Woo! I just got my PDF of Ascension 3.1; I am going to have a field day with this stuff. Anyway, I've scanned through it for things that need corrections or clarifications. Here's what I've found so far:
All over the book: Intelligent beings encompass all creatures with 3+ Intelligence, not just +4 Intelligence. Afte all, animals only have 1 or 2 Intelligence, and 3 Intelligence is the minimum for taking class levels.
All over the book: How does the quintessence system interact with the xp system? As it is, the way to gain both HD and divine ranks is very unclear.
All over the book: Can you turn abilities on/off at will? For example, can you turn off Soothsayer so that you can hear someone's lies? If so, then does it take a full-round action, a standard action, a move action, a swift action, or a free action to turn an ability on/off?
All over the book: A ton of abilities need to specify what kind of action it takes to activate the ability. For instance, Divine Immensity does not specify whether it takes a full-round action, a standard action, a move action, a swift action, or a free action to change your size.
All over the book: Several abilities use the saving throw DC formula of 20 + relevant ability score modifier + divine rank. Shouldn't they use instead of 10 + relevant ability score modifier + divine rank instead?
All over the book: I really think that you should put a note about conflicting absolute powers cancelling each other out below each header for each tier of abilities. Right now, the note is secreted away below large tables in a few places in the book
Page 19, Epic Spell, Divine Ascension: Shouldn't the "permanent" duration be an instantaneous duration instead? That way, you won't get your divinity abruptly torn from you if ever you get hit by, say, a Mordenkainen's Disjunction.
Page 23, Table 2-6, Godly Realm Expansion: The heading on the right side of the table should read "Rate Godly Realm Expands", not "Rate Divine Aura Expands".
Page 25, Creating Your Own Deities: 1 Outsider HD with 1/2 an integrated class level is worth 1 actual class level, right? So 80 Outsider HD (with 40 integrated wizard levels) is +80 ECL, and 80 wizard levels is worth +80 ECL as well. But how much ECL is added for each size category increase? For example, an 80 HD Outsider has enough HD to qualify for Colossal size, so if the creature opts to be of Colossal size, how much is the ECL increase for that? For that matter, how is the base size of an immortal determined at all?
Pages 37-44, Divinity Templates: Do the hp multipliers for sidereals and eternals only count hp from HD, or do they encompass other sources of hp such as Constitution and Improved Toughness?
Page 47, Closed Cosmology: It sould be "only one immortal per portfolio template (or double portfolio template)", not "only one portfolio template (or double portfolio template) per portfolio".
Page 48, Creating Your Own Portfolios: The reference to Table 3-3 should point to Table 3-2 instead, and all references to Table 3-4 should refer to Table 3-3 instead. Also, the
Page 48, Creating Your Own Portfolios: The three separate portfolio-divine ability exchange rates given in Table 3-2, Table 3-3, and the upper right of page 48 don't seem to match up at all. For instance, Table 3-2 says that the benefits of a single portfolio give an intermediate deity ECL +8, but Table 3-3 states that a single portfolio's powers give an intermediate deity 11 divine abilities (ECL +11), and the upper right of page 48 (even the example given) is completely out of whack. It's really confusing. I'll assume that the upper right of page 48 was a total error, so it's got to be either Table 3-2 or Table 3-3 that's right; which is the correct one?
Page 56, Negative Energy Absorption: Does this mean that if you get hit by any negative energy attack (no matter how weak or strong), it heals you for 5 hp per HD you have?
Page 62, Fertile Loins: Riiiight... what happens when you use "unorthodox methods", or what happens if you get intimate with an "unorthodox partner".
Page 95, War Realm Hazards: "Your wisdom modifier replaces your movement speed." Uh, what?
Page 97, Metamartial Maneuvers: Do these reduce your actual BAB for the attack, or do they just impose an attack penalty? Base attack bonus and attack bonus are two very different things.
