Tormenta Campaign Setting Overview

[oslecamo]

Wow! Oslecamo, não sabia que você falava português. Aprendendo uma coisa nova a cada dia
Cara, isso me trás memórias muito, muito antigas, de quando eu comprava revista Dragão (tinha essa revista pra vender em Portugal também?). Comprava a revista por causa de Magic, só começei a jogar RPG depois... Mas cheguei a jogar uma ou duas campanhas de Tormenta. Aliás, também joguei muito 3D&T no meu tempo, antes de aprender D&D. É um outro trabalho do Cassaro, conhece também?

Sim, já vi algumas revistas Dragão a vender em Portugal, mas são uma coisa relativamente rara. Eu por acaso também entrei neste tipo de jogos por causa do Magic, até que um dia fatídico encontrei um tipo na loja local a reunir um grupo para jogar D&D.

Ouvi falar de Defensores de Tóquio muitos anos depois na net (creio que não chegou a ser vendido em Portugal), mas nunca tive a oportunidade de jogar.
__________________________________

Yes, I already saw some Dragon magazines selling in Portugal, but they're a relatively rare thing. By chance I also started with this kind of games with Magic, until in a fateful day I found a guy in the local shop putting togheter a group to play D&D.

I heard of Defenders of Tóquio many years later in the net (I believe it never was sold in Portugal), but I never had a chance to play it.

[faket15]

I really like Tormenta. It's the first setting where I played and, unlike other settings, I saw its evolution. In the beginning some important parts of the current metaplot were inconceivable (e.g. the minotaurs invading other kingdoms and Reinado being divided) and some answers were simply unknown (e.g. the identity of the Third and the origin of the Tormenta were a blank until very little time ago).

One thing I really don't like about Tormenta RPG is the lack of published adventures. The two greatest adventures of the setting are "A Libertação de Valkarya" and "Contra Arsenal". In "A Libertação de Valkarya" the PCs mission is to release the goddess of Ambition from her prison. The adventure is a classic dungeon crawl, but instead of one very large dungeon we have 20 small dungeons, each one created by a major god. In "Contra Arsenal" the characters are part of the war effort against Master Arsenal. The adventure is composed by a few small missions, where the characters try to get key items to the construction of Reinado's own giant robot, a battle between the two machines and a dungeon crawl inside Arsenal's fallen Kishin that culminates in a fight between the PCs and the High Priest of the god of War. Both adventures are great, but they weren't made for Tormenta RPG. They were made for Tormenta D20 which is much closer to D&D 3.5 rules wise.

[oslecamo]

Part VI-The rest of the classes.

Sorcerer

Armor still screws over non-bard arcane spellcasting

Tormenta sorcerers start with bad Bab, 8 +Con mod PV, plus 2+Con mod PV per level. 2+Int mod trained perícias, picking from  Knowledge, Bluff, Spellcraft, Intimidate,   Profession,  Base talentos are Simple weapons, and Iron Will.

Well, still pretty squishy and not very skilled, but least they have two Carisma-based  perícias. But wait! They now have abilities besides spellcasting! Well, one ability, Supernatural Bloodline. Pick from a bunch of choices, gain a bonus that scales up every 5 levels

Aberration Bloodline-Enemies whitin 9 m find your disturbing and suffer a -1 penalty on attacks, saves and other 1d20 checks. Sounds pretty sweet, basically +1 to your spell DCs as long as you're close, as well as +1 AC against melee. At 5th level 25% fortification, kinda meh. At 10th level your limbs stretch and you gain +3m to your base speed and your natural reach increases by 1,5 m. At 15th level blindsense 18 m. At 20th level full crit immunity and DR 5/-.

Draconic Bloodline- Start with a pair of natural claw attacks that deal the same damage as daggers, you can use both on the same round by taking a -4 penalty on the attack rolls. Eerr, you're a sorcerer, why are you're trying to melee? At 5th level scales give you +2 AC, which is always nice. At 10th level a breath weapon dealing 1d6 per level acid/fire/electricity or cold damage in a 9 m cone, reflex save for half. You only get to use it 1/day tough. At 15th level as a move action you can grow wings and fly at a speed of 18 m. No action to retract them tough. At 20th level as a standard action you can turn into a dragon! Huge size, +16 Força, +8 AC, 2 natural claw attacks dealing 2d6 each (do they stack with the pair of claws you got at first level?) plus a 2d8 natural bite. You can use all your natural weapons on the same turn by taking a -4 penalty on the attack rolls. Unlike the druid transformations, this one doesn't say you take size penalties, not sure if that's intentional or not. Also go figure what happens to your equipment.

Elemental Bloodline-Choose between water, air, fire, earth or heart. You gain one extra PM, that can only be used for spells with a related descriptor (water includes cold, air includes electricity, earth includes acid). At 5th level you gain resistance 10 against those descriptors. At 10th level the DC of your spells with those descriptors increases by 1. At 15th level you get either swim 18 m plus being able to pass trough passages that weren't hermitically sealed if you picked water, fly 18 m if you picked air, +1 damage per die if you picked fire, or DR 5/- if you picked earth. Finally at 20th level you become an elemental, gaining immunity to stunning, disease, paralyzis, sleep, poison, and the respective descriptors to your chosen element.

