Saturday, April 16, 2011

Still More Changelog

I'm still in the process of changing things. Let's take a look at what a few days of work has brought us!

* Static Defense formula is now 10 + (3 x Wisdom) + (3 x Dex) - (2 x Size).
* Finally freaking remembered to make the Dark Eldarin racial power a 1/scene ability.
* Halfling Racial power lets them use all Dex all the time for static defense.
* Paragons get various abilities for their power stat now. The basic pressure points thing is their one-dot ability. To whit:
    Swift as the Coursing River - When a Paragon attempts and succeeds a 2-die Stunt or higher, they recover one Action Point.
    All the Force of a Great Typhoon - In battle, a Paragon is constantly pushing themselves to greater heights.  At the start of a Paragon's turn, they recover Pressure Points equal to their Excellence.
    Strength of a Raging Fire - While stunting, a Paragon's dice explode on a roll of 9 or 10 instead of just 10.
    Mysterious as the Dark Side of the Moon - Whenever a Paragon uses a stunt on a test and succeeds, all allies attempting the same test (that is, using the same action) before the Paragon's next turn gain a bonus on their result equal to the number of Pressure Points the Paragon spent on her test.

* Paragon Power Stat renamed to Excellence
* Prometheans can now wear armor. It doesn't stack with their normal armor, just uses the better of the two.
* Vampire, Werewolf, and Daemonhost natural weapons fixed to be easier to use at a glance.
* On that note, a Daemonhost's bite now does damage like a Vampire's.
* Some classes have had a third characteristic added to their upgrade list.
* Wizards lost Enchantment, Gained Conjuration.
* Clerics lost Conjuration, Gained Necromancy.
* Aburation and Conjuration both use Willpower now.
* Cure Moderate wounds tweaked a bit. Now you spend as many resource points as you want and heal for that amount.
* Regeneration requires bed rest instead of resource points.
* Two new item rarities - Ubiquitous and Mythic Rare.
* Shields grant the +2 armor bonus to the body as well as the arm.
* Rules added for Minion Squads to make killing a couple dozen kobolds at once a bit easier.

16 comments:

  1. Quite a few good changes there. It seems paragons will be highly capable on a semi-constant basis as long as they're being awesome, instead of extremly powerful for moments at a time.

    Nice to see shields put to good use.

    Can't wait to see more!

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  2. I feel like some language was dropped from Mysterious as the Dark Side of the Moon. Is it when they spend Pressure, or when they stunt, or when they spend Pressure on a stunt? Because right now it doesn't mention needing them to spend Pressure to activate it.

    I suppose if you stunt without spending any Pressure, technically you're spending 0 and giving a +0 bonus, but it might be worth clarifying that.

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  3. Thanks for the hard work. I'm really nervous about the changes to full auto, feeling like it's quite a bit of a nerf until you start getting a TON of bonus unkempt dice... but still excited about everything else!

    Thanks

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  4. I like the new SD formula. It's actually what I was going to house rule it to after I read the last patch notes.

    Will 1.3 come out this week do you think? I have a campaign I want to start soon and I'd love if 1.3 came out before it started.

    Thanks for all the hard work on the game! =)

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  5. Getting bonus kept dice on the new Full Auto will be tough. 8 raises or more, if not limited in raises to the amount of ammunition expended.

    Odd interaction with dodge, however.
    Damage = xky +1k0 per raise over SD.
    Dodge cancels the hit, or just -1k0 per raise over the attack?

    If defense 30, 10k3 damage requires a roll of 70. Evading it entirely requires a roll of... 130? or will one raise over the bonus dice (as in "this would lower heavy bolter to 3k2") eliminate the shot entirely?

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  6. A Dodge roll essentially subs in for your Static Defense. If your Defense is 30, and a 70 is rolled to attack, then that's eight raises for +8k0. A Dodge roll of 40 reduces that to +6k0, since 70 beats 40 with only six raises. A Dodge roll of 60 reduces it to +2k0, because that's only two raises. A Dodge roll of 70 is an exact hit at normal damage with no raises. A Dodge roll of 71+ means it misses.

