Duskblade mixup

[SITB]

The PHB II states that the Duskblade should pick his spells from the spell list on page 98(page 19, Class Features, Spells) however, the list has spells from levels 1-5 and doesn't have 'True Strike' for example, which characters in the starting packages have.Other then that, in Table 1-3, The Duskblade(page 21) you can see that the Duskblade has level 0 spells. Where is the Duskblade's true and complete spell list ?

[Ikkitosen]

The list is at the end of the Duskblade entry in the PHBII IIRC. Confusing. Only new spells are on the later table.

[Person_Man]

The spell list is on page 24.

[TheThan]

Yeah, its on page 24,

It’s kinda frustrating. I went through and wrote them all down so I could pick spells easier. Simply because I got tired of digging around for them so much.

[Thomas]

Worst. Editing. So far.

[Fax Celestis]

Worst. Editing. So far.

Good book, good content, bad editing.

[Person_Man]

Worst. Editing. So far.

Yes. But can anyone point me to a gaming book that is well edited? I have no idea why, but 90% of any gamer related material is poorly edited. Heck, I've even seen the wrong name etched into the bottom of a miniature. I'm a statistician with horrible grammer, so maybe I'm not the best person to criticize. But is there any company out there that has written a fun game AND hired a copy editor?

[Skyserpent]

Not quite... where was that one book with all the HORRIFFIC editing mistakes? Like misspelling names and places all over the place? It was some Forgotten Realms Supplement I think...

[Fax Celestis]

Yes. But can anyone point me to a gaming book that is well edited? I have no idea why, but 90% of any gamer related material is poorly edited. Heck, I've even seen the wrong name etched into the bottom of a miniature. I'm a statistician with horrible grammer, so maybe I'm not the best person to criticize. But is there any company out there that has written a fun game AND hired a copy editor?

Copy editors are apparently too expensive.

[Thomas]

Actually, okay, Mongoose's new RuneQuest Monsters is edited worse. There's 3E RQ stuff there that makes no sense in the new MRQ, they have dice averages wrong, damage modifiers and hit points calculated wrong, etc. etc. It goes on and on...

[CockroachTeaParty]

Well, according to the PHB II, Duskblades are not proficient with simple weapons. Martial weapons, sure. But not simple weapons.

*froths*

[Fax Celestis]

Well, according to the PHB II, Duskblades are not proficient with simple weapons. Martial weapons, sure. But not simple weapons.

*froths*

I..wait, what?

[CockroachTeaParty]

"Duskblades are proficient with all martial weapons, as well as all armors and shields (except tower shields)."

Notice, simple weapons are not mentioned. Similar to the old Slayer typo from the 3.0 psionics handbook, which stated that they were proficient with all weapons.

[Fax Celestis]

Wow. That's kinda ridiculous.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Indeed.
"The hobgoblin just disarmed you of your longsword. It's your turn, Mr. Duskblade."
"I draw my dagger and attack!"
"You miss. You are not proficient with that weapon."
"What?"
*head explodes*

[JaronK]

Meh, there's bad editing in all kinds of gaming books. Check out the Serenity RPG book for a good example... on one page, a paragraph goes to the end of the page, is midway through a sentance... and then on the next page it's a whole new chapter. Whoops.

JaronK

[ImperiousLeader]

There's a Serenity RPG? Is it any good?

[JaronK]

Well, it's Serenity, so if you loved the series, there's that. It does have a lot of nice background and some details you otherwise couldn't get. Still, there's a lot missing... there's no spaceship combat rules, for example, and a lot of it just comes down to "do whatever the DM says here, because we didn't make a real rule." The editing is attrocious, too.

But it's playable.

JaronK

[Fizban]

Not quite... where was that one book with all the HORRIFFIC editing mistakes? Like misspelling names and places all over the place? It was some Forgotten Realms Supplement I think...

Dragons of Faerun. I read a review by a guy, I think it was over on those EN boards or what/whoever they are. He went through and checked all the stat blocks and tables too, it was insane how much crap was wrong.

[Ikkitosen]

Meh, there's bad editing in all kinds of gaming books. Check out the Serenity RPG book for a good example... on one page, a paragraph goes to the end of the page, is midway through a sentance... and then on the next page it's a whole new chapter. Whoops.

JaronK

The Feng Shui rulebook does exactly this too. Apart from that it's an awesome game and a beautifully presented book.

