Trailblazer Teasers (collected)

[joela]

more than 10 minutes

It will certainly change the pace and the feel of your game. Essentially, by mutual agreement (the players want to rest, and you want to allow it) the PCs will be able to enter every fight "fresh."

We're just codifying that style of play-- that "hand wave" agreement-- that probably already exists in most games.

And if you're not willing to allow them to rest, then a big upside for the DM is that you only have to "think ahead" in 10-minute chunks.

Quick question: If the PCs take more than ten minutes, let's say, 20 minutes, to rest, and it's a static dungeon, and they don't use Reserve points, do the PCs only get the benefits of the 10 minute rest regardless how long they really rested?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Quick question: If the PCs take more than ten minutes, let's say, 20 minutes, to rest, and it's a static dungeon, and they don't use Reserve points, do the PCs only get the benefits of the 10 minute rest regardless how long they really rested?

Each rest counts if it's needed.

There are reasons to take rests back-to-back. Sometimes one rest is not enough to bring the party back to full status; sometimes the spellcasters want to ready different spells.

Consider for example taking a rest to refresh spell slots and get some key utility spells (lesser restoration, key divinations, etc.). After the first rest, these spells are cast; then, the party rests again to switch those spells out and refresh the spell slots.

 

[Greg K]

[*]Paladins get full access to the cleric spell list. (Bless Weapon and Holy Sword become class abilities.)
[*]Rangers get full access to the druid spell list.
[*]Paladins and rangers have "true" 1/2 caster level-- their spellcasting ability starts at 1st level (with 0-level spells) and can go as high as 5th level spells. (20th level Paladin = caster level 10.)
[/LIST]

I am very happy to see that you are giving Paladins and Rangers 0 level spells at first level. Way back when 3.0 was released, I stated that, imo, the Paladins and Rangers should have had either received 0-level spells beginning at 1st level, no spells (and bonus feats at a lesser rate than the fighter), or have been PrCs.

On the other hand, I am not fond of Rangers getting full access to the druid spell list and Paladins full access to the Cleric's list. I think that I would prefer redistributing the current PHB spells over the new levels and throw in a few extra cleric or druid spells for the Paladin and Ranger respectively.

What are you having the Paladin and Ranger give up in exchange for the increased spellcasting rate?

 

[joela]

rest 10 minutes+

Each rest counts if it's needed.

There are reasons to take rests back-to-back. Sometimes one rest is not enough to bring the party back to full status; sometimes the spellcasters want to ready different spells.

Consider for example taking a rest to refresh spell slots and get some key utility spells (lesser restoration, key divinations, etc.). After the first rest, these spells are cast; then, the party rests again to switch those spells out and refresh the spell slots.

Gotcha. So the party could rest for 20 minutes and get their full hitpoints back without using a Reserve Point. However, they could not rest that 20 minutes without using an RP to regain more than Rote spells.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

On the other hand, I am not fond of Rangers getting full access to the druid spell list and Paladins full access to the Cleric's list.

Then you're going to hate our "unified spell progression" fix for multiclass spellcasters.

The bottom line is that "known spells" is not really a particularly good way to balance classes against each other. It perhaps could be, without the bulk of additional sources of spells constantly changing the mix. But over time as more spells are added to the game, it's not doing much.

The question to ask yourself, in terms of balance, is how big a deal it is for a 10th level character to be casting 3rd level spells or a 19th level character to be casting 5th level spells.

If our "paladin" were instead a 10 Ftr / 10 Clr mix, or our "ranger" were a 10 Rog / 10 Drd mix, I am confident there would be folks telling me that was an unviable mix.

A 20th level character with a 10 caster level! Worse than lame. Useless!

Right?

What are you having the Paladin and Ranger give up in exchange for the increased spellcasting rate?

Not a thing. They're getting an increased caster rate to bring them closer in line to the power that the cleric and druid currently enjoy.

(That's not entirely true-- they both lose something, but they didn't lose it "in exchange" for anything.)

We've brought the druid down a little bit and brought everyone else up accordingly. The class breakdowns will be completely laid out for your inspection so you can see how much everyone gained, and why.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Gotcha. So the party could rest for 20 minutes and get their full hitpoints back without using a Reserve Point. However, they could not rest that 20 minutes without using an RP to regain more than Rote spells.

Correct!

 

[joela]

any more

Correct!

sweet.

any plans to preview other sections of trailblazer? would love to see how you balance out the classes, for example.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

any plans to preview other sections of trailblazer? would love to see how you balance out the classes, for example.

Tell me how you want them:

I can start previewing classes immediately, without the context of the class breakdowns and design notes (though you've seen the foundations of this in the GM's Day preview).

Or you can get them after I've finished all my design notes.

This is perhaps not surprising, but polishing up the design notes for presentation is actually the hardest part of this writing process. I'm a trained technical writer, but there's just so much I can do with 20-tab excel sheets.

I don't mind previewing them immediately, but there's a lot of moving parts that add context to some of the changes. You won't fully understand the spellcasters without understanding the unified spell progression; you won't fully understand the melee classes without understanding combat reactions; etc. There are also some even more subtle things-- take note of how many spells on the druid's spell list are Restricted (due to their long duration). That's a big balancing factor with the 10-minute rest-- druids spend more of their action points refreshing their spell slots.

Let me know-- and let me know if there's any particular order you'd like to see them in.

 

[joela]

class preview

Let me know-- and let me know if there's any particular order you'd like to see them in.

You're a tech writer? Coolio? What field? I used to work in aerospace, then programming before burning out and switching to blogging. (Yes, you can make a living blogging.)

Regarding preview. Oh, my. Sure, let's take a look at them, starting with the core classes: cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard. Maybe you can then post CoDzilla later.

 

[GlassJaw]

You're a tech writer?

Heh, there are two tech writers working on this project. Speaking of burnout, I used to write defense field manuals.