[PR-BAD AXE GAMES] Heroes of High Favor: ELVES
Steve Conan Trustrum
Explorer
IIRC, Wulf previously answered the question regarding half-elves: he's doing one on humans and one on elves and people can choose which they want to apply to the half-elf character.
CRGreathouse
Community Supporter
Any more news about Elves?
By the way, Wulf -- I just ordered my copy of Half-Orcs. I finally gave up on the local store...
By the way, Wulf -- I just ordered my copy of Half-Orcs. I finally gave up on the local store...
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
CRGreathouse said:
We're running a little late because the book has increased to 80 pages. A good deal of those pages are occupied by an appendix on spell design at the end of the book-- 100% crunch, so I moved them to the back where they would be more easy to reference.
As soon I get the layout finalized I will post a table-of-contents style review in this thread.
Anything in particular you would like to know?
Wulf
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Just a little bump--
We've posted a preview from elves, the wizard-barbarian Ley Runner.
You can view the PDF by clicking this link to our downloads section.
We are working on getting more of the art from the book into the rotation on the main page.
If you have questions, fire away!
Wulf
We've posted a preview from elves, the wizard-barbarian Ley Runner.
You can view the PDF by clicking this link to our downloads section.
We are working on getting more of the art from the book into the rotation on the main page.
If you have questions, fire away!
Wulf
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
The elves artwork is in the rotation on the main page of the Bad Axe website. You can kill a little time and look at new images just by hitting refresh.
www.badaxegames.com
Wulf
www.badaxegames.com
Wulf
Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Well, for starters, we increased to 80 pages, but we held the price firm at $9.95. Feel free to help out by buying the extra stock that covered that manufacturing increase.
Here's a quick rundown through the table of contents.
CHAPTER ONE: Introduction
We briefly discuss elves' immortality, seclusion, and choice of wizard as their favored class.
CHAPTER TWO: Feats and Skills
General Feats
First we have the general elven feats, many of which you can surmise. It is not, however, a big collection of archery feats.
We included a Favored Terrain feat that lets you focus your elf on a certain aspect of nature. There are a many feats that require favored terrain as a pre-req. The idea was to offer options for nature-loving elves without forcing that archetype on the whole race.
If you choose Favored Terrain at 1st level, it has a "kicker" bonus to let you swap out the elves' proficiency with longsword, rapier, and bow for something more thematically appropriate-- so desert elves may use the scimitar, aquatic elves can use crossbows instead of bows, etc.
Arcane Feats
New feats for each school of magic:
Elemental Penetration
Forbidden Love
Gifted Healer
Gifted Medium
Grand Illusion
Lure of the Lich
Mutable Spell
Piercing Spell
Positive/Negative Energy Reserve
Spell Wards (Counterspell, Turning, Absorption, Immunity)
Skills
Not as extensive a skill section as usual, though we do cover several different Craft skills. Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft have several new options but they are covered in later chapters...
CHAPTER THREE: Lost Arcana
Specialist Wizards
A grand new section on creating specialist wizards and balancing out inequities in the schools. If you are a Divination specialist, for example, and you choose Transmutation as your opposition school, you'll receive additional perks to compensate that you would not receive had you chosen a less impactful school (like Necromancy).
Ley Lines and Power Nexuses
Tap into ley lines, create power nexuses, open yourself up to the energies of the world. A quick and easy system that can be dropped seamlessly into any campaign world without any additional work on the part of the DM. It has campaign-changing implications, however; a torrent of "fluff" lurks under the placid surface of the simple crunchy bits.
CHAPTER FOUR: Prestige Classes
Ley Runner (Wiz-Bbn)
Mostly barbarian, a little bit of wizard, with overall a more elven take on the whole rage business. (Designed to dovetail with the Ley Line rules in Chapter 3.)
Arcanologist (Wiz-Brd)
A collector and retriever of magical items. Agents of the state.
Grand Theurgist (Wiz-Clr)
What you'd expect of a cleric of Corellan or another elven deity. Gains a caster level of his choice at every level, either arcane or divine, but with the ability to use Divine Inspiration to boost his caster levels interchangeably when he needs to. So he may gain spells per day as a Cleric 9 / Wizard 9, but when he really needs that Cone of Cold or Flame Strike, for example, it's coming at you at caster level 18 no matter how you slice it.
Wayshepherd (Wiz-Dru)
If there's someone waiting atop Stonehenge to punish interlopers, this is him. Well, him and an army of eldritch creatures. You may never make it to the standing stones if you meet the stag, bear, or raven first... (Designed to dovetail with the power nexus rules in Chapter 3.)
Veteran Wizard (Wiz-Ftr)
Our attempt not to simply make another spellsword or bladesinger, while still presenting the options a player needs to effectively play this combo. Their main schtick is an exclusive feat called Girding Spell that lets them prepare buff spells in a slot one level lower, but it affects only the caster.
Seneschal of the Great Library (Wiz-Mnk)
Think lots of old books-- and touch spells.
Exemplar (Wiz-Pal)
Ability to prepare arcane spells as divine paladin spells (and cast them in armor); convert arcane spells to healing; and bond their special mount (granting them all the benefits of a special mount and a familiar).
Spell-Shikar (Wiz-Rgr)
More ranger than wizard, designed to hunt down spell-resistant foes (drow, outsiders, illithid) and kill them with spells. Lots of bonus to saves, DC, spell penetration, DR penetration, etc. based on their favored enemy bonus. Fairly straightforward.
Anarcanist (Wiz-Rog)
Decidedly unfriendly elven elitists. Pretty adamant about keeping magic out of the hands of the unworthy. "Mage-killer" is an oversimplification, because what they're out to accomplish isn't so much the death of the caster as the destruction of the knowledge, but it gets the point across.
