[Northwinter Press] Pnumadesi Player's Companion Feedback and Updates

[malcolm_n]

In preparation for the games I will be setting up to have run in the world of Pnumadesi, I wanted to get some preliminary feedback for the setting. I'll also be going through the book myself and providing some information about design philosophy and rules decisions while we go through it.

So, if you managed to grab the book and had time to read through it, let me know what you think. No post will be ignored. Also, if you're interested in running or playing in an adventure I'll be featuring in the next couple weeks, please also let me know here or through PM so I can start rounding out numbers and DMs.

[sblock=The Sentinel as a class build]When I first posted the Sentinel here as a class about a year ago, a lot of the feedback I got surrounded its similarities with other primal defenders. In redesigning it, I at first tried to get away from that entirely, but didn't like the final result nearly as much as how it was when I started; so I went back to the drawing board. I feel like I hit the nail on the head when I figured introducing a new build for a class wasn't a terrible idea. The problem was I couldn't introduce it for the one to which it was likened, since the GSL only includes druids and barbarians for primal classes at this point. I thought about it and decided finally to make it a generic class build. It's like multiclassing, but there's no feat requirement for it. You just pick the build, apply where necessary, and go.
Now I'm curious about reception of this interesting take on generic class builds. It certainly opens up some design territory that may or may not have been so easily accessed before.[/sblock] To help bring others to the conversation (suppose they couldn't download it), here's a quick overview of the sentinel build.
[sblock=The Sentinel Class Build] CLASS TRAITS
Requirements: Primal Defender
Role: Defender. You guard your home and your allies with fierce, animalistic fervor. You also make a decent striker if you focus on doing so.
Power Source: Primal. You call upon the powers of nature to stalk through the wilderness and face enemies as a beast amongst men.
Key Abilities: The primary attack stat for a sentinel is the same as that of the base class. If the base class uses more than one stat to determine attacks and damage, choose one at character creation and stay with that. This choice cannot be retrained later. The sentinel’s secondary stat is Dexterity.

Armor Training: As the base class
Weapon Proficiencies: As the base class
Bonus to Defenses: As the base class

Starting HP: As the base class
HP per level gained: As the base class
Healing Surges: As the base class

Trained Skills: Nature. From the class skills list below, choose three more trained skills at 1st level. Available Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Nature (Wis), Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dex). These trained and available skills are in addition to the base class.

New Class Features: Feral Momentum, Imposing Swipe, Nature’s Stride

Sentinels take on the appearance of great animals. Much like a lycanthrope may resemble an amalgamation of humanoid and beast, so too does the Sentinel’s outward appearance change to match his particular beast. Xendauni sentinels, for example, often take on the bearing of a panther and therefore look like a cat always ready to pounce. Conversely, a Sentinel born to the Annodam may fashion herself as a ram.
As a Sentinel, you are a defender. You have a couple of ways to meet this role. You may wade into combat and draw attacks by threatening to only get stronger if you’re not brought down, or you may dart from enemy to enemy, striking them repeatedly before they can even defend against you.[/sblock]

 

[malcolm_n]

Welcome back from your respective weekends, if anybody was celebrating the 4th. I spent most of my weekend with the family while working on some of the initial scratch work for my next Pnumadesi book.

Having taken the weekend away from finishing up this book helped me organize my thoughts a bit, so I'm coming back to it with a fresh mind. I've had a couple PMs about the work so far, but nothing really posted here, so I'll cover some things that were brought up through that method.

[sblock=Signature Powers]SIGNATURE POWERS You heard right. I am the one who perfected the Iron Crusher. Want me to show you?
Signature Powers Defined
As you grow in power, you become known to the common folk for several amazing acts you have performed over your career as a hero. Sometimes, this takes the form of a signature move; one which everybody knows to associate with you.
When you gain the appropriate level in your class, you can choose one signature power of that level.
[/sblock] The idea behind signature powers was to help give your character a more unique in-game representation. You're no longer just a warlord, you're the dwarf who invented the hammer-tongue technique. A lot of the feel of heroes in Pnumadesi comes from being recognized by NPCs and villains alike. Many human kingdoms will not deign to speak with common folk, but when they hear that dwarf from above just came into town, they may request a personal audience with him and his party because of problems on the elemental border that the regular guard face. Similarly, while your party adventures, talk of your passing through town may aid in somebody, or something, tracking you. Out of game, that may not immediately sound like the greatest of ideas, but it helps move the story along, and plays as a good balance to the story benefits you gain in being able to speak on your own terms with nobility.