Then spells. You can cast 2nd level spells right away at 3rd level, and then one extra level every two other levels, up to 9th level spells at 17th level. Car-based, you start with 4 cantrips and 1+Car mod 1st level spells. Then one extra spell known every level up. To cast all of those you gain 3+Car mod PMs plus 3 PM per level. Sorcerers are still spontaneous spellcasters.

Overall, sorcerers clearly got buffed, with faster spell progression, more spells known, and bloodlines are a nice extra. The draconic one is kinda schyzophrenic as you really don't want to be going in melee if you're a sorcerer, unless there's some really good self-buffs waiting in the magic section. Otherwise aberration bloodline seems pretty tempting, but the elemental bloodlines sound pretty solid. Altough fire sounds somewhat weaker as it only covers one descriptor. Sure, there may be more enemies trying to use fire against you, but those enemies will also probably be resistant or even immune to fire.

Fighter

The real reason the minotaurs resort to violent conquest and enslaving is because none of them has trained Diplomacy.

... It's the freaking 3.5 fighter. 20+Con mod starting PV, plus 5+Con mod per level, then a combat talento at first and second level, then another every two other levels. That's it. Oh, wait, they get perception as a class skill perícia. Combat talentos better be damn good to justify all those dead levels.

Rogue

World of Tormentacraft.

Tormenta rogues start with medium Bab, 12 +Con mod PV, plus 3+Con mod PV per level. 8+Int mod trained perícias, picking from Acrobatics, Athletics, Perform, Ride, Knowledge, Diplomacy, Bluff, Stealth, Initiative, Sense Motive, Thievery, Gather Information, Profession, Perception. Base talentos are Light Armor, Simple and Martial weapons, shields, Lighting Reflexes.

They still have sneak attack 1d6+1d6 per two levels, needing to catch an enemy flatfooted or flanked, and crit-immune creatures still shrug it off. Then Trapfinding, that now seems to be be working from the Perception perícia (I would guess it would be based on Thievery).
Evasion at 2nd level, and then  Rogue Techniques. Pick from a list, then again every 3 other levels.

Crippling Attack-Creatures damaged by your sneak attack take a -2 penalty on attacks, saves and checks for 1 minute. Pretty sweet!

Stand Up-Get up from prone as a free action. Should give a bonus on Perform (breakdancing).

Rapid Disable-Disable mechanisms as a standard action instead of 1d4 rounds (check the Thievery skill for details).

Rapid Sneak-Move at full speed while sneaking around!

Skill Perícia Mastery-Choose a number of perícias equal to 1+Int mod. You can always choose to take 10 on those.

Slippery Mind-Same as before.

Opportunist-Gain +4 to attack rolls against enemies that were already damaged this round. Kinda counter-productive with going first, but I guess you can delay after combat starts.

Defensive Roll-If you suffer damage, you can try a Reflex save with the same DC to reduce it to half. Only 1/day, but you can pick it multiple times for extra uses.

Combat Trick-bonus combat talento, can pick multiple times.

Perícia Trick-learn an extra perícia. You can take it multiple times, but I wouldn't want to pick it even once.

Magic Trick-Become able to cast a 1st level arcane spell of your choice, Int based, 1+Int mod PM. You can take it multiple times to learn extra 1st level spells and +1 PM, but you're still suffering from armor spell failure.

At 3rd level trapsense. +1 to AC against trap attacks and on reflex saves against traps, scaling +1 every 3 levels. At 4th level uncanny dodge, scaling to improved uncanny dodge at 8th level. Improved evasion at 10th level.

All in all rogues seem buffed up, in particular with the techniques, of which there's several nice ones. However after 11th level the class really starts to dry up. Some extra trap sense here, some more sneak attack there, 16th level doesn't give you anything at all. Considering the new way skills perícias work, rogues seem like they really want to multiclass into something else mid-career.

Wizard

A wizard trained in  Profession (Booze Brewer)

Tormenta wizards start with bad Bab, 8 +Con mod PV, plus 2+Con mod PV per level. 2+Int mod trained perícias, picking from  Knowledge, Bluff, Spellcraft,  Profession and Perception,  Base talentos are Simple weapons, and Iron Will.

