New Expansions - New Content - Post your favorites here

ZamuelNow wrote:As far as Pheromones, I think this should be priced as and balanced around 2 racial trait points and/or a single utility talent so it'll be easier to plan the balance point and easier to get multiple different pheromones if someone wants.  Obviously, any of my suggestions can be ignored due to balance or Zarhon disliking the change proposals.
Retyped stuff and made it a little less wordy in parts.
Mentioned using a pheromone to simply negate other emotions. Wonder if it should be overtly changed to state one overrides another.
Removed Maddening Pheromones since it makes things incredibly unpredictable and thus hard to balance.  If kept, you have a typo stating 1d6 when it's actually 1d8
Changed Psionic Pheromones to Control Pheromones.  I think it fits your original goal but is less overtly powerful and feels more like a pheromone than just raw telepathy.  (Speaking of which, I still think Detect Thoughts should be Read Thoughts but that's sorta outside the scope of this thread)
Changed Stinking Pheromones to Poisonous Pheromones.  Nerfed it some but devs are probably better at exact numbers.
Sorta nerfed Nightmare Pheromones since it seemed crazy good as it was.
Changed Raging Pheromones from a trigger to a timer.  Reduces raw control but also makes the user a viable target for the victim's rage.  May potentially be able to remove the persuasion penalty due to the danger to yourself.

Pheromones - Racial:

Most of these seem pretty good. The main "body" of the pheromones description could use some cutting, though (but at the same time, can't allow for abuse loopholes).

Perhaps an alternative for maddening pheromone's effects is to have them cause something akin to "voices in head" from infection, and a overwhelming feeling of paranoia?

Maddening Pheromones
Creatures infected by these pheromones wildly hallucinate, seeing and hearing things that aren't there, and quickly develop a mental trauma. Choose one of the effects:
- The creature gains an intense, irrational phobia of an object or occurance they can see or is near them, chosen randomly.
- The creature becomes intensely paranoid, distrusting all creatures, becoming completely unable to tell friend from foe, and willing to act rashly if given any "proof" of foul play or "betrayal". Persuasion checks or other communication attempts automatically fail against it - it only trusts what it sees.
- The creature is unable to tell apart, describe, or recall the appearance of any creature, seeing them all as same, generic, identical copies of each other.
- The creature mistakes the identities of creatures it sees as those of other creatures it knows or has seen before.

Also came up with more pheromone ideas:

Mind-numbing Pheromones
Creatures affected by these pheromones have their mental capacity shut down. They become unable to read, comprehend, or otherwise communicate via any languages or forms of communication, barring the simplest of gestures or pictures. They are also unable to use Knowledge or Horse Sense skills.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:So you are perfectly okay with the conjured weapon trait and its upgrade, vastly overshadowing every single other 2 trait/conjured weapon combinatiom? Because currently, it is. It is by a LONG SHOT.

Eh, depends on what you want to do in the fight. With two traits (or 4000 Gold), I can do 2d10 damage to six enemies every turn I have Flametounge, or have Resist 3 and gain Temp HP whenever I am hit with Shield of Valor, or do a Turn 1 Thundercrash (1d20 damage and stun to six enemies), or have an extra 12HP of bloodedness (which, if I am healed during, I go back to 0HP before the heal) with Blood Weapon, and then you have the things which don't buff up the weapon's potential but gives more options, like Conjurer's Pet or Oversized Sword and whatnot...

Celestial is one of the most powerful combinations that focuses *soley* on using a single conjured weapon. That's sort of the point. It's a specific type of build distinct from others, which makes it interesting. It also restricts options instead of expanding them, since you need to use the celestial weapon every turn to get fair value. Other conjured weapons give a base build added flexibility. That is factored in.

I don't recognize that as a problem. While there may be other trait-based conjured weapons later on, and you could certainly submit them, the celestial weapon is simply the most powerful because it costs a whole trait to gain access to. It also comes with a great many restrictions compared to the flexibility and other advantages offered by other setups.

