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So, since my next couple of sessions are going to deal with Slovak folklore inspired races, I decided to write up a bunch of monsters tailored as such. Here's a link, in case you guys are interested. http://chaosinferred.com/personal/13thage/the-dragon-empire/the-beastiary/fey/ I also did an Undead "servant of the spirits", in the form of the Tuchabra. http://chaosinferred.com/personal/13thage/the-dragon-empire/the-beastiary/undead/
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Oct 28, 2013 21:26
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So I've been checking out the Elementalist because I have a character concept it'd work with. For the Weapon of Flame epic feat, what happens if you are already using d10s? Does it go up to d12s?
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Oct 28, 2013 21:54
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I don't think so because that would then invalidate the Epic Feat. You do get the bonus of extra elemental damage though (I think).
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Oct 28, 2013 22:11
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If I wanted to do a Deadlands "Weird West" version of 13th Age, what would be the Icons? Hellstrome Stone The Texas Rangers The Pinkertons Smith and Robards The Prospector ???
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Oct 29, 2013 03:23
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The other train companies, off the top of my head.
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Oct 29, 2013 03:28
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Raven or whatever his name is, the evil Native American embodiment of War.
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Oct 29, 2013 04:36
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djw175 posted:So I've been checking out the Elementalist because I have a character concept it'd work with. For the Weapon of Flame epic feat, what happens if you are already using d10s? Does it go up to d12s? That is correct.
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Oct 29, 2013 04:37
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Swagger Dagger posted:Raven or whatever his name is, the evil Native American embodiment of War. Round it out with Famine, the fourth horseman. So the four horsemen, the six rail companies, The Ghost, Whoever runs the North, Whoever runs the confedaracy, and round it out with Jordrava to lead the injuns, and all the other groups are probably small enough to get rolled into one of the others. That's thirteen right there. Not the Prospector because he's not an influential man and is kind of dumb with a limited reach and an ultimately failed dream, serving mostly as a way to explain the setting to the newly dead more than anything else. Although a few of the rail companies don't matter to anyone and Stone's not exactly an influential man in the traditional sense. I guess it really depends on what you want the campaign to focus on?
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Oct 29, 2013 07:43
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I'm finishing up the document on Statless, but theres a few last things that are bothering me. At 4,7, and 10, characters get a bonus +1 to a Background. This... doesn't make much sense to me. Theres a couple ways to approach that Bonus. One, is that it doesn't apply to any sort of stat calculation. You have it for Background checks, but not for your Attack rolls, etc. Your Background now reads "Student of the Archmage's University +3 (+1)". This makes the most sense, but still not entirely. Two, is that it can be applied however you want, to any Background, even a new one, up to the usual +5. Questions arise though, as far as stat recalculation, as well as the fact that theres just not a lot of incentive to put points into a new Background, when you can put it into an old one and give yourself better rolls. This is pretty obviously the worse of the two. Either way you use it though, it doesn't make much sense thematically. To me, the idea is that Background is part of your past. You were a student, but at the moment you are busy being a murderhobo. New Background points should apply to things that happened to your character from 1-4, 4-7, and 7-10, and not something from your creation backstory. But a +1 to a new non-combat roll feels like a tiny consolation prize for moving up an entire Tier. So, if you can sort of see where I'm going, I'm considering altering this to giving a +2 bonus, which can be split, and can only be applied to Backgrounds that reflect your adventuring. At adventurer tier, you would have to make entirely new ones, but once you hit Champion and Epic, you could apply those to the Background you made in the previous tier, or make yet another one. Now for my other question, back to the Turn Undead chat. For a rules clarification of the Combat-Style variation, if the Cleric I chose was a poor caster and his Background for casting was his lowest, +1, I'm assuming then that the "next tier down" background is just going to be a +0. I realize this is an edge case with very few abilities where this actually happens, but it seems to invite power gaming back where the only Background arrays you get are either +3 +3 +2 or +4 +2 +2.