Wizards cast pretty much the same as sorcerers, except they're Int based, know one extra cantrip and two extra 1st level spells at start, and then learn two extra spells at every level up. They also start with just 1+Int mod PM, but then gain 3 PM per level just like the sorcerer. Last but not least, they must prepare how they're going to spend their PM ahead of time every day.
Their unique class ability is Arcane Mysteries (bonus magic talento at 1st level and every other 5 levels), plus Arcane Link. Your first choice is an Item of Power, like a wand, staff, book, hat, amulet or even a weapon. Once per day you can use it to cast any spell you know whitout spending PM, including metamagic (metamagic spends extra PM? Seems like so). However if you try to cast a spell whitout wearing or holding your item of power, you need to make a Spellcraft check with DC 15+spell level or waste your action and PM. The Item of Power has DR 10/-  and PV equal to half your own. If it is destroyed, you're stunned for 1d4 rounds and then must spend a week and 100 GP TO to build a new one.

Or you can pick a familiar. Telepathic link up to 1 km, they're all tiny animals with standardized stats, except their HP is half their master's. The exact kind gives you a special bonus. Snake for Perícia Focus on Bluff (or basic training on it),  Owl can fly faster and grants low light vision, Crow  can fly faster and grants Iron Will (but tormenta wizard already gets Iron Will base...  ), Falcon can fly faster and gives you Falcon Punch training in Perception or Perícia Focus on it, Cat gives Stealth training or Focus on it, Bat can fly faster and grants darkvision 18m, Rat grants Great Fortitude, Toad grants Vitality as a bonus talento.

And that's it. No spellbooks to which you can keep adding spells. Which is probably for the best. Overall much closer to the sorceror in terms of relative power, the wizard knows a lot more spells but must prepare them beforehand. They have pretty much the same PM progressions tough, just that sorcerors start with a little more, which I guess helps make up for the part where wizards get two extra abilities at first level.

Monk

Return of the fanservice


Tormenta monks must be lawful, start with full Bab, 16 +Con mod PV, plus 4+Con mod PV per level. 4+Int mod trained perícias, picking from Acrobatics, Athletics, Knowledge, Diplomacy, Heal, Stealth, Initiative, Stealth, Sense Motive, Profession, Perception. Base talentos are Simple  weapons, Exotic weapons (nunchaku, sai, shuriken), great Fortitude, Lighting Reflexes, Iron Will, Improved Unarmed Strike.

The monk gains improved unarmed damage to 1d6 at first level, and scales up every 4 levels to 2d10 at 20th level. Flurry of blows allows you to make one extra attack per turn with unarmed strikes, staffs, nunchaku, sai or shurikens  by taking a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, which sounds a much better deal now that the monk has full Bab and everybody else seems to be eating a -4 penalty on attack rolls for the same kind of effect.

Sixth Sense allows you to see dead people gives your Sab bonus to AC, that increases by 1 at 5th level and every other 5 levels.

Fighting Style grants you a bonus combat talento at 1st, 2nd and every other 4 levels. You also gain evasion at 2nd level.

Fast movement grants +3 m to your base speed, and again every other 3 levels.

Chi attack at 4th level makes your unarmed strikes count as magic to bypass DR/magic. At 10th level they count as your alignment, and at 16th level ad adamantine. 4th level also grants +5 on Acrobacy and Athletics tests, increasing an extra +5 at 9th level and every other 5 levels.

Corporal Integrity at 7th level allows you, as a fullround action 1/day, heal yourself by an amount equal to your Sab mod times your level. Meh.

Improved Evasion and Diamond Body come online at 9th level, and now makes you immune to all diseases and poisons, not just natural ones.

At 11th level you no longer take a penalty on Flurry of Blows.

At 13th level Diamond Soul grants you a +4 bonus on saves against magic effects.

Quivering Palm at 15th level allows you to once per day to make an unarmed strike that doesn't deal damage, instead forcing the enemy to make a Fort save with DC 10+1/2 level+Sab mod or die. Creatures immune to criticals are immune. Whatever hapenned with delaying the effect so you can replicate Fist of the North Star? Ah, well, at least it's 1/day instead of 1/week.

Timeless body at 15th level makes you stop taking penalties for aging and cannot be magically aged. You still die when your time comes.

Tongue of the Sun and the Moon at 17th level allows you to speak with any creature with Int 3 or more. Considering that not all clerics and wizards can afford to learn Tongues in their free time, this may actually be useful now!

Empty Body at 19th level allows you to become ethereal as the spell ethereal form. Only one minute per day, but activating this ability is a free action, so awesome.

Perfect Self at 20th level grants the monk DR 5/-. Plus you auto-suceed at all saves! Now there's a proper capstone!

And a final note saying that monk abilities don't work if you're using armor or shields.

Monk clearly got bufed all around, and when you take in account the general changes so far implemented by Tormenta like fewer magic items, multiple attacks after moving and no more full list casters, seems pretty promising. Still will need to check on the actual combat talentos tough.

 
Paladin

Dwarves no longer have a Cha Car penalty b*****!

Tormenta paladins must be lawful good, start with full Bab, 20 +Con mod PV, plus 5+Con mod PV per level. 2+Int mod trained perícias, picking from Handle Animals, Athletics, Ride, Knowledge, Heal,  Diplomacy, Initiative, Sense Motive, Profession. Base talentos are Light, Medium and Heavy Armor, Simple and Martial  weapons, Shields, Great Fortitude.

