Min/Max Boards

Quote from: Nanshork on September 23, 2020, 11:53:27 PM

Flaws can be OP because you pick what flaws you get. You don't take Pathetic or Frail. You're a monk so you pick Shaky because you wouldn't make ranged attacks under normal circumstances anyway or you pick Inattentive because you aren't the party scout.

It's very easy to abuse flaws.

Oh okay. I thought Shaky might count against ranged spells. I actually have the best Spot score in the party (I get a +5 with my familiar on top of my skill points from monk), but perhaps I should not have invested in that. My thought was that spot would always be a relevant skill worth investing in but I didn't think too much about role specialization.

If your ranged spells are ranged touch attacks then -2 isn't a big deal.  Regardless, the general advice is to pick flaws that won't cause you any real issues.  I've picked Vulnerable multiple times because one point of AC rarely makes a difference one way or another.  I've picked Unreactive because my character doesn't need to go first in combat to be effective.  If concealment doesn't come up much then Murky-Eyed will rarely matter. 

I'm typing on the phone so won't do a quote pyramid.

Crystal Clarity is so oddball that I don't have any idea how to think about it from a balance perspective. Also I don't know why I was focused on seeing through people's clothes. 

Final Cut - If you want a debuff for the arm being gone and not being able to use the arm to hold a weapon/shield/whatever isn't enough, you could always go with the optional rules on page 27 of the DMG.

I haven't played attention to philosophy since high school so I missed all the philosophy references.

So Crazy It Just Might Work is now oddball instead of outright gonzo. Much better.

Honestly I'm not sure what the best way to go with idea progression would be. I don't like traditional spellcasting so I don't play traditional casters which means that it's harder for me to know what a good balance for that spellcasting equivalence from a class features perspective.

Girl Genius - Adventures In Castle Heterodyne (Funding ends October 3rd) - A Girl Genius video game for those who are fans of the Girl Genius comic and/or books.  Officially endorsed and with the Girl Genius creators (Phil and Kaja Foglio).

"If it is trapped there is a reason.  Perhaps not a waste of time after all?  Just throw something in there to set off the traps."

Level 5 Ideas

A house divided says "immediately attack their allies" but then it lasts for 2 rounds.  Is it meant to have the targets attack their allies during their normal turns?

Crystal Clarity is another weird meta one and it also lets you see through everyone's clothes.

Final Cut - I'm not a big fan off introducing handedness when that's not a part of the core rules.  I actually remember writing up some very clean text for this kind of thing as part of another project but I can't find it anywhere.

"You summon a huge aquatic beast that’s a metaphor for the government or something."   

So Crazy It Just Might Work is just insane.  I don't even know how to feel about this.

Sorry for the delay.  I assume the chairs attacking the wolf are between me and the lizard?  How far away is the closest chair?

Sounds good.

I was going to do the level 5 and 6 ideas now but I feel bleh and can't focus.  I will do them later.

I should like this guide to include the official Athas material....

The guide author hasn't logged in for seven and a half years. 

Quote from: Nanshork on September 06, 2020, 06:48:17 PM

Meditation, Swift is standing out to me more after some digging because it is the only swift action IP granting idea out of all of the ideas at any level.

Yeah, that's intentional. Swift Meditation isn't supposed to interfere with other IP generation, only with other swift actions like items and a few spell-like ideas. I didn't mention it before, but actually the main thing it interferes with is the feat Thought on the Run. It's a significant drawback - you're giving up your ability to both move and express 2 ideas that turn. Ditto for other swift-action alternatives to TotR, like Travel Devotion.

It's just weird because I'd rather take higher level Free action IP generation than a level 1 Swift action IP generation. 

Quote from: Nanshork on September 06, 2020, 06:48:17 PM

Epiphany - If it's at the bottom of your deck and you draw and use it before reshuffling your deck does it become the only card in your deck?

Yup. I'll add a sentence clarifying that. Though you won't usually get the chance, since you rarely draw the last card in your deck as the last card in your hand.

This is a general rule of deck-building games: an empty deck is a valid state. You can put cards on top of it, you can shuffle it (which has no effect of course), and you can put cards on bottom of it (which is the same as on top). The only thing that causes an issue is drawing from it - that's why your discard pile gets shuffled and becomes your deck any time you need to do that.

We play different deck building games.   

Quote from: Nanshork on September 06, 2020, 06:48:17 PM

Recreate from Memory also feels meta and super annoying to track.

You mean to track which spells you've seen before? I'll probably remove that line. DMs usually impose that kind of rule themselves anyway - for instance, restricting Polymorph forms to monsters the player knows in-character. I don't see a pressing need to require it for all campaigns.

Yep, tracking which spells you've seen before sounds annoying.  I also don't play with DMs that impose those kinds of rules themselves (not that it would impact me because I don't play standard spellcasters).

Meditation, Swift is standing out to me more after some digging because it is the only swift action IP granting idea out of all of the ideas at any level.

Level 3 Ideas

Being and Time - What happens if you reduce someone's level to 0, effectively de-aging them to before they were born?  Making it similar to the "dying of old age" language would make sense from a mechanical perspective.


Level 4

Epiphany - If it's at the bottom of your deck and you draw and use it before reshuffling your deck does it become the only card in your deck?

Making a Call - I don't know how I feel about this one.  It feels super meta.

Recreate from Memory also feels meta and super annoying to track.

Tunnel Vision is blocked by metal so now I want to use it to help with mining.