The Real Slim Shady: A Less Useless Shadowcaster

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koz
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The Real Slim Shady: A Less Useless Shadowcaster

Post by koz »

I have salvaged this from the WotC archives to post it here. Bear in mind, the language and design was tailored to the idiots on the Classes board, so if this feels weak by GamerDen standards, forgive me. I will happily take any and all suggestions for its improvement.

I'll be honest: I was not initially at all impressed with the Shadowcaster. At all. It was shocking beyond compare with other arcanists, somewhat resembling the black sheep of the family which someone stood on a few times too many and decided to neuter for the sake of never creating any builds that worked at all, much less were good. It had a mountain of issues, which I will discuss later in the post which were the biggest turn-off I had ever seen (well... maybe not, but we won't go there). I decided to set it aside as another WoTC printing error and move on.

And then the unthinkable happened. A member of my group wanted to play one.

I don't like the sight of a man crying. Especially not when that man is in the mirror. The optimiser in me was dying inside, and yelling at me through the mirror, Green-Goblin style, how allowing such an abomination into my campaign is a sure-fire way of betraying all my principles, etc, etc, etc. Then, the designer in me, in a bit to shut the optimiser up, said two words: "Fix it." So here we are.

I am fixing this class with three ideas in mind: versatility, playability and interactivity. More precisely, these are defined as follows:

1) Versatility: A class should not straightjacket a player into one or two limited concepts. A class that is versatile, while having a unique role and unique abilities, allows the player more freedom in deciding which was it's going to go, whether generalist or specialised, and allows each role, with some clever optimisation and good feat and skill choices, to work equally well to fill a balanced and non-dominating party role.

2) Playability: No player should have to be gimped for interest or flavour reasons. A playable class is one which does not punish the player for 'liking the fluff' and wanting to play a character which meaningfully contributes to a party without leeching or requiring someone else to take up their slack for 10 levels. Furthermore, a playable class allows the player to feel that they are executing the fluff of the class and their concept (as per versatility above) without feeling unfairly disadvantaged over some other class which just plainly does it better.

3) Interactivity: WoTC, being a veritable hive of activity where publishing is concerned, are outputting an amazing stream of low-quality and lower-quality material, with some gems amid the crap. The ability to use this material with your class, without severe disadvantage, is a rudimentary definition of interactivity. A closer definition is basically 'no one-book (or one-chapter) classes'. If a player wants to drive his concept towards prestige classes or cool abilities and fluff, the class should restrict him only insofar as it's abilities, fluff and mechanics are unsuitable or senseless in this regard. This is perhaps the most contentious out of these 3, but a fine line must be walked with this definition, so that interactivity =/= equal cheese. However, if the class has only 3 prestige class options which don't involve gimping yourself 10 ways to Monday, you've got a non-interactivity problem on your hands.

With these things in mind, I will proceed to outline my solution for the Shadowcaster, which I believe comes up short in all three of these categories. I am aware that my solution has already been proposed by this gentleman here (http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=2957649), but in my opinion, this solution does not go far enough. Additionally, by the publication of Complete Champion, or, rather, being one of its co-authors, this man proves he has no understanding of game balance whatsoever, and cannot even defend his ideas in the face of logical criticism (sound familiar?). His, however, was a good springboard, which I believe will make a lot of shadowcasters (and their controllers) happy.

The shadowcrafter's problems

1) MAD

This, in my opinion, is a problem of playability. In my humble opinion, a shadowcaster should be on-par with wizards and sorcerers, as he is expected to fill a similar role. However, both wizards and sorcerers rely on only a single 'casting stat'. Shadowcasters, for some reason, have to rely on TWO: their Int has to be at least 19 to cast their highest-level mysteries, and their Cha also needs to be high to have decent save DCs.

I suspect this is to do with the flavour of the class: what you can learn or study about shadowcasting determines your mysteries, but your force of personality is what determines how well you control the shadow energies that constitute the mystery, thus determining how hard they are to resist. While very cool fluff-wise, it only serves to punish those who would play shadowcasters mechanically, which makes them inferior to wizards and sorcerers by default. As in, really.

2) Lack of power comparing to spells

Let's be honest here: mysteries cannot duplicate gate, contingency, similacrum, or even meteor swarm. 9th level mysteries are far, far weaker than 9th level spells, both in terms of versatility and playability. Thus, when wizards hit high enough levels to throw around 9th level spells, shadowcasters are pretty much left in the dirt.

This is not only true at higher levels, either. Shadowcasting is weaker at almost all but the lowest levels when compared to magic of a similar level. Furthermore, the straightjacketed method of path acquisition, combined with a lack of bonus uses and two casting stats (see below, below and above respectively) means that shadowcasters cannot be as versatile or as playable as arcanists as they stand. At all.

3) Straightjacketing

'Mysteries in a path need to be learned in order.' This innocent little rule (albeit condensed) is what causes a multitude of problems. This effectively forces the shadowcaster to specialise heavily and lose versatility, or diversify a lot and lose playability due to power dropoff. Wizards and even sorcerers can do both equally well without losing out on either.

If this sounds like whining, consider this: what sorcerer or wizard would not consider this an unfair gimp: in order to be able to cast fireball, you have to know (and never lose) scorching ray, burning hands and flare, as well as learning them in a precise order and no other?

There is also significant tension in this design, as the shadowcaster is rewarded for losing power in his mysteries by diversifying by gaining bonus feats equal to one-half the number of paths he has access to. This means that you either choose more good mysteries and fewer feats, or fewer good mysteries and more feats. What gives? Do wizards have to know a certain number of spells from each school to get their bonus feats?

4) Arcane non-acknowledgement (or PrC straightjacketing)

For some bizzare reason known only to WoTC, shadowcasters had to be a one-chapter class. Thus, restrictions (and quite severe ones) were imposed on their ability to PrC, particularly into other arcanist classes. This makes almost no sense to me, as in my humble opinion, shadowcasters are unusual arcanists. This is because their casting stats are Int and Cha, which are typically used by arcanists, as well as their mysteries not only being given equivalent spell levels, but even equivalent schools. This restriction closes many options for the shadowcaster, which is a fundamental problem of interactivity. As a result, very little subsequent material can be used by shadowcasters, fixing them to a few prestige classes designed only for them, which is highly dumb, and makes them reek of emo-ness, which I do not condone.

