Urban Class Features (Cityscape web enhancement)

[Hidden Master]

Hats off for the excellent article, Mouse. I'm considering offering to run a Ptolus campaign when my group wraps up Shackled City late this year, and if I do this is going straight into my house rules. I'll be looking forward to Part 2!

 

[Voadam]

Ari, how would you nonmechanically describes what happens with riposte (the skirmish replacement ability) when there is a ranged attack against the scout? Similar to skirmish I can easily visualize the melee mechanics happening but the ranged attack bonus is nonintuitive for me.

 

[green slime]

Very Cool Ari. Looking forward to that next enhancement.

 

[Mouseferatu]

or do a d20 Haven writeup or something.

See, I think that'd be a blast. There are very few licensed properties that I think really lend themselves to a D20 conversion, but I'd be all over this one.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Ari, how would you nonmechanically describes what happens with riposte (the skirmish replacement ability) when there is a ranged attack against the scout? Similar to skirmish I can easily visualize the melee mechanics happening but the ranged attack bonus is nonintuitive for me.

It does, I admit, require a little bit of suspension of disbelief. But I view it as the scout being willing to stand in the line of fire, calm and collected, long enough to line up a kill-shot and take advantage of any openings offered to him.

Have you seen Unforgiven? Picture the end scene, where bullets are flying every which way and Clint Eastwood kills every fool in the room. Like that.

 

[Mallus]

Turning into an animated sedan chair, pillar, mailbox or a paving stone just doesn't have the je ne sais quoi.

What if you turned into an animated Colossus of Rhodes? Or, failing that, one of the stone lions outside the main branch of the New York Public Library?

Or the Statue of Liberty! Picture the Statue of Liberty punching out Godzilla in New York Harbor! I'm not sure what that has to do with D&D, but, nevertheless, its a pretty cool image.

BTW, nice work, Mouse. I really could have used this when I was working up my homebrew, coincidentally enough, called 'CITY'. A lot of my house rules resembled yours... only not as good.

 

[Voadam]

It does, I admit, require a little bit of suspension of disbelief. But I view it as the scout being willing to stand in the line of fire, calm and collected, long enough to line up a kill-shot and take advantage of any openings offered to him.

Have you seen Unforgiven? Picture the end scene, where bullets are flying every which way and Clint Eastwood kills every fool in the room. Like that.

I have, thanks. I vaguely remember the scene. Its funny, when I first read the skirmish ability I thought of a movie scene too. Daniel Day Lewis with his knife running around gutting people in Gangs of New York. Which is also partially why applying it to missile fire didn't do it for me when the fighting style didn't fit the mechanics.

 

[Klaus]

What if you turned into an animated Colossus of Rhodes? Or, failing that, one of the stone lions outside the main branch of the New York Public Library?

Or the Statue of Liberty! Picture the Statue of Liberty punching out Godzilla in New York Harbor! I'm not sure what that has to do with D&D, but, nevertheless, its a pretty cool image.

BTW, nice work, Mouse. I really could have used this when I was working up my homebrew, coincidentally enough, called 'CITY'. A lot of my house rules resembled yours... only not as good.

Well put!

An urban druid, imho, shouldn't turn into an average object, but into an object that is representative of the city he's in. Like turning into one of those red London phone booths.

 

[Greg K]

Hmm. I just realized something. There was no substitute ability for the barbarian's trap sense. There are not a lot of mechanical or animal traps to avoid in a city environment (unless you are breaking into a dwelling or business). However, I could see some urban barbarians and rogues being streetwise and adept at spotting deception, and spotting ambushers in the shadow.

What about applying the trap sense bonus to Sense Motive and Spot instead?

 

[Tonguez]

Theres Danny the Street to use as a model of City Soul (although he is more a Urban Genus Loci)

and I'm sure turning into a wall can be fun - although I might just go with the 'merge' variant rather than a pure shapechange....

oh yeah Go to Ground is cool too