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[Wulf Ratbane]

Originally Posted by DaveMage

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I like what I see so far. When do you envision the final product being ready?

Pre-GenCon and pre-Pathfinder. It depends on how much (good) feedback we get from playtesting.

My plan is to offer a "Trailblazer Only" PDF version, which includes only the changes (and relevant design essays). The Trailblazer PDF will be priced in accordance with the value I have invested in the work.

I will also offer a "Trailblazer Complete" print-on-demand version that includes all relevant portions of the SRD in one place-- but priced just enough to include the additional cost of hard-copy printing. In other words, if you want the printed version for the sake of completeness at the table, you won't pay for reprinted and unchanged portions of the SRD. I'll just eat whatever it costs me in man hours to lay that out in a single work. (Assuming I'm otherwise still gainfully employed by then...)

Ultimately, my recommendation for anyone who is already planning on buying the printed version of Pathfinder would be to do that-- just buy the printed version of Pathfinder, and use that as your printed reference at the table.

Let me be clear: I wholeheartedly support Pathfinder as the rightful heir and "hard copy" repository of 3e knowledge moving forward.

One other thing--and maybe I'm just dense (I can sense people nodding)--but even after reading the sidebar, I still don't know what the term "CoDzilla" really means - even though I've seen the term a few times.

Ahh, that's ok Dave-- that sidebar's somewhat of a throwaway for the preview. In the final product you'll likely find some artwork there instead. If you "get it" you get it, and if you don't-- count yourself lucky.

CoDzilla is a cleric or druid that excels at combat (and everything else) with a level of self-sufficiency that puts all other classes to shame. The rest of the party just serves to hold the cleric's jacket so it doesn't get wrinkled in the coming dust up.

Personally, I think the Druid is by far the worst offender, but DoCzilla simply doesn't have the same panache.

There's some wiggle room in the class features and spellcasting figures, but you can easily see how far ahead the Cleric and Druid are compared to the other classes.

Suffice to say, the Trailblazer class overhaul doesn't show a lot of love to the Cleric or Druid.

Conventional wisdom is that 3e shows a certain amount of "love" to these two classes simply because they had to serve the function of party healer, which, quite frankly, is a bit of a drag. We address this instead through the 10-minute rest, and while the cleric and druid are still important for emergency healing during combat, they are by no means the primary source of recuperative healing after combat.

Removing this burden from the divine healing classes increases the imperative to "juice" the other classes.

I think somewhere along the line, the 3e designers lost sight of all the moving parts of 3e. Once the party is able to buy (or Craft) a wand of cure wounds, there's not nearly the same kind of pressure on the cleric or druid to use their spell slots for healing-- which leaves those spell slots open for the kinds of spells that give rise to CoDzilla (divine favor, divine might, righteous might, and countless other buffs).

Does that illuminate the situation any for you?