The Pnumadesi Player's Companion includes at least 2 signature powers for each class available via the SRD, as well as signature powers for the Sentinel and the Totemist. In the upcoming Pnumadesi World Companion (the DMG/MM), There are also rules to help the DM and his players create their own signature powers; after all, it's not very special when you're the 12th fighter through tow: Thwho mastered the run-them-through technique.

 

[malcolm_n]

A new week, another review. I'm still going through some of the feedback I've received and would greatly appreciate any other contributions. Thank you to those of you who are helping out so far.

This week, I'm gonna look more into Racial Progeny feats. This matters because I'm just about done with the mini campaign hook I'll present at the end of the week and it involves a pregenerated character who will likely take one.

[sblock=racial progeny feats]

RACIAL PROGENY FEATS​

[FONT=&quot]In Pnumadesi, races don’t always breed entirely true. Instead, children of varying backgrounds and origins roam the continent as heroes and npcs. Because of this, we introduce the option to use racial progeny feats.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] Your progeny may not show up immediately at birth and you could even go your entire life without exhibiting the racial traits of your second race. But, you may grow into your new life and could learn that you have more in common with your second race than initially believed.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] Because racial progeny feats represent you as a race and not a class, they don’t count as an option for a bard’s class features related to multiclassing. You can, however, have one racial progeny feat and one multiclass feat to help flavor your character.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] The only race that doesn’t pass its progeny on is the half-elf. Instead, consider picking Eladrin as your racial progeny or take the Human Progeny feat.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]FIRE PROGENY [Tiefling Progeny][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] Prerequisites:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] Dex 13 or Int 13[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] Benefit: You gain a +2 racial bonus to Bluff or Stealth.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] You have resist fire 5. The resistance improves to 10 at 21st level.[/FONT]

[/sblock]Originally, I made racial progeny feats multiclass feats with special rules. By this evolution of the ruleset, they are a separate entity that can be taken in addition to multiclass feats. This makes it easier to distinguish rules. For example, you can't be a bard with several racial progeny feats because they're not multiclass feats.

Now, as to why I made racial progeny feats. Basically, I came up with the idea that races in Pnumadesi (particularly the annodam) get together with just about anybody they can. The one-race preference of most worlds doesn't apply on this plane. To best represent that, racial progeny feats allowed for your parents to be a tiefling and a dwarf, or a half-orc and a gnome. Yeah, there are strange combinations, but that's part of the fun of a good backstory.
A bigger reason than even stated above for racial progeny feats lies in the background of one of the starring NPCs of Pnumadesi. A 15 year old boy named Zen plays a key role in the banishing of the elementals just before the campaign setting picks up for players. During his quest to do that, he finds out he's actually an elemental-born xendauni child. This, in and of itself, is a huge deal, even to people on Pnumadesi, since xendauni and elementals are sworn blood enemies.

More can be learned of Zen and his adventures as I detail more overviews of Pnumadesi. In addition, we are working on chronicling Zen's story in an actual novel that I'll also explain in greater detail as time wears on.

Thank you for reading and I'll see you next week.

 

[malcolm_n]

Welcome back to another week of review and insight into the Pnumadesi Player's Companion. For anybody following this thread, I've posted the 1st level scenario now in case you want to run something. Please consider getting back to me if you do so and let me know how it went.

Anyway, this week, I'm tackling feats again. This time, I'm going into more depth on why some of the feats were made and how they function in the greater scheme of things.

[sblock=Unorthodox Training]UNORTHODOX TRAINING
Benefit: Choose two of the key abilities of your class. When a feature or power from that class lists one of those abilities, use the other. For example, you can choose Strength and Dexterity, then replace all instances of Strength in your fighter powers with Dexterity and vice versa.
Special: You can take this feat more than once. Each time you select this feat, choose a different class.

Unorthodox Training is a feat that we came up when one of our party members wanted to play a wizard who multiclassed into rogue. She didn't want to be the smartest character in the world, and her backstory supported her just having a knack with magical teachings. At first, we tried her out being a sorcerer who became a rogue, but she disliked the chaotic feel she was forced into and it didn't suit her character. After thinking on it, I finally told her she could give up a feat to use her Dexterity instead of Intelligence with her wizard spells.
Naturally, a few sessions in, she proved way overpowered since everything she did keyed off of her Dexterity (wand of accuracy much?). So, I had to tone her down a bit. We talked about it and agreed that, although she didn't have to be incessantly smart to be her brand of wizard, she did have to at least know what she was doing. I told her that when she read a power, to switch anything she saw about Intelligence with Dexterity (like before) and vice versa. She was fine with that, and now had a character who wasn't relying on 3 stats to survive because she could take a small rider from both Int and Cha to enhance her Dex based spells and exploits.

