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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Mar 2020

    Default Adjusted Rule System (PEACH)

    This is meant to be a list of minor and a few major tweaks to D&D 3.5 that may or may not ever see actual play, but since I don’t really have the ability to playtest it at the moment (outside running both sides of a combat) I figured I should at least post the whole thing online and get some feedback. The main problem I see with it is complexity but I don't think it's that much more complex compared to the base game. How much of this is actually viable?
    Note: I don't have the post count to use links, so anything I reference has to be searched up yourself.

    Spoiler: Class Tiers
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    So, the biggest change by far is the rebalancing of classes. Given that going through each class and adjusting it piecemeal, or originating new classes, is both too much work and too much to remember, I went for a more brute force method.
    I simply banned all Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 6 classes, split the remaining 3 tiers into 5 tiers, and gave lower tiers an accelerated acquisition of feats and ability score increases. The idea is to create a balance around Tier 3, with lower tier classes making up for their more linear class features with a less linear Effective Feat Level (EFL), which would give feats at first level and every 3rd level and ability score increases at every 4th level. Multiclassing characters add up their EFL from each class to determine their total.
    Spoiler: Classes by Tier
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    This is heavily based on the class tier update of 2019 thread on GITP, with a few adjustments. This is with the assumption that all build options (feats, ACFs, spell lists, etc.) from all 1st and 2nd party sources are available unless otherwise specified. This only includes base classes, the tier of prestige classes is determined on a case by case basis if the issue comes up.
    Spoiler: Tier 3
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    Shugenja (CD), Bard (PH), Trickster Variant Spellthief* (CA, Dr 353), Jester (DrC), Swordsage (ToB), Totemist (MoI), Crusader (ToB), Warmage (CA), Binder **(ToM), Warlock (CA), Warblade (ToB), Dragonfire Adept (DrM)
    Spoiler: Tier 3.5
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    Wild Shape Ranger Variant (UA), Duskblade (PH2), Factotum (Ds), Psychic Warrior (EPH), Lurk (CP), Psychic Rogue (web), Wild Monk (Dr 324), Incarnate (MoI)
    Spoiler: Tier 4
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    Shadowcaster (ToM), Rogue (PH), Barbarian (PH), Generic Expert (UA), Generic Warrior (UA), Divine Mind Ectopic Ally Variant (CP, web), Healer*** (MH), Master**** (WotL), Scout (CA), Spellthief^ (CA), Paladin (PH), Adept (DMG), Ranger^^ (PH)
    Spoiler: Tier 4.5
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    Ninja (CA), Savant (DrC), Fighter (PH), Marshal (MH), Sohei (OA, Dr 318), Hexblade (CW), Divine Mind^^^ (CP)
    Spoiler: Tier 5
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    Monk^^^^ (PH), Battledancer (DrC), Mountebank (DrC), Samurai (OA, Dr 318), Dragon Shaman (PH2), Magewright (ECS), Swashbuckler (CW), Mariner (LotT), Knight (PH2), Noble (DCS), Soulborn (MoI), Soulknife (EPH)
    Spoiler: footnotes
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    *Has no access to the bard spell list; **Has no access to Zceryll; ***No BoED spells or variant companions; ****Cohorts and Followers must also be Masters; ^Trickster Variant is Tier 3; ^^No Mystic Ranger, Wild Shape variant is Tier 3.5; ^^^Ectopic Ally variant is Tier 4; ^^^^Wild Monk variant is Tier 3.5
    Spoiler: Full EFL by Class Tier Table
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    Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
    Tier 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
    Tier 3.5 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 13 14 16 17 19 20 22 23 25 27 28
    Tier 4 1 2 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 24 26 28 31 33 36 38 41
    Tier 4.5 1 2 4 6 8 11 14 16 19 22 26 29 32 36 39 43 47 50 54 58
    Tier 5 1 2 5 7 10 14 17 21 25 30 34 39 44 49 55 60 66 72 78 84

    Spoiler: Builds
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    Spoiler: LA Point Buy system and Races
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    LA +0 races get 25 point buy, LA +1 get 18 point buy, LA +2 get 10 point buy, and LA +3 get 0 point buy. Additionally, a lot of races and templates have LA adjusted and/or RHD removed and/or stats adjusted in order to give more variety, with the available races adjusted to the campaign in question. The list of changed races and templates is too long to list here though.
    Spoiler: Miscellaneous
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    HP are max at 1st level and half at subsequent levels. No multiclassing XP penalty. Fractional base save and base attack bonuses (but the +2 bonus for a good save stacks). Prestige classes are available and have a tier on a case by case basis. XP is earned based on the Level Independent XP variant from UA.
    Spoiler: Favored Classes
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    Gaining a level in a favored class gives +1 hp and +1 skill point (or +4 at 1st level) and a new feat Additional Favored Class adds any base class as a favored class. Races with favored classes that are now banned are switched from Cleric to Adept, from Druid to Ranger, from Sorcerer to Shugenja, and from Wizard to Magewright.
    Spoiler: Incarnum changes
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    The Open ___ Chakra feats from MoI work like Martial Study. Characters without meldshaper levels get +1 to their max number of chakra binds, whereas characters with meldshaper levels don’t. A new feat, Extra Chakra Bind, requires one meldshaper level, increases the maximum chakra bind limit by one, and can be taken multiple times. Another new feat, Practiced Meldshaper, improves meldshaper level to character level.

