Mordane76, thank you for your time, and the obvious effort you have provided in giving feedback.
Classically Modern, at present, is still a beta document, so any comments or suggestions that you think will add to the work, or improve balance, are very welcome.
Now, on with the questions...
The Daredevil has only one talent tree, but gain multiple talent selections. Using this class as my example -- it has only Adrenaline. Adrenaline has 7 selectable features, some of which stack with themselves (Damage Threshold).
Now -- can a character select a talent from trees he already has access to other than the ones for the class he gained the talent selection from? Say a Tough Hero has Daredevil... and gains a talent selection, but doesn't want something out of Adrenaline. Could he select something out of his Damage Reduction, Energy Resistance, or Unbreakable talent trees from Tough Hero?
No. The character MUST spend all class features on the lists available for the class that grants the feature. So a character with three levels of Tough Hero advancing as a ist level Daredevil must select a talent from the list of talent trees given for the Daredevil, in this case from Adrenaline.
Note that the D20 Modern advanced classes (not the archaic ones) retain ALL the options they have in the rulebook, and gain nothing new.
Traditions, which sorta represent School Specialization (if I'm understanding their position in this document) are not mutually exclusive? One can take Necromantic Tradition, and then pick up Enchantment Tradition, and go on to pick up a few of these... It's just kinda difficult to swallow from a traditional, sacred-cow point of view, and I'm not sure if it's wholly balanced.
You are right. The traditions are not mutually exclusive, and a character can gain more than one, either at the cost of a feat or an FX. From an FX point of view the character must sacrifice a caster level in order to gain the tradition, but as a feat they might present a balance problem. I might consider a rule stating that a character can only cast spells from one tradition, but this is a bit limiting. WHat do you think?
Why would someone with the option to take Scholastic/Scholary or Devotion Focus NOT take it? They basically provides the biggest spell lists for your buck.
Hmmm, they do not provide the bonuses that some of the other, more specialised, foci provide - but I see what you mean. Perhaps a prerequisite on Scholarly and Divination foci, but this may result in a beginning Wizard or Cleric having access to a lot less spells than in the D&D rules...
I am going to add a prerequisite to Scholarly Focus: Int 13+, Knowledge (arcane lore) ranks equal to double the caster level
And to Divination Focus: Wis 13+, Knowledge (religion) ranks equal to double the caster level
- remember that at any point a character no longer meets the requirements for a feat, the feat CANNOT be used, even if the character already has the feat.
How does someone achieve a caster level in this system higher than 10 without gaining a level higher than 10 in the AdC?
Gain levels in another class that offers access to the same caster Talent Trees, such as Artificer (magic item creation) or Spell Shaper (metamagic).
Remember that the caster levels from the same Talent Trees stack, even if purchased from different classes.
Talent versus FX abilities in Archaic AdC is a little confusing.
Innate Caster, for example, is listed as a Talent in the Bard. However, whenever it is used in the "Building a Bard" it takes up the FX slot of the level build. Does one have to spend FX slots even though the Caster Types are listed as Talent Trees? One can't spend their Talent Tree slot at that level on Caster Type?
Doing it the way it appears to work right now limits selection of Traditions -- one could not select a Tradition if one wanted to reach caster level 10 by the tenth level of the AdC. While this might not be a bad thing, it definitely is a grand departure from standard.
Anything listed as an FX Talent can be purchased using an FX class feature and/or a class talent.
So it is entirely possible, IF THE CHARACTER MEETS THE PREREQUISITES OF THE TALENT, to spend *both* on Innate caster. Unfortunately (for the character
), the prerequisites for the Improved and Advanced Innate Caster talents act to prevent this abuse.
And you are right, it is a grand departure from standard, using a Classically Modern archaic class, caster level does not necessarily equal class level - but the new classes offer a much greater range of possible characters.
Thanks
Antony Walls
http://members.lycos.co.uk/merlinsworkshop/
