First things first, I am feeling very good that we have the second issue of the EN World Gamer in the final stages of layout, which means I pretty much can stop worrying about it. Also, Friday night I saved the world by keeping El Diablo from escaping a small Mexican town in a Call of Cthulhu game.
I am sorry that I haven't replied for about a week, but I'm going to try to reply to everything. If I miss a question someone has asked, just ask it again to get my attention. Here's hoping I can finish in less than three hours, because then I need to get back to Robert Sullivan, he of the saintly patience, who has been waiting about two months for me to give him my opinion of Mechamancy.
As far as when Lyceian Arcana will come out, . . . you might guess that I am hesitant to put up another date, for fear that something else will come up to keep me from following through. The good news is that I'm unemployed, so I have to write to eat, so I plan to spend about 40 hours in the next three days writing, editing, and replying to posts and emails. Yes, my eyes will melt, but I love doing this stuff.
Archus said:
RangerWickett,
Between EoMR and the snippets of the Lyceian Arcana there are classes filling the niches of:
* Pure Spellcaster - Mage
* Melee Spellcaster - Mageknight
* Scholar/Skill Focused Spellcaster - Taskmaster
* Religious Warrior - Godhand
Are there going to be core or prestige classes filling the roles of:
* Rogue Mage/Arcane Trickster - You could get close with a Taskmaster and a few levels of rogue (for the sneak attack), but I was wondering if there was anything more directlly applicable.
* Physical Adept - An unarmed combat specalist with magic. You could get there with Mageknight and Monk, but again I was wondering if there was a directly applicable class.
BTW, EoMR is great. I made a 4th level spellcaster today and it was fun - a great number of hard choices to make but the character in the end had more character than your run of the mill wizard and all without needing a prestige class to customize him. Please bring out the Lyceian Arcana soon.
--Archus
One thing I'll probably cut out of Lyceian Arcana are the prestige classes. I think the core of the system is still pretty flexible, and I'd rather present optional rules in depth, instead of relegating them to prestige classes. That's why there's no "Ritual Mage" prestige class.
As for normal classes, what I have now are:
- Revisions of the core classes, so we have the EOM Bard, the EOM Cleric, etc. Basically it's a hard conversion of core classes to EOM.
- Arcanist - Spellcasters who focus on learning to wield pure magic, favoring energy effects over objects or creatures. Very intellectual mages, sort of what I would do if I were designing the Wizard class from scratch, just for EOM.
- Exalten - Like bards, designed specifically to use EOM.
- Godhand - Like paladins, designed specifically to use EOM.
- Longwalker - Like druids, designed specifically for EOM. Longwalkers are my favorite of the new classes, because their powers require them to adventure. They become stronger the more places they go to, unlike the classic image of the druid who just sits in his grove and tends to one small area.
I might include the Tel Shalanth, though I'd feel a little self-absorbed if I did. They're basically Elvish magical martial artists from my personal campaign. Monks get to deflect arrows; these guys get to deflect spells. Actually, they're pretty much a fanboyish fantasy remix of anime heroes who can channel ki into energy blasts and such. I might save them for something later, though.
I don't really know what one would want specifically out of an arcane trickster that you can't do with mage/rogue. I'm really not that fond of the prestige classes that exist in 3.5 just to let you multiclass without being weak. The Arcane Trickster, Eldritch Knight, and Mystic Theurge, as written, just aren't that interesting. They don't have much flavor.
Of course, I was convinced that Theurges can be pretty cool by Hellhound's mini-book, The Secrets of Theurgy, since he played around with what theurgical magic actually meant, instead of just having bland rules.
Not sure where I'm going with this line of thought. Hm.
