Note to self - things to fix for EOM

[RangerWickett]

If you follow the Elements of Magic Revised threads, you know that a few issues have come up with some of the rules. As they've come up, I've pondered them and posted suggestions for changes. I want to put out an errata pdf at some point, and update the EOM-R pdf (probably no patch this time, though, since I don't want multiple patches floating around), and this thread is a place for me to keep a reminder for myself of everything that will need to go into that errata file.

If you read through here and see that I'm missing something, please let me know.

General: It'd be nice to have a list of cantrips and 1-MP spells for all the spell lists, to help players jump into the system.

Abjure:

Charm: The daze/hold/stun issue.

Compel: A line mentioning making people think they're taking damage.

Dispel: Antimagic Spell Resistance and supernatural abilities.

Divination: Need to include a cantrip divination.

Evoke: Evoke Acid needs to melt things.

Heal:

Illusion: Fixing Illusion Force, clarifying Nature.

Infuse: Drain Time should not use 3.0 terminology of 'partial actions.'

Move: Teleporting should be a move action, not a full-round action. As is, it takes two rounds to teleport, one to cast, one to go.

Also, when you use Move Force to move objects or spells, you can give the spell a basic instruction that it will follow without mental control. So you could say, "stay within 5 ft. of me."

Scry:

Spellcraft:

Summon:

Transform: Basing it on level adjustment, not CR.

Magic Items: When discussing permanently dispelling magic items, fix the text so it says 'pay XP' instead of 'pay MP.' This is right before Example Thirteen.

 

[Verequus]

Because I am in the long process of creating a FAQ-file, both for having all questions on one place and finding unanswered questions, I've discovered the post of PugioilAudacio, which you have answered, but you never have incorporated the uncovered errors. Consider it as a first batch, because I have still some errors noted elsewhere.

page 37 - first column 3rd paragraph, towards the end: "Once a happiness, anger, fear, or confusion effect wears off, though, the creature will realize they were being influenced. Note that this only applies to happiness, anger, and confusion effects."
Should this be "only applies to happiness, anger, confusion, and fear effects?"

Yep. My error.

page 42 - second column, Mind Modify (4 MP) heading: "The knowledge or modification only lasts as long as the spell’s duration, and you must spend about one round concentrating to change the creature’s memory.
Left out the word "spend". Also, why does it say 'about' one round?

It’s supposed to give GMs a little leeway. The player says, "I want to make him think he’s a duck," and the GM says, "That’ll take a bit several minutes." The player says, "Okay, instead, I want to make him think I’m a rich nobleman from the city of Freeport, and that a few years ago I lent him money when we was down on his luck, and that he said he’d repay the favor," and the GM says, "That will still take two rounds, about as long as it took you to say it." The player finally says, "Okay, instead, I want to make him think I’m a duck, and that I never attacked him," and the GM says, "Okay."

The rule should more accurately say: "The knowledge or modification only lasts as long as the spell’s duration, and you must spend about one round concentrating for every piece of information or event you change. Extremely complicated and detailed memories may take slightly longer to create, at the GM’s discretion. In general, if it takes more than a minute to explain what the memory is, it should take several rounds to implant the memory."

page 45 - second column, Create Lava heading: "You cannot create lava to surround a creater ..."
Left out the 'r'.

Actually, I left out more than that. It should be ‘surround a creature.’ Oops.

page 49 - first column, end of first paragraph: "As detailed in the Magical Skills section, a caster makes the check using his own ranks in the skill, or a number of ranks equal to the MP cost of the skill, whichever is higher."
It sounds like it should be "or a number of ranks equal to the MP cost of the SPELL".

Should be "or a number of ranks equal to the MP spent on the skill." So if, for this spell, I spend 5 MP on Dispel Magic and write down the spell, you can cast the spell as if you have at least 5 ranks of Dispel Magic.

page 50 - second column, last bullet on bulleted list: " Not counting general enhancements, the armor is a 3 MP effect,"
What is this saying? So what if the armor is a 3 MP effect, it doesn't seem to affect the rules at all, as the DC listed to dispel the armor is 11 + caster level 4, not 3.

The armor is a 3 MP effect, which means that to dispel it, you’d have to either spend 3 MP, or increase the DC of the check by +3. Some of that paragraph is extraneous, but the intent was that, even though it’s just a 3-MP effect, you can’t dispel it because you have no MP left. To be more precise, that bullet entry should say:

* 18 for the armor (11 + caster level 4 + 3 not enough MP). Even though Ursus could not fail this check, he cannot dispel the armor’s magic because his dispel attempt has no MP left.

page 52 - second column, Fire Guard spell: "Make the Dispel Magic echeck..."
There is an e before the word "check".

page 56 - first column, Fatigue (2 dice) header: "fatigued creature gets an effective -2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity, cannot run or charge."
Left out an 'and' by "Dexterity, [and] cannot run or charge".


page 56-57 - In the Crystal, Earth, and Metal categories it says that these attacks deal bonus [damage type] damage - and to see the Nature heading for details. However, it does not seem to list the actual amount of bonus damage dealt by these attacks, either under their own heading or under the Nature heading.

