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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9825394" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/01451a02449a.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 427px" /> Chapter 9: Combat Basics<a href="https://www.artstation.com/artwork/AkReW" target="_blank">Image is the Duel by Shen Fei</a>This post is going to be a three-parter on account that these chapters cover a lot of material that exists in the core rules. Most of Chapter 9 covers basic concepts such as how to calculate one’s attack bonus, initiative and surprise, and the different action types. They do include descriptions for Swift and Immediate actions which is appreciated. Such action types did not originate in the 3.5 core rules, but were repeated enough in future material to the point that they became virtually core.What is new in this chapter are the three essays at the beginning. The first outlines how in older Editions of D&D, certain classes were intentionally unbalanced due to having harder prerequisites: for instance, the paladin was harder to qualify for due to having strict ability score minimums at a time when such scores were all rolled. The Tome authors argue that the acceptance of the Fighter as a “weak” class has carried over into 3rd Edition, and thus the Tomes are designed so that the Fighter and other classes are intended to be important characters in their own right rather than meat-shield speedbumps for the monsters.The next essay talks about how the set-up of fantasy elements fundamentally changes the face of warfare. In short, heroes and adventuring parties are akin to special forces who are sent to take care of problems that you can’t just throw hordes of peasant militias (or goblins, or dretches, etc) in order to solve. Non-magical aristocrats who don’t have Cú Chulainn levels of super-strength still have a place in the world, as the day-to-day management of a realm includes stuff that adventurer skills aren’t necessarily specialized for doing. However, it is an open secret in the halls of power that adventurers are the real power in the lands, but it’s an easier pill to swallow for the populace to have apparent leaders who come from stable-looking dynasties rather than nomadic bands of murderhobos.The final essay concerns the concept of honor, specifically as a social construct rather than a cosmic law. What do such codes look like in a world where magic isn’t assumed to be a tool of the Devil, or where certain fantasy races have innate powers that give them particular advantages such as seeing in the dark? The Tomes explain that honor codes primarily work to keep the powerful in power and the rest of the “little people” in their place. Several examples are given of what this looks like: for example, getting a lot of help on a single project is dishonorable, as powerful mages have great power at their fingertips, but most Commoners can only do so much by themselves. Or destroying magic items, even corrupted and innately dangerous ones, is dishonorable. As to why, you’re removing a source of power from the world that other people can use.The authors note that whether or not someone is honorable doesn’t necessarily map to alignment, and in the end boils down to whether or not society at large is willing to ostracize the person. Meaning that even Chaotic Evil societies have their own twisted forms of honor.Thoughts: I like all of these essays, as they give food for thought when it comes to world-building and how fantasy elements can apply to otherwise feudal medieval worlds. The Fighter essay is rather interesting, in that 3rd Edition’s Fighter actually lost a bunch of things that the class could do in earlier Editions, such as a surfeit of bonus attacks against 1 Hit Die mooks or overall having the best saving throws. The essay doesn’t point such things out specifically, but it is related to the overall perception of certain classes being more…prestigious, if you will, among players.<img src="https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/7e19fe5e3a36.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 517px" /> Chapter 10: Advanced Combat<a href="https://ajmanzanedo.artstation.com/projects/nKG5X" target="_blank">Image is Duel by Antonio J. Manzanedo.</a>This continues the process of copying stuff from the core rules, although the subjects covered are more situational such as difficult terrain, cover and concealment, and modifiers to attack and Armor Class based on various factors. This chapter does feature several major changes: the first is that the Expertise and Power Attack feats are now made into universal options that anyone with at least +1 Base Attack Bonus can perform. Power Attack is made so that the damage bonus is a fixed rate of +2 for every 1 BAB sacrificed, so two-handed weapons no longer have an inherent advantage and you can Power Attack with light weapons now.The second major change is a mechanic known as the Edge. It is a pseudo-condition where a character “has the Edge” against an opponent if they have a greater Base Attack Bonus than said opponent. Various feats and class features can grant the Edge in other ways, too. For example, the Swashbuckler gains the Edge against an opponent until that opponent strikes them. The Edge grants new and improved uses of existing combat maneuvers: for example, a disarm attempt against a target you have the Edge against doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity, and can choose where the disarmed object lands or even grab it with a free hand. It’s particularly good for grapplers, as having the Edge makes it so that the target cannot attack you at all once you successfully perform and maintain a maneuver against them. In fact, this section significantly streamlines the infamous grapple rules by dividing them into 3 distinct maneuvers: Grab On (attach yourself to an opponent), Hold Down (basically pinning them in place), and Lift (can move around freely while carrying the opponent).The third major change is actually near the end in its own essay, concerning the new and improved [Leadership] feats and their shared system. Basically, it’s an optional element, and a character gains a Leadership score once they have a Leadership feat. They can take more than one, but the Tomes say that it’s a common house rule to limit people to one such feat. Leadership in base 3.5 derives from character level and Charisma plus several