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  1. - Top - End - #31
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Owrtho's Avatar

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Well, I'm quite excited to see the new improved magical girl classes. While I've yet to read through everything, there are a few things I've noticed.

    As mentioned above, the elemental device enhancements seem to be lacking this time. While on the topic of devices, I'd suggest noting if any of the weapon types can benefit from weapon finesse. Additionally, it may be worth adding an option for a weaker, but higher crit range Device Archetype (such as a 1d4(s), 1d6(m), 18-20/x2 weapon) for those builds that really like critical hits (though I'll admit this request is partially selfish given my current character's fighting style).

    Anyway moving on, I've noticed that there seems to be an issue early on with a lack of illumination versatility. Specifically, at level 1 you can only craft illuminations with a mote cost of 1. However, each of the three illumination types cost 1 mote by default, meaning no augments may be applied. This means at level 1 a Champion who knows 4 illuminations will always know Blast (1d6 damage), Barrier (cover chosen), Barrier (partial concealment chosen), and Surge (no effects).

    Upon reaching level 2, things don't get much better. There are at present only two 1m cost augments (the blast augment Power, and the Barrier augment Vitality). This means that a level 2 champion who may still only know 4 illuminations has three new choices that are as follows:
    Blast (1 rank power for 2d6 damage)
    Barrier (cover chosen, 1 rank Vitality)
    Barrier (partial concealment chosen, 1 rank Vitality)
    Given the actions required for the illuminations available, the new versions are each superior to their previous versions, still leaving the player with what are essentially 3 real choices.

    Upon reaching level 3, there begin to be more options, as the many 2 mote augments come into play (particularly as there are some with many options, though I'd note that the surge shapes will remain useless until at least level 5 when they may be applied to a surge along with an effect). That said, prior to that illuminations choices are quite bland. With this, I suggest making the default surge cost 0 motes, as it has no effect and would open up the option of using surges at level 2 (particularly as most if not all of the surge effects check the rank of the effect rather than the total cost of the illumination). 1 mote costing surge augments might also help. Additionally, adding more 1 mote options to blasts and barriers would likely be useful. That said, not much can be done for the first level without introducing 0 rank augments (possible, but they would need to be quite weak and possibly carry restrictions to avoid being stacked. Would likely be easiest if they had a tag akin to shapes preventing more than one on a single illumination. Maybe something like tweaks, which would be akin to the choice of cover or partial concealment for barriers.).

    Anyway, I do have a few blast augment suggestions. The first two, are based on the homing blast I'd previously suggested for the old version.
    Spoiler
    Show
    Split [Champion, Empath, Zodiac] [Shape]
    Mote Cost: 1m/rank
    Often a magical girl will find herself confronted with many a foe. To deal with their superior numbers it may be more effective to divide her efforts among them. For each rank of the split augment, she may select an additional target in range for her blast. She may divide the dice of her blast as she chooses among these targets. Each target must take at least one die of damage.

    alternatively:

    Split [Champion, Empath, Zodiac] [Shape]
    Mote Cost: 2m
    Often a magical girl will find herself confronted with many a foe. To deal with their superior numbers it may be more effective to divide her efforts among them. She may split her blast among a number of targets up to the number of dice of damage it deals. She may divide the dice of her blast as she chooses among these targets. Each target must take at least one die of damage.

    Possible other variations on the above would be making her only roll for attack once for all targets, or for the second version having it only cost one mote and reduce the damage dice by 1 step. Might even be fine to just reduce it to 1 mote cost, as while it might seem better than power off hand, it doesn't allow other shapes like power.

    Held [Empath, Zodiac]
    Mote Cost: 2m/rank
    At times the best course of action is to wait for exactly the right moment to act. For that preparation ahead of time can be key. A held blast need not be fired immediately like other blasts. For each rank in this augment, the blast may be maintained for a round past the one it was cast during. At any time until the end of your last turn that you may maintain it, you may release the blast as a free action, selecting a target (or targets) and making the attack roll(s) for it at this time. If the blast is not fired before this point, it dissipates harmlessly.

    That feels like it could do with some wording clear up. Anyway, possible changes that might be made for balance would be requiring an immediate action rather than a free action (though you may let multiple blasts be fired at that time) or making it so some form of mote cost is paid for every round you maintain it (meaning you have less motes in your mote pool starting out) either as a flat 1 mote rate or based on its cost.

    For a few possible tweak ideas to help expand the low level versatility of blasts there are also the following

    Long [Champion, Empath, Zodiac] [Tweak]
    Mote Cost: 0m
    Sometimes a magical girl will find that range is more important than power. Decrease the damage dice to d4s rather than d6s and increase the range of the blast by 5 feet per 30 feet of range it would normally have.

    Right, this one just seems a bit lackluster. That said, not sure it can be helped keeping the present default blast as a balance point.

    No Idea [Champion, Empath, Zodiac] [Tweak]
    Mote Cost: -1m
    Sometimes other effects are worth a minor sacrifice in power.

    This one might be decent but may not be well balanced. It allows earlier access to some augments, though it useless at level 1 which is where such abilities are really needed.

    Another thought would involve an something allowing a single turn of up to 90 degrees to be made by the blast on the way to its target. That said as a one time 0 cost why wouldn't you use it, and if it were made to actually be an augment with a cost (and grants a single turn per rank), then at one mote per rank it is too good compared to power, but at 2 motes per rank seems too weak with other options.

    Looking at it, it seems like balancing around the power augment throws off blast augments, as things that are weak enough to warrant only 1 mote with no drawbacks seem to be too good when viewed next to power, which is one mote for no effect (other than the standard damage buff that comes with any mote cost increase).
    Really, looking at barriers and surges (and for that matter blasts, though that would be less likely), some of the more standard buffs/debuffs (AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, saves, etc.) seem to lack any augments to impact them. May also be worth while to make a [shape] augment for surges that causes them to be applied to a target as part of an attack with your device (along with the damage the attack would deal). Might also fit for barriers, though I'm not sure if there are any that have hostile effects that would make you want to hit the person first.

    Anyway, keep up the good work.

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  2. - Top - End - #32
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Whew. A few very basic feats are up, and with that, I have exhausted the work I had 'finished' on creating this thread. I've been working on the Zodiac much of the day, and hope to have it up tomorrow, but for tonight feats and comments will have to do I'm afraid.

    Quote Originally Posted by Regalus View Post
    Hmm, I notice that the Champion makes mention of Cartridges, but not what they do. Would it be correct to assume that this is meant to be discussed in the Radiant Armament section?
    That would be correct, belated though my response seems to be.

    Quote Originally Posted by People
    Typos! Sic 'em!
    The typocatching efforts are wonderful - thanks to everyone pointing them out!

    Quote Originally Posted by Chronologist View Post
    I like it!

    Converting the Mote system into a power-by-round effect instead of a larger pool with limited recovery per round is a good idea. It reduces the amount of book-keeping players will have to keep, and encourage them to use Illuminations as often as possible.
    You pretty much hit my reasoning behind the change on the head - I noticed that, in practice, accumulating mote were less a limited resource than just an annoying thing to keep tabs on. The current incarnation of the concept is essentially Incarnum, Psionics, and the Tome of Battle jammed in a blender and set to 'fairy dust'.

    Quote Originally Posted by Chronologist View Post
    Having the base pool set at 2 * class level seems a bit high though. A level 5 character could blow 5 points on a 5d6 Blast with the Chaining quality (potentially hitting another target for 3d6 damage), then spend a Move action to get 15 points of Temporary hit points for 1 round from the Vitality Barrier. It certainly outclasses most of the things a Warlock of that level could to, and it pushes the limits of what your average 5th level Wizard could accomplish in a round, Fireball or no.
    An evoker is extremely granular, but I wouldn't call her overly powerful. She is definitely competent, and easy to optimize to a solid degree, but I'd put her snugly in the High 3, along with peers like the Beguiler or Dread Necromancer. A wizard, after all, isn't going to be casting Fireball - they're going to be using a single standard action to make the entire enemy team suck for the entire combat with a spell like Slow, or radically changing the flow of a fight with something like Summon Monster. Even the Warlock accomplishes with a blast essence would would take a magical girl a blast/surge combo to accomplish. The strength of magical girls is that they can point that blast and that surge at different targets, and use what power they have right where its needed most.

    Magical girls have a tight focus (admittedly, one that they have great freedom in defining), and are good at what they do, but they certainly don't outstrip true casters. It outclasses Warlock in places, but it lacks the utility Invocations, and the at-will Save-or-Loses that crop up at later levels and make the warlock a real powerhouse.

    Quote Originally Posted by Chronologist View Post
    Overall, I think it's shaping up very nicely. I'm definitely waiting for the Empath and Zodiac classes - I really want to play an Illumination specialist that ditches hit points and costume effects for Giant Orbital Friendship Cannons.

