Unearthed Arcana Variant Rules - Previews and Questions

[Mercule]

Defense bonus is based only on armor proficiency as a class feature.
It doesn't stack with armor bonus, but with all other bonuses (even with shield and natural armor bonuses).
And yes, that means all 1st-level fighters get AC 16 by default.

Sounds like a good reason for all Monks to take a level of Fighter. That should put them at the top of the AC food chain (where they belong, IMHO).

I don't think I'm going to like this option, but we'll see.

Pity, really. I delayed the start of my campaign for two months because I expected to use a fair amount out of this book and didn't think it was fair to ask players to change thought process mid-stream. The two most anticipated variants, for me, were the magic system and the defensive bonuses. I think I'll prefer the way defensive bonuses were done in WoT and SW d20. Since I'm not a fan of the AU psuedo-sorcerer style nor of spell points, I'm not sure the UA version will see the light of day in my game, either.

*sigh*

Oh, well. I never planned on using the whole thing. If 1/3 of the book is usable in my game, I'll consider it a good buy. (Hey, WotC announced going into this that not all the options would be compatible, so there should be no complaints about that.)

 

[Silveras]

Good. I'm not the only one. I'm still not sure where this notion that the sorcerer is underpowered relative to the wizard comes from.

I am currently playing in a campaign where the DM throws a variety of situations at us. My sorcerer is keenly aware that a wizard would be of far more use in this setting.

Much depends on the campaign. If the DM does not give out enough magic items to increase the Sorcerer's versatility, and the campaign uses a variety of challenges, the Sorcerer is much crippled compared to the wizard. On the other hand, if the campaign has a fairly consistent type of challenge, the Sorcerer's extra slots and flexibility of using any spell known helps make them more potent than a Wizard.

 

[yipwyg]

Paragon Races

I was wondering how close are these to how Arcana Unearthed Racial classes are. In Arcana Unearthed you can take either take a racial or standard class level, each time you raise a level. I am wondering this, because one of my groups is playing in a game where we are using the book Savage Species. In Savage Species you must take all of the levels in your race before taking any standard class levels.

Thanks for any info.

 

[TwoSix]

This book sounds pretty darn cool. I've got a question on the gestalt classes, though. Is it possible to combine a core and a prestige class into a gestalt? I'm not sure how the abilities would be spaced out, considering the varying levels of the prestige class. Don't need any hard and fats rules, just if it's possible. I love the concept, though, its given me some great ideas for a high-powered campaign I was planning on running!

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Regarding the Defense bonus, how does it stack with armor?
Will the armor as damage reduction and defense bonus systems work well together?

I'm considering using the Wounds/Vitality, armor as damage reduction, and defense bonus systems all together. Are there any major snags?

 

[Stalker0]

Good. I'm not the only one. I'm still not sure where this notion that the sorcerer is underpowered relative to the wizard comes from.

A lot of logical debates and player experience There are a ton of threads on this forum about that topic alone.

Let me get this defense bonus thing straight... basically I got a 16th level wizard. I takes one level of fighter, and he now has the defense bonus of a 17th level fighter?

 

[jasamcarl]

A lot of logical debates and player experience There are a ton of threads on this forum about that topic alone.

Let me get this defense bonus thing straight... basically I got a 16th level wizard. I takes one level of fighter, and he now has the defense bonus of a 17th level fighter?

Well, duh. But I've never seen one account that has been particularly convincing.

 

[jasamcarl]

I am currently playing in a campaign where the DM throws a variety of situations at us. My sorcerer is keenly aware that a wizard would be of far more use in this setting.

Much depends on the campaign. If the DM does not give out enough magic items to increase the Sorcerer's versatility, and the campaign uses a variety of challenges, the Sorcerer is much crippled compared to the wizard. On the other hand, if the campaign has a fairly consistent type of challenge, the Sorcerer's extra slots and flexibility of using any spell known helps make them more potent than a Wizard.

Yeah, but the game is fundementally designed and balanced around combat. In almost all cases, the sorcerer has enough spells known to cover most of the bases, especially now that they can trade in low-level combat spells for utility as they rise in level. So in most tactical situations, the sorcerer will dominate. And if, when you say a variety of challenges, you are referring to a monster with an odd immunity/save set, the wizard, minus copious use of divinations, will be caught with his pants down just as often as the sorcerer. There simply aren't that many spells that see constant use.

And, given a standard treasure allotment, they can make up the rest of either the utility or 'weak save' ground with little difficulty.

 

[TwoSix]

Gestalt

More thoughts about gestalt classes... I really like them, but I'm not going to go along with all the rules for them. (Isn't that funny? I'm house-ruling the book of house rules. ) I think I'm going to assign averages to most of the numeric abilities, like saving throws, BAB, skill points, etc. That way they'll be really good, but not everyone will be taking monk to get all good saves, for example. A monk/wizard will have avg Fort, avg Ref, and good Will, for example. I'll just have to make some tables for average saving throw, and semi-good and semi-bad BAB progression.

More thoughts....how many core classes are there? With just the 11 core classes, there are 55 gestalt combinations. If you throw in the 4 core classes from MiniHB, and 3 from CW, that makes 18 core classes, or 153 gestalt combinations. The mind boggles...

 

[Trainz]

I'm DEFENITELY going to use the spontaneous cleric as NPC support for my players.