DiasExMachina 4ED Update

[Dias Ex Machina]

Long month for me. I've been in and out of town on business trips and vacations. I finally came back into town and found my copy of Amethyst: Foundations snuggled in my mailbox. It's bigger than I was expecting, thicker than even the Players Handbook. Have to admit, it looks pretty cool.

This week, I direct interested parties to HereBeGamers, an Australian Podcast dedicated to role playing games. They speak highly of Amethyst. I suggest hearing the whole thing but the Amethyst's coverage begins around the 20 minute mark.

Also, the pre-order period on Amethyst is now done...because the product is now officially on the shelves. Canadian and international buyers may have to wait a few more days but if you don't see it on the shelf of your local game store, ask them. To coincide with the release, Goodman Games have updated their site. You may notice a new banner. Thanks again to our ever vigilante Nick Greenwood for supplying us with it.

On another topic, I want to throw a shout-out (HEY!) to two specific game stores which have gone above and beyond the call of duty in their support of Amethyst.

Firstly, I want to mention New Moon Comics out of New Jersey. They have been amazingly enthusiastic in supporting us. I honestly think they had the highest number of preorders of Amethyst.

The other store is Strategies Games and Hobbies out of Vancouver, BC, one of the very first stores to EVER support Amethyst, long before I finally met its owner two weeks ago. Thanks guys.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

So...first week of Amethyst on the shelf. How do I feel? Still paranoid. Oh well, it happens. Canadians will still need to wait a few more days before seeing it on their shelves but it shouldn't be much longer. I know I got mine.

On a related topic, I have started up a facebook fanpage dedicated to Amethyst. You can join it here. I plan on updating it with more artwork and exclusive bits as time trudges on. Please show your support, join up, and share it with friends.

Also, to those people wanting to dive into the Hearts of Chaos module (like those getting it as DLC from preordering), I have created updated characters to replace those included in the module. You can find the file here.

The questions have already been rolling in regarding our rules. I will post the important ones as we go along.

Why does high level techan armor have multiple levels?
Good question. What this means is that the armor counts as multiple items. This is because it does more than just offer an AC bonus. If you buy the armor off the shelf, you can ignore these values. However, if you are making a character at a later level or if you find one and your group is determining who gets it and who doesn't, it's important to know how this armor relates to other items.

A good example are the power armors. The Apostle Motor slave is a 25/25/14. This means it is 2 level 25 items and a level 14 item. If you look at the description, you can see why. More than just AC, it offer you weapons, resistances, more hit points, amplified strength, etc. It's actually a steal. In the case of the Force Body Vest, it also offers a +1 bonus to Reflex and Fortitude, which is why it also counts as a level 1 item as well as a level 3.

What are techan starting currency?
Unchanged from Player's Handbook. 100 gp/cr for starting characters.
However, please not that you can get additional gear based on lifepath and/or if your group is signed with a specific group. Check out Organizations, as some offer major bonuses (like discounts off all level 1 equipment).

Are the EDF roll modifiers cumulative or not?
What that is SUPPOSED to mean is that the number of monsters does not affect the roll, only the number of types of monsters. So that means if there is ONE pagus in the group, the penalty is -1. If there are ten pagus, it is still -1. If there were fifty pagus, boggs, and puggs, it would still be -1.

Throw in a single dragon, and it goes to -2.

So taking the table into account, if you have four echan players in the party, the techan suffers a -4 to his roll. That is cumulative. However, the number of monsters does not affect the roll, only the number of types. That being said, I do invite GMs to ignore the first penalty (or keep the penalty only at -1) if they really want a mixed group. Like I told my players, I only roll if you are being stupid and flagrant with your mixing of technology and magic. My techan player in my echan group is paranoid enough and I through a couple threats his way, but I am not concerned about rolling every round. It's much more useful as a cinematic device.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

It can now be shouted from the rafters! The newsreaders are announcing it from their stone pedestals in front of parliament. Our heralds have the notices and are carrying them to the masses.

Amethyst Foundations is now on PDF.

Doesn't that look pretty?

One thing you might notice as you browse the PDF...is the color. Yes, the powers are color-coded in the PDF. The character sheet at the back is color. The full size map of Canam is in color. There are two color images inside the book (Abidan and Limshau).

