Xallace
2010-09-12, 09:03 PM
Yes, Trailblazer. That under-the-radar 3.75 that's probably not as obscure as I think it is.
I bought a copy for $20, and it just came today! So I've been looking it over, and there's some pretty cool stuff in here! It claims itself as something of a "fix" for 3.5, and I'm not so sure about how well succeeds at that claim. Highlights under the spoiler.
Action Points!
What It Is: Like a number of other things in Trailblazer, this is straight out of Unearthed Arcana, although touched up quite a bit. You get the basics of what's presented in Unearthed Arcana, plus a few new things you can do with them. Most importantly, though, are the "Action Point Enhancers." You get these at the same rate you get feats, and they mostly provide more things you can do with action points.
My Thoughts: I don't know if Action Points are as necessary as Bad Axe Games seems to think they are, but I do like their presence. Some of the Enhancements are pretty cool (like oracular visions, or my favorite, "Mentor's Passing," wherein if you die the rest of the party's points refill. Very thematic), but most of them are just "in this situation, roll more dice and take the best." Useful, given that action point dice explode now, but nothing great.
Resting!
What It Is: In between fights, the characters can take a 10-minute rest to gain a number of things: regain a set percentage of HP, recharge any ability that was previously per day, and lose certain status ailments or magical effects.
In this section, there is mention of a division within spells now: Rotes, which are all 0th-level spells and single target effects with duration of 1 min/level or less; Restricted, which are area or multi-target effects, Conjuration (Calling, Creation, or Teleportation) effects, and spells with a duration of 10 minutes or longer; Rituals, which are all spells with an XP cost or gratuitous monetary cost, Raise Dead, Divination/Commune, and Teleport explicitly, and "any spell that by reputation or overuse proves disruptive to the campaign."
I mention this because resting only recharges your Rotes. If you spend an action point during the rest, you can choose to recharge either A) All of your Restricted spells, or B) a single ritual.
You can also spend action points to regain other things, like more HP.
All abilities recharge on a 24-hour clock, rest or no.
My Thoughts: This part is supposedly designed to reduce the "15-minute Day" problem, and I think it does so admirably. I'm glad my paladin can now Smite pretty much every encounter.
I feel like they took the cheap way out with the spells, though. Splitting them up is great, I've wanted to do that myself, but that part about "yada yada whatever the DM finds disruptive" seems more like "We don't feel like fixing spells" than anything else.
Which is weird, because there are spell fixes later on.
Iterative Attacks!
What It Is: Gone are the iterative attacks! Now, upon reaching BAB +6, you can make two attacks at a standard action at a penalty. At BAB +11 and BAB +16, this penalty is reduced.
My Thoughts: This is great and sure to make meleers happy. I know I'm happy about it, and I usually play sorcerers!
Combat Reactions
What It Is: Combat Reactions are things you can do in combat when it isn't your turn. At 1st level, everyone gets one Combat Reaction per round. At BAB +6, +11, and +16, you gain an additional Reaction per round. Combat Reactions include things like Attacks of Opportunity, aiding an ally's attack, aiding an ally's defense, dodging an attack, and blocking/parrying an attack.
Combat Reflexes now gives you one extra Combat Reaction per round.
My Thoughts: This is sweet! Gives melee types more to do when its not their turn, and the blocking/dodging mechanics are simple and based on BAB, which is elegant. I honestly can see no downside to this idea and can't wait to use it in my game.
Skills!
What It Is: Skills got the Pathfinder treatment! Now, Cross-Class skills cost the same as class skills, and you can have just as many ranks in them as class skills; the benefit to class skills is the +3 bonus you get for putting ranks in them.
A couple skills got the boot: Concentration is a caster level check now, while Use Rope is a straight-up ability check (justified in the book as "Sometimes, the PCs just want to tie up a goblin." Hah).
The rest got a bit consolidated. We now have Stealth (Hide and Move Silently), Perception (Spot and Listen), Acrobatics (Balance and Tumble), Linguistics (Decipher Script, Forgery, Speak Language), and Persuasion (Bluff and Diplomacy). Open Lock is part of Disable Device, and Gather Information is part of whatever skill the DM decides will help you get information at the time.
What's more, classes got a skill point boost! Anyone with 2 + Int is now 4 + Int, and the Monk hopped up to 6 + Int.
My Thoughts: I'm OK with this. I think this a good change with no real downsides to speak of. I will certainly make use of its in my games.
Spellcasting!
What It Is: Some kind of hybrid between the "Magic Bonus" system from Unearthed Arcana and Monte Cooke's Arcana Evolved. Basically, every class gets a "Base Magic Bonus" (some higher than others, of course), so when you multiclass you add the bonuses together to see what level of spells you can cast and your caster level, etc. There's a few additional restrictions in place to stop cheese, which are nice.
Additionally, all classes have access to their whole spell list now. Yep. All of it. When you rest, you "ready" a number of spells that basically become your temporary spells known; From there, you can cast them spontaneously like a sorcerer! Each class gets some bonuses in this regard: Clerics get their domain spells readied for free, sorcerers get more spell slots while wizards get more spells readied, stuff like that.
Now, there are a few spell fixes within. Summon Monster and Polymorph are the most prominent. Essentially, you no longer gain the stats of (or summon) some monster or other, but you gain a number of special features and ability score bonuses that you can arrange to make your new form (or summoned monster) more unique and useful in the situation at hand instead of poring over books looking for just the right beastie.
My Thoughts: Well, I'm not sure how I feel about this. The more I think about it, the more I like it, but I'm certainly hesitant still. Makes gishes very viable, and the way it's set up you can't just dip a caster class and get high-level spells (something I was worried about on my first read-through). I would like to test it out and see how it goes.
The Summon Monster and Polymorph variations are certainly cool, and do seem to do well at nerfing their power level, but they really... didn't do much else. There's a new Animate Dead (that I'm not sure what the changed), a new Darkness, a new Desecrate, a few others... but alas, that's about it. A disappointment, really.
And there's plenty more inside that I still need to take a look at. So, in the meantime: Does anyone else have a copy, and if so, what are your thoughts? Otherwise, if you don't have a copy, do you have a questions about Trailblazer I could help with? Specific class questions, clarifications, anything?
I bought a copy for $20, and it just came today! So I've been looking it over, and there's some pretty cool stuff in here! It claims itself as something of a "fix" for 3.5, and I'm not so sure about how well succeeds at that claim. Highlights under the spoiler.
Action Points!
What It Is: Like a number of other things in Trailblazer, this is straight out of Unearthed Arcana, although touched up quite a bit. You get the basics of what's presented in Unearthed Arcana, plus a few new things you can do with them. Most importantly, though, are the "Action Point Enhancers." You get these at the same rate you get feats, and they mostly provide more things you can do with action points.
My Thoughts: I don't know if Action Points are as necessary as Bad Axe Games seems to think they are, but I do like their presence. Some of the Enhancements are pretty cool (like oracular visions, or my favorite, "Mentor's Passing," wherein if you die the rest of the party's points refill. Very thematic), but most of them are just "in this situation, roll more dice and take the best." Useful, given that action point dice explode now, but nothing great.
Resting!
What It Is: In between fights, the characters can take a 10-minute rest to gain a number of things: regain a set percentage of HP, recharge any ability that was previously per day, and lose certain status ailments or magical effects.
In this section, there is mention of a division within spells now: Rotes, which are all 0th-level spells and single target effects with duration of 1 min/level or less; Restricted, which are area or multi-target effects, Conjuration (Calling, Creation, or Teleportation) effects, and spells with a duration of 10 minutes or longer; Rituals, which are all spells with an XP cost or gratuitous monetary cost, Raise Dead, Divination/Commune, and Teleport explicitly, and "any spell that by reputation or overuse proves disruptive to the campaign."
I mention this because resting only recharges your Rotes. If you spend an action point during the rest, you can choose to recharge either A) All of your Restricted spells, or B) a single ritual.
You can also spend action points to regain other things, like more HP.
All abilities recharge on a 24-hour clock, rest or no.
My Thoughts: This part is supposedly designed to reduce the "15-minute Day" problem, and I think it does so admirably. I'm glad my paladin can now Smite pretty much every encounter.