What, no perception? Well, let's check the class abilities.

First there's the code of conduct. No allying with evil creatures, and if you commit an evil act out of your own will, you lose all paladin abilities until you receive an attonment spell.

Then you must pick a god between Allihanna, Azgher, Khalmyr, Lena, Lin-Wu, Marah, Tanna-Toh, Tauron, Thyatis or Valkaria and get their special power. Still have no idea what they are, but it's the same thing clerics get at least.

Smite Evil works the same as before, except you can declare it before any melee attack as a free action, and gain an extra use every 3 levels. Then you also gain Detect Evil at will.

Lay on Hands at 2nd level heals 1d8+1 PV by touching someone as a standard action. At 6th level and every 4 other levels increases by another 1d8+1. Can be used to damage undeads if you hit them with an unarmed strike (does it deal unarmed damage as well? Paladin/monk FTW! ). You can use it 1+Car mod times per day.

Divine Grace, Aura of Courage and Divine Health all still the same.

Then at 4th level Channel Positive energy like clerics were doing 3 levels ago.

At 5th level you get a choice. Your first option are spells. Start with 1st level divine spells, unlock another level every other 4 paladin levels, up to 4th level spells at 17th paladin level. It's Sab based, you start knowin 1+Sab mod spells and learn another every level up. Your PM are 1+Sab mod plus another for each level from here, and you must prepare them before hand.

Or if you don't feel like gaining spells, you can choose Paladin Powers! First Faith weapon makes all your melee attacks count as good for bypassing DR, Faith Armor at 9th level gives you +2 AC, at 13th level Holy Power as a standard action 1/day gives you +4 to attack rolls and damage rolls for 1 minute, and at 17th level Champion of Good allows you to 1/day gain DR 20/- as a standard action for 1 minute. Meh, unless cleric spells were really gimped, I think any paladin will be better off with the spellcasting. Half the paladin powers are just 1/day and take a standard action to start, which kinda sucks.

But wait, 5th level isn't over yet! You can also pick between a link with divine forces (read: bonus combat talentos every 5 levels), or a sacred mount. Warhorse for medium paladins, guard dogs for small paladins, they gain generic animal levels at the same rate as you, and the book suggests other animals of same level may be used. Either way if they die, you get stunned for 1d4 rounds and then must spend a day praying and meditation for another pile of steak.

And finally at 6th level you get Remove Condition. Choose between shaken, frightned, stunned, blind, sick, exhausted or deaf. When you use Heal on Hands, besides healing PV, you also remove that condition from the healed creature. But not completely, frightned creatures become shaken, exhaustion turns to fatigue. At 9th level and every three other levels you can pick another condition to remove, but only one per lay on hands.

Finally a note on ex-paladins. If you stop being lawful or good, you can kiss your paladin abilities goodbyie until you receive an attonment spell.

Overall, paladins seem to have been buffed as well, but more on the utility department. You work as a nice secondary healer and have full Bab and martial weapons which helps you hit stuff a bit better than a cleric, and you're gaining your god's ability like them. Bonus feats talentos instead of a weakish mount seems like a good deal as well. Still suffers from drying up as you level up, meaning you would probably be better off multiclassing after the early levels.

Ranger

Since I don't recall an ant-people base race, I'll guess that's a female lefou.

Tormenta rangers start with good Bab, 16 +Con mod PV, plus 4+Con mod PV per level. 6+Int mod trained perícias, picking from Handle Animals, Athletics, Ride, Knowledge, Heal, Stealth, Initiative, Profession, Perception, Survival. Base talentos are Light and Medium Armor, Simple and Martial weapons, shields, Great Fortitude, Lighting Reflexes, Track

Wild Empathy works the same as before, except it notes hungry animals may start as hostile by default.

Favored enemy is also pretty much the same, except it doesn't grant a bonus to Bluff checks. On the other hand, the categories are now much broader! You can pick all humanoids as one, aberrations, dragons, lefou, plants and slimes all fall under Monsters, fey and elementals are grouped with outsiders as Spirits, Animals includes vermis, swarms and magical beasts. The other two options are undeads or constructs, meaning a 20th level ranger will have all but one as Favored Enemy. Oh, but they don't all auto-scale. Every time you pick a new choice, you get to buff just one of your styles by an extra +2 (which may be the new one).

At 2nd level fighting style as before, pick between Two Weapon Fighting or Rapid Shot.

At 3rd level Favored Terrain, picking from desert, forest, mountain, swamp, plains, jungle, aquatic, subterranean or Tormenta area. You gain +2 to AC, Acrobatics, Athletics, Stealth, Perception and Survival while on the chosen terrain. You pick another option and the bonus to a terrain of your choice increases by +2 at 8th, 13th and 18th levels.

At 3rd level you gain Endurance.

At 4th level Wild Link. You gain a combat or perícia talento, plus another 9th level and every other 5 levels. Or you can choose an animal companion, that works as one from a druid companion 3 levels behind.

