Yakk
2006-12-21, 01:03 PM
It has been noted that melee suck compared to casters at higher levels.
Meanwhile, at lower levels, casters suck compared to melee.
Here is an attempt to fix this. All melee classes are now a 2 and a half way gesault. Caster classes are more uniform and more powerful at lower levels.
Allowed classes:
Saint, Sneak, Brute, Scout, Hero, Savage, Wizard, Druid, Cleric
Wizards Druids and Clerics "caster" classes.
The other 6 classes are melee classes, and they are hybrids of pseudo-fighter and two other melee classes.
Melee:
Saint: Melee/Paladin/Monk (d10 HD) 6+int skill points (Must be LG)
Sneak: Melee/Rogue/Bard (d6 HD) 12+int skill points (Cannot be Lawful)
Brute: Melee/Barbarian/Ranger (d12 HD) 8+int skill points (Cannot be Lawful)
Scout: Melee/Ranger/Rogue (d8 HD) 12+int skill points (Any alignment)
Hero: Melee/Paladin/Bard (d10 HD) 6+int skill points (Must be Good)
Savage: Melee/Barbarian/Monk (d12 HD) 8+int skill points (Must be Chaotic)
"Melee": Fighter, but no HD and no Skills. Basically gives the bonus feats, access to fighter feats, and +1 BaB to everyone.
Skill points: Best class, +1/2 second class, rounded to nearest even number.
Saves: All good (2 + level/2).
Ranger animal companion is that of a (druid-2), not druid/2.
Multiclassing:
The melee classes can multiclass in a limited way. You cannot be a multiclass Hero/Brute, or any of the above gesault classes. Instead, you can take a standard prestige class or core class and splice it in.
You give up 1/2 your skill points, and get to add in the skill points of the class you are multiclassing into. You keep all of your class skills.
You keep your saves and one of your two classes special ability progressiong.
You get the HD and BaB of your multi-class instead of your own.
You cannot multiclass into Fighter.
This is both for multiclassing into a prestigue class or multiclass into another "core" class.
Multiclassing into, or from, any Caster class (see below) requires you to give up everything.
(A caster class is a druid/cleric/wizard class, or any class that grants +spells/day from those classes.)
Casters:
All casters use the Sorcerer "spells known" as spells they can have in memory based off of their level+1. They get bonus "spells known" as well based off a stat.
All casters use the Wizard "spells/day", plus whatever bonus they get.
There are no socerers.
Clerics and Druids know "summon monster" and "cure wounds" (or inflict for evil) as a bonus, while Wizards know one specialty school spell as a bonus.
All casters learn 2 spells every time they gain a level of the highest level they have availiable to them. Roll randomly on a scroll table to determine which ones they get.
Wizards have spellbooks in which they can encode the spells they know. Clerics and Druids only know the spells they have in memory.
You cannot learn spells from a spellbook of another Wizard -- you can, however, scribe a scroll from it using "read magic". Scribing a spell from another wizard's spellbook erases the spell from the spellbook(!).
Divine and Arcane casters can learn spells from scrolls. This consumes the scroll.
All casters get +2 skill points/level over the core.
Wizards gain a metamagic/item creation feat every even level.
Clerics gain a metamagic feat every four levels.
Spontanious metamagic requires no extra time.
Wizards get a specialty for free -- no excluded schools required.
Druids get +1 spell per spell circle that must be a summon animal spell.
Wizard Specialty, Cleric Domain and Druid free Summon spells refresh every encounter. They can refresh a number of times per day equal to your "bonus spells" stat bonus.
Wizards gain +int bonus cantrips that refresh every encounter, and +int bonus cantrips known. (same refresh limit as spec. spells)
Clerics gain +wis cantrips per day, and +int bonus cantrips known.
Druids gain +cha bonus cantrips per day, and +int bonus cantrips known.
Casting stats (Yes, I'm evil.)
Wizard: Cha is resists, Int is bonus slots, Int is bonus spells known.
Cleric: Wis is resists, Cha is bonus slots, Int is bonus spells known.
Druid: Cha is resists, Wis is bonus slots, Int is bonus spells known.
Shape change abilities, unless otherwise noted, cannot change you into any shape with a CR greater than 1/2 your class level.
Casting spells while in any shape change that changes your physical stats (including size-change spells) requires extra effort. Every spell requires twice as many spell slots to cast.
Temporary HP will not heal wounds -- any damage done beforehand will remain. (spamming aid won't heal someone)
The healing domain, and any cleric/wizard domain/spec spell that grants the ability to heal damage, is barred.
A player can keep "going" a number of levels of spells equal to her class level+resist stat bonus+spell slot stat bonus. If you break this limit, old spells fail.
Contingency and similar spells require a swift action to activate.
Divine and Arcane metamagic works exactly the same way. You cast a spell known with a metamatic modifier, and use a spell slot that many levels higher.
Healing:
Binding wounds.
Bind wounds for 10 minutes, and roll d20+Heal+Target Level+Target Con-10.
This heals up to that much damage. Only 1/2 of the damage taken since the last bind wounds can be via bind wounds. Note that repeated binding of wounds is pointless.
This makes out-of-combat healing less of a spell slot drag on the cleric/druid, and makes cleric/druid-less parties more viable.
...
Thoughts? Are the above crazy-melee still insanely weaker than a CoDzilla?
The ability to cast spells/encounter means that a caster can always afford to cast spells in every encounter. This helps lower level casters much more than higher level casters.
