Dreamscarred Press Announces - Bloodforge Infusions Open Beta

[Extra Anchovies]

The Eiremian's Inevitability alternate trait is pretty stronk - "prevent [you] from acting normally" is, as the ability description suggests, rather broad, so it's a free second chance on pretty much all negative save-or-x effects. Two ideas to make it a more balanced trade with The Terrible Peace:
1. An Eiremian has to wait one minute between Inevitability uses, just like they'd be waiting to reuse The Terrible Peace.
2. Instead of an immediate-action reroll at the same time as the failed save, Inevitability allows a second save one round after they fail a save against an effect that prevents them from acting normally, at no action cost.

Flexible frame was Bloodforge 1.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. For completeness's sake, are there any other traits among the Infusions races that inherit from Bloodforge Episode 1? Getting caught up in barely-relevant semantics is kind of our thing here in the d20 subforum, but it's good to know what bits of the playtest are immutable.

It's an extremely tortured reading, yes. Reading the first sentence as rules-permissive is wrong in the first place (and you don't do it for Powerful Build either) but in any event the wording is set and won't be changing.

Works for me.

Just for kicks, I took another look at the PF size rules and it seems like it all checks out anyway because "special size modifier" doesn't exist as a rules term in the context of applied checks. So I thought there was a RAW ambiguity under the outer shell of makes-perfect-sense, but digging deeper into the RAW turned up a hidden core of makes-sense-after-all. Ah, Pathfinder.

[Akadzjian]

Alright everyone,
New update to the Playtest. Biggest addition is the new Half-Dwarf race, with some minor wording fixes, but mainly the new race. Enjoy!

[Extra Anchovies]

Oooh, these half-dwarves look pretty fun. I like the variable ability penalty.

A question: is there a particular design goal with this race, some collection of human and dwarven traits that you think can be developed in a direction that isn't redundant with human or dwarf? Is the purpose effectively to have a more build-flexible dwarf, similar to how the half-elf is a more build-flexible elf?

Dwarves and humans do not easily produce offspring together: a mixed dwarven and human population can go centuries, even millennia, without seeing one, and in almost all cases the child is not viable. Thus, no half-dwarven culture exists; half-dwarves are simply products of the culture they are raised in, be it dwarven, human, or other.

The first of those two sentences gave me the initial impression that half-dwarves were not actually of mixed species because cross-breeds were essentially nonexistent, so I had a bit of a double-take when I got to the appearance section.
1. I think they should be more common - one almost-always-stillborn (or short-lived) child every few hundred or few thousand years is infrequent enough that half-dwarves pretty much don't exist. Shifting "centuries, even millennia" to "decades, even centuries" and "almost all cases" to "many cases" would make it more reasonable.
2. The second sentence should make it clearer that half-dwarves are members of the cultures they were raised in, products (in a biological sense) of one dwarven parent and one human parent.

Comprehensive Education is quite strong next to other abilities that add skills (or specifically Knowledge skills) to class lists. If you want to keep it at replacing 1 point of Hardy, maybe let them make Knowledge checks untrained and give a +1 racial bonus to any Knowledge skill they have 1 or more ranks in?

Innovative and Industrious both look fair as they are. I like the ability to choose up to two of the three Hardy-reducing traits. I think Comprehensive Education should definitely be renamed to stick with the alliteration - Intellectual, or perhaps Inquisitive?

Magic Resistant is kinda... not great. If it needs a standard action to be lowered, it should at least be 10+level so it has more than a snowball's chance of blocking hostile spells.

Stubborn is narrow enough that just having the blanket +2 from hardy is better for most builds. Expanding it to all enchantments and all telepathy would put it in a good spot, I'd say.

Surface Survivalist seems kinda meh, outside of specifically wasteland- or frostfell-oriented campaigns. Adding low-light vision to the existing benefits would make it more worth taking in a temperate or wide-ranging game.

[khadgar567]

okay small yes or no question is coreid created for starfinder then released for pathfinder to gouge the interest for further supplement for starfinder

[Powerdork]

When it comes to atstreidi and sunder, what's the deal? Does their basic armor shell have hardness/hit points per inch of thickness? Does the armor/shell they use not count as worn armor for the purposes of sunder combat maneuvers and other such effects? Does a sunder just go through to their HP?


Also: When it comes to the document outline, half-dwarf is in a different header style than all the rest, and is less easily found as a result. (As someone who relies heavily on bookmarks, I hope the end product has those in order as well as this does.)

