On the right track with spell build?

[Primitive Screwhead]

Metamagic goes on a case by case basis.. alot of the feats are pointless, others not so much as you have pointed out.

Alternatively, you could alter the Feats so they slightly reduce the cost of mixing the spell. For instance, Energy Admixtures could grant you 2 bonus MP that can be spent beyond your MP limit when casting an Evoke that uses two energy types.

Of course, I haven't even had an EoM character dip into metamagic, the bonus boon feat is much more tempting

 

[Gooba42]

I could definitely see that being the case.

Have you played with traditions at all? At the moment I'm all starry eyed, ready to reimplement all my casters as traditions but before I dive in, I thought it might be prudent to consult an expert

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

No where near expert...

Genshou, Ranger Wickett, or Thanee should jump in here and save us

My players were a bit reticent about how complex the system was, so I ended up running a mixed game where one adventurous soul played under EoM and the others played Core. The only time we used a tradition was with a Druid..and that worked out pretty well.

The highest level I have really played with was 8th level, so its not like I stress tested the system.

 

[Gooba42]

I'm wandering into uncharted territory then... par for the course.

I think I really like the idea of class features implemented as tradition feats. It also gives me some flexibility to play with the alternate class features from PHBII. If I really had guts, I'd go wipe my existing classes out of RPGXplorer and re-enter everything EoM style.

Thanks for the help thus far. I think by Game Night I'll have gotten as much as I'm going to get.

 

[Gooba42]

This thread is drawing out further and further but I guess I'm still on-topic here..

Using a Transform spell list, I can increase the CR of a creature 1 level for each 2 MP spent.

Is it then reasonable to build a spell that confers a Template to a character for the same cost through an associated list? This seems like it'd probably be easier on a mechanical basis than changing to a different type of creature altogether.

i.e. Using Transform Dragon 4 to grant the Half-Dragon template for the duration of the spell?

I'm a serious template collector and I really like this idea but I don't have the chops to know if it's a good fit.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I don't see why not.. I have a partially abandoned project of codifying an EoM to Upper Crust CR chart where you could pay the cost for the type and for special abilities.. kind of a 'build your own creature' approach to transform on a plain mechanical approach ala PHBII wildshape rules.

A cost for adding templates would be good, and we have some core spells/feats to guage the power level from. Of course, some templates are more equal than others...

But, a 2MP per +1 CR would suffice for a SWAG, and is probabaly a much less intensive solution than what I was working on. A standard rule that any templating has a minumum cost of 2MP and you cannot have an end result CR above what your normal Transform would be limited to...

In other words, if you could at best Transform something into a CR 7 critter, you cant grants a template of +2 to a CR 6 creature...

It would be pretty easy to take your collection of templates and guage them as 'weak +1', 'normal +1', 'strong +1' and cost them at 1 MP, 2 MP, and 3 MP respectivly.

Actually this might be a better route than full transformations as it would be easier in play instead of recalculating everything

 

[Gooba42]

Awesome! Just what I was looking to hear!

I'm looking at the Advanced Bestiary index and it caps out at a +6 template so this is right on track with the EoM chart.

I may, for the meantime, have exhausted my supply of questions.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I look forward to hearing how this works out in play

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

The first level advice is sort of the conclusion I came to for my own purposes. The book as written is a bit hard to absorb, to really *get it*, I started a character sheet and worked up a level 5 character using one of the classes in the first chapter. Everything started to click once I had a sort of working knowledge of the system.

I've had this problem, too. EoM is really hard to wrap your head around at first, but it's so worth it ^^

Unfortunately, most of the people I play with aren't as good with rules as me, so I don't get to use it as much as I want.

 

[Gooba42]

I've had this problem, too. EoM is really hard to wrap your head around at first, but it's so worth it ^^

Unfortunately, most of the people I play with aren't as good with rules as me, so I don't get to use it as much as I want.

In my current game they're all newbies. I figured it was probably best to introduce this as an option early before there were any habits or expectations built up.

Nobody's taken the bait yet, but they're all a little timid about even the core rules so I can't say as I'm too surprised.