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1 year ago ::
Apr 23, 2012 - 7:43PM
#41
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...As a player, you can decide to focus on serving as a healer, choose to straddle the middle ground between fighting monsters and helping your allies, or even bla bla bla...
Ohhhhhhh I'm happy to hear that. *clap clap* It took a lot of work for me to make a "I've never raised a hand against anyone," character in 4e. (Thank you very much lazy Warlord/Shaman.) I enjoy playing support/utility characters who don't care all that much for the killin'z.
I guess I knew D&DN was going to have such a character attitude readily available what with all the talk about "the three pillars," but it's still nice to hear it specifically pointed out. Hopefully "straddle the middle ground" represents a gradual transition from one side to the next; as opposed to being 100% buffer, 100% killer, or pure 50/50.
What I think the Wilder Design Goals should be. Psionic Homebrew Mk2! Changed core, Focus Points, Psionic Potentials, stuff! Very basic core stuff. :P Homebrew Psionics blog posts archive: Spoiler:
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UPDATED Dec/18/2012: BAMN! Random update with a modest amount of hard rules for Animal Affinity, Telepathy, and Telekinesis. ADDED: Discipline Burn and more "soft" ideas.
Dec/13/2012: Small Psionics Homebrew Update, now that I'm done with Finals.
Really old.
Nov/02/2012:
I'm working on a homebrew Wilder, and so a homebrew Psionics system. Here's a 3 part post with info on where I am in the design process.
Part 1, Hard rules/example soulknife discipline: Link.
Part 2, Basic ideas/goals on basic numbers and classes: Link.
Part 3, Direction/ideas I want to take with specific disciplines: Link.:3
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1 year ago ::
Apr 23, 2012 - 8:48PM
#42
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Date Joined:
Dec 12, 2011
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Divine Magic is Subtle and Indirect.....and if that fails then Flame Strike! 
I like the way you think. 
Playtest or get off the playtest boards.
---
I want justice for the voice that can't be heard
Vindication for every suffering and hurt
Let retribution hold dominion over earth
--Nemesis, VNV Nation
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1 year ago ::
Apr 23, 2012 - 8:59PM
#43
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Divine Magic is Subtle and Indirect.....and if that fails then Flame Strike!
I like the way you think.
Actually, that does make perfect sense. Or, at least it does to me (because of my religious background). Think about Chartlon Heston's Moses from the movie the 10 Commandments. He started with the small stuff, like turning his staff into a snake. It was only after the small stuff failed that we got all those wonderful plagues, the parting of the sea, and the pillar of fire. That's how I picture divine magic in DDN; it whispers its presence at first, then, to the stubborn and hard of heart, FLAMESTRIKE!.
Why Mechanics-Alignment Integration is Bad
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so why even play a fighter if you can play the paladin the exact same way behaviorally and get added power to boot. "Paladin" is about accepting better game-enhancing mechanics at the price of more rigid in game behavior.
Really? So it goes something like this?
Fighter: "I want to be a paladin."
NPC: "Really?"
Fighter: "Yes."
NPC: "Very well." Starts reading from a holy book while still in-character "Do you accept having to choose and stick to the lawful good alignment, eventhough neither of us actually knows that it exists or what it is?"
Fighter: "I do."
NPC: "Do you reject good game balance because you accidentally rolled a high Charisma?"
Fighter: "What?"
NPC: "I don't know what it means either."
Fighter: "Oh. Umm, ok I do."
NPC: "In the name of all that is metagamey and broken, accept these better game enhancing mechanics."
Fighter: "These what?"
NPC: "Just get out there and try to fulfill a million different people's notion of good while not violating and part of any of them."
So the system is designed such that every single hit needs to be described to avoid confusion? Here's a scenario. The players are nudists, everybody in the world are nudists, it's not weird, it's totally normal in this land. They are naked and they fight drakes taking damage throughout, but healing up with surges. Later they meet the guy who raised the drakes.
Part 1: I didn't describe any of the hits. What does he see?
Part 2: Lets say I described the drakes as biting the players, yet they healed up. What does he see?
D20 Modern Toon PC Race.
Mecha Pilot's Skill Challenge Emporium.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 3:15AM
#44
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"In 2E clerics did very little combat damage and as the class that could primarily heal their allies they had to memorize healing spells instead of offensive or buff spells to fulfill their role."
Only if you accept that healer is the cleric's primary role. I always saw them more as holy butt-kickers blasting wave after wave of undead horrors to dust, laying about in the thick of battle with skull-crushing maces of disruption.