Outcast Specialist (Wiz-Sor)
Combine a sorcerer with a specialist wizard and you have a fellow who is very, very good with his chosen school. (Designed to dovetail with the new Specialist Wizard rules in Chapter 3.)
APPENDIX
Spell Design Templates
Spell templates allow you to design unique spells using the key spell effects of each school of magic. This one was difficult to design and may be difficult for some readers to really get their hands around as well, so we will support it heavily online.
The book was a lot of fun to work on, it grew and grew and we ended up with quite a bit of stuff that had to be cut. This extra material will work its way into web enhancements or other channels eventually.
Overall I would easily say that ANY wizard character will want this book, elf or otherwise. There is so much arcane goodness packed into it. I think I opened up far more options in the special sections of ELVES than I have in the previous books combined. I am very proud of the design work on this one, I hope you all enjoy it.
Wulf
Here's a quick rundown through the table of contents.
CHAPTER ONE: Introduction
We briefly discuss elves' immortality, seclusion, and choice of wizard as their favored class.
CHAPTER TWO: Feats and Skills
General Feats
First we have the general elven feats, many of which you can surmise. It is not, however, a big collection of archery feats.
We included a Favored Terrain feat that lets you focus your elf on a certain aspect of nature. There are a many feats that require favored terrain as a pre-req. The idea was to offer options for nature-loving elves without forcing that archetype on the whole race.
If you choose Favored Terrain at 1st level, it has a "kicker" bonus to let you swap out the elves' proficiency with longsword, rapier, and bow for something more thematically appropriate-- so desert elves may use the scimitar, aquatic elves can use crossbows instead of bows, etc.
Arcane Feats
New feats for each school of magic:
Elemental Penetration
Forbidden Love
Gifted Healer
Gifted Medium
Grand Illusion
Lure of the Lich
Mutable Spell
Piercing Spell
Positive/Negative Energy Reserve
Spell Wards (Counterspell, Turning, Absorption, Immunity)
Skills
Not as extensive a skill section as usual, though we do cover several different Craft skills. Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft have several new options but they are covered in later chapters...
CHAPTER THREE: Lost Arcana
Specialist Wizards
A grand new section on creating specialist wizards and balancing out inequities in the schools. If you are a Divination specialist, for example, and you choose Transmutation as your opposition school, you'll receive additional perks to compensate that you would not receive had you chosen a less impactful school (like Necromancy).
Ley Lines and Power Nexuses
Tap into ley lines, create power nexuses, open yourself up to the energies of the world. A quick and easy system that can be dropped seamlessly into any campaign world without any additional work on the part of the DM. It has campaign-changing implications, however; a torrent of "fluff" lurks under the placid surface of the simple crunchy bits.
CHAPTER FOUR: Prestige Classes
Ley Runner (Wiz-Bbn)
Mostly barbarian, a little bit of wizard, with overall a more elven take on the whole rage business. (Designed to dovetail with the Ley Line rules in Chapter 3.)
Arcanologist (Wiz-Brd)
A collector and retriever of magical items. Agents of the state.
Grand Theurgist (Wiz-Clr)
What you'd expect of a cleric of Corellan or another elven deity. Gains a caster level of his choice at every level, either arcane or divine, but with the ability to use Divine Inspiration to boost his caster levels interchangeably when he needs to. So he may gain spells per day as a Cleric 9 / Wizard 9, but when he really needs that Cone of Cold or Flame Strike, for example, it's coming at you at caster level 18 no matter how you slice it.
Wayshepherd (Wiz-Dru)
If there's someone waiting atop Stonehenge to punish interlopers, this is him. Well, him and an army of eldritch creatures. You may never make it to the standing stones if you meet the stag, bear, or raven first... (Designed to dovetail with the power nexus rules in Chapter 3.)
Veteran Wizard (Wiz-Ftr)
Our attempt not to simply make another spellsword or bladesinger, while still presenting the options a player needs to effectively play this combo. Their main schtick is an exclusive feat called Girding Spell that lets them prepare buff spells in a slot one level lower, but it affects only the caster.
Seneschal of the Great Library (Wiz-Mnk)
Think lots of old books-- and touch spells.
Exemplar (Wiz-Pal)
Ability to prepare arcane spells as divine paladin spells (and cast them in armor); convert arcane spells to healing; and bond their special mount (granting them all the benefits of a special mount and a familiar).
Spell-Shikar (Wiz-Rgr)
More ranger than wizard, designed to hunt down spell-resistant foes (drow, outsiders, illithid) and kill them with spells. Lots of bonus to saves, DC, spell penetration, DR penetration, etc. based on their favored enemy bonus. Fairly straightforward.
Anarcanist (Wiz-Rog)
Decidedly unfriendly elven elitists. Pretty adamant about keeping magic out of the hands of the unworthy. "Mage-killer" is an oversimplification, because what they're out to accomplish isn't so much the death of the caster as the destruction of the knowledge, but it gets the point across.
Outcast Specialist (Wiz-Sor)
Combine a sorcerer with a specialist wizard and you have a fellow who is very, very good with his chosen school. (Designed to dovetail with the new Specialist Wizard rules in Chapter 3.)
APPENDIX
Spell Design Templates
Spell templates allow you to design unique spells using the key spell effects of each school of magic. This one was difficult to design and may be difficult for some readers to really get their hands around as well, so we will support it heavily online.
The book was a lot of fun to work on, it grew and grew and we ended up with quite a bit of stuff that had to be cut. This extra material will work its way into web enhancements or other channels eventually.
Overall I would easily say that ANY wizard character will want this book, elf or otherwise. There is so much arcane goodness packed into it. I think I opened up far more options in the special sections of ELVES than I have in the previous books combined. I am very proud of the design work on this one, I hope you all enjoy it.
Wulf
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