Blessing of Nature at 5th level you can choose between spells as a paladin or ranger techniques. Those are +3 m to your base speed at 5th level, traps at 9th level allows you to, with 10 minutes of work and 1+Sab mod times per day, make a trap that affects a 3m square area. DC to find is 20+Sab mod, anyone who walks into it must make a Reflex save with DC 20+Sab mod or either take 6d6 damage or become immobilized, your choice. Immobilized creatures can escape with a For or Acrobatics check with DC 30. As written, you get to choose the trap's effect when it triggers. Excellent for “Just as Planned” moments. Then at 13th level Healing Herbs allows you to 1/day as a standard action heal 4d8+4 and remove any effects caused by poison on the target, which may be yourself. Finally at 17th level you get Hunter's Eye, that allows you to spend a move action to check up a creature whitin 9 m. Against that creature, you gain +4 to attack rolls and your threat range is doubled. No daily limit!

At 6th level Improved Fighting style gives you either Multishot or Improved Two Weapon fighting depending on your previous choice.
At 7th level Forest Path you're no longer slowed down by difficult natural terrains.
At 8th level you can track at normal speed whitout penalty.
At 9th level evasion.
At 11th level Improved Precise Shot or Greater Two Weapon Fighting.
At 12th level the DC for tracking you increases by +10. Too bad your allies are still leaving a mess.

At 13th level you camouflage allows you to hide whitout need of cover, regardless of the type of terrain.

Finally at 17th level Mimetism allows the ranger to hide even while being observed. Really did we need to wait so much time for this kind of ability?

Overall, the ranger also seems buffed. Stronger animal companion, or some bonus talentos, and trapmaking may just be worth giving up spellcasting for, in particular with Hunter's Eye on the horizon. Favored Enemy doesn't scale as fast, but it should apply to a lot more stuff, and Favored Terrain helps as well. However just like the paladin and rogue, ends up drying up in terms of abilities, altough I could see taking a range all the way to 13th level for camouflage. Maybe all the way to 17 for Hunter's eye, or all the way to 20 if you went with spells.

Samurai

”My Honor makes me sparkly!”

As the first non-3.5 core-based base class, I guess I should first touch a bit on the fluff behind this class.

Many adventurers live by weapons, wits, or magic. But for a samura, honor is stronger than steel, more important than smarts, stronger than any spell.The elite warriors from the Jade  Empire, samurais lived to serve, until the Tormenta destroyed their lands. Many commited ritual suicide , the survivors either serve the remaining Tamu-ra nobles, serve the dragon god Lin-Wu, or roam the Reinado in search of honor, be it serving the last wishes of their masters, or searching a glorious death in battle!

Tormenta samurais must be lawful, start with full Bab, 20 +Con mod PV, plus 5+Con mod PV per level. 4+Int mod trained perícias, picking from Acrobatics, Athletics, Handle Animal, Ride, Knowledge, Heal,  Diplomacy, Initiative, intimidate, Sense Motive, Profession, Perception. Base talentos are Light, Medium and Heavy Armor, Simple and Martial  weapons, Great Fortitude, Iron Will.

Ancestral weapons makes the samurai start with a free masterwork bastard sword Katana and wakizashi, the pair is known as daisho. They start with a +1 magic enanchment right away to either of those, and increase another +1 every 2 levels, up to +´10 at 19th level. You can put them all on the same weapon, or split them over both weapons, as well as picking special abilities like flaming or keen. In the hands of other people, they're regular weapons, which I guess helps prevent samurais from becoming hunting targets due to the global shortage of magic bling. If the samurai loses them, he takes a -1 penalty on all attacks, saves and checks until he recovers them. Or just buys a new one. Samurais don't have exotic proficiency (katana), so they must use it with both hands. You can also pick a naginata (halberd), darikyu (longbow) as alternative ancestral weapons, or any masterwork weapon for the matter if you prefer.

At 2nd level pick a Combat Style-Iaijutsu gives you Quick Draw, or you can go for two Weapon Fighting. You also gain Kiai Shout, that as a free action gives you +2 to attack and damage rolls for 1 round. Useable 1+Sab mod times per day.

At 4th level and every other 4 levels you gain an extra combat Talento.

At 6th level your Fighting Style improves with either Períci Focus (Initiative) or Improved Two Weapon Fighting.

At 7th level Scary Eye allows you to Intimidate vs Will save against an opponent whitin 9 m as a move action. If you suceed they're shaken for 1 minute. If you fail they become immune for a day.

At 10th level Improved Kiai Shout increases your cry's bonus to +4.

At 11th level you dominate your Fighting Style, gaining either Improved Initiative or Greater Two Weapon Fighting.

At 14th level you can use Scary Eye on all enemies whitin range.

At 18th level Greater Kiai Shout increases your cry's bonus to +6.

