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2012-10-22, 06:00 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
We already had a Music-based PrC (see my Sig), which i am definetly going to re-write for this once it's (more) finished.
I would like to note that the Champion does lose A LOT of durability right now - since you can no longer gain Charisma and Constitution to your AC. Both would make excellent costume-effects, and i really like the idea of making Constitution a solid secondary stat for a Defender-type Magical Girl. Feats would also enhance that nicely, such as Protective Reflexes i wrote for the original MG.
It has already been pointed out, but i would like to stress it:
The Power-Augment for Blasts is currently almost utterly pointless.
I would suggest a moderate benefit, such as:
- For every X motes invested, you reduce the damage reduction from Shapes by 1D6
- For every Y motes invested, you increase the damage die of your Blast by one step
Either of those would make power-focussed Blasts worthwhile.LGBTitP
Divine Administration - of Gods and Bureaucracy (Worm/Exalted Fanfiction)
Originally Posted by grarrrg
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2012-10-22, 02:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
You can make any number of cartridges, and the only limit seems to be how many you can possess at a time. What stopping you from handing your excess cartridges to a buddy, then taking them back whenever you have a spare action? Also, what's stopping your cartridge-less allies from using your spare cartridges?
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2012-10-22, 08:51 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-10-22, 08:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
Avatar of Furude Setsuna, by Telasi.Originally Posted by Akagi
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2012-10-22, 10:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-10-22, 10:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
Avatar of Furude Setsuna, by Telasi.Originally Posted by Akagi
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2012-10-22, 10:33 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-10-24, 12:42 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
A couple nights of work have, happily, seen the completion of the Zodiac.
Its posting should occur tomorrow, as soon as I get it proofread and converted into GitP code from the word document where it currently resides. After that, will be able to resume chipping into this pile of responses - a lot of good points made (and glaring flaws pointed out), that I am simply too tired to dig into coherently at the moment.Lovely Rita Mordio avatar by Zefir! Thank you!
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2012-10-25, 04:02 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
But after two boosts using the Weapon size increment table as a guide (1d6->1d8->2d6) you end up getting twice as many dice for your expended motes. So the cost would either need to be prohibitive, or balanced around the fact that Power will eventually become literally twice as efficient.
Personally, I would rather balance it around the power ability being 2d6 to begin with.
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2012-10-25, 05:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
I was referring to die size (1D6->1D8->1D10->1D12), not weapon size tables.
LGBTitP
Divine Administration - of Gods and Bureaucracy (Worm/Exalted Fanfiction)
Originally Posted by grarrrg
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2012-10-25, 10:21 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
Selinia apparently forgot to give warning, so here goes.
Zodiac is up.
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2012-10-25, 10:58 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
It's up, awesome.
Luminous Reservoir does not state in the text how many motes it holds when initially gained (6 according to the table).
For Shining Schemata, can a Zodiac who fails a check get another character to then supply the missing spell? When exactly is the UMD check made? Normal crafting rules require the xp and gold to be spent entirely at the beginning of item construction, so presumably the check would also have to be made at the beginning to avoid the expenditure on a failure. If the check fails, can the Zodiac immediately switch to producing a different item instead? If the check fails, is the Zodiac unable to mimic that spell entirely (such as for other items), or just for the current, stalled project?
Font of Life (18th level ability) exists on the class table but has no description in the text.A Guide to Free D&D - A resource of free, official D&D resources on the web.
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2012-10-26, 12:10 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
Well, a bit to get into here, so here goes!
- Zodiac base class added! Call upon the ancient radiance of the stars above, and blow things to smithereens with illuminations! Combining a wild-surge-like EL booster, a reservoir to help ease the strain on her per-turn mote pool, and a number of handy uses for a sharp mind, the master of radiant refinement is here!
- Illumination augments are now organized in a superior manner. Hopefully this should make it easier to browse and fill one's mote budget.
- Added the Radiance, Sanctity, and Courage barrier augmentations! Slowly, but surely, the list grows.
- Added the Illuminations and Multiple Evoker Levels sidebar to the Illuminations section. This should clear this up a smidgen.
- Cartridges have been clarified somewhat in the champion's description. Hopefully this will clear up a measure of confusion, and prevent shenanigains regarding cartridge trading.
- The Power augmentation no longer exists. Upon deliberation whether to buff it or nullify it, I went with the latter. Buffing would have created a dichotomy between power and snazzy effects that I hope to avoid as much as possible with Blasts.
Glad to hear you enjoy it! The empath is a bit of an oddball whose abilities I am still nailing down, but it might be best to think of it this way - if the Champion is the 'warrior' evoker, and the Zodiac is the 'mage', the Empath is to be the 'expert'. Very adaptable, and a bit more utility-focused than other evokers.
All of these are good points, and I will definitely implement them when I have more time to properly write them out. For now, I can at least tweak that last typo - Jaded DC boost is only supposed to wipe clean on a total failure of 10+. At that point, your giant gaffe more or less outshines any minor irritation you might have previously posed.
Yes. Spelling. That is certainly a thing. Fixed!
Being able to counter-befriend a captor is intentional, but I have to say, the massive bonuses were not! I will include a note on this rather interesting topic next time I get a chance to edit the Power of Friendship rules.