Some of the Melee classes probably need some touching up to increase their distinctness from each other.
Meanwhile, at lower levels, casters suck compared to melee.
Here is an attempt to fix this. All melee classes are now a 2 and a half way gesault. Caster classes are more uniform and more powerful at lower levels.
Allowed classes:
Saint, Sneak, Brute, Scout, Hero, Savage, Wizard, Druid, Cleric
Wizards Druids and Clerics "caster" classes.
The other 6 classes are melee classes, and they are hybrids of pseudo-fighter and two other melee classes.
Melee:
Saint: Melee/Paladin/Monk (d10 HD) 6+int skill points (Must be LG)
Sneak: Melee/Rogue/Bard (d6 HD) 12+int skill points (Cannot be Lawful)
Brute: Melee/Barbarian/Ranger (d12 HD) 8+int skill points (Cannot be Lawful)
Scout: Melee/Ranger/Rogue (d8 HD) 12+int skill points (Any alignment)
Hero: Melee/Paladin/Bard (d10 HD) 6+int skill points (Must be Good)
Savage: Melee/Barbarian/Monk (d12 HD) 8+int skill points (Must be Chaotic)
"Melee": Fighter, but no HD and no Skills. Basically gives the bonus feats, access to fighter feats, and +1 BaB to everyone.
Skill points: Best class, +1/2 second class, rounded to nearest even number.
Saves: All good (2 + level/2).
Ranger animal companion is that of a (druid-2), not druid/2.
Multiclassing:
The melee classes can multiclass in a limited way. You cannot be a multiclass Hero/Brute, or any of the above gesault classes. Instead, you can take a standard prestige class or core class and splice it in.
You give up 1/2 your skill points, and get to add in the skill points of the class you are multiclassing into. You keep all of your class skills.
You keep your saves and one of your two classes special ability progressiong.
You get the HD and BaB of your multi-class instead of your own.
You cannot multiclass into Fighter.
This is both for multiclassing into a prestigue class or multiclass into another "core" class.
Multiclassing into, or from, any Caster class (see below) requires you to give up everything.
(A caster class is a druid/cleric/wizard class, or any class that grants +spells/day from those classes.)
Casters:
All casters use the Sorcerer "spells known" as spells they can have in memory based off of their level+1. They get bonus "spells known" as well based off a stat.
All casters use the Wizard "spells/day", plus whatever bonus they get.
There are no socerers.
Clerics and Druids know "summon monster" and "cure wounds" (or inflict for evil) as a bonus, while Wizards know one specialty school spell as a bonus.
All casters learn 2 spells every time they gain a level of the highest level they have availiable to them. Roll randomly on a scroll table to determine which ones they get.
Wizards have spellbooks in which they can encode the spells they know. Clerics and Druids only know the spells they have in memory.
You cannot learn spells from a spellbook of another Wizard -- you can, however, scribe a scroll from it using "read magic". Scribing a spell from another wizard's spellbook erases the spell from the spellbook(!).
Divine and Arcane casters can learn spells from scrolls. This consumes the scroll.
All casters get +2 skill points/level over the core.
Wizards gain a metamagic/item creation feat every even level.
Clerics gain a metamagic feat every four levels.
Spontanious metamagic requires no extra time.
Wizards get a specialty for free -- no excluded schools required.
Druids get +1 spell per spell circle that must be a summon animal spell.
Wizard Specialty, Cleric Domain and Druid free Summon spells refresh every encounter. They can refresh a number of times per day equal to your "bonus spells" stat bonus.
Wizards gain +int bonus cantrips that refresh every encounter, and +int bonus cantrips known. (same refresh limit as spec. spells)
Clerics gain +wis cantrips per day, and +int bonus cantrips known.
Druids gain +cha bonus cantrips per day, and +int bonus cantrips known.
Casting stats (Yes, I'm evil.)
Wizard: Cha is resists, Int is bonus slots, Int is bonus spells known.
Cleric: Wis is resists, Cha is bonus slots, Int is bonus spells known.
Druid: Cha is resists, Wis is bonus slots, Int is bonus spells known.
Shape change abilities, unless otherwise noted, cannot change you into any shape with a CR greater than 1/2 your class level.
Casting spells while in any shape change that changes your physical stats (including size-change spells) requires extra effort. Every spell requires twice as many spell slots to cast.
Temporary HP will not heal wounds -- any damage done beforehand will remain. (spamming aid won't heal someone)
The healing domain, and any cleric/wizard domain/spec spell that grants the ability to heal damage, is barred.
A player can keep "going" a number of levels of spells equal to her class level+resist stat bonus+spell slot stat bonus. If you break this limit, old spells fail.
Contingency and similar spells require a swift action to activate.
Divine and Arcane metamagic works exactly the same way. You cast a spell known with a metamatic modifier, and use a spell slot that many levels higher.
Healing:
Binding wounds.
Bind wounds for 10 minutes, and roll d20+Heal+Target Level+Target Con-10.
This heals up to that much damage. Only 1/2 of the damage taken since the last bind wounds can be via bind wounds. Note that repeated binding of wounds is pointless.
This makes out-of-combat healing less of a spell slot drag on the cleric/druid, and makes cleric/druid-less parties more viable.
...
Thoughts? Are the above crazy-melee still insanely weaker than a CoDzilla?
The ability to cast spells/encounter means that a caster can always afford to cast spells in every encounter. This helps lower level casters much more than higher level casters.
Some of the Melee classes probably need some touching up to increase their distinctness from each other.