Well, it's pretty much the Complete Adventurer Samurai with a touch from the Oriental Adventures version, combined and improved. Staredown Scary Eye is just a move action (and remember that multiple attacks are now just a standard action), plus Kiai Shout applies to all your attacks and can be used quite a bit of times per day right away. With bonus feats sprinkled around, scaling weapons, solid perícias, this doesn't really has any dead levels, so I could see taking a samurai all the way to 19th level. Only thing you get on the last one is a last bonus talento, so you may as well dip fighter for an extra trained perícia.

Swashbuckler
 
“The Masked Pirate strikes again!”

In a world of heavy cuirasses and oversized swords, the swashbuckers is the most fabulous daring and romantic of warriors, prefering to dress himself in broidery and laces. He carries rapiers or pistols in his hands, and daggers or roses in his perfect and brilliant teeth!

Tormenta swasbucklers start with good Bab, 16 +Con mod PV, plus 4+Con mod PV per level. 4+Int mod trained perícias, picking from Acrobatics, Athletics, Perform, Ride, Knowledge, Diplomacy, Bluff, Stealth, Initiative, intimidate, Gather Information, Profession, Perception, Survival. Base talentos are Light Armor, Simple and Martial weapons,  Lighting Reflexes.

Light armor is a trap, since it actually prevents you from using your class abilities.

At first level the Swashbuckler gains Selfconfidence, granting him his Car bonus to AC, which improves by +1 at 5th level and every other 5 levels.

Also a bonus combat talento, plus another at 2nd level and every 4 levels thereafter.

Then at 2nd level Fighting Style allows you to pick either Weapon Finesse or Exotic Weapon (pistol or musket). You also gain Evasion.

At 3rd level Paralyzing presence allows you to add your Car bonus to Initiative checks

4th level gives you nothing, 5th level is a measly +1 AC from selfconfidence, finall at 6th level you gain Parry or rapid reload as bonus talentos depending on your Fighting Style choice.

At 8th level Avid Hero allows you to take an extra standard or move action action. Once  per day.

At 9th level Improved Evasion, at 11th level Precise Attack (+1d6 damage with finessable weapons) or Deadly Aim (+1 crit threat with projectile weapons) as bonus talentos depending on your fighting style.

Lucky at 13th level you can re-roll a failed attack or check. You must use the second result, even if worst. Still only 1/day.

Finally at 16th level... Slippery mind as the rogue. But rogues could've picked that at their 2nd level.

Well, this last one was kinda of a dispointment to be honest. First two levels are pretty nice, third gives an unique ability, then it's kinda downhill from there. 4Th, 7th, 12th, 17th, 19th are completely dead levels, and many of the others in between are just 1/day abilities or +1 AC. Avid Hero is the best argument for staying on this class to 8th level, and even then it's still just 1/day and you kinda lost 3 levels to get there. It's still better than the Complete Adventurer Swashbuckler, but that's not saying much really. I was really hoping for more after seeing what they did to the Samurai. ..

Overall Opionion on Tormenta Classes: Still will need to check on the actual talentos and spells for a proper evaluation, but so far so good. Fullcasters no longer know hundreds of spells by default, most mundanes get nice tricks all around, hybrid classes like the bard, paladin and ranger can pick spells directly from the fullcaster's lists and get some extra goodies as well.

Multiplied class HP at first level also rewards you for starting with the more tanky classes. A barbarian's base 32 HP seems a lot more impressive than a wizard's puny 8.

The new multiclassing rules also seem to reward dipping, as you no longer need to remain on a class with lots of  skill points trained perícias to keep them at full power. Actually, something like dipping fighter could grant you an  extra trained perícia! In particular important now that Initiative is a perícia. One that no fullcaster gets by default.

Next time:  perícias!

[Ziderich]

Nice to see this thread back. You are doing a good (and funny  ) review. Also bringing a new look at the system, pointing out some interesting things.

For those who missed the specializations of Wizard, they're not gone forever : there are a line of supplements called " Manuals of .. " classes that bring new variants class for the game. For now there are these two books:



Manual do Arcano (Manual of Arcane): for arcane spellcasters. Brings back specialist wizards, now with new class abilities that can be achieved by spending Mistérios Arcanos (Mysteries Arcana). Besides the basic D&D specializations, also brings the new geomancer , chronomancer and bruxo (witch/warlock).For sorcerers brings eight new bloodlines . In addition to the classes, the book also brings new prestige class as Magic Warrior ( Clamp feelings ), Magic Teacher (Hogwarts feelings), spells and lots of other stuff, like talentos and new rules.



Manual do Combate (Manual of Fight): focused on fighting classes. Two new classes: Fighter, a pugilist/MMA fighter style and Knight , a melee warrior with powers reminiscent of the Bard, and may serve as a tank and support character. Brings also 3 variant classes to Barbarians , Fighters , Monks and Samurai. And prestige classes like the Sniper, a deadly long ranged warrior and Drunken Master, a alcoholic monk with fun skills, several new talents of combat equipment , new rules of engagement and the whole package .

