources before deciding to remove them. I'd rather avoid having them as a single "ammo" count for abilities, and I'd like for players to plan what materials they need-- though a Wright can use most blueprints without limit, the intended trade-off is more in-game preparation than a spur-of-the-moment spell. In general, toolkits are used for more durable blueprints while satchels are more for one-time-use abilities.

In addition, I think having the split and forcing the decision and explaining where in the environment they find that choice nudges players towards considering their associated background checks a little more than just saying "alright, background check to get another material, whatever."

Ritual feat is a good point, I'll just have to be sure to find a place to note it is a viable option for blueprints, as they're not explicitly spells.

As for the chakra limit, I'm not too worried about it because I don't think one bonus effect per battle will be too overpowered, but I did re-write the feat in question for clarity of the benefit.

It's slow-going organizing properly, but I have added some example attributes and one example blueprint.

The Wright

Jolyne Cujoh
Dec 7, 2012

It's not like I've got no worries...
But I'll be fine.
These are just minor nitpicks, but the Wright says in the description for Satchels and Toolkits that it gets another at the start of each tier, but that isn't reflected in the Class Progression chart. It goes up to 4 at champion but not 5 at epic. Also the final stat boost at level 10 isn't documented. Like I said, minor things, but the progression chart is pretty important because it's basically the part of the sheet that will be referenced back to most often.

Good Username Here
Aug 20, 2012

~No devil on my shoulder!~
So we changed quite a bit based on a lot of the suggestions in the thread and came up with a quick update to the class. I statted up a character with the changes and I didn't notice many oddities, though I am one of the creators so my opinion may be skewed. The draft is here.

Patch notes:
  • Cleaned up wording on words.

  • Changed wording on Rune to be more clear.

  • Added, removed and moved feats around.

  • Removed Lingering from the class, replaced by individual "Until the start of your next turn" effects, since that was the original intention.

  • Removed the level limit on A Perfectly Cromulent Sentence and Spell Overcharge, was a kick in the dick and a relic from my days with 3.5.

  • Changed Pyre to a save-ends effect. Removed the inability to stack Pyre's ongoing damage.

  • Etymologist overhauled into Versed in Magic, mutually exclusive to My Moves Belong in a Museum. Spell Overcharge Added to that.

  • Added My Moves Belong in a Museum (Placeholder, suggestions welcome) to talents, mutually exclusive to Versed in Magic.

  • Etymologist added to features, changed how it works. (Thanks Ryven)

  • Added Truenamer Talent with slight modifications (Thanks Ryven)

  • Added borrowed words to lexicologist. (Thanks Plaz)

  • Removed Forbidden Words, it wasn't doing what we wanted and was too restrictive. Will readd later as a talent, with costs to use them. (Thanks Plaz)


Speaking of pending names, if anyone wants to suggest different names for any of the words/abilities it'd be greatly appreciated. One of the ones we're having the biggest trouble with right now is Choose Your Own Casting Stat, we're not sure what to call it.

Kenderama
Mar 12, 2003

Herding Nerds from
2007-2012

Good Username Here posted:

Speaking of pending names, if anyone wants to suggest different names for any of the words/abilities it'd be greatly appreciated. One of the ones we're having the biggest trouble with right now is Choose Your Own Casting Stat, we're not sure what to call it.

"Lexicographer" - As adept as you are at compiling your own words, you generate power in different ways than other people. Select INT, WIS or CHA blah, blah blah..

THE LESBIATHAN
Jan 22, 2011

The name Daria was already taken.

Good Username Here posted:

So we changed quite a bit based on a lot of the suggestions in the thread and came up with a quick update to the class. I statted up a character with the changes and I didn't notice many oddities, though I am one of the creators so my opinion may be skewed. The draft is here.

Maybe its just me, but stacking words doesn't seem super clear; do you get the stacking bonus stuff from using the same word in one word attack or do you get it from using it in separate attacks that follow each other?

Also, you say the stacking bonus can only be used three times per word, but motion lets you stack a word four times; not sure if that's intentional or not, but its also slightly confusing.

djw175
Apr 23, 2012

by zen death robot

Icecream Jane posted:

Maybe its just me, but stacking words doesn't seem super clear; do you get the stacking bonus stuff from using the same word in one word attack or do you get it from using it in separate attacks that follow each other?

Also, you say the stacking bonus can only be used three times per word, but motion lets you stack a word four times; not sure if that's intentional or not, but its also slightly confusing.

It's stacking the base words in the same word attack. All the words have a 4th stack option because heart when used as a modifier acts as another stack.

