-Quivering Palm mentions monsters that can't be crit'd.
Awesome, thanks. I wish more folks would help us track down those little things so the print version can be "100%."
-The section on rote/restricted/ritual seems way too brief and out of the way. It never gets brought up again (except on the spell sheets in the back). Seems like a fundamental enough point to mention in several places.
I'm a bit torn here because I have competing objectives-- one of which is to keep the rules compartmentalized.
-I second the call for a list of the SRD spells r/r/r categorization. This should be in the main book. I had exactly the same question about magic missile.
If Glassjaw has it done when I get back from my trip-- which I doubt, because he's been busy with other things-- then it will definitely go into the book. Otherwise, it will go into the PDF.
-As far as the design intent goes--coming from someone who hasn't followed the design discussions or played 3.x in a while--the 10 minute rest and r/r/r distinction is meant to diminish the cost to the party as a whole to keep moving? I ask because, if I'm reading it correctly, it doesn't eliminate the incentive to engage in the 10 minute adventuring day and scry-buff-teleport to your heart's content.
I think the main benefit of that rule is to dispense with the hand-wave of 24 hours that already occurs, and hand-wave 10 minutes instead.
However, when you combine it with the r/r/r spells and action points, it has the ancillary benefit of influencing spellcaster spell selection for the better. If scry and teleport are both on your Ritual list (and I recommend just so), they'll cost 1 action point
each to refresh those spell slots. That does not eliminate the tactic but it does provide a disincentive.
The DM may need to disincentivize this strategy even further, and we'll share our thoughts on that when we tackle MAGIC as its own work.
-What does this system do to the average length of fights (in rounds) over the 20 level span? I ask partly because the classes still grant a massive number of spell slots at high levels.
Well, I can certainly say that action points in the hands of the bad guys will extend the length of combat beyond the wizard's first and only action...
More to your point, the rest mechanic makes it more likely that the PCs will enter their fights "fresh." Of course that is completely up to the DM and how much pressure he puts on the players-- which is no different than the status quo with respect to the "normal" 24 hour rest period.
-After skimming the analysis, I wasn't entirely clear on the punchline about the Big Six. It seems like the difference between an 80% success rate and a 99% one is enormous in terms of play experience. Did I miss a summary statement of their importance and what to do in low-magic games without them (or where they are rare)?
Yes indeed-- the 80% game is the better game.
A 70%-ish success rate is optimal, IMO, in terms of the psychological satisfaction gained from the balance of success vs. risk. A success rate of 50/50 is too low (the game feels like a crap shoot) and a success rate of 95% is too easy (there's no sense of risk).
-Rules for quick-picking items when making characters over 1st level would be wondeful. I wrote up a system myself that conformed to the wealth guidelines back in the 3.x days, and its one of the things I like about 4e (whether their numbers are right is immaterial--I like the idea). Having to spend gold and the possibility of concentrating it to narrowly or spreading it out too diffusely was a headache for running one-shots.
Sigh. This is certainly an instance where my playstyle prejudices will show through. I'm definitely not an advocate of letting players "pick" their magic items; there is a big difference between the items that accrue to PCs as a result of growing "organically" from 1st level, and just picking them a la carte off a list.
But to answer your question, go to page 13, and just add up all the entries from 1st to Xth level-- this is the total "per party" allocation of treasure for 4 PCs. Then let the players divvy up the items however they see fit.
You may-- or better yet, may not-- allow the PCs to sell off any lower level items they don't want.
