StalkingBlue
First Post
ruleslawyer said:
I haven't made an actual breakdown, no. We're pretty much staying away from the paths in the player supplement though, there are some bad ones in there (Painless especially, yup) - plus OTOH a wide selection of paths with a use limited to specific types of territory, which kinda limits a character's range if you wish to play them long-term.
The only path in the main book that looks broken to me is Giantblooded (especially if you use the 3.5 damage increase for size increase), but that one gives me the creeps style-wise, so I'm not allowing it anyway. I've seen DMs on the Against the Shadow boards complain that Giantblooded characters were breaking their game.
As S'mon has already suggested, most paths appear to be rather underpowered, so viable paths choices are kinda limited if your play style is focussed on challenges. It's different obviously if you play a game geared towards style and world simulation, not overcoming challenges - for that kind of game the paths are all more or less equally interesting and viable I'd say, I'm speaking merely from our play experience with our style!
Ironblooded and Quickened have worked well in play for melee characters, Dragonblooded is the obvious choice for channelers, the Shadow Walker might have made a fine scout (if he'd lived...).
(In the Dragonblooded path, the Improved Spellcasting ability is broken btw: that one lowers spellcasting cost by one point for an entire school each time it is taken. It's not a problem in my game because I've redesigned channelers to have access to fewer schools, and the spell point system works differently, but under the rules as written you grow yourself a nice long-term balance problem if you allow the channeler, Dragonblooded, unmodified .... worse if you let them take the first level of the "Druid" PrC as well, which my resident powergamer tried to get me to do...
) Some paths provide a nice basis for tailoring to your game style and character concept. For example, I'm currently reworking the Guardian path in discussion with one player (randomling). Neither of us liked spell-like abilities for a melee character, and randomling envisaged a highly self-disciplined PC, so Rage wouldn't fit. We've swopped out Det Evil for the Inconspicuous feat at first level and changed the Rage ability at higher levels to a "reverse rage" that increases AC and Will save and decreases the attack bonus. Forbiddance at 13th will be replaced by a Lay on Hands ability for a specific number of hp per day (not scaling with level).