Ask and ye shall receive. Sometimes. When I'm not procrastinating and/or being legitimately delayed.
1
Lots more things to respond to, but I need to wake up early tomorrow morning and sleep is calling. With the big monster of Zodiac out of the way, and Empath simmering on the back burner until lightly browned, I should be able to get to the rest of these without too much issue tomorrow.Lovely Rita Mordio avatar by Zefir! Thank you!
Homebrew:
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2012-10-26, 11:08 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
Yay, another awesome class.
Most likely still needs some fine-tuning - what doesn't? - but looks very solid so far. My first thought was "damn, i want to Gestalt/Multiclass this with a Magus or Warblade" - granted, that wastes the device, but oh well.LGBTitP
Divine Administration - of Gods and Bureaucracy (Worm/Exalted Fanfiction)
Originally Posted by grarrrg
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2012-10-26, 12:48 PM (ISO 8601)
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2012-10-26, 03:04 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
zodiac unhas description of ther merciful class feature.
radiance barrier augmentation is a bit ambiguous? I assume it's +20 ft. to both the inner and outer radius, and then a further +20 ft. for the outer radius.
is falling a form of movement for ramparts barrier augmentation purposes?
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2012-10-26, 03:23 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
This whole thing is incredibly cool. Awesome work, truly.
I do have one question...is the separate pool of readied illuminations really necessary? That whole mechanic never made much sense to me with martial adepts. Why not just let them use whatever illuminations they know?A role playing game is three things. It is an interactive story, a game of chance, and a process in critical thinking.
If brevity is the soul of wit, I'm witty like a vampire!
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2012-10-26, 08:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
changelog needs to be updated.
Mortal Miracle: interacts with the Construct and Undead types; perhaps require a constitution score, or rewrite so it works with things that are destroyed immediatly at 0 hp. (argumentum ad madoka, of course, perhaps dictates the latter, but.)
Practiced Evoker: is somewhat badly worded. intent is almost certainly, evoker level cannot exceed hd, but can also be interpreted as, increase to evoker level cannot exceed hd. recommend borrowing the wording on practiced spellcaster, practiced manifester, and such: "Your evoker level [for the chosen evoking class] increases by two. This benefit can't increase your evoker level higher than your Hit Dice. Even if you can't benefit from the full bonus immediately, however, if you later gain levels of non-evoking classes, you might be able to apply the rest of the bonus." I assume the increase is two instead of four due to the 1/2-level progression provision? (I don't know if it would be preferable to improve all evoking classes or just one chosen, and it's not obvious what the intent is, so I'll just leave that.)
are the masterwork benefits already accounted for in the costume archetype table?
Sidebar: Illuminations and Multiple Evoker Classes inconsistently capitalises "evoker level".
Shining Schemata: it is, uh, really easy to produce magic items requiring a higher spell level than usual at one's level. but it's the same text as the warlock feature, I suppose? (I presume standard procedure for such warlocks is to get a schema of magic savant as soon as possible, so as to make it essentially impossible fail that check with the +4 and the take 10 and at least ten ranks.)
"And while such arguments may at times fall of deaf ears": "of" → "on" ?
I presume the "She may always access any of her complex formulae known," clause means they are always readied in addition to any other readied illuminations? that should probably be clarified. I presume "A zodiac may alter or replace any of her known illuminations freely whenever she gains a permanent evoker level." applies also to complex formulae?
"Radiant armaments (Su)" → "Radiant Armaments (Su)" ?
it seems usual in class tables to write only the first word of the feature capitalised, with all other words lowercase except if proper nouns, and with the features arranged in alphabetical order; whether you wish to follow this convention is your own choice, though, I suppose. (dead levels, incidentally, are usually filled with ... okay, I think they're en dashes, –, but they might be em dashes, —. actually, they're probably em dashes.)
Knowledge as a class skill is usually written as "Knowledge (all skill, taken individually) (Int)"; this, too, of course, is simply a convention and eh.
The illumination gained from Sunlight Apotheosis can be rearranged on gaining a new permanent evoker level, too, I presume?
Font of Life ... well, the destroyed-at-0-hp issues crop up here, too.
"a champion establishes a bond with a particular weapon and suit of armor – respectively referred to as her Costume and her Device" -- er, other way around, unless you really mean the weapon is Costume and the armour is Device. totally legit, probably, given the state of 3.5 RAW, but rather nonsensical.
bonus: "this is the magical girl, but it is definitely a post-Madoka magical girl" -- wait, when you say "Madoka", which
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2012-10-27, 04:31 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
I somehow missed that this had been posted.
Subscribing so I can review it at a later date.
Just for future reference, I suggest posting a link to the update in the original topic.
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2012-10-27, 06:07 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
it occurs to be that these classes are essentially very combat-focused; there are some things here and there that aren't, but they don't seem to provide interesting options for non-combat situations?
incidentally, it seems that the Shining Schemata feature itself allows evoker level to count as a caster level for magic item creation qualification purposes. in that case, due to level-up order of operations -- feat selection comes before class features, the first opportunity to take a item-creation feat is the 9th level feat, if the character doesn't already have a caster level from some other source (feat or racial SLA, other classes, or whatever). the warlock avoids this problem even though it's at 12th level because it gains an SLA (well, multiple) earlier in the class; the zodiac ... just has to wait ?? I'd assume this isn't the intent.
ed: and because I seem to have far too much spare time, I went through the whole thing again and compiled a list of things I found badly written, ambiguous, unusual, or otherwise worth commenting on.
