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<blockquote data-quote="Tormyr" data-source="post: 7308770" data-attributes="member: 6776887"><p>Wow, thank you. That was extremely helpful. I considered everything carefully and made many adjustments based on your feedback. Here are some places I decided to still keep things close to their original version and some of the reasons why. Feel free to tell me whether you still think the options are somewhat off balance. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> It may look like I said, "I am not so sure about that," a lot, but it is because you gave me so much good feedback to work with.</p><p></p><p><strong>Paragraph Indentation</strong></p><p>I think it is common to not indent the opening paragraph of a section. That is the default in my application and also the default in the WotC books. I do not have a copy of any Manuals of Style to reference, but I imagine that the commonality is not a coincidence. The exception seems to be that the first paragraphs of chapters are indented unless there is a drop capital letter. I just decided to stick with the default.</p><p></p><p><strong>City Sidebars</strong></p><p>I took your advice and mined the 4e player's guide for content and shifted the city stat blocks to sidebars or paragraphs as the 4e version had them. There is not really time to write up new content for a loss-leader product.</p><p></p><p><strong>Gate Pass Connections</strong></p><p>Civic-Minded: The intent here was to bring forward the 3.5 bonus feat rather than duplicate the Mastermind feature (which I had not been aware of). I am thinking that the feature only helps in combat, because anyone can take the help action out of combat without needing a proficiency. The power of this is to make the Help action a bonus action. More often it means that it will be used to Help grant advantage to the next attack from an ally. It only helps with one attack, and to use it consistently, the PC must be within 5 feet of a target. This probably means they are going to be hit a lot.</p><p></p><p>War Mage: I believe this ability is balanced by two things: the <em>cancel</em> spell, which any spellcaster can take, and the fact that you cannot move as part of your reaction. Any spellcaster must stay in the open when they are charging a spell. Because the spell has a casting time of 1 action, it is already cast, and the spell slot has been used (the same as if your ready a spell). If you take damage and fail the concentration check or are hit by <em>cancel</em>, you lose the spell slot. So it is powerful, but there are ways to counter it, and enemies are aware of them.</p><p></p><p><strong>Feats</strong></p><p>East/West Wind Style: I put the multiclass requirement in on the suggestion of one of my players. The reasoning was, "This only works for a multiclassed character. If you put the prerequisite on it, people will not take it when they cannot take full advantage of it." While it does make the transition a bit clunky and require some planning, it fits the flavor and enables a multiclass option that would otherwise not work (at least for East Wind Style).</p><p></p><p>Shining Warrior: Because of the Shahalesti origin of the feat and their magical focus, I wanted to keep the light cantrip requirement. This essentially means that it is only open to High Elves, Eldritch Knights, and other combinations that have access to the cantrip and use a weapon. In some ways it is "racial feat lite".</p><p></p><p>Spellduelist: I think this is the balancing force to all the counterspelling that will go on in this campaign. A spellduelist has more control over whether someone will counter their spell. If no one tries to counter the spellduelist's deception or they are all fooled, the spellduelist can safely cast their spell. If someone realizes the deception, the spellduelist can switch down to a cantrip or a different action other than a spell and not risk the spell slot.</p><p></p><p><strong>Spells</strong></p><p>Cancel: There were a couple reasons I kept this. 1) Inquisitors can use one of their Channel Divinity uses to counterspell. There are significantly fewer of those in 5e. This gives them a second option. 2) It is available to all spellcasting classes. 3) It provides a counter to spells that have a casting time longer than 1 action or abilities that enhance a spell when the casting is extended beyond 1 action.</p><p></p><p>Duelist's Etiquette: I forgot to update this. While the casting time is 1 minute, and characters would have trouble using it in combat, I see your point and will clarify that further.</p><p></p><p>Gabal's Superior Missile: While the 3.5 version was as second level spell, it had an additional dart, and from caster level 3 it had the same number of darts as magic missile. From that point on it was exactly the same damage as magic missile aside the differences were in the special mode and the range. 