Min/Max Boards

   



   Making up the learned thinkers, natural philosophers, and assorted members of high society, the humble scholar drives the research and development of new forms of arcane practice in the world today. While bereft of the practical and physical training of many of their counterparts, scholars have the most detailed theory and practice of pure arcane magic that can be had. Never lacking for either a witty quote nor an arcane retort, the scholar knows the fundamentals of all schools of magic, and has great skill in his specialty.

Scholars produce magic by using the time tested formulas passed down through the various arcane universities of the land. While many scholars carry a textbook of arcane science with them, they have no need to refer back to it for day to day affairs- what sort of scholar would they be it they couldn't recite their lessons by heart?

MAKING A SCHOLAR
Scholars bring both arcane power, and practical knowledge to the table. Play a scholar if you like have a variety of magic to play with, and to have great knowledge at your disposal.
Abilities: Intelligence is the most important ability for a scholar, as it dictates how powerful a spell a scholar can cast, how hard they are to resist, and how many spells they can cast. Constitution is obviously helpful, and Dexterity can make the lightly armoured scholar more tricky to injure.
Races: Scholars are most common amoung Humans, as they most often have the funds required to send their children to university, but any race can take up the quill.
Alignment: Scholars are less likely to be chaotic due to the intensive study and practice required, but members of any alignment are common amoung the scholars.
Starting Gold: As Wizard
Starting Age: As Wizard

Class Skills
The Scholar's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are.... Appraise (Int) Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Forgery (Int) Knowledge (All skills, taken individually) (Int) Listen (Wis),  Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Spot (Wis)
Skill Points at 1st Level: (2+ int)x4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + int

Hit Dice: d6

         

	Base					Spells per Day
Level	Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	0th	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Armoured Mage (light), Esoteric Knowlege,Vel Magia	5	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Lore Mastery	6	4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3	-	6	5	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	-	6	6	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	+2	++1	+1	+4	Bonus Feat	6	6	4	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	-	6	6	5	3	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Lore Mastery	6	6	6	4	—	—	—	—	—	—
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	-	6	6	6	5	3	—	—	—	—	—
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6	-	6	6	6	6	4	—	—	—	—	—
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Bonus Feat	6	6	6	6	5	3	—	—	—	—
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7	-	6	6	6	6	6	4	—	—	—	—
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	-	6	6	6	6	6	5	3	—	—	—
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Lore Mastery	6	6	6	6	6	6	4	—	—	—
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9	-	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	3	—	—
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9	Bonus Feat	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	4	—	—
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	-	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	3	—
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	Lore Mastery	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	4	—
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	-	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	3
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	-	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	4
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Bonus Feat	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A scholar is proficient with all simple weapons, and light armour. Because the somatic components required for scholar
spells are relatively simple, a scholar can use any of his spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance.

Spells: A scholar casts arcane spells which are drawn from the scholar spell list. To cast a spell, a scholar must have an Intelligence score of at least 10+Spell Level. The difficulty class of a saving throw against their spells is 10+the spell's level+ the scholar's intelligence modifier. Like most other spellcasters, a scholar can only cast a limited number of spells per day. Their base daily allotment is given above. In addition, a scholar receives bonus spells per day if they have a high intelligence score.

A scholar, upon taking their first level in this class, must choose one school of magic to specialise in. A scholar knows all spells they can cast on the "universal" section of the scholar spell list, and all spells from their specialty. A scholar need not prepare their spells ahead of time, but must refresh their magical reserves by resting for 8 hours, then spending 1 hour in thoughtful contemplation. While scholars often page through their textbooks during this time, it is not a requirement.

A unique ability of the scholar, due to the ritualised and practiced nature of his craft, is that a scholar may ignore material, focus, and truename components of spells on the scholar spell list, provided they cost no more than 5 gp

Spellbooks: Scholars generally possess spellbooks, hefty textbooks containing information on, and the precise casting methods of, various spells. A scholar must study their spellbook each day to refresh their magical energies- a combination of thoughtful meditation, practice, and study. A scholar begins play with a spellbook containing all 0 and 1st level spells on the Scholar list. While these texts do contain all spells of their levels, scholars still lack the means to cast spells from specialties that are not their own.

When a scholar gains access to a new spell level, they must acquire a hard copy of the spells to study and someone to instruct them. Such a text costs 15gp x the highest level of spell contained in the book. Such texts and instruction are not hard to acquire, being available from any university, and many bookstores. Spells were once inscribed painstakingly by hand, but standard magical notation and the printing press have greatly reduced the cost of this endeavour. Should a Scholar lose their spellbook, a replacement can easily be purchased for one tenth of it's original cost- without the price of a teacher, such texts are much cheaper.

Such texts also include primers on many subjects. A scholar's textbooks are considered a masterwork item for all knowledge skills.