... naturally, I decided to write it in markdown instead of bbcode, what was I even thinking. I also rendered it as html, though, so ?? it's a lot of words either way, though.
Code:Things Comment/Suggest ?? ------------------------- ### Things Fix Character set : you seem to use a lot of iso-8591-1 characters, most notably the quotes and dashes; it makes the text a bit hard to screen-scrape \>||| so I had trouble making pretty typeset things \>||| "Use Magical Device" : skill is "Use Magic Device" "a particular weapon and suit of armor -- respectively referred to as her Costume and her Device" : switch order of "Costume" and "Device" Enhanced Armaments : capitalise "Radiant armaments" properly, probably Sunlight Apotheosis : Can the illumination gained be changed upon gaining a permanent evoker level? "Radiant armaments" : change to "Radiant Armaments" Merciful : zodiac needs the feature description. Complex Formula : - assume "She may always access any of her complex formulae known" means they're always readied? possibly clarify that, and whether they count toward readied illuminations. - actually, also clarify whether they count toward known illuminations. - assume "A zodiac may alter or replace any of her known illuminations freely whenever she gains a permanent evoker level" in the feature description is intended to apply to complex formulae? "may at times fall of deaf ears" : change "of" to "on" Luminous Reservoir : I assume that motes need only be taken from the reservoir when the usual mote pool is insufficient to cover it? probably needs clarification. Shining Schemata : I'm giving this its own section. Barrier augmentation: Radiance : is not clear what "the radii of bright light and shadowy illumination each increase by 20'" is supposed to mean -- the distance between bright and no light is a constant 20'? or should it increase by 20' with each rank? Radiant Armaments : (Su) as a feature, but, uh, what happens to them in AMF? do they vanish? do their effects get suppressed? clarify! Device Effect: Enhanced : what happens if a device is Enhanced, then given a special ability, and then Enhanced is unselected? Costume Effects : "1st" on the table is wonky. General Feat: Practiced Evoker : "Your evoker level [for the chosen evoking class] increases by two. This benefit can't increase your evoker level higher than your Hit Dice. Even if you can't benefit from the full bonus immediately, however, if you later gain levels of non-evoking classes, you might be able to apply the rest of the bonus." (with or without "for the chosen evoking class") seems like a better way of wording it, especially considering that one can have multiple evoker levels. General Feat: Mortal Miracle : probably should require a constitution score, or at least require to be alive, because non-alive things are destroyed at 0 and setting to -9 is ... not helpful. ### Things Comment Font of Life : is actually fine, I guess. "a Native Outsider with one alignment subtype of her choice" : any single subtype, which doesn't actually depend on actual alignment, I presume. is interesting, suggest keep it that way, actually. Astral Celerity : untyped? eh, I guess it's not something that can break things that hard, but untyped bonuses in general are kind of scary, especially with unique names. but probably not broken. Sagacity : "relevant" means "DM's discretion", right? Grace of Aeons : untyped bonus is untyped! but also probably not broken. Starlight Apotheosis : okay, so, the illuminations can't be suppressed by AMF, but, like, every other feature other than sagacity is. not unreasonable, but seems a bit incongruous. Illuminations : okay, so I understand the reasoning behind the "may only use spend a number of motes up to her evoker level on illuminations of a given base type (Blasts, Barriers, and Surges) in a round" but I don't understand why the restriction can't just be against using more than evoker level in a single illumination; doubling up on barriers or surges instead of taking a standard to use a blast doesn't seem that bad; and in any case, extra-action effect aren't that common and the total motes-per-turn restriction is still in effect, so I don't see why the limitation is by type of illumination. Barrier augmentations: Vitality, Courage, Sanctity : not understanding why these aren't surges. Barrier augmentation: Borders : does this have to be up/down? Barrier augmentation: Ramparts : is falling movement? I mean, it's not really a movement action, but uh, I don't know, logic? Barrier augmentation: Visions : this one makes me sad that there isn't an augmentation for maintaining barriers indefinitely beyond recasting every round. not that recasting every round does work. Surges : all of these are expensive, so pretty much no swift-action buffing and debuffing until ... 2nd level, for zodiacs, once per encounter. Costume Archetypes : I see you've removed the class restrictions, was this intended? Costume Effects : there's no Enhanced equivalent for the costume? Power of Friendship : right, so the huge bonuses for not actually being the captor? Power of Friendship: Aligned Essence : perhaps would better be -5 if you're dragging it back to the alignment corresponding to its subtype? ### Things Suggest Enhanced Armaments : should this really be (Ex) when it depends on a (Su) feature? Suggest change to (Su). Class tables : - features are usually written in alphabetical order, with only the first word capitalised (except in proper nouns and such). - dead levels are usually filled with "---" - I suppose writing "Complex formula (2 known, 3/encounter, +3)" would be too much words? Maybe it should just have its own column? "Knowledge [Any] (Int)" : is usually written "Knowledge (all skill, taken individually) (Int)" ### Shining Schemata There are two basic problems here: 1. like with the warlock's class feature, this doesn't actually care about the level of the spell. 2. it is the Shining Schemata feature itself which allows evoker level to be used as a caster level for qualifying for item creation feats. 