5) Lack of bonus mysteries

This makes no sense whatsoever. If you're already going to hit the class with a limited list with limited uses, not to mention two casting stats, why also make them less powerful than wizards or sorcerers by allowing their stats to matter less? Why should all shadowcasters, regardless of talent, be able to employ their abilities a fixed number of times? A lack of ingenuity? I hope not. This is just a playability issue, pure and simple.

These are the key issues with the class as a whole. As can be seen, it comes up lacking in many of these. This fix is designed to address these issues.

The Fix

1) The shadowcaster receives bonus mysteries per day based on Int. For this purpose, treat mysteries as spells of the equivalent level. This allows the character that many extra uses for their mysteries every day. Furthermore, shadowcasters save DCs, and any other aspects of mysteries or mystery use based on Cha, are based on Int instead.

For example, a 1st level shadowcaster with Int 14 receives one extra use any 1st level-equivalent mystery, which can be either a fundamental or his apprentice mystery, as both are considered to be level 1 equivalent. If that shadowcaster was then to learn a 2nd level mystery at level 2, he would also receive an extra 2nd use of any second level mystery, as Int 14 is enough to grant a bonus spell of that level.

This solves a lot of problems just by itself. By giving the shadowcaster only a single casting stat, their playability potential rises. With bonus mysteries kicking in, they can go on for longer, and begin to compare to wizards and sorcerers in terms of both playability and versatility.

2) Mysteries in a path do not have to be taken in order. You must have at least one mystery of each level before proceeding to the next level of mystery, but they do not need to come from the same path.

If the example shadowcaster above took steel shadows as his 1st level mystery, he could take black fire at 2nd level, even though he has not taken the 1st level mystery in the path that black fire comes from. However, he could not take flicker, as this is a 3rd level mystery, and he does not have a 2nd level mystery yet.

This solves the versatility issue by a lot. By allowing the shadowcaster to diversify more easily, it allows for more creative and unusual combinations to become available, also fixing the playability issues. This does, however, remove the tension in the design with the bonus feats, as well as giving you almost no incentive to complete any path. Thus...

3) Instead of gaining bonus feats equal to the number of paths the shadowcaster has access to, he instead gains a bonus feat for each path he completes.

In the above example, at 3rd level, if he took steel shadows, sight eclipsed and sharp shadows, he would receive a bonus feat. However, if he instead took flicker at 3rd level, he would not receive a bonus feat. If he were to later take sharp shadows, he would be granted a bonus feat immediately.

Furthermore, the bonus feats granted from completion of paths is a ‘static’ ability gained at 2nd level. Therefore, you will still acquire bonus feats if you advance your paths via prestige classes, as it is not an ability gained at any shadowcaster level above 2nd.

In the above example, if the shadowcaster decided to take the child of night prestige class, and knew steel shadows and sight eclipsed, and then took sharp shadows at 7th character level, he would still gain a bonus feat for completing the path, despite the fact that he gained this mystery from a prestige class, as he has at least 2 levels of shadowcaster, which grants this ability.

This maintains the tension in the design, as well as solving a problem which I think was just a purposeful gimp without cause or justification anyway, based on the ability wording.

4) At 4th level, and every 2 levels thereafter, a shadowcaster can ‘swap out’ a mystery for another mystery of his choice, effectively losing the old mystery in exchange for a different one. The mystery being gained must be 2 or more levels lower than the highest-level mystery that the shadowcaster currently knows. Fundamentals count as 1st level mysteries for this purpose. If you ‘un-complete’ a path with this ability, you lose the bonus feat gained from the path until you can complete it again.

In the case of the example shadowcaster above, at 4th level, he could decide to swap out his caul of shadow fundamental for voice of shadows, as voice of shadows is a 1st level mystery. However, he could not swap it out for flicker, as this is the highest mystery level he has (3rd).

Some more versatility added, also giving more playability. If the mysteries will remain weaker than spells, at least let them have more of them!

5) Once the shadowcaster’s apprentice mysteries become supernatural abilities, their save DC changes from 10 + mystery spell level + shadowcaster’s Int modifier to 10 + half the shadowcaster’s caster level, rounding down + shadowcaster’s Int modifier, as per the norm of supernatural abilities.
In the above example, once the shadowcaster reaches 13th level, his voice of shadow mystery’s save DC changes from 15 (10 + mystery spell level of 1 + Int modifier of 4) to 21 (10 + half his caster level, rounding down, of 7 + Int modifier of 4).

It seems entirely purposeless to break an established rule just to gimp the ol' shadey. This makes the DCs in-line with normal rules on supernatural abilities, and allows there early mysteries to remain contenders, not just to become swap-out fodder.

6) Shadowcasting counts as arcane magic for the purposes of any effect, class, class ability, spell or power that deals with arcane spells. This means that, among other things, shadowcasters can qualify for prestige classes that require a minimal arcane caster level or arcane spells of a minimum level. For the latter purpose, consider mysteries to be arcane spells of their equivalent level and school.

In the above example, at 10th level, the shadowcaster could qualify for the abjurant champion prestige class, as long as he has the feat Combat Casting, knew at least one mystery of the abjuration school (for example, caul of shadow), and had proficiency with at least one martial weapon.

While this could cause problems, I think it solves the interactivity issue in one fell swoop. Please point out any cases where this would be problematic, as I simply am not as aware of arcanist material as I would like to be.

7) Replace the Profession skill on the shadowcaster’s skill list with Use Magic Device. Skill points per level are unchanged.

With the shadowcaster being made an arcanist, I simply don't see why they, a class which is heavily focused on the study of magic, should not be able to stoop themselves to use the 'conventional' magic of non-shadowcasters. If they are truly so masterful to figure out such amazing trickery as shadowcasting, what's a little magical mimicry to them?

