[Avatar d20 Project] Bending System and Bending Classes - Thread II

[Eighth_Seraph]

Perhaps not, but they're not nearly as über-pwntastic as they were in their youth. This happens a lot in martial arts. At any large tournament, there tends to be a bunch of middle-aged men that could apparently tear a brick wall to shreds with their bare hands, and everyone thinks "Wow, so age really doesn't matter!"

Then you see a video of those middle-aged men when they were younger, and you realize that, holy crap, they were freakin' inhuman. I think the system as we have it works out to be more or less true to the real world. If a character puts his level-up ability points into Dex or Con, he'll be able to cope with old age just fine.

[Paragon Badger]

The aging penalties should remain, but longer lifespans should be in order.

As if anyone actually rolls for age at character creation......

But how would explain Kyoshi being so friggin' tall?

[AstralFire]

Perhaps not, but they're not nearly as über-pwntastic as they were in their youth. This happens a lot in martial arts. At any large tournament, there tends to be a bunch of middle-aged men that could apparently tear a brick wall to shreds with their bare hands, and everyone thinks "Wow, so age really doesn't matter!"

Then you see a video of those middle-aged men when they were younger, and you realize that, holy crap, they were freakin' inhuman. I think the system as we have it works out to be more or less true to the real world. If a character puts his level-up ability points into Dex or Con, he'll be able to cope with old age just fine.

-3 to Str, Dex and Con would model that well. The difference between 15 and 18 Str is about 200 lbs worth of benchpress. The difference between 12 and 18 (what we currently have) is 340.

Assuming everyone is commoners, going from 18 Con to 15 Con is losing a third of your health. Going from 18 to 12 is about half.

A single point of Str is actually really huge as far as real life modeling goes, and -3 to all your physical stats is still nothing to sneeze at in D&D until epic.

The current aging modifiers are accounting for both potential health and habit, I would argue.

[felinoel]

Perhaps not, but they're not nearly as über-pwntastic as they were in their youth. This happens a lot in martial arts. At any large tournament, there tends to be a bunch of middle-aged men that could apparently tear a brick wall to shreds with their bare hands, and everyone thinks "Wow, so age really doesn't matter!"

Then you see a video of those middle-aged men when they were younger, and you realize that, holy crap, they were freakin' inhuman. I think the system as we have it works out to be more or less true to the real world. If a character puts his level-up ability points into Dex or Con, he'll be able to cope with old age just fine.

Yes, like when Sokka and Piandao were fighting Piandao mentioned how he was less nimble or something due to his old age

[Gmmaster42]

Yes, like when Sokka and Piandao were fighting Piandao mentioned how he was less nimble or something due to his old age

Yeah, but he's still pretty nimble. Especially skating along the ice in the taking back of Ba Sing Se and taking out practically all the soldiers, well disarming them.

[felinoel]

Yeah, but he's still pretty nimble. Especially skating along the ice in the taking back of Ba Sing Se and taking out practically all the soldiers, well disarming them.

He probably worked to get back the that was dex possibly lost from aging

[Paragon Badger]

Speaking of which, what advanced class does Piandao and Sokka work with?

I would imagine Sokka would add his intelligence or wisdom bonus to attack or defense, considering that his greatest strength (said Piandao) lay within his ingenuity in combat.

Edit: Can we expand the Firebender's incandecence? Zuko burns a hole through the ice during the seige on the North Pole, but I just thought that A firebender and waterbend could theoretically cooperate; the firebender superheating the water to boiling degree, and the water bender manipulating it. The SRD has damage for being hit by/immersed in boiling water, I believe.

[felinoel]

Speaking of which, what advanced class does Piandao and Sokka work with?

I would imagine Sokka would add his intelligence or wisdom bonus to attack or defense, considering that his greatest strength (said Piandao) lay within his ingenuity in combat.

Well Sokka has two official builds, but I think Piandao didn't mean intelligence during a giant war zone with tons of enemies surrounding you with you in the middle, I think he meant tactical intelligence and creativity, for when you are away from that massive area of baddies and you see a huge bouldar above them you could drop on them, or like in 300, fight where the only entrance is a narrow pathway so the enemies can only get to you in very small numbers which makes them easier to defeat

Sokka's two build's are here
http://avatar.d20.googlepages.com/sokka

Piandao seems to be a pure fighter, see here
http://avatar.d20.googlepages.com/piandao

[Belphegor153]

( posts in the wrong avatar thread... probably... )

Well im entirely new here..