3.5 magic missile had a range from 110-300 ft. based on caster level while Gabal's ha a range of 30-125 ft. Comparing this with 5e, magic missile has a slight increase over the 3.5 baseline at 120 ft. I did not think the 5e Gabal's would really work at 30-40 feet. In the end I went for half the range of magic missile although I suppose I could knock it back to 50 feet, but that means the effective range is 5-10 feet less (or more) when having to go around cover. Even though you can fire from cover, it does not stop someone from lobbing in an area effect spell to make you lose concentration, use <em>cancel</em>, or have all targets run out of range. All of which would cause the spell to be lost.</p><p></p><p><strong>Leader Feats</strong></p><p>I reworded a bunch of them. Anything that references a 1-minute speech should now stack with the original leadership performance benefit. By the way, did you notice the restrictions on leader feats in general under the section heading? I thought that would restrict Necrotic Leader and Primarl Leader to being necessary (although I did add the living keyword to clarify things since undead got smarter in 5e). I really wanted to keep the Leader Feats and Commander archetype separate so other classes could use Leader Feats and someone could be a Commander that only used Direct Orders if they wanted to. I get the reaction to feat chains, but I wanted to keep the Leader Feats somewhat powerful, and that means (at least to me) that there has to be a higher cost to get the rewards.</p><p></p><p>Legendary Leader: While powerful, I think it is okay for a several reasons: 1) you still need a 1-minute speech, so it is not available on a whim. 2) It can be hard at times to stay within 30 feet of each other. 3) It will take most characters 3 ASIs to get it which usually means 8th level at the absolute earliest. 4) It only lasts an hour, which means that there will be many occasions that it does not cover more than one encounter. 5) Most PCs will only have 5 of Leadership Performances per day. 6) The bonus action Dodge is taking up the bonus action that the allies might want to use for something else.</p><p></p><p>Iron-Willed Leader: I rewrote this a bit. The first benefit now stacks with leadership performance. I kept the second benefit as is because it allows you to use your Charisma (Performance) check (which you have advantage on) to stand in place of the saving throw. This allows you to counter difficult saving throws such as those by high-level dragons which your allies may be mathematically unable to counter.</p><p></p><p>Maneuver Leader: This and the second benefit of Iron-Willed leader use a leadership performance partially because of how powerful they are. This provides a mini nova damage for the party. With this, the Commander has to decide whether to use this to help take out an enemy now or have another use of legendary leader later (or vice-versa).</p><p></p><p>Necrotic Leader / Primal Leader: I think the clarification I added to living targets for the Leader Feats in general helps here. This is designed to work with necromancers / druids. These two are specifically called out as magical because it is more than your words of your speech that help. It is your (or your ally's) magical connection to the undead / beasts that allows the feat to work. The speech is more for yourself or your ally. It is definitely niche, but a dozen skeletons or wolves under the boost from leadership performance (skeletons with 17 temp hp and Dodge as a bonus action!) would be very powerful.</p><p></p><p>Spellwise Leader: The only reason I think this would not be over-balanced is that it could allow a Commander and a couple of spellcasters to wipe out a legendary creature's legendary resistances in a couple rounds. I also think I might go back and switch the language to, "targeted by or took damage from a spell from another ally." This would allow two area of affect spells in succession to force disadvantage on a saving throw to an entire group.</p><p></p><p>Operations Leader: I took out the prerequisites and reworded it a bit but kept Stealth and Deception in for their respective benefits. This way you can still have the coordination benefit at the least.</p><p></p><p><strong>Commander</strong></p><p>I want to keep the Leader feats separate from the Commander for a few reasons: I want the Leader Feats to have a real cost to them that only the Commander can take advantage of to their full potential. 2) I want a player to have the option to have a non-Charisma Commander that only uses Direct Orders. I think the other Leader Feats are too powerful related to their cost if Commanders get Leadership Performance for free.