Page 98, Metamartial Maneuver, Mighty Attack: Assuming that you're in a solar system that has roughly the same setup as the real world's solar system, the sun should be ~490,813,648,000 feet away from the Earth. Let's say that you're some hotshot Medium biped immortal with 253 Strength (light load of 7,036,874,417,766.4 tons), and some insolent tarrasque (70 tons) foolishly attacks you outdoors at high noon. With Mighty Attack, you can uppercut it God Hand-style to knock it 502,633,886,983 feet in a direction of your choice. You presumably have to make a ranged touch attack roll to make the tarrasque land into the sun, but what's the virtual AC for said attack roll?
Page 98, Metamartial Maneuver, Quicken Attack: The first line is "A successful attack can daze your opponent." I'll assume you meant "You may take an extra attack in a full attack, but at the expense of accuracy" or something along those lines.
Page 98, Metamartial Maneuver, Throw Attack: How does hurling your opponent work? Does the distance formula work like Mighty Attack?
Pages 102-103, Epic Feat #4, Automatic Metamagic Capacity: Is there any cap to the amount of AMCs any given immortal can take? There's nothing stopping a deity from loading up on Multifaceteds and taking an insane number of AMCs.
Page 103, Epic Feat #17, Double Standards: I'm sorry, the name of this feat is just too bad a pun for me to bear.
Page 103, Epic Feat #19, Eclectic Shot: If you shoot a snake or chicken from a bow (or from a crossbow by using your EPIC skills to jam it in), does it do lethal bludgeoning damage as if it were a blunt arrow, or does it do only subdual damage? And can you shoot a two-handed weapon from a bow, to do 2d6 damage with a greatsword shot, for example?
Page 106, Epic Feat #49, Improved Finesse: Does this apply to only melee weapons that are finessable, or all melee weapons?
Page 106, Epic Feat #61, Legendary Archer: Does this take into account the target's attacks from BAB, or does it include extra attacks from Flurry of Blows, Mercurial, Quicken Strike, and other things that let you make extra attacks in a full attack? If it's the latter, then how do you determine how many missiles that the target can deflect, if the maximum number of attacks he can make in a round is variable? Can the target only deflect a number of missiles equal to the number of attacks he made on his last turn?
Page 106, Epic Feat #66, Mantic Frenzy: What kind of action does it take to enter a Mantic Frenzy? It lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the character's what? Constitution bonus?
Page 106, Epic Feat #68, Mathesis: What counts as a "martial class"? Anything that provides 1/1 BAB?
Page 107, Epic Feat #72, Nosodic: Does this cause a Charisma penalty, Charisma damage, or Charisma drain? And can't you abuse this by being immune to Charisma penalty/damage/drain and then contracting diseases like Typhoid Mary?
Page 107, Epic Feat #78, Piercing Shot: "But each time you pierce the target the missile loses 5 points of strength modifier" makes no sense, because ranged attacks use your Dexterity modifier. Just make it say "The missile receives a cumulative -5 penalty on attack and damage rolls for each target pierced." Also, I find it strange that if a Colossal creature were to pierce another Colossal creature with an arrow, it would still count as 16 creatures pierced; shouldn't it count as only 1 creature pierced instead? Make it so that Piercing Shot compares your size category to your targets' size categories instead.
Page 109, Epic Feat #98, Superior Cleave: Can you do this more than once per round?
Page 109, Epic Feat #102, Superior Whirlwind Attack: Can the step be made between each attack, and if so, can it be done more than once per round?
Page 110, Epic Feat #112, Titanic Wild Shape: This should be an epic feat, because Colossal Wild Shape is an epic feat as well.
Page 116, Immolation (Death Throes): Since it says "When a god's manifestation is reduced to negative hit points", there's a rare chance that Immolation activates even when an immortal is not dead yet (like at -1 hp). Furthermore, a construct or undead can never use an Immolation at all, because they're destroyed at 0 hp. Make it so that Immolation activates when an immortal would be killed or otherwise destroyed.