Serf
May 5, 2011


Between the cool ideas tossed around on the Runecaster and the Wright, I figure I'll show what I've got in the works as well.

I took a little break from my gun rules to work on a dedicated gun-using class. It's still very much a work-in-progress, but I think I'm on the right track.

The Gunslinger

The two main elements of the class are the Archetypes and the Way of the Gun specialization. I think that by mixing and matching those two, you can make a pretty simple or complex character at your discretion. The main thing I'm working on right now are the level-up improvements to the bonuses granted by your choices and coming up with a power system. At first I had flexible attacks and maneuvers, but after thinking about it, I want to come up with a simpler system based on basic attacks that can have modifiers tacked on by your Archetype or specialization. And for the big powers, keep maneuvers around as maybe trick shots or something.

A rough example of the idea would be if you were a Quickdraw Shotgunner, you could make a basic attack and then pick from a few modifiers:

Quickdraw: If the attack missed by 5 or more, reduce your damage die by one step and make another attack against a different enemy.
Shotgun: On a hit, the enemy takes a -2 to AC until the end of your next turn.

You'd obviously have more of these to pick from after each attack, but I'm still thinking about whether or not to limit them by level as well as maximum number you can have. If I don't limit them by level, I'd like to have feats that let them get more effective as you level up.

The design is still pretty early, so I'm open to any suggestions you guys might have, so please, fire away.

Chevy Slyme
May 2, 2004

We're Gonna Run.

We're Gonna Crawl.

Kick Down Every Wall.

Good Username Here posted:

Speaking of pending names, if anyone wants to suggest different names for any of the words/abilities it'd be greatly appreciated. One of the ones we're having the biggest trouble with right now is Choose Your Own Casting Stat, we're not sure what to call it.

Master of Metaphor or Talented Translator: You understand that the same thing can be said in hundreds of subtly different ways; select your own stat blah blah crunch crunch.

Jackard
Oct 28, 2007

We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Good Username Here posted:

Speaking of pending names, if anyone wants to suggest different names for any of the words/abilities it'd be greatly appreciated. One of the ones we're having the biggest trouble with right now is Choose Your Own Casting Stat, we're not sure what to call it.
I would make the names of Words closer to their effect; this mechanic reminds me of Warlock metamagic

Motion -> Blast
Blight -> Venom
Corrosion -> Bite/Blight
Radiance -> Holy/Grail/etc.
Breeze -> Spear
Thought -> Mind
Noise -> Burst
Sprout -> Strike

Not sure what to rename Ground, something that both buffs and targets AC

Jackard fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Apr 29, 2014

Prythian
Aug 6, 2012

sweet dreams

Jackard posted:

I would make the names of Words closer to their effect; this mechanic reminds me of Warlock metamagic

Motion -> Blast
Blight -> Venom
Corrosion -> Bite/Blight
Radiance -> Holy/Grail/etc.
Breeze -> Spear
Thought -> Mind
Noise -> Burst
Sprout -> Strike

Not sure what to rename Ground, something that both buffs and targets AC

The reason they're named the way they are is fluff. You're manipulating the elements of the world by doing this; Sprout is literally attacking using plants, Breeze with wind, etc. If their effects don't match up with what you'd expect each element to do, that's because fluff-wise the words represent more than just that; they're broad concepts. Sprout, for instance, also has as part of it 'Growth'.

We spent a lot of time with naming the words and making sure each one felt right in what we were going for, so those names, at least, we're probably not changing. Talents and stuff? Sure, we'll look at suggestions for that stuff.

Good Username Here
Aug 20, 2012

~No devil on my shoulder!~

Prythian posted:

The reason they're named the way they are is fluff. You're manipulating the elements of the world by doing this; Sprout is literally attacking using plants, Breeze with wind, etc. If their effects don't match up with what you'd expect each element to do, that's because fluff-wise the words represent more than just that; they're broad concepts. Sprout, for instance, also has as part of it 'Growth'.

We spent a lot of time with naming the words and making sure each one felt right in what we were going for, so those names, at least, we're probably not changing. Talents and stuff? Sure, we'll look at suggestions for that stuff.

Another important thing to mention with this is we wanted the word names to be kinda vague so that there was a lot you could do with them in both improv and ritual casting. Like using motion and breeze in a ritual might simulate flying or levitation.