1 makes it possible to, say, create 9th level scrolls at 9th level; this is not necessarily an actual problem, since, unlike with the artificer, the feature is not the central focus of the class, so it is probably usual to be simply paying full crafting costs anyway; after all, warlock isn't usually considered overwhelmingly broken even with that feature, and it's even a bit more of a play-with-magic-items class than the zodiac. 2 is almost certainly a problem though; since Shining Schemata is placed at Zodiac 6, it is, at ealiest, gained at 6th level. because of the order of operations at level gain beyond 1st level, it is impossible to take an item creation feat before 9th level without having gained caster level by other means beforehand, or leaving the class to gain a bonus feat earlier. this is a problem the warlock does not also have, because the warlock does actually have a caster level from its SLA's gained earlier in the class; it just doesn't have much in the way of things to do with item creation feats in conjunction with them; but it can take an item creation feat at 12th level and immediately begin using it. solutions to problem 2 may include, but are not necessarily limited to: - have evoker level count as a caster level without need for the Shining Schemata class feature. this is probably simplest; if not restricted to qualifying for item creation feats, however, it can create unintended interations in certain ways, though -- with the mage slayer line, for example, and possibly with practiced spellcaster. - have zodiac evoker level count as a caster level for qualifying for item creation feats; this is a bit strange, but since we already have special Power of Friendship things for each evoker class, it wouldn't necessarily come off as altogether that strange. - specify in the Shining Schemata feature that the character can take an item creation feat on the level it is gained, if eligible to gain a feat on that level; this is klugy and hijacks the level-up order of operations, which is probably bad. - specify in the Shining Schemata feature that the evoker level can be used to qualify for item creation feats even before 6th level; this is a bit strange in that it allows a class feature to take effect before gained. - provide an inconsequential SLA before 6th level -- candidates might be, say, dancing lights, flare, light ... know direction, possibly even, it sort of sounds pretty with the zodiac fluff with stars and constellations, after all -- at caster level = evoker level is probably most consistent; this provides the caster level necessary to take item creation feats. ... this isn't actually all that bad an idea, although it is an extra feature which doesn't necessarily fit into the evokers-are-supernatural paradigm. - provide a bonus feat with the class feature. this is probably bad, because bonus feats are precious and all; but, well, it's not like they don't fit. - leave it as is. getting a caster level before 6th level is the player's own responsibility if it wants to be using shining schemata before 9th. (and then every zodiac is a silverbrow human or a gnome, I guess. or takes those CArc feats.) ### Other Things - Burdens surge made me think about ectoplasmic cocoon -- because reflex SoL is ... not that common, really, after all. - okay, I'm assuming the healing only for undead thing is intentional. - okay so, I mentioned combat fixation; time to substantiate by assertions. - combat roles -- the Champion seems to do the BSF thing reasonably, blast illuminations ... are acceptable blasting. BFC, buffing, debuffing, are done reasonably by barriers and surges. - utility effects, however, are rather lacking: - the Visions barrier augmentation does illusions, which are useful. - the Might surge augmentation can help in social and skill events. - the Temporal device effect can help in some stealth and social events. - Power of Friendship is ... an interesting mechanic? - Sagacity doesn't really do anything better than social skills on an Cha-based character. - that ... is more or less everything I can imagine used out of combat. - the Champion as it stands, I'd say, then, fills the role it's trying to fill, "flexible and powerful combatant," it works. it could use some more synergy between blasts and non-blast attacks, but then, we have the Assault augmentation. it's just not much other than a combatant. - the Zodiac ... can't really fill a caster role. it can do a few of the things normally associated with casters, but really, does more or less the same things as the Champion, except less costume options and more illumination options. so, also likely to be useless in a large category of situations. - so, both I'd judge to be somewhere in the territory of tiers 3 and 4, leaning toward 4. which is probably fine, really. - it totally makes sense to have a barrier effect to walk in and teleport, barrier effect to telecommunications, barrier effect to look at things, barrier effect to block divinations, barrier effect for anti-magic, ... surge effect for bonus to checks or rolls or whatever (actually, that also works as a costume effect -- and providing rerolls is also not a horrid thing for a surge, other than the, costume effect already does that things) ... dispelling blasts! ... actually, a dispel effect on a blast doesn't sound that bad, sounds like a neat effect, even. ... okay, I'll stop with terrible ideas. - it kind of bugs Prism's energy type must be chosen when on crafting (i.e. at level up), while the Primal costume effect's energy type can be chosen with five minutes. I feel like the illumination augmentations would do well to be consistent with the costume effects: the augmentations are set, but if there are choices to be made within the augmentation, those can be chosen when the illumination is readied. maybe just for some of them?
Last edited by sreservoir; 2012-11-08 at 01:25 PM. Reason: lies, damn lies, and mistaken statistics
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2012-10-28, 11:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
First, thought I'd post so that sreservoir's rather long critique may be noticed. Anyway, also have some things to reply to it.
While I don't think there has been much issue with theoretically using multiple surges in a round, Selinia is similarly worried about creating a field of barriers on the battlefield to the issue of multiple blasts a round.