8) Warp spell does not allow a Will save, as the caster level check alone determines success or failure.

This is more a common-sense thing than a fix. Damn editing errors.

While this does not create a wizard, I believe it is certainly much better, and more playable, than the weird crap we got shafted with at first printing.[/i]
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Post by Username17 »

Mr. Sinister wrote:1) Versatility: A class should not straightjacket a player into one or two limited concepts.
This is a bad design principle. Remember that while a class may be played in different games or by different people, in practice it will only be played one character at a time. If the number of classes at our fingertips was in short supply, it would be folly to use up one of those limited character class slots on a class with limited appeal; but once the number of classes is sufficiently large to allow most players access to classes that generally do things they are OK with the need for classes of broad appeal no longer particularly matters. The key is not that a class should cover many concepts, but that it can clearly and usefully cover at least one character concept. After all, chances are high that you will seriously only ever see the class played in one campaign by one player, so if it ends up being an Elothar Warrior of Bladereach, that's totally OK.

A character class has to be justified coming in, but not going out. If there is a player who wants a character whose powers are based on carving out sections of their own flesh, filling the wounds up with molten metal, and then clashing their metal bits together to make loud noises and force effects - then that warrants a character class if no other character class fits the bill - or an outright rejection if the game world cannot support such a character. But there seriously is no imperative for the class you make to generate characters with any other character concept. You could jolly well just make new classes for the new concepts.
This is not only true at higher levels, either. Shadowcasting is weaker at almost all but the lowest levels when compared to magic of a similar level.
Oh, at the lowest levels they blow even harder. The only time they ever get any level appropriate effects is a few levels around 7th (their 4th level Mysteries aren't bad IIRC). The lowest levels are actually the part where it hurts the most. Sure, you get to 20th and you don't have anything remotely equivalent to wail of the banshee - but seriously you don't need that kind of crazy to be competitive. At first level though, you'd better be dropping color sprays if you aren't able to bludgeon enemies down with a longsword. Hell, at 1st level Clerics are kind of weak sauce because their spells haven't delivered anything cool and they aren't super great with their morningstars.

The Shadowcaster Mystery list is batshit. And I honestly think you'd be better off reworking the class into something that did what the class said it was supposed to do and did it well: namely use shadow themed supernatural abilities to fill a Wizard/Rogue quasi-role in the party while gradually getting more and more power from the Plane of Shadow.

The Shadowcaster is supposed to be a 4e style character who fills the role of Controller. Pretty explicitly actually. It's way too complicated and it sucks, but that's the idea. If you want to play with the Shadowcaster you will want to rewrite the whole thing. But the class is concepted as beign a dude who has a series of supernatural abilities that he can use rather than a set of spells that he can prepare. Hard as this is to believe, the Shadowcaster is supposed to be simpler than a Wizard.

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Post by koz »

As usual, Frank, you speak a lot of sense. However, what I meant by 'concept' was 'mechanically'. For example, the feat choices available in 3.5 DnD make it impossible to play a sword-and-board dude without royally sucking. I consider this a form of straightjacketing, as it forces the player to choose between flavour and effectiveness. Oddly enough, just about everything else in DnD is similarly devised, with certain options being simply mechanically inferior to others for no apparent reason. Like the shadowcaster, in fact, which I believe may have been designed by mechanical emoes, for mechanical emoes.

Therefore, I believe, as I did then, that the options of a class should be mechanically equal to each other, rather than having some be relegated to being flavour text rather than actual abilities, which is precisely what I meant when I made the statement that you drew contention with.

As far as an SnA-using caster class is concerned, that is really rather cool. Just so you know, I have reposted this at the request of another member of this board, and have moved away from this manner of design philosophy by this stage of my time. However, this does seem to be an interesting idea, and could be made into a fully-fledged, decent fix. However, it won't be done by me, as I have been immersed in about a million other projects lately, so if someone wants to take it up, they are more than welcome. As I mentioned previously, this was designed to be something to allow one of my PCs not to suck royally, despite me telling him the shadowcaster would be like a negative character - as in, he would actually make the party WORSE by being there.
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Post by Maxus »

Personally, I'm waiting on someone to write a system that gives you a few basic abilities. and then allows you to make those tricks work harder than hell in a free-form way. The problem is adjudicating the effects/power a character has.

The best demonstration I can find offhand is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDCKQO7vCJ0

The part I'm referencing starts at 2:08 and continues on to about 6:30

How does this relate the Shadowcaster?

Give me someone who makes stuff out of darkness. Give me someone who can form a large black arm in the shadow of a building, and have that arm do stuff for him. Let him make ordinary weapons and items which last until he doesn't need them. Let him do stuff like fire off a tangling net made out of shadows.

At the same time, let's use the basic rules used there to make hydro and geokinetisis some viable character paths.
Last edited by Maxus on Thu Jun 05, 2008 12:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by KauTZ »

I too have a raging boner for shadow magic.

...

Anyways.

We all know how much the shadowcaster sucks, so let's skip that, and move onto the more important area of how to make a shadowcaster awesome.

First, what should a shadowcaster contribute to a party. Frank said spellcaster/skill monkey so lets go with that.

Second, what should the shadowcasters schtick be? The one I have on my mind is scaling abilities, but better then how the original one did. At 5th level, your lame 1st level abilities, suddenly become awesome for some reason. The spell->spell-like ability->supernatural ability is cool, because your abilities, while the numbers don't change anymore, actually do become better, because supernatural abilities are just plain better then spells. Spell-like abilities are essentially just spells without the... spell part to them, so lets ignore them for now. So your abilities change from spells->supernatural->extraordinary. So at first level you have a color-spray clone that stuns one enemy. At 7th(or whatever) it isn't mind-affecting anymore, and at 15th level it will stun anything, everything, no matter what. It's a bad example, but I hope it gets the idea across.

The other schtick, as Maxus said, is creating stuff. One of the prestige classes in ToM is dedicated to creating arms and armor that are shadow, but it sucks, so lets just mold that whole crap into the base class and expand it alot. You create stuff out shadow. Swords, armor, walls, other shadows, everything. It starts out temporary, but eventually becomes permanent.

The Mystery based casting system is incredibly messed up and weird and follows the incarnum way of thinking - spend a hour learning it, and now spend an hour teaching it to your dm and your fellow players, who don't care, and will never use it themselves. Even psionic users didn't have to put up with all this weird crap, so just make it normal spells.

The other problem is amount of spells known. Currently, you have "alot" (it isn't actually alot) of uses of your lower level mysteries. No one really cares. We could ignore all of this by switching to something along the lines of what Frank said. If someone can draw up a general idea of that, that doesn't suck, I would put my support behind it.

The problem with the shadowcaster is that all it's mechanics suck, and that's the harder part of a class to design. All the flavour and abilities are in general fine.
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Post by CatharzGodfoot »

What would be sufficiently different from an illusionist to be worth spending the effort on?
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Post by koz »

Or, for that matter, a beguiler? They basically do the whole shadowcaster shtick, and heaps better, too.
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

The other schtick, as Maxus said, is creating stuff. One of the prestige classes in ToM is dedicated to creating arms and armor that are shadow, but it sucks, so lets just mold that whole crap into the base class and expand it alot. You create stuff out shadow. Swords, armor, walls, other shadows, everything. It starts out temporary, but eventually becomes permanent.
Mental Weaponry covers the arms part; I never wrote up Mental armour, but I did put down what I thought it could or should do.

Seriously, "have a piece of gear" is not legitimate a class ability. "Use a piece of gear in a meaningful in-game fashion" is legitimate a class ability.

The Shadow Arms warrior should do wierd things that monsters that are 'shadow-themed' can do.

Like deal Strength damage like a Shadow with her Shadow Battleaxe; or jump into walls or floors like a Wraith with their Shadow Fullplate.

Shit. I hate it when I read someone elses post and then get an idea for a character that I both didn't want to ever before play and also feel like I want to write down what they could do.
Last edited by Judging__Eagle on Sat Jun 07, 2008 4:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by KauTZ »

To Carthaz and Sinister, that itself is a pretty big problem.

How can you make it an interesting class that isn't just a wizard with a different spell list?

On the illusion side, I don't know why shadow=illusions. That's the general vibe I get and I really don't understand it.

On the beguiler side, I wonder why I should bother putting thought into re-creating a shadowcaster when I could just play a very "shadow" flavoured beguiler.

So essentially we have to rework the "mystery" progression into something that is a) easier to understand and b) actually makes your character effective all the time and c) is different enough from regular vanican casting that we don't just go have more fun playing a beguiler
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Post by Bigode »

First, I'm the member who asked. But it doesn't seem like it'll benefit this guy as much as I'd think - though his stuff's crappy enough that I wouldn't care that much.

But what I'm thinking, in fact, is to have an "emocaster" class (don't get me wrong, guys - I have no personal preference in it - but those classes are all emo as it gets, and people do want them, even a lot of non-emos ...), that uses all the unique warlock/dragonfire adept/shadowcaster/truenamer stuff, as at-will Su abilities. So, the concept can be broader and non-overlapping with the beguiler.
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Post by KauTZ »

Bigode wrote:But what I'm thinking, in fact, is to have an "emocaster" class (don't get me wrong, guys - I have no personal preference in it - but those classes are all emo as it gets, and people do want them, even a lot of non-emos ...), that uses all the unique warlock/dragonfire adept/shadowcaster/truenamer stuff, as at-will Su abilities. So, the concept can be broader and non-overlapping with the beguiler.
... You just totally blew my mind.

Essentially what you are saying is have a base class that is d6 HD, 4 skill points, a bunch of skills and a list of abilities consists completely of

Awesome Ability
You get the ability to do something. It's pretty awesome. Flavour it however the hell you want.

And then you have a giant list of abilities that is essentially the class abilities from every class you mentioned plus more. There would be level requirements and "can use X number of times per level" and you could even have ones that make your older abilities better. They become Supernatural, and Extraordinary, and you get more uses and who knows what.

It's like making a wizard, but instead of having 100+ pages of spells, you have 100+ pages of abilities.
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Post by Bigode »

KauTZ wrote:... You just totally blew my mind.
I have no idea whether that's supposed to be good, bad, or neither ...
KauTZ wrote:(...)

And then you have a giant list of abilities that is essentially the class abilities from every class you mentioned plus more. There would be level requirements and "can use X number of times per level" and you could even have ones that make your older abilities better. They become Supernatural, and Extraordinary, and you get more uses and who knows what.

It's like making a wizard, but instead of having 100+ pages of spells, you have 100+ pages of abilities.
Well, sorta. For example, I have personally no intention whatsoever of creating new abilities, so I didn't consider it extensive by definition: the material those classes had was actually pretty little (of course, if it was done, it'd be expected that sooner or later someone else would expand it). But moreover, I wasn't foreseeing it having use limitations (though, now that you say, I agree that reserving design space for limited-use stuff makes room for abilities that'd be otherwise unplayable, so it's good), and certainly wasn't thinking a Su -> Ex progression, because AFAICT the difference between them's (almost, at least) solely antimagic fields, which are a craptastical mechanic - so I'm not desigining anything over it.
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Post by KauTZ »

Bigode wrote:Well, sorta. For example, I have personally no intention whatsoever of creating new abilities, so I didn't consider it extensive by definition: the material those classes had was actually pretty little (of course, if it was done, it'd be expected that sooner or later someone else would expand it). But moreover, I wasn't foreseeing it having use limitations (though, now that you say, I agree that reserving design space for limited-use stuff makes room for abilities that'd be otherwise unplayable, so it's good), and certainly wasn't thinking a Su -> Ex progression, because AFAICT the difference between them's (almost, at least) solely antimagic fields, which are a craptastical mechanic - so I'm not desigining anything over it.
I wasn't thinking of actually making new abilities, more of just taking from classes that suck. Honestly, would anyone really care if we stole a couple of the monk's abilities, and changed them so that they would actually be useful at the time gained? No, no one would care at all.