A Manual of Divine and Manual of Specialty should  be launched in 2014 . There is also a manual of Races , focused on detailing all 32 races of Arton (yes , the setting has it all!) And bring new talent and prestige classes .
It would be really nice to see these  books reviewed, but one thing at a time. Let you finish the core rulebook = D

[oslecamo]

Part VII-Perícias


Minotaur Monk: Where am I carrying the rations? I tought we had agreed to cook the halfling's companion when we got hungry.

Chapter 4: Perícias starts with more adventures of our amnesiac friend. After entering the arena, he finds himself facing a six-headed hydra, and decides that it's better to escape than to check whetever he can stab it faster than the monster will chew him. Cut to tumbling and jumping around followed by his rogue friend spoting and  finding an hidden passage.

And that's what Perícias are supposed to be about, abilities for those rare cases when you don't want to (or just can't) stab your way out of a problem.

It follows to recap each class's amount of trained perícias, that having a trained skill gives you a “grading” of your level+3, and untrained ones have a grading of half your level. Grading grants a bonus to the perícia that is usually  boosted further by ability scores and/or talentos and class abilities, but some rules only care about your “pure” grading, whitout taking in account anything else.

More recaping of how you gain perícias, a note that temporary Int boosts don't grant you new trained perícias, and a sidetable offering an optional rule for skill perícia points, aka what's usually used in 3.5. But it correctly points out that altough it allows you a bit more customization, it's also more complicated and you end up with a much smaller set of bonus across the board.

It then follows that perícia checks are also solved with a 1d20 roll, sometimes against and that sometimes you must do opposed tests where both sides roll. In case of a tie, the guy with bigger base bonus wins (if they're equal again, re-roll). It also gives examples of different DCs for common obstacles, from very easy (Perception DC 0) to notice someone in plain sight, to Almost Impossible ( Survival DC 40), tracking a druid in difficult terrain, after 15 days of rain. Handle animals, Knowledge, Spellcraft and Thievery can only be used if you're trained on them. Acrobatics, Athletics, Stealth and Thievery suffer armor penalties.You can usually try again failed tests, but now and then there's penalties if you fail by too much, like falling from a cliff you're trying to climb.

Also the Dungeon Master can give a +2 bonus or penalty to the test depending on circumstancial conditions. The DC itself can also be changed by +/-2 depending on the circumstances, for no bonus/penalty at all, or combine for a +4 or -4. Perícias don't fail on natural 1s, you can take 10 or 20 depending on time and lack of risks.

If a skill needs tools and you don't have them, you can try with a -5 penalty. Ouch, used to be just -2 in 3.5.

Aid Another now gives a scaling bonus, +1 for the DC 10 and an extra +1 for each +5 you go over that. The Master can decide that sometimes there's a limit to how much people can Aid Another a single person, or that they can't help them at all.

Finally, for stuff that doesn't fall any particular perícia, just roll an ability check. This includes tying up ropes (Des), pushing boulders(For), holding your breath (com), escape a labyrinth (Int), recognize someone you had seen before (Sab), stand out from a crowd (Car).


Not nailed to the ground=pawnable loot

And now finally for the perícias themselves!

Acrobatics(Des): Balance+Tumble+Escape Artist. A DC 15 check allows you to take falling damage as if you had fallen 1,5 m less.  You can escape ropes with an opposed test where the guy who tied you up gets a +10 bonus (considering however they're just adding their Des otherwise, ropes aren't really a very efficient way of tying up someone in Tormenta), as well as nets (DC 20) and shackles (DC 30). You can also go over enemy squares, with an opposed check against Initiative, where failure means you end movement in front of them. If you're using attack of opportunity rules (now optional it seems), you can use this to prevent them as well. This option costs double movement. You can also balance yourself in tight spots with DCs between 10 and 20, where failure by more than 5 means you fall. Acrobatics also allows you to stand up from prone as a free action with DC 20 (making the respective rogue talent look even weaker, even if failure by 5 or more means you lose your move action), and finally, with DC 30, go over spaces meant for a creature one size smaller than you. As a fullround action. At half speed. Oh, and the slow fall, tumble and quick stand up can only be used if you're actually trained on Acrobatics.

Fitting on tight spaces seems really weak for such an high DC, but otherwise Acrobatics looks like an useful perícia useful for a variety of situations. I don't see much reason to tumble around if attacks of opportunity are optional now, as you could probably just go around your enemy (unless you're in a tight place I guess), but making it an opposed check against Initiative makes surprisingly
 sense.

Handle Animals (Car): Domesticating a wild animal is DC 25, variable time depending on the creature. Zero examples or guidelines on that. Teaching tricks is a DC 15 for a week of training, with 3 tricks per point of Int (creatures with Int 3 or more are intellegent beings and won't be amused). A DC 25 as a fullround action you can force an animal to perform a trick they don't know. Aparently works even if said animal is trying to bite your face off. Finally making an animal perform a trick they already know is a standard action with DC 10, and you can use it even whitout training on this. You get a +5 bonus on Handle Animal checks on your animal companion.