It sounds like you overlooked the Ancient augment for barriers, which increases duration by one round per rank. That said, it oddly can't be used by champions, and is quite expensive. I'd suggest possibly lowering the mote cost slightly (to two or three motes per rank), and then allowing champions to use it as well for a higher mote cost (around 4 to 6 motes per rank). Might also be worth looking into if other augments might fit for classes currently not able to take them at higher mote costs.
Likely should stay at Ex, given that the changes it cause are not supernatural, even if the subject of those changes is supernatural. Also, given the need for clarification on how the Radiant Armaments act when in areas suppressing supernatural abilities, it may be relevant if they don't vanish, but simply are unable to be summoned or dismissed while within the area, in which case supernatural improvements to them would go away, but not extraordinary ones.
I'd note that there are many different conventions for dead levels, from leaving it blank, to underscores, to en dashes, to em dashes. Multiple dashes is less common, but on the whole so long as it is clear it likely doesn't matter much in this case.
You also overlooked the simple solution of changing the ability to be granted at level 5.
This is a good suggestion. I support it.
Just thought I'd note you technically can have multiple blasts using the assault augment, so long as the sum of their mote costs does not exceed your evoker level. Mind due to how blasts work, this is unlikely to impact the damage in most cases (assuming they all hit), and the increased chance of some missing makes the average damage go down (though predicting the amount requires knowing all the modifiers for attack rolls as well as the enemies AC).
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2012-10-29, 12:44 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
ed: and because I have far too much free time, I wrote a markdown-to-bbcode program. the output is messy, but okay, it's not intended to be read by humans, right.
SpoilerThings Comment/Suggest ??
Things Fix
Character set
you seem to use a lot of iso-8591-1 characters, most notably the quotes and dashes; it makes the text a bit hard to screen-scrape >||| so I had trouble making pretty typeset things >|||"Use Magical Device"
skill is "Use Magic Device""a particular weapon and suit of armor -- respectively referred to as her Costume and her Device"
switch order of "Costume" and "Device"Enhanced Armaments
capitalise "Radiant armaments" properly, probablySunlight Apotheosis
Can the illumination gained be changed upon gaining a permanent evoker level?"Radiant armaments"
change to "Radiant Armaments"Merciful
zodiac needs the feature description.Complex Formula
"may at times fall of deaf ears"- assume "She may always access any of her complex formulae known" means they're always readied? possibly clarify that, and whether they count toward readied illuminations.
- actually, also clarify whether they count toward known illuminations.
- assume "A zodiac may alter or replace any of her known illuminations freely whenever she gains a permanent evoker level" in the feature description is intended to apply to complex formulae?
change "of" to "on"Luminous Reservoir
I assume that motes need only be taken from the reservoir when the usual mote pool is insufficient to cover it? probably needs clarification.Shining Schemata
I'm giving this its own section.Barrier augmentation: Radiance
is not clear what "the radii of bright light and shadowy illumination each increase by 20'" is supposed to mean -- the distance between bright and no light is a constant 20'? or should it increase by 20' with each rank?Radiant Armaments
(Su) as a feature, but, uh, what happens to them in AMF? do they vanish? do their effects get suppressed? clarify!Device Effect: Enhanced
what happens if a device is Enhanced, then given a special ability, and then Enhanced is unselected?Costume Effects
"1st" on the table is wonky.General Feat: Practiced Evoker
"Your evoker level [for the chosen evoking class] increases by two. This benefit can't increase your evoker level higher than your Hit Dice. Even if you can't benefit from the full bonus immediately, however, if you later gain levels of non-evoking classes, you might be able to apply the rest of the bonus." (with or without "for the chosen evoking class") seems like a better way of wording it, especially considering that one can have multiple evoker levels.General Feat: Mortal Miracle
probably should require a constitution score, or at least require to be alive, because non-alive things are destroyed at 0 and setting to -9 is ... not helpful.
Things Comment
Font of Life
is actually fine, I guess."a Native Outsider with one alignment subtype of her choice"
any single subtype, which doesn't actually depend on actual alignment, I presume. is interesting, suggest keep it that way, actually.Astral Celerity
untyped? eh, I guess it's not something that can break things that hard, but untyped bonuses in general are kind of scary, especially with unique names. but probably not broken.Sagacity
"relevant" means "DM's discretion", right?Grace of Aeons
untyped bonus is untyped! but also probably not broken.Starlight Apotheosis
okay, so, the illuminations can't be suppressed by AMF, but, like, every other feature other than sagacity is. not unreasonable, but seems a bit incongruous.Illuminations
okay, so I understand the reasoning behind the "may only use spend a number of motes up to her evoker level on illuminations of a given base type (Blasts, Barriers, and Surges) in a round" but I don't understand why the restriction can't just be against using more than evoker level in a single illumination; doubling up on barriers or surges instead of taking a standard to use a blast doesn't seem that bad; and in any case, extra-action effect aren't that common and the total motes-per-turn restriction is still in effect, so I don't see why the limitation is by type of illumination.Barrier augmentations: Vitality, Courage, Sanctity
not understanding why these aren't surges.Barrier augmentation: Borders
does this have to be up/down?Barrier augmentation: Ramparts
is falling movement? I mean, it's not really a movement action, but uh, I don't know, logic?Barrier augmentation: Visions
this one makes me sad that there isn't an augmentation for maintaining barriers indefinitely beyond recasting every round. not that recasting every round does work.Surges
all of these are expensive, so pretty much no swift-action buffing and debuffing until ... 2nd level, for zodiacs, once per encounter.Costume Archetypes
I see you've removed the class restrictions, was this intended?Costume Effects
there's no Enhanced equivalent for the costume?Power of Friendship
right, so the huge bonuses for not actually being the captor?Power of Friendship: Aligned Essence
perhaps would better be -5 if you're dragging it back to the alignment corresponding to its subtype?
