Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nokturnal" data-source="post: 8951641" data-attributes="member: 7040687">A huge thank-you to you toucanbuzz for such a great job on the campaign guide and monster manual. I'm just about to take my table into the world of Dark Sun, a first time for all of us and your hard work is going to make it loads of fun. I do have a few thoughts...Defiling Magic MechanicsDefiling magic seems to be a noticeable step down in severity from the original 2e intent, which was that every arcane spell cast by a defiler is drawn from the surrounding plant life, and this is reflected by defilers having a faster xp progression (and less time to memorize spells along with an Int check impacted by terrain to determine memorization success) as they are power hungry and take the faster and more destructive path. I prefer to use milestone leveling when running a 5e campaign, and even if I used xp points 5e design does not allow for a variety of leveling rates between classes.The mechanic you have in place would allow all arcane users to cast without any penalty, other than if they empower spells by way of Benefits. This seems to greatly reduce the impact on the land (and reduce the hatred for arcane casters by the general population) and an arcane caster (defiler or otherwise) could easily get away with never using Benefits or defiling.What I'm considering doing is to have all spells cast by defilers incur 1 defiler point. The incentive to choosing a defiler will be that they will have a faster spell progression and greater total daily spells available to them. This would reflect their desire to take the faster and more harmful path to power.Wizards and bards would choose at first level if they will be preservers or defilers. As a result defiler wizards would be more powerful but hopefully not game breaking, especially considering the hassle of shedding those defile points and the nasty outcome if they accumulate.Warlocks would be defilers by default, druids and rangers would be preservers by default, and all three classes spell progressions and total daily spells available would stay the same. Benefits would still be in place as is and still be a temptation to preservers and defilers alike.BardsBards also feel a step away from the 2e flavour/intent of a assassin/spy wrapped in an entertainers disguise. Here is what I am proposing:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Use the Rogue class, must choose Assassin archetype</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Must choose Entertainer background</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gains the following spells at 4th level instead of an ASI (This is a modified version of the Magic Initiate feat)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Charisma is the casting Stat</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Defilers (Defile rules apply)<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cantrip – Choose 3 total, from Warlock (may also choose Message)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Level 1 – Choose 2 total, from Warlock (may also choose Disguise Self)</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Preservers<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cantrip – Choose 2 total, from Warlock (may also choose Message)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Level 1 – Choose 1 total, from Warlock (may also choose Disguise Self)</li> </ul></li> </ul></li> </ul>I know that I may be messing with game balance so I wanted to post this up to get feedback. Thank-you again for your hard work!</blockquote>

Verification