Ah, okay. My brain was glitching when I wrote that. There’s no bonus damage, but rather, as a benefit, these Evoke spells deal piercing, slashing, or bludgeoning damage. So you could, for example, use Evoke Earth to hurl bludgeoning stones and deal extra damage against glass objects, since the PHB suggests that bludgeoning attacks could ignore the hardness of glass, or could deal double damage.

page 58 - first column, Mild header: "The slime lasts can affect up to Medium creatures."
The word "lasts" doesn't belong here.

page 59 - first column, Arctic Blast spell: "This impact damage is not energy damage, so energy resistance does not protect against it, but DR does. A successful Reflex save halves this damage."
It appears like the reflex save only works against this (2d6 of) impact damage. However, given that there is no ranged touch attack for the 3d6 ice damage, the save should probably apply to that damage too.

Yeah, the reflex save sentence needs to be somewhere else. The save does apply to the whole spell. It was just a problem with trying to put two qualifiers on the same effect.

page 59 - second column, Horrorstrike spell: "Developed by a vicious ghostly mage, this spell can be cast on the ethereal plane but still affect the material plane."
This spell uses the space side effect - which says that damage from this spell can only affect either the Material or Ethereal planes. Therefore, the text should probably read "can be cast on the ethereal plane but can only affect the material plane."

When you cast the spell, you choose whether to affect ethereal or material. However, the spell can only affect one at a time, and that isn’t spelled out perfectly clearly.

 

[RangerWickett]

Also I need to remove the text for regaining MP on page 17, and perhaps replace it with a slightly more detailed explanation of what MP is.

 

[Kemrain]

Create Alignment, unless it's going in Lycean Arcana. You should be able to make a Holy Sword that deals Good damage with each hit under EoMr.

- Kemrain the [Evil]

 

[Verequus]

How about including swift and immediate actions from the psionics? This rule change gets propagated further and further at Wizards - from the Miniatures Handbook over XPH to Complete Arcane. It will be only a time, then will be Quicken Spell officially changed to this rule - why not doing it now, if we can?

And a word over "verb + noun" from Arthur Reyes. I'd like to see an introduction, which uses this kind of explanation: "A spell list is a combination of one of the 11 verbs and of one of the 42 nouns. The verbs are referred to Action type and the nouns are referred to Effect type from now on." Makes it easier for new players and doesn't end in a entire rewrite - also are Action and Effect type better descriptions for the actual mechanics behind.

 

[RangerWickett]

I was thinking of multiclassed spellcasters, and I think a few small changes might make it easier for a 10th level fighter to take 1 level of mage and actually benefit from it.

Should classes with no spellcasting ability grant a +1/4 caster level advancement, which only can be used if you actually have levels in a real spellcasting class?

I do know I want Extra MP to grant bonus MP equal to your character level, not just your caster level.

Any other ideas?

 

[Verequus]

I was thinking of multiclassed spellcasters, and I think a few small changes might make it easier for a 10th level fighter to take 1 level of mage and actually benefit from it.

Should classes with no spellcasting ability grant a +1/4 caster level advancement, which only can be used if you actually have levels in a real spellcasting class?

Isn't this the Unearthed Arcana rule? While I see the merit of it, I don't believe, that +1/4 caster level is enough, if you think of a caster level as the MP threshold - in this case it should be at least +1/2 caster level advancement. But if you mean real caster levels, so that a Fighter 4/Mage 1 has the spellcasting abilities of a Mage 2, then... I don't know. It is one of the cases, where the line is fine between overpowered, underpowered or exactly right. Playtesting is the only possibility to find this out. Apropos playtesting - does your gaming group use EoMR? Your several threads indicate otherwise.

I do know I want Extra MP to grant bonus MP equal to your character level, not just your caster level.

Extra MP is the feat, right? If yes, then it is a good idea.

Any other ideas?

Like I said in Kemrain's House Rule Thread, Spell List Familiarity should be useable on Action types, not on single spell lists.

In EoMR you referred on page 19: "Friendly elements are adjacent to each other, while opposing elements are on the opposite sides of the sphere." This should be corrected.

I'd like to see a rule, which allows the replacing of a minor respectively of a moderate boon, if you choose a moderate respectively a major boon, which can be considered as a scaled magic boon (e.g. Spititual Mediums and Sixth Sense boons). This motivates the choosing of some minor boons, which are likely to be ignored by a powergamer.

