New SRD Errata

[The Souljourner]

Divine Battle Mastery gives the deity unlimited attacks of opportunity, but then goes on to qualify it with "(The deity still can’t make more than one attack of opportunity against a single opponent in a round.)" Someone didn't read up on 3.5.

Divine Monk lets the deity deflect any number of incoming ranged attacks, but then says, for spells, the level of the spell is added to the DC, except there is no DC any more.


Geez... have these guys even *read* 3.5? I mean, really, they've been out for a long time now, and those are a couple very basic changes that everyone who plays should know.

Instant Counterspell lets the deity counter a spell as a free action, as long as the spell can be cast "immediately". What does immediately mean? I assume it means as a free action, but "immediate" is not something that applies to spells. Also, it then says "Counterspell counts against the normal number of free actions the deity is allowed each round." Free actions aren't limited... quickened spells are.

Stride states "The deity’s movement is doubled on the local or overland scales. Also, having this ability means that the deity’s height does not limit the distance it can jump." Except jumps aren't limited by your height.


Honestly... who wrote this garbage? Was there any editing at all? Were the writers locked in a dungeon for the past year?

I'm not even going to bother looking through the rest of the stuff... obviously there are numerous extremely basic and easy to see errors that should have been caught by all but the most ignorant editor.

-The Souljourner

 

[gtJormungand]

Also, it then says "Counterspell counts against the normal number of free actions the deity is allowed each round." Free actions aren't limited... quickened spells are.

Dieties are allowed a certain number of free actions per round for their divine powers. This is described under the Automatic Actions entry in Diety Ranks and Powers.

 

[The Souljourner]

"When performing an action within its portfolio, a deity can perform any action as a free action, as long as the check DC is equal to or less than the number on the table below. The number of free actions a deity can perform each round is also determined by the deity’s divine rank."

That's not the same thing. They're talking about stuff like Moradin being able to use craft: weaponsmithing as a free action, not feats. There's no DC for counterspells, so how do you compare it to the chart? I mean, maybe you're right, but that's totally not obvious.

-The Souljourner

 

[tauton_ikhnos]

Geez... have these guys even *read* 3.5?

Keep in mind, the Divine portions of the SRD are taken from Dieties & Demigods, 3.0. The guy who updates the SRD was given permission to put this stuff in the SRD, but he's the only person who does that work. If we waited until he updated it to 3.5, a job that WOTC puts an entire team on normally, we would still be waiting.

 

[Piratecat]

Geez... have these guys even *read* 3.5?

Honestly... who wrote this garbage? Was there any editing at all? Were the writers locked in a dungeon for the past year?

... obviously there are numerous extremely basic and easy to see errors that should have been caught by all but the most ignorant editor.

Hey, this would be a lot more useful to both us and WotC if you listed any problems without including the gratuitous insults.

 

[The Souljourner]

There's a certain amount of professionalism that I expect from a company as big as WoTC. There are right ways and wrong ways to do things, and allowing a document to get published to their official website without at least a basic editing job seems very unprofessional.

Obviously this was a very simple transfer of data from Deities and Demigods, as tauton_ikhnos pointed out. Personally, I would have preferred they spend the time to do it right, rather than throwing it out there in its current condition. I don't think a lot of people were champing at the bit to get Deities and Demigods in SRD form, so I don't think it would have hurt much to spend a couple weeks updating it to 3.5.

Ok, I'm done ranting. Sorry if it upset anyone. Feel free to post any other needed errata here.

-The Souljourner

 

[Pax]

Hey, this would be a lot more useful to both us and WotC if you listed any problems without including the gratuitous insults.

Well I, for one, don't think they're gratuitous; I think they've been well and duly earned. Those sections should at the very absolute least have been marked as being 3.0 content.

As for being useful to WOTC: PC, if the folks working for Wizards haven't grown adamantine skins by now, frankly, they probably shouldn't be oin the pointy end of things. Any author who cannot take criticisms - even harsh and uncivil ones - simply isn't cut out for the business.

 

[Ranger REG]

You can criticize the most pettiest of details all you like. I for one am glad they're posting one of the older 3e books ... two if you counted the Psionic's Handbook prior to the release of XPH and the most recent updates (May 14).

BTW, criticism or not, they're counterproductive. If you find an error, report it, don't give us a commentary. Just like with crime, you report it, don't criticize the police's actions.

 

[Piratecat]

As for being useful to WOTC: PC, if the folks working for Wizards haven't grown adamantine skins by now, frankly, they probably shouldn't be on the pointy end of things. Any author who cannot take criticisms - even harsh and uncivil ones - simply isn't cut out for the business.

There's a difference between calm criticism and emotional insults.

This argument is specious, Sean. Insulting people because "they should be able to take criticisms" is akin to the act of an unempathic child. Just because you can do something doesn't mean that it's appropriate to do so. Let's face it, the people at WotC are not faceless, emotionless drones; they're fellow gamers like you and me -- and just as you wouldn't like someone insulting you, I'm sure they don't care for it either. More importantly, pointing out errors without vitriol means that you get taken a lot more seriously. If you expect someone to act professional, then you certainly should be professional when pointing out their errors.

EN World members should feel free to complain about people all they like, in any way they like, to their friends or in the privacy of their home. On these boards, however, insulting people who are in the process of making available intellectual property for free seems like the height of rudeness. We don't tolerate it, and we'll ask people to respect that guideline.

If you wish to comment further on these rules, please feel free to start a thread in Meta. In the mean time, though, I'd like to steer this thread back to its original purpose of discussing errors in the SRD.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Back on topic then...

The Expanded psionics section... have they included "powers known" lists for the psions, disciplines and psywars? I can't seem to find it.

(nb this might not be errata, this might just be dumbness on my part )

Cheers