</p><p></p><p>Tactical Genius is very strong, but I am not sure if it is overwhelmingly so. In essence it is a free surprise round once a day that excludes the Commander as it only helps their allies. It starts at 18th level. So players will only see this in the last 2-3 chapters. Additionally, while it is allows any number of allies within 60 feet to act, that does not have as much of an effect in this adventure path. Each encounter is balanced for 4 PCs and contains a note on how to scale the encounter so the challenge is roughly the same for parties of different sizes than 4 PCs. While a large party will get lots of free attacks or opportunities to buff each other, the encounter should be able to take it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tormyr, post: 7308770, member: 6776887"] Wow, thank you. That was extremely helpful. I considered everything carefully and made many adjustments based on your feedback. Here are some places I decided to still keep things close to their original version and some of the reasons why. Feel free to tell me whether you still think the options are somewhat off balance. :) It may look like I said, "I am not so sure about that," a lot, but it is because you gave me so much good feedback to work with. [B]Paragraph Indentation[/B] I think it is common to not indent the opening paragraph of a section. That is the default in my application and also the default in the WotC books. I do not have a copy of any Manuals of Style to reference, but I imagine that the commonality is not a coincidence. The exception seems to be that the first paragraphs of chapters are indented unless there is a drop capital letter. I just decided to stick with the default. [B]City Sidebars[/B] I took your advice and mined the 4e player's guide for content and shifted the city stat blocks to sidebars or paragraphs as the 4e version had them. There is not really time to write up new content for a loss-leader product. [B]Gate Pass Connections[/B] Civic-Minded: The intent here was to bring forward the 3.5 bonus feat rather than duplicate the Mastermind feature (which I had not been aware of). I am thinking that the feature only helps in combat, because anyone can take the help action out of combat without needing a proficiency. The power of this is to make the Help action a bonus action. More often it means that it will be used to Help grant advantage to the next attack from an ally. It only helps with one attack, and to use it consistently, the PC must be within 5 feet of a target. This probably means they are going to be hit a lot. War Mage: I believe this ability is balanced by two things: the [I]cancel[/I] spell, which any spellcaster can take, and the fact that you cannot move as part of your reaction. Any spellcaster must stay in the open when they are charging a spell. Because the spell has a casting time of 1 action, it is already cast, and the spell slot has been used (the same as if your ready a spell). If you take damage and fail the concentration check or are hit by [I]cancel[/I], you lose the spell slot. So it is powerful, but there are ways to counter it, and enemies are aware of them. [B]Feats[/B] East/West Wind Style: I put the multiclass requirement in on the suggestion of one of my players. The reasoning was, "This only works for a multiclassed character. If you put the prerequisite on it, people will not take it when they cannot take full advantage of it." While it does make the transition a bit clunky and require some planning, it fits the flavor and enables a multiclass option that would otherwise not work (at least for East Wind Style). Shining Warrior: Because of the Shahalesti origin of the feat and their magical focus, I wanted to keep the light cantrip requirement. This essentially means that it is only open to High Elves, Eldritch Knights, and other combinations that have access to the cantrip and use a weapon. In some ways it is "racial feat lite". Spellduelist: I think this is the balancing force to all the counterspelling that will go on in this campaign. A spellduelist has more control over whether someone will counter their spell. If no one tries to counter the spellduelist's deception or they are all fooled, the spellduelist can safely cast their spell. If someone realizes the deception, the spellduelist can switch down to a cantrip or a different action other than a spell and not risk the spell slot. [B]Spells[/B] Cancel: There were a couple reasons I kept this. 1) Inquisitors can use one of their Channel Divinity uses to counterspell. There are significantly fewer of those in 5e. This gives them a second option. 2) It is available to all spellcasting classes. 3) It provides a counter to spells that have a casting time longer than 1 action or abilities that enhance a spell when the casting is extended beyond 1 action. Duelist's Etiquette: I forgot to update this. While the casting time is 1 minute, and characters would have trouble using it in combat, I see your point and will clarify that further. Gabal's Superior Missile: While the 3.5 version was as second level spell, it had an additional dart, and from caster level 3 it had the same number of darts as magic missile. From that point on it was exactly the same damage as magic missile aside the differences were in the special mode and the range. 3.5 magic missile had a range from 110-300 ft. based on caster level while Gabal's ha a range of 30-125 ft. Comparing this with 5e, magic missile has a slight increase over the 3.5 baseline at 120 ft. I did not think the 5e Gabal's would really work at 30-40 feet. In the end I went for half the range of magic missile although I suppose I could knock it back to 50 feet, but that means the effective range is 5-10 feet less (or more) when having to go around cover. Even though you can fire from cover, it does not stop someone from lobbing in an area effect spell to make you lose concentration, use [I]cancel[/I], or have all targets run out of range. All of which would cause the spell to be lost. [B]Leader Feats[/B] I reworded a bunch of them. Anything that references a 1-minute speech should now stack with the original leadership performance benefit. By the way, did you notice the restrictions on leader feats in general under the section heading? I thought that would restrict Necrotic Leader and Primarl Leader to being necessary (although I did add the living keyword to clarify things since undead got smarter in 5e). I really wanted to keep the Leader Feats and Commander archetype separate so other classes could use Leader Feats and someone could be a Commander that only used Direct Orders if they wanted to. I get the reaction to feat chains, but I wanted to keep the Leader Feats somewhat powerful, and that means (at least to me) that there has to be a higher cost to get the rewards. Legendary Leader: While powerful, I think it is okay for a several reasons: 1) you still need a 1-minute speech, so it is not available on a whim. 2) It can be hard at times to stay within 30 feet of each other. 3) It will take most characters 3 ASIs to get it which usually means 8th level at the absolute earliest. 4) It only lasts an hour, which means that there will be many occasions that it does not cover more than one encounter. 5) Most PCs will only have 5 of Leadership Performances per day. 6) The bonus action Dodge is taking up the bonus action that the allies might want to use for something else. Iron-Willed Leader: I rewrote this a bit. The first benefit now stacks with leadership performance. I kept the second benefit as is because it allows you to use your Charisma (Performance) check (which you have advantage on) to stand in place of the saving throw. This allows you to counter difficult saving throws such as those by high-level dragons which your allies may be mathematically unable to counter. Maneuver Leader: This and the second benefit of Iron-Willed leader use a leadership performance partially because of how powerful they are. This provides a mini nova damage for the party. With this, the Commander has to decide whether to use this to help take out an enemy now or have another use of legendary leader later (or vice-versa). Necrotic Leader / Primal Leader: I think the clarification I added to living targets for the Leader Feats in general helps here. This is designed to work with necromancers / druids. These two are specifically called out as magical because it is more than your words of your speech that help. It is your (or your ally's) magical connection to the undead / beasts that allows the feat to work. The speech is more for yourself or your ally. It is definitely niche, but a dozen skeletons or wolves under the boost from leadership performance (skeletons with 17 temp hp and Dodge as a bonus action!) would be very powerful. Spellwise Leader: The only reason I think this would not be over-balanced is that it could allow a Commander and a couple of spellcasters to wipe out a legendary creature's legendary resistances in a couple rounds. I also think I might go back and switch the language to, "targeted by or took damage from a spell from another ally." This would allow two area of affect spells in succession to force disadvantage on a saving throw to an entire group. Operations Leader: I took out the prerequisites and reworded it a bit but kept Stealth and Deception in for their respective benefits. This way you can still have the coordination benefit at the least. [B]Commander[/B] I want to keep the Leader feats separate from the Commander for a few reasons: I want the Leader Feats to have a real cost to them that only the Commander can take advantage of to their full potential. 2) I want a player to have the option to have a non-Charisma Commander that only uses Direct Orders. I think the other Leader Feats are too powerful related to their cost if Commanders get Leadership Performance for free. Tactical Genius is very strong, but I am not sure if it is overwhelmingly so. In essence it is a free surprise round once a day that excludes the Commander as it only helps their allies. It starts at 18th level. So players will only see this in the last 2-3 chapters. Additionally, while it is allows any number of allies within 60 feet to act, that does not have as much of an effect in this adventure path. Each encounter is balanced for 4 PCs and contains a note on how to scale the encounter so the challenge is roughly the same for parties of different sizes than 4 PCs. While a large party will get lots of free attacks or opportunities to buff each other, the encounter should be able to take it. [/QUOTE]
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