This character, by the way, is Yllana of Singe (and eventually Yllana Silentblaize) from the preview above.

And with that, the idea of Unorthodox training was born. As it's read, it means you can choose two key stats of your class, as defined in the stat block (Wizard can choose two of Int, Wis, Dex for example) and switch them when you would see either in a class feature or power. This opens up the door to multiclassing into many more options (with a small feat tax, but our group uses the option from Player's Strategy Guide where paragon MC gives you 3 refund feats, so we don't feel the pain). It's possible to play a wizard/rogue with Dexterity as your high point, or a fighter/sorcerer who relies on Strength and doesn't have to be pretty to be good at his spells.[/sblock][sblock=Role-Benefit Feats]STRIKER’S VERSATILITY
Prerequisites: 11th level or Striker Role
Benefit: When you reduce a target to 0 or fewer hit points, you can repeat the attack against a new target within range. The new attack deals half damage.

Role-Benefit feats add an element of a particular role to a character. The fighter might occasionally need to heal, but doesn't want to dedicate himself to a god or become a general. A rogue may choose to play the part of a defender for a bit until things get rough, then she steps back.
They also function well with your current role. A fighter could get a free mark set up at the beginning of combat, eliminating the need for an insane initiative. A warlord may lack in powers that grant saves and opt for a feat to shore this up; or a sorcerer may keep killing things right as his good spell goes off and hate that he doesn't get a special effect half the time. Each of these reasons are good enough to warrant the use of role-benefit feats. Keep in mind, though, that they aren't all available up front. As demonstrated by the one above, there's at least one or more at each tier of play, given the relative power level of the role when compared to the possibility of using it outside of your already defined role in a class.
In Pnumadesi, characters work to fill roles in a variety of ways, from multiclassing to these feats and everything in between. They do this because (with the lack of dedicated gods and considerably weaker arcane magic) there may not be a bard or cleric immediately out there to heal the party, and there isn't always a totemist sitting around and waiting for adventurers to ask for his help. There are groups of warlords, but most of them dedicate their efforts to the war front, instead of breaking into smaller groups and questing for gold. Since the lack of healers was so apparent, it only stood to reason that people would pick up a trick here or there to help out. This idea spread and people started wondering why they were always the guy stuck in the front line, or how they could pull tricks off that the wizards of old were so good at but now were almost forgotten. Eventually, people just kinda picked up on it and it's stuck ever since.[/sblock][sblock=Armor Proficiency Feats]PARAGON ARMOR PROFICIENCY
Prerequisites: 11th level
Benefit: You gain training with the first armor in which you are not already proficient from the following list. The order of armor is cloth, leather, hide, chain, scale, plate

These feats are a segway into a common request for why armor proficiencies require high Strength and Constitution. Granted, most classes that require one or both are probably already wearing heavier armor, and those without aren't worried because of a high Dexterity or Intelligence. But, there is plenty of story reason that a character may want to play a wizard in scale, especially if that wizard doesn't have the highest of Intellects (through unorthodox training, above). This gives characters the option of having heavier armor at higher levels without investing ability points into Strength and Constitution.[/sblock] That covers everything I wanted to for this week. As always, feed back would be great here, or through PM. Have a good week, everybody.

 

[malcolm_n]

It's going to be a good week. We got our Facebook page up here. and I've been making some progress on the detail going into the Pnumadesi World Companion. I'll have more frequent updates through facebook, but I still plan to do the weekly review/information updates here as well.

Now, onto the fun stuff. This week I'm going over the star race of Pnumadesi, the Xendauni. Anybody who's downloaded the free copy I offered (or who visits the facebook page above) will see the only picture of a xendauni in existance today. It happens to be the cover for the player's companion, and was created by my good friend (and an amazing graphic designer btw) Zaaron.

