I don't know if my prodding had anything to do with this change, but I think it makes the class much more attractive.
You weren't the only one. Also, I started playing a rogue aound that time, and the difference between splitting the primary stat and splitting the secondary stat was like night and day, and that was the final nail in the coffin.
· Most places imply that the witch doctor's staff is always a spear, but sometime it seems to suggest it could also be a staff. This could just be me, but I think those places should all be hunted down and corrected (unless it's supposed to be able to be a staff, in which case the opposite references should be corrected).
The assumption is that it will usually be a spear, but it could be either a spear or a staff.
· The witch doctor's mask class feature section referes to the feed mask ritual as craft mask.
Well crud.
· The mask of the elements's elemental vigor ability is really cool. Er, I guess that's not a problem.
I can live with that!
· Why is the unerring bolt feat so much more powerful than the soul rot feat?
The answer to that is kind of interesting (at least to me). In short form, the answer is the same as the answer to the question of "Why would someone use the heavy flail instead of the bastard sword?" Which is to say, that whole family of feats is based off the relative advantage that different weapons provide (and it's probably clear that some include effects like "brutal" with the serial numbers filed off). Now, the reality is that the for weapons, the tradeoff for +1 accuracy is a little variable. In most cases it's +1 damage for 1 handed weapons and +1.5 damage for 2 handers, which makes a case for it being 1 for 1. However, there are outliers like the greataxe, where the tradeoff is +1 damage and High Crit, which is _way_ better.
So, given all that, soul rot was statted by the conservative model, just picking up a +1 damage, so it's worse than unerring bolt, but concistent with the existing model (which, or the record, I have a few concerns with). Theoretically I coudl have made it a greataxe instead and given it high crit, but I worried that would swing it too far in the other direction.
· The bind medicine ritual seems to imply that a medicine stick can't be enchanted as a normal spear, even though it's supposed to be a spear. Is this the case? Why? How does this differ from the transfer enchantment ritual from the Adventurer's Vault (apart from level and cost)?
Ok, so this is all about GSL follies. Really, I was just trying to deal with the fact that AV wasn't under the GSL, and so the more specialized rituals were created. In practice, they're really idenitcal to the AV ritual except that one you designate a weapon as yoru medicine stick (be it spear or staff) you may move the enchantment from a staff to a spear to the stick.
· Why is Karthana almost all harpy and almost no witch doctor?
So, that encounter really got away from me in writing. It's a great encounter, but I then started adding more detaisl to it about the cursed ancestor spirit and all sorts of other stuff. it was really cool, but it was -way- to much for this supplement, so I had to step back and look at what I had. Basically we have 3 monsters, and each serves a different purpose: One is an encounter, one is a recurring villain, and one is a potential NPC. Viewed through that lens I pared Karthana back down to the essentials of a fun encounter (since, weirdly, he may benefit from Evil Eye more than any of the monsters due to to the harpy synergy).
Thank you for the questions - it doesn't take much to get me to talk about the class.
I think there's a trend of people really liking to play short races as Witch Doctors, though tell your friend that the prospect of a Shadar Kai Witch Doctor absoutely makes me throw the horns.
-Rob D.
