Unearthed Arcana Variant Rules - Previews and Questions

[NewbyDM]

i read through all the pages, but couldn't find anything about contacts.
Just curious here and thanks for all the info up to now

 

[Tarril Wolfeye]

Contacts:

Your character has some unnamed contacts, that you may define at any time in the game, giving you access to a friendly NPC.

Characters get contacts by class.
Bard - every 2nd level
Clr, Pal, and Rog - every 3rd level
Ftr and Sor - every 4th level
Bbn, Drd, Mnk, Rgr, and Wiz - every 5th level

There are three types of contacts:
Information Contacts - useful for what they know
Influence Contacts - useful for who the know
Skill Contacts - useful for what they do

when you get a contact from your class you must select the type of contact, but you don't need to define it further until it's needed.

 

[Saeviomagy]

And, if you apply the formula above, there are a few totems that just plain fall short. The Wolf Totem gains a couple feats in exchange for giving up the dodge features, but effectively gets shafted for losing Trap Sense.

OTOH, he gets a powerful feat without needing the prerequisite, which is a stat that is one of the least important to barbarians (ie - int), and is a feat that is certainly sub-par for a barbarian (because you can't use expertise when you rage).

 

[Felon]

The sorcerer is just a 3.0 patch for people who didn't like spell memorization.

I always figured it was just a way for the DM to give monsters spellcasting without all of the accoutrements (the requisite spell book, figuring out how many spells they know, assigning the daily preparation of spells, etc). Of course, a spell point system may not be as DM-friendly as vancian magic.

OTOH, he gets a powerful feat without needing the prerequisite, which is a stat that is one of the least important to barbarians (ie - int), and is a feat that is certainly sub-par for a barbarian (because you can't use expertise when you rage).

Excellent point. Quite true.

And glad to see somebody actually acknowledged the darn post after all the effort that went into it.

 

[AeroDm]

And glad to see somebody actually acknowledged the darn post after all the effor that went into it.

I acknowledged, just didn't want to post an 'agree.'

As for contacts- are they an optional rule that everyone gets, require a feat, or what?

 

[Woas]

Battle Sorcerer sounds killer. The contacts sound fun too.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Gestalt:
It's really simple: Choose two classes, take the better Hit Dice type, the better base attack bonus, the better base saving throw bonuses, the most skill points, all class skills, take all class features.
A few caveats: shared class features accrue at the rate of the faster class, spells/day of two classes are kept serarately, no combining two prestige classes and you shouldn't use prestige classes that already are class combos.

interesting. When you say that the spell lists are kept seperate, I take it you mean that you can't use your "druid" slots to prepare a "sorcerer" spell...Are there any other spell casting restrictions?

It occurs to me that with double the "powers" and the same hit dice, your ability to deal damage would outstrip your ability to take it even moreso than now... It there a list of recomended or non recomended combos?

Kahuna Burger

 

[Kichwas]

Contacts:

Your character has some unnamed contacts, that you may define at any time in the game, giving you access to a friendly NPC.

Characters get contacts by class.

when you get a contact from your class you must select the type of contact, but you don't need to define it further until it's needed.

I've always disliked aspects of roleplay given as benefits of experience / leveling in a roleplaying game.

"So Anagar, how did you meet the Baroness DuFarlia?"

"Well, I killed four orcs in the southlands."

"And...?"

"They where barbaric, so I noticed a sudden surge in power after killing them, and suddenly people I've never met or heard of before where hanging out at my pad, despite me doing the deed in complete secrecy."

Having rules for handling contacts is great, but getting them should be part of the roleplay, not just an arbitrary benefit of killing Orcs...

 

[Kichwas]

There is no excuse for not playtesting.

None.


A well playtested and edited product versus one rushed out is the difference in the consumer between looking at it and saying "I've got to have this to use in my game - and make all my players buy it" versus "Too much work to be usable in my game, I'll shelve my copy and tell my players they don't need to pick it up. Matter of fact, I'll sell my copy on eBay/local store's used section to some other sucker."


It also impacts future sales, as the consumer loses faith in the company. I and my group no longer buy all but the most vital of WotC's products, and then only one of my players does so. In the past, I had several who kept current with all releases, even for settings we weren't using.

The financial solvency of my players today is about on par with what it has always been, I as the prime purchaser am one of the few who had a major drop in income (dot-com crash turned me from senior programmer to unemployed university student). So our drop in purchasing is not motivated by a drop in income.



I for one could stand to wait another year to buy a book done right. Especially given that it's all variant rules - nothing in it is 'needed' until the moment I see it and feel "I gotta use this". If it's all done as shoddily as the import of Mutants and Masterminds Damage Save appears to have been done, or as poor in balance as the Spell Points were done, then there won't be anything I can use anyway...

Both of those ideas can be done right, and they should be done right before people lay out money. Likewise for any other new or old idea in the book.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

"So Anagar, how did you meet the Baroness DuFarlia?"

"Well, I killed four orcs in the southlands."

"And...?"

"They where barbaric, so I noticed a sudden surge in power after killing them, and suddenly people I've never met or heard of before where hanging out at my pad, despite me doing the deed in complete secrecy."

This is funny. It made me laugh out loud.

Patrick Y.