Page 116, Strike: Is it intentional that this kind of [Effect] benefits three-weapon fighters MUCH more than two-handed fighters or two-weapon fighters? The bonus damage gets added to each attack regardless of how many attacks you have.
Page 122, Divine Ability #1, Abnormality: No benefit is listed for having two extra tails. And the ability does not say "Special: This ability may be taken multiple times. Its effects stack." when you CAN take it several times.
Page 123, Divine Ability #5, [Aligned] [Effect]: How does this work when attacking creatures that match the alignment's attack? Let's say a Lawful Neutral creature gets hit by an Axiomatic [Effect]; does he take no damage? How about if a True Neutral creature gets hit by an Axiomatic [Effect]; does he take half damage or full damage?
Page 124, Divine Ability #19, Convergent Effect: When two immortals combine their [Effect]s, are two [Effect]s shot out (each at double damage), or is it just one [Effect]? If it's the latter, then that makes Convergent Effect a bit useless, since two immortals can just fire their [Effect]s separately. As well, what happens when two immortals (both with Convergent Effect) combine their blasts? Also, you should specify that one immortal has to ready an action to fire off an [Effect] at the same time as another immortal.
Page 124, Divine Ability #20, Cozen: The prerequisites include "Pick Pocket 40 ranks", when it should be "Sleight of Hand 40 ranks" instead.
Page 126, Divine Ability #39, Dragon Companion: Does this give you a penalty on your effective druid level for determining the abilities of your animal companion?
Page 126, Divine Ability #48, Epic Presence: Is the feat selected when you take Epic Presence (and thereafter static and unchangeable), or can you select a new feat each time an ally enters your divine aura, turning it into a group Anyfeat? And can you receive the feat yourself?
Page 127, Divine Ability #66, Heavy Handed: Double your Strength bonus to damage? How much of your total Strength bonus do you add to your damage rolls when... wielding a two-handed weapon? Wielding a pair of weapons for two-weapon fighting? Wielding a trio of weapons for three-weapon fighting? And does this work for only unarmed strikes, or for all melee attacks?
Page 128, Divine Ability #67, High Handed: Isn't this just an exact copy of Perfect Weapon Focus, only with prerequisites more geared towards monks?
Page 128, Divine Abilities #74-77, Intellectual _______: Wait, aren't these EXACT copies of the Cunning ______ abilities, only with circumstance bonuses instead? Is this redundancy intentional?
Page 128, Divine Ability #83, Lord of Blood: If anything, this should be a handicap instead of a divine ability. The sunlight and water weaknesses far outweigh any of the benefits, and the fact that your blood drain only deals 1d4 Constitution damage and you still summon very weak creatures with Children of the Night is just sad.
Page 129, Divine Ability #91, Mime Ability: There's no limit to the level of ability you can copy? So an immortal can watch a time lord use an omnific ability and use it for himself? Make it so that you can only copy up to esoteric abilities appropriate to your divine status.
Page 129, Divine Ability #92, Mime Ability Score: Once again, does this mean that an immortal can watch a time lord and spontaneously copy one of his super-large (and quite possibly infinite) ability scores? I suggest you impose a limit, but I don't know how high the limit should be.
Page 130, Divine Ability #100, Obscure Damage Reduction: Why would anyone take this when they can just take Perfect Damage Reduction instead?
Page 132, Divine Ability #128, Razor Tongue: What the hell is "morale damage"? Make it "untyped damage" instead.
Page 132, Divine Ability #137, Seeking Shot: "A target with the Deflect Arrows feat cancels out"... the effects of this ability, but does not deflect the arrow?
Page 134, Divine Ability #156, Superior Combat Casting: I don't think it should say "In effect you cast all spells as spell-like abilities", because that would mean that your spells would have no gp or xp costs, letting you cast Miracles and Wishes for free.