Pretty much the same as before, but kinda a shame the Master is forced to make up something for the time needed for domesticating animals.

Athletics (For): Climb+Jump+Swim. Also running, which was standard for everybody before. You can move as fullround action, in which case you move an extra 1,5 m times your check result. For example an human gets 24, they move 45 m. You must run in a straight line and you can't go over difficult terrain tough. And make a Con check with DC 10+1 per previous test every round to keep running, otherwise you can't run for one minute. I guess outrunning the party's dwarf so he's snacked by the dragon pursuing you isn't as viable as a plan now! Climb makes you move at half speed up trees, walls, cliffs, that sort of stuff, with DCs between 5 and 25. Failing means you stop, failure by 5 or more means you fall all the way down. You also count as flat-footed while climbing and if hit must make another check or fall. Swimming works as climbing, except the DC only goes up to 20 for stormy sea. Funny because plenty of people out there do climb the tallest mountains and buildings and other high places for fun, but swimming your way out alive from a stormy sea is usually considered nothing short of a miracle. If submerged, you can hold your breath for a number of rounds equal to your Con score, and then start making scaling Con checks. Failure means you drop to 0 PV, then -1, then dead. Finally jumping is a part of your movement, starting at DC 10for 1,5 m, and an extra 5 DC for each other 1,5 m. Jumping up starts at DC 10 for 0,5 m, then an extra 5 DC for each more 0,5 m up. If you don't move at least 6 m before jumping, the DC increases by 10. If you willingly jump down from an high place, a DC 15 reduces falling damage by 1d6.

A nice consolidation of movement options, they all seem to work the same as before. They don't  note that creatures already have a natural height for helping them reach high places, but I guess that's obvious. Running as a perícia is interesting, a monk in particular should be particularly fast at higher levels. Not that useful in combat per se, but should be useful depending on the terrain conditions.

Perform(Car): Pretty much as the same as before, including this being actually multiple four perícias in one, each needing separate training. Perform (Music) covers all instruments,  Perform (Dance) includes all dances as well, Perform (Dramathurgy) includes Comedy, Drama and Mimicry, and finally Perform (Oratory) covers speeches and poetry. Consolidation is always nice! However you can no longer make money out of it... Even if it says a result of 35 will please kings, there's no actual mechanical advantage for picking this. Bards need to pick this up, everybody else looks like they have better things to choose.


Hidden perícia: Perform (Sparkle)

Ride (Des): Just getting on and riding a mount needs no checks. A DC 20 allows you to mount as a free action instead of a move action, failure by 5 means your ass gets to the ground. Fast ride is DC 15 and gives your mount +3 m movement, but also 2 damage. Guide with knees is DC 10 to have both your hands free while riding, otherwise you need to use at least one hand. Oh, and if you or your mount takes any damage while riding, you need to make a Ride test with the same DC or fall and take 1d6 damage. Finally if there's an obstacle in your mount's path and you make them jump over, you need a DC 15 test or fall, taking 1d6 damage, or more depending on said obstacle's nature. Non-domesticated animals, as well as ones not fit to be used as mounts, give you a -5 penalty on Ride tests.

Having to make checks every time you or your mount gets hit kinda sucks, but at least you don't need checks just for the basic stuff. As before, you pick this up if you want to ride stuff, otherwise skip.

Knowledge: Exactly as before, except that now you can pick a new category, Knowledge (Tormenta). Also failing your checks by 5 or more will make you draw wrong conclusions.

Heal: DC 15 standard action to give First Aid to make someone stop bleeding all over your new shoes. You can also give long-term care as a DC 15 that doubles natural healing. You must spend one hour per day for a number of creatures equal to your heal grading. You can also treat a disease over 1 hour. If you suceed on a test with DC equal to the disease's own, the victim gains a +5 bonus on the next save. Same for poison, but just 1 standard action instead of 1 hour. You need an healing kit or take a -5 penalty. Using heal on yourself also means a -5 penalty. Go for the healer first!


Hmm, guys, I don't think that's how you treat a sunburn...

Diplomacy (Car): You can now use it to bargain prices! Opposed check, if you win you get a 10% discount, or even 20% if you win by 10 or more. Failure by 5 or more means the merchant won't make business with you for a week. Still not much of a problem, just send in one of your teammates to finish the deal. Then you can also make people like you more. This is now an opposed check against Sense Motive and takes 1 minute (or standard action with -10 penalty). They only become one step friendlier, and you can only change someone's attitude once per day per person. Failure by 5 or more means they dislike you one more step. You can't make someone like you more than helpful.

Making the BBEG your best friend instantly is no longer a valid option, but you can still gather up your personal cult (as helpful means they're willing to follow and fight along you), and quite a number of classes don't have sense motive to defend themselves. Even if you don't plan for that, