E6 SRD - community project

[SuperChris]

file: Feats and Monster Feats

status: awaiting proofread

I'm going to hold off un uploading modified versions of these documents, because most of what I have to contribute are suggestions, rather than things that absolutely need to be changed.

Feats.rtf comments

Ability Advancement
Ability Training

• Why not make this a single feat that gives a stackable +1 increase to an ability score and can be taken up to 4 times? That's in line with the ability score increases characters would normaly get at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th. This would also allow you to bump your odd numbered ability scores one point to get a better bonus.

Expanded Caster Stamina
Expanded Spell Knowledge

• These seem incredibly awesome. Maybe too awesome? I don't know. They sure seem to give you a lot of bang for your buck.

Improved Critical

• Prerequisite BAB +8. How does that work? Can we put Stunning Fist back on the regular list? ;-)

Knockdown

• Good choice.

Leadership

• Looks good to me, but I've never played a character with this feat, so...

Open Minded

• I'd like to see the number of extra skill points modified by INT modifier and racial modifier.
• Also, a name change seems in order to give it less of a Psionics feel.

Plant Control
Plant Defiance

• I guess these are okay. They seem a little weird for, well, anyone short of a druid-like cleric.

Stand Still

• Never cared for the way this feat worked, but it looks fine.

Restoration

• Drop WIS prerequisite to 17 (ability score prerequisites are always odd numbers).
• 1st and 3rd parapgraphs are contradictory. I assume it is supposed to be a complete curing of temporary ability damage?
• Perhaps change the name to include "Ritual" to make it clear it isn't exactly the same as the spell?

Stone to Flesh

• Drop INT prerequisite to 17 (see above).
• The inline description refers to the as a spell several times. That should be changed.
• I'm in favor of dropping 2nd paragraph (the ability to turn mundane stone to flesh). This has been included to act as a restorative ritual, right?
• Could also stand a name change so it isn't so obviously a rework of the spell.

Superior Expertise

• Seems kind of pointless if your maximum BAB is +6. A whole feat for a +1 Defense? Should this be cut or is there a good reason to keep it?

Wonderous Rings

• Maybe add Craft or Forge to the name so that it sits closer in the list to the other item creation feats? Otherwise, good.

Blindsight, 5' Radius
Eyes in the Back of Your Head

• I realize that the following comments are completely biased.
• Pet Peeve: I've never liked feats with ability prerequisites above starting max. That goes double for abilites like Wisdom where you have no races (that I know of) with a Wisdom bonus. Add in the fact that the ability advances are extremely limited and you need to be overly dedicated to even try for these feats.
• Recommend dropping prerequisite WIS to 17 on Eyes in the Back of Your Head. It's good, but not that good, IMO.
• Recommend moving Blindsight, 5' Radius to monster feats list. While it is thematically appropriate for Monks and some other insightful warriors, it strikes me as an ability that borders on supernatural.

Metamagic Feats (General Comments)

• Some of these seem really limited if you can only cast up to 3rd level spells. Not sure I'd blow a feat to be able to Maximize a 0-level spell, for instance.
• Maximize Spell, drop the last paragraph. an Empowered, Maximized spell would be 5 levels high that normal.

Item Creation Feats (General Comments)

• Just a thought: It occurs to me that a caster that reaches 6th level is going to be positioned to sink a dramatic amount of their XP into item creation. I would expect to see characters wandering around with +2 this, that, and the other thing (all the gear they're optimized for) within a few sessions of hitting 6th. It is certainly what I'd do to help improve my party's survival.

MonsterFeats.rtf Comments

Stunning Fist

• It's a damn shame that Stunning Fist needs to be included in with the monster feats. I always felt that +8 BAB prerequisite was a rip, especially since a Monk gets it at Level 1. Still, it is what it is. :-(

Questions/Observations

Are there (or should there be) a feat that allows a character to improve their BAB or simulate a higher BAB? That would allow feats like Stunning Fist and Improved Critical to be put back on the list. Just a thought.

Does the project team envision more 6th level prerequisite feats that allow characters access to higher level class abilities?

 

[SuperChris]

PrestigeClasses.rtf

PrestigeClasses.rtf

Assassin
* Simplified Death Attack Save DC to 11 + INT modifier
* Simplified Spell minimum Intelligence to 11
* Simplified Spell Save DC to 11 + INT modifier
* Spells Per Day. A bit of ackwardness here. Since they start with 0 spells/day, Assassins can't actually cast without having an INT of 12 or higher... Reworded that as well as I could, but you might want to look at it.

Dragon Disciple
* Reworded Bonus Spells feature.
* Reworded Natural Armor.

Horizon Walker
* No changes.

Wow. So many of the Prestige classes miss being usable by just a hair.