Armored Mage (Ex): Normally, armor of any type interferes with an arcane spellcaster’s gestures, which can cause
their spells to fail (if those spells have somatic components). A Scholar's limited focus and specialized training, however, allows him to avoid arcane spell failure as long as he sticks to light armor. This training does not extend to medium or heavier armors, nor to shields. Nor does
this ability apply to spells gained from a different spellcasting class.


Esoteric Knowledge (Ex): A scholar picks up a lot of stray knowledge while wandering the land and from the various tomes of history, geography, and arcana they learned during their undergraduate studies.  They may make a special Esoteric knowledge check with a bonus equal to their scholar level + his Intelligence modifier to see whether they know some relevant information about local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places.

(insert bardic knowledge table here)

Vel Magia (Sp): A scholar first learns the simplest of spells, mastering them before moving to more substantial fair. A scholar can create the effects of a presdigitation spell at will.

Lore Mastery: Upon reaching 2nd level, an archivist gains a +2 bonus to all Decipher Script checks and to all check sof any one Knowledge skill of his choice. Once this choice is made, it cannot be changed. At 7th, 13th, and 17th level, the archivist can choose an additional Knowledge skill on which to gain the +2 bonus.

Bonus Feats: At 5th, 10th 15th, and 20th level, a scholar gains bonus feats. These may be any metamagic feat that they qualify for.

PLAYING A SCHOLAR
A scholar is, first and foremost, a spellcaster. many of his universal effects are of great use for slowing down foes, solving problems, and discovering information. A scholar's specialty often changes their role in a party.
 Combat: Scholars have a plethora of effective crowd control spells to use on enemies. While all scholars have some direct damage spells, they are generally not well suited to the role of blaster- their controlling effects are far stronger. A scholar's specialty often changes their combat role- Transmuters can mix it up in melee combat, while Abjurers have powerful antimagic effects. A scholar's generalist approach, however, leaves them with a tool for any situation.
 Advancement: A scholar's specialty has the biggest effect on their advancement, so choose it carefully. As a scholar grows in power, their command over one facet of magic will grow. Never forget, however, that a scholar has aptitude in all schools, and can solve an ever greater array of problems.
 Resources: A scholar can usually count on receiving food, instruction, and spare manuscripts at any university for a nominal fee. The brotherhood of academia usually surpassed national bounds, even in times of war.

Go ahead and throw your sheets here

"It starts simple enough. Go into one of the wrecked buildings of Junkyard and clear out any squatters or creatures lurking there. But this is Hell on Earth. And no job is ever simple. And wow, there are sure are a lot of roaches in this deathtrap. . . Join in one of the creepiest adventures we've ever published, by Lucien Soulban. This twisted tale even comes with all the Cardstock Cowboys you need to play!"

   This simple text blurb dosen't prepare you for what is probably one of the worst modules i've ever read for a game. This was published in the year 2000, but the style, and indeed general tone, positively reeks of aping the style of White Wolf. More on that in a minute.

   As the front cover proudly states, this was written by one Lucian Soulban. I checked for a wikipedia page, and got redirected to a list, that he wasn't on. Not promising. The credits page lists 8 other names, most of them multiple times, one of which who had the sole responsibility of making the logos present in the book look pretty. Also not promising. Jeff Rebner has the credit for the cover art, which is disappointingly generic and gives no hint as to the levels of "Edgy" and "Narratively focused" gameplay the module presented. It's worth noting that by and large, the Deadlands line of games were rules heavy, and other than the ever present metaplot, had little in the way of encounters you could not plausibly win. Some very rare monsters had to be killed in a certain way, but they could be stunned, or temporarily defeated by shooting them. The Developers of the Hell on Earth setting, meanwhile, apparently though this was too passe.

Chapter one: The Haunting

   The opening text crawl helpfully informs us that this module is going to be a follow up to a plot hook placed in an earlier book, Iron Oasis. Iron Oasis is a guidebook to Junkyard, practically the only city left after the apocalypse, located in the remains of Salt Lake City. Rather than inform you a bit about the city, they instruct you to reference Iron Oasis. And here we hit one of the big snags of the Deadlands games: They always wanted you to buy more books. Rather than include something with all information required, they'd tell you to go buy the book to understand what was going on. It helpfully informs us that "This is a thinking man's adventure" and that while they'll "Still waste ammunition fighting the good fight", they'll need to begin with "Pondering, Roleplayin', and more Pondering"

The first warning bells should be going off by now. Would you like to know what else described itself as the thinking man's adventure? Good old E. Gary Gygax's Tomb of Horrors.  Hold on to that, because this module has a bodycount easily as high as the classic meatgrinder.