The Su->Ex change was less about changing to Ex and more about changing from spell-like to Su, which is quite an awesome change if I recall. Ex was just thrown in as an afterthought.

And sure, all those classes you mentioned don't have alot to speak of, but when you are grabbing from at least 7 different classes, you have a decent pool of abilities to choose from.

This is almost turning into a weird classless design... And I can't tell if that's a good or bad thing.
Last edited by KauTZ on Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Username17 »

Not done or anything, what with the later levels not being done, but here's an idea of what I'd think a Shadowcaster should kind of look like as best as I can remember the flavor (I don't own Tome of Magic or anything):

Shadowcaster
"The light cast by the flame does not reach near as far as the shadow cast by the man."

A Shadowcaster is one who draws their power from the elemental plane of Shadow and gets to do all kinds of sneaky shadowy stuff. Fill in any fluff you want from the Tome of Magic really. The key portion is that a Shadowcaster uses personalized supernatural powers to accomplish her goals.

Alignment: The plane of shadow is creepy, but not particularly evil. Shadowcasters often come off as much more wicked than they really are.

Races: Shadowcasters appear in all races, though significant portions of many races live in areas where being a Shadowcaster is illegal.

Starting Gold: 6d6x10 gp (210 gold)

Starting Age: As Rogue.

Hit Die: d6
Class Skills: The Shadowcaster's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (-), Search (Int), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus
BAB: Medium (as Cleric), Saves: Fort: Good; Reflex: Good; Will: Poor

Level, Benefit
  1. Fundamentals of Shadow, Low-Light Vision, Traps, Mysteries, Lesser Path
  2. Dark Vision, Lesser Path
  3. Blood of Midnight, Path Advancement
  4. See in Darkness, Path Advancement
  5. Pale Reflections of Life, Path Advancement
  6. Shadow Strike, Path Advancement
  7. Step of Shadow, Greater Path
  8. Sapping Strikes, Greater Path
  9. End of Weakness, Path Advancement
  10. Path Advancement
  11. Path Advancement
  12. Path Advancement
  13. Master Path
  14. Master Path
  15. Path Advancement
  16. Path Advancement
  17. Path Advancement
  18. Path Advancement
All of the following are Class Features of the Shadowcaster class:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Shadowcasters are proficient with all simple weapons, as well as the whip, kukri, and all martial axes, and all martial weapons with an 18-20 threat range. Shadowcasters are proficient with light armor but not with shields of any kind.

Fundamentals of Shadow (Su): All Shadowcasters are trained in the ability to use several mystical abilities which are essentially cantrips. These Fundamentals are so easy to use that they do not suffer the limitations of using Mysteries (see below). Each Shadowcaster has the following abilities, each usable at will with a standard action:
  • Bolt of Shadow (Su): A piece of shadow as sharp as the absence of light flies to the target, piercing its shadow. The bolt is resolved as a normal ranged attack with medium range. It has an enhancement bonus to-hit and damage equal to 1/3 the level of the Shadowcaster (rounded down), and it inflicts a base of d6 + Intelligence Bonus in Shadow damage.
  • Black Light (Su): A Shadowcaster can shed shadowy illumination from her body, producing a 20' emanation which raises or lowers the light level to shadowy (granting concealment to everything in the area or seen through it).
  • (Su):
Low Light Vision (Ex): A Shadowcaster sees twice as far in limited illumination than does a normal character.

Traps (Ex): A Shadowcaster can find and disable traps of any difficulty as a Rogue can.

Mysteries (Su): Each Shadowcaster learns a unique set of shadowy powers which are called mysteries. A Mystery is activated as a standard action, or as a swift action in turn in which a full attack is used by the Shadowcaster. Mysteries can only be used if the Shadowcaster's own shadow is available to make the appropriate gestures; if the Shadowcaster is more than 10 feet away from a surface upon which a shadow can be cast, or is within the confines of a daylight or stronger Light effect, her shadow is unavailable and her mysteries cannot be activated.
Mysteries are learned in paths. A Shadowcaster learns the first ability in a path and then later automatically advances to learning the later powers in her chosen paths as she rises in level. At first level she chooses her first Path chosen from the Lesser Paths list, and at 2nd level she chooses a second. She gets her first Greater Path at level 7 and her 2nd at level 8. She gets her first Master Path at level 13 and her 2nd at level 14. At levels 3,4,5 and 6 she advances one of the Lesser Paths she knows and knows one of the later Supernatural abilities in that path. At levels 9, 10, 11, and 12 she advances her Greater Paths. At level 15, 16, 17, and 18 she advances her Master Paths.
All Mysteries can be used at will, and have a Saving Throw DC of 10 + ½ Charisma Modifier should they allow a save at all.

Darkvision (Ex): At 2nd level, a Shadowcaster gains Darkvision of 60'.

Blood of Midnight (Su): At 3rd level, a Shadowcaster bleeds and cries black ink. This allows her to write missives without carrying ink with her, and also means that she automatically stabilizes when below zero hit points.

See in Darkness (Su): At 4th level, a Shadowcaster sees perfectly in darkness of any kind (even magical darkness) as easily as in well illuminated areas.

Pale Reflections of Life (Ex): At 5th level, a Shadowcaster needs only half as much sleep as normal and need not eat or drink but half a normal ration to maintain good health. She is also immune to non-magical disease.

Shadow Strike (Su): At 6th level, a Shadowcaster can attack enemy shadows rather than their bodies. This allows her to make melee attacks as melee touch attacks as long as the target's shadow is available. The shadow is available so long as the Shadowcaster can reach the square below the target and the target is not within the confines of a daylight or stronger effect. If the primary source of light is at an angle of some kind and the target is substantially above ground level, the target's shadow may be far away, subject to the discretion of the DM.

Step of Shadow (Su): As long as a 7th level Shadowcaster casts a shadow, she passes with exceeding silence. She gets a bonus to Move Silently checks equal to her ranks in Move Silently.

Sapping Strikes (Su): When a Shadowcaster of 8th level strikes with a Shadow Strike enhanced melee attack, she may inflict an additional 2 points of Strength damage.

End of Weakness (Ex): At 9th level, a Shadowcaster need not eat, sleep, or drink at all. She is also immune to negative energy levels and attribute damage.

Lesser Paths
  • Cloak of Shadows
  • Steel Shadows (Su): The Shadowcaster can wrap herself in dark shadows that act as armor. They provide an armor bonus of 9 + 1 per three whole class levels. They are obvious and clearly magical forms of protection, but they are weightless. The Shadow Armor can be dismissed at will, but lasts as long as the Shadowcaster remains conscious.
  • Sight Eclipsed (Su): The Shadowcaster can render herself invisible. This is a Glamour and any creature who interacts with her and makes a Will save can see through the effect.
  • Mantel of Darkness (Su): The Shadowcaster can create regions of purest night, having the effect of deeper darkness. These darknesses last until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon).
  • Dark Terrain
  • Carpet of Shadow (Su): The Shadowcaster can darken the ground, making it cling and grasp like tar. With a single actvation, the Shadowcaster can mark up to 2 contiguous 5' squares plus one square per class level within short range. These marked squares are Difficult Terrain, and a creature which begins their turn in one of them must make a Fortitude save or lose a move action that turn. Marked squares last until dismissed or the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon).
  • Umbral Mire (Su): As Carpet of Shadow, save that creatures who fail their Fortitude save are instead nauseated for one turn.
  • Clinging Darkness (Su): Upon activation, a target within medium range is grasped and held in place by their own Shadow. If the target fails a Reflex save, it is grappled and immobilized. No creature can outpower their own shadow, and the only escape is a successful Reflex or Escape artist test (made against the original DC), either of which may be attempted by the victim as a standard action.
  • Ebon Whispers
  • Voice of Midnight (Su): A single target within medium range is compelled to act on the instructions of the Shadowcaster, as per the spell command. The target is allowed a Will save, but the effect transcends any language barrier.
  • Congress of Shadows (Su): The Shadowcaster can hold conversations with any specific individual in any place anywhere who is within conversational range of a Shadow. The Shadowcaster may hold a multiperson conversation with a total number of participants equal to her class level (herself included).
  • Silent Plea (Su): As suggestion, but no noise is actually made and thus no language requirements exist. Whether the target passes their Will save or not, dark shadows crawl all over everything, making the effect obvious in all but the foggiest locales.
  • Eyes of Darkness
  • Bend Perspective (Su): A single target within close range sees locations that are distant instead of things which are close. This can be used to scry upon a location that is within medium range (and line of effect is no object), or it may be used to effectively blind the subject. An unwilling victim may fight off this effect with a successful Will save, and any subject may dismiss the effect automatically with a Move Action.
  • Piercing Sight (Su): The Shadowcaster can see invisible and ethereal creatures and objects (this is a continuous effect requiring no activation). In addition, she may shatter ethereal or incorporeal creatures within medium range with a thought and a standard action. Such creatures suffer a d6 of damage per character level (Will partial for half damage).
  • Darkened Countenance (Su): When active, the Shadowcaster has a Gaze effect which slows all creatures and objects which meet her gaze and fail a Fort save. When activated, the gaze may have a 30' range, or at the Shadowcaster's option a 60' range if she is at least 8th level or a 90' range if she is at least 12th. The gaze and the slow effect last until the Shadowcaster dismisses the effect or loses consciousness.
  • Shutters and Clouds
  • Dusk and Dawn (Su): As daylight or darkness.
  • Mammatus Twilight (Su):
  • Smoke and Mirrors (Su): As major image, save that the images need not be sustained at all and last indefinitely in a single area. The images are also incapable of making sound of any kind. A Shadowcaster may only have one image going at a time.
  • Touch of Twilight
  • Life Fades (Su): A living target within medium range suffers 1d6 of Strength and Constitution damage, Fort save negates.
  • Flesh Fails (Su): A corporeal target within medium range must make a Fort save or be prone and stunned for 1 turn.
  • All is Meaningless (Su): Any number of chosen targets within close range must make a Will save or become dazed for 1 turn.
  • Umbral Mind
  • Mesmerizing Shade (Su): As hypnosis with no hit die limitations.
  • Thoughts of Gloom (Su): A chosen target suffers a -2 morale penalty to all attack rolls, checks, and saving throws. These effects last last until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon), and there is no saving throw.
  • Afraid of the Dark (Su): A single target is panicked for 3 rounds unless they make a Will save. Even if they pass, they are shaken for one round. This is a [Mind Affecting] [Fear] effect.
-Username17
DragonChild
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Post by DragonChild »

Looks nice, although is there any particular reason you chose the weapon profs that you did?
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Maxus
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Post by Maxus »

DragonChild wrote:Looks nice, although is there any particular reason you chose the weapon profs that you did?
I'm wondering about the Strong Fort/Poor Will saves, myself, although the proficiency list is pretty out there and I'd need the SRD to see what those actually are...

On the other hand, looks like it'd be fun to play and the abilities look like they'd be effective at actually doing stuff, too.
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CatharzGodfoot
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Post by CatharzGodfoot »

Maxus wrote:I'm wondering about the Strong Fort/Poor Will saves, myself...
A caster like this is encouraged to emphasize Cha, Con, and Dex. Wis not so much.
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Post by KauTZ »

FrankTrollman wrote:Awesome
Oh fuck yes.

Paths can be created with whatever level appropriate abilities are available and on your mind at the time, so that is super awesome.

Straight up supernatural is awesome.

I'm tempted to change all of the vision enhancements, and the End of Weakness into one big ability that general gets better.

Body, Mind and Soul of Shadow: At level one you gain Low Light Vision. At level 2 you gain Darkvision of 60 ft...

Etc, etc for all that jazz music plus more.

At about level 12 I'm thinking that all types of darkness and shadows created by the shadowcaster should override True Seeing. Possibly even devils See in Darkness.