    Because FRIENDSHIP.
    The Zodiac is an illumination specialist, happily, you nailed that on the head.

    The Empath is... weird. I think I'll leave them a surprise a little longer.

    Quote Originally Posted by Durazno View Post
    Would a Champion be able to use a cartridge made by another Champion?
    No, sadly. I've clarified that in the ability now - they simply aren't compatible with other costumes or devices. It'd be like trying to jam a AA battery into a pistol - its a perfectly functional battery, but that just isn't going to work.

    Quote Originally Posted by dragonjek View Post
    Hi!

    I never said anything on the old Magical Girl thread, even though I really, really liked it.

    But with the start of a new thread... well, this seemed like just a perfect moment! This is beautiful. I'm absolutely in love--you've done a wonderful job with this, and once you finish this (I don't know if you aren't finished, or if you haven't posted it all... as of my typing this, only the Champion is up) I'm definitely going to put it into my upcoming campaign. Well, maybe a long time into it (it will be my first time DMing, and I don't want to try to do something too new this soon).
    Always glad to hear someone is enjoying this stuff! In any case, I've, at this point, posted about I had 'pre-made' in a word document. It is enough to functionally play a magical girl and not be missing any pieces, but there are a lot of options and features that just haven't gotten put to print yet, so to speak. First order of business is getting the core trio up, and after that, who knows?

    Quote Originally Posted by dragonjek View Post
    Will one of the classes be getting a class ability letting them use a Blast as a line attack? Or a feat, or something? I didn't see a Blast illuminations letting you do that. Even with the infinite customizations available (EEEEEE!!!! Excitement!), I still immediately think of a Starlight Breaker when I think of Magical Girls shooting things.

    And maybe other options for shaping a blast, too? Like... laying a blast as a series of trapped squares which activate if someone walks into them. Or a cylinder, or adding a random teleportation effect to it. Or an augment to an already Shaped Blast--making it come from a different direction, or laying two different Blasts on top one another (not for extra damage, just for area). Or splitting the damage in half to shoot two of them.
    I've only scratched the surface of what can be done with augmentations, and augmentations likely where most of this kind of thing will go. I like the idea of traps though, going to have to implement that somehow.

    Quote Originally Posted by dragonjek View Post
    Also, is there going to be a Rainbow Road-type effect? I thought the road of speed-increasing was a really neat idea (although a little specific for the more general nature of the revised classes... maybe a surge to increase speed?)
    Likely a move-boosting Barrier, at the very least. Rainbow Road is in my list of 'things to re-enable when I figure out a good way how and have time to write it down'.

    Quote Originally Posted by dragonjek View Post
    It looks like there are fewer Device Effects here (most notably, no elemental Device ability)... was that intentional, or were they overlooked in the remake? It's completely understandable if it was (this looks like a massive project, and I am honestly amazed. I hope to do something so impressive one day).
    Like augmentations, the present device effects are more or less a skeleton to get the class functional on a basic level. More will be added, and existing ones tweaked. However, Elemental probably won't be coming back, as the domain of blasting things has been moved more strictly to Illuminations. SInce they share a resource, there is a lot less room for overlap between illuminations and costumes than in the MG1.0.

    Quote Originally Posted by dragonjek View Post
    Also, will the be an option for a shield of some sort, or dual-wielding Devices? When I think of one-handed weapons, that's what I immediately think of (odd, because I took fencing classes... huh). The Stance effect also looks a little weak compared to the others (although I freely admit that I am very new to homebrewing and especially have problems with balance), although you do have a section for class options... will there be a Mistbreaker-equivalent option to enhance unarmed combat?
    Timely comment - Twinned Device and Blazing Aegis were two of the 'out-the-door' feats I had planned pretty much from the start. Twinned in particular now let's you reenact some multiweapon works of your own - why should multiarmed people have all the fun?

    Quote Originally Posted by ZeroNumerous View Post
    While interesting in and of itself, I would like to also see the return of the broken girl whose lost innocence becomes a bludgeon she uses to force the world to make sense. To use a Batman example, I would like to see a Magical Girl capable of both being the caped crusader who champions the downtrodden, and the tortured avenger of wrongs who cries out for mommy and daddy. In essence, I would prefer that neither the broken tearful woobie nor the ambitious jaded psychopath be the norm. I would like to see some way that two players using the same PRC go two wildly different routes with their characters and not need to wrestle with the class to do so.
    There will almost certainly more than one Dark Magical Girl PrC. Likely several, if you include various shades of gray. I can say for certain though that at least one planned PrC can cover both the archetypes you've just mentioned quite handily.

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    Nice to see this in a brand new, fancier package.

    The formatting is off in the break between Enhanced Armaments and Force of Personality (no line break or bolding of the ability name).

    Also, I have a sudden urge to stat Iji with this (once it's all up, of course).

    Edit: You might want to add a bit about how negative levels interact with evokers. I'd expect them to lose 2 motes per negative level, and have a lower evoker level as both are directly level-dependent, but should anything else change?
    Quote Originally Posted by Owrtho View Post
    Well, I'm quite excited to see the new improved magical girl classes. While I've yet to read through everything, there are a few things I've noticed.

    As mentioned above, the elemental device enhancements seem to be lacking this time. While on the topic of devices, I'd suggest noting if any of the weapon types can benefit from weapon finesse. Additionally, it may be worth adding an option for a weaker, but higher crit range Device Archetype (such as a 1d4(s), 1d6(m), 18-20/x2 weapon) for those builds that really like critical hits (though I'll admit this request is partially selfish given my current character's fighting style).
    Crits are something the magical girl is already good at. A champion gets five Enhanced Armaments to spend. Dump them all into a Versatile weapon, add Keen, and you have something with a 9 point crit range. Which is... rather a lot of critical range. Particularly if you consider taking one or two and putting Enhances into Crit mod. She may lack the insane autocrit shenanigains some builds can pull, but she can get a high-crit, high-mod weapon in her hands, which is a major rarity.

    Quote Originally Posted by Owrtho View Post
    Spoiler
    Show
    Anyway moving on, I've noticed that there seems to be an issue early on with a lack of illumination versatility. Specifically, at level 1 you can only craft illuminations with a mote cost of 1. However, each of the three illumination types cost 1 mote by default, meaning no augments may be applied. This means at level 1 a Champion who knows 4 illuminations will always know Blast (1d6 damage), Barrier (cover chosen), Barrier (partial concealment chosen), and Surge (no effects).

    Upon reaching level 2, things don't get much better. There are at present only two 1m cost augments (the blast augment Power, and the Barrier augment Vitality). This means that a level 2 champion who may still only know 4 illuminations has three new choices that are as follows:
    Blast (1 rank power for 2d6 damage)
    Barrier (cover chosen, 1 rank Vitality)
    Barrier (partial concealment chosen, 1 rank Vitality)
    Given the actions required for the illuminations available, the new versions are each superior to their previous versions, still leaving the player with what are essentially 3 real choices.

    Upon reaching level 3, there begin to be more options, as the many 2 mote augments come into play (particularly as there are some with many options, though I'd note that the surge shapes will remain useless until at least level 5 when they may be applied to a surge along with an effect). That said, prior to that illuminations choices are quite bland. With this, I suggest making the default surge cost 0 motes, as it has no effect and would open up the option of using surges at level 2 (particularly as most if not all of the surge effects check the rank of the effect rather than the total cost of the illumination). 1 mote costing surge augments might also help. Additionally, adding more 1 mote options to blasts and barriers would likely be useful. That said, not much can be done for the first level without introducing 0 rank augments (possible, but they would need to be quite weak and possibly carry restrictions to avoid being stacked. Would likely be easiest if they had a tag akin to shapes preventing more than one on a single illumination. Maybe something like tweaks, which would be akin to the choice of cover or partial concealment for barriers.).
    Regarding lack of stuff to do at extreme low levels... I will admit, a large part of it is that the Augmentation list really is quite dry at the moment. Hopefully that will shift.

    Unfortunately, part of the problem is just innate to levels one and two. They... are lousy levels. We are talking about the level range where Wizards are trying to snipe stuff with crossbows because they're out of spells. Different classes come online at different times, and the Champion doesn't really hit her stride as unique until 3rd level. Until then, she's still a Full BAB fighter with a decent weapon, and costume effects (how many classes get level 1 flight, even if it's just in jump-pack form?) to customize herself with.

    Zodiac does have a mechanism that gets them in the mix sooner - they have a mechanism to 'overchannel' their illuminations and learn effects a little beyond what they'd normally be able to, which means in early levels they get access to some stuff a good bit earlier.