[sblock=XENDAUNI]
Sly, xenophobic tricksters able to shape-shift and skulk around
RACIAL TRAITS
Average Height: 5’ 3” – 5’ 11”
Average Weight: 120 – 200 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence or +2 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Xendauni
Skill Bonuses: +2 Arcana, +2 Stealth
Shapechanger: You are a shapechanger; you can alter your appearance. As such, you are subject to the effects and conditions that affect shapechangers. You can also take feats available to other races with shapechanger.
Xendauni Training: You gain training in your choice of Arcana or Stealth.
Xendauni Resilience: You gain a +1 bonus to your Fortitude defense.
Face Blending: You have the face blending power.
Transform Self: You have the transform self power.[/sblock]The xendauni are an interesting race of shapechangers. Even with the ability to look like anybody, they still have suffered strife for centuries since their creation at the hands of the mage council of Pnumadesi. Their blood enemy, the elementals, used them as spies and slaves for quite some time before the race finally freed itself and fled to the Black Forest. For ages, the xendauni have warred with the elementals to the south. At one point, it looked as if they would at last win until their foe used a powerful ritual to steal their racial artifact and use it to seal the xendauni away for 500 years. The Zen Chronicles details the xendauni's escape, and the World Companion will host a summary of the history of the continent from the plane's creation to present times.

The concept of the xendauni as a race was spurred by the original idea for the Zen Chronicles. Zaaron and Bud originally wanted to write a story about a boy who could change his form, but didn't know it. He would grow up with an impossible destiny that he would only realize after much trial and error. A key factor of this destiny was his heritage as a xendauni child with elemental blood.

When I was originally given permission to start building my interpretation of the Pnumadesi world, my first goal was to bring this character to life. I created a rough idea of the race that I later detailed and eventually arrived at the above. He had to be an exception, not the rule, so I couldn't make his race elemental by nature. Instead, I started with the idea of multiclassing into a different race, which was the first concept of my above attempts at what eventually became racial progeny feats. I bugged my friends persistantly for about a month, taking every possible detail and idea they'd had about the race and rolling it into what you'll see in more detail in the published player's companion.

When all was said and done, we were all three quite happy with our concerted effort; and I was left to my own devices (for the most part) when it came to the rest of the book. Of course, that didn't stop me from continuing to ask their opinions of how something felt in context or where it would fit. I can definitely say that, although the book and much of its detail are my own, I could have never done so much with it if not for their help.

Thanks, as always for reading this far. I'll be back next week

 

[malcolm_n]

Sorry, running a little late this week. I started a new job and am trying to get used to the hours (4am-9:30 avg).

Anywho, I've been working on some photo edits of my own this last week. They're on the facebook page we made last week (see above post). I'm not very good yet, but at least if I get them done, I can include them and say that I was able to finish 90% of my book on my own. Now, there's an accomplishment.

So, I picked up my copy of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting this week. I was a little more than surprised to see some of my own work has similarities to the stuff in there. The world is without gods, arcane magic is outlawed.... Hmm, come to think of it, there aren't any more immediately obvious things that match. Well, that makes me happy. Either way, I figured I'd spend this week comparing our newest WotC campaign setting with my own; as sort of an exercise to show myself (and include everybody here) that I'm on the right track.

[sblock=Athas vs. Pnumadesi]Story: Athas is a world that magic has destroyed, and is still destroying. Long ago, the gods died or left Athas to its own devices, nobody really knows why or to what purpose. Arcane power defiles the land, so the benevolent (cough) sorcerer kings have outlawed its use outside of their control. The deserts of the world make life difficult for everybody, and a scarcity of metal forces would-be heroes to adorn themselves in hides, scales, and glass.

Pnumadesi is a world separated by the gods, who are still very much in existance, but leave the central continent alone to grow or die as it would. The elementals of Pnumadesi have a longstanding hatred for arcane magic because it has always been the power most sought to defeat them. When the magelords of the continent finally fought themselves into a standstill with the elementals, they decided to split Pnumadesi with their own power and pulled half away for their own use. Metal armor and heroes still exist; in fact, the world has a natural process of creating heroes who the masses call children of destiny. Adventurers on Pnumadesi have a purpose all to their own, which often equates to preventing or starting some world altering event, for good or ill.

Mechanics: Dark Sun introduces several new mechanical tools to help you flesh out the world of Athas. Alternate options for enhancement progression, arcane defiling, sidebars on including races/classes that shouldn't exist, wild talents and themes are all things characters and DMs can use to parse out a Dark Sun campaign. The world becomes a great place for experienced players and DMs to test their mettle when they want to learn and utilize every available option.

Pnumadesi hosts a new power scheme, called signature powers, racial progeny feats, a generic class build, nonstandard magic items, and an explanation for why and how most races and classes still exist on the continent. No new learning process, as the mechanics involved in each have already been introduced in some way or another, thank you wizards. Via this, Pnuamdesi fits the role of a campaign that's available to DMs and players who maybe aren't as experienced and prefer a setting without more bells and rickata-rackata (go go Smoochy).