I think the weapon proficiencies at because this is a melee support class at some levels. You buff up with Steel Shadows and wade into melee with a greataxe, or a longsword and a shield. For range, you shoot people with Bolts of Shadow. All the while granting concealment to you and your friends.
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CatharzGodfoot
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Post by CatharzGodfoot »

A 'shadow jump' like the shadow dancer would be nice: dive into one shadow (probably your own), pop out another. Could be a nice way to catch someone flat footed (Im in ur shadoez stabbin ur back).

A summon where you swap places with your own shadow could also be cool. Basically a shapechange effect into a shadow or greater shadow. Another summon where you detach your shadow and it acts as a summon would be neat too (you'd be unable to use mysteries until it came back).

Shadow Well (greater mystery): Your own shadow becomes a 'shadow well', a hungry black hole opening to the plane of shadow. At your option, every creature and object within medium range is pulled into the well as though by hurricane-force winds and dumped into Shadow. You're sucked into the well immediately upon the activation of this part of the ability.


[Edit]
Oh, and no longsword + shield -- shadowcasters aren't proficient. Also, arbitrary 'beats what it shouldn't' abilities often suck. For example, how do you deal with seeing through your own darkness? What about baatazeu?
[/Edit]
Last edited by CatharzGodfoot on Sun Jun 08, 2008 6:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Bigode
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Post by Bigode »

I corrected some stuff in the lesser paths, especially mantle of darkness (3.5 deeper darkness is crap - the real thing's blacklight, which also might prompt changing the class feature's name), and darkened countenance (full scaling, also it goes off now, since it's impossible to heal AFAIK).
Apprentice Paths

Cloak of Shadows
* Steel Shadows: The Shadowcaster can wrap herself in dark shadows that act as armor. They provide an armor bonus of 9 + 1 per three whole class levels. They are obvious and clearly magical forms of protection, but they are weightless. The Shadow Armor can be dismissed at will, but lasts as long as the Shadowcaster remains conscious.
* Sight Eclipsed: The Shadowcaster can render herself invisible. This is a Glamer and any creature who interacts with her and makes a Will save can see through the effect.
* Mantle of Darkness: The Shadowcaster can create regions of purest night, having the effect of blacklight. These darknesses last until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon).

Dark Terrain
* Carpet of Shadow: The Shadowcaster can darken the ground, making it cling and grasp like tar. With a single actvation, the Shadowcaster can mark up to 2 contiguous 5' squares plus one square per class level within Close range. These marked squares are Difficult Terrain, and a creature which begins their turn in one of them must make a Fortitude save or lose a move action that turn. Marked squares last until dismissed or the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon).
* Umbral Mire: As Carpet of Shadow, save that creatures who fail their Fortitude save are instead nauseated for that turn.
* Clinging Darkness: Upon activation, a target within Medium range is grasped and held in place by their own Shadow. If the target fails a Reflex save, it is grappled and immobilized. No creature can outpower their own shadow, and the only escape is a successful Reflex or Escape artist test (made against the original DC), either of which may be attempted by the victim as a standard action.

Ebon Whispers
* Voice of Midnight: A single target within Medium range is compelled to act on the instructions of the Shadowcaster, as per the spell command. The target is allowed a Will save, but the effect transcends any language barrier.
* Congress of Shadows: The Shadowcaster can hold conversations with any specific individual in any place anywhere who is within conversational range of a Shadow. The Shadowcaster may hold a multiperson conversation with a total number of participants equal to her class level (herself included).
* Silent Plea: As suggestion, but no noise is actually made and thus no language requirements exist. Whether the target passes their Will save or not, dark shadows crawl all over everything, making the effect obvious in all but the foggiest locales.

Eyes of Darkness
* Bend Perspective: A single target within Close range sees locations that are distant instead of things which are close. This can be used to scry upon a location that is within Medium range (and line of effect is no impediment), or it may be used to effectively blind the subject. An unwilling victim may fight off this effect with a successful Will save, and any subject may dismiss the effect automatically with a Move Action.
* Piercing Sight: The Shadowcaster can see invisible and ethereal creatures and objects (this is a continuous effect requiring no activation). In addition, she may shatter ethereal or incorporeal creatures within Medium range with a thought and a standard action. Such creatures suffer a d6 of damage per character level (Will save for half).
* Darkened Countenance: When active, the Shadowcaster has a Gaze effect which slows all creatures that meet her gaze and fail a Fort save. When activated, the gaze may have a range of up to 15 feet per 2 character levels. The gaze and the slow effect last until the Shadowcaster dismisses the effect or loses consciousness, or until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon).

Shutters and Clouds
* Dusk and Dawn: As daylight or darkness.
* Mammatus Twilight:
* Smoke and Mirrors: As major image, save that the images need not be sustained at all and last indefinitely in a single area. The images are also incapable of making sound of any kind. A Shadowcaster may only have one image going at a time.

Touch of Twilight
* Life Fades: A living target within Medium range suffers 1d6 of Strength and Constitution damage, Fort save negates.
* Flesh Fails: A corporeal target within Medium range must make a Fort save or be prone and stunned for 1 round.
* All is Meaningless: Any number of chosen targets within Close range must make a Will save or become dazed for 1 round.

Umbral Mind
* Mesmerizing Shade: As hypnosis, but with no hit die limitations.
* Thoughts of Gloom: A chosen target suffers a -2 morale penalty to all attack rolls, checks, and saving throws. These effects last until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon), and there is no saving throw.
* Afraid of the Dark: A single target is panicked for 3 rounds unless they make a Will save. Even if they pass, they are shaken for one round. This is a [Mind Affecting] [Fear] effect.
Also, tried to make initiate paths - formatting comes later. Please have in mind that some, like bolster, got a lot better just by being at-will.