Good Username Here fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Apr 30, 2014

kwadrat
Jan 4, 2014
I was reading backwards through the thread and figured it might be useful to get a little compilation of stuff that has been brought up and isn't in the OP. -Fish- made a neat compilation of 'official material' (see quote below) but some might want to see more goon creations, bits and pieces that popped up in the thread and maybe see some of the debates around them.

I tried to minimise redundancy and skip over stuff that ended up on the official website, see page XX etc. to the best of my abilities effort.


Homebrew Classes

The Gunslinger by Serf - WIP (originally posted here)

The Runecaster by Good Username Here - WIP (originally posted here)

The Wright by PlasmaMan - WIP (originally posted here)

The Thief by Doublehex - WIP ver 0.2 (originally posted here)

The Lurker by RyvenCedrylle - polished version (originally posted here)

The Martial Artist by RyvenCedrylle (originally posted SOMEWHERE)

The Seeker by Captian Walker - ver 0.2 [WIP?] (originally posted here)

The Scholar by Hashtag Yoloswag (originally posted here)

The Field Commander by RyvenCedrylle - polished version (originally posted here)

The Dilettante by RyvenCedrylle - polished version (originally posted here)


Homebrew Other

Death To Ability Scores writeup by Myrmidongs (originally posted here)

Pyromancer general Class Talent by -Fish- (originally posted here)

Dragoon general Class Talent by -Fish- (originally posted here)

Assorted humanoid monsters (lvl 3) by Doublehex (originally posted here)

Assorted undead monsters (lvls 3-6) by Doublehex (originally posted here)

Paladin's Shadow Class Talent by Helmet 10 Warehouse

8 new races by Covok (originally posted here)

Bloated Reaper (lvl 9) by PublicOpinion (originally posted here)

Even Roguer Elements (lvl 11) by PublicOpinion (originally posted here)


Extended Grappling Rules by RyvenCedrylle (originally posted here)

Hotblooded and Stormlord Barbarian Class Talents by PublicOpinion

13th Age Zelda Races by -Fish- (originally posted here)

Demon themed monsters (lvls 7-9) by PublicOpinion (originally posted here)


Serf's Age of Guns

Serf's 13th Age Firearms Rules v.2 - WIP (originally posted here and initial version here)

Think Real Careful - Paladin Class Talent by Serf


Other useful stuff

THE post on Backgrounds aka why Manbird and Batman are equally awesome mechanically robust and engaging by Mystic Mongol

-Fish- posted:

I went ahead and compiled a list of player options from 13th Age, which I'll keep updated as new stuff comes out. If I missed anything let me know and I'll get it added in!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WzKUVvE7R7qz__aN2fV51YCddViIuEGBhYMjMn2UDUo/edit?usp=sharing/

Best post in the thread by Jackard

Setup macros for Roll20 escalation die by PublicOpinion

Setup macros for Roll20 attributes by Jackard

Filthy Bribes - alternative approach to handling currency by Bedlamdan


That's mostly it for the stuff that has been mentioned in 2014 since Dec 2013 in some way. Let me know if I missed/messed anything up.

EDIT: Updated with suggestions from Ryven and CaptainPsyko. Tsilkani - I'll get to that Wikipage as soon as I figure out a best way to format it.

kwadrat fucked around with this message at 11:45 on May 1, 2014

-Fish-
Oct 10, 2005

Glub glub.
Glub glub.

If I could vote a single post 5, you'd get it. That's a marvelous post.

Dr. Lunchables
Dec 27, 2012

IRL DEBUFFED KOBOLD



Now you should combine all that awesome stuff into a shiny new OP for a new thread. It could have pictures! And links! You could even write a joke or two! It would be glorious....

RyvenCedrylle
Dec 12, 2010

Owner of Mystic Theurge Publications
Great Scott, it's like we built a splatbook. I know there's things missing from that list too. My Dilettante class, the final revised version of DTAS, 31st Age Icons, Wild West Icons... I'm currently holding a baby, but maybe I can dig a few of those up.

edit: Myrmidongs' writeup for DTAS is here with original post here

The Dilettante is here with post here

RyvenCedrylle fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Apr 30, 2014

Tsilkani
Jul 28, 2013

The guy who made the Vanguard from the November '13 XX also made a few other classes, as well as genasi, gnoll, and ratmen races. He's got them all one his campaign page on the RPG.net wiki here.

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Chevy Slyme
May 2, 2004

We're Gonna Run.

We're Gonna Crawl.

Kick Down Every Wall.
Two other great posts worth linking in a new OP:

Filthy Bribes

On Backgrounds and why being a Magical Bird Turned Into A Human is as awesome as just being Literally Batman.

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