Page 134, Divine Ability #161, Superior Manyshot: This already exists as a non-epic feat in the form of Greater Manyshot from the Expanded Psionics Handbook (and the SRD). In fact, the XPH's Greater Manyshot is even better than this ability, because it lets you target different opponents with each arrow, and also allows you to apply precision damage on each arrow.
Page 135, Divine Ability #169, Sweat-Born: Do you still have to lay an egg for this (as per Egg-Born), or does your baby spontaneously spawn from a drop of sweat?
Page 135, Divine Ability #181, Uncanny Cleave: How does this work? Let's say I make a full attack against one enemy (who's in the front line of an army). Do I get to move at my base movement speed between each attack, or do I get to move a number of feet equal to my base movement speed for the entire round?
Page 135, Divine Ability #182, Uncanny Dodge: Change the name to something else, because Uncanny Dodge is already a class ability. Also, it should say "You can use your Dexterity modifier in place of the dodge bonuses from Dodge and Improved Dodge".
Page 139, Cosmic Ability #1, Abrogate: What happens when two immortals' opt to Abrogate each other's Abrogate?
Page 139, Cosmic Ability #3, Alter Reality: Don't sidereals and eternals already get this for free, minus the Quickened Wish at will (but you can go ahead and use the built-in sidereal/eternal Alter Reality to gain a Quickened Wish at will if you have 4 Automatic Metamagic Capacities, go figure)? Also, do you still have to pay the xp cost for the Quickened Wish each time?
Page 143, Cosmic Ability #35, Doombringer: Does this permanently reduce an opponent's maximum hp by 25%? Or does it just inflict untyped damage equal to 25% of the target's maximum hp?
Page 144, Cosmic Ability #36, Doppelganger: Whoah, whoah, whoah. You can shapechange into ANYONE and receive their exact form and abilities? What's stopping you from taking the form of a time lord or a high lord? There should definitely be a limit here.
Page 144, Cosmic Ability #43, Gestalt: How exactly does this work? There's no in-depth explanation at all. Do you form a new being? Do you merge with another being? What's the HD of the gestalt being?
Page 144, Cosmic Ability #44, Gravitic Effect: Is it just me, or is this waaaaay more powerful than even a Transcendental [Effect] with Inner Eye, given the way hp scales and how much hp sidereals and eternals have?
Page 144, Cosmic Ability #49, Inner Eye: This includes damage rolls, even for [Effect]s, right? Wait, if I use this with Astro [Effect], does that give me an auto-kill policy?
Page 144, Cosmic Ability #46, Heavy Eradication: Does this follow the rules for trumping immunities, as per the rules for portfolio trumping? Or does it ignore critical hit immunity no matter how high the divine rank of your target is?
Page 145, Cosmic Ability #53, Legendary [Ability Score]: Does this count the enhancement bonus from artifacts too?
Page 145, Cosmic Ability #54, Legion: Your real manifestation doesn't exist while the six avatars are present, right? What happens when one of them is killed? How do you regenerate avatars in the event that one or more get killed? What happens when all of them are killed?
Page 145, Cosmic Ability #58, Martyrdom: Is the damage split amongst all of your allies, or focused one at a time sequentially? And if your allies are truly willing to eat damage for you, do they HAVE to flee?
Page 145, Cosmic Ability #59, Metamorph: How exactly does doubling the power of an assumed form work? Does it just double the HD (and divine rank, if any) of the form? Also, this seems extremely overpowered when you use it together with Doppelganger.
Page 145, Cosmic Ability #64, Nullification: Does this work like Abrogate, such that any enemy within your divine aura has all of its feats nullified? If so, then it seems very overpowered, since it can subsequently lead to many divine/cosmic/transcendental/omnific abilities also being nullified if the enemy hasn't stocked up on the Nescience chain, due to prerequisites.
Page 147, Cosmic Ability #75, Redivivus: How do you determine the greatest past foe of an enemy that you (and the DM) have no real information about? And what's stopping you from using Redivivus again once your summon dies? Or
Page 148, Cosmic Ability #87, Spirited Away: Don't you already get banished to your home plane when you get taken down to -10 hp (or in the case of constructs and undead, 0 hp)? Or does this simply remove the "banished for a century from that plane" and HD recovery ordeal?
