transcendantly stupid...
This is the kind of thing that rates up their with SenZar & F.A.T.A.L. for pure, raw rules wreckage. Every few lines, I think I've seen a terrible mechanic. And yet, just a few lines later, I see something worse...
Humans in the real world are Chaotic Neutral. As they are selfish and always willing to do what is in their best interest whether it is good or bad... However, humans in the fantasy world and magic realms tend to be upstanding and righteous. Humans within the game are Lawful Good
And it's not just the idoitic language or the high-handed assumptions. There are some terrible language used to describe game mechanics in here...
Resistance: make a Fort check of difficulty 10 + level of caster and if it passes, subtract your Con bonus from any damage you take from that magical attack
That's the whole entry. So we can infer it applies to 'magical attacks' by the last two words, but does he mean just Spells & Spell-like abilities, or did he mean to include Supernatural abilties as well? 'Fort check'? 'level of caster'? It's almost as though he's writing it under the assumption that he'll be standing over your shoulder while you read it to clarify every point where he's vague or unclear...
Gnomes casting Druid spells, limited by their Intelligence bonus? Ow ow ow. Tauric lionment who make "smell" checks to detect invisible creatures? Spells all needing attack rolls now? I'm probably less than a page in, and already my brain cells are fighting over who gets to die first...
Originally, the races were unbalanced and not unique or special enough compared to other humanoid races and monsters.
I guess that would be why those races usually advanced by
class and monsters just advanced by
type. That dull thudding feeling in your head that you're getting from reading this content? That's your brain, repeatedly slamming into your skull, trying desperately to black out & avoid the horror...
I was going to post more quotes about changes to monsters, but then it dawned on me that 95% of what I've read thusfar seems to be the work of someone too cheap to buy Savage Species, and too lazy to illegally download the PDF. Or maybe just too lazy to actually read it...
Strength no longer grants a bonus to hit. Unless the target has a Natural Armor bonus, or is wearing Armor. But not a shield. (which grants an Armor bonus). Ow ow ow ow ow.
Oh, and evidently Strength is restricted by wearing armor. Ow ow ow. But dexterity apparently isnt. Ow.
Intelligence grants bonus feats. Ow ow ow. Both at 1st level, and every time it gets increased. Which is potentially every level. Ow ow ow. But it doesn't grant bonus skill ranks, because Wisdom does. Ow.
I'm sorry, I just can't go on. The sheer stupidity of this, in it's language, writing, game mechanics, myopic rules philosophy, it's all just too much.
GHAAA