Page 42: "Telepathic Domination (7 MP). For the spell’s duration, you may command the creature whenever you want from any distance, with any level of complexity." While you said, it won't extend on other planes, it would be nice to see that mentioned.

And again some errors, you've missed to correct.

Page 24: "Diogenes’s Deshackling (Dispel Magic 13/Gen 2)": The spell is a Dispel Magic 14/Gen 1.

Yes, it is incorrectly listed as 13/2 on page 24.

Page 34: only the table has the text "Energy Weakness", the surrounding text mentions still "Energy Resistance".

Page 35: Desert Cloak: You have mentioned "300 degrees", but not that they are in Fahrenheit, not the equivalent in Celcius (150°) nor, how do you calculated the figure (the last thing should be mentioned in the Abjure List itself).

Page 45: "Create Air": "farhenheit" instead "Fahrenheit".

Page 46: "Create Light", "Create Shadow": Do they cancel each other? At least Evoke Shadow has an influence on Create Light, but why not vice versa?

Of course they negate each other.

This isn't mentioned. Also, Create Shadow has no space, which separates it from Create Ooze.

Page 48: "Pocket Armory": "Thee can be any weapons and armor of your choice,..." "Thee" instead "They".

Dispel Magic: "Dispel Magic can dispel (but not counter) the ongoing effects of supernatural abilities as well as spells." The new 3.5 core rules don't allow this anymore.

I could’ve sworn I got the ‘dispel supernatural abilities’ text from the 3.5 PHB. Hrm. Well, since most such abilities don’t have MP costs or caster levels, just ignore it.

Page 49: Counterspelling, Example Two: "TheDC is 34 (11 + caster level + 0 for...". Obvious.

Page 51: "Example Six: Ursus is generally cautious of being spyed on,...". "spyed" instead "spied".

Page 56: "Putrify Food" instead "Putrefy". I've looked that even up.

Page 57: "Life - Life": What can protect against the Mild effect? Abjure Life?

Nope. If you use the mild side effect of Evoke Life, you change the way the spell deals damage. It should have been spelled out, but no, Life resistance will reduce the damage, but it won’t stop it from being mental.

Page 58: "Time - Temporality: If an Evoke Time spell is save-based, it allows a Will save instead of a Reflex save." Shouldn't that be worded like the other examples? "Evoke Time spells that allow saving throws for half damage require Will saves instead of Reflex saves."

It was just that, when we cleared up the wording of that effect on other Evoke spells, we didn’t clear it up for Evoke Time.

For clearing up your Transform revision:
Page 71: "Move Life": A permanent Move Life used for possession allows someone to take over the body of dragon and kill his own former body. This lets some questions open: What happens to the hit dice? Do I gain the racial hit dice of my new body? Do I gain all ex-, su- and sp-abilities? What happens, if a (permanent) dispel affects me?

If you’re in the body, you’d have all your class-based hit dice, plus all the racial hit dice appropriate to that body. You’d have all that body’s appropriate abilities. Your GM will probably want to adjust your effective character level, but hey, if you manage to force your way into a dragon’s body, good for you.

If you’ve made the spell permanent, and a temporary dispel is used, your soul is forced out of your body, akin to the spirit wander effect. If your original body is still alive, the two souls go back to their normal sides. Otherwise, your soul’s just ejected and the body lies limp. If the dispel is permanent, and your original body is dead, you die too, and may end up as some sort of uneasy spirit if your GM wants. Your new body lives on in a coma-like state.

The "partly transformation"-option should say something in the lines: "You can choose to transform yourself partly, like having bear claws instead hands. The resulting CR has to be examined like a new race, which is the corresponding modified base form of your own race without any class levels." Of course, this isn't something what can be done on the fly, but with the above mentioned CR system it is possible.

I didn’t want to allow you to increase mental ability scores. And yes, that’s pretty much what I was shooting for, with the warning that you should not let casters ‘research’ creatures that are inappropriate for their type. For instance, no humanoids with natural breath weapons.

Page 72: "Move Nature": No explanations are given for Snowstep, Waterwalk and Airwalk. "Move Space": What category is a place which has been scried upon?

Snowstep lets you walk on snow or ice without making balance checks. Waterwalk lets you walk on water as if it were solid ground. Airwalk lets you walk on air as if it were solid ground. I thought that seemed obvious enough. If you’ve scryed on a place, it counts as ‘Viewed Once,’ unless you’ve scryed on it a lot.

Page 88: "...(base 10, 10 from MP, and 10 from psuedo-ranks)." Obvious. "you’ll usually want to combine this with some sort of inescapable death trap." This sentence is used twice - maybe one time too much.