Click on the many links to acquire your own digital copy...

http://paizo.com/store/downloads/goodmanGames/4E7b5a3/other4E/v5748btpy8f58

Amethyst: Foundations - Goodman Games | RPGNow.com

Amethyst: Foundations - Goodman Games | DriveThruRPG.com


There has been some talk about Amethyst's approach to classes. We admitted that we didn't feel obligated to follow the lead of Wizard's design philosophy. Namely, we didn't feel that we had to create a class which fell into the ironclad role of a leader, defender, controller, or striker. At one point, we actually considered making up new roles.

Then we realized that was stupid.

Beyond the fact that the Stalker is mislabeled as a Defender/Striker when he is intended to be a Controller/Striker, we really felt that we wanted to create a class that looked cool and then we would try to label it. We had a Grounder which had single target powers and area affects. With area effects, he becomes a controller. With a few marking abilities and the class feature Area Denial, we thought Defender was an appropriate title to hang off him.

The healing surges and capacity to grant attacks to allies easily made the Marshal a leader. Healing also gave that same title to Operator. Operator also has some vicious direct fire attacks, also making him a striker. However, we did receive criticism that the Grounder is not a defender as he cannot mark. I never considered that mandatory. His capacity to push enemies from allies and protect the squares said allies inhabit by laying down suppressive fire can be considered a controller or a defender feature. We consider Area Denial a defender feature.

If you do have a question or a concern, please come to Dias Ex Machina, register to the forum, and post it. Let us help you make your gaming experience fair, easy, and balanced. You can also email me personally if you so desire. We are running a FAQ on the site as well. This is not an errata, just a FAQ to clarify certain confusions.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

There has been some talk about philosophy. Not the philosophical points mentioned in Amethyst but the design philosophy of 4th Edition D&D. There have been comments which have criticized Amethyst for not following the design philosophy of 4th Ed. What's interesting was that I had no idea we were obligated to do so.

Back when the 3.0 OGL was making rounds, companies were very quickly finding ways to break the system and alter it to their own needs. With 4th Edition, the limitations of the GSL prevents some of the extreme tinkering seen with some of the earlier games. Still, we wanted to see if we could alter some people perspectives in regards to 4th Edition. This didn't always work out as planned.

The first problem was that Amethyst was billed in many circles as the promised 4th Edition Modern WOTC never produced. As a result, there were many expectations going into the product. The first issue came with races. Our races actually have minor penalties to add color and role playing. This is against the approach in D&D, which only applies bonuses. A counter argument was offered that since we included human, we needed to have our races balanced to other fantasy races, even those not canon in Amethyst. I understand that some people want to include non-canon races…so this is something we may address.

The next issue came with classes. We designed our four techan classes to enmesh with each other, not with the fantasy classes of D&D. The first rule we broke came in their creation, where we intentionally didn't assign their roles to define what they could and could not do. The Grounder was the heavy hitter. He would have the capacity to prevent enemies from getting too close and to protect his allies as well as lay down area affects from a distance. We knew he would be a controller but we also felt he had elements of a defender. But at no point did we ever say to ourselves "He's a controller" or "He's a defender". We just made him. We gave the Marshall the marking ability with the capacity of making an ally the source of the mark. In the Stalker, he was a dual build with controller-like sniping powers and controller-like area-effects.

It should be noted that all of these classes were created in the fall of 2008. This was before similar worded abilities emerged with other classes (like Bard) in later Player's Handbooks. People assumed we were inspired by hybrid classes. Hybrids didn't exist when we started. It was also well before a lot of the later errata emerged. As a result, in the fall of 2009, we went back before the finished layout stage and made 44 pages of changes to the rules. Yeah…44 pages of rule changes. Let me just say, our layout artist Joshua Raynack is an absolute angel. Alas, we didn't catch all of these required changes. A few slipped by (like the sustain limitations with Sustain Barrage…sigh).

The classes were designed to work with each other, so we didn't think the specific roles needed to be ironclad. Yes, this could result in a class which may not work as well with a fantasy group. People could complain that the Grounder is a poor defender or that the Marshal is a poor leader. These classes could be when compared individually, but a group of four techans will work very well together.

