An Eberron Review by SKR

[Aaron L]

I know people who would actually try to cast charm person on the warforged armor just because it says the armor can be enchanted. They'd point out that since it is an exception to the rules, all other rules saying that it shouldn't work should be ignored. Not that they'd prove much, but they'd do it, just to be an idiot.


Majoru Oakheart

Ahh, but those people are being purposefully obtuse and vauge on the rules. There is no "enchanted" condition. So, if there is no game mechanic that uses the same term, then it is failry easy to know that it isn't speaking in mechanical terms.

I agree that mechanical terms should be italicized if it is going to be an issue with some people over using words in descriptive speech that are similiar to game mechanical terms. That way if there is ever a dissagreement, if it ain't italicized, it ain't a written in a game mechanics contect, so the word means whatever the word means.

What if, in an adventure, it said that a bard's song evoked a childhood memory for one of the characters? Would it confuse people into thinking the bard cast a fireball at the character when he was a kid and he is just now remembering it? It seems to me that the argument has always been over the word enchanted, a little selective if you ask me.

 

[Robbert Raets]

Isn't the word CRAFT explicitly mentioned in the title of most item creation feats?

 

[Gez]

You mean that warforged armor can be crafted?

I'll say that if people don't understand it means you can put magic effects on it, it would be understandable.


By the way, you can find creatures immune (or resistant) to enchantment spells or effects, like the elves who have a save bonus; but you can't find creatures that can't be enchanted. However, you have creatures that can't be raised. Of course, being immune to raise spells would sound goofy...

But anyway, as I said, enchanted is never used for enchantment spells. Instead, you use the name of the actual spell -- charmed, dominated, etc. The same way that you will say someone is hasted rather than transmuted.

 

[Robbert Raets]

Excellent point.

 

[Staffan]

Why isn't "create's magical armor" enough though?

To me, "create" sounds like you're creating it from thin air. What you are doing is turning a masterwork suit of armor into a magic masterwork suit of armor, and Create (or Craft) don't sound quite right for that.

 

[buzz]

The point is, Action Points, as they were constituted in Eberron were published two and a half years ago. I'd either describe them, making no reference to what they are similar to, or assume that my readers are at least as likely, if not more, to already be familiar with them vs. Force points.

Not to mention, the Action Points in Eberron most closely resemble the Action Points described in d20M and UA in form and function. Force Points, in comparison, are more like proto-Action-Points; they also have specific aspects to how they function w/r/t the Force in SWd20 that are not present in Action Points.

Anyway, yeah, I was a little surprised to hear someone like SKR compare them to Force Points in a way that implied he'd never even heard of d20M. Weird.

 

[buzz]

However, I'm not sure exactly how much it costs to mass-produce Warforged (even if they are mass-produced) in comparison to the costs of maintaining a living army that requires food and lodging (and maybe salaries).

Not to mention a fully-trained flesh-and-blood warrior takes about 18 years to train, whereas a warforged only takes as much time as it does to build them.

Heck, if it made sense to the Trade Federation...

 

[3catcircus]

Some of SKR's complaints aren't particularly valid.

OTOH, you just have to try for a familiar that isn't on the standard list before you see what the problem is with mixing terms - I believe the flavour text in the phb says you may have any small animal as a familiar, despite the fact that every listed familiar is smaller than size small, and furthermore that familiars are actually "like animals", but are actually magical beasts...

Perhaps it would be smart for wizards to have a policy of highlighting rules terms in some way, much as they italicise spell names.

Why don't we all just say what I am about to say - SKR is a tool.

 

[Henry]

How about we don't and dispense with the personal insults, please?

 

[3catcircus]

How about we don't and dispense with the personal insults, please?

Oops - I forgot to put in an emoticon in my post. My intent wasn't an insult to SKR - I was attempting to point out the fact that it felt like *other* people were attempting to insult him in the process of critiqueing his review. No offense was intended.