Things Suggest
Enhanced Armaments
should this really be (Ex) when it depends on a (Su) feature? Suggest change to (Su).Class tables
"Knowledge [Any] (Int)"- features are usually written in alphabetical order, with only the first word capitalised (except in proper nouns and such).
- dead levels are usually filled with "---"
- I suppose writing "Complex formula (2 known, 3/encounter, +3)" would be too much words? Maybe it should just have its own column?
is usually written "Knowledge (all skill, taken individually) (Int)"
Shining Schemata
There are two basic problems here:
- like with the warlock's class feature, this doesn't actually care about the level of the spell.
- it is the Shining Schemata feature itself which allows evoker level to be used as a caster level for qualifying for item creation feats.
1 makes it possible to, say, create 9th level scrolls at 9th level; this is not necessarily an actual problem, since, unlike with the artificer, the feature is not the central focus of the class, so it is probably usual to be simply paying full crafting costs anyway; after all, warlock isn't usually considered overwhelmingly broken even with that feature, and it's even a bit more of a play-with-magic-items class than the zodiac.
2 is almost certainly a problem though; since Shining Schemata is placed at Zodiac 6, it is, at ealiest, gained at 6th level. because of the order of operations at level gain beyond 1st level, it is impossible to take an item creation feat before 9th level without having gained caster level by other means beforehand, or leaving the class to gain a bonus feat earlier.
this is a problem the warlock does not also have, because the warlock does actually have a caster level from its SLA's gained earlier in the class; it just doesn't have much in the way of things to do with item creation feats in conjunction with them; but it can take an item creation feat at 12th level and immediately begin using it.
solutions to problem 2 may include, but are not necessarily limited to:
- have evoker level count as a caster level without need for the Shining Schemata class feature. this is probably simplest; if not restricted to qualifying for item creation feats, however, it can create unintended interations in certain ways, though -- with the mage slayer line, for example, and possibly with practiced spellcaster.
- have zodiac evoker level count as a caster level for qualifying for item creation feats; this is a bit strange, but since we already have special Power of Friendship things for each evoker class, it wouldn't necessarily come off as altogether that strange.
- specify in the Shining Schemata feature that the character can take an item creation feat on the level it is gained, if eligible to gain a feat on that level; this is klugy and hijacks the level-up order of operations, which is probably bad.
- specify in the Shining Schemata feature that the evoker level can be used to qualify for item creation feats even before 6th level; this is a bit strange in that it allows a class feature to take effect before gained.
- provide an inconsequential SLA before 6th level -- candidates might be, say, dancing lights, flare, light ... know direction, possibly even, it sort of sounds pretty with the zodiac fluff with stars and constellations, after all -- at caster level = evoker level is probably most consistent; this provides the caster level necessary to take item creation feats. ... this isn't actually all that bad an idea, although it is an extra feature which doesn't necessarily fit into the evokers-are-supernatural paradigm.
- provide a bonus feat with the class feature. this is probably bad, because bonus feats are precious and all; but, well, it's not like they don't fit.
- leave it as is. getting a caster level before 6th level is the player's own responsibility if it wants to be using shining schemata before 9th. (and then every zodiac is a silverbrow human or a gnome, I guess. or takes those CArc feats.)
Other Things
- Burdens surge made me think about ectoplasmic cocoon -- because reflex SoL is ... not that common, really, after all.
- okay, I'm assuming the healing only for undead thing is intentional.
- okay so, I mentioned combat fixation; time to substantiate by assertions.
- combat roles -- the Champion seems to do the BSF thing reasonably, blast illuminations ... are acceptable blasting. BFC, buffing, debuffing, are done reasonably by barriers and surges.
- utility effects, however, are rather lacking:
- the Visions barrier augmentation does illusions, which are useful.
- the Might surge augmentation can help in social and skill events.
- the Temporal device effect can help in some stealth and social events.
- Power of Friendship is ... an interesting mechanic?
- Sagacity doesn't really do anything better than social skills on an Cha-based character.
- that ... is more or less everything I can imagine used out of combat.
- the Champion as it stands, I'd say, then, fills the role it's trying to fill, "flexible and powerful combatant," it works. it could use some more synergy between blasts and non-blast attacks, but then, we have the Assault augmentation. it's just not much other than a combatant.
- the Zodiac ... can't really fill a caster role. it can do a few of the things normally associated with casters, but really, does more or less the same things as the Champion, except less costume options and more illumination options. so, also likely to be useless in a large category of situations.
- so, both I'd judge to be somewhere in the territory of tiers 3 and 4, leaning toward 4. which is probably fine, really.