[sktarq]

Yes bad editing can leave things VERY confused. I think the World of Darkness: Chicago has to right up there. I found at least half a dozen sample characters that had discrepencies in their clan alone in various parts of the book (as in durring the covenant section it would say that the holder of a position was (name) a Ventrue but find her later on and she's a Nosferatu. Or two entries show up one Gangrel on Ventrue and supoosedly one sired the other-twitch).

[Thomas]

Dragons of Faerun. I read a review by a guy, I think it was over on those EN boards or what/whoever they are. He went through and checked all the stat blocks and tables too, it was insane how much crap was wrong.

It's pretty awful, yeah. All the stat blocks have something wrong, pretty much.

But MRQ Monsters is heinous. I've got the mummy entry here.

Human STR and CON are 3D6. The mummy entry says they are doubled when you become a mummy. The mummy below has STR and CON... 3D6+12, somehow averaging 21? They got the average right (except if you actually double the value, it has to divisible by 2), but... what?! And that's not even half of what's wrong with that single entry. This entry - like many others in the book - makes weird references to rules mechanics that make no sense, and it mentions the Mummy's Resilience skill - which it doesn't have. (It has no skills, period, on fact. Most of the monsters in the book are missing Resilience, which is used whenever you get wounded...)

[Wehrkind]

Funny, I have a friend from college who essentially majored in editing, and yet had to get a job as a secretary for lack of work. Either she priced herself out of the market, or games publishers just don't bother to look :(

[Thomas]

If Mike Pondsmith is anything to go by, then no, they don't bother to look. (He wrote & edited and did the layout & design for Cyberpunk v3. It's awful. The interior art is photographs of G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls. That is not a joke!)

[AtomicKitKat]

I think it was either a Dragonlance book or V:tM Mind's Eye Theatre sourcebook. Maybe AD&D Spells and Powers. The parsing went like paragraph, turn page, talk about something else that was further down on the next page, then resume talking about previous page.

Mongoose has a pretty bad reputation for poor editing. Ultimate Prestige Classes 2 had the Monster Maker PrC. They double printed the tables/statblocks for Monsters IV-VI, and Monsters I-III were missing. I had to e-mail them to ask for the proper tables. -_-

[Thomas]

I think it was either a Dragonlance book or V:tM Mind's Eye Theatre sourcebook. Maybe AD&D Spells and Powers. The parsing went like paragraph, turn page, talk about something else that was further down on the next page, then resume talking about previous page.

Mongoose has a pretty bad reputation for poor editing. Ultimate Prestige Classes 2 had the Monster Maker PrC. They double printed the tables/statblocks for Monsters IV-VI, and Monsters I-III were missing. I had to e-mail them to ask for the proper tables. -_-

Cyberpunk v3 does a lot of the first. You get some "white pages," the sentence gets broken off at the bottom of the page, and then... you get 4 "green pages," dealing with something else, and then the white pages resume. Agh!

And Mongoose is certainly keeping up that reputation (although I must say that Monsters is the only Mongoose RuneQuest book I've read so far with actual glaring editing issues; but it's got enough of those to make the book essentially worthless).

[mikeejimbo]

Good content, good editing, good art.

Pick one.

[ClericofPhwarrr]

Well, it's Serenity, so if you loved the series, there's that. It does have a lot of nice background and some details you otherwise couldn't get. Still, there's a lot missing... there's no spaceship combat rules, for example, and a lot of it just comes down to "do whatever the DM says here, because we didn't make a real rule." The editing is attrocious, too.

But it's playable.

JaronK

There's a second book coming out that's supposed to give a lot more detail. Currently it is very flexible, but a really good system regardless. If you plan on using it, I highly recommend checking out the fan boards for needed fixes. Some of the material is more needing of fixing for good play than, say, DND broken stuff. Getting good suggestions on hand-to-hand combat fixes, and for additional gun and ship ideas, makes the fan sites much worth using.

It's a great system, especially once the GM figures out the needed fixes for the campaign.

[TheThan]

If Mike Pondsmith is anything to go by, then no, they don't bother to look. (He wrote & edited and did the layout & design for Cyberpunk v3. It's awful. The interior art is photographs of G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls. That is not a joke!)

that's GI Joe Action figures, not dolls.

[AtomicKitKat]

that's GI Joe Action figures, not dolls.

*giggle* Yeah, you'd expect Sgt Slaughter to say that, wouldn't you?