What we discovered upon playing was that at a distance, the techans don't move but are forced to move constantly when in close combat. People noted this. Some considered it against the design intent of D&D that the techans don't move in a combat encounter. We neither considered it an issue nor did we ever think of it as being a mandatory requirement that our classes move. Techan strengths are dependent on the combat theatre. In the tight confines of many dungeons, techan groups have to be careful to plan out their movement. There is no isolated combat tactics. It is all about a team effort. In my fantasy game, I see my players doing their own thing. Each character is independent with the healer moving around to help people. Even the Warlord basically just offers a heal or an attack and doesn't shift the combat area like a Marshal does. With a techan group, I noticed my very same players talking more with each other, planning out their actions with each other. They observed later that very same distinction. We felt it worked. That and the fact that ranged damage was more severe than close combat damage since ranged fire didn't put you in harm's way. In a large combat area, the techans would have a full round if not more of free fire before being placed in danger. Add in the Grounder's area denial and the Marshal's moving ability and you have several moments where the techans are able to offload their weapons without the fear of a counter attack. This resulted in our damage values for techan powers being slightly lower than melee combat powers in traditional D&D.

If you think Amethyst breaks the design philosophy of D&D, heaven forbid what the critics will say about NeuroSpasta. We have at least two classes that cannot inflict damage at all. We did away with enhancement and even removed the need to acquire money at every level.

Next week, out group is going to be recording a second TECHAN PODCAST. I know. I know. Our last was not very informative. I understand my group is slightly insane (slightly). They have promised to behave this time and present a combat example you can actually glean information from. We'll be taking the revised character builds from Hearts of Chaos and running it through a Hearts of Chaos module adventure. I'll keep you all updated on the progress of that.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

THE FRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI

PART 1
Trying to control my group is a futile effort. This has never been truer than when recording a podcast. My group sat together to create yet another Techan Podcast, one which we had hoped would properly present our techan characters given the current build of the rules. This was still an arduous task as my players have neither a mute button nor the discipline to remain focused on the task at hand. We will not be posting the podcast as, like our humorous Techan Podcast, there is nothing to learn from it. The article, however, is still good. This is our extensive coverage…

Level 6 encounter (xp 1250)
48 puggs (level 1 minion)
3 skegg pugg-drivers (level 4 brute)

This was an equal size encounter for five level 6 techans. The opponents consisted of 3 Skegg Pugg Drivers and 48 rabid Puggs. The characters were as follows (you can download them in detail here: http://www.diasexmachina.com/HeartsOfChaos--NewCharacters.pdf

KONRAD TOMBS Level 6 Grounder. Played by Conan
WILHELM KAUFF Level 6 Marshal. Played by Grayson
ELIAS HANNOVER Level 6 Operator. Played by Brad
THEO VANDERSAAR Level 6 Stalker. Played by Mike
JIMMY FELDT Level 6 Operator. Played by Chris

Initiative was rolled. I placed 12 puggs and one skegg on the table. Every round for three rounds, I add 12 more puggs and one more skegg, and on the final round, I added the final group of puggs.

Initiative
29 Mike/Stalker
21 Grayson/Marshal
18 Monsters
17 Chris/Operator
13 Brad/Operator & Conan/Grounder

ROUND 1
The beginning of the battle had 13 opponents placed 20 squares away. At first, the Grayson the Marshal and Mike the Stalker held back, defaulting to their fantasy roots of allowing enemies to close distance. I had to stop and remind them that at 20 squares, they were in range of all their weapons. In fact, the extra round of fire proved vital.

(Use your distance. Fighters want to run up. Rogues want to sneak. The Fighter must draw the fire from the Wizard. Techans don’t have a wizard role. Grounders don’t need to move until the enemy gets close. Use distance. Plant Area Denials and attack the closest threats. Prevent their advance. It is about team work and players thinking like fantasy characters will quickly become overrun)

So we retracted a round and allowed the Stalker to and Marshal to attack. Grayson the Marshal offered his attack to Mike the Stalker to use Combat Theatrics again after using it on his round. He took out four puggs from six attacks.

The puggs charged at full speed but did not get to adjacent squares on their round. This left Chris the Medical Operator to Double Tap and take out two more. Brad the Mechanic Operator followed up and lobbed a grenade into a crowd of puggs, attacking three, and missing every single one of them. Oh dear. Conan the Grounder launched his wall3 Rapid Fire, hurting a skegg for 8 damage and taking out two more puggs. He then placed his area burst 1 Area Denial in front of the group to attack any target that crossed that area.

ROUND 2
Mike the Stalker used Combat Theatrics again, this time on the injured Skegg driver in the lead. He only hit once, dealing 9 damage. Grayson the Marshal, knowing a good thing, used Make Room again to allow Mike the Stalker three more attack with Combat Theatrics. Mike did so, killing three more puggs. Grayson then added in his move action Spotter ability, giving Conan the Grounder a +1 power bonus to attack the injured Skegg.