    Quote Originally Posted by Owrtho View Post
    Anyway, I do have a few blast augment suggestions. The first two, are based on the homing blast I'd previously suggested for the old version.
    Spoiler
    Show
    Split [Champion, Empath, Zodiac] [Shape]
    Mote Cost: 1m/rank
    Often a magical girl will find herself confronted with many a foe. To deal with their superior numbers it may be more effective to divide her efforts among them. For each rank of the split augment, she may select an additional target in range for her blast. She may divide the dice of her blast as she chooses among these targets. Each target must take at least one die of damage.

    alternatively:

    Split [Champion, Empath, Zodiac] [Shape]
    Mote Cost: 2m
    Often a magical girl will find herself confronted with many a foe. To deal with their superior numbers it may be more effective to divide her efforts among them. She may split her blast among a number of targets up to the number of dice of damage it deals. She may divide the dice of her blast as she chooses among these targets. Each target must take at least one die of damage.

    Possible other variations on the above would be making her only roll for attack once for all targets, or for the second version having it only cost one mote and reduce the damage dice by 1 step. Might even be fine to just reduce it to 1 mote cost, as while it might seem better than power off hand, it doesn't allow other shapes like power.

    Held [Empath, Zodiac]
    Mote Cost: 2m/rank
    At times the best course of action is to wait for exactly the right moment to act. For that preparation ahead of time can be key. A held blast need not be fired immediately like other blasts. For each rank in this augment, the blast may be maintained for a round past the one it was cast during. At any time until the end of your last turn that you may maintain it, you may release the blast as a free action, selecting a target (or targets) and making the attack roll(s) for it at this time. If the blast is not fired before this point, it dissipates harmlessly.

    That feels like it could do with some wording clear up. Anyway, possible changes that might be made for balance would be requiring an immediate action rather than a free action (though you may let multiple blasts be fired at that time) or making it so some form of mote cost is paid for every round you maintain it (meaning you have less motes in your mote pool starting out) either as a flat 1 mote rate or based on its cost.

    For a few possible tweak ideas to help expand the low level versatility of blasts there are also the following

    Long [Champion, Empath, Zodiac] [Tweak]
    Mote Cost: 0m
    Sometimes a magical girl will find that range is more important than power. Decrease the damage dice to d4s rather than d6s and increase the range of the blast by 5 feet per 30 feet of range it would normally have.

    Right, this one just seems a bit lackluster. That said, not sure it can be helped keeping the present default blast as a balance point.

    No Idea [Champion, Empath, Zodiac] [Tweak]
    Mote Cost: -1m
    Sometimes other effects are worth a minor sacrifice in power.

    This one might be decent but may not be well balanced. It allows earlier access to some augments, though it useless at level 1 which is where such abilities are really needed.

    Another thought would involve an something allowing a single turn of up to 90 degrees to be made by the blast on the way to its target. That said as a one time 0 cost why wouldn't you use it, and if it were made to actually be an augment with a cost (and grants a single turn per rank), then at one mote per rank it is too good compared to power, but at 2 motes per rank seems too weak with other options.

    Looking at it, it seems like balancing around the power augment throws off blast augments, as things that are weak enough to warrant only 1 mote with no drawbacks seem to be too good when viewed next to power, which is one mote for no effect (other than the standard damage buff that comes with any mote cost increase).
    Really, looking at barriers and surges (and for that matter blasts, though that would be less likely), some of the more standard buffs/debuffs (AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, saves, etc.) seem to lack any augments to impact them. May also be worth while to make a [shape] augment for surges that causes them to be applied to a target as part of an attack with your device (along with the damage the attack would deal). Might also fit for barriers, though I'm not sure if there are any that have hostile effects that would make you want to hit the person first.
    As always, very well thought-out ideas. Too late for me to think straight now, but this is definitely noted and taken into consideration.
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  3. - Top - End - #33
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    So what are the major changes between the old stuff and the new? I've yet to decide which to like.

    *puts this thread in filing cabinet marked Future Tiering*
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  4. - Top - End - #34
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Giving a once-over to the Champion class, I can't help but ask one simple, itty-bitty thing...

    Why does the abilities at 10th level and 18th level seem so familiar?

    ...Don't get intimidated by that, it's just that the formatting is, albeit simple, VERY familiar...

    That said: the Power of Friendship ability is basically the Redemption mechanic from the Book of Exalted Deeds, but refurbished. Is there any reason why it's a class feature and not an enhancement to an already existing mechanic, considering that the latter is much easier to do (as in, requires a Diplomacy check which is hilariously easy to succeed at, and requires nearly the same amount), which makes your ability somewhat lacking. I'd consider re-reading that mechanic and finding a way how the Champion can improve on it, as I figure that the other two classes and the PrCs will also have a reference to this ability. Thus, it's not meant to be a class feature and it'd be better left as a separate mechanic that the Magical Girls can exploit better than others, because they have the methods to make it better. You could claim that existing classes also have similar, yet not that awesome, benefit: I'm thinking about Paladins, for example, so that they lose their "stern, SitA" archetype and they can work as a Magical Girl assistant/love interest/noble rival/whatever Tuxedo Mask is.
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  5. - Top - End - #35
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    The blend of Incarnum, Tome of Battle, and Psionics works well, I think. The key is to ensure that players unsterstand how their Illuminations work. They're not made on the fly, they're crafted individually for the character's sue later on in the adventure. They're a lot less like Incarnum or Psionics, and a lot more like customizable Tome of Battle maneuvers on a budget.

    That said, I don't really see characters creating Illuminations that cost less than their Magical Girl level. After all, a Blast is a standard action, a barrier is a move action, and a Burst is a swift designed to get your Blast or standard attack to hit harder and better. You're probably only going to use two of those per round - Blast and Burst to move fast and hit really hard, Blast and Barrier to tank laserbeams, or Burst and Barrier to hit with a series of melee attacks and then defend yourself against the next incoming blow. You could use all three, but it seems like a suboptimal choice.

    The magical girl's main restriction is her lack of crowd control and healing. Otherwise, she hits like a truck, has excellent BAB (especially for a class that mainly uses Touch attacks) and never runs out of juice every round, not to mention each day. Even Tome of Battle classes had a restriction on their access to Manuevers.

    I also agree with Owrtho, at low levels there's not a lot a Magical Girl can do. Would it be possible to reduce the base Mote cost of Illuminations to 0? You could keep it that Blasts deal 1d6 points of damage per Mote spent, so they'd still have to spend 1 point if they wanted to use it, but it would allow for a couple of minor but useful augmentations at low levels. It would also clean up the math a little bit, making it easier to calculate the cost of your Illuminations, and level 1 Bursts could actually DO something (like 5 feet of additional land speed per Mote spent? that could be useful).

    I love the homebrew, don't get me wrong. The Magical Girl is awesome and you should feel awesome for all the time and effort you've put into this.

  6. - Top - End - #36
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Incoming review of illuminations.

    Blasts
    Spoiler
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    Eldritch Blast with good damage? I approve. I'm slightly disappointed that there aren't more non-damaging effects like Tremors to slap onto your Blasts, unlike with Eldritch Essences.

    To confirm, a basic Blast deals 1d6 for 1 mote, and the only way to raise the damage and cost is through augmentations, which must be known and readied. Is that right?

    What type of ability are blasts? I don't see it mentioned anywhere, but I may have missed it. I expect they (and all other illuminations) are supernatural.

    Overall, the lack of secondary effects limits Blasts to, well, blasting. I expect this will change as more augments are added. I'd love to see some of Surges' offensive augments brought over here.

    Prism: How do you resolve the most advantageous energy type when different types produce different effects? For example, a fire/cold Prism Blast against a Troll with fire resistance (more damage, or bypass regeneration). Feel free to crib notes from (or straight out use) my Alamlgam Damage rules.

    Assuming that Blasts are supernatural abilities, they already bypass DR, and as untyped damage they are unaffected by resistances. Other than bypassing regeneration and taking advantage of energy weaknesses, I'm having trouble seeing when you'd want to use this augmentation. I guess it's mostly there for use with Primal costumes?

    Assault: Here's what I was originally going to say:
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    Eldritch Glaive works for Warlocks, although the fact that this adds on to every existing attack instead of replacing them is potentially troubling. As in, twice as good as Sneak Attack with half the limitations troubling. Having this illumination means that starting at level 3, you basically add 3d6 damage to all weapon attacks, plus another 1d6 per level thereafter, possibly with additional effects on top. You may wish to reconsider this augment's implementation.


    Rereading it, I see that you have to pay the mote cost for every attack, so you're limited to 2x your evoker level, and that still takes away from your other options and costume augments. Seems fair.

    Explosion: Fireball at 2/3 the damage. Might be a little low on the damage, ultimately, especially with the low range and area. You're also giving up the opportunity to use different augments, and accuracy is already a bit lower against individual targets as saves are usually easier to boost than touch AC, while attack bonuses are plentiful and save DC boosters are few and far between.