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Oct 29, 2013 18:44
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In my opinion just stick with the less convoluted "primary background for main attacks" and "secondary for everything else" So regardless of whether you main MBA or RBA, the Cleric's spells also use primary. Jackard fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Oct 29, 2013 |
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Oct 29, 2013 21:15
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Myrmidongs posted:Either way you use it though, it doesn't make much sense thematically. To me, the idea is that Background is part of your past. You were a student, but at the moment you are busy being a murderhobo. New Background points should apply to things that happened to your character from 1-4, 4-7, and 7-10, and not something from your creation backstory. But a +1 to a new non-combat roll feels like a tiny consolation prize for moving up an entire Tier. So, if you can sort of see where I'm going, I'm considering altering this to giving a +2 bonus, which can be split, and can only be applied to Backgrounds that reflect your adventuring. At adventurer tier, you would have to make entirely new ones, but once you hit Champion and Epic, you could apply those to the Background you made in the previous tier, or make yet another one. Bingo. Here's one of the little subtle nudgings. Were I to run a game using DTAS, I'd have players not only add the +1 but change the name of the background to represent how that background has been affected by the adventure. Cleric of Tempus +3? Used to be. Now High Priest of Tempus +4. Silver Hand Mercenary +2? Nope. Silver Hand Traitor +3. Backgrounds can be a very clever way to describe a character's growth and story arc if you're willing to let them shift a little over time. Do I think you strictly need to do that? Not necessarily. Increasing a background in play can merely represent the effects of practice further honing the skills gained from that Background. I was a Dirt Farmer +2 but all this time screwing around in the Underdark has made me more familiar with various types of plant life and soil content. Kind of a weird example, but you get the idea. Myrmidongs posted:Now for my other question, back to the Turn Undead chat. For a rules clarification of the Combat-Style variation, if the Cleric I chose was a poor caster and his Background for casting was his lowest, +1, I'm assuming then that the "next tier down" background is just going to be a +0. I realize this is an edge case with very few abilities where this actually happens, but it seems to invite power gaming back where the only Background arrays you get are either +3 +3 +2 or +4 +2 +2. Yes. You are correct. I don't see that as a problem, though. First, I never see Background arrays in play that aren't either 4,2,2 or 3,3,2 anyway. Wait, no, I saw a 4,4 once or twice. The fact that it 'limits' Background arrays feels to me like a problem that doesn't actually exist. Second, everything caps at +5, so I'm not quite following what you mean by the system inviting powergaming. Pick a thing you want to be good at and be good at it.
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Oct 29, 2013 21:22
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RyvenCedrylle posted:Bingo. Here's one of the little subtle nudgings. Were I to run a game using DTAS, I'd have players not only add the +1 but change the name of the background to represent how that background has been affected by the adventure. I know I've done this even in normal 13th Age. Although right now it's only been jokingly. We were trying to do something, I don't remember entirely and I rolled a nat 20. We joked that I had invented calculus, so I changed my "Alumni of (name I can't remember)" to "Inventor of Calculus".
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Oct 29, 2013 21:31
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Characters getting stronger, tougher, and more skilled in a variety of fields as they gain in levels? MADNESS If you really want justification for how gaining in levels can make you more competent in skills outside of adventuring (just like it does in every other level based rpg ever) I suggest you check out The Book of Five Rings, in which noted adventurer Miyamoto Musashi asserts that training as a carpenter makes you a better swordsman, and vice-versa.
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Oct 29, 2013 21:40
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Here's a bit I was thinking about for the Deadlands-13th age crossover: Revenants, Also known as the Walkin Dead are those heroes (and villains) who've died in the Weird West, but attracted the attention (for one reason or another) of a manitou. The manitou inhabits the body of the recently deceased, bringing it back to life. Some manitous try to blacken the name of heroes so to tarnish their legend, others bring back monstrous villains to continue their rampage after finding what should have been their rightful home at Boot Hill. When a character in Deadlands-13th Age dies, roll a d20. Level: +1 character is an adventurer-tier +2 Character is champion-tier +3 Character is epic-tier Legend: +1 for every successful story of great heroism or villany the character has created with regards to the supernatural (for example, saving the town from bandits would not count, but defeating a manitou-haunted black magic user would) On a total of 20 or more, the character will be coming back from the dead. Immediately apply the following attribute modifiers: +2 CON -2 CHA Revenants also gain the following: Resist Bullets (6+). Most revenants still have the "stench of the grave" on them, and unless masked by something like copious amounts of alcohol, will cause offense in social situations and unsettle animals such as horses. Revenants only receive half the escalation die (round down) as a bonus to their rolls. The Spark of Life doesn't flow as freely for them as it does for the living compadres. When a revenant first arises, they must immediately make a hard (15+) save against the Manitou's control. A roll of 1 means that the Manitou has fully taken over the body of the revenant (the character becomes a villanous NPC). A failure on this save means that the Manitou has temporary control over the Revenant, for one hour for each point the Revenant failed the save by. If the save is made, the Revenant comes back in control of