- it totally makes sense to have a barrier effect to walk in and teleport, barrier effect to telecommunications, barrier effect to look at things, barrier effect to block divinations, barrier effect for anti-magic, ... surge effect for bonus to checks or rolls or whatever (actually, that also works as a costume effect -- and providing rerolls is also not a horrid thing for a surge, other than the, costume effect already does that things) ... dispelling blasts! ... actually, a dispel effect on a blast doesn't sound that bad, sounds like a neat effect, even. ... okay, I'll stop with terrible ideas.
- it kind of bugs Prism's energy type must be chosen when on crafting (i.e. at level up), while the Primal costume effect's energy type can be chosen with five minutes. I feel like the illumination augmentations would do well to be consistent with the costume effects: the augmentations are set, but if there are choices to be made within the augmentation, those can be chosen when the illumination is readied. maybe just for some of them?
I suppose it's not wrong to be conservative about the sort of thing while keeping it useful.
ed: although, now that I think about it, I do feel like assault being a trade-off between amount of possible damage versus targetting touch AC makes for an interesting decision. (and, in any case, action limitations make it difficult to produce a "field" of barriers anyway -- barrier effects actually seem less likely to cause problems than surge stacking?)
It sounds like you overlooked the Ancient augment for barriers, which increases duration by one round per rank. That said, it oddly can't be used by champions, and is quite expensive. I'd suggest possibly lowering the mote cost slightly (to two or three motes per rank), and then allowing champions to use it as well for a higher mote cost (around 4 to 6 motes per rank). Might also be worth looking into if other augments might fit for classes currently not able to take them at higher mote costs.
ed: also, 3m is has symmetry with the other extension augmentations, so. (the champion doesn't get any, though, and clinging is zodiac-exclusive ??)
Likely should stay at Ex, given that the changes it cause are not supernatural, even if the subject of those changes is supernatural. Also, given the need for clarification on how the Radiant Armaments act when in areas suppressing supernatural abilities, it may be relevant if they don't vanish, but simply are unable to be summoned or dismissed while within the area, in which case supernatural improvements to them would go away, but not extraordinary ones.
I'd note that there are many different conventions for dead levels, from leaving it blank, to underscores, to en dashes, to em dashes. Multiple dashes is less common, but on the whole so long as it is clear it likely doesn't matter much in this case.
I have to admit that, actually, table formatting is a thing which varies by book, though, and is really mostly a use-one's-own-judgment-and-aesthetic-sense thing.
You also overlooked the simple solution of changing the ability to be granted at level 5.
This is a good suggestion. I support it.
prism needs it for symmetry with Primal, and that would be nice. the rest ... don't, but still, symmetry! pretty patterns!
Just thought I'd note you technically can have multiple blasts using the assault augment, so long as the sum of their mote costs does not exceed your evoker level. Mind due to how blasts work, this is unlikely to impact the damage in most cases (assuming they all hit), and the increased chance of some missing makes the average damage go down (though predicting the amount requires knowing all the modifiers for attack rolls as well as the enemies AC).
(also, as an aside, I lied about the 9th level scrolls thing. I think. still allows inappropriately-levelled items either way, though.)Last edited by sreservoir; 2012-11-08 at 01:26 PM. Reason: lies, damn lies, and mistaken statistics
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2012-10-30, 04:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
Nice. Did you not post a link to this on the original thread? Or did the subscription-update-emailer just mess up?
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2012-10-30, 04:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
It was mentioned in the other thread, but I do not believe it was posted.
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2012-11-05, 01:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
Hi all... again.
First of all, great job on the updating; I still have to give a full read on all the augments and stuff, but "build your own Magical Girl" aspect is nice. Less inherent flavour (I totally loved the Illuminations' names), but no one said you can't give names to Illuminations you craft (in fact, should I ever run it, I'd require players to invent such a names).
Now, one thing that strikes me as a bit odd, is Apotheoses. Not the abilities themselves, but their distribution. Seeing as Zodiac is the primary Evoker spellcaster, she has a "my illuminations are stronger" shtick going for her from the very first level, up to effectively 24th level Illuminations at EL19, and capping at 26th level at 20th... but then, Champions suddenly get their 30th level Starlight Breaker! (Sure, if I read it correctly, it still has save DC of a level 20, but the sheer damage output... and not every Illumination allows save in the first place)
Second, I believe there's still no clear ruling on which Device archetypes are considered light weapons, and this is kinda important for 1) weapon finesse, 2) dual-wield.
The thing is, Versatile seems to be a bit large for dual-wielded weapon (possible, sure, but it is also possible by rules to dual-wield bastard swords...) so, if Empath would truly be the "rogue" to Champion's "fighter" and Zodiac's "mage", I'd consider giving them a "rogue-like" Device archetype, something like, "Light. Dmg(S) 1d4, Dmg(M) 1d6, Crit 18-20x2, is treated as a light weapon"
upd: One more thing: the wording on Complex Formula is a bit unclear; is it in addition to the number of Illuminations known on the table? So, for example, a Zodiac 1 would know 7 standart Illuminations, and have 4 of them readied, plus one Complex, which is readied at all times but can only be used 1/encounter?
upd2: Actually, the more I think about it, the less I feel the Champion's capstone is fitting into her theme; Illuminations aren't even the class's specialty, Armaments are.