 We're then treated to a bit of backstory. The Mayor of junkyard is an all around upstanding guy. The guy running his Ghost Rock (Basically warpstone from WH40k) mining operations, is not. He's a Junker, a sort of technomage, who in practice did algebra for six hours real time, until he had a gun big enough to level the world. They tend to go a bit crazy through a badly implemented fix to the "Junker makes big guns" problem, which makes them go more and more insane the more guns they make. This is a bad fix, and it really shows the developer's mentality to this kind of thing. You can be horribly broken and drive the game to a stop, then become an NPC and presumably kill the entire party. But I digress. Dylan Jaeger, for that is his name, has gotten a touch of the old mad scientist megalomania, and has been diverting ghost rock for money, when the author of Iron Oasis caught onto his plans. Dylan hires a Psyker Syker named Vrai, who attempts to probe the mind of the young fool. Unfortunately, Vrai rolls doubles goes bust on his focus power test blastin' roll, and triggers Perils of The Warp Brainburn. The apartment complex explodes, everyone present dies, and because of Plot Bullshit, Vrai is now a disembodied uberspirit holding the other poor sods prisoner, and generally being a huge dick. Dylan can't move his stolen ghost rock with an angry spirit watching over it, and he's getting desperate. He hires the PC's to go clean it up. Sounds simple enough, right?

 Here's the rub: The ghost has the other spirits trapped, but they only know they are living their own personal hells over and over again. If discovered, Vrai lends them some power, and they unavoidably kill the party. Game over. An opposed spirit roll against a being with nigh infinite willpower does not end well for you. If the players don't trigger any of the "nightmares", again, obliterated. The only reason he dosen't kill the party instantly is because he wants to bodyjack someone. It goes on to say that the writer is the PC's only hope, as he can leave cryptic hints as to how not to die instantly. Then follows a list of the powers Vrai has at his disposal, most of which are contradicted or used in ways that they don't actually work. The suggestions are mostly "Use telekinesis to screw with the players". It mentions his instant-kill power should only be used on a "nuisance" due to it's high strain (Mana) cost, but the chapter goes on to say he has unlimited strain, and maintain concentration on whatever he wants, and has infinite range. Fun times for all.


Next Update: Where things get EDGY, and I get some real riffing material.

So, for those unanaware, WoTC sponsored a second party conversion of 2nd edition Dark Sun, Linked http://www.athas.org/products?publisher=Athas.org here. Now, much of it is flavourful, but the crunch is often downright abhorent. Case in Point, the Gladiator














Long and short of it is that you get a few EWP's, some shitty pre selected feats, a terrible attempt at a "Bardic Music" alike, and your one good ability takes 14 levels to get here.

This , of course, cannot stand.At the moment, I'll be brainstorming ways to improve it (Feel free to contribute!). If Manuvers have a place in Dark Sun, it's right here, so that's certainly an option.

Any thoughts on what should be done?

So, I have a...fairly intresting problem. My players are -too- nice, particularly in regards to loot distribution. Normally, SOP in games I've DM'd was to distirbute magic items to those who wanted them, and distribute gold to the rest in an effort to make things more equal. They don't do that. Rather, they distirbute magic items then divide the gold equally, causing some players to fall behind. I've remedied the situation to some extent by saying "If your WBL is less than X level +50% you may credit yourself a corresponding amount of gold", But it feels hamfisted, and requires them to track the value of all their equipment.


Any suggestions on what to do here?

Note: I have tossed quite a bit of good stuff at the people who can't optimise correctly, and insisted on playing Paladin, or fighter, or what have you, generally consisting of free LA. It seems to be working, for the moment.

d20 Future Tech gives us the beauty of the nanoround. This programmable type of ammunition inflicts no damage on a hit. Rather, it inflicts ability damage every round for 1d3+1 rounds, no save. Your options are:

Flesh: 1d4 Con damage/round
Bone:1d4 Str damage/round
Nerves:1d2 dex/1d3 int/round

and a few other versions for dissolving doors, walls, and other annoying objects.

Might I ask what they were thinking? And yes, you can change what it damages as a free action.

EDIT: And the CR is utterly fucked up. A basic gun drone, much like a Walker in Deus Ex, is 1/2 CR. It can inflict 3d8 damage per shot. It has 30 HP. The Damn thing also looks like a crab, for what I guess are obvious reasons.

Looking at the SRD, the purchase DC for a Python revolver is 5 .To put that in perspective, thats the same price as a can of Pepper Spray. The Python has no disadvantages compared to a nine milimeter handgun, either. It is even counted as a masterwork weapon! I can buy a + 3 Python for the same price as any other revolver. Now, it's pretty obvious that the price should have been 15, and not 5, but does anyone else have any input on the situation?