his body... at least for now. At the GM's discretion (usually limited to once or twice per session), the GM can call for a Struggle. The Struggle is where the manitou senses a chance to wreak evil or to harm the Revenant's friends and inflicts great pain on the Revenant in an attempt to take temporary control. This is an Average Constitution-Modified Skill Check (Adventurer DC15, Champion DC20, Epic DC25) for the Revenant.This is modified by -1 for each successive check that the Revenant has passed, as the manitou grows frustrated and tries to break the Revenant's will. If the Revenant fails this skill check, the manitou takes control of the Revenant for one minute per point the skill check failed by. On a roll of a 1, the time of control extends to HOURS. The manitou does not do suicidal things (if the Revenant is killed, so is the Manitou), but it looks to inflict maximum harm and fear. Example The party has caught a local bandit who has the location of a coven of devil worshipers )who intend to sacrifice some townsfolks to raise the Fear Level in the area..) for whatever (probably foolhardy) reasons, they leave the Revenant to watch over the prisoner. The manitou senses an opportunity, and causes a Struggle , which the Revenant fails by 10. That means the manitou has control for 10 minutes The manitou grins, and loosens the bonds on the bandit, telling him to run.. before shooting him in the back, of course. When the party comes back, the manitou calmly explains that the bandit was "shot trying to escape"[/i] (Feats for the Revenant would be an increase to their Struggle rolls, the ability to "count coup" on defeated supernatural enemies and possibly gain a new power from their defeat, the ability to recover Healing Surges (because they cannot rely on heal spells and the like) by eating raw meat, and possibly a lowering of their Stench of the Grave)
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Oct 29, 2013 21:57
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First impressions, I'd just give all harrowed the ability to count coup at no cost, and make that their primary source of "magic items", instead of trying to balance it around a feat. Besides that, I love it all tremendously.
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Oct 29, 2013 22:06
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I don't know. I'm always weary of forcing a PC into an NPC. I've seen it go wrong a lot. I mean I don't like 4e's daze, dominate, and stun rules for the same reason. It's taking away action from the players.
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Oct 29, 2013 22:12
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Oh, here's a feat I thought of for the Revenants/Harrowed: The Devil's Bargain: Foolish and/or desperate Revenants have been known to call on their manitou for strength to make a key shot, or to keep fighting when all seems lost. But there's always a price to pay. The Revenant opens his soul up to channel the energy from the Manitou, but that just gives the manitou something to grab on to the next time it feels like raisin a little Hell. The Revenant may add up to 5 points to his next roll of a d20. However, his next Struggle roll will take that much of a penalty. Example: Ol' Dead Hank is racing out of a collapsing mine, desperate to make it out to his friends before he's buried under tons of rock. He calls on the Devil's Bargain and adds three to his roll to make it out alive. He succeeds, but at a price. Later that night, when the rest of the party is asleep, the manitou tries to come out to play, and Hank has to subract three from his Struggle roll.. hope Hank's pals are light sleepers, or they might be never wakin up again!
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Oct 29, 2013 22:48
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djw175 posted:I don't know. I'm always weary of forcing a PC into an NPC. I've seen it go wrong a lot. I mean I don't like 4e's daze, dominate, and stun rules for the same reason. It's taking away action from the players. The best NPC's are PC's.. (I would allow the PC to control what the Revenant does while under the manitou's control, as long as they play it straight) edit Mystic Mongol posted:First impressions, I'd just give all harrowed the ability to count coup at no cost, and make that their primary source of "magic items", instead of trying to balance it around a feat. Good point: Hucksters can use Relics such as the Book of Hoyle, Preachers can use Holy Relics, Mad Scientists can create devices (I'm working on rules for Hucksters and Mad Scientists)..Perhaps some of the count coup bonuses give the Manitou bonuses in the Struggle as a quirk (more bestial for example?) SirFozzie fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Oct 29, 2013 |
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Oct 29, 2013 22:50
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SirFozzie posted:Perhaps some of the count coup bonuses give the Manitou bonuses in the Struggle as a quirk (more bestial for example?) I don't think that's necessary, if you're emulating the feel of coup powers like they're presented in Deadlands: Reloaded. They're pretty close to 13th Age magic items anyway, given how some of them have penalties along with the good stuff. The first example that comes to mind is counting coup on the Great Hunger Spirit: it allows the deader to regenerate without eating meat, but leaves a lingering hunger that never quite goes away (even though it doesn't have any mechanical impact.) Translating that to a magic item would be something like this: Great Hunger Spirit (Recharge 16+): You heal using a recovery and add +4 hp to the total (champion +10 hp, epic +25 hp). If you are using the optional rule that revenant cannot use a recovery without first eating a pound of meat, this rule no longer applies. Quirk: ... but you're still hungry. If that's your only coup power, you're able to contain the hunger. However, if you have the spirit stuff of a half-dozen cryptids and crying ghosts in your gullet, they'll start to spill over and control you--just like if you overload your chakras with magic boots and swords. It's the same with a mad scientist's dementias, really. I would suggest using coup quirks to explain what happens when a revenant loses control (e.g. eating the last of a starving town's supplies, delicious cattle mutilation) but not have them impact the Struggle. Those guys have enough trouble as it is.