    Chains: Neato. A good alternative to Explosion to striking multiple opponents, and you don't risk hitting your allies, even without another 5 motes for Tactics.

    Clinging: Make it a DoT. Cool.

    Dissonance: Odd that this lets you go around healing undead (and Tomb-Tainted Souls) at will, despite the fluff of the classes being at odds with that, and with absolutely no healing of any sort for non-fallen evokers to run around using. It's not a bad thing, it just feels out of place.

    Sharpshooting: Accuracy, cool. I take it the Empath and Zodiac won't be full BaB classes, then? What happens if you use this augmentation as a multiclassed evoker such that your BaB is higher than your evoker level? It would lower your attack bonus, wouldn't it? If you combine Sharpshooting with Assault or other effects that let your Blast in a full-attack, would this also grant you extra attacks for a "higher" BAB?

    Horizon: Extra range. Important as always.

    Tactics: Odd how this has absolutely no effect on its own. The nature of the AoE augments means that there's no way to even take this until 9th level (1 base + 3 Explosion + 5 Tactics), despite its apparent 5 mote cost. Not a problem, just an oddity.

    Volatility: Great Cleave for Blasts? Alright. Seems a little on the expensive side, compared to Chain (assure yourself of one extra attack at -2d6 damage for 3 fewer motes, or 2 extra attacks at -2d6 and -4d6 for only 1 mote more). How would this interact with Assault (under the hypothetical situation where you could merge different classes' augment lists)?

    Eruption: See Explosive.

    Storms: See Explosive.

    Tremors: This and Dissonance are the only augments that add non-damage-related effects to the Blast. Bring me more!



    Barriers
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    First off, it's just concealment, not partial concealment, and the range should probably be expressed as a range, rather than a radius. Second, using move actions for major effects is a tough balancing act, and I applaud you for trying (with more applause later if you walk that tightrope right). The general principle looks alright, being limited to solely defensive effects.

    The base effects are 1 round of concealment or cover for a single creature. That's actually pretty potent, as it's complete immunity to AoOs (cover) or Sneak Attack (concealment), along with a 20% miss chance or +4 AC and +2 Reflex saves. As both a first level ability, and an effect used as a move action, this might very well be too strong.

    Given how many augments talk about granting a Will save, you might want to move the Will save to the baseline effect. That also stops multiple augments from granting multiple saves against the same effect.

    Strongholds: Turn it into an AoE. Fine.

    Shadows: Also note that by blocking line of sight, creatures on opposite sides of the barrier (but both outside of it) would also lose line of sight with each other. I can see a dome of darkness doing that, but not a completely empty space. Also of note is that using darkness has mechanical implications as many creatures can see normally through magical darkness.

    Solidity: Flat out blocking line of effect is way too powerful for an ability usable every round. It makes you unattackable except by AoEs and readied actions.

    Vitality: Secondary effects, woot!

    Ancients: Actual duration? Cool.

    Borders: How does this interact with the baseline cover or concealment, since no creature will actually be within the area of the Barrier (overlapping, maybe, but not within)?

    Ramparts: Battlefield control? Awesome!

    Visions: Intriguing, and definitely an offensive use. I don't know how to evaluate this augment, however.

    Alignment: Magic Circle Against Alignment spells are always useful.



    Surges
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    Odd that these have no baseline effect yet still cost 1 mote. Combined with the fact that the lowest cost augment is 2 motes, Surges are entirely unusable until level 3.

    Might: Cool.

    Diamonds: The DR feels a little low.

    Battles: Cool.

    Auras: Is that an emanation or a burst?

    Bolts: Range and multi-targetting? This has it all.

    Mirage: Mirror Image is fun, although I worry that this steps too much on the toes of Barriers.

    Echoes: Duration booster, yes.

    Burdens: Entanglement always works.

    Awe: Knocking prone is nice. Given the fluff of the ability, I'd change the wording to "fall prone" instead of "be knocked prone".

    Emptiness: Blinding is good, adding in Deafening on top gives a useful response to Blindsight.

    Promises: Should probably be applicable multiple times to stop attacks against multiple targets. Protecting one person from one opponent for one round just isn't that impressive. Once you're in the realm of a failed Will save, you might as well work to stop the damage entirely, rather than momentarily redirecting it.

    Heartbreak: Why is this not mind-affecting? Typo in here: "The target will spread each turn attacking the nearest creature" should be "will spend".

    Purity: Not as good as completely removing the conditions, but close enough for the short term, I guess. If you ignore a negative level, do you lose a new spell slot once you start being affected by it again? Ignoring Dazed is probably one of the more powerful options, partly for combo purposes (Celerity), and partly because Daze traditionally lasts only one or two rounds, yet has very few ways to remove or prevent it.

    Justice: Does the saving throw prevent the evocation, or is it for each instance of triggering damage?



    Still reading through Radiant Armaments. Haven't gotten into the details yet. Why are the class-specific Costume Elements by level located here instead of with their respective classes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Selinia View Post
    The current incarnation of the concept is essentially Incarnum, Psionics, and the Tome of Battle jammed in a blender and set to 'fairy dust'.
    You can't go wrong combining 3 of the better subsystems in 3rd edition.

    Quote Originally Posted by Chronologist View Post
    I also agree with Owrtho, at low levels there's not a lot a Magical Girl can do. Would it be possible to reduce the base Mote cost of Illuminations to 0? You could keep it that Blasts deal 1d6 points of damage per Mote spent, so they'd still have to spend 1 point if they wanted to use it, but it would allow for a couple of minor but useful augmentations at low levels. It would also clean up the math a little bit, making it easier to calculate the cost of your Illuminations, and level 1 Bursts could actually DO something (like 5 feet of additional land speed per Mote spent? that could be useful).
    That, and more 1 mote augments would be just lovely. You'd want to move the base effects of Barriers over to a pair of augments if you do this (actually, given their power, I'd recommend this regardless).
    Last edited by Garryl; 2012-10-18 at 12:02 PM.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Having read through some of these excellent suggestions, a few tweaks:

    • Illuminations now have a hardcapped limit of 1 illumination per base type per round. This prevents a number of rather extreme effect-stacking tactics, such as a Champion dumping twice their EL in Assault Blast damage or turning the battlefield into instant barrier wonderland.
    • Blasts, Barriers, and Surges now all have an innate cost of 0m. Illuminations as a whole have gained a restriction that they cannot be crafted with a cost less than 1m.
    • Formatting: Shape tag reminders have been condensed and moved into the general illumination description.
    • Most of the AoE Blast augments have had their mote cost reduced. Storm and Eruption now cost 2m, and Explosion costs 1m. They all, however still incur the same -1d6/rank damage penalty, so massively inflating a blast's target area is probably unwise if you want to do more than tickle anything. This change primarily serves to unlock them sooner, and make them easier to combine with other effects.
    • Clarified that the Assault augmentation targets normal AC, not touch AC - it's just a normal attack the blows up if it hits.
    • Sharpshooting has had its mote cost cut from 4m to 2m. Zodiac is a low BAB class, and Empath is a medium BAB class, but save perhaps at very high levels I had trouble rationalizing a few extra points of to-hit (on a touch attack, so already quite accurate) as worth quite that much. Also, Sharpshooting has had its effect tweaked to key off HD rather than EL, so as to avoid embarrassingly lowering your accuracy for the investment.
    • Beam blast shape added. I think everyone here can think of one good use for this.
    • Added the Split blast shape, making its re-debut from last thread courtesy of Owrtho! Probably the least powerful blast shape, but it comes online extremely early and has a lot of flexibility. Most useful if you want to apply effects, rather than deal direct damage. Speaking of which...
    • Added the Reactive and Sundering effects to help blasts really punch a hole in their targets. These are 'mark the target' abilities that really shine (forgive the pun) when you have a group of allies to take advantage of the target's vulnerability.
    • Barriers no longer have a base effect. Garryl raised strong points about the power of the base effects, but unfortunately, Barriers simply have almost no low-level options at this point. I am attempting to come up with some good low-level effects to rectify this.
    • Added in a clarification on barriers - namely, that, unless otherwise specified, effects referring to the edge of a barrier are two-way and indiscriminate. Ergo, a barrier that blocks line of effect into its area also blocks line of effect out of it. Such effects can be used to divide and control the flow of battle, but using them on single targets as 'total protection' is a double-edged sword. Shadows, for example, will totally conceal a target - but also effectively blind them!
    • Vitality nerfed slightly. Is now 1m:2THP, rather than 1m:3THP. That was a tad much for an ability that could be spammed at will, particularly at low levels.
    • Clarified that Borders barriers do not possess an interior.
    • Slightly buffed the surge of Diamonds (to 2m:DR3), though at a small cost of being somewhat less granular. I honestly did not need much convincing here - I like DR, and it isn't often you get to see it used in relevant quantities.
    • Clarified auras.
    • Heartbreak and Promises have been clarified as mind-affecting.
    • Promises buffed to scale with ranks.
    • Champion now has weapon and armor proficiencies. I... can't think of many reasons they'd use armor other than their costume, but the option is there. I'm kinda surprised that wasn't jumped on by someone sooner.