Races: The mul and the thrikreen receive full racial options and write-ups. A third race, the half-giants (goliaths) receive fluff and feats with no new mechanical updates. Each other existing race gets some backstory, even if it is to say they were destroyed long ago and should only be included if the DM allows.

The ursaren, vedros, and xendauni round out the new racial options within Pnumadesi. In addition, each race available through the GSL has backstory and a couple options seeded throughout to fit them into the world. Pnumadesi also offers a host of backstories for potential races which can be flavored into those currently available to play something different.

Classes: In Athas, players have the option of using themes and several new builds for existing classes to round out their characters. 25 new paths spread out through races and themes round out the paragon tier and there are 5 setting-specific ways to complete your epic destiny as a character in Dark Sun.

Players in the world of Pnumadesi can create a totemist or a sentinel; and they can also enhance their current class with a signature power. 20 Paragon paths offer a mix of race or class choices since the races of Pnumadesi are defined by society for their individual talents more than their job or hobby. 3 setting-wide epic destinies focus on being a particularly powerful member of one's race, an arcane master, or an immortal being who watches the daily trappings of life.

Support: WotC has changed things up this year, and combined the campaign guide with the player's guide for Dark Sun. This freed them up to also make a monster manual-esque book for the world and still hold to their mantra of 1 setting = 3 books and that's it.

Pnumadesi is a world with 6 (known) continents. One or more of these continents will be featured in each upcoming player's companion, in addition to being featured in the world companion as a basic concept for running the game. By this time next year, I look forward to being back here, talking to you about the Cas'Dilae and Yokaizi Deren focused player's companion, along with a monstrous companion featuring creatures across the four available continents of that time.[/sblock]As always, I hope this was an insightful update. As to a preview, here's a look at paragon paths. I'll be back next week, enjoy!
[sblock=paragon paths]Adventurers in the world of Pnumadesi have mastered techniques powerful and dangerous. The races of the world become so ingrained in their specialty, that one can safely assume the halfling they just passed was a Capitalist; yet it wouldn’t be quite as recognized that his tiefling friend was also trained in the same fashion. Such glaring assumptions ring true more often than not.
This player’s companion offers you 20 new paragon paths with which to customize your hero. Each is given fluff for the world of Pnumadesi, but all are equally available anywhere.


ANNODAM HIGHBORN
My life is already lost. You can do little else.

Prerequisites: Annodam or Barbarian

Annodam highborn are usually the sons or daughters of the present king. Sons are pitted against one another to vie for a chance to usurp while daughters are held in high regard by their peers and elders for the strong blood they were born with. Not surprisingly, many highborn annodam run away at the first opportunity to start a life they want instead of one forced upon them. Because of this, the annodam aren’t afraid to welcome anybody as a highborn who is tough enough to defeat their children.

Annodam Highborn Features

Dangerous Power (11th level): You gain Power Attack as a bonus feat. If you can already use power attack, you only take a -1 penalty to attack rolls when using it.

Threatening Action (11th level): When you spend an action point to take an extra action, you also gain one benefit of your choice until the end of your next turn. Choose from the following.
- An enemy you can see within 5 squares of you is marked by you.
- An enemy you can see within 5 squares of you takes a -2 penalty to attack you.

Born to Rage (12th level): You gain one 10th level or lower barbarian utility power. When you use that power, you are considered raging. You cannot select a power you already have.

Berserk (16th level): Once per encounter, when you score a critical hit with any attack power, you can immediately make a melee basic attack as a free action. You do not have to attack the same target that you scored a critical hit against. If you have the Rampage barbarian feature, you get a +2 bonus to the attack.

Annodam Highborn Powers

Overpower Annodam Highborn Attack 11
You sweep into the enemy’s strike with a vicious attack of your own.
Encounter • Primal, Weapon
Immediate Interrupt Melee weapon
Trigger: An enemy attacks you
Target: The triggering enemy
Attack: Strength vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage and the target misses you.

Stonekeeper’s Rage Annodam Highborn Attack 20
Only the annodam could instill in a person such a hatred of life.
Daily • Primal, Rage, Weapon
Standard Action Close blast 3
Target: Each creature in blast
Attack: Strength vs. AC, one attack per target
Hit: 4[W] + Strength modifier damage and the target is dazed (save ends).
Miss: Half damage and the target is dazed until the end of its next turn.
Effect: You enter the rage of the stonekeeper. Once per round, until the rage ends, you can make the following attack against an adjacent creature.
Standard Action Melee weapon
Attack: Strength vs. Fortitude
Hit: The target is petrified until the start of your next turn.
Aftereffect: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage and the target cannot be petrified again until the start of your next turn.
[/sblock]

 

[malcolm_n]

If you're keeping up with our facebook page here, you'll see that our license went through to include the GSL logo on our books. Yay!

