Complete Champion excerpts

[Nonlethal Force]

Wow. If these excerpts are anything like the actual book ... make this 2 complete books in a row I've not picked up. I had hoped Complete Psi wasn't an omen. Except for CM (and I still don't allow the reserve feats) I've been disappointed since CPsi.

The one thng I see this book having against it is if there is a quote in the front like there was in CM. Something to the effect that in order to use this book one must have the PHB and a copy of CArc wouldn't hurt. If this one suggests owning CD, I know several games that may not allow this book either. CD is the most likely of the orignal "four" Complete books to be disallowed on a power argument. If this one is seen as building on CD, it may have that strike against it.

But in another direction ... my spider sense is tingling and I'm annoyed by it because I hate 4e discussion. So, I'll at least SBLOCK it so people who hate 4e discussions as much as I do don't have to read it.

[Sblock=4e Omen]
I think this likely may be an omen that 4e is coming sooner than later - and it pains me to say it. This is only a hunch, and I fully confess this is pure heresy and speculation.

#1 - With characters growing more and more powerful, soon there won't be much they can't do. When the characters cant do anything else it's time to unleahs a new edition, right?

#2 - The hints of the preview material seem to be indicating even more that gaming thought is streaming to per encounter resources rather than per day resources. In order for that to become standardized, however, they'll need a new edition so that they can alter the fundamentals of magic the way that it should be altered to do it justice.

#3 - The prerequisite standards are lowering. I don't claim to be an expert, but this is the first glaring example that I've seen with a prerequiste into a PrC class with a note of "Special: Any one of the following: base attack bonus +5, able to cast 3rd-level spells, sneak attack +2d6, or ability to grant allies a bonus on attack rolls, saves, or checks as an extraordinary ability." So, you only need to meet 1 of 6 possibilities (rolls, saves, or checks count as seperate ones because of the 'or'). Plus, this PrC seems to be geared for a possible 5th level entry given the need for 7 skill points in a skill. {6 if you allow skill points to be taken in order to meet a PrC prerequisite}. My point in all of this is that when the standards get lowered, they can only go so low. Then they'll need a new edition to start over on.

Okay, that's enough doom and gloom. Anyone desiring to comment on this, I'll ask (and have no way of enforcing!) that you please put your response in SBLOCKS to keep from hijacking the thread completely - or better yet, quote me and start a new thread!
[/Sblock]

 

[el-remmen]

Its not like wands of vigor or cure light wounds werent basically free for high level characters. 750 gp (or 375 GP if you craft em) for 50d8+50 hp is essentially that. In combat healing is the real issue at higher levels.

I don't believe in judging the general usefulness/power of an ability based on what it likely at hight levels - both positively and negatively.

There have no wands of cure light wounds in any of my campaigns. Heck, no one has ever made a single magic item.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Sort of. It's generic in that it's not rooted in anything existing in any campaign setting, but it sure would be nice if they have a Forgotten Realms adaptation paragraph to it.

Sticking it in Greyhawk is easy (since it's the dump-grounds for new material) and sticking it in Eberron is easier because of their lax religions and the fact that's still a brand new setting that could use extra fleshing out.

Forgotten Realms, however, already has most things well placed. At least in Faerun. I could adapt the prestige class to something borderline or outside Faerun, maybe the members coming from Estagund, Semphar, or maybe even Ulgarth.

At first, I thought it was based on the Dark Six from Eberron (the "evil pantheon"), but upon looking it over, it looks like the six are just heroes from a bygone age. I don't think fitting legendary heroes into a new campaign is a huge thing.

 

[Remathilis]

For your sake, I hope your hat is a strawberry-flavored. . .

That is what you'd like to think. I'll have you know I do not OWN a hat...

 

[MerricB]

No hat? Just as well.

There's a big difference between restoring PCs to full health between encounters and regaining all spells, however.

Cheers!

 

[Sound of Azure]

That is what you'd like to think. I'll have you know I do not OWN a hat...

This is the internet. You must have a hat of something!

---
I'm looking forward to seeing some of the faith-based affiliations, and I think the Domain feats look rather interesting.

 

[daemonslye]

For goodness' sake, just say that the characters regain all their spells, hit points, and abilities at the end of each encounter, and be done with it. All the pretense of limited resources is beginning to annoy me, now.

Ah yes, soon, after a few more "complete <nonesense>" books, the old timers will begin to reminisce:

Man#1: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down at the mill, fourteen hours a day, week in, week out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home, our dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.

(slight pause)

Man#2: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of damp gravel, work a twenty-hour day at the mill for tuppence a month, and when we got home, our dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

Man#3: Well, of course, we 'ad it tough! We used to have to get up out of the shoebox at twelve o'clock at night, and lick the road clean with our tongue. We 'ad two bits of cold gravel, and worked a twenty-four hour day at the mill for six or seventy-four years, and when we got home, our dad would slash it to us with a bread knife.

Man#4: Right. I had to get up at ten o'clock at night, half an hourbefore I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down at the mill and pay the mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our mother and father would kill us and dance on our graves singing Halleluja.

Man#1: Aye, and you try telling young people of today that. And they won't believe you.

Man#4: Aye, they won't!

Excerpt from: Four Yorkshiremen Sketch, Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl; June, 1982 (originally from "At Last the 1948 Show", October, 1967)

~D

 

[Sejs]

Touch of Healing [Reserve]...
Bestial Charge [Tactical]...
Great and Small [Wild]...
Iconic Manifestation [4th lv spell]...



Oh good! Druids really needed a power-up, too.

 

[fafhrd]

Oh good! Druids really needed a power-up, too.

Sadly, I don't see any support for the shapeshifter variant.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I don't believe in judging the general usefulness/power of an ability based on what it likely at hight levels - both positively and negatively.

There have no wands of cure light wounds in any of my campaigns. Heck, no one has ever made a single magic item.

Congradulations. You're playing in a variant campaign world. Your experiences dont matter in balancing (thank god). Out of combat healing IS virtually free past low levels, and as such needs to be taken into account.