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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cheiromancer" data-source="post: 4914550" data-attributes="member: 141">A few thoughts.  Mostly things that I have doubts or misgivings about.  In no particular order except the last: I have serious worries about the rest mechanic.the big sixI have my doubts about the analysis of the big six.Suppose a party with the big six encounters an "optimal encounter": they hit 70% of the time, make their saving throws 70% of the time, kill an opponent after X hits (what's the optimal value for for "X"?), but are only knocked down after Y hits (what's the optimal value for "Y"?), etc..What happens if this party loses their big six items?  They hit less often and do less damage, thus eliminating their enemies more slowly: their enemies get more attacks in, and these are mitigated less by the party's hit point totals (due to lower Con), poorer saves (vs special attacks) and so they drop more party members.  More enemies versus fewer party members means that a death spiral could easily ensue.Mind you, action points could mitigate these dire effects, but a character can only use an AP every other encounter, whereas the big six have their effect multiple times each round.It seems that the big six will swing the combat considerably more than the analysis in the PDF suggests. The analysis talks about the effect of the big six on saves and hitting/being hit, but neglects the other pieces and the synergy that they have.  It wouldn't surprise me if an optimal encounter with the big six could turn into a TPK without them. choose your best savesThis is a clever fix to the problem of multi-classing on saves, but it occurs to me that not all saves are equally valuable.  Very bad things can happen to you if you fail a fortitude save- you might die or be paralyzed or something.  Equally bad things can happen if you fail a Will save- you run in panic or get dominated or something.  But if you fail a reflex save it typically only means that you take full rather than half damage.Now things could be systematically reworked so that the saves *are* all equal- make Fortitude and Will less important by eliminating the save or die spells and giving saves every round for save or suck spells, and make Reflex saves have higher stakes (Reflex saves to avoid falling in lava, say).  But I'm a little worried that all characters will have saving throw profiles typical of clerics.stupid characters?The changes to skills (more skill points, more consolidation of skills) would seem to make intelligence less important than it is now. Except for wizards, of course.  It wouldn't surprise me if Intelligence were a more common dump-stat in trailblazer campaigns.I also wonder if there will be more monotony in skills chosen.  With only +3 difference between having a class skill and a non-class skill, everybody will be able to be perceptive, stealthy and acrobatic. It seems that the consequence will be less diversity in character skills.the rest mechanicAny ongoing spell effects on your person are dispelled when your rest iscomplete, regardless of any duration they may have remaining. This doesnot apply to spells with instantaneous or permanent durations; howeverit does apply to spells both beneficial and harmful, regardless of theirorigin.This is quite a nerf to spells like mind blank, hero's feast and other multi-encounter buffs.  What's worse is that the spell-slots expended for these spells are not recharged. It seems like certain spells are being triply penalized for having multiple targets, area effects and/or long durations: first they start out as higher spell levels; second they are dispelled during a rest; and third the spell slots used to cast them are discharged for the day (unless an AP is used).The same holds true for certain baneful spells. Take Charm Monster -its duration goes from a week or more to 10 minutes after the victim next stops to rest.I'm also afraid that the rest mechanic will constitute an "action tax" on spell casters. A wizard who wants to regularly cast fireball or magic circle against evil or buff the party with mass bear's endurance etc. will need to spend an action point each time the party rests.  But she only gets 6 AP per level, and many of these will be needed for other purposes.Instead of paying this tax, the wizard might insist on resting for 24 hours.  Then we have the 10 minute adventuring day all over again.---------I hope these concerns do not reflect real problems, but only my misunderstanding of the rules.  I'm busy with school and haven't had the time or energy to devote to this PDF that I would have liked.</blockquote>

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