Iron Heroes - I have it in my hands!

[Matrix Sorcica]

And I still don't understand why people seem to want it to be...

Because Mearls and Monte has stated it as being compatible?

 

[A'koss]

No change to ability raises.

Really... I'm quite shocked they didn't get a boost here. Maybe with all the extra combat oomph it was decided more wasn't needed.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

My 11 year old son saw the full page add for Iron Heroes in Dragon this month, and thrust it in my face shouting, "This is the kind of campaign you should run! No magic gizmos, just bash, hack, and slash!"

I was so proud.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Some of the feats look nice. Many are 'just' the core feats build into feat masteries and renamed. Others look new to me. The Social group feats and the Tactics group feats look very interesting (access to feat groups are determined by class.)

There are no favoréd or non-favored skills. All are favored. Classes have favored skill groups. This means that every skill point spent increases all skills in the group. Example: Athlectic (Climb, Jump, Swim), Theatrics (Bluff, Disguise, Perform, Sleight of Hand)

 

[Akrasia]

Magic:
1. Gather mana. The arcanist must determine how much mana to gather. Depending on his level, he there's a limit to how much he can gather without risking damage to mind and body. When spending mana you reduce the remaining available mana by the mana spent. If this brings you mana in the negative, you must save (Fort DC15 + amount of negative mana) or suffer strain. Strain is temporary damage equal to your negative mana to *all* ability scores...

That sounds rather interesting. It reminds me of the way that magic was handled by Larry Niven in his fantasy novels/stories from the 1960s ("The Magic Goes Away"...).

...
3. Channel the spell. 1d20 + mastery of school. DC equal to mana spent on spell + 5 + your int mod. Fail by 10 or less, a moderate disaster strikes. Fail by more than 10, a major disaster strikes. Each scool has different disasters listed....

The failure rules sound reminiscent of WFRP. Are there charts for the 'disasters' for spell failure?

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Really... I'm quite shocked they didn't get a boost here. Maybe with all the extra combat oomph it was decided more wasn't needed.

Characters in IH need more experience to level (same as AE).

 

[orangefruitbat]

Cause I got a shelf load of DnD adventures that I wouldn't mind running with a tweaked out rules system?

And I still don't understand why people seem to want it to be...

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Spell example.
In the creation method to conjure an object, one must shape the object into a given size.
Let's say that an arcanist wishes to create an iron object of large size. Looking at the tables, we see that Iron requires mastery 4, and large size mastery 6. All elements must be taken into consideration to determine if an arcanist can create a spell.
For the mana cost, the caster must look at the mastery required for each element (material and size). The cost is highest mana requirement plus ½remaining mastery elements. So for this spell 8 mana (6 + [4/2]).

 

[fuindordm]

1. Gather mana. The arcanist must determine how much mana to gather. Depending on his level, he there's a limit to how much he can gather without risking damage to mind and body. When spending mana you reduce the remaining available mana by the mana spent. If this brings you mana in the negative, you must save (Fort DC15 + amount of negative mana) or suffer strain. Strain is temporary damage equal to your negative mana to *all* ability scores.

So not tokens, but something similar. Presumably not tokens because this is something they can do outside of combat, wheras tokens are only gathered within a combat?

2. Create spell effect. There are eight scools of magic: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, Transmutation. An arcanist chooses at 1st level which scool to be his primary and another to be his secondary. At 3rd level he gets a tertiary scool and at 5th level he gets access to all scools. This determines his spell mastery ratings in the various schools.
The mastery determines what is possible to do with the spell.

I guess this is so that players can still draw inspiration from the D&D lists, but I could have wished that they came up with a more flavorful breakdown. I've never liked the feel of the traditional schools, too
analytical, and some categories much too broad.

3. Channel the spell. 1d20 + mastery of school. DC equal to mana spent on spell + 5 + your int mod. Fail by 10 or less, a moderate disaster strikes. Fail by more than 10, a major disaster strikes. Each scool has different disasters listed.

I will get back with a more detailed example of spellcasting

Wait, the smarter you are the harder it is to cast? Does the Int mod really go on the DC, or does it go on the roll?

Looking forward to the example. Thanks for the scoop!

Ben

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

Wait, the smarter you are the harder it is to cast? Does the Int mod really go on the DC, or does it go on the roll?

Ben

Yeah, it baffles the mind. I'm still trying to find out if this is an errata or not. A high int does affect the save DCs (which are 10 + int + ½mana spent, BTW), but this does not explain that the smarter you are, the more difficult it is to cast your spell.....