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Rules question: The fighter talent skilled intercept, does it apply to an enemy you are currently engaged with? That is to say, if you're engaging a kobold , and it pops off to attack the wizard, do you still get to stop if? I mean, this would make a fighter literally inescapable, but I wonder if that's the point.
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Oct 9, 2012 16:29
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Kenderama posted:Well if he pops free you aren't engaged with him anymore, so it stands to reason that it should work. I'm thinking more of the disengaging move action, maybe kobold was a bad example. If something disengages successfully, or even unsuccessfully, then moves to attack someone else, does the fighter still get to chase and intercept the hit?
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Oct 9, 2012 20:41
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Alright, having run my PbP game for a bit now, I was thinking of getting some thoughts out on how the battle system tends to work out. In terms of the adventuring day and its 4-5 same level encounters, it mostly revolves around the relative power and number of recoveries PCs get. Obviously, of course, we all know and love Healing Surges, but Recoveries differ in a few ways. They seem to balanced around the average being about 1/3 of your health, with rolling getting as high as 1/2 of your max HP. Furthermore, they actually are a bit easier to spend in battle than 4e, and since they're boosted they tend to really turn around your health totals. And since every PC gets at least 8, they have a ton of fallback HP regardless of class. To balance this, though, damage from enemies is relatively large as well. Even with same level fights, I'd still expect someone to go unconscious with any sort of focus fire. And going back to the relatively large recoveries, you can expect a PC's HP to rocket up and down during a fight. Another interesting bit about monsters vs PCs is that the monster's numbers are relatively high as well, which is to say they're surprisingly even with the PCs, and even better in some places. Monsters will tend to hit on 10+, deal about 1/4 to 1/3 HP of damage, and have hard to beat initiatives. On the first turn PCs need 11+ to hit, do about 1/3 HP damage, and probably won't be going first. Which seems okay until you remember that this is a same level fight, one that the Party takes on several of over the course of the adventuring day. This disparity means Escalation isn't just nice, its VITAL to how a battle plays out, because as the fight goes on PCs need that bonus to get their hits in. It isn't all bad for the PCs though, because unconscious recovery is easier in 13th age. This is the main difference in fights from 4e, the ability for PCs to get up on an 11+ save without assistance. On a crit they don't even lose their turn! And since recoveries are so large, they'll need at least a little focus fire to be put down again. The takeaway is that most 13th age fights go like this over the course of 3 or 4 rounds. It starts off with the PCs whiffing while the Monsters knock someone out. That someone gets back up and the Party begins to get a handle on the fight. As soon as the PCs get a clear advantage, the fight will end pretty fast, and the game itself recommends forgoing any cleanup rounds. If the DM makes the fight tougher, it tends to extend and amplify that first stage. PCs will whiff a poo poo ton, or not be able to do enough damage, and then get wrecked by monsters. Cleanup still tends to last the same amount of time though, depending on daily usage and how many PCs are still standing. Important note, what Large and Huge monsters don't get in extra turns, they make up for in damage. At same level you will threaten ORKOs, and at higher levels you will threaten outright kills. With the lack of stuns or CC, it makes them even more dangerous than a similar amount of standard monsters. Sorry KPrime Just my thoughts on how the math works out. Personally it helps me design encounters better, and it should help you guys in terms of what to expect from the 13th age battle system.