I feel like they took the cheap way out with the spells, though. Splitting them up is great, I've wanted to do that myself, but that part about "yada yada whatever the DM finds disruptive" seems more like "We don't feel like fixing spells" than anything else.
Which is weird, because there are spell fixes later on.
Iterative Attacks!
What It Is: Gone are the iterative attacks! Now, upon reaching BAB +6, you can make two attacks at a standard action at a penalty. At BAB +11 and BAB +16, this penalty is reduced.
My Thoughts: This is great and sure to make meleers happy. I know I'm happy about it, and I usually play sorcerers!
Combat Reactions
What It Is: Combat Reactions are things you can do in combat when it isn't your turn. At 1st level, everyone gets one Combat Reaction per round. At BAB +6, +11, and +16, you gain an additional Reaction per round. Combat Reactions include things like Attacks of Opportunity, aiding an ally's attack, aiding an ally's defense, dodging an attack, and blocking/parrying an attack.
Combat Reflexes now gives you one extra Combat Reaction per round.
My Thoughts: This is sweet! Gives melee types more to do when its not their turn, and the blocking/dodging mechanics are simple and based on BAB, which is elegant. I honestly can see no downside to this idea and can't wait to use it in my game.
Skills!
What It Is: Skills got the Pathfinder treatment! Now, Cross-Class skills cost the same as class skills, and you can have just as many ranks in them as class skills; the benefit to class skills is the +3 bonus you get for putting ranks in them.
A couple skills got the boot: Concentration is a caster level check now, while Use Rope is a straight-up ability check (justified in the book as "Sometimes, the PCs just want to tie up a goblin." Hah).
The rest got a bit consolidated. We now have Stealth (Hide and Move Silently), Perception (Spot and Listen), Acrobatics (Balance and Tumble), Linguistics (Decipher Script, Forgery, Speak Language), and Persuasion (Bluff and Diplomacy). Open Lock is part of Disable Device, and Gather Information is part of whatever skill the DM decides will help you get information at the time.
What's more, classes got a skill point boost! Anyone with 2 + Int is now 4 + Int, and the Monk hopped up to 6 + Int.
My Thoughts: I'm OK with this. I think this a good change with no real downsides to speak of. I will certainly make use of its in my games.
Spellcasting!
What It Is: Some kind of hybrid between the "Magic Bonus" system from Unearthed Arcana and Monte Cooke's Arcana Evolved. Basically, every class gets a "Base Magic Bonus" (some higher than others, of course), so when you multiclass you add the bonuses together to see what level of spells you can cast and your caster level, etc. There's a few additional restrictions in place to stop cheese, which are nice.
Additionally, all classes have access to their whole spell list now. Yep. All of it. When you rest, you "ready" a number of spells that basically become your temporary spells known; From there, you can cast them spontaneously like a sorcerer! Each class gets some bonuses in this regard: Clerics get their domain spells readied for free, sorcerers get more spell slots while wizards get more spells readied, stuff like that.
Now, there are a few spell fixes within. Summon Monster and Polymorph are the most prominent. Essentially, you no longer gain the stats of (or summon) some monster or other, but you gain a number of special features and ability score bonuses that you can arrange to make your new form (or summoned monster) more unique and useful in the situation at hand instead of poring over books looking for just the right beastie.
My Thoughts: Well, I'm not sure how I feel about this. The more I think about it, the more I like it, but I'm certainly hesitant still. Makes gishes very viable, and the way it's set up you can't just dip a caster class and get high-level spells (something I was worried about on my first read-through). I would like to test it out and see how it goes.
The Summon Monster and Polymorph variations are certainly cool, and do seem to do well at nerfing their power level, but they really... didn't do much else. There's a new Animate Dead (that I'm not sure what the changed), a new Darkness, a new Desecrate, a few others... but alas, that's about it. A disappointment, really.
And there's plenty more inside that I still need to take a look at. So, in the meantime: Does anyone else have a copy, and if so, what are your thoughts? Otherwise, if you don't have a copy, do you have a questions about Trailblazer I could help with? Specific class questions, clarifications, anything?