JoeCrow
Explorer
Hey, folks. Yeah, this should probably be in the d20 Systems Games folder, but then nobody would see it.
Just got my Dungeon/Polyhedron and checked out the Shadowchasers game. Overall, I'd have to give it a 3.5 out of 5. The concept's pretty cool, but it owes a bit too much to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so much so that most of the campaign setting stuff seems to be a direct port. (Full Disclosure: I might be biased on this one, since I was sort of hoping for more of a Dark*Matter port, and I'm not the hugest Buffy fan. Preferred the movie to the show.)
Editing was a bit on the careless side. If you're gonna port the Noble class from Star Wars as The Charismatic Hero, you really need to remove all the references to the Noble. (See the bit under the Coordinate ability.) There were a few other bits that detracted from the over presentation a little, especially in the class abilities areas. I'm assuming that the Fast Hero gets the Lucky class ability at 1st level, as the table says, instead of at 2nd as the text says.
Rules-wise, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I really like the idea of the base ability focused classes, but they need work. I'm not real fond of all of them having the same Vitality Point base (d4). This kind of guarantees that nobody's going to stay in one for long. Also, I can't see why the Fast Hero has a lower Defense score than the Charismatic Hero, given that Defense scores seem to be based at least partially on the ability to get out of the way of an attack. Feats have some good stuff ( I particularly liked the Martial Arts feat chain) and some not-so-good stuff. What's up with individual proficiencies for individual types of guns? If you know how to use a revolver, you can shoot an automatic. Loading it might challenge you for a few seconds, and field-stripping it might take a little longer but "front towards enemy/pull trigger" covers a lot of territory. Should the Soldier Prestige Class have to devote all 5 of his bonus feats to basic weapons skills to replicate the Fighter's combat skills at first level?
I do like the Shadow Blood templates, although the Vampiric Blood one does seem a bit much (+2 Strength, Fast Healing 3 and Damage Reduction 2/- are *not* balanced out by -2 Constitution, -1 penalty to attacks and skills in daylight, and no human bonus skill points. No chance) and the Fiendish Blood one needs a bit of tweaking. I also like the Shadow/Awareness mechanic. A little WoD, but that's kind of hard to avoid with this kind of setting.
Hopefully, these problems will be solved before d20 Modern comes out, because I'm *really* looking forward to it. Alternity rises from the grave to stalk the living! Woohoo!!
Just got my Dungeon/Polyhedron and checked out the Shadowchasers game. Overall, I'd have to give it a 3.5 out of 5. The concept's pretty cool, but it owes a bit too much to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so much so that most of the campaign setting stuff seems to be a direct port. (Full Disclosure: I might be biased on this one, since I was sort of hoping for more of a Dark*Matter port, and I'm not the hugest Buffy fan. Preferred the movie to the show.)
Editing was a bit on the careless side. If you're gonna port the Noble class from Star Wars as The Charismatic Hero, you really need to remove all the references to the Noble. (See the bit under the Coordinate ability.) There were a few other bits that detracted from the over presentation a little, especially in the class abilities areas. I'm assuming that the Fast Hero gets the Lucky class ability at 1st level, as the table says, instead of at 2nd as the text says.
Rules-wise, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I really like the idea of the base ability focused classes, but they need work. I'm not real fond of all of them having the same Vitality Point base (d4). This kind of guarantees that nobody's going to stay in one for long. Also, I can't see why the Fast Hero has a lower Defense score than the Charismatic Hero, given that Defense scores seem to be based at least partially on the ability to get out of the way of an attack. Feats have some good stuff ( I particularly liked the Martial Arts feat chain) and some not-so-good stuff. What's up with individual proficiencies for individual types of guns? If you know how to use a revolver, you can shoot an automatic. Loading it might challenge you for a few seconds, and field-stripping it might take a little longer but "front towards enemy/pull trigger" covers a lot of territory. Should the Soldier Prestige Class have to devote all 5 of his bonus feats to basic weapons skills to replicate the Fighter's combat skills at first level?
I do like the Shadow Blood templates, although the Vampiric Blood one does seem a bit much (+2 Strength, Fast Healing 3 and Damage Reduction 2/- are *not* balanced out by -2 Constitution, -1 penalty to attacks and skills in daylight, and no human bonus skill points. No chance) and the Fiendish Blood one needs a bit of tweaking. I also like the Shadow/Awareness mechanic. A little WoD, but that's kind of hard to avoid with this kind of setting.
Hopefully, these problems will be solved before d20 Modern comes out, because I'm *really* looking forward to it. Alternity rises from the grave to stalk the living! Woohoo!!