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Jun 24, 2013 09:01
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In terms of combat mechanics, the only thing I'd be wary about in terms of 'at-will' flight is hanging out in the air and using ranged attacks. A lot of the ranged/melee dichotomy relies on far away attacks being a weaker than nearby attacks, and nearby attacks guaranteeing that a badguy can get in your face in a move action. Disallow attacks in mid-air and its fine. The other issue I might see is if it allows getting past a monster frontline that would otherwise intercept, but then we're talking melee combat/flight and I don't see much wrong with monsters prepping for a flying charge appropriately. As for Out of Combat stuff, I'm just gonna throw out ideas. Birds can't really go straight up, and the bigger ones need updrafts of air to get some serious height. You can't just fly up the Cliffs of Dread to the fort at the top, you have to circle a few times, find an updraft, and do some wing-work to get altitude. As others have noted, you can see birds for pretty far distances, and human sized ones probably look pretty distinct. Can you conceal yourself from Orcish sentries as you gain altitude on the Cliffs of Dread? Can you or an ally disguise you convincingly as a Midland Albatross while you scope out Fort Hellrock? If not, you're hoofing it like the rest of the party. A passage big enough for a person walking might not take the wingspan of a bird-dude midflight. You could probably fly across the pit of spikes, but you'll need a running start and it'll get pretty technical near the end. Better roll a Dex+loving Wings background check to see if you don't screw it up. And really, if a player wants to play a dude with wings, it suggests they want a game with a free approach to exploration. They're not interested in the mechanics of climbing a wall or crossing a river, they want to fly up and see the landscape and use their cool unique abilities to help out the team. And if any B&E session largely involves flying up a wall and dropping a rope, that's not much different from what a sneaky type character would do anyway. And if the campaign absolutely positively must include a challenge where a large expanse/high wall is overcome, then there's plenty of space for challenges against the winged PC. fakeedit: now I wanna play a wing-dude fighter. Someone start another 13th age PbP
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Mar 13, 2014 13:54
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aegof posted:The worst thing about april fool's day is when jokes are better than real life will ever be. Why wait? I'm just gonna do this on the fly. 14th Age Broken Icons In the scarred future of the 14th Age, the icons are dead. The Crypts of the Lich King are cracked open and empty. The Gray Prince's hood lies forgotten in an underground cell. The Golden Wyrm's carcass lies rotting besides a dormant crack in the ground. But the apocalyptic powers they brought to bear still tear through what remains of the world, and their forgotten bastions still hum with untapped energies. All who remain in this doomed world have learned to tap into these energies, for without them they would perish. But without icons in the world, this power will surely run out. Will you seize it for yourself and rule a barren wasteland? Or will you steward it towards a new beginning, despite all the obstacles in your way? Characters in 14th age get 2 Essence points instead of 3 Icon relationship points. These represent power stolen or scavenged from the decaying corpse that is the world. Essence points are assigned to Icons, like relationship points, but they do not have positive, conflicted, or negative status. They simply represent powers and abilities, since there are no icons to have relationships with anymore anyway! Essence points are not called on, they are spent. At any point, a player may spend an essence point to call upon the power of its related icon. Essence points spent this way never return. This results in an incredible display of power under the direct control of the player. It can be used to defeat enemies, rally allies, overcome obstacles, or anything beneficial to the player and his allies. For example, a player might spend Dragon Emperor Essence to gain the fanatical loyalty of a tribe of Shaven. Essence of The Three might be used by a player to bring an elemental storm down on his enemies. Essence of the Crusader might let a player send a warband of orcs running for the hills with a mere glare. But Essence is not unlimited, and its use has terrible consequences. A player who spends his last Essence point can no longer regain recoveries, not through full heal-ups or any other means. The power has left him, and unless he can find more he will perish like the rest of the world. Essence can be gained, but it is rarely easy. Leftover bastions of power can be raided for Essence, but these ruins had to withstand an apocalypse, and are not simply left open for looters. Most survivors use another means of gaining Essence. The killing of powerful beings, or multitudes of weaker ones, can provide 1 Essence point for every character involved. GMs are encouraged to present impossible situations so that players must spend Essence or die. Reduce starting Essence points to 1 for an even more desperate game experience. I won't say I've put tons of thought into this, but it's a good start for Dark Sun Pelgrane that involves the Icon work of 13th age. More ideas: mutation system for martials, wild magic for magic users.
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Apr 2, 2014 08:20
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