---

Initiate Paths

Black Magic
* Warp Spell: Activating this mystery is an immediate action, and can only be done in response to a spell being cast. The spell is counterspelled as per greater dispel magic, save that if the dispel attempt succeeds, the spell is cast, but under the Shadowcaster's control.
* Echo Spell: The Shadowcaster repeats one spell whose entire casting happened during the past round within Medium range of her, save that the spell is entirely under her control. The echoed spell cannot be of a level higher than half the Shadowcaster's character level, rounded up.
* Flood of Entropy: A 40-foot area within Medium range counterspells all non-shadow spells cast within it, as per greater dispel magic, and empowers mysteries and shadow spells used in it. This lasts until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon), and the Shadowcaster cannot have more than one such area active at once.

Body and Soul
* Bolster: The shadow of a creature within Close range folds upon it, granting it 5 temporary hit points per level. This lasts the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon), and the Shadowcaster cannot have more than one such effect at once.
* Languor: As slow or hold monster.
* Numb: One creature in Close range gains resistance 10 against all types of energy, evasion, and the ability to see perfectly in even magical darkness. This lasts until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon).

Dark Reflections
* Dark Conjuration: As major creation, save that objects look obviously made from shadowstuff and last until the Shadowcaster dismisses it, or the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon), or the Shadowcaster makes another object.
* Feign Life: As animate object, save that the objects gain concealment, and stay animated until the Shadowcaster dismisses it, or the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon), or the Shadowcaster animates another set of objects.
* Dark Evocation: The Shadowcaster can attack any number of targets within range at once with her bolt of shadow, dealing any kind of energy damage at her option. All targets are considered flat-footed for this attack, and those struck stay flat-footed until they act.

Ebon Roads
* Shadow Step: As dimension door.
* Dimension Mirror: As plane shift, but the Shadowcaster must go to or from the Plane of Shadow.
* Around the Clock: As shadow walk, but five times as fast and lasting until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon), and the Shadowcaster can arrive unerringly at any place that would not block divination effects.

Elemental Shadows
* Energy Twist: Upon activation, the Shadowcaster chooses two types of energy. Whenever she takes damage of the first type, her next attack deals extra damage of the second type in the same amount if it is made in one round, and heals the Shadowcaster by the same amount if it hits (but no more than the target's remaining hit points +10). The relation between the trigger and the Shadowcaster's attack is not obvious to onlookers. This effect lasts until the Shadowcaster dismisses it, loses consciousness, or reassigns energy types.
* Warped Flows: As control winds or control water, save that it lasts for one hour.
* Shadow Storm: As control weather, save that it lasts until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon). Also, the Shadowcaster is always under the effect of call lightning storm.

Unbinding Shade
* Shadows Fade: As greater dispel magic.
* Affliction Begone: As break enchantment.
* Shattering Reflection: As shadows fade, save that creatures take a d6 of damage per level of each spell that used to be on them and was dispelled.

Veil of Shadows
* Murk Senses: A single target must make a Will save or be struck blind and deaf for 3 rounds. Even if they pass, they lose track of the Shadowcaster until the end of her turn.
* Curtain of Shadows: As illusory wall, save that it counts as difficult terrain and blocks line of sight even if disbelieved. The wall lasts until the next corner of the day (dawn, dusk, midnight, or noon), and the Shadowcaster cannot have more than one wall up at once.
* Unveiling Stare: Upon activation, the Shadowcaster choses one creature per class level (including herself). Each of those creatures benefits from true seeing against anything to which the Shadowcaster has line of sight. This lasts until the Shadowcaster dismisses it, loses consciousness, or changes targets.
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
brotherfrancis75 wrote:Perhaps you imagine that Ayn Rand is our friend? And the Mont Pelerin Society? No, those are but the more subtle versions of the Bolshevik Communist Revolution you imagine you reject. (...) FOX NEWS IS ALSO COMMUNIST!
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Username17
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Post by Username17 »

Wait... why would you not want 3.5 deeper darkness when you're a character who gets See In Darkness at level 4?

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Post by Bigode »

FrankTrollman wrote:Wait... why would you not want 3.5 deeper darkness when you're a character who gets See In Darkness at level 4?

-Username17
Ouch, deeper darkness has triple radius. But still, blacklight's the same level, and it really makes people (other than you and Baatezu) see nothing at all; given that there's no limit on how many darknesses you can have at once, blacklight seems better most of the time (with the greater duration being meaningless). But, considering the radius, I'd let the shadowcaster have both. Whaddya say? Also, any other comments?
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
brotherfrancis75 wrote:Perhaps you imagine that Ayn Rand is our friend? And the Mont Pelerin Society? No, those are but the more subtle versions of the Bolshevik Communist Revolution you imagine you reject. (...) FOX NEWS IS ALSO COMMUNIST!
LDSChristian wrote:True. I do wonder which is worse: killing so many people like Hitler did or denying Christ 3 times like Peter did.
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Post by koz »

First of all, love this and fully plan to use it later.

Secondly, what kind of benchmarks do you guys use for 'level-appropriate' abilities? I can't say I know them too well, and some kind of list would be nice, so that I might be able to write some paths for this here fix or something.
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Bigode
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Post by Bigode »

The bemchmarks are of 3 kinds: a) for combat power, someone oughta fare 50/50 on average on same-CR monsters (that's the Same Game Challenge in a nutshell); b) for versatility and story manipulation, it's assumed that characters in general (the party, not necessarily a specific one) have means to get effects a wizard would supply, so they fly/teleport at level 9, and so on; and c) the wish economy assumes characters past, say, level 10 are going to have an essentially bottomless supply of items worth 15,000 or less (but they can't be used to buy items of higher level than that, those are in limited supply). Critique on my abilities' welcome. :D
Hans Freyer, s.b.u.h. wrote:A manly, a bold tone prevails in history. He who has the grip has the booty.
Huston Smith wrote:Life gives us no view of the whole. We see only snatches here and there, (...)
brotherfrancis75 wrote:Perhaps you imagine that Ayn Rand is our friend? And the Mont Pelerin Society? No, those are but the more subtle versions of the Bolshevik Communist Revolution you imagine you reject. (...) FOX NEWS IS ALSO COMMUNIST!
LDSChristian wrote:True. I do wonder which is worse: killing so many people like Hitler did or denying Christ 3 times like Peter did.
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