What new rules did you like?

[Greg K]

As for the poll,

Affiliations: I like the idea, but don't like the mechanics.

Devotions: The only things that I recall liking from Complete Champion were the spellless Paladin and Ranger variants which I felt were long overdue considering that similar unofficial variants have been floating around since 3e

Divine Feats: I like them except for divine metamagic

ToB Maneuvers: No thanks. I really dislike the mechanics and per encounter nature. Give me the maneuver system from Book of Iron Might.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

My stingy buying habits show themselves; I only have direct experience with Divine Feats, more specifically Divine Might as possessed by the paladin in my .sig. 'Spend one of your 8 turn attempts to add +5 damage for the round' is the whole reason I didn't try to trade out Turn Undead for some other ability (like I did the mount, Remove Disease, and Detect Evil).

I happen to think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, though.

 

[Nifft]

Retrain: Not bad. Sometimes, the scarcity of resources in D&D advancement can really catch up to you in a bad way. A parachute is nice.

Rebuild: Not so much. Nothing a GM shouldn't be able to come up with on his own. It should be rare enough to not warrant space in a book.

Binders: Wicked cool. One of my favorite add-ons.

DR by material: This was an innovation of 3.5. It also matched up almost perfectly with the house rule I'd been using since the mid 1980s.

I agree with the bottom two completely.

I don't know what the difference is between the top two.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Riley]

You missed reserve feats, which seem to now be directly integrated into the spellcasting classes.

I love Reserve Feats. Indifferent on the rest. Especially indifferent towards the affiliations.

 

[Mercule]

The only things that I recall liking from Complete Champion were the spellless Paladin and Ranger variants which I felt were long overdue considering that similar unofficial variants have been floating around since 3e.

What are these like? There are versions in Complete Warrior (IIRC) that I didn't care for overmuch. I'm especially interested in the spell-less ranger.

 

[Nifft]

What are these like?

Basically a bonus feat at 4th, 8th, 11th and 14th levels, when you'd gain a new level of spells. It provides lists of feats specific to each Combat Path, too.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mercule]

I don't know what the difference is between the top two.

Retrain lets you swap out a feat, a spell, or a few (four, IIRC) skill points. If you discover at 12th level (as my wife just did) that the Elf Dilettante feat pretty much blows, you can swap it out for Mobility to open up that tree. There are some restrictions and it's pretty much minor tweaks -- pick one thing to change each level and run it by the GM.

Rebuild is more of an "oops, I didn't mean to take a level of rogue at 2nd level." It could also entail changing race or ability scores. I allowed one PC in my game to convert two levels of noble to two levels of wizard after making a pact with a demon (yes, she's screwed). Obviously, that's not something you're going to want to happen in every campaign, so I didn't think it warranted the space it got in PHB2, which included three or four example quests (a couple pages each) and rules for the mechanics.

So... retraining minor build issues = good and rebuilding significant chunks of the basic character concept = bad under most circumstances.

 

[Arnwyn]

My votes:

- Affiliations are the best thing since dice!
- Divine feats make baby Pelor cry.
(I have no idea what Devotion/Domain feats are.)
- Bo9S Manuvers are a sign of the apocolypse.

I absolutely despise Divine feats. Yeah, lets give the cleric even more options, abilities, and power. They're dead and gone in our games.

I love affiliations with all my heart and soul. Finally, a nice set of mechanics and guidelines to chart one's progress in an organization. I'm shocked this wasn't thought of years (and years) ago.

 

[Nifft]

So... retraining minor build issues = good and rebuilding significant chunks of the basic character concept = bad under most circumstances.

Cool, thanks.

IMC, the PCs can be totally rebuilt during any down-time (and when they don't know the details of the next adventure). So I guess I support both, because my players don't abuse either.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Cadfan]

I agree that rebuilding was unnecessary. It should have been a paragraph in the DMG giving general advice on when and whether to permit a player to alter their character to fix a mistake they made while advancing.