Page 148, Cosmic Ability #95, Thelemic [Effect]: This just punishes people for having nice and round numbers for their Hit Dice, doesn't it? Most immortals will have a number of HD equal to a multiple of 5 for cleanliness.
Page 149, Cosmic Ability #99, Transmogrify: With things like Legendary Strength (and later on, Infinite Strength), doesn't this let you grow to stupidly big sizes by raging for an extended period of time? 10 minutes spent raging gives you +100 size categories, easily pushing you past the Xona scale. There should definitely be a limit here.
Page 150, Cosmic Ability #108, Writhing [Effect]: Does damage from this stack? For example, if I hit an enemy with Writhing [Effect] on one round and hit him with Writhing [Effect] again on the next round, does the damage for each stack?
Page 152, Transcendental Ability #2, Astro [Effect]: Just a flat percentage chance with no save and no possible defenses? Wow, overpowered. This means that you have the chance of erasing the Supreme Being if you get lucky and manage to land a shot on him.
Page 153, Transcendental Ability #8, Divine Nullification: Just like Numinous, this can get very nasty because it can wipe out cosmic/transcendental/omnific abilities too, due to the way prerequisites work.
Page 153, Transcendental Ability #12, Evil Eye: Just like Inner Eye, does this affect damage rolls for [Effect]s too?
Page 153, Transcendental Ability #16, Invincibility: This seems kind of useless. Considering how relatively low your saving throw bonuses are compared to your hp, anything that you can make the Fortitude save for is going to be negligible damage in the 3-digit range anyway.
Page 154, Transcendental Ability #24, Omega Effect: How big a transfusion of xp is required to restore a given amount of HD?
Page 154, Transcendental Ability #26, Paradox: How often can you summon a duplicate this way? And isn't this another very overpowered ability, since you can quite possibly force the Supreme Being to fight itself?
Page 154, Transcendental Ability #30, Rectify: What does "full effect", "half effect", and "one quarter effect" mean? Does it reduce the number of times you can reroll for Astro Effect? What happens if you kill your parents with Rectify?
Page 154, Transcendental Ability #31, Sophism: Why would anyone take something like Invincibility over this? What counts as an "assault", and what's the formula for the DC?
Page 155, Transcendental Ability #44, Transmigration: There's no save for this?
Page 155, Transcendental Ability #45, Transmute: Can you change things into magic items too? If so, then what's stopping you from changing a rock into a magic item with an equivalent enhancement bonus of +999,999,999,999,999?
Page 155, Transcendental Ability #48, Transtemporal: This was nerfed a bit from the previous version (which made it so that an enemy without Slipstream could take no actions against you), but this is still an auto-kill policy against anyone without Slipstream (since you can just go back in time and murder them as a baby), forcing every sane-minded sidereal to take Slipstream.
Page 156, Transcendental Ability #50, Ultima [Effect]: See my note about Writhing [Effect]. If an enemy gets hit by Ultima [Effect] twice, does the damage stack?
Page 158, Omnific Ability #8, Oblivion: What exactly does this do?
Page 158, Omnific Ability #16, Omnipresent: Does this affect only the plane you're on, or the entire universe?
Page 158, Omnific Ability #20, Tenth Sense: I won't even ask.
Page 162, Psionic Divine Ability #8, Power Shot: What benefit does shooting powers as missiles give you? What's so special about a Power Shotted Ego Whip, for example?
Also, I haven't seen any real fix for the combo of Deflect Arrows, Snatch Arrows, Exceptional Deflection, Infinite Deflection, and Reflect Arrows yet. As it stands, ranged attacks are utterly useless in immortal play, making Beam effects ineffective, for example. Is there any fix to this?
As you can see, there are a TON of things that need fixing. I hope you can rectify at least some of the problems in the next update.
