Black Flag Tales of the Valiant Alpha Release is out.

[darjr]

https://www.enworld.org/threads/tales-of-the-valiant-playtest-packet-5-cleric-is-here.699348/

 

[humble minion]

Some good stuff here, but nothing earth shattering on first glance (I'm no RAW expert, so sue me if I'm wrong).

Yeah, that was my impression too, though I’m no rules detail expert. Pact of the Blade moving to first level and letting you use Cha for melee attacks is way overdue and makes non-hexblade blade pact warlocks at least possible, but bards using a generic ‘arcane’ spell list is something I deeply dislike personally. The Orcish Perseverance rule is also very cool, though also very niche and unlikely to see much use in actual play. Mechanist as artificer is not a choice I would have made personally, but I understand that their goal was compatibility so it was probably inevitable.

I am sad that warlock remains a Cha-only class though. I’d let the choose between Cha and Int at first level, it doesn’t break anything and opens up a whole lot more character concepts and flexibility.

 

[Weiley31]

Really minor, but I wish the Cleric didn't have one dead level.

 

[Reynard]

Hey @Marc Radle I am this close to pre-ordering the slipcase collection but there is one thing I can't quite parse from the pre-order page: do you get PDFs with the physical books?

 

[Quickleaf]

I want to put together a game, play a level out of each tier. 4 sessions. Might do it online.

I volunteer!

 

[Quickleaf]

On a whim, I decided to spend the $10 on the TotV Alpha because a) I was curious and b) I do want to "reward" Kobold for taking a stand against WotC by using ORC for this project.

I like the fighter a lot, and I think all 4 the classes have at least one interesting tweak. Monster stat blocks are lean, including interesting abilities. Splitting races into mix-and-match Lineage and Heritage is a good idea.

It looks like Luck and Doom are the main new mechanics, both of which seem interesting. I especially like how Doom gives the GM formal tools instead of assuming they will fudge.

All in all it is an interesting, if safe, take on standard 5E and would probably be worth running a playtest over the course of a half dozen sessions. With the playtest responses due by early September, though, I'm not likely to get the chance.

Thanks for sharing your first thoughts! Really helpful to hear these as someone unfamiliar with Black Flag.

 

[Reynard]

I want to put together a game, play a level out of each tier. 4 sessions. Might do it online.

Huh. that's actually a really good idea for a way to explore a new RPG -- although I would say 4 adventures rather than strictly 4 sessions.

 

[Marc Radle]

Hey @Marc Radle I am this close to pre-ordering the slipcase collection but there is one thing I can't quite parse from the pre-order page: do you get PDFs with the physical books?

Oh, that's the one I'd get!

The PDFs are not included for free with the slipcase collection, but you will receive a discount code for them once the preorders are complete. I don't have a solid price for the PDFs but typically a PDF is only $10 when bundled with a book, so if you preorder the slipcase collection, the 2 PDFs will likely only be $20!

 

[Zaukrie]

Is the PDF also delayed until May? How about the Foundry Module?