Excitement aside, it's been a busy week for me. I'm putting final touches on this rendition of the world companion and have been continuing ongoing work on our next sourcebook for Cas'Dilae and Yokaizi Deren. Speaking of these two for a moment, I thought I'd take this opportunity to see if there are any other fledgling designers out there who'd like to jump in on some of the work with this world. It'll be a great chance to get work published and earn recognition with a new company.

So, this week, I'll be tackling some of the information I previewed before about the Totemist.

[sblock=Totemist]THE TOTEMIST
The balance of nature must be preserved.

CLASS TRAITS
Role: Leader. You create magical salves and perform powerful dances to protect your allies and defeat enemies.
Source: Primal. The magic of nature surrounds you and gifts you with its potency when you call upon it.
Key Abilities: Wisdom, Strength, Charisma

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather; light shields
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, handaxes, scimitars
Implements: Holy Symbols (fetishes), Totems

Bonus to Defenses: +1 Reflex, +1 Will
Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 5
Healing Surges per Day: 7 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Heal and Nature. From the class skills list below, choose 3 more trained skills at 1st level.
Available Skills: Athletics, Diplomacy, Endurance, Heal, Insight, Intimidate, Nature, Religion

Build Options: Warchief Totemist, Healer Totemist
Class Features: Enduring Renewal, Healing Salve, Resonant Energy

Totemists act as the medicine men and specialist warriors of their people. Through precise dance and chanting, a single totemist can whip his allies into frenzy or protect them from a cascade of fire.
As a totemist, you recognize that, though rare, magic does still exist on the continent of Pnumadesi. You harness some of that power to aid yourself and others during combat.
The threat of the elementals provides you plenty of reason to continue perfecting your use of this magic in the hopes that, eventually, you can pull off more complicated tricks quickly.

CREATING A TOTEMIST
Totemists require Strength for themselves and Wisdom to assist the party. Charisma enhances a totemist’s relationship with magic, which makes it a good choice for several of their evocations. The two totemist builds presented here are the Healer Totemist and the Warchief Totemist.

* this class feature, feat, or power can be found in the D&D 4th edition Player’s Handbook.

 
Healer Totemist
Totemists have the potential to be great healers. To do this, focus on Wisdom primarily for your attacks. Charisma is good in case you want stronger secondary effects. Strength would also be a decent choice for versatility.
Suggested Feat: Medicine Man (Human feat: Formal Practitioner)
Suggested Skills: Diplomacy, Heal, Insight, Nature, Religion
Suggested At-will Powers: Primal Chant, Natural Reprieve
Suggested Encounter Power: Life’s Roar
Suggested Daily Power: Revitalization

Warchief Totemist
Wisdom is still the most important stat when playing a warchief. It helps with your melee and thrown attacks, on which most of your powers are centered. Strength adds to those attacks, and Charisma helps if you need to pick up some healing too.
Suggested Feat: Weapon Focus* (Human feat: Quick Draw*)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Heal, Intimidate, Nature
Suggested At-will Powers: Primal Chant, Drawing Strike
Suggested Encounter Power: Master of the Hunt
Suggested Daily Power: Wild Strength[/sblock]
At this time, the GSL doesn't include a primal leader or defender. Pnumadesi rectifies this by adding the sentinel and the totemist. Although the sentinel isn't a full class of its own, it still functions like one after you've applied it to your base. The totemist is a class in the traditional sense, though. It has it's class features, powers, feats, and paragon paths all to itself.

The idea behind the class is to take an approach similar to a bard. The totemist focuses on rhythm and keeping a beat to keep the magic of his practice going for long periods of time. It's not unlikely to see a totemist dancing around the battlefield, lashing out with his weapons when he draws close to an enemy; or to stand back, beating a drum in faster and slower motions to help keep his party at an advantage over the enemy. To help keep their hands free, totemists have learned to use fetishes, which are in all ways identical to holy symbols. They can also use totems, if they want to.

One of the key aspects we were working toward with the play between the totemist and the sentinel was to have two characters who work well together and with other classes, but each in its own unique way.[sblock=Class Features]HEALING SALVE
You and your allies within 10 squares can use your Healing Salve on yourselves or another ally.