Ive been trying to run the older Avatar d20 that Wizo's spawned.. My players want something more up to date and this system is the closest.. so im going to read through and find Some things to work on.. :/

[String]

HELLO FROM IRELAND.

Anyway, Seraph, I read through the pcs vs monsters (did well) and Dai Li (wow). Out of curiousity, did you include the bonus to Earthbending that dai li affliliation scores wouldve given them? If not, then they obviously dont need them, and it could be superfluous. I may have to edit that in the main hub thread.

Also, HOLY HELL. those three Dai Li were amazing. That tremorsense was sure an issue.I wonder if a fighter (I wonder who) would fair as badly?

Also: I dont think we have rules on this but..Bending underwater? I figure its possible, (seem to remember zuko doing it and creating steaming bubbles but I could be mistaken.) but perhaps with an approprate penalty to bending checks? perhaps a -2, which is on par with the attack roll penalty? If we go that way, I would suggest either a seed for waterbenders and airbenders (perhaps allowing them to share the benefit with others) that would allow for a freedom of movement type effect and eleminates the penalty for a bit, or a feat (which would allow all 4 classes access, but has less fluff-wise sense, seeing as airbenders are all about freedom and movement, and waterbenders are all about water) that eliminates the penalty.

[Eighth_Seraph]

Actually, I think that the reason the Dai Le owned with such impunity is that the firebenders wouldn't hurry up and threaten them, the waterbender wouldn't defend anyone, and the earthbender managed to get himself to 9 HP before even taking an action against the Dai Li.

What I learned through this match is that if a bender is not used creatively, he is fodder, and little more. Also, Fire Sweep does quite well as a template. It's a great way to blow your lowest BAB attack. I think it's time that we officially implemented all the suggestions that Meph posted earlier.

[felinoel]

Also, HOLY HELL. those three Dai Li were amazing. That tremorsense was sure an issue.I wonder if a fighter (I wonder who) would fair as badly?

In the game I am running it is canon up to the last couple of episodes with mild changes to that (I had Ozai win so my players can defeat him theirselves), and I made it so things like tremorsense, bloodbending, metalbending, and others like them were only available if you had a good excuse to know of its existance since they were virtually unheard of

[Copacetic]

Is it just me, or do the waterbenders get the better end of the stick when it comes to the Child Of.... Abilites. They get the same bonus to waterbending every month that the firebenders get every hundred years.

[Gmmaster42]

I think that's a typo. The comet should provide a much bigger bonus like +20. It made the firebenders uberpowerful while the full moon was a nice add on for waterbenders in the show.

[Paragon Badger]

I think that's a typo. The comet should provide a much bigger bonus like +20. It made the firebenders uberpowerful while the full moon was a nice add on for waterbenders in the show.

I'd have to agree. From the last episodes

Spoiler

Show

Ozai has a huge advantage over Aang until he goes all State-y and the Azula vs. Zuko just about cover the entire arena with each blast.

And really, Sozin's Comet should be a plot event where the +20 bonus is to pump up the challenge for an important enemy. It isn't something that should occur every other campaign.

[felinoel]

I'd have to agree. From the last episodes

Spoiler

Show

Ozai has a huge advantage over Aang until he goes all State-y and the Azula vs. Zuko just about cover the entire arena with each blast.

And really, Sozin's Comet should be a plot event where the +20 bonus is to pump up the challenge for an important enemy. It isn't something that should occur every other campaign.

Plus Ozai said it gives you the power of a hundred firebenders or something like that

[Caewil]

A hundred suns.

[felinoel]

A hundred suns.

