Recent content by FrozenNorth

So, if there are, say, 8 different races, that makes 32 classes. I think that makes it unwieldy by any reasonably objective metric. Any challenge can be solved if you simply handwave it away. There is a more classes you have, the harder it is to balance, With 4 races and 4 distinct classes...

Sure, it is possible. Say you have four base classes: Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric and Rogue. If you were committed to making non-human races distinct, you could create non-human equivalences for each, say, Dwarf Shield-bearer, Dwarf Artificer, Dwarf Priest and Dwarf Crossbowman. However, this...

Well, Christopher Nolan’s version certainly departed from the core of the character, which was goofy inventions and Bat-puns. He didn’t even use the Bat-credit card!

Way to miss the point. I was responding to a poster that advocated returning to species-as-class, then you respond with a paradigm that ISN’T species-as-class.

That idea didn’t come out of nowhere. The system privileges combat by giving it longer and more detailed rules than anything else.

If every dwarf gets the same abilities and levels, then you don’t have a species, and you certainly don’t have coherent society or fiction. Every elf is a cookie-cutter fighter mage, with no Druids, or bards or clerics.

I think this would be fine, if the proponents of the playstyle didn’t denigrate anything they perceived as outside the playstyle “changing the world” or “quantum cooks”.

I would argue that what you describe isn’t what is happening. Instead, what you get is more akin to “Trad DMs would never add setting details. Adding setting details is inconsistent with trad DMing” “But what about Jim. He describes himself as a trad DM and all other posters recognize him as...

I mean, this is clearly better advice than suggesting that you limit the Fear within the scene. Recently, I ran a fight where the players were rolling on fire. 0 Fear generation and I had to use existing Fear to interrupt to attack, Following the book advice, the combat would have just been...

I felt that the “How Much Fear per Scene” was the weakest part of the guidelines. Because the strength of individual Fear moves varies so much, it’s meaningless to classify difficulty based on Fear expended.

It kind of makes your response irrelevant though. The thread is arguing in favour of bioessentialism, ie bonuses and penalties to various stats. This creates problems. Among others, the problem that certain races are penalized from taking certain classes, even when the principal stat for that...

From the DM side, it’s really important to learn to pace your Fear usage.Don’t think that just because you are using enemies that generate Fear that you need to use all the Fear this fight.

I don’t recall Dwarfs being barred from the Sorcerer class in 3e.

Just building on this point. Klingons are great at taking punishment, with redundant physiology, and resistance to strong alcohols compared to humans, which could be represented with a +2 bonus to Con. But humans are descended from persistance predators, used to running and walking extreme...

I would add that Age of Umbra has 7 player characters, so that definitely impacts balance concerns in a meaningful way compared to tables with 3 or 4 PCs.