Healing Salve Totemist Feature
You distribute a special concoction of herbs for emergency use.
Encounter (Special) • Healing, Primal
Minor Action Close burst 5 (10 at 11th level, 15 at 21st level)
Special: Any ally of yours within the burst can activate this power as a minor action on their turn.
This power can be used a total of twice per encounter. At 16th level, you or your allies can use it up to 3 times per encounter instead.
Target: You or one ally within burst from you
Effect: The target spends a healing surge.
At 6th level, the target regains an extra +1d6 hit points. Increase the amount of hit points regained to +2d6 at 11th level, +3d6 at 16th level, +4d6 at 21st level and +5d6 at 26th level.
[/sblock]

Okay, all done for this week. Hopefully next week, I'll have more information on a release date. 'Til then.

 

[malcolm_n]

September is the month for the release of the Pnumadesi Player's Companion! I'll zoom in some more on an exact date as we wrap things up with art. Speaking of which, we're adding updated photos to our Facebook page. In addition, here's a preview of that before we get to book information for this week.

[sblock=Ursaren]

[/sblock]

This is the style we decided to use for the art in the Pnumadesi Player's Companion because it helps to envision the world while remaining distinct in its style. To tie in with this picture, I'll be previewing the Ursaren race today.

[sblock=Ursaren Racial Traits]
Average Height: 6’ 10” – 7’2”

Average Weight: 250 – 300 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom or +2 Constitution

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Giant

Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Perception

Surprisingly Agile: You get a +1 bonus to your Reflex defense.

Exceptionally Strong: You can wield a two-handed melee weapon, but not a double weapon, in your main hand. A two-handed melee weapon wielded in your main hand gains the one-handed and versatile keywords.

Giant Heritage: You have the giant keyword and are considered a giant creature for the purpose of effects which relate to creature origin.

Mystical Ties: Choose one implement type. You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls made with any normal implement of the type chosen.

Keen-Eyed Warrior: You can use keen-eyed warrior as an encounter power.



Keen-Eyed Warrior Ursaren Racial Power

You strike at your foe when the time is just right.

Encounter

Free Action Personal

Target: One creature under an effect you have created, such as marked, quarried, cursed, or anything a save can end.

Effect: Until the effect ends, you deal 1d6 extra damage to the target when you hit it with an attack.

Level 21: Increase the extra damage to 2d6



Play an Ursaren if you want…

* To be a just soldier who fights for a cause.

* To fight strong with big weapons at your disposal.

* To be a member of a race that favors the barbarian, fighter, and ranger classes.

[/sblock] The ursaren originally started as an alternative to bugbears from the D&D Monster Manual. After working with the race for a while based on that, it was changed so that they would be bear-headed men, and eventually, the ursaren you will see in the player's companion is the final iteration of this warrior race. Although they were originally one-dimensional as warriors, an ursaren totemist we had in playtest gave us reason to add the mystical ties racial trait so that the race could also play well as a spellcaster.

So, what're your thoughts and opinions on this week's previews? Please feel free to comment here, or on Facebook. Also, Malcolm Northwinter on facebook offers adventure hooks and acts as a somewhat frequently updated gazeteer, in case you want some ideas to work with while you adventure in the world of Pnumadesi. See you next week.

 

[malcolm_n]

A quick update, sorry no preview this time. I'll have another later this week.

I just posted about the Call to Arms! Contest in the Industry Forum. Check it out. We also have the information and a link on the Northwinter Press Facebook Page.

Call to Arms! Contest

 

[malcolm_n]

1) Big news this week. First, today is my last preview from the Pnumadesi Player's Companion. With it, I offer the standing image for the World Companion, which I'm finishing now and preparing to bring to the next step as well. Starting next week, I will have a new thread titled

Pnumadesi World Companion Previews and Updates

I plan to start the process all over and show off some things from the world companion as I put on the final touches and get started on the art for the inside.

2) Next, I mentioned it earlier this week, but don't forget to take a look at the Call to Arms! Contest (link posted above). For the hesitant, the winner gets a free copy of BOTH the digital and the physical book, in addition to seeing (along with the others of the top 5) their story and character incorporated in the world of Pnumadesi. Help shape the world, and win prizes.

3) Speaking of the Player's Companion, I'm leaning toward $14.49 for the digital copy, and $24.99 for the printed book, but that depends on if I stick to soft cover only. With enough digital sales, I'll probably push for hard cover.

Let me know what you think about the binding idea. Would you rather buy a hard cover or soft cover copy of the Pnumadesi Player's Companion. It'll be nice, especially in the first print, to get something out there that the public would want to buy.

