Iron Heroes - I have it in my hands!

[Michael Tree]

First of all, there's no 'gathering magic' mechanic.
It's just what the book calls it, when you draw mana to cast spells. Depending on your arcanist level, you can 'gather' a cetain amout each day without ill effects.

The arcanist gets bonus feat and aspects of power. This can fx. be bounding step ( you call an air elemental to you for +20 to jump) or Eldritch Darts (1d6 + int per dart, one dart per attack) and more. There are greater asoects as well.

He also gets the ability to make dark pacts that grant a +10 bonus to be used all at once or in bits during a week. This costs either money or a living sentient sacrifice

and the Arcanist has a mana pool, but it's not described (erratta anyone?).. :\

Ah, so the drawing mana is just flavor text for making a roll to cast a spell?

The aspects of power sound like they should be fun, and a safe option for arcanists that don't want to risk spellcasting. Do arcanists get any combat feat mastery levels? I could see an arcanist specializing in eldritch dart throwing, for example.

 

[A'koss]

Catching up...

You don't die at -10. You must make a Fort save each round vs. DC = your negative hp. (you lose 1 hp each round until stabilized).

Neat... but it does raise a couple of questions. If you are "stabilized" at less than -10 HPs do you still need to make Fort Saves every round? Or do you have to recover to -9 or better first? If the latter, is there any "quick patch" healing in IH (Healing Skill/Feats)?

First of all, there's no 'gathering magic' mechanic.
It's just what the book calls it, when you draw mana to cast spells. Depending on your arcanist level, you can 'gather' a cetain amout each day without ill effects.

He also gets the ability to make dark pacts that grant a +10 bonus to be used all at once or in bits during a week.

[Emphasis mine]

I really had hoped there wouldn't be any per day/week conditions on any of the core class abilities. This is the first strike against the "balance against the encounter" game design touted by IH and I'm a little disappointed spellcasting has gone this route.

I bet there are class features, feats, etc. that allow you to keep your base defense bonus, dex, etc. as passive defenses -- like uncanny dodge does in D&D. Maybe one of those feat mastery chains...

I hope there is some defense against defenselessness!

Cheers!

 

[DrSpunj]

I really had hoped there wouldn't be any per day/week conditions on any of the core class abilities. This is the first strike against the "balance against the encounter" game design touted by IH and I'm a little disappointed spellcasting has gone this route.

I noticed that too, A'koss, and feel the same way. Up until now I've been imagining a mechanic similar to Magic: the Gathering where each player gets more mana by laying/tapping into land. Obviously it'd be a bit different, but since we've seen other classes like the Archer (aiming) and Executioner (studying) gain tokens using actions, I figured the Arcanist might gain mana similarly, by gaining so much mana after concentrating/gathering mana as a free action, move action, etc. (And similarly, felt he might lose some or all of them after taking damage if he didn't make a Conc check.)

What would stop an Arcanist from walking around with mana all the time? A mechanic equivalent to mana burn, along with the fact that if casting any spell is potentially dangerous then there's no guaranteed way to let any extra mana you've gathered dissipate harmlessly. Obviously feats and/or class abilities could mitigate some of these potential drawbacks.

Now, I don't have the book yet (hope to pick it up from my FLGS Monday! ), and I'm going to try and keep an open mind until I've read the thing, but I'll certainly be interested to see if I can tweak the Arcanist along these lines to lose the each day & during a week mechanics.

Also, a big Thank You! to Sorcica for reading & typing like a mad man to feed our insatiable (and envious) IH appetites.

Thanks,

DrSpunj

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I really had hoped there wouldn't be any per day/week conditions on any of the core class abilities. This is the first strike against the "balance against the encounter" game design touted by IH and I'm a little disappointed spellcasting has gone this route.

Well, I can't speak to the complaint of impurity in the 'balance by encounter' design, but the arcanist seems to have plenty of magical abilities with no real frequency limitations, at the least one hopes the arcane darts are not completely unique.

I would guess that the decision to keep some resources that have to be managed over a series of encounters was a conscious decision. One similar to their decision to keep some classes that have no inherent resource management mechanisms at all.

 

[MacMathan]

I think the challenge with spell casters is that, depending on spell list, they can use their abilities outside of combat, where as the melee types seem to only be able to build tokens during a fight.

If a caster could just cast spells all day outside of combat via using an action to gain mana the spells would have to be very limited to prevent abuse, look at some of the issues that have come up with Warlock abilities from CArc.

That said I would like to see away around the day/week limits, maybe if the spell failure rate was pretty high, of course that would be bad in combat and not make them very fun to play so it is a hard call.

Of course I am mainly interested in the melee classes in IH anyways...

 

[Dragonblade]

Hmm, I too consider any class ability that has per day or per week limitations a flaw in what otherwise sounds like a very cool class.

 

[Aldarc]

He also gets the ability to make dark pacts that grant a +10 bonus to be used all at once or in bits during a week. This costs either money or a living sentient sacrifice

I don't see this as a flaw. I see it more as a temporary infusion that lasts for a week. So the power dissipates after the given time if it is not used.

 

[SixFootGnome]

Traits?

How many traits are there? Any chance you could give us a list of traits, or some standouts that we haven't seen yet?

 

[DrSpunj]

If a caster could just cast spells all day outside of combat via using an action to gain mana the spells would have to be very limited to prevent abuse, look at some of the issues that have come up with Warlock abilities from CArc.

I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to see a Warlock in play (except in WoW ) so I might have to search for a few threads about them and any issues you're referring to, but I can certainly see your point.

That said I would like to see away around the day/week limits, maybe if the spell failure rate was pretty high, of course that would be bad in combat and not make them very fun to play so it is a hard call.

Yeah, I'm not sure how to balance it, but I would love to find something that works both in & out of combat. I'm anxious to read IH to see what Mearls has done here, but that's just one among many, many things. At least I'm fairly busy this weekend with work so I don't feel like I'm just sitting here waiting for it. :\

Thanks,

DrSpunj

 

[mearls]

IIRC, the arcanist's abilities that are limited to X times per/Y timed period are tied to his dark pact. In this case (again, IIRC), he's asking a demonic power for help in casting the spell. In this case, the mechanic made sense to me to represent the very real, almost social link between the demonic entity and the arcanist.

It isn't that the arcanist needs to rest or refocus. The limiting factor is that the demonic entity only bothers to answer once in a while. It's like ringing up a friend for help moving. You can only call so often without straining the relationship.

(Again, this is all IIRC. I haven't looked at IH in quite a long time.)