    It is a nerf, relative to 1.1's Full-Auto. Because 1.1's Full Auto, with its extra hits, was really overpowered. This version of Full Auto is still extremely powerful, especially remembering the +2k1 it gives on the attack roll, but not game-breakingly so.

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  7. I think it's fair to say 1.1's was a bit over-powered, but calling the current version extremely powerful is quite an overstatement. With the current dodge mechanic full auto is looking to be a joke, and there's little reason to go full auto over a Half-aim and a single shot given that all you might get is a few unkempt dice on damage.

    Might as well just take the +1k0 instead of +2k1 on to-hit, where you're already unlikely to be dodged if you have half-decent stats, and only expend one round instead of 2, 4, or 10 getting you closer to a reload.

    Comparatively, any melee character with a decent combination of dex and str is getting equal if not much better bonuses to damage, access to sword schools for a variety of bonuses, and multiple attacks per round.

    Not saying that guns should be even equally as powerful, just kinda silly that 10 rounds from a heavy bolter could regularly get out damaged by a standard melee attack.

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  8. Great work.

    I was wondering if you had intended vampires to have the Undead trait or otherwise mention undead related immunities - poison, disease, etc.?

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  9. Multiple hits is overpowered unless you're looking at like, a shot for every multiple of the Static Defense that you meet. Keep in mind that even with only one extra hit, you're flat-out doubling your damage.

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  10. Melee gets multiple hits too. With a lot more power behind each. More easily, often enough, though at the cost of a feat.

    Lightning Attack plus Chainaxe means you're looking at easily 6k3, three times. You gotta make three attack rolls, but that's just less "all or nothing" on average.

    Chances are that chainaxe user has some school bonuses. Potentially double penetration, exploding dice on 9-10, or even halve-target-size and ignore armor for that blow. Throw in specialization and that's 7k4 three times with those.

    If multiple hits is overpowered, we'd have to cull the melee versions first.

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  11. The melee multi-attacks do require being a high level in an associated class though so it's not like they can just do that from the beginning. Although guns probably do need something to allow them to scale properly.

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  12. Agreed. 1.1/1.2 guns scaled poorly. Solid damage from single shots, overkill in full auto.

    With 1.3, just adding unkept dice to damage does virtually nothing, and gives virtually no reason to go full auto, when a half aim gets you +1k0 to-hit as compared to +2k1 to-hit with full auto costing as much as 9 more rounds, with part of the damage benefit being sometimes quite easy to negate.

    My suggestion would simply be +1 hit for every 2 raises (instead of every 1 raise). Scaling is slower, but still makes sense. Personally instead of house ruling my group may just stick with using 1.2 until this gets ironed out if LN goes through with this experiment.

    LN: thanks for all the hard work! This game has been a blast!

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  13. This is probably a stupid question, but I am not sure of this:
    How does one go up in level, or change class? Do you just decide to change class once you finish your current one and meet the prerequisites? When you get all the feats and skills you need to you automatically move up to the next level?

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  14. Billionsix: It's nothing complicated - once you've purchased all the feats in a class you've completed it. After you've completed the class you're in you can begin taking another class or continue buying things from the class you were in. As long as you meet the prerequisites, going from Fighter 2 to Fighter 3 or Fighter 2 to Wizard 1 is no different. Your character level is equal to the level of the highest level class you have. For example, someone who has completed Basketweaver, Wizard 1, Wizard 2, and Spoon-Twirler 1 would be a Level 2 character, because Wizard 2 has a level of 2 and the others are level 1.

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  15. Two things. First, thanks for the awesome work LN, this may be the first table top game I run since high school.

    Secondly, and similar to what billionsix asked, do I have to spend any experience to move up a level, or do I simply gain the increased hp (as of v 1.3 I guess) opportunities, and level cap once I meet all the requirements for the next level?

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  16. Will there be rules for ship combat anytime soon?

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