That covers it for those updates. For the last book preview of the Pnumadesi Player's Companion, I offer you a look at the watchers.

[sblock=Watcher]
Pnumadesi is sometimes called the continent of two moons by those who live on the other continents of the world. This is because shortly after separating Pnumadesi from Pnumadeja, the magelords established an island the size of a metropolis high in the sky. This island appears to onlookers below as nothing more than a static moon over Pnumadesi. Upon the island live the watchers: heroes from the world’s past who’ve gained status with the council of wizards and earned immortality upon the island as long as they continue to document the happenings on the continent below.

Prerequisite: 21st level

When the wizard’s council of Pnumadesi separated the continent, they were wise not to assume that meant the people of their sister continent would be safe. To keep an eye on it from their capital on Pnumadeja, the mages cast an epic ritual which raised an uninhabited island off their western coast and lifted it high into the sky over Pnumadesi.

Heedless of the water which rushed to fill the missing island’s former location, as well as the change of tides surrounding Pnumadesi as a result of the gravity exuded by the new “moon” as many had come to call it, the mage council hand-picked heroes of their age and granted them immortal life in exchange for their staying upon the island and documenting Pnumadesi’s history.

Heroes of the past have earned a place on the island above Pnumadesi. As a reward for having played a part in the events of the world, the magelords of Pnumadeja welcome you into their trust as well.

You are among those ranks now and have expectations with which you must keep up to maintain your place. Knowing this, do you ultimately take your gift and walk away from immortality, or embrace it and live forever, bound to an island and servitude as a watcher whose purpose is to document the history of the world?

Immortality

Whether you decide to walk that path or not is ultimately your decision. To aid you in making your decision, the magelords of Pnumadeja grant you tastes of power to rival any of your mortal talents.

Accepting the Offer: One last act of heroism cements your place as a watcher from on high. You say goodbye to loved ones and leave to your new home above Pnumadesi. Once there, the magic of immortality takes hold and binds you to the island where you begin to observe the mortals of the land below and track their history.

Watcher Features

All magelords have the following class features.

Epic Ability (21st level): Choose a key ability of your class and increase that ability score by 2.

Taste of Immortality (24th level): When an attack would reduce you to 0 or fewer hit points, you can spend a healing surge as a free action and regain no hit points. Instead, you ignore the damage that would reduce your hit points to 0 or fewer. This effect is cumulative, so the second time during the day in which you would be reduced to 0 or fewer hit points, you must spend 2 healing surges to ignore the damage, and so on.

Watcher’s Attention (30th level): You always go first on initiative, unless somebody else has a similar ability; in which case you roll against that person as normal.

You can always act in a surprise round during combat. This doesn’t allow you to forewarn your allies of an ambush unless you could otherwise do so.

Watcher Power

Watcher’s Gift Watcher Utility 26

Those who watch from above lend you their knowledge of the location of enemies and allies alike.

Encounter • Primal, Weapon

Minor Action Close burst 20

Effect: Until the end of your next turn, you can see all creatures within the area, even if a creature is hidden, invisible, or behind a wall or magical ward.--[/sblock] The common folk of Pnumadesi either don't know, or refuse to acknowledge that the moon which is ever-present in the sky was only put there less than a millenium ago. Particularly valuable heroes, called children of destiny, are sometimes invited to join the ranks of the watchers; a life of immortal service in documenting the history of Pnumadesi.

The concept for the watchers came while we developed the world of Pnumadesi. Up to that point, we knew how things started, and how they would end; but we didn't know the steps from one to the other. Why would the mages just separate the continent and leave its people to suffer? How could they feel they were saving anybody with their actions? Was it truly good intentions that led them to action, or some form of greed and arrogance that led them to do what they did?

All of these questions were generally answered with a "no." Although anybody could admit the mage council isn't the brightest of groups, despite their collected intelligence, few but the longer-lived races even remember a time before the land was separated. The mages were trying to do something good, but because they were in such a hurry, they blew it; they just didn't know that yet. So, we decided to make some go-between. Watchers started as a race, but with the 3 we already had, it felt like cramming too many to be of help. Then they became a variant on a couple classes under the signature powers, but that felt too thin. Finally we decided on an epic destiny on par with the magelord, as it represents those who either pass up the mantle of leadership or don't have the arcane training necessary for the job.

And so, the moon sits as it has, unmoving for 1,000 years. The World Companion features a great shot of the island of the watchers, as well as the protector of Pnumadesi, the wizard Diaden.

[sblock=Pnumadesi World Companion Cover]

[/sblock]