Glad that's working for you so far.
I've started taking a look at things that need to be changed in the basic rules already listed in the PDF. I'm not going to talk much about the additions posted on the last page of
this thread, other than to say that aside from the Cosmos Aspect, we'll probably use most of that. I need to go over it with a more critical eye at a later time.
There was also a recent changelog for a lot of the aggrievements,
right here, which will take precedent over what's shown in the class list in the previous link. Also,
Mage and Prince crap.
Anyway, general 'Problem Areas' that I see with the PDF as is. If anyone has any differing view-points, of course, let me hear them.
Basic Equipment:
Precision Melee-kind - Should most likely be reworked, maybe taking the smaller of it's two damage types, and getting a ridiculous +4 precision bonus. As it stands, it's just like Bladed Melee kind, only more unpredictable, and more time-consuming to resolve.
Crushing Melee-Kind - A little too powerful as is. Perhaps restrict the precision bonus to +1 instead of +2. I believe this was planned originally by the first team for 1.2, but only for 2 handed mode, which doesn't make much sense to me. To close the gap a bit for 1 handed mode versus two handed, I'd say bring that up to d12 instead of d10. That also keeps it useful compared to Reaching Melee, which would otherwise be straight up superior to Crushing.
Light and Heavy Ranged Kind - I think these should have the same ranges; 10 for 1 handed mode, and 15 for 2 handed. Once you change that, its only a light trade for power or accuracy, rather than be forced to go in close to use Light versus Heavy.
Armors: Possibly might be worth Nerfing Light Armor ever so slightly. I think for almost all of us, Heavy Armor's speed penalty just isn't worth a 1 point increase to AC, which doesn't even happen for most of us. In fact, in Mimi's case, Heavy Armor is WORSE for her. Giving Light Armor only 2+Img Or Acu Modifiers might be more... balanced, particularly for players who draw Mgt and Plc mains.
Alchemized Item Traits: Most of these are pretty well thought out, but some don't look worthwhile, at least to me. some things could be changed.
Weapon Traits:
Elemental Infusion: This looks like a really weak set-up to me. It just doesn't seem like a worthwhile way to add damage, one point at a time, especially compared to hardened edge. Alternatively, we might consider changing it to a two tier trait, buyable at 2 and 3 points, and granting half level to full level damage. That might be slightly over-powered though. We might want to run the numbers on that.
Weapon Power Traits:
Multi-Attack: There are two of these. One attacks additional targets, and the other adds extra individual attack rolls. One needs to be renamed.
Esoteric Attack: Pretty vague. This one might be worth just removing.
I also propose a new Power Trait to be added.
Reliable: At a two point cost (maybe higher, up to 3 maximum, I'd think,) missing with the power would recharge it, allowing you to attack with it again. Of course, you wouldn't be able to use this with the Inescapable trait.
Armor Traits:
Shield: The cost of this is too low to for the potential benefits, considering it functions as an additional set of armor for a measly .5 alchemy points, with the only downside being locking you in one handed abstratus mode. Frankly, I'm surprised no one took it. Or maybe I shouldn't be, since, in the case of characters who would grab it (i.e., Mimi) they are basically untouchable anyway. I say we either add some restrictions, like, say, the Shield item does not gain base armor benefits, and is merely a place to sack extra armor traits you couldn't drop on your armor proper. Alternatively, we could allow the base armor type benefits at half value, i.e +1 AC plus half you Acu or Img modifiers for a light shield. Last possibility would be to just throw the price through the roof, at like, 3 or 4 points.
Tough: 3 points for +1 armor class? Seems expensive to me.
Elemental Aura: Should be updated to not affect Minions: Otherwise it toasts them easily.
Armor Power Traits:
Soaring: Should require a duration purchase. It does for Item types that do this, and does so cheaper.
Item Traits:
Miscellaneous: Needs some examples, and probably some guidelines for associated point costs.
________________________________________
Moving on. The Character Death section. It doesn't specify where character death occurs, or anything of that nature. The PDF is pretty stand-alone in a lot of other areas, so this is something worth mentioning there. 0 hit points is when a character is dying, and they must not fail more than 2 death saves to survive. If they reach the equivalent of negative their bloodied value hit points, they are dead, saving throws or not.
Also, the Entering the Medium section is very vague. It should mention skill challenge benchmarks that players should meet before going in, or suggestions for puzzles, or similar.
The section regarding the gates should be updated to more closely reflect canon. I'm willing to bet that most of you remember that discussion.
Underlings:
Aside from the inclusion of the enemies statted out since the release of 1.1, there needs to be a wider variety, and the inclusion of some enemies that have been seen, but are as yet unincluded. freeform statted out an enemy seen in the comic some time ago, and after some combat testing, I feel it'd make a good addition. The enemies John wipes out in Cascade are also probably worth adding, to give some late-game combatants, as the ones in there right now are only challenging up to level 8 or so, judging by their stats. Something to get in your way at 9th and even 10th level are worth having, but we won't need too many in those cases.
Another pressing matter is the inclusion of enemies with ranged option. The reason that that Restraining trait Org mentioned is such a game-breaker is that only the Basilisk underling has a ranged option before prototyping. Any character with Flight and a ranged-weapon is invulnerable very quickly. Giving Ogre's a fairly inaccurate boulder tossing ability could be a good start, for lower levels. An underling with dedicated range as it's base behavior would be a solid idea also, but it might need to be created from whole-cloth, and I don't know how I feel about that particularly.
In any case, more ranged options for the enemy would probably cut down on the bottleneck battles, and diversify how other battles are fought. All of the fights we have had so far mostly consist of both sides running up at each other and hitting the opponent as hard as they can possibly hit them until one side is dead. This is definitely at least partially my fault, but we haven't had much or any opportunity to really use the terrain in the game, and ridiculous ideas that turn battles on their head rely on that sort of thing, and are at the heart of any good TTRPG story you'd care to tell anyone.
Prototyping: Might be worth it to add some of the ones we created specifically for this game, just for the sake of completeness.
Well, that ended up being spectacularly long winded.
EDIT: Also, I now have a Steam, because of reasons.
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Topic: Homestuck RPG v1.2 build thread (Read 79606 times)