Hey there Buugipopuu!
...and welcome to the boards.
Buugipopuu said:
After reading through the latest version, I have a few suggestions which might add to the IH:A's Awesome if implemented:
Thanks very much for the constructive criticism - I appreciate the support.
Buugipopuu said:
Blood abilities (Goetic Blood, Firey Blood, nonsensical Antimatter Blood, et cetera) don't currently require the user of the ability to actually have any blood. Is it your intention to allow bloodless creatures (all Constructs, most Undead, some Abberrations) to take this ability? I'm not seeing how an Akalich can bleed over people, or suchlike.
Yes. Anyone can take the ability. It could be Ichor, quintessence, anything, they don't need to have 'blood'.
But I'll make a note in the text so that people don't get confused.
Buugipopuu said:
Force Field seems underpowered. As it stands it gives the equivalent of 50 hitpoints and Fast Healing 1 for 1 Divine Ability. One could buy Multifaceted and take Fast Healing 3 times and Epic Toughness 3 times to get 90 Hitpoints and Fast Healing 9 instead, which is much better. Rather than simply giving the shield more HP and regeneration, some explicit benefit to having such a shield running might balance out the ability. I can imagine that being shielded would benefit one's concentration (since being hit on the shield doesn't hurt), or protect against effects that require touch (because touch attacks touch the shield, not the user's body), or something like that. As it it written I don't see anyone taking it.
Well one benefit of Force Field over say extra hit points and fast healing is that it prevents special attacks too. So you can't sneak attack a force field. You can't decapitate someone with a vorpal weapon until you penetrate the force field, etc.
Does it look any more tempting now?
Buugipopuu said:
Something about life expectancy might make the rules for the breakdown of levels of Clerics in a religion more reflective of reality. At 1000XP per year is it unlikely that an NPC human will get past 12th-13th level before they die.
Well the fact of the matter is that you probably won't get to be more than 12th-13th-level by just going through the motions of life. You need to get out there and 'do' something. That means putting yourself at risk.
Buugipopuu said:
Capping the effective age of the religion at the life expectancy of the population from which it draws, rendering all Clerics above that level 'Adventuring' Clerics would fix this. It also has the effect of making higher level characters much rarer in the general population (Epic characters make up about 0.00025% of the population, or something in that region.), and making longer lived species significantly more powerful by raising the level of the majority of the population. While both of these things make more sense, I'm not sure how they work from a game balance perspective (If a player wants to take his followers to war).
I'm happy enough with one 21st-level character for every 2 million people.
I don't like mucking about too much with the age thing, because its likely to destabilize racial balance, as you yourself have pondered.
Its not in D&D's rules that Elves are all higher level than humans although to be fair they probably should be.
Buugipopuu said:
Finally: Perfect Atomic Gaze = Nuclear Eyebeams. Best. Power. Ever.
You haven't even seen the final version yet.
Buugipopuu said:
EDIT: How does one decide what a creature's greatest ability is (concerning Abrogate)?
Random highest rank ability (cosmic, divine, epic feat etc.) or highest ability score if you are stuck for one.
Buugipopuu said:
Is it most useful (Metamagic Freedom may only be an Epic Feat, but losing it is more of a bother to a high level spellcaster than losing a cosmic ability, because it vastly limits their ability to deal damage. Similar things happen with Improved Unarmed Strike for Monks (without IUS, Monks are useless, even if they had an array of Awesome Cosmic Powers, because IUS is a prerequisite for almost everything they can do), or Wield Oversized Weapon for people without a backup weapon they are capable of wielding normally), most expensive, user's choice, or some other criterion?
Interesting point, but as a fall back, if in doubt I suggest simply taking the highest ability score and nerfing it.
Unless the attacker has Psychometry and Abrogate, it can't pick and chose.