Trailblazer Teasers (collected)

[half-dragon dragon]

Man, I just love what you've done with druid! Giving them the ability to speak with animals at will? FINALLY! Also, I'm one of those people who is certainly not going to miss the animal companion, but then again I've come to a point in my gaming interests where I'd rather not deal with any sort of companions for my character.

As far as wildshape goes, this is pretty much the kind of approach I was hoping yo would take. Something a little more freeform, as well as not replacing ability scores, but adding to them so as to avoid the cheese of being able to ignore physical ability scores. At first I was a little disappointed that when the druid assumed animal form their gear fell off, but then it occurred to me that the hybrid form provides for a stop-gap combat transformation if needed. Also, with having all their gear fall off makes full wildshape require a bit more planning rather than just having a druid run around in animal form all day being a no brainer. I rather like the hybrid form, to me it adds a neat, new dynamic to wildshape.

I also had just a few more questions.

Are you making any changes to the races? I only ask because that's one area where my group really liked the change to 4e.

Are you making any changes to how ability score increases work? I'm just curious if there will be less reliance upon magic items to keep ability scores competitive.

Last question, somewhat related to the previous question, are you making any fundamental changes to how magic items work, or how many are 'required' to keep characters competitive?

I also wanted to say thank you for the prompt answers to my other questions, and thank you again for showing us all these previews.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

At first I was a little disappointed that when the druid assumed animal form their gear fell off, but then it occurred to me that the hybrid form provides for a stop-gap combat transformation if needed.

Exactly.

Also, with having all their gear fall off makes full wildshape require a bit more planning rather than just having a druid run around in animal form all day being a no brainer. I rather like the hybrid form, to me it adds a neat, new dynamic to wildshape.

I've always felt that wildshape is best when used to further the story and roleplay, and not simply as a combat clickie.

Are you making any changes to the races? I only ask because that's one area where my group really liked the change to 4e.

There are no changes to the races at this time. As you will see when we dive into The Spine, such changes make very little difference.

Are you making any changes to how ability score increases work? I'm just curious if there will be less reliance upon magic items to keep ability scores competitive.

I assume by this you mean an accelerated rate of ability score increases. Again, no. Some proposals I have seen, such as increasing one physical (Str/Dex/Con) and one mental (Int/Wis/Cha) each time, will work just fine.

However, I emphasize again, in the very first chapter of Trailblazer, "The Spine," we will look at all the math so you can make determinations on what's necessary and what's not.

There was a tyranny formed between Wealth-by-Level guidelines and Item Creation that caused a "Big Six" arms race, escalating the math on the players' side versus the math on the DMs side. We'll address that.

Last question, somewhat related to the previous question, are you making any fundamental changes to how magic items work, or how many are 'required' to keep characters competitive?

It's very related to the first question-- see above.

I also wanted to say thank you for the prompt answers to my other questions, and thank you again for showing us all these previews.

My pleasure.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

I'm a bit curious about the -5 penalty for the Druid making the Natural Attack.

I thought part of the reason for changing Iterative Attacks was to make the math consistent and quick. Druids actually having an additional -5 winds up being a special exception that folks are going to have to keep track of.

Is there a specific reason for having this? Feats often wind up being a case of "This is the way the rules work. Unless you have [feat] in which case you ignore that and do this other thing instead."

One of the big headaches of 3.x is trying to keep track of all the exceptions and special cases. This seems to be adding in another one.

 

[GlassJaw]

I'm a bit curious about the -5 penalty for the Druid making the Natural Attack.

I thought part of the reason for changing Iterative Attacks was to make the math consistent and quick. Druids actually having an additional -5 winds up being a special exception that folks are going to have to keep track of.

A creature's natural attack sequence is independent of it's BAB; they aren't iterative attacks. We aren't changing the way natural attacks work, only iterative attacks.

Are you making any changes to the races?

As Wulf mentioned, there are no significant changes to the races...yet. There are some small tweaks mostly related to the revised skills and the way passive Perception works for the dwarf and elf.

While the racial bonuses are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, I would still like to see a few tweaks, most notably to the half-orc and half-elf. I feel the racial bonuses are important because many players choose their race based on those bonuses. Plus, they do matter at early levels.

I would say they are "under consideration".

 

[half-dragon dragon]

Well, I'd say put me down as one person who wouldn't mind seeing races get more of a 4e treatment. I'm not exactly saying that I'd like to see races have more of an impact on a character, but just that each race would have more of a 'net positive' in what they do grant. I certainly second the thought that certain races need a major boost, especially the half-orc.

Also, I love what you've done with fighter, I'm just curious about the feat options they have at higher levels. I always seen fighter fixes all over the place that add this or that, but never address one of the fundamental problems I see in the fighter and one of the areas where I think it would be easiest to insert a fix, and that is what feats a fighter has access to throughout his career. So I guess my question is, within the TB book will there be fighter exclusive, or at least higher level feats that a fighter can select as bonus feats, throughout all levels?

I'm rather intrigued by this 'Spine' chapter. So it basically lays out all the math inherent in the game to make it easy to apply adjustments where needed/wanted by others? If so, that certainly would cover a lot of my wants.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

A creature's natural attack sequence is independent of it's BAB; they aren't iterative attacks. We aren't changing the way natural attacks work, only iterative attacks.

One example of GlassJaw playing "rules enforcer" on me.

I would say they are "under consideration".

One example of me playing "design criteria enforcer" on GlassJaw.

Races aren't "broken" enough for inclusion under my design criteria. Any change here would fall under "change for change's sake" and I definitely don't want to go down that road.

Are there all sorts of cool, fun things I would like to do with the races? Of course.

But it's outside the scope of Trailblazer.

I am going to sound like a broken record here, but I recommend you use Pathfinder.

Otherwise it's something you can do yourself and you're not likely to mess anything up.

Drop the half-orc's CHA penalty, give the half-elf an extra skill point, and call it a day.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Any thoughts on what would you like to see next?

 

[TwoSix]

What else can we see?

I'm guessing you can't make reference to any other of the base classes, since they aren't included in the SRD?

 

[Elodan]

Any thoughts on what would you like to see next?

Table of contents?
Art?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Art?

Here's some of the new Scott Purdy pieces I commissioned, in the same style as the cover he did for us.