    ...whew. Tweakstorm, ho. This unfortunately gummed up the release of the Zodiac somewhat, but I can't see releasing the most illumination-focused of the evoker classes until the illuminations themselves have settled into order!

    Also, a note on the Power augmentation for blasts: it is intentionally bad. It should not be balanced against. It exists solely to have a 'generic damage' option, but with other 1m effects is probably going to see use only in rare situations.

    Response time! Though the changelog itself is that as well to some extent this time around.

    Quote Originally Posted by Morph Bark View Post
    So what are the major changes between the old stuff and the new? I've yet to decide which to like.

    *puts this thread in filing cabinet marked Future Tiering*
    I could be lazy and just give you the link to the old magical girl, but might as well give a brief rundown:

    Spoiler
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    Motes used to be a slowly regenerating resource that accumulated each turn.
    Illuminations used to be discreet effects split into tiers akin to Warlock invocations.
    Costumes used to be attuned pieces of mundane gear, rather than self-contained items.
    Costume elements used to use their own, entirely separate, resource - costume points. Costume effects were, as a rule of thumb, a magical girl's greatest damage source.
    The class had a metric glubton of archetypes and prestige classes by the end of its life. I really hope to match and surpass that pile of crunch at some point - it was quite impressive.
    There were a handful of rather potent class features that did not get translated directly.


    As for tiering - I look forward to hearing your expert opinion! As a reference, my personal goal for the class was mid-high Tier 3.

    Quote Originally Posted by T.G. Oskar View Post
    Giving a once-over to the Champion class, I can't help but ask one simple, itty-bitty thing...

    Why does the abilities at 10th level and 18th level seem so familiar?

    ...Don't get intimidated by that, it's just that the formatting is, albeit simple, VERY familiar...
    Gah, that is my bad, apologies! Those two abilities are borrowed (with modification) from the Magical Girl 1.0, which in turn borrowed the wordings from your Paladin Retool. You explained a rather complex ability very elegantly, and I honestly couldn't think of a way to top the wording. In the MG1.0, I mention that in the comment box beneath the ability, but I'd (at the moment) dropped the ability-by-ability commentary for the Tome of Radiance in hopes of keeping the formatting a little cleaner. I didn't have anywhere to put a credit, but if you'd like one I'm sure I can find a place for it.

    No offense was meant at all - quite the opposite, really. Apologies.

    Quote Originally Posted by T.G. Oskar View Post
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    That said: the Power of Friendship ability is basically the Redemption mechanic from the Book of Exalted Deeds, but refurbished. Is there any reason why it's a class feature and not an enhancement to an already existing mechanic, considering that the latter is much easier to do (as in, requires a Diplomacy check which is hilariously easy to succeed at, and requires nearly the same amount), which makes your ability somewhat lacking. I'd consider re-reading that mechanic and finding a way how the Champion can improve on it, as I figure that the other two classes and the PrCs will also have a reference to this ability. Thus, it's not meant to be a class feature and it'd be better left as a separate mechanic that the Magical Girls can exploit better than others, because they have the methods to make it better. You could claim that existing classes also have similar, yet not that awesome, benefit: I'm thinking about Paladins, for example, so that they lose their "stern, SitA" archetype and they can work as a Magical Girl assistant/love interest/noble rival/whatever Tuxedo Mask is.
    I admit, I hadn't thought of making 'Friendship Redemption' its own mechanic outside of the three classes that are to grant variations of it, but it does seem rather obvious in retrospect. I wanted to avoid just augmenting the BoED redemption because... well, not everyone has BoED, and it is frequently blanket-banned.

    This is a lovely thought though - definitely going to think on it and see what I can come up with.

    Quote Originally Posted by Chronologist View Post
    The blend of Incarnum, Tome of Battle, and Psionics works well, I think. The key is to ensure that players unsterstand how their Illuminations work. They're not made on the fly, they're crafted individually for the character's sue later on in the adventure. They're a lot less like Incarnum or Psionics, and a lot more like customizable Tome of Battle maneuvers on a budget.

    That said, I don't really see characters creating Illuminations that cost less than their Magical Girl level. After all, a Blast is a standard action, a barrier is a move action, and a Burst is a swift designed to get your Blast or standard attack to hit harder and better. You're probably only going to use two of those per round - Blast and Burst to move fast and hit really hard, Blast and Barrier to tank laserbeams, or Burst and Barrier to hit with a series of melee attacks and then defend yourself against the next incoming blow. You could use all three, but it seems like a suboptimal choice.
    While not the default by any means, there are a good number of situations where not having solely capped illuminations would beneficial. For one thing, costume elements require mote investments to operate fully now - if you intend to use them at all, you'll want non-capped illuminations on your list so you can still evoke a second effect in a turn (albeit, a diminished one). Similarly, sometimes (particularly with some surges and barriers) you'll be evoking an illumination mainly to get some effect that doesn't scale. If all you want from a surge is say, Blindness/Deafness, why not craft a Barrier or Blast so you can use the leftover motes more productively? After all, motes are use-or-lose.

    Incidentally, I'm not seeing so much as a whisper on the topic of Costume Elements. Are they too weak to be worth using? Too expensive? Are they just avoiding note by virtue of having nothing glaringly long with them? After all, Illuminations aren't the only thing one can do with one's motes (although they are arguably the coolest, I admit).

    Quote Originally Posted by Chronologist View Post
    The magical girl's main restriction is her lack of crowd control and healing. Otherwise, she hits like a truck, has excellent BAB (especially for a class that mainly uses Touch attacks) and never runs out of juice every round, not to mention each day. Even Tome of Battle classes had a restriction on their access to Manuevers.
    I cede that the champion is powerful, but I think she is fully within her rights to be a full BAB class. Any class that relies primarily on hitting stuff in the face to do its damage really ought to have full BAB, unless they have something major to compensate (like how the Totemist uses natural attack routines, which make BAB less relevant). Despite having access to touch-attack Blasts, a champion is still going to get most of her damage from surge-boosted beats to the face, along with Assault blasts.

    If you're seeing something specifically broken - a combo or unforeseen interaction I missed (like the ability to double up on Assault blasts in a full attack, which I'd not noticed until Garryl pointed it out), I'd love to see that and try to fix it. But I honestly just haven't been able to the champion as that much innately stronger in the beatings department than say, a well-built Warblade up to now.

    Quote Originally Posted by Chronologist View Post
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    I also agree with Owrtho, at low levels there's not a lot a Magical Girl can do. Would it be possible to reduce the base Mote cost of Illuminations to 0? You could keep it that Blasts deal 1d6 points of damage per Mote spent, so they'd still have to spend 1 point if they wanted to use it, but it would allow for a couple of minor but useful augmentations at low levels. It would also clean up the math a little bit, making it easier to calculate the cost of your Illuminations, and level 1 Bursts could actually DO something (like 5 feet of additional land speed per Mote spent? that could be useful).

    I love the homebrew, don't get me wrong. The Magical Girl is awesome and you should feel awesome for all the time and effort you've put into this.
    Among the changes made! Augment lists will expand with time, but I'd hope we're starting to chisel out some decent choices by now.

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    Incoming review of illuminations.
    To reply to the ones with questions or notable commentary individually,


    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    Eldritch Blast with good damage? I approve. I'm slightly disappointed that there aren't more non-damaging effects like Tremors to slap onto your Blasts, unlike with Eldritch Essences.
    A few more have cropped up in the recent patchbundle up there. A lot of more esoteric effects are going to stay surge-only, but there will hopefully be plenty of effects attachable to blasts as that list fills out.

    That said, surges do largely fill the role of essences for the warlock - a magical girl can blast something in the face, and inflict conditions or effects on something. They just aren't necessarily tied to the same action.

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    To confirm, a basic Blast deals 1d6 for 1 mote, and the only way to raise the damage and cost is through augmentations, which must be known and readied. Is that right?

    What type of ability are blasts? I don't see it mentioned anywhere, but I may have missed it. I expect they (and all other illuminations) are supernatural.
    A blast is a base effect, but all augmentations are known. Rather, each time a champion gains an evoker level, she can craft illuminations by grafting augmentations onto base effects. It is essentially, as Chrono said, a sort of 'build your own maneuver' system.

    And yes, illuminations are all Su effects. Added that to the class listing for clarity.