Different builds are going to be better at different things. That's sort of why they're different.

This discussion is starting to circle. The more you raise that objection, the more I'm going to say "Yes, exactly". If you want more cool weapon options that are as powerful as the celestial spear, submit more weapons that come from traits and items. They will always have an advantage over those that *don't* cost added resources to purchase.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:... WOW. Just. WOW. You completely and utterly MISSED what I was saying there.

No, I didn't miss it. I just don't entirely agree with it.

Flavor can be used to mean anything. You might as well assume that the Celestial weapon is the ancestral weapon and the random combat talent weapon is the thing the guy just picked up. In a system where everything can be flavored however you like, flavor arguments don't work when talking about mechanics.

New idea. Not sure this is a good idea (makes destinies less special) it but thought I'd share it anyway.


Predestined - Utility Talent
You feel destined for greater things. While you receive no benefits from your path yet, you know your time will come.

Destined for Greatness - Utility Talent 
Prerequisite: Predestined
When you take this talent, choose a level 4 destiny feature that you don't already possess. You gain the benefits of that destiny feature.

Not too fond of it myself. like you said, it makes Desitinies not as special.


Fury: You can reflavor talents however you want. I reflavored Flametongue as a Reflector from Okami on my timberwolf character off of the forums, and made the Ice Hammer a Glaive.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:New idea. Not sure this is a good idea (makes destinies less special) it but thought I'd share it anyway.


Predestined - Utility Talent
You feel destined for greater things. While you receive no benefits from your path yet, you know your time will come.

Destined for Greatness - Utility Talent 
Prerequisite: Predestined
When you take this talent, choose a level 4 destiny feature that you don't already possess. You gain the benefits of that destiny feature.

It's problematic since not only does it make Destinies less special, it's a situation where a player takes a utility and gets nothing from it without taking anything else. That's even worse than the current discussion about Magical Tricks and Magecraft.

Especially since there's nothing stopping you from taking the tree twice at level one, and a third time at two (not counting extras from racials), and just having 3 level 4 destiny features BEFORE picking your actual destiny.

It's probably not a GOOD idea to do that, but it seems like something that shouldn't be possible.

Bronymous wrote:Especially since there's nothing stopping you from taking the tree twice at level one, and a third time at two (not counting extras from racials)

Well, besides the rule that you can't take the same utility talent twice unless the rules specifically say otherwise.

?
Er... Then I don't get what you mean Fury... since that's more or less your opinion.

A refector in Okami is a partially defensive weapon, but I made the slow and steady buildup conjure weapon talent into it.
A Rosary is the DPS-esque weapon in Okami, but I made it into the defensive conjure weapon talent
A Glave is the slow and steady charge-up one, but I made the DPS combat talent into it.

If someone wants to make the flavor a certian way for a combat talent that just feels right for them, they can find a way to be creative.

People aren't limited to what the combat talents say and are flavored as, quite the opposite. They're encouraged to reflavor and change the combat talents to fit what they want.

And personally, if I wanted to have something be a sword of fire, it'd be less one of the conjure weapons, and something I'd build my combat talents as a whole around. But different strokes for different blokes.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:

Bronymous wrote:Especially since there's nothing stopping you from taking the tree twice at level one, and a third time at two (not counting extras from racials)

Well, besides the rule that you can't take the same utility talent twice unless the rules specifically say otherwise.

....

Well yeah, besides that.

Your argument is that, in your opinion, only one combat talent truly feels like it can fit X flavor (Example given was Flametongue) am I wrong?

I don't get how you reached that when the flavor malleability is something that's been encouraged for the entirety of the game's development. Yes something would 'feel' one way, but with effort you can make it 'feel' like something completely different.

I've in the past turned healing moves into disturbing things by growing plants on my allies, made a fire giant into a protective knight rather than a force of damage without using Chains of Fire, turned Critfisher into a game of russian roulette.

