Questions that came up

[Tellerve]

OK tonight my group made up their characters and started asking questions, some of which I couldn't answer right then.

So...here they are, and while I did just look over the FAQ I may have missed something that was already answered so sorry if that happens.

1. Page 293, what is up with the Occultist's Arcane Research. I don't get how many scrolls they get and how they get more. At 2nd level they get 3...now at 3rd do they get 1 more or 4 more? Also, once those very few are gone how do they get more? It doesn't have any rules on finding or researching more. I as a GM have to feed them to her. It seems like a pretty lame ability as written, so I'm hoping I'm reading it wrong.

2. With the new sniper stuff up on WotC site what is going on with the normal scope. Is the scope in the Md20 book the same as those telescopic scopes? Should the new telescopic scopes supercede those and be the defacto standard? Also, what happens if you have Far Shot and Dead Aim and use those new Telescopic scopes that give you those feats?

3. If you have a gunslinger with two weapon fighting, can or can he not use lightning shot while using two pistols? This one I wanna say I read that he can't but would love to know why? Balance...too many bullets whizzing from this kind of character setup?

Thanks,

Tellerve

 

[Mistwell]

Posted your questions for Charles Ryan. Will let you know when he responds.

 

[Tellerve]

Thanks Mistwell, although I found another question.

Page 214, Strangulation.

It says that the stragling attempt incurs an attack of opportunity. But then says that to begin the choke the attacker must succeed at an opposed grapple check. So, my question is that incured AoO from the starting the grapple or is there an addition AoO for attempting the strangling?

Tellerve

 

[FCWesel]

You can only make a single AoO against a single target in any given round, even if you have Combat Reflexes, which allows more AoOs possible for a character.

 

[Mistwell]

Originally posted by Charles Ryan:
[QB]

Originally posted by Mistwell:
[qb]1. Page 293, what is up with the Occultist's Arcane Research. I don't get how many scrolls they get and how they get more. At 2nd level they get 3...now at 3rd do they get 1 more or 4 more? Also, once those very few are gone how do they get more?[/qb]

The arcane research (scrolls) ability represents the Occultist's ability to pore through her research materials and figure out how to create spells, in scroll form, from those materials.

The table shows how many new scrolls are attained at each level; the number of new scrolls you get at 3rd level is 4. At 4th level you get 5 scrolls with 1st-level spells and 2 with 2nd-level spells. Etc.

An occultist can get additional scrolls in the same way that characters can get any type of magic item--by buying them, looting them from defeated enemies, being given them by clients as rewards for completing assignments, etc.

[qb]2. With the new sniper stuff up on WotC site what is going on with the normal scope. Is the scope in the Md20 book the same as those telescopic scopes? Should the new telescopic scopes supercede those and be the defacto standard? Also, what happens if you have Far Shot and Dead Aim and use those new Telescopic scopes that give you those feats?[/qb]

Rich Redman posted some revisions to his column on these boards (see this thread) that should clarify this issue a bit.

[qb]3. If you have a gunslinger with two weapon fighting, can or can he not use lightning shot while using two pistols?[/qb]

He can use the ability--but make sure you read the rules correctly. He gets one extra ranged attack per round--not one extra attack per weapon.

Hope that helps![/QB]

 

[Mistwell]

For what it is worth, Rich Redman, in the thread linked in the above message, said that the following info from Charles Ryan should be considered an update to his article, and he will be adding it in to his article and re-posting it to the WOTC page soon.

The standard scope in the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game represents a typical 3x to 7x telescopic scope. There are more powerful scopes out there (up to 12x), but they should probably carry more severe penalties for use (such as requiring two or more attack actions to acquire the target, requiring a Concentration check to use, and/or the user being effectively blind to anything except the target). Higher-powered scopes might multiply the range increment by 2 or even 2.5--but probably not more than that. (There's a lot that goes into range increments other than the quality of the sighting device. The range increment for a standard scope is multiplied by 1.5, even though the scope magnification is 3x to 7x.)