    Spoiler: Skills
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    Spoiler: Miscellaneous
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    Craft check results are in gp, not sp. Diplomacy uses the updated rules from the Alexandrian website, as does Tumble. Search checks cover a 15 ft by 15 ft area.
    Spoiler: Stealth and Perception
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    A creature gains +10 to Hide and Move Silently when not moving, though it still takes a move action. A creature gets a free Hide and Move Silently check if possible at the end of an attacking, running, or charging action with a -20 penalty. Actively making a Spot check or Listen check is a move action and targets the previous Hide or Move Silently check.

    Spoiler: Combat
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    Spoiler: Natural 1s and 20s
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    Natural 1 on a save doesn’t risk damaging items. Rolling a natural 1 or natural 20 on a save or attack isn’t an automatic failure or success and is instead treated as a -10 or 30 respectively.
    Spoiler: Attacking
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    Iterative attacks are always at -5. e.g. a BAB of +20 becomes +20/+15/+15/+15 on a full attack. Having a BAB of +8 allows an iterative attack on a standard action attack, and having a BAB of +15 allows two such attacks. Extra attacks from natural weapons, TWF, etc. don’t apply. Having a BAB of +12 allows a single attack as a swift action.
    Spoiler: Critical Hits
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    Effects that improve critical hit ranges stack unless they’re from the same type of source. So multiple keen edge spells wouldn’t stack but one would stack with a keen weapon enhancement or the Improved Critical feat.
    Spoiler: Injury and Death
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    Death is at a number of negative hp equal to twice the creature’s CON score. A living creature is staggered/disabled from 0 hp until their negative CON score, then dying from their negative CON until death.
    Spoiler: Massive Damage
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    Massive damage happens when a character takes more damage from a single attack than their massive damage threshold, which is 25 plus or minus 5 per size category larger or smaller than medium plus 2 per HD. The subsequent Fort save is at DC 15 plus 1 per 5 hp past the threshold, and failing the save drops them to 0 hp (and are therefore staggered/disabled).
    Spoiler: Armor Damage Conversion (from UA)
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    An armor bonus to AC also converts some lethal damage to nonlethal damage and negates some nonlethal damage. The amount converted or negated is a maximum of the armor bonus in damage per attack. Any damage not susceptible to damage reduction (e.g. energy damage, and damage from spells, SLAs, and supernatural abilities) is also not subject to damage reduction.
    Spoiler: Surprise Round
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    A creature can ready a standard action for the surprise round without knowing when it will happen, essentially spending a standard action every round to ready that action. It must use this action, even if the initial situation makes the action disadvantageous. Delaying in the surprise round until the beginning of the first normal round in order to get a full round of actions is allowed, but gets an initiative result no higher than 20 + their initiative modifier.
    Spoiler: Parrying (adapted from Dr 301)
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    A new special attack, Parry, is specified as follows. As an AoO 1/round, can attempt to cancel a melee attack that has already hit (but before damage is rolled). Roll a melee attack roll against the result of the attack that hit, with a +4 bonus/penalty per size category larger/smaller than the attacking creature and a -4 penalty for using a natural attack. Cannot be used when wearing Medium or Heavy armor (or being encumbered), when unarmed, or when denied a DEX bonus to AC. Parrying provokes a disarm attempt that doesn’t provoke an AoO or allow a disarm attempt in return. When used against a critical hit works on the critical confirmation roll but not the initial attack.
    Spoiler: Parrying Feats
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    Armored Fencer (Heavy): DEX 13, INT 13, Combat Expertise, Armor Proficiency (Heavy), Armored Fencer (Medium): Can parry in heavy armor
    Armored Fencer (Medium): DEX 13, INT 13, Combat Expertise, Armor Proficiency (Medium): Can parry in medium armor
    Crushing Defense: STR 13, DEX 13, INT 13, Combat Expertise, Power Attack, Improved Sunder, BAB +4: When successfully parrying a manufactured weapon, get a free sunder attempt that doesn’t provoke AoO
    Guarded Defense: DEX 13, INT 13, Combat Expertise, Improved Disarm, BAB +4: Parrying does not provoke a disarm attempt
    Improved Parry: DEX 13, INT 13, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes: Can make more than one parry attempt per round, but each one still uses up an AoO
    Incredible Parry: DEX 13, INT 13, Combat Expertise, BAB +6: +4 to Parry attempts, can be taken more than once
    Protective Parry: DEX 13, INT 13, Combat Expertise: Whenever a creature you threaten is attacked with a melee attack, can attempt to parry that attack (still uses up an AoO)
    Steel Skin: DEX 13, INT 13, Combat Expertise, BAB +4; Can parry with an unarmed strike with a -4 penalty (note that Monk and Battledancer treat unarmed strikes as natural weapons and thus don’t need this feat)
    Spoiler: Conditions
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    Fear now works as stacking penalties. Shaken still gives -2 to attacks, saves, and checks, but Frightened now gives a -4 to these checks instead of making the target run away, and Panicked now gives a -6. Weapons held in a locked gauntlet aren’t dropped when stunned, and magic items that use the hands slot can usually be made with a locked gauntlet.
    Spoiler: Engulf Clarification
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    Engulf now works like Trample. It’s a full round action that allows the creature to move up to twice its speed and engulf any creature of the appropriate size whose entire space it move over. The AoO mentioned is the same as, not in addition to, the oe provoked by moving into an opponent’s space, and it doesn’t have the -4 penalty the one vs Trample has.