Of course, it is your class and I probably has less experience with homebrewing than you did a year ago - not to mention now - but would it be my choice, I'd give her something like this:
Additionally, a Champion's Armaments, in addition to being a manifestation of her inner Light, become a source of Light themselves; Champion gains an additional pool of (EL) motes that can only be used to boost her Armaments and Lightforge feats. These motes may be redistributed any time a Champion can infuse or remove Motes from her Armaments.
Oh, and one more thing: Why Zodiac? Not to say it isn't a nice-sounding word, except it isn't class-name-sounding... and with the class's Starlight-based nature, would Stargazer really be a bad fit? I loved the name back in the MG1.0 - class's themes less so, but the current Zodiac is just a perfect fit for flavor, I believe...
upd3: Currently in the process of developing a Stance-based Champion20 able to punch an old red dragon into oblivion in one full attack. So far, got to around 311 damage on average, surely can do better...Last edited by jamieth; 2012-11-06 at 05:09 AM.
Tome of Radiance, a Magical Girl sourcebook for 3.5/PF.
"Jamie" is fine. TH is mostly there to make sure the name would be free on any forum I'd want to register :-)
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2012-11-06, 08:40 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
Selinia,
I'm loving the Zodiac! It's a lot more fragile than the Champion, but the larger reserve of prepared and known Illuminations and the bonus Mote reserve really give it that boost it needs. I'd play the Zodiac over the Champion in a heartbeat - the increased focus on illuminations makes it feel like a much more "tactical" class, where the Champion is all brute force.
The "wild surge" ability is nice, but I think it's a but underpowered. It can only be used with one, eventually three, Illuminations, and it can only be used a limited number of times per encounter. In contrast, the Wilder's Wild Surge can be used with all powers known (between 2 and 11 by 20th level), grants a bonus at a slightly faster rate, and can be used effectively an unlimited number of times (until the Wilder runs out of juice). Wild Surge has some risk, but two feats or a canny race selection can cancel that out.
Me, I'd allow the class feature to affect any of the Zodiac's prepared Illuminations, with limited use per encounter... but...
Since you want the class feature to represent a very narrow set of mastered Illuminations, I would instead recommend it boost those 1-3 Illuminations ALL the time, and have them not count against her total number of prepared illuminations (not sure if that's not already the case).
You could still stick a limit to the number of times it could be used per encounter, but I'd put it in the range of 2-4 uses at 1st level, and 12-15 uses by level 20.
That's just my opinion. Personally, I think the Zodiac needs a pretty hefty numerical bonus to effectiveness if it's going to trade high BAB, good Reflex saves, and d10 hit dice, and more Illuminations prepared doesn't quite cut it.
Also, I agree with jamieth, Stargazer is an AWESOME name that would fit the class really well. Zodiac makes me think of animals first and stars later.
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2012-11-06, 11:31 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
TablesWant them to look nice? Have a guide
My Homebrew
[creature]Shiny: Monster Competition XXXVI entry.
[class]Wisp fire guide: Follow me. I have such sights to show you.
[class]Ozodrin: A class to play as an eldritch horror.
other hombrew
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2012-11-07, 06:18 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
One more issue:
Is that even possible under the current rules? Am I reading the AoE augmentations wrong? Let's take Explosion as an example. As written, it applies a "-1d6 cumulative penalty to blast's damage for each rank", but since the Augment itself costs 1 mote /rank, all it will do is offset the Augment's damage increase. Well, I guess it is possible to bring Blast to 0d6 damage by loading it with only Explosion ranks, but definitely no less... Or is it supposed to mean that the motes spent on Explosion don't increase the damage, and incure the 1d6 penalty for each mote instead?Tome of Radiance, a Magical Girl sourcebook for 3.5/PF.
"Jamie" is fine. TH is mostly there to make sure the name would be free on any forum I'd want to register :-)
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2012-11-07, 12:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
TablesWant them to look nice? Have a guide
My Homebrew
[creature]Shiny: Monster Competition XXXVI entry.
[class]Wisp fire guide: Follow me. I have such sights to show you.
[class]Ozodrin: A class to play as an eldritch horror.
other hombrew
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2012-11-08, 04:01 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice
OK, one more thing. The Resplendent Device, just want to make sure I'm reading it right.
For example, a Champion20 invests stores a 20-motes Surge inside her Stance; while the illumination is so charged, she only gains 20 motes per round, rather than 40. Then, at her turn, she uses the illumination (speaking of, it say "illumination may be used at any time; this seems to imply it doesn't take an action, which is almost certainly wrong. How about the following wording: "You may use the stored illumination by taking the same action it would take to use it normally - swif, move or standart, depending on the Illumination type)".)
Anyway, our Champion fights with only 20 motes per turn, until the big one. At the beginning of this turn, she uses the Surge, gaining it's effects, and immediately refills to full 40, able to pull both a Barrier and a Blast at the same time. Now, that Dragon is barely even a challenge...Tome of Radiance, a Magical Girl sourcebook for 3.5/PF.
"Jamie" is fine. TH is mostly there to make sure the name would be free on any forum I'd want to register :-)
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