Ah yes, he said the comet gave the power of a hundred suns

[Zak Crimsonleaf]

I have torn this thread free of the embrace of the grave in order to ask a question and perhaps return it to a semblence of life. Did sandbending ever get satisfactorily resolved? I recall this being proposed:

I propose the following: We alter the Earthbender class description to allow the use of sand and similar particulate matter, but at a -5 penalty. Then we create a separate list of sandbender forms that serve as “substitution forms.” Most of them would be re-worked waterbender or earthbender forms with a few unique sandbending forms worked in. In order to access this list of “substitution forms,” a character would have to take the Sandbender feat, which would probably look something like this:

Sandbender [General]
Benefit: You no longer take a -5 penalty to Earthbending checks when attempting to bend sand, dust, or loose soil. Additionally, if you take levels in the Earthbender class, you may select your bending forms from the list of Sandbender forms.
Normal: Earthbenders take a -5 penalty to Earthbending checks when attempting to bend sand, dust, or loose soil

But I don't recall if that was ever accepted. But I think it should be, so if it wasn't, I want to put it into action and get started on sandbender forms. I'm not of a mind to leave this alone until we can agree on something.

Edit: Oh, and that Forms Compendium is looking a little abandoned too, as long as we're looking into these things.

[Pirate_King]

That seems like the most viable option, since Toph does manage some sandbending and a prestige class doesn't seem to make much sense because it implies a sandbender is necessarily already good at normal earthbending. An Earthbender taking a feat then mostly picking up sandbending seems a lot cleaner to me.

[felinoel]

That seems like the most viable option, since Toph does manage some sandbending and a prestige class doesn't seem to make much sense because it implies a sandbender is necessarily already good at normal earthbending. An Earthbender taking a feat then mostly picking up sandbending seems a lot cleaner to me.

Well then that seems to weaken natural sandbenders in my opinion, forcing them to waste a feat to do what they were raised to do...

[Pirate_King]

Well then that seems to weaken natural sandbenders in my opinion, forcing them to waste a feat to do what they were raised to do...

But what does a feat represent? Special training and/or natural natural aptitude, or lately, heritage. And speaking in the metagame, it's worth a feat to be more versatile.

[felinoel]

But what does a feat represent? Special training and/or natural natural aptitude, or lately, heritage. And speaking in the metagame, it's worth a feat to be more versatile.

But still natural sandbenders lose a feat in order to be a natural sandbender, can natural sendbenders easily bend regular earth?

[Mephibosheth]

Wow, back from the depths!

I've been working on a sandbender "class" that's a refinement of the idea Zak referenced, but kinda sidelined it when the project died down. Essentially, it takes the form of a few substitution levels and a list of forms that replace the standard earthbender forms. A sandbender would take levels in earthbender, taking the sandbender substitution levels where necessary and learning sandbending feats instead of earthbending feats. It may eventually turn into a whole new class, but I haven't progressed that far.

[felinoel]

Wow, back from the depths!

I've been working on a sandbender "class" that's a refinement of the idea Zak referenced, but kinda sidelined it when the project died down. Essentially, it takes the form of a few substitution levels and a list of forms that replace the standard earthbender forms. A sandbender would take levels in earthbender, taking the sandbender substitution levels where necessary and learning sandbending feats instead of earthbending feats. It may eventually turn into a whole new class, but I haven't progressed that far.

Substitution levels of course! My fav substitution levels would definitely have to be for the halfling barbarion, but thats beside the point, good idea, I would like to see how this turns out

[Zak Crimsonleaf]

Yes, that was the other thing that was mentioned. It would be most appropriate to include them at Levels 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, and 19, I think. That would replace the Climb speed and Head-On Defense with something more suited to a desert environment. 1st level might be something to consider, unless you consider Earth Blast and Move A Rock to work just as well with sand when you take the feat as with normal earth. I don't know if it would be a good idea to make it a seperate class when it's still earthbending, just of a different variety.

[Rogue 7]

So, I'm DMing an Avatar game, and I've got a player who wants to play a Kiyoshi Warrior. Any recommendations?

[AstralFire]

So, I'm DMing an Avatar game, and I've got a player who wants to play a Kiyoshi Warrior. Any recommendations?

Rogue with lots of those feats that let you convert Sneak Attack into disabling stuff.

Their Martial Artist + those Chi Immobility feats (though I don't believe theirs can wear armor, while the KW can.)

Alternatively, Warblade.

[String]

Passive Way Monk.

[felinoel]

Passive Way Monk.

Definitely Passive Way Monk, thats why my build of Sokka has that level in Passive Way Monk, I am mildly sure the passive way was created for them