    Spoiler: Adventuring
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    Spoiler: Encumbrance by Stone
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    Items are stored in bundles of 20 pounds or less, with the size of light, medium, and heavy loads determined by the number of pounds divided by 10 rounded up. So more weight carried overall in exchange for the convenience of being able to play around with weight without calculating item by item.
    Spoiler: Passive Training
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    For verisimilitude, all intelligent creatures automatically earn a minimum of 10 XP per day spent actively practicing their skills. This explains how NPCs gain levels or make magic items without encounter XP or story XP. Since the Level Independent XP table has higher thresholds, this XP is almost useless to players but at least gives something for whenever one PC makes an item and the others have nothing to do for a week.
    Spoiler: Repeated Encounters in a Day
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    The first encounter in a day has only 50% XP, the second 75% XP, the third 100%, the fourth 125%, etc. This is a solution for the problem of the 15 minute adventuring day by providing an incentive to have multiple encounters and conserve resources rather than using all resources then waiting for the next day to arrive.

    Spoiler: Magic
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    Spoiler: Alter Self, Polymorph, and Metamorphosis
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    These spells now follow the Polymorphed template as described by the Giant on this forum, as does Wild Shape. Any classes that did gain Polymorph now gain the Sor/Wiz replacement spells at the appropriate spell level. Alter Self remains as normal but is now restricted to the Polymorphed template as well as the spell description. Metamorphosis follows the Polymorphed template but isn’t split up. As stated below, Assume Supernatural Ability and Metamorphic Transfer are banned.
    Spoiler: Arcane Disciple
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    This feat only works with prepared arcane casters. When taking it multiple times, must choose domains from the same deity but the once per day per spell level usage is per domain, not total.
    Spoiler: Spellcasting Monsters
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    Almost all monsters with innate spellcasting ability (not SLAs) have that removed and their CR dropped accordingly.
    Spoiler: Metamagic Changes (from UA)
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    When using a Metamagic feat, it is applied spontaneously, doesn’t increase the casting time for spontaneous casters, and doesn’t increase the spell’s level. However, the caster must have access to the spell level it would normally take. Each metamagic feat can be used 3/day and can be taken another time to give three more uses. Using a metamagic feat in weird ways, like Divine Metamagic and Metamagic Spell Trigger, function normally and don’t count against this limit. Heighten Spell raises the effective spell by the maximum amount. Using more than metamagic feat or the same feat more than once expends multiple uses and requires access to the total adjusted spell level. The Sudden Metamagic feats work as normal. Unlike standard metamagic feats, these only work 1/day, can be applied to any spell level, can be taken only once, and have and count as different prerequisites.

    Spoiler: Magic Items
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    Any item in the MIC used the version there rather than any alternative version. The MIC rules for adding common magic item effects and for combining magic item effects with the same body slot apply. Magic and mundane items that are uncommon or difficult to make (either in the region or everywhere) have a higher effective price for determining whether a community of a certain size has it available to sell.