Yes something can feel like it belongs as one type of flavor, but that doesn't mean that if you want to have something you have to take that move. I wouldn't touch Celestial Spear with a 20 foot pole, joke intended, and if I wanted to use an Ancestral Weapon passed down from Generations, I'd flavor combat talents with it instead.

Different people see things different ways. What feels right for one person doesn't necessarily mean it'd feel right for everyone.

I've had this idea for the last 3 days or so, but I keep forgetting to post it. Hopefully it gets caught before this weeks release:

Passwall - 4/day
Choose an area about the size of a doorway in a solid surface you can see that is less than 30 feet thick. For the next hour, Creatures can pass through that area of the wall as though it weren't solid. The wall doesn't look any different, but you know where your Passwalls are placed.

This was balanced based off of Phase Step being used for infiltration like this:
1)phase through [outer wall of house/outer wall of castle]
2)phase through [secret chamber/safe door/locked door to master bedroom]
3)commit thievery
4)Exit via step 2, then step 1.

So you would need 4 uses of Passwall to equal one use of phase shift. It's also more useful for large groups, and can actually be used to solve random problems like a giant dead tree blocking a path, so if you would actually need 6 uses of Passwall to equal 1 phase step infiltration (which also has to happen a lot faster than if you're using Passwall), then the versatility balances it out.

The size of a doorway is very relative on purpose. You might want the entrance to a Roman coliseum in a wall, so that you can wheel a wagon full of fireworks into the mansion or something. Or you might be playing a gnome that wants to run through your hole in the wall, and then laugh at the human guard who tried to run through an invisible doorway half his size.
The 30 ft limit is so that you can pass through just about any man-made obstruction, but can't use Passwall to just, say, stroll under a mountain.

It could definitely use some refining, but I like the added mobility it would give characters. I also really want to see what DMs come up with when players try to phase out through prison walls.
"You pass through the wall of Cell Block C...into Cell Block B."
"You create a passwall through one of the iron bars. Your minotaur still can't fit through the door."
"You step through the wall...and fall 10 feet into a pile of sewage. Gimme a minute to get out my obligatory sewer monster data..."

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:New idea. Not sure this is a good idea (makes destinies less special) it but thought I'd share it anyway.


Predestined - Utility Talent
You feel destined for greater things. While you receive no benefits from your path yet, you know your time will come.

Destined for Greatness - Utility Talent 
Prerequisite: Predestined
When you take this talent, choose a level 4 destiny feature that you don't already possess. You gain the benefits of that destiny feature.

The idea of a utilty talent that does nothing... Yet get allows a second utility to be taken later... Sounds kinda fun. But it's gotta be totally worth it if you don't take them to start off...

But the idea of getting a destiny feature for it... No... All my no... Not a good idea.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:[color=#3366ff]Look, maybe my argument is being overly specific here, but say that someone want's to be a warrior with a flaming sword, dealing direct damage and burning them over time.

Celestial Staff outshadow's him. renamed giant flaming sword

Or say... you THOR. GOD OF THUNDER. And your mighty hammer allows you to SMASH down enemies in your way, dazing those lucky enough to survive your massive blows!

Celestial Staff still outshadow's him. renamed Mjolnir

Or say your the GRIM REAPEAR. Slowly draining the life from your enemies with your scythe. Weakning them, and taking their life as your own.

Celestial Staff STILL OUTSHADOW'S HIM! renamed the Harvester of Souls

The reason no one is going for your argument is because the Mechanics can be applied to anything. The guy with the flaming sword, flavor wise, doesn't need to take Flametongue, he can take Celestial staff for the mechanics, and CALL it a flaming sword. Flavor and Mechanics have no bearing on each other. The only way they do is when the decision is to be made on how the character fights; will it be entirely weapon based, in which case you pick the Staff and get the obviously better weapon, or is the weapon meant to compliment the rest of the combat build, in which case the player probably won't spend the extra stuff for the optimal weapon choice.