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Oct 30, 2013 08:58
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yeah, that works really well.. Just off hand stuff that I was thinking about for hucksters (may be too much extra work, 13th age prides itself on simplicity and a unified system) Base 5d10 (4 dice of one color and 1 die of a different color, to represent the manitou's attempts to turn it around on the Huckster. I'm calling them for now Power dice (regular), and Manitou (different color) dice) Backgrounds can add extra dice (usually of the regular color, but things like repeatedly calling on the Manitous can add Manitou dice) You need a pair to successfully cast a Huckster spell. If you get two pair, three of a kind, a straight, or four/five of a kind, the spell is considered empowered) Manitou dice are special. A zero on the manitou die counts as a Wild (IE, can be used to make any match possible). A 1 on the manitou die means that the manitou has managed to turn it on the Huckster. Total up all 5 dice used to make the hand: Adventurer Tier: Divide the total by 2, (round down), and take that much damage in backlash Champion Tier: Take the total in damage Epic: Take the total x 2 in damage. Note under this rule set that a spell can both succeed, AND take backlash. Example: Thaddeus Smart is caught with an ace up his sleeve while gambling at the local saloon. Not wanting to be dragged out to the nearest hangin tree, he goes for the other ace up his sleeve, and casts a hex to cause a large flash of light to blind his irate fellow gamblers to give him enough time to get to his horse. He rolls 5d10: The power dice come up 5 5 3 2... and the manitou die comes up 1. Uh oh.. The good news is that the hex goes off as planned (as he rolled a pair), but the backlash means that Thaddeus takes (5+5+3+2+1=16/2... 8 Points of backlash damage). A slightly singed Thaddeus makes a break for his horse, while he hears the manitou chortle in delight) Here's another take with a simpler rule: Make a standard Charisma-modified difficulty check (Adventurer DC15, Champion DC20, Epic DC25), subtracting the level of the hex (1/3/5/7/9) from the roll. If the check succeeds, the spell is cast successfully. On a 20, the spell is empowered (double damage), on a 1, the manitou causes a backlash. The spell fails in a manner determined by the GM, but it should generally be the opposite of what the caster intended, for example, a spell causing X damage to an enemy should instead do it directly to the Huckster). For each two times the huckster has cast a hex previously in this session, the backlash number goes up by 1 (So, after two hexes, there's a backlash on a 1-2, after four, 1-3, so on so forth). Certain hexes are listed as risky (double the chance of a backlash), or safe (no chance of a backlash)
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Oct 30, 2013 09:40
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Hrm. That's a lot of rules for what should be a simple effect. Howabout a new class talent, available as a choice for Wizards or Sorcerers Hucksterism Blah blah flavor text about being a huckster. Whenever a huckster rolls damage, he may choose to roll any number of additional dice with the same sides, up to as many dice as he's already rolling. For example, if he rolls 3d8 for damage, he may roll one, two, or three additional eight sided dice. These additional dice should be a different color, preferably blood red. A huckster chooses to roll these extra dice after rolling to hit. If the highest roll on a single die is on a red die, or if the highest roll is tied on red dice and non dice, and more red dice get that result than normal dice, the huckster takes as much damage as the target of the attack does as the demons run amok.
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Oct 30, 2013 10:13
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Angrymog posted:(Also posted this on RPGnet, just wanted a second set of opinions) ... you know, the more I think of this idea, there more I like it. Hell, most of my Planescape experience come from Torment, and then it just came to mind that... yeah, those are characters with lots of interesting Uno Unique Thing thing going.
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Oct 31, 2013 15:36
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Personally, I wouldn't even really change the Icons much other than a few particulars for the setting, and what, if any of the important dudes they work for/with. The big names in Sigil will show up on their own anyway.That could lead to fun complications.
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Oct 31, 2013 15:54
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I have no idea if anyone is interested even remotely, but I'm making a totally homebrew setting with ship combat/building rules. Would anyone care like to laugh at my dumb ideas and poo poo?
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Oct 31, 2013 21:23
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NutritiousSnack posted:I have no idea if anyone is interested even remotely, but I'm making a totally homebrew setting with ship combat/building rules. Would anyone care like to laugh at my dumb ideas and poo poo? Sure, hit us up. Can't be worse than GURPS Vehicles.