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    Prism: How do you resolve the most advantageous energy type when different types produce different effects? For example, a fire/cold Prism Blast against a Troll with fire resistance (more damage, or bypass regeneration). Feel free to crib notes from (or straight out use) my Alamlgam Damage rules.

    Assuming that Blasts are supernatural abilities, they already bypass DR, and as untyped damage they are unaffected by resistances. Other than bypassing regeneration and taking advantage of energy weaknesses, I'm having trouble seeing when you'd want to use this augmentation. I guess it's mostly there for use with Primal costumes?
    Your amalgam rules are more or less what I was trying to say. My wording was just rather less clear - thanks for the link, that was helpful in presenting things in a rather more orderly fashion. And yes, use with Primal is one of the key functions of the Prism augmentation.

    Dissonance: Odd that this lets you go around healing undead (and Tomb-Tainted Souls) at will, despite the fluff of the classes being at odds with that, and with absolutely no healing of any sort for non-fallen evokers to run around using. It's not a bad thing, it just feels out of place.
    Dissonance is, at the moment, just a neat function for evokers in a party with undead (or who are themselves undead). That said, it isn't a random fluke - a undead/deathless (deathless get no love ) PrC is in the planning stages, as are a few other ghastly goodies.

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    Volatility: Great Cleave for Blasts? Alright. Seems a little on the expensive side, compared to Chain (assure yourself of one extra attack at -2d6 damage for 3 fewer motes, or 2 extra attacks at -2d6 and -4d6 for only 1 mote more). How would this interact with Assault (under the hypothetical situation where you could merge different classes' augment lists)?
    Volatility's high cost is less a function of the effect itself, and more a function of wanting to limit when it is acquired and wanting to make sure it can't be combined with too many AoE boosters. It isn't a Shape, and in fact its greatest power is arguably in setting off nasty AoE chain reactions. It is a niche effect, but a nasty one - Eruption and Volatile can together probably wipe out entire squads of weak enemies, if they're far enough below the evoker's level.

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
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    Barriers
    First off, it's just concealment, not partial concealment, and the range should probably be expressed as a range, rather than a radius. Second, using move actions for major effects is a tough balancing act, and I applaud you for trying (with more applause later if you walk that tightrope right). The general principle looks alright, being limited to solely defensive effects.

    The base effects are 1 round of concealment or cover for a single creature. That's actually pretty potent, as it's complete immunity to AoOs (cover) or Sneak Attack (concealment), along with a 20% miss chance or +4 AC and +2 Reflex saves. As both a first level ability, and an effect used as a move action, this might very well be too strong.

    Given how many augments talk about granting a Will save, you might want to move the Will save to the baseline effect. That also stops multiple augments from granting multiple saves against the same effect.
    All of these are solid suggestions. Barriers needed some tweaking, badly. Now... they're just in desperate need of some augmentations to actually let them do things in the lower levels.

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    Shadows: Also note that by blocking line of sight, creatures on opposite sides of the barrier (but both outside of it) would also lose line of sight with each other. I can see a dome of darkness doing that, but not a completely empty space. Also of note is that using darkness has mechanical implications as many creatures can see normally through magical darkness.

    Solidity: Flat out blocking line of effect is way too powerful for an ability usable every round. It makes you unattackable except by AoEs and readied actions.
    I've clarified both of these - they aren't designed to be ubershields so much as different flavors of knife to carve up the battlefield. They work in both directions, so while yes, on a single target Shadows is pseudo-invisibility... it is pseudo-blindness at the same time. Solidity is effectively Sanctuary of sorts, though I've added in a line that melee fighters can fight across the barrier in both directions at something of a penalty.

    Used more broadly, these - and ramparts - are all different flavors battlefield sculpting. For example, a Champion charging up to an enemy and dropping a Solidity/Ramparts barrier to force a 'duel', or trying to lure enemies into a trap by muddling their view of the battlefield.

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    Purity: Not as good as completely removing the conditions, but close enough for the short term, I guess. If you ignore a negative level, do you lose a new spell slot once you start being affected by it again? Ignoring Dazed is probably one of the more powerful options, partly for combo purposes (Celerity), and partly because Daze traditionally lasts only one or two rounds, yet has very few ways to remove or prevent it.
    The conditions aren't removed - their effects are merely temporarily suppressed. So... I'm not entirely sure, but I doubt you'd lose more spell slots, since it was only applied once.

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    Still reading through Radiant Armaments. Haven't gotten into the details yet. Why are the class-specific Costume Elements by level located here instead of with their respective classes?
    No costume element is class specific. Most are device-specific, and some devices are class specific, but I don't think there are any costume effects with a device availability that would totally limit it to one class.

    And even if there were, it'd still be in the same section. More for clarity of formatting than anything else. Swordsage-only disciplines aren't in a seperate section of the Tome of Battle than the rest, after all.
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  8. - Top - End - #38
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Quote Originally Posted by Selinia View Post
    Incidentally, I'm not seeing so much as a whisper on the topic of Costume Elements. Are they too weak to be worth using? Too expensive? Are they just avoiding note by virtue of having nothing glaringly long with them? After all, Illuminations aren't the only thing one can do with one's motes (although they are arguably the coolest, I admit).
    They're next on my list, don't worry.

    All of these are solid suggestions. Barriers needed some tweaking, badly. Now... they're just in desperate need of some augmentations to actually let them do things in the lower levels.
    Agreed. How about some of the following?
    - Deflection bonus to AC.
    - Penalty to ranged attack rolls across the barrier (see high winds, or maybe Entropic Shield).
    - Energy resistances.
    - Resistance bonus to saving throws.

    No costume element is class specific. Most are device-specific, and some devices are class specific, but I don't think there are any costume effects with a device availability that would totally limit it to one class.

    And even if there were, it'd still be in the same section. More for clarity of formatting than anything else. Swordsage-only disciplines aren't in a seperate section of the Tome of Battle than the rest, after all.
    It's the table (number of elements by level for each class) that should be with the specific classes. Who said anything about class-specific costume elements?
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  9. - Top - End - #39
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Well, I have more stuff to say, but at the moment am a bit busy, so will just cover a few things of note.

    Quote Originally Posted by Selinia View Post
    Illuminations now have a hardcapped limit of 1 illumination per base type per round. This prevents a number of rather extreme effect-stacking tactics, such as a Champion dumping twice their EL in Assault Blast damage or turning the battlefield into instant barrier wonderland.
    Not sure if that is the best way to handle that. For one thing, it seems that the ability to get off multiple blasts in one round is one of the key uses of the assault augment, though it may be a bit strong if you can just use it for double full blasts. Similarly, the double surge or barrier use in a round doesn't seem likely to be too much of a problem, though may need some similar limits. I'd suggest changing it from a hard limit of 1 illumination of each type per round, to a soft limit of the total mote cost for illuminations of any given type cannot exceed the EL of the caster (could even possibly be raised slightly). Thus you could use two assault illuminations in one round that are half evoker level, and if you were to try spamming barriers they would all be weaker than if you were to just do one per round. Could particularly be useful with assault blasts if you were applying effects (such as ones that can stack or allow saves) or using them with attacks of opportunity.

    The Beam augment should note how it interacts with the horizon augment. As it is, it could be interpreted that either noting will happen when it is applied, or it will increase the range as normal, making the beam much more powerful as it become one mote to increase the distance by 15' rather than 2 to increase the distance by 20' and reduce the damage by 1d6. The three ways I'd suggest choosing between for their interaction are clarifying that horizon has no effect when that shape is used (should also be done with eruption), make it only increase the range by 5' keeping it in line with the default range being 1/3 the normal amount, or make it allow the beam to have its starting point up to the horizon distance away rather than requiring it start from the magical girl (seems the most interesting choice personally).

    Also, while I mentioned this before, I thought I'd reiterate my suggestion for a way to add surges onto attacks (much like the assault augment for blasts). I'd also suggest possibly having a way to make a surge blast combo (possibly as a surge shape), as surges seem to be where many of the status effects would fit that one might also want to add onto a blast. Between the two, it would allow players to make their own versions of many of the strikes from the original magical girl class.

    More will come later when I have time.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    In regards to interaction of Shapes:

    Quote Originally Posted by Illuminations Post
    Some augmentations possess a [Shape] tag – these alter the basic targeting of the illumination, and any given illumination can only be affected by a single [Shape] augmentation.
    So, uh, yeah, that doesn't really apply.

    EDIT: Oh wait, Beam isn't a [Shape] thing? I think that it needs that tag, maybe?
    Last edited by caledscratcher; 2012-10-19 at 04:53 PM.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Just to note, only masterwork weapons and armor can be enchanted, which devices and costumes currently aren't. Might want to deal with that.