(Just because you don’t want to move doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use your move. Every class has move powers at 1st level and most classes have move powers which can actually attack enemies)

This got interesting, as 12 more puggs and another Skegg landed on the table and immediately double run across the board. Because the puggs outnumbered the players more than 3-to-1, they gained bonuses to both attack and damage. One pugg ran through Conan the Grounder’s Area Denial and was instantly attacked and killed. The surviving puggs from the first wave reached base to base, two on Brad the Mechanical Operator, one on Grayson the Marshal. Both puggs attacking Brad hit, inflicting 10 damage from Sticks and Stones. The other attacking Grayson the Marshal missed as does the skegg on Brad the Mechanical Operator

Chris the Medical Operator lobbed his grenade into a dense group of five puggs, taking out four of them. Brad the Mechanical Operator followed up by activating his daily I Think I Got It Angry which can inflict 3[W] damage on a hit. He attacked an undamaged Skegg, but misses. Conan the Grounder ended the round by placing Area Denial again in front of the second wave of puggs and did a another Rapid Fire attack, killing two puggs and injuring the leading skegg driver again for 5 damage.

END PART ONE

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

I will be posting the second part of our "Fridge over the River Kwai" soon but I wanted to mentioned a podcast over at The Tome Show. You can find it here...

The Tome Show » Blog Archive » Tome 137: Amethyst Foundations

They critique Amethyst's approach to 4E Design philosophy but they praise the final product. The podcast summarizes with an interview I gave with them last week. I think it and I came off pretty good.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

Two points today:

1) Kobold Quarterly has posted a review of Amethyst Foundations.

2) The public has demanded and we have answered. You can now download the Amethyst Character Sheet. It has editable field codes.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

FRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI
Sorry for the delay. So here we are, returning to our battle from two weeks ago.

ROUND 3
Mike the Stalker unleashed his Grand Slam ability that attacks a target up to three times as long as the target is not bloodied on the second Skegg, hitting twice. Grayson the Marshal offered up Make Room again, giving Mike the Stalker another round of Combat Theatrics, taking out two more puggs.

The puggs assaulted and swarmed the group. However, they were unable to dish out much damage. Meanwhile, the final puggs and another Skegg charged from the edge. Conan the Grounder was hit thanks to the reach on the Skegg’s prodder. He was also surrounded by three puggs and a skegg. Chris the Medical Operator was hit twice by puggs, taking 10 damage.

Since Chris the Medical Operator was trapped in close combat, he shifted a square back out of combat. He then followed-up by Weak Spot, doing 9 damage and weakening one of the Skeggs. Brad the Mechanical Operator used the Weapon Savant ability on the Skegg Chris just damaged, doing 10 damage and finally killing it. Conan used Head Down which allowed him to move out of dire situation and gain a bonus to AC. He also could not grant combat advantage though he could be hit with opportunity attacks. However, with a 25 AC with Head Down, he escaped harm. He then lobbed his last grenade, taking out three puggs.

ROUND 4
Mike the Stalker unleashed another round of Combat Theatrics, taking out two more puggs. Grayson offered Make Room to Mike the Stalker, who repeated his attack, doing 19 damage. The skegg is still alive. Mike is also out of ammo on both pistols.

Conan the Grounder was now out in the open. With his ability still working from his previous round, his 25AC prevents most attacks as he is surrounded on all sides by puggs and 2 skeggs. Even with this, two puggs still hit inflicting 8 damage.

Brad the Operator used a legal maneuver (unfortunately) to lob a grenade at Conan the Grounder’s feet. Six puggs are hit and killed. The skegg is knocked prone. Conan the Grounder was shockingly not hurt (hmmm). Conan moved from the mayhem around him and used Covering Fire on the less damaged Skegg. He hit, doing 8 points of damage and immobilizing the target. However, the skegg’s ability allowed it to strike back with reach, hurting Conan in a counterattack for 12 points of damage. Conan was bloodied.

Chris the Operator ended the round by using Natural Healer on Conan the Grounder, recovering 17 hit points, and then attacked a skegg, missing him.

ROUND 5
Mike’s flagrant ammunition usage caught up with him and he was forced to use two move actions to reload both pistols, taking him out of this round. Grayson uses Stick to the Plan, which was a 2[W] damage hit with an ally move. He attacked the immobilized skegg, inflicting 16 damage. He then shifted two allies (Conan and Brad) away from close combat with the remaining puggs and skeggs.