Or rather, some guy's challenge for a game. This one, in fact:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/459841-final-fantasy-xii/faqs/45802

I can see what the author was trying to do here, but it feels rather.....hamfisted. It's particularly noticeable when he begins pulling abilities from other classes to justify the existence of new ones, and with it's overal fairly sloppy grasp of the game's mechanics, it really isn't good for more than a recommendation. What I aim to do, is rewrite the whole damn thing, front to back. Now, obviously, that's....a rather tall order, so if anyone is intrested in offering advice, I'd love to hear it.

The backstory and such:

You are all heroes. Or villains. Or paragon's of neutrality. At any rate, you have accumulated a small amount of fame, and money. And this was to be your undoing. You see, when a Wizard knows he has ultimate cosmic power, he likes to flaunt it. Do strange things that make no sense to anyone but himself, and that sort of thing. Well, this Wizard is an avvowed social darwinist. He likes to watch things struggle, murder, and die, to try to divine the nature of true power (beyond himself, of course). And who better to pit against each other than fledgling adventures, without their precious "gear" and "Party members"? You have all been captured, stripped of your belongings, and imprisoned on a remote island. The nature of this island will be determined randomly( Climate, terrain, etc). It has been made very clear to you that the last man/woman/robot standing  will be the only one to leave this place alive. The "game" ends when all other players are dead, by any means neccesary. Killed by the enviroment, a trap, another player, none of that matters, dead is dead.

Mechanics of note:

-Tier three/four characters only, I mean it. He wants a good fight, not a rockettag curbstomp. Full casters and manifesters Lower than tier 2 is fine. Like Shadowcaster, Beguiler, etc

-This game is a solo game, so all moves and such are delivered Via PM. Important things, like deaths and "Fun enhancers" are announed to all players at Dusk of a given day. This information is broadcast directly into your skull via a forced mind link. it will not be used to attack the players, directly or indirectly. Players may ally at their option (and risk), as all you know about the other characters is thier physical description and any details they share. Knowledge skills may reveal more about them.

-Skills have been altered.
Skills are important here, particularly when you exist at the whim of a powerful and evil wizard who enjoys Anti-Magic. Anyone may search for traps, and the DC is halved.

-Feats have been altered

-Items have been altered
You spawn with a ten gold or less outfit of your choice. Creative outfit choice, as well as a creative use of that outfit is encouraged.
Improvised weapon non proficency penalties have been removed, and an improvised version of any weapon can be crafted if you have the materials at hand, and the time to make it. Same goes for armor. Inferior materials can be substituted, but it weakens the weapon.
Acting like Macgyver is highly encouraged. The favour of the wizard is precious indeed.
The Wizard looks favourably upon direct action and creativity. There is a base chance that any given character recives a "gift" each day, modified by how you act. Agression and creativity dispose him well towards you, while passivity and waiting angers him. "Gifts" are teleported to your postion, and make a noise that can be detected with a DC 20 listen check by anything nearby. It will contain valuable, personalized loot.
The Island is trapped. It is stocked with monsters, as well as heavily rigged with clever mechanical traps. Do with them as you wish.
-Classes have been altered
Char-op is highly recomended. The island is big, and finding someone who runs could be difficult. Therefore kill them before they can run.

Start of Match: All of the players are standing on solid stone podiums arranged in a circle. Each podium is 40 feet away from each other, forming a large circle around the center. Each is nine feet tall. Once the match starts, the wall of force surrounding each podium persists for one minute, then drops, as an Anti-Magic field is deployed. This is to give you time to see each other contestant, and to prevent a massive crossfire. This Anti-Magic field covers this central area thereafter. In the middle, 40 feet from each podium,  is a giant pile of phat lewt, the combined WBL of all contestants in the game. It is not trapped. Other loot may be found on the island, but this is the greatest concentration of it. Players may act as they wish: You are under no compulsions whatsoever. The island itself is large, and there is much space to hide in, should you choose to do so. Keep in mind the wizard enjoys action, so he may "spice things up" if you act too passively for him. Consider him the Valve AI director: He enjoys watching you squirm. This game is designed to be fast pased, so updates should occur every two days at the latest.

So, we all know the Necrocarnate is a pile of rubbish. If you don't, it's as to an incanate, as a blighter is to a druid: You abandon your casting progression for a handfull of tricks. Much worse, however, is that you Are then intended to rely on the corpses of your foes for the few powers you have.. That's like being only able to prepare spells after someone dies, making you utterly useless in the first few encounters of the day, beyond simple zombie puppetiering.

Now, my idea for a quick fix would be to simply add full meldshaping into the class, and allow the "X/Times per day" abilities to function at-will. (As far as I know, the only one is "Add number of soulmelds to your saving throws") As well, the extra chakra binds the class grants would stack with the ones typically avalible. This fix would, obviously also mean that the infinite essentia abuse strategies would no longer work.

So, if you have some familiarity with Incarnum, would this work, and would it be too powerful, or not powerful enough?