    As mentioned before, the number of costume effects that each class gets by level should be with the respective classes (just like Enhanced Armaments and Illuminations known/prepared), not hidden down here.

    I take it only Champions get cartridges?

    Costumes
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    First off, the two types of costumes, light and heavy. Do they actually count as light armor and heavy armor, respectively? Can you wear actual armor beneath them?

    Does the heavy costume reduce your run speed like heavy armor?

    Are there plans for costumes approximating medium armor and non-armor?

    It seems odd that the difference between light and heavy costumes is just one Durable selection away. If you ever feel the need to take Agile as a heavy costume user, you're almost entirely better off as a light costume user with Durable instead (barring the extra 1 point of AC if you have a really high Dex score).

    Nimble: Actually, you can carry more than your maximum load, just not very well.

    Weightless: Woot, flight! And incorporeality! Awesome!

    What happens to you when you become corporeal while inside a solid object?

    Defiant: Interestingly, an effective way to bypass DR/Magic at low levels (if you didn't want Enhanced for your device, for some reason). The blinding challenge is an interesting take on the traditional "taunt", and I heartily approve of the implementation.

    Primal: Energy resistance and bonus damage on Prism-augmented Blasts. Cool.


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    The options all look fairly reasonable. Stance is a bit low on damage, but I see the Empowered enhancement specific to it. That kinda makes Empowered mandatory if you're using Stance as a weapon (and not just for access to the Resplendent and Protective effects).

    Do stances count as unarmed strikes?

    I see Zodiacs are limited to implements, thus further exemplifying their indirect-combatant nature.

    Enhanced: I'm waffling back and forth on whether or not this should be here, given that you can just enchant your device normally. /shrug.

    Protective: The DC increase for Tumble checks probably shouldn't affect your allies (or yourself). The wording should be about enemies provoking attacks of opportunity, not about being able to make AoOs. Inability to take AoOs usually only comes up when cover or total concealment are involved, and has nothing to do with AoOs that aren't provoked in the first place.

    Temporal: Rerolls are good.

    Resplendent: Go evoking! This one appears to be all about mote efficiency. So, you charge up an illumination, then release it later on? It seems like you get a boost to your mote pool on the round you use it (by effectively having a free illumination) at the cost of tying up your motes every round before that.

    If you store an illumination, then later change your illuminations prepared (or even known) such that the stored illumination is no longer available to you, it stays charged and usable through this, right?

    Resolved: Is the fast healing/regeneration loss resolved before or after the damage from the attack?

    The cartridge boost is rather ineffectual as written. Very few supernatural healing effects exist, as most are from spells (and spell-like abilities), magic items, and extraordinary abilities, none of which are impeded.


    The number of costume effects and enhanced armament options seems low, but I expect they'll be expanded over time.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Quote Originally Posted by caledscratcher View Post
    In regards to interaction of Shapes:

    Quote Originally Posted by Illuminations Post
    Some augmentations possess a [Shape] tag – these alter the basic targeting of the illumination, and any given illumination can only be affected by a single [Shape] augmentation.
    So, uh, yeah, that doesn't really apply.

    EDIT: Oh wait, Beam isn't a [Shape] thing? I think that it needs that tag, maybe?
    Huh, you are right about beam not being a shape (which it should be). That said, I am aware that shapes can't be stacked. However, what I was noting was the interaction of the horizon augment, which is not a shape (nor should it be) and simply extends the range of blasts, with the beam augment (which states a given range when it is applied). That said, its interaction with the eruption augment, which also states a specific range is also worth clarifying. Similarly, it may be worth noting any interaction with the Assault augment, which while not specifying a range, combines the blast with an attack using the device, thus causing it to use the device's range. At present, there are no other augments that alter the range of blasts in a way that conflicts with horizon.

    Also something I just noticed, but Assault should clarify that it uses whatever type of attack your device would normally make. Thus it will most likely not be a touch attack, but if for some reason (such as an enchantment) you device makes touch attacks, then it will as well.

    While on the topic, is the odd interaction of Sharpshooting and Assault allowing Empaths to make melee attacks at full BAB intentional? Along with this, if the change suggested in my previous post regarding allowing multiple illuminations of a single base type in a single round so long as the mote cost does not exceed a certain limit is implemented, would they gain the iterative attacks this grants so long as all the attacks made use of the illumination?

    One last thing to note though, will there be any special interaction in the area of illumination augments for multiclassing between the various evoker classes? Will the evoker have access to all the augments available to all her classes when crafting illuminations, or will she be limited to only those available to the class that she most recently gained a level in (aside from replacing illuminations for the other class which in turn would be limited to augments available to that class)? Thinking on it, it may be worthwhile to make a feat that can be taken to learn augments not normally known to ones own class, thus allowing illuminations to be crafted using that augment despite the normal class restriction from doing so (that said, there may be balance issues there, so I'm not entirely certain).

    Also, as a side note to Garryl, it is worth noting that at least for champions the Enhanced device effect can be quite useful, as the cartridge boost allows them to easily select the most advantageous enchantment for the current combat situation, thus making the strength one of versatility. Still, that option is only open for champions, leaving it a weak choice for other classes.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Something I noticed about the Weightless costume modifier. The cartridge part of it makes a Champion incorporeal, which is great for blast-centric or prismatic bow-type Champions but is completely useless for melee-based Champions.

    Incorporeality removes the creature's Strength score as per the Incorporeal subtype, and the loss of a Strength score significantly nerfs a melee Champion's ability to deal damage outside of using Blasts. Further, Incorporeality can't even be used defensively as it is only active during the Champion's turn.

    So what's the reasoning behind allowing Incorporeality when when it's nothing but a debuff on a melee Champion? Is it purely for blast-centric or bow-using Champions?
    Last edited by ZeroNumerous; 2012-10-19 at 09:54 PM.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Quote Originally Posted by Owrtho View Post
    Also, as a side note to Garryl, it is worth noting that at least for champions the Enhanced device effect can be quite useful, as the cartridge boost allows them to easily select the most advantageous enchantment for the current combat situation, thus making the strength one of versatility. Still, that option is only open for champions, leaving it a weak choice for other classes.
    Oh, there's no doubt that it can be useful. You're getting up to a +7 enhancement bonus on top of your weapon's existing enhancement bonus, which is nothing to sneeze at. Variable weapons enhancements from the full list are like candy, too. It's just that it steps on the toes of the existing weapon-enchantment mechanics, so it feels kind of redundant and unnecessary.

    Quote Originally Posted by ZeroNumerous View Post
    Something I noticed about the Weightless costume modifier. The cartridge part of it makes a Champion incorporeal, which is great for blast-centric or prismatic bow-type Champions but is completely useless for melee-based Champions.

    Incorporeality removes the creature's Strength score as per the Incorporeal subtype, and the loss of a Strength score significantly nerfs a melee Champion's ability to deal damage outside of using Blasts. Further, Incorporeality can't even be used defensively as it is only active during the Champion's turn.

    So what's the reasoning behind allowing Incorporeality when when it's nothing but a debuff on a melee Champion? Is it purely for blast-centric or bow-using Champions?
    It would pretty much have to be for Blast-focused Champions. When you're incorporeal, you can't even physically attack corporeal targets without Ghost Touch or Force weapons.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Quote Originally Posted by Selinia View Post
    Illuminations now have a hardcapped limit of 1 illumination per base type per round. This prevents a number of rather extreme effect-stacking tactics, such as a Champion dumping twice their EL in Assault Blast damage or turning the battlefield into instant barrier wonderland.
    While it should not be easy, making events like this possible somehow would be tons of fun. Perhaps there could be a PrC built around chipping at this restriction, sacrificing staying power to go nova when their friends need them most. They'd be a bit like Hayate from Nanoha.

    The penalties would have to be pretty stiff, though.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Too tired and headachy to get to replies tonight. Instead, just a few changes (which will hopefully carry some measure of reply in and of themselves).

    • The restriction on illumination use has been relaxed slightly to EL motes per type per round, allowing multiple lesser illuminations (and giving a few ways around the restriction, notably Resplendent, which lets you use an illumination without spending motes).
    • Protective costume element wording changed.
    • Beam is now a Shape, as it should be.
    • Horizons has been clarified to not increase the affected area if combined with a shape.
    • Costumes and Devices now properly count as masterwork. Costumes have been specified as light and heavy armor.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    A few more changes:

    • The Power of Friendship now functions significantly differently, placing significantly more emphasis on the nature of a magical girl's relation and interaction with her prisoner. It is, I will admit, a more difficult process than that presented by the BoED. That said, BoED redemption is comically easy, to the point where failure is nearly impossible for even a modestly diplomacy-focused character. Power of Friendship still has very good odds, but it at least asks some thought of how one deals with a captive.
    • Champions can now challenge a captive to an even duel to accelerate/supplement their Power of Friendship. Nothing makes friends faster than a good tussle. The other evokers will have their own bonuses, and once I get into Character Options I'll likely include variants for some of the more social outside classes as well.
    • Champions can now cancel their cartridge effects (as a free action). This is likely situational, but the discussion of Weightless' downside showcased how useful it might be to cancel some effects early.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    I just registered to make this post, but any way.

    About cartridges: I see in the Champion's Cartridge ability description, the time required to create cartridges, and the actions used to load and activate a cartridge.
    I see in the Device and Costume Effects listings a Cartridge Boost for each effect, allowing one to infer that activating a cartridge grants a Cartridge Boost for an equipped Device/Costume Effect, but I don't see any line that actually says, "Activating a cartridge expends its stored energy to activate a Cartridge Boost of an equipped Costume Effect." Or something to that effect.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Oh wooooow. This is shiny.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    This is, as its previous incarnation was, a fantastic project, and I recommend this as its theme song.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Quote Originally Posted by gkathellar View Post
    This is, as its previous incarnation was, a fantastic project, and I recommend this as its theme song.
    That... is freaking amazing!

    I'm really looking forward to the Zodiac class. Can't wait to see that up and running.

    If the Champion focuses on tanking and costume effects, and the Zodiac is the Illumination specialist, what will the Empath be able to do? I'm curious.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Should Power of Friendship not also account for the subject's conviction in his or her own cause? It's one thing to crack the loyalty of a brainwashed foe, but someone who honestly and truly believes they are doing the right thing? You can't buy that kind of loyalty.

    Special considerations should also exist for characters with alignment-dependent abilities (feats, classes, spells, even preferred magic items).

    Consider changing the mechanics from a straight Charisma check to an opposed check of some sort. This will give the process a more adversarial feel (as it is, after all, a duel of wills) and allow the subject to better defend herself through class features and other abilities. It will also increase the overall volatility of the rolls, which is important when you have defined effects that are more than a full RNG away from each other (DC+10 and DC-10 are never both possible on the same d20 roll).

    I'd also recommend adding the subject's Wisdom modifier to the DC (or opposed check). Those who better understand the methods of persuasion would also be better able to recognize it in their captors, and in those they chose to follow, leading to a more conscious choice in their original loyalties.

    Why is the Jaded DC boost lost when the check fails by 5 or more? A 5+ failure only drops 2 successes. Was that supposed to be a failure by 10 or more instead?
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Quote Originally Posted by Selinia View Post
    Win or lose, a champion can only dual a given captive once.
    I believe that this should be duel. Full critique is...somewhere in the works.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    I just noticed, while the evoker is talking to the captive, there's nothing stopping the captive from talking back. Given that the evoker is almost certainly free, the captive's already got -5 or -8 to the DC (-5 for Freedom, probably -3 for Exceptional Treatment).

    PS: Eagerly awaiting the Empath so I can start building Iji.
    Last edited by Garryl; 2012-10-21 at 03:45 PM.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    Quote Originally Posted by Garryl View Post
    I just noticed, while the evoker is talking to the captive, there's nothing stopping the captive from talking back. Given that the evoker is almost certainly free, the captive's already got -5 or -8 to the DC (-5 for Freedom, probably -3 for Exceptional Treatment).

    PS: Eagerly awaiting the Empath so I can start building Iji.
    Hahaha. That should probably explicitly called out somewhere. A possibility -- although probably more difficult -- for the captive to erode the Evoker's confidence and corrupt/enlighten her.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    It might even help, though, by offering her insight into their situation and helping her to understand how she might approach them in the future. Listening is definitely as important as talking in this sort of thing.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    horizon seems strictly superior to power, so there is exactly no reason to ever use power unless I'm missing something which would make more range less advantageous, I see no reason for power to even exist? eh, not a huge thing.

    I don't suppose you could rearrange augmentations and costume effects into ... uh, discernable order? I propose by mote cost per application, then alphabetically for augmentations and alphabetically for costume effects, but alphabetically for both also works. apparently randomly mixed makes it hard to find things except by ^F, though.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    One situation where I could see limiting the range becoming useful is if you have some kind of a wide-angle or piercing effect and you're trying to avoid collateral damage.

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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    How does the device and costume selection work for characters multiclassed among multiple evoker classes, especially when the choices aren't the same between classes?

    Since costumes count as armor, don't Champions need heavy armor proficiency to use heavy costumes effectively? Since it's actual armor, is there any reason to restrict it by class instead of just by proficiency (and non-proficiency penalties), like normal armor? That would also make things easier on multiclassed evokers. It also means less work if you add more options and other methods of gaining access to costumes (even just more classes).

    I'd suggest boosting the armor bonus of heavy costumes to +8 as, being heavy armor, they directly compete with full plate. This also frees up space on the armor scale for medium armor. See the table below for some suggested values should you choose to include other types of costume. I used stats slightly better than what you get from mithral armor, since this is a class feature so it really shouldn't feel like you're losing out over baseline options. However, with the Enhanced Armaments abilities, I suppose that really isn't necessary as they'll scale into it appropriately over time, so feel free to drop the Max Dex and up the ACP a couple of points.
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    {table=head]Armor Type|Armor Bonus|Maximum Dexterity Bonus|Armor Check Penalty|Arcane Spell Failure|Weight
    Unarmored (clothing)|+2|--|--|--|5 lb.
    Light|+4|+7|-0|10%|10 lb.
    Medium|+6|+5|-1|15%|15 lb.
    Heavy|+8|+3|-3|25%|25 lb.[/table]


    Given the number of elements available to high level Champions, there should be more available effects to choose from. Currently, any given character has 6 total options, and a 20th level Champion gets 5 of them. Some more possible additional costume effects:
    Spoiler
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    Enhanced - Enhancement bonuses and whatnot like the device version. May not be appropriate due to the AC-boosting Enhanced Armament effects.

    Flowing (Light) - Cloaks the evoker's movements, granting a miss chance on attacks against her. Cartridge boost could grant reactive effects on attacks that miss due to the miss chance, such as free disarm attempts.

    Covering - Heavier (in the sense of providing greater protection from the elements) clothing. Depending on how you fluff it, could be represented by as little as a thick scarf. Provides protection from environmental hazards, such as extreme heat/cold, gases, diseases, poisons, and even lack of air.

    Brilliant - How is there nothing that actually makes light so far? Provide illumination, reveal hidden enemies, etc. Cartridge boost can make a burst of light that blinds or maybe carries the effects of a Blast or Surge in an area around you.


    Also, a Blast augment:
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    Illuminating - Target glows brightly for a round (or more), providing illumination, pinpointing its position, and reducing the effects of concealment.
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    Default Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

    I'm split on this. Part of me is glad that the Magical Girl has become complex enough to warrant this rewrite. Another part is giving a tired sigh and moaning that it's going to be more complex now and thus harder to learn. Overall, though, I'm happy about this.

    If I had to give a critique, I'd say that the Champion seems like just a beefier version of the original Magical Girl. Though I suppose that is the point of it: deal lots of damage while soaking it up. However, since there isn't a real comparison yet (I can't look into the future and tell what the Zodiac and Empath are going to be like), I suppose this will change eventually.

    It's easy to see the influence of Madoka in here, and that's a good thing. I remember a game I played where another PC was a Magical Girl. One major problem the group as a whole had was that we had defeated the Big Bad, but had both a paladin and an MG, so we couldn't kill him. I think we spent a few days just chatting over OOC on the question of "Now what?". It's easy to get the paladin to look away for a few rounds while the sorcerer incinerates the bad guy and not have him think twice about where he went later. It's harder to pull the same trick with an MG, due to the stricter alignment requirement and larger penalty for breaking it (a paladin who breaks his oath is still a decent fighter, a Magical Girl doesn't have the BAB to compensate). Now, however, the only major penalty I see is that abilities get "corrupted", so to speak, and cause Evil effects as opposed to Good ones. I also noticed the Twinned Device feat got upgraded to allow a theoretical 10 copies of a weapon to exist at level 20 (wonder where that idea came from), with even more possible at epic levels.

    Speaking of Epic levels, that's something I would like to see for these classes. While only a few campaigns get there, or even start there, it's always fun to play as a character who's near godhood in abilities.

    Overall, I'd give the Champion an 7/10 right now, only because of the lack of personal experience with it and the need to learn a semi-new system to play it. This will probably change in the future once I've given it a test drive.

    Now that the official stuff is out of the way, I do have a suggestion that may or may not be worked in later: A theme music feat would be awesome. Might require either ranks in perform or bardic music, but still.

    EDIT: Ooh! Or maybe a music based PrC!
    Last edited by GFawkes; 2012-10-22 at 02:29 AM.
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