I didn't let my players browbeat the guy playing the healer into taking only healing spells. And, since I as the DM ultimately controlled what spells the cleric got past level 2, if it looked like he was getting pressured into taking spells he didn't want to take? I'd just start giving him cool self-buff and blasting spells instead of what they wanted him to take, because his god was tired of him wasting energy on non-believers who didn't appreciate his assistance. The other players learned the joy of playing like getting hit was actually painful to their characters - they started planning more carefully, conserving resources, and a new dimension of fun was added to the game.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 4:37AM
#45
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2006
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I rebember when I played Diablo II with a barbarian I chose the power of searching dead bodys to find potions. My PC was suffering a lot of damage and I spent lots of potions..
Healer magic is very useful, but if PCs are using it always it becames.. ordinary, common, usual, normal. I suggest the best healer magic would like slow rituals (and/or medic aid) for rest after combat.
"Say me what you're showing off for, and I'll say you what you lack!" (Spanish saying)
Book 13 Anaclet 23
Confucius said: "The Superior Man is in harmony but does not follow the crowd. The inferior man follows the crowd, but is not in harmony"
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 5:59AM
#46
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Date Joined:
Jan 12, 2012
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I rebember when I played Diablo II with a barbarian I chose the power of searching dead bodys to find potions. My PC was suffering a lot of damage and I spent lots of potions..
Healer magic is very useful, but if PCs are using it always it becames.. ordinary, common, usual, normal. I suggest the best healer magic would like slow rituals (and/or medic aid) for rest after combat.
If fully agree.
At least healing during combat should be less effective, and perhaps the barbarian should be forced to step away from combat while the cleric heals him unless he wants to suffer AC penalties.
DISCLAIMER: I never played 4ed, so I may misunderstand some of the rules.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 6:41AM
#47
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Date Joined:
Apr 23, 2009
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I like the idea of clerics being mostly subtle until they face undead or otherplanar evil (if they are good of course) and then they become awesome destroyers.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 7:22AM
#48
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I generaly agree with most of the points in the article. I didn't favor in 4e that the cleric was one of the better healers and restricted with only maces and other simple weapons. I like the way they are moving to let the cleric use a bow or dagger effectively (depends on god, well likely). However I disagree on 4 greatly. What's wrong with a caster cleric in cloth armor? The picture shouldn't be only an cleric in chainmail with a mace or an elven cleric in hide armor and bow. There should be also options for a specialty priest in cloth armor and be in the backline of the party casting spells of their faith(no, no, not talking about divine wizards). Thus, there should be more than a armored warrior cleric build be an option for cleric builds.
I hope this is more than Armor Proficiency. I hope what this really means is Clerics are tough. Good HPs, better armor, great saves, etc. Something more akin to an arbitrary AC bonus, so the Cleric in cloth armor is tougher than rogue in cloth armor - if say, you were playing a cloth armored campaign. Maybe a better defenses goal instead of heavy armor.
I think this could also translate to the Druid, a specialty cleric in most editions. Lose the metal armor but retain the AC. Lose the metal armor and boost the saves. I was thinking a cool mechanic for Druids wildshape would be to maintain most of your abilities but play on the defenses. Maybe a snake has better poison saves or a monkey has better reflex saves. And earth elemental has AC boost and an fire elemental has immunity to fire.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 6:10PM
#49
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Date Joined:
Jun 28, 2006
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I found myself in major disagreement with most of the design goals they expressed in this article. "1. The Cleric is a Healer" Oh boy. This is one thing I really did not want to see in 5e. It's not that I didn't want clerics to have healing spells, it's just that I have always hated how they've been pigeonholed into healing as their primary role. This also probably means that every party will once again absolutely have to have a cleric to survive, and I've always hated that. People should be drawn to play clerics because they're awesome, not because every group is obligated to have one or else die. "3. Divine Magic is Subtle and Indirect." Making someone's wounds magically disappear before everyone's eyes, or raising the dead to life, inpsiring awe and reverence from the entire village that witnessed the event, those things are anything but subtle. I really hope they don't go too far with this. If I can't cast flamestrike or animate dead as a cleric or bring down biblical plagues upon my god's enemies, and can do nothing but heal and buff, count me out. "4. The Cleric is an Armored Warrior." It looks like my hopes of cloth-wearing priests being an equally viable option have been shattered. They really need to get past the whole knight templar/hospitaler thing. Clerics should be first and foremost priests, and the divine warrior role should belong mostly to paladins. The vast majority of priests, in real life or fantasy, don't go around in plate mail whacking things with a mace. That option should exist, of course, but let us play a robed priest that doesn't get into melee too!
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1 year ago ::
Apr 24, 2012 - 6:21PM
#50
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I think they really need to go back and look at 2ed 'The complete Priest's handbook'. That got it right IMO. Of course they'd need to simplify it a bit, not having a whole book to fill up with priestly options.
A system for exchanging domain access for better combat abilities (access to weapons and armour) and/or more 'granted abilities'. That's three ways to reflect the gods right there (1. what domains they have access to, 2. weapon/armour restrictions, 3. granted abilites).
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