Despite the skegg being immobilized, it has reach and attacked Conan the Grounder, doing another 10 damage. It then threw a pugg with its minor action, moving it to base with Conan the Grounder, hitting as well, and doing 2 damage. Another pugg attacked Conan the Grounder and missed.

Chris delayed his turn to go after Brad and Conan. Brad the Operator attacked the other skegg with Move to Assist, a 2[W] attack which allowed a shift and an ally heal. His attack hit, doing 9 damage. Conan shifted back a square and laid down Rapid Fire, killing two more puggs. Chris ended the round using Field Shot, doing 14 damage on a skegg and shifting two squares back away from combat.

ROUND 6
Mike the Stalker opened the round with Kinetic and Fluid, which allowed an attack, shift 4 squares, then another attack. His first attack hits, killing the lead skegg. He shifted but since the power must target the space opponent, he is unable to make his follow-up attack.

Grayson the Marshal directed Mike to make another round of Combat Theatrics, hitting twice, and killing the last Skegg as well.

This ends combat.

The end of the battle resulted in total victory for our techans. Two characters had been reduced to half hit points but a timed heal from the Operator fixed that. We discovered many things from this battle, the most important being that the presumed imbalances claimed by some people appear to be based on individual experiences based on the battles at hand. When we ran the encounter, the Stalker was the single most powerful class in the game. Combat Theatrics was devastating to both large targets and minions. With a Marshal on the table, the leader would use Make Room and offer yet another attack with the Stalker, offloading Combat Theatrics a second time. Meanwhile, the Grounder is placing Area Denials on the table, forcing enemies to suffer an attack when they cross it.

Lobbed grenades cleared out the minions and the Grounder continued his controller roll by launching both Strafe and Rapid Fire attacks. One is an at-will wall3 attack while the other is an encounter wall3 which includes a move.

The techan characters were designed to enmesh with each other, not with fantasy characters. When they do, their defined roles change. A Stalker’s role changes depending on this power choices, the same as Operator. The Grounder is controller unless paired with a Marshall. Add in certain powers, and he takes on properties of a Defender.

That being said, we are endeavoring to make our rules more comfortable to new players.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

We have two big announcements...coming. One will be the release of the next Amethyst book. The second will be the release of the Amethyst errata. I can't go into any details at the moment on either, other than the fact they are coming.

I will say the errata will include clarifications and minor changes to existing presented rules. We are also working on an "Expanded Rules" section which will expand the playability of the classes, races, monsters, and lifepaths presented. Both these will obviously be free (though they will be included in our next book for both of our fans that don't own computers.

Yes, we are working on a new book. The problem is…I'm not sure what to call it...

Dias Ex Machina Games • View topic - Amethyst, Book 2 - Choose its title

Check out the link and cast your vote or speak your mind here:

DEFIANCE

FACTION

VENDETTA

FRACTURE

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

Today marks an important day. July 9th happens to be my birthday. Also it marks the announcement of an Amethyst errata. Yes…believe or not, we have an errata. I am sure we may expand it later, but for now it is 3 pages. It includes obvious errors and modifications but it also includes additional rules to enhance game balance and to more properly define the roles of the techan classes. In addition, we’ll be doing a podcast to detail these changes, answer questions, and offer a few homebrew rules we are not including in the errata. I’ll keep you updated on that as well. For now, here are a few noteworthy amendments being added into the errata:

PAGE 61: Replace the text for the Brotherhood class feature with the following text.

BROTHERHOOD
If an ally is hit by any marked target (in which you are the source of the mark), you may initiate a basic attack against the marked target as an immediate interrupt.

PAGE 62: For the Double Tap at-will power, add the following Special entry.

Special: You cannot select this at-will as your basic attack.

PAGE 72: Add the following Marshal class feature.

AS ONE
At 11th level, when you grant yourself or an ally a basic attack (via power, feature, or feat), gain a +1[W] bonus to the hit. This can only apply to hits that inflict at least 1[W] damage.

PAGE 95: In the Combat Theatrics at-will power, add the following Special entry.

Special: You cannot score a critical hit with this power. You still automatically hit with a natural 20.

Expect the errata in the following week but those that pre-ordered, worry not. Those that pre-ordered Amethyst Foundations will have the errata mailed directly to you (well, the download link at least). Not only that, those that pre-ordered will get it sooner (within 24 hours of the posting of this message).