situational modifiers. In the Tomes, it is based on the feat: for example: Army of Demons is based on ranks in Knowledge (the Planes) plus Charisma modifier, while Lord of Death is one’s ranks in Knowledge (Religion) plus Wisdom modifier. In the base game, one’s Leadership score determines the level of Cohorts and Followers (the latter of whom were limited to 6th level at best), but Tomes swaps this out by measuring such NPCs by Challenge Rating. In fact, the maximum Challenge Rating of one’s Followers now is 10, although the book states that Followers are “traditionally of the crappy classes” such as Expert and Warrior, and Cohorts are always 2 CR lower than the PC. Certain [Leadership] feats grant one the ability to recruit monsters as Followers: Lord of Death and Army of Demons are pretty obvious, although the latter feat isn’t specific to demons but rather the Outsider type in general, and said feat also has the [Celestial] as well as [Fiend] tag. Monster Rancher is the most broad feat for follower species, for the “your followers can and must be monsters” doesn’t limit by creature type like the other ones do.The final set of explicit rules in this chapter is the Mass Combat Mini-game, an abstracted version of large-scale warfare for D&D. The Tomes note that this isn’t meant to be a complicated or stand-alone system, noting that if you “wanted to play Warhammer 40K, then you wouldn’t be playing D&D.” In short, this mini-game takes place on a map, with two or more opposing forces known as Armies. Armies are composed of Units with values for Hit Points, Damage, Move, and Morale, which are pretty straight-forward. Morale is like a secondary set of Hit Points that apply to your Army Morale Rating as a whole, and the value decreases the more Units you lose. Once that Rating hits 0, surviving Units on that side flee combat. Each Unit has a Commander, who has a Commander Rating that is added to the total Morale Rating and determines how many Tactics they can give each turn. Tactics are special actions a Commander can order for a Unit to undertake, such as fortifying the square they’re in to gain Damage Reduction. PCs can take control of Units as Leaders if they have a Commander Rating, which is obtained by having a [Leadership] feat.This chapter ends with a series of essays talking about what war and its consequences look like in a generic D&D setting. The first set is called A World at War, which first starts out with individual entries for popular fantasy races and monstrous civilizations. For example, it talks about how gnomes’ propensity for illusion magic and ability to speak with burrowing animals makes them excellent guerilla fighters, or that the sahuagin rule the largest empires by physical size given that oceans cover the majority of most Material Plane worlds. The essays also talk about how non-human lifespans can shape perspectives, such as how dwarves are very good at multi-generational prolonged conflicts when fighting orcs, goblins, and giants. The dwarves see and judge such conflicts as part of a larger “eternal war” and thus take very long-term perspectives, while their enemies see the war as a series of separate conflicts with their own individual goals and stakes, and also don’t have as long-held a tradition of record-keeping so they take longer to learn from their mistakes. After the War is a more specialized set of essays talking about what happens when certain races (and necromancers) win in warfare, along with sample adventure hooks. One such example is a “resource rush” in a region, when a necromancer’s army kills everyone living but leaves all the inorganic resources behind for the taking.Logistics and Dragons is our final set of essays, and is also where the changes to Leadership are which I already covered earlier. It more or less discusses population demographics, but starts out with discussing handling of magic items at higher levels. The latter example says that by the time PCs start interacting with the Wish economy, the DM should be more lax in handwaving keeping track of minor magic items. The authors note that different groups have different expectations on book-keeping and to first talk things out to ensure that everyone’s on the same page.The discussion on demographics further builds upon the “let’s give everyone classes and levels” of 3rd Edition: notably, it says that most high-level NPCs are spellcasters, because “NPCs go up in levels in situations appropriate to their class, unlike Player Characters” and that “NPC Fighters rarely survive in the environment required to become 20th level, while NPC Wizards often do.” Also, the Tomes get rid of the concept of the Commoner class, instead replacing it with Humanoid Hit Die to represent non-combatant laborers, and that “normal people” NPC classes only go up to 5th level.Thoughts: The essays on how various fantasy races and monsters go to war are my favorite in this chapter. I also like the concept of the Edge, in that it gives martial classes a much-needed push. While it’s still rather cumbersome in requiring multiple die rolls, the Tomes’ take on grappling reads easier than what exists in 3rd Edition’s default. The Mass-Combat Minigame is incomplete in that it doesn’t have any sample Units, and it’s already heavily competing with a lot of other minigames and stand-alones out there. I do find it amusing how despite how far the Tomes went to bring martials and non-primary casters up, that the fantasy world it portrays is still dominated by high-level mages. And while it’s optional, I am not as fond of the Leadership changes, as it’s empowering an already-powerful feat and set of rules; they don’t need the help. I understand that it would be cool to have an army of monsters at your beck and call, but it just doesn’t work with how the action economy is in play.Chapter 11: Conditions & Special AbilitiesThis chapter pretty much covers the relevant entries from the core rules. As far as I can tell, they’re the same as base 3.5, so I’m not going to cover this one.Thoughts So Far: These chapters contain my favorite bits of “fluff” from the Tomes, and the “crunch” isn’t too bad either. The Edge, the universal unlocking of Expertise and Power Attack, and the treatises on warfare provide martial-friendly content, which is nice when two of the Tomes are very mage-friendly by comparison.Join us next time as we cover Chapter 12: Magic!</blockquote>

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