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Oct 31, 2013 21:31
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One last question for Statless and I think I've got everything tacked down. When someone wants to use Ryven's variant for combat, where do Flexible Attacks and Battle Cries fall? Do those just straight up use the Melee bonus you picked, or do they still fall under a general Spells & Powers?
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Oct 31, 2013 21:41
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Myrmidongs posted:One last question for Statless and I think I've got everything tacked down. When someone wants to use Ryven's variant for combat, where do Flexible Attacks and Battle Cries fall? Do those just straight up use the Melee bonus you picked, or do they still fall under a general Spells & Powers? Flex attacks and battle cries still trigger off your primary melee. On a different note, let's see those ship rules. Color me interested.
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Nov 1, 2013 01:50
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Alright, I think this is fairly final. Thanks for all the input, and for the original groundwork. "Statless" 13th Age
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Nov 1, 2013 03:27
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Myrmidongs posted:Alright, I think this is fairly final. Thanks for all the input, and for the original groundwork. Looks good! It's kind of weird to explain and you did a good job of laying it out in a simpler format.  Now we wait the arrival of the other reason I really wanted to have this system around - multiclassing. 
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Nov 1, 2013 15:41
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I'm making my very first 13th age character - a fighter - and I'm looking at powers. How useful is shield bash? It seems like it ought to be kind of a staple ability but the description makes it seem counter-productive; why would I want a maneuver that disengages me from my target? Isn't the point of a shield-using fighter to engage as many targets as possible so they don't run over and start beating on your teammates?
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Nov 6, 2013 05:23
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I imagine it'd see the most use if you're initiative is relatively crap that fight. If something runs up and tries to lock you down, you can escape easily to put yourself in between the squishies and the real threat. Plus with the feat, if something is chewing on your wizard you can hand your buddy a free escape.
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Nov 6, 2013 05:28
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The idea is that you can pop off an enemy easily and as part of your attack so that you can then intercept guys trying to engage your squishier party members. If you take the feat you can also pop them off your allies so that they don't have to disengage, and when they attempt to re-engage you can, again, intercept. The champ feat is cool too because if they're staggered it's a guaranteed daze for at least one round if you roll an even (note that it triggers on any even, hit or miss) but I'm not sure if it's worth the feat when there are so many other contenders.
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Nov 6, 2013 05:33
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So, barbarians. Are they good? Bad? Boring? Exciting? I'm still a bit unsure on some bits of the game - if I use the heritage feat to gain another class' power (let's say: bard battle cry), would I be able to use that with my barbarian powers?
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Nov 7, 2013 06:37
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ProfessorCirno posted:So, barbarians. Are they good? Bad? Boring? Exciting? Barbarians are good mechanically, but in play, they're simple to a fault I think. They just don't have any tactical options beyond hit guy and hit guy harder.
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Nov 7, 2013 06:47
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djw175 posted:Barbarians are good mechanically, but in play, they're simple to a fault I think. They just don't have any tactical options beyond hit guy and hit guy harder. Yeah, you may want to try out the Fury by Acrozaratim for a more complex Barbarian.
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Nov 7, 2013 06:54
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ProfessorCirno posted:So, barbarians. Are they good? Bad? Boring? Exciting? You can use a battle cry with your barbarian powers. Anyway, a barbarian isn't bad by any means, you'll never feel punished for your choice. But they're a bit simplistic. I could have plenty of fun coming up with grackle related rants when my turn comes up, but there's a definite dearth of tactical play involved.
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Nov 7, 2013 07:22
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ProfessorCirno posted:I'm still a bit unsure on some bits of the game - if I use the heritage feat to gain another class' power (let's say: bard battle cry), would I be able to use that with my barbarian powers? Flexible attacks would interact a little strangely with Rage, but otherwise it'd seem fine.
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Nov 7, 2013 07:35
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Yeah your attacks are still basic attacks, it might be a bit weird with Rage. My question is if you are a Fighter and grab a Warcry or a Bard who grabs a Fighters Flexible Attack can you combine them if they both trigger.
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Nov 7, 2013 07:43
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The game specifically calls out that you can only trigger one flexible attack off a single roll.
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Nov 7, 2013 07:46
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The character in question is a halfling refluffed to be a HALFLING RIDING A DINOSAUR. I figure writing "DINOSAUR" under weapon and having a DINOSAUR related background will cover that. I'll give Fury a look! I was someone scared away from Ranger (since the whole idea is that I act as one character, not two, so no pet) and neither fighter nor rogue really fit. Paladin was, of course, right out.
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Nov 7, 2013 08:01
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