    Spoiler: Alignment
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    Spoiler: Evil Acts
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    Poison isn’t evil (unless it’s excessively painful), creating undead isn’t evil, killing someone for the sole purpose of turning them into undead is evil. Murdering someone to steal their stuff is more of a neutral than evil act depending on the context and how much a campaign has that as the core experience. Just trying to avoid the weird hypocrisies about what is and isn’t evil by focusing on intents and results rather than a [Good] or [Evil] tag.
    Spoiler: Alignment Scale
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    Alignments are both the normal nine and an ordered pair on the scale ([0, 20], [0, 20]). For the first number from 0 to 6 means Lawful, from 7 to 13 means Neutral, and from 14 to 20 means Chaotic. For the second number the same ranges mean Evil, Neutral, and Good. Basically, people can now go against their alignment from time to time and still stay within it as long as they follow it most of the time.
    Spoiler: Working Definitions
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    Spoiler: Good vs Evil
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    Good creatures want everyone to benefit, neutral creatures want their particular group to benefit, and evil creatures want themselves and possibly a few others to benefit. This definition tries to allow for neutral creatures to commit violence without being explicitly evil and still allowing good PCs to fight them. This hopefully avoids the issue of “good humans/elves/whatever, evil orcs/goblins/kobolds” even though both sides periodically kill and oppress the other. In this system, they’re both just neutral societies.
    Spoiler: Law vs Chaos
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    Lawful creatures are risk averse and Chaotic creatures are risk friendly. This definition tries to avoid the issues of what actions are lawful being defined by an arbitrary authority and the unfortunate choice of many chaotic PCs to make trouble for its own sake (which is neither realistic nor enjoyable).

    Spoiler: Banned
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    Banned books are any 3.0 content, BoED, and any 3rd party content. Banned feats are Leadership, Greenbound Summoning, Augment Summoning, Corpse-Crafter, Natural Spell, Item Familiar, Extraordinary Artisan, Mercantile Background, Tashalatora, Troll-Blooded, Silver Tongue, Boomerang Daze, Arcane Thesis, Easy Metamagic, Practical Metamagic, Midnight Metamagic, Metamagic School Focus, Residual Magic, Rapid Metamagic, Metamagic Song, Assume Supernatural Ability, Metamorphic Transfer, Versatile Spellcaster, Dragon Cohort, Undead Leadership, Wild Cohort, and Craft Contingent Spell. Nightsticks are banned. Things that depend on unused rule systems (e.g. taint, defiling, insanity) are banned. Note that things may be added or even taken off this list with DM approval (e.g. a 3rd party prestige class the player really wants). Specific build options available in a campaign may depend on the region in which it takes place.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    nonsi's Avatar

    Join Date
    Apr 2010

    Default Re: Adjusted Rule System (PEACH)

    Nice touch with iterative attacks, polymorph and spellcasting monsters.


    Regarding your ban list . . .

    Banning Augment Summoning means that you nix the low-level summoner archetype. (just noting)
    Greenbound Summoning was supposed to have a +2 SL adjustment according to the original creator.

    Of the remaining banned feat, here are the ones I find justified:
    - Craft Contingent Spell
    - Dragon Cohort
    - Leadership
    - Natural Spell
    - Troll-Blooded
    - The Metamagic feats you mentioned
    The rest pose no real balance issues.

    Nightsticks can remain, if used for no other purpose than to actually Turn undead.
    Last edited by nonsi; 2021-05-19 at 11:24 AM.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    Imp

    Join Date
    Feb 2009

    Default Re: Adjusted Rule System (PEACH)

    First of all this is a very good job its all very detailed and though I don't agree in certain places I would play with these rules, at least out of curiosity.

    Also it depends what you mean with complexity. You rules are quite a lot but this is only natural if you want to fix specific problems. They also have the benefit, aside from removing many classes, that they don't change the game a lot.

    My main problem with your rules is that you base a lot of your fixes on tiers. I am not very familiar with the reason each class goes to each tier but as far as I understand tiers are granted based on a class used to the maximum (infinite loops and pun pun not withstanding).
    Say anything you want about the cleric being op but at least you get a perk for being delegated to healing. Unless I am mistaken in your rules someone will have to pick a Healer or a water/gentle way Shugenja and I can easily see a situation where no one wants to do that, though tbh this can also happen in normal games.
    So in not high op games the healer/warmage may wonder why the dungeoncrasher, zentarim soldier fighter is getting all those extra feats, ability increases and iterative attack and he gets nothing. But maybe that because I never cared for optimizing a healer or warmage and I just played a cleric or wizard.
    Tier 5 classes end up with +15 to an ability and +28 feats compared to the base line.
    Tier 4 classes end up with +10 to an ability and +19 feats.
    I can see this being overkill and many games. On the other side if you play with an optimal way this could be a good solution. Again a lot of this is pushing the game to the point where tiers matter.
    I am considering a fighter 20 will be better than a warblade 20 with these rules. But again I don't remember how much you twink the warblade.
    I guess you could advise new player to pick classes from the lower tears.
    This also makes prestige classes very hard to use as the DM will have to assign tiers to each one.

    Random question but is there any way to access teleportation in your rules? Psionics propably?

    Other issues:

    "Magic and mundane items that are uncommon or difficult to make (either in the region or everywhere) have a higher effective price for determining whether a community of a certain size has it available to sell. "

    I am curious in how this helps with balance or why its needed.

    "The first encounter in a day has only 50% XP, the second 75% XP, the third 100%, the fourth 125%, etc. This is a solution for the problem of the 15 minute adventuring day by providing an incentive to have multiple encounters and conserve resources rather than using all resources then waiting for the next day to arrive. "

    I really like this I have my own modifications to xp per encounter. A problem I see with your version is that the turn of the encounters can change the xp you gain. Facing CR9, CR10, CR11 is different xp from CR 11, CR 10, CR 9. But maybe this is intentional?

    What's the reasoning for the Hide and Move silently rules? Asking because I am genuinely interested.

    The rule that removes spellcasting from creatures and also advices to change their CR is a bit prolbematic IMO. I could see it being hard/too much work modyfying those CR's. How about replacing the lost caster levels with Shugenja ones?

    Iterative attacks seem overkill to me. I wonder if how the warblade compares to the fighter with the rules you use. I mean fighter already has dungeoncrasher and zentarim soldier. Your rules are also an indirect nerf to the monk and standard action attack manuevers. Maybe allow the monk to add flurry attacks to the standard action attack?

    I am not sure how to feel about critical effects stacking. Doesn't this makes crit fishing even more obnoxious?

    Double con score to death is interesting. I use level+con score. I think I also like the you are disabled part. Is it to avoid getting coup de graced and having the option to just nope out of the combat?
    The armor UA rule is interesting, also goes toward making the already petty lethal dnd combat, less so. It is however sth that increases the complexity of the game, though sligtly above the level dr does.

    The fear change is also nice.

    Also is dragon magazine allowed? I am not very familiar with it or actually know any of the lower tiered classed from it.

    Regarding the ban list, are Splitting arrows allowed?

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Ogre in the Playground
    Join Date
    May 2013

    Default Re: Adjusted Rule System (PEACH)

    Don't base mechanics on tiers. It will just create more broken multiclass builds. Perfect example is Soulborn vs. Figther: Soulborn gets 8 extra feats over Fighter on this tier basis, with no restrictions on use, alongside their three Incarnum feats. Because you've rated the Soulborn a low tier over its baseline version, it is now strictly superior to Fighter. And because it's feats, it's actually not worth it to take Fighter dips for low-tier classes anymore because multiclassing now takes out your high level bonus feat progression on top of delaying your class features. And, of course, it also ignores how it absolutely buggers multiclass optimization standards, because now Psychic Warrior 7/Soulborn 11/Totemist 2 is a respectable build from Soulborn 12 giving you over a dozen extra feats to be absolutely certain you get everything remotely applicable and plenty enough Essentia for Midnight Augmentation, Girallon Arms, and Dread Carapace.

    Point buy being base 25 and differing with LA is a steep issue in that it double-dips penalties hard. A Goliath suddenly finds itself barely able to have an 18 assigned in Strength, having only one other score to give a 10, whereas an Orc will afford 18 Strength, 10 Dex, and 14 Con, giving it extra HP by point-buy on top of having an extra level for that to affect, making the bar for LA+1 to be worth it absolutely insane because it guts your ability to generalize. Many people are going to have a target primary score, come Hell or high water, and all penalizing point-buy is going to do is make them dump anything else harder.

    Also, please bring back the lack of stacking crit modifiers, they were removed with the 3.0 changeover for good reason. Thanks to this, a Core-only Falchion or Kukri in the hands of anyone with access to Keen Edge now gets a 9-20 crit range, making it so you are literally incapable of accuracy below 55% without Miss chances added, and the loss of iterative penalties means you're easily getting multiple crits per round. Combine with the above and... Well, Soulborn is now one of the best blunt-force combatants in the game because they have a stupid number of feats to spend on stealing key Soulmelds from Totemist and Incarnate, acquiring Essentia, and obtaining the normal feats for their build of choice.

    Spellcasting Monsters should be in the opposite direction because players are not getting ahold of those resources by any sort of shapeshifting, and SLAs don't scale to higher-level SLAs, so for a DM spellcasting monsters should be a valued resource because the existing spellcasting will stack with levels to avoid insane HD bloat and an oversized toolbox trying to give them level-appropriate magic-user capacity for 4+ levels higher. If you insist, I'd suggest moving them to some more-streamlined system with Spells Known, like 5e Pact Magic or a spell-points functionality, and declare their "suggested" list is their required list rather than something flexible so whatever remaining player shenanigans grab it can't repurpose it. If it's about summoning, mandate the specific summon variant (where you choose a single kind, if not exact individual, monster to summon on learning the spell) and throw in proxy slot expenditure, so you're almost certainly disadvantaged over Shadow Illusion versatility.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Mar 2020

    Default Re: Adjusted Rule System (PEACH)

    Okay, so now that I've gotten a few responses I have a direction in which to explain my thoughts behind this. In no particular order:

    The removal of spellcasting from spellcasting monsters wasn't an issue of balance from shapeshifting or summoning/calling. It was actually about complexity needed to run. I find it weird that a dragon (for example) has all these natural attacks and a breath weapon and senses and flight and SLAs, all of which add a bit of complexity, yet it also has all these spells, most of which it's never going to use but still raise its CR for some reason. If I want a NPC to have spellcasting, I want it to be from a spellcasting class rather than a racial feature in addition to a bunch of other things. If it's a NPC appearing in more than just one fight and thus has more than a few rounds to use its abilities, I'd rather it have an ally doing the spellcasting rather doing it itself. This is still a matter of personal preference though.

    Long range magical teleportation is accessible via the Travel Domain and either Arcane Disciple or an Adept (the Religious Adept variant from Eberron Campaign Setting where one domain's spells are added to a class list is a built in part of the Adept here, though I didn't list it. Might go back on that though.) Runestaffs or other magic items can also be used for other classes, though it's often easier to hire a specialist if you're not going to be doing it that often. Short range teleportation like Dimension Door is much more common, not only from class spell lists and magic items but also from dragonmarks and other bits and bobs. Psionic teleportation is also fairly easy to access either via Psychic Warrior or the Expanded Knowledge feat.

    The thing about magic items being considered different prices when determining availability is taken from weapon and armor templates from DMG2. I wanted a way to simulate a market economy while not upsetting WBL, and I wanted a compromise between "Here's the magic items available, take it or leave it." and "This small shop has every possible item priced below the community size limit." Players can still order custom items, but they shouldn't expect some obscure, custom, or rare item to be available just because they're in a large enough community.

    The xp for encounters going up over the course of the day is to solve the 15 minute adventuring day problem. D&D 3.5 often balanced things by giving some build options more powerful abilities in exchange for few daily uses while giving other build options weaker abilities in exchange for being able to do it all day. This system gets ruined when the party can just blow all their daily abilities in the first fight than wait 24 hours to do it again. Putting the burden on adventure designers or DMs to create a reason for the party to not do this is somewhat unfair when this issue should be fixed within the system itself. Now the party has to consider the increasing XP awards with the risk of overextending themselves. The idea of increasingly challenging encounters being worth more than the same encounters in reverse wasn't intentional, but I like it anyway. In the latter case, PCs can use more of their daily abilities in the first fight since they're closer to retreat if necessary, whereas in the former case it's unknown how many of their daily abilities they saved for the tougher fight.

    The Hide and Move Silently rules are more to resolve ambiguities in the base rules than to make new ones. Making one of the checks is a move action, but can you make both with the same move action? But it's -20 to make one when you're attacking, running, or charging, so when is those actions are you using your move action? If you move over with a move action and you succeed on your stealth checks, and then you attack, does your previous stealth check retroactively get a -20 penalty? Or does it apply to your next move action? If you don't move stealthily next round, how long does the -20 penalty last? Running and charging are full round action in which you move, so the penalty can apply to that movement? Hide and Move Silently checks are opposed by Spot and Listen checks, but Spot and Listen checks take a move action, so can take up one of the enemy's move actions just by hiding whether they're looking for you or not? All these questions aren't really resolved in the base rules, so I decided to clarify them. The +10 for not moving is because of the penalty for moving too quickly and the +20 bonus for an invisible creature not moving (on top of the +20 for being invisible). I wanted there to be some sort of bonus for using a move action with no movement, especially since it's somewhat difficult to get cover or concealment in the middle of combat. Now a Rogue in melee in an Obscuring Mist can give up iterative attacks in exchange for sneak attack (plus no Dex to AC and the +2 for invisibility), assuming they beat the Spot check. The use of move actions for things other than moving is also a slight buff to standard action based builds (e.g. casters, martial adepts, AoO builds, or low level characters) since they can now use their spare move action to be stealthy or spot hiding enemies.

    The iterative attack rules are actually taken from a post on another thread somewhere on the GITP 3.5 boards. The idea that it's almost required for a melee martial character to have some way to move and full attack in the same round is kind of odd to me, and buffing standard action attacks is a response to that. Now a high level build that can't do that still deal a respectable amount of damage, especially if it can also use it's swift action. Full attacks have also been buffed slightly by making 3rd and 4th iterative attacks have a decent chance of actually hitting.

    The buff to critical hits is less broken than some might think. Critical hits don't deal that much more damage, especially compared to uber-chargers, and the dichotomy between purely legal 15-20 threat range Scimitars and grandfathered 3.0 Disciple of Dispater Lightning Mace Aptitude Kaorti Resin Scimitars with little in between is disappointing to me (note that Disciple of Dispater and using Aptitude with Lightning Mace isn't allowed in these rules). Critfishers are giving up some Strength to get the Dexterity for the Two Weapon Fighting line of feats plus must invest heavily in items and feats to buff the threat range and the attack rolls to make sure it hits, plus many creatures types are immune, plus magic items can boost defenses against critical hits, plus they're often tied down to a specific weapon or weapons. The ability to invest more resources to get a better result most of the time isn't what I would consider broken in this case. I'd take a good lockdown build over this any day, but it does provide an alternate way to deal damage.

    The armor damage conversion and extension of negative HP both serve the purpose of making combat less of a fight to the death. Instead of only being staggered at exactly 0 HP and dying at -10 HP, meaning at mid to high level play one often goes from being fine to dead in a single attack, there's an area at which PCs and NPCs know to retreat and survive. Low level play is much more survivable (though not necessarily winnable), and mid to high level play becomes moderately safer. Damage conversion also makes in combat healing more powerful, since magical healing heals both lethal and nonlethal damage. In general, defeated enemies (and PCs) either flee or drop unconscious rather than have every fight be a fight to the death.

    I really like the fear change too, it makes using fear more enjoyable for both DMs and PCs.

    Dragon Magazine in the 3.5 era is generally allowed unless it's on the ban list, though certain things may be banned or changed depending on what it is. Splitting weapons are allowed, since archery is already somewhat underpowered in 3.5 compared to melee. Precision damage only applies once per initial arrow though.

    The point buy based on LA is instead of missing levels, not in addition to. So a Goliath compared to an Orc has -2 DEX, +2 CON (fine depending on build), +2 to all mental stats (fine), movement stuff (okay), no darkvision but also no light sensitivity (fine), and powerful build and +2 to sense motive, plus different access to feats and prestige classes. So a Goliath might have stats 18/12/16/8/8/8 while the Orc has 21/14/14/6/6/6 if they focus on physical stats alone, which isn't that much of a difference. You can argue which has the better deal, but the idea that the higher the LA is, the fewer the viable classes is somewhat intentional. More bizarre creatures are closer to an archetype, while creatures closer to humans have more variety among their species. So for classes that require one or two high scores, a higher LA creature is better, whereas classes that require multiple high or medium scores are better suited for lower LA creatures.

    The class tier system is based on the idea that higher tier classes tend to improve quadratically, whereas lower tier classes tend to improve linearly or are even frontloaded. Hence, that trend is reversed for feats and ability score increases, meaning the classes are roughly equal across levels. The problem with the system comes up when lower tier classes do improve quadratically (or at some other polynomial), making it weaker at low levels when it actually needs the boost but super powerful at higher levels when it doesn't need it. The Soulborn, Divine Mind, and Shadowcaster are probably the most egregious of this category. That said, let's compare the Fighter and Soulborn as this is a good example of when the system doesn't work, which I'm grateful to you for pointing out.
    What does a high level Fighter look like? Generally it fits into one or more of three categories. First, a generalist. This Fighter has the basics of a charger build, and the basics of a lockdown build, and the bare minimum needed to ranged attack, can deal okay with concealed enemies, etc. They aren't particularly great at anything, but they can adapt to a fight based on the circumstances of the fight. Second, a specialist. This is where you get your dual wielding double hand crossbows, your AoO lockdown specialists, your parry specialist who takes all the parry feats including Incredible Parry enough times that they can block any attack against any of their allies, your dual wielding super critfisher builds, etc. Any build that's super feat intensive can be achieved fastest by a single class fighter, plus at higher levels they can finally diversify a bit. Third, a dipper. Since fighters can quickly can get a combat style or two under their belt fairly quickly, they can take a dip in other dip friendly classes without losing too much. They can take a level or two in martial adept classes, Incarnate or Totemist, or even a level in Warmage, Bard, Trickster Variant Spellthief, or Duskblade followed by Practiced Spellcaster, Obtain Familiar, and Improved Familiar and take the mounted combat tree plus the extra versatility from low level spells. It is fairly rare that anyone ever takes 20 levels in Fighter instead of enough levels to get the feats they need plus a dip to enhance their abilities. Plus they get Melee or Ranged Weapon Mastery and both good and bad ACFs, along with great weapon and armor proficiencies.
    What does a high level Soulborn look like? Soulborn have a roughly linear progression for most class features, with proficiencies being front-loaded and essentia and chakra binds being back-loaded. If you look at the other Tier 5s, which apart from the Soulknife are all front-loaded, you can see why the quadratic feat and ability score progression is a problem for this particular class. However, I view the solution to this being moving it to Tier 4.5 rather than abandon the Tier system entirely. Meanwhile, let's look at it as being in Tier 5. At early levels, it's basically a fighter with fewer feats and an extra immunity. Once essentia comes online, it gains a ton of versatility, and is able to get one or two melee combos up in addition to soulmelds. Once you hit the later levels, you're getting Extra Chakra Bind enough times to bind all of the binds you've unlocked (I might want to weaken that feat) and have unlocked Incarnate and Totemist binds to aid your soulmeld versatility. You can even take Martial Study and Martial Stance, the Binding feats, and other small feat investments. Note that Bonus Essentia can be taken only once, so after that you need to take normal Incarnum feats to gain more essentia. Compared to an Incarnate, you have more Soulmelds and can use all Chakra Binds but fewer Essentia and slower chakra bind acquisition, Incarnum Defense instead of Incarnum Radiance, the feats and ability scores needed to specialize in one or more areas beyond just soulmelds, much better Fort but worse Will saves, better save DCs on your soulmelds, and some other stuff. Soulborn is still better by a fair bit, but not ridiculously so.
    Comparing Fighter and Soulborn by level:
    5th: A fighter has 6 feats, but has decent ACFs even at this level. A Soulborn has 5 feats, one of which must be an Incarnum feat, as well as one soulmeld, Smite Opposition, and Incarnum Defense. Depending on what build the Fighter is going for, the win probably goes to the Soulborn in a fight, and definitely goes to it in terms of versatility.
    10th: A fighter has 14 feats, with some decent ACFs, and can get Melee or Ranged Weapon Mastery by this point. The Fighter has one or more melee combat builds online at this point and might have some form of decent range. If it took a one or more level dip in martial adept classes (or Binder plus Improved Binding, etc.) then that opens up a lot of in or out of combat versatility. The Soulborn has 12 feats, two of which must be Incarnum feats (and another two of which are realistically going to be Extra Chakra Bind), plus a variety of soulmelds (some of which are set in stone since they're from Shape Soulmeld), some chakra binds, okay essentia, and Smite and Incarnum Defense. The win still goes to the Incarnate, somewhat due to it having the feats for a melee combo in addition to its Incarnum abilities.
    15th: A fighter has 22 feats, though it has likely given some of these up in exchange for a dip at this point. If not, it's going for an ultra specialized extremely feat intensive build. At this point the ability score disparity between the two classes is really starting to show itself, especially if the Fighter went for INT to get a lockdown build and the Soulborn didn't. A Soulborn also has 22 feats, but three are Incarnum feats. It has at point settled on a combat build incorporating the non-optional soulmelds from Shape Soulmeld and the six chakra binds it gets from the class and feats. I've ignored magic items until this point, but by 15th level characters have the ability to make up deficiencies through magic items, and Soulborns either have to take the Split Chakra feat or not use a magic item in a slot with a chakra bind. Even though the Soulborn looks obviously more powerful, many of its feats are used up to get soulmelds, get more essentia, get more chakra binds, get a melee combo, use magic items, etc. whereas the Fighter afford to take feat taxes for good feats, string together a bunch of feats working in unison, take dips for versatility, etc. Still goes to the Soulborn, but not at an insane scale.
    20th: A fighter has 30 feats, though at this point some are given up for ACFs or dips. By 20th level a fighter has the feats and WBL to actually do a double hand crossbow machine gun build with Splitting and Force on both Crossbows and DEX to damage. But it also has the ability to sense hidden enemies decently, have CON to will saves and immunity to a bunch of things, and trip or stall any enemies that come within 30 feet. With 30 feats that aren't called for other than 11 being fighter feats there's a lot of stuff you can do. A Soulborn not only has 31 feats, three of which must be Incarnum feats, it also has tons of Chakra Binds, tons of soulmelds, decent essentia, one or two melee options, an okay ranged option, and much better ability scores. On the other hand, the problems with feats being called for has gotten even worse, and very few magic items to cover up any remaining deficiencies are usable. A Soulborn undoubtedly has the Fighter beat at this point, barring an severe disparity in optimization.
    Let's see what happens when the Soulborn becomes part of Tier 4.5: 5th level has 4 feats, 10th level has 10 feats, 15th level has 17 feats, 20th level has 22 feats. This makes the fighter much more competitive since the Soulborn has to choose between keeping up with soulmelds, chakra binds, essentia, using magic items, and a decent melee combo. Thanks for pointing out this issue to me, and feel free to argue more in replies.

    As for 2 level fighter dips (or generic warrior or expert or monk dips, or one level mariner dips) no longer being optimal in most cases, that was completely intentional. These dips give more feats early on at the cost of fewer feats later, and are most useful to upper tier that aren't losing ability increases or feats (or at least not as many). Instead of mid to high level low tier martial builds being composed of dips in a bunch of front-loaded classes, they can have a major class with possibly a dip or two to gain some versatility.
    Also, Midnight Augmentation's limits to invested essentia, requiring essentia, only applying to one power, requiring expending psionic focus, and reducing by half a level's cost rather than a full level like Midnight Metamagic is the reason I don't think of it as broken and thus is perfectly fine to use in something like an Incarnate/Psychic Warrior build.

    I think that covered most of people's concerns. If there's anything else you want to know about, just say so. I'll hopefully get back to faster than almost three weeks this time.

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