As for bonuses, scopes already do that by increasing the range increment (and thus decreasing the range penalty). Imagine shooting a weapon with a range increment of 100 ft. at a target 550 ft. away. You suffer a -10 penalty on the attack. With a scope, your range increment becomes 150 ft., so you suffer only a -6 on the attack. That's like getting a +4 bonus compared to the weapon without a scope!

Finally, when wondering about the long ranges that some snipers achieve, remember that the benefit of the Far Shot feat stacks with the benefit of a scope. So even with a basic standard scope, a sniper with the Far Shot feat actually doubles the range increment of his weapon.

 

[Tellerve]

Ok, I have to say the Occult's "scroll ability" is horrible. Why on earth, sheesh. I mean, every other extra character in the back gains spells and can use them over and over. Or psionic powers. An occultist has enough for maybe one adventure and then they are stuck without any more scrolls? I thought a sign of something not good in a character class is when direct DM intervention had to make it happen. I as a DM will have to leave neat little scrolls squirreled away for my occultist otherwise she is just sitting around twiddlin' her thumbs.

I really don't see the point in this, there should be some timed research check or something to allow them to pour over their old tomes and make a new scroll.

As it is I don't think it'll much matter for me as I'm only going to DM a few sessions as we wanted to try it out, so after burning through those 7 1st level scrolls, hopefully we'll be at the end of the adventure. *shakes head* I just see this is a really underpowered class.

If I'm horribly off base please enlighten me.

Tellerve

p.s. Ok I see that Far shot with a scope helps, but what about Dead Aim, as that was mentioned in the WotC article as something those scopes gave you while using them.

p.p.s. The question about strangulation was I guess worded wrong. I know you can only do one AoO on a person a round. But lets say your already grappling, and then try a strangulation, does it provoke an AoO? Since it says it does but then mentions attempting to grapple I was confused. I didn't know if this was an oversight. My reason for asking is imagine people are already grappling and one is strangling the other. The one being straggled breaks the strangulation. If the strangler wants to strangle the stranglee again, does it provoke an AoO. Hmmm, maybe I'm making this too hard and I should just assume it provokes an AoO

 

[Mistwell]

Ok, I have to say the Occult's "scroll ability" is horrible. Why on earth, sheesh. I mean, every other extra character in the back gains spells and can use them over and over. Or psionic powers. An occultist has enough for maybe one adventure and then they are stuck without any more scrolls? I thought a sign of something not good in a character class is when direct DM intervention had to make it happen. I as a DM will have to leave neat little scrolls squirreled away for my occultist otherwise she is just sitting around twiddlin' her thumbs.

I really don't see the point in this, there should be some timed research check or something to allow them to pour over their old tomes and make a new scroll.

Honestly I suspect this is a linguistic/communication problem. I think by "new" Charles thought you meant "spell never seen before" and not "new scroll of spell they have already cast before". I assumed they could create scrolls of spells they already knew how to prepare before from their research. But I don't know that for sure...so I will ask for a clairfication.

 

[Tellerve]

Ok, but, if they then say have 7 spells they have found in a book and can copy to scrolls there are no rules governing time and materials to copy those scrolls. So then we swing the other way and have an occultist running around with 150 scrolls of these spells.

I'm assuming it was an oversight somewhere and there should be some rules somewhere on how long it takes them to copy down scrolls and how much it costs. Otherwise I don't see why they wouldn't stock up.

Tellerve

p.s. Thanks for asking "the man"

 

[Dismas]

Ok, I have to say the Occult's "scroll ability" is horrible. Why on earth, sheesh. I mean, every other extra character in the back gains spells and can use them over and over. Or psionic powers. An occultist has enough for maybe one adventure and then they are stuck without any more scrolls? I thought a sign of something not good in a character class is when direct DM intervention had to make it happen. I as a DM will have to leave neat little scrolls squirreled away for my occultist otherwise she is just sitting around twiddlin' her thumbs.

IMHO the occultists real power lies not with the spell casting, but with the ability to bind and banish shadow creatures.