Inconsistency: Coreid lacks the psionic subtype in its entry, while half-dwarf possesses said subtype in its type entry.

[Knight Magenta]

The fox-shape-as-natural-form is what I've been looking for for a long time! I am pretty psyched for that!

[Prime32]

With all the talk of peace and stillness in their description, it seems odd that Eireimians don't have a favored class bonus for Monk. I think you could easily build a whole racial archetype around them, with things like a Stunning Fist variant that bypasses immunities, or the ability to project an Aura of Calm by expending ki.
You could make an argument for Mediums as well, that their "emptiness" makes it easier for them to contain other spirits, and as a Cha-based class they'd appreciate it.

Ethumions already make great Vitalists even without a favored class bonus, but "+1 power point" would be helpful for keeping up with races that have both +Wis and Psionic Aptitude (+1pp/level is the equivalent of +4 Wis worth of bonus pp). As "flashy" classes, bonuses for Swashbucklers and Vigilantes could also be fitting.

[Powerdork]

We completely overlooked that. I don't think we discussed it in internals. I'll bring it up and get back to you ASAP.
OK, double-checked, to quote directly: "Atstreidi are psionic, so they can take the feat like anyone else. If they use inertial armor, it overlaps with their existing armor bonus, just like anyone else with one."

It was actually about two separate concerns: Atstreidi (addressed in source) and Psionic Awakening (which calls for the psionic subtype in its prerequisites, but also requires you to be a psionic creature to even think about taking it, and even if you got it as a bonus feat: you now have the psionic subtype if you didn't before, congratulations; that prerequisite is worthless except in the weird cases where an ability grants you a feat that calls for 'psionic subtype' in its prerequisites, which is rare due to the psionic feat tag being shorthand for that, and oh I've posted too many words).

Atstreidi

Thanks! Is there a plan to act on the discussion that followed the source post (re: natural armor etc.)? I missed practically everything there.

[digiman619]

Half-Dwarves? Now all that's left is the Half-Gnome and the Half-Halfling to allow for maximum Human shaggery.

[khadgar567]

Half-Dwarves? Now all that's left is the Half-Gnome and the Half-Halfling to allow for maximum Human shaggery.

we need hybrid race rules for extreme creations

[Powerdork]

In addition to my previous post, another question has come up for a game I'm building for: Does an atstreidi have a 'nonhumanoid form' for the purposes of the Form Figure heritage feat in the Very Serious Gaming Supplement* April Augmented 2016 (which allows an ooze such as the atstreidi to change shape into a gel biped)?

* Exceedingly serious, from the look of it, as the Medic playtest has to work around the Ambu-Lancer name.

[Thealtruistorc]

WOOHOO! A half-dwarf! The conversion of dark sun races is now one step closer to completion (Dray seem to be the only ones without an equivalent).

Also, I noticed how many great variants you have for the Tengu, and I was wondering if you have plans to do similar things with some other races. Will we be getting a bunch of arthropod variants for the Trox or Dromite? Anomalocaris, Stag Beetle, and Tardigrade races would make my day. What about Forgeborn variants that utilize technology in new ways? With Starfinder on the way, I could envision a few of those adding quite a bit of flair to the setting.

[Prime32]

Also, I noticed how many great variants you have for the Tengu, and I was wondering if you have plans to do similar things with some other races. Will we be getting a bunch of arthropod variants for the Trox or Dromite? Anomalocaris, Stag Beetle, and Tardigrade races would make my day. What about Forgeborn variants that utilize technology in new ways? With Starfinder on the way, I could envision a few of those adding quite a bit of flair to the setting.

My vote there would be to stick with the "hive" theme and create a primordial race of dromites that are divided into worker/soldier/queen/etc. subtypes, each corresponding to one of the modern dromites' elements (doesn't have to be subraces; racial paragon classes could also work if, say, you want queens to have wings but not at lv1).

And don't make a stag beetle race unless you make a rhino beetle race to go with it.

[MilleniaAntares]

In addition to my previous post, another question has come up for a game I'm building for: Does an atstreidi have a 'nonhumanoid form' for the purposes of the Form Figure heritage feat in the Very Serious Gaming Supplement* April Augmented 2016 (which allows an ooze such as the atstreidi to change shape into a gel biped)?

* Exceedingly serious, from the look of it, as the Medic playtest has to work around the Ambu-Lancer name.

I think the astreidi, despite their unique nature/anatomy, still count as a humanoid form, given that they do not lack any of the typical limbs (head, two arms, two legs) and item slots.

[Mehangel]

I think the astreidi, despite their unique nature/anatomy, still count as a humanoid form, given that they do not lack any of the typical limbs (head, two arms, two legs) and item slots.

Unless... the astreidi took up residence in barding for obscure beasts.

[Powerdork]

In addition to my previous two posts, another question arises: How much damage does an 8th-level ethumion guru take when she heals someone else for the full amount that a martyr's toga (with 3 essence invested) can heal?

As a standard action, the veilweaver may heal up to 5 points of damage an ally has taken by touching them and taking that much damage himself.
Essence: For each point of essence invested in this ability, the amount of damage that can be shifted is increased by 5.

Whenever an ethumion uses a spell, power, item, or other magical, psionic, or supernatural effect that heals another creature, she heals them for a number of additional hit points equal to her character level.

A similar situation arises when an 8th-level ethumion wilder manifests empathic transfer (also "healing" per the first line, and the augment). If she removes 10 damage, giving the target an additional 8 hit points via Wellspring of Life, does she pay 5 hit points for it, or 9?

The effect you're stated to perform with each ability is 'heal', so it is very definitely healing, thus increased by Wellspring of Life, but does the extra healing come from Wellspring of Life, or from the base effect (forcing the ethumion to pay for it the same way that she pays for the rest of the healing)?

[Milo v3]

Half-Dwarves seem abit too generic for bloodforge.

Also, the Gamla section has a copy-paste error saying they count as Suqur.

[Mithril Leaf]

Please keep the Half-Dwarves, I love them. I do have to agree though that their exceptional uncommonness seems somewhat excessive. What if two players in total want to play Half-Dwarves? I recognize fluff is mutable, but they don't reasonable to play as for general usage.

[Air0r]

Any new developments?

[Forrestfire]

Any new developments?

Actually, yes!

While this project, and many others, have been basically hard-stopped due to a couple things (mostly author business), we've received a lot of feedback, and Bloodforge Infusions 1 is this month (January)'s patreon release. Shortly after that releases, we'll be updating the playtest new material, as the Ethumion, Atsreidi, and Eiremian leave the playtest and hit the pdfs.

We're also working on finalizing an errata'd, revised Bloodforge pdf—this was delayed massively by us losing the raw files for the layout a while back, but I've worked hard recently to get the layout rebuilt from scratch, including our snazzy new pdf designs, updates in response to feedback, and so many bookmarks.

We're hoping to get that out sooner than BFI 1, so expect that soon!

[Nyaa]

Kumiho's Tooth and Nail grants three primary natural attacks at level 1?

[Kaidinah]

The jaguar catfolk have been updated! They are no longer mobile grapplers, but agile dancers. This was to increase their versatility and hopefully open them up to non grappler builds. If you really wanted a catfolk grappler though, the new Tearing Grip feat in the feat section should be up your alley.

[weckar]

Love the stuff, hate the title. The combination of 'forge' and 'infusion', maybe from a 3.5 background, rings way too much like crafting to me. Like, the Artificer, specifically. You never want a title to be unintentionally misleading, eh?

[Nyaa]

Is there a reason huli jing are so much better than kumiho at being immortal, even not considering restoration and draining friendlies? Creatures generally have more con score than hearts and livers, and missing point or two of con is way less noticeable than missing heart.

[torrasque666]

So are the other three races coming in another publication or...

[Lord_Gareth]

So are the other three races coming in another publication or...

We're working on getting it around, but the holidays are the great reaper of free time.

[torrasque666]

We're working on getting it around, but the holidays are the great reaper of free time.

Ok. I was just worried that they had been axed, and I really like the Coreid.

[thecrimsondawn]

W...what? How did I not know about this playtest? :O
I follow like every DSP playtest the moment I see it! lol

[Manyasone]

Ok. I was just worried that they had been axed, and I really like the Coreid.

Seconded (need 10 characters)

[EldritchWeaver]

Reading through the newest PDF, I found two issues:

Yokai kitsune reach adulthood at 50 years of age, and use the the table on page X for their aging effects, rather than aging like a normal kitsune.

Page X should point to a specific page. Also the half-blood subtypes aren't in alphabetical order.