 

[SuperChris]

file: Traps

status: awaiting proofread

Changes

CR5 Fire Trap
* Adjusted Druid level, Damage, Save DC, Search DC
* Need to adjust the cost. Not sure how to figure this.

CR5 Fireball Trap
* Adjusted Wizard level, Damage, Cost.

CR6 Lighting Bolt Trap
* Adjusted Wizard level, Damage, Cost.
* Need to double check cost. I think I figured it correctly.

CR7 Summon Monster VI Trap
* Highlighted trap in document.
* This should probably be cut since it takes an 11th level Wizard to cast.
* Maybe introduce lower level versions?

 

[SuperChris]

file: Treasure

status: awaiting proofread

comment:
I simply truncated the relevant tables at EL12.

Looks good!

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Wow, lots of double checks, nice!

On feats - Yeah, a lot of these are odd, but the WotC ones are verbatim from their own OGC docs so in the interest of hewing closely to the original, let's keep them as is, even the only marginally useful ones. Thanks for looking at the "Stone to Flesh" and "Restoration" feats; yours are excellent suggestions. As for the other E6-specific feats, again they're ripped straight from the source doc, so let's keep them even though they are very limited (by design). Additional feats (eg to further boost ability, capstones, etc) can come later on when we're tacking appendices onto the baseline SRD.

On PrCs - A few people have suggested dropping PrCs from the baseline SRD entirely, since these RAW ones are so few and imbalanced. There's so much that can be done with PrCs, it's a shame they are so useless in E6 RAW, so a better treatment would probably fit more naturally in an appendix later on.

On Traps - We'll have to look at some of those changes a little more closely. On the ones with caster level changes, I believe the CR should drop (eg, lightning bolt by a 10th level wiz is CR6; but the same trap by a 6th level wiz should have a lower CR). Normally Id say leave as in RAW (even though they're not creatable by E6ers) or cut them entirely, but for the sake of examples, maybe rejiggering them to new CRs is in order.

Anyway, I'll double-double check when I get time this weekend. I'll just emphasise that the point with this baseline E6 SRD is to keep the rules & wording as close as possible to WotC's original docs, so it's generally better to just chop something out entirely rather than modify, which risks introducing new inconsistencies. Basically, that's just because we don't want to insert too many 'surprises' for anyone using this SRD expecting to see RAW.

 

[SuperChris]

The rewordings have been extremely minor. Swapping a sentence from here to there, simplifying formulas, etc.

I agree that would probably be good to cut the PrCs since only 3 made the cut anyway.

Looking at it again, most of the feats I have an issue with are sourced from the divine and psionics books, which I've rarely allowed in my campaigns anyway (I'm a core book 1/2/3 kind of DM), so that's probably why I don't care for them.

When it comes time to move beyond the e6 core, I guess I'll put my $0.02 in on specific changes.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Oh, that's cool, minor clarifications, sentence structure changes are fine, we just want to keep it obviously "the same" as the official SRD. Iirc, d20srd.org has made several similar modifications-- and it's probably a more definitive SRD nowadays than the rtfs themselves! But please keep up with the 2cp wherever you want to pitch it in; that's exactly what keeps people thinking about things.

As for the psi & divine feats, I'm actually of a similar taste myself. We decided to included them here only because E6 is so feat sensitive, and because these particular feats are offical WotC ogc distributed along with the SRD. Maybe it would be worth somehow separating them from the core feats in the final release? Something to think about.

And unless someone really protests, I'll go ahead and axe the PrCs from the baseline SRD, since there's yet more agreement on that.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

file: Spells C

file: Spells C

status: DONE

comment:
again. corrected entry for "lesser confusion" to include effects table from "confusion".

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

file: Types, Subtypes, and Abilities

file: Types, Subtypes, and Abilities

status: awaiting proofread

comment:
- reworded the greater teleport ability to refer to a generic creature rather than "you" as in the original spell.
- also added entries for 5 other special abilities (true seeing, dimension door, greater invisibility, charm monster, ethereal jaunt) to accomodate upcoming monster mods, roughly 20 monsters.
- these may still change (either in content or organization) as the discussion continues.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

All my technical difficulties are sorted out now, so I'm back up and running.

I've updated the master list (forgot to last couple days, sorry). Also, assuming no one has big problems with the special abilities I've added to the glossary (because they're shared by multiple low-ish level monsters), monster files will start getting uploaded tomorrow.

There still hasn't been any real discussion how to handle these kinds of special abilities. Currently, they've been reworded and turned into "special abilites". Another possibilty is to simply keep them spells and add them into a special "Monstrous Spells" section at the end of the special abilities glossary. Imho, keeping them "spell-like spells" is mechanically simpler, but rejiggering them as special abilities keeps them indisputably separated from PC-accessible magic.


Any preferences/opinions/comments on this?