Compiled 3.5 Revisions

Plane Sailing · Jun 25, 2003

Shard O'Glase said:
It's bad decision I think. The weapons that had the big crit ranges did less damage on a non crit. That's why they critted more often.

I've noticed that as a player in my group reached higher levels (he is now 11th), the fact that his scimitar did 1d6 was completely overshadowed by the bonus from his strength (two handed, natch), sword enhancement, power attack etc.

At this level the benefit of being able to double the str damage more often overshadows the higher base damage which he would have got from using a 2H sword or axe.

Cheers

Shard O'Glase · Jun 25, 2003

Plane Sailing said:
I've noticed that as a player in my group reached higher levels (he is now 11th), the fact that his scimitar did 1d6 was completely overshadowed by the bonus from his strength (two handed, natch), sword enhancement, power attack etc.

At this level the benefit of being able to double the str damage more often overshadows the higher base damage which he would have got from using a 2H sword or axe.

Cheers

I'm not good with math, but I suspect consideirng the difference in crit range isn't that large you'd have to get to a very large bonus like +10 to damage for the better crit range weapons to be one average more effective vs creatures suceptible to crits. So yeah at high levels somone who accepted being worse for a long period of time finally gets a small pay off for their specialization. Now I suspect that the + to damage will have to be higher than before for these weapons to pay off.

Which makes this IMO a poor design decision.

Someone · Jun 25, 2003

Olgar Shiverstone said:
More updated, AM 6-25, from WOTC boards, AC and DN:

The eldritch knight doesn't ignore any arcane spell failure.

.

This means it´s a fighting spellcaster. To play a spellcasting fighter, you´ll have to look at the spellsword.

Olgar Shiverstone · Jun 25, 2003

More tidbits:

The Leadership feat takes advantage of the new ECL system to allow a wide variety of non-standard cohorts, including dragons.

There is no Mass Harm; heal/harm are not spontaneously castable. (This is nothing new, but people seem to insist on asking the question).

Knowledge (dungeoneering) is all about caverns, spelunking, and general underground lore. There's no Knowledge (monsters) skill; instead, "monster lore" is split up among the various existing Knowledge skills by monster type. For instance, Knowledge (arcana) covers constructs, dragons, and magical beasts, while Knowledge (dungeoneering) covers aberrations and oozes. There's also a new paragraph in the Knowledge skill that covers using the skill to identify monsters or their special powers or vulnerabilities.

Plane Sailing · Jun 25, 2003

Shard O'Glase said:
I'm not good with math, but I suspect consideirng the difference in crit range isn't that large you'd have to get to a very large bonus like +10 to damage for the better crit range weapons to be one average more effective vs creatures suceptible to crits.

Exactly right. He has +6 from STR (+4 x 1.5 for 2H use), +2 from the weapon enchantment, thus normally +8 damage, more when he power attacks or does other similar stuff.

Cheers

Shard O'Glase · Jun 25, 2003

Plane Sailing said:
Exactly right. He has +6 from STR (+4 x 1.5 for 2H use), +2 from the weapon enchantment, thus normally +8 damage, more when he power attacks or does other similar stuff.

Cheers

someone did the math in another thread and its +13 with both improved crit and keen as the cut off point where the falchion types start to take the lead, before that the two handed sword is better. With just one of them its a +20 damage bonus you need for the falchion to pay off. IOW for the two handed weapons this is a screw up.

For the 1 handed weapons the range was much smaller and the rapier and scimitar went into the lead at a fairly early level. Maybe not a screw up here, it was far from game breaking or unbalanced before and now so I guess its fine.

Both of these things aren't factoring in the nebulous concept of how often do you bump into crit immune creatures though.

Olgar Shiverstone · Jun 26, 2003

And some might find these exciting:

Rangers no longer get medium armor proficiency. They are proficient in light armor and shields only.

The 3.5 assassin gains hide in plain sight at 8th level.

ll. Eyebite is now a Necromancy [Evil] spell. It sickens, panics, or renders comatose one or more targets.

mm. Slow: Brd3, Sor/Wiz3 (Transmutation), Close range, 1 creature/level up to 30 ft. apart, 1 rd/lvl duration, Will negates. Targets will be limited to a single move or standard action each round (but not both, nor may it take full-round actions). They also take a -1 penalty on attacks, AC, and Reflex saves, and move at half normal speed.

Psion · Jun 26, 2003

Olgar Shiverstone said:
ll. Eyebite is now a Necromancy [Evil] spell. It sickens, panics, or renders comatose one or more targets.

With all the curse-like stuff shifting to necromancy, it seems that (for good or ill), the 3.5e necromancer is the Diablo II necromancer.

Thematically, I have no problem with it. Again the issue is compatability.

Plane Sailing · Jun 26, 2003

Olgar Shiverstone said:
ll. Eyebite is now a Necromancy [Evil] spell. It sickens, panics, or renders comatose one or more targets.

mm. Slow: Brd3, Sor/Wiz3 (Transmutation), Close range, 1 creature/level up to 30 ft. apart, 1 rd/lvl duration, Will negates. Targets will be limited to a single move or standard action each round (but not both, nor may it take full-round actions). They also take a -1 penalty on attacks, AC, and Reflex saves, and move at half normal speed.

Regarding Eyebite - I can understand the move, and I agree with Psion that it fits thematically. I'm disappointed on behalf of my sorcerer, who was planning to take it at 6th level (multi-function spells are key for her, natch) but won't be since it has become an [Evil] spell.

It does bring up the interesting issue of spell descriptors though - considering that this has an [Evil] descriptor, I wonder if they have generally extended the range of spells which are considered [Evil]? Not a bad thing in my mind.

Regarding Slow... gosh, that is going to be a total killer for high level fighters and a must-have defensive spell for powerful wizards I'm sure. Great for keeping out of their range, and eliminating up to 75% of their attacks. Especially good as a defence against high level archers!

Cheers

Storm Raven · Jun 26, 2003

Olgar Shiverstone said:
Enlarge: Enlarge person now increases a humanoid creature's size by one category. This gives the creature +2 Str, -2 Dex, affects its size modifier to AC & attacks, etc., etc. A Medium creature enlarged to Large would have a 10-ft. face and a 10-ft. reach. It doesn't grant the full benefits of a size increase associated with monster advancement, such as Con and natural armor boosts

That seems awfully powerful for a 1st level spell. Perhaps more powerful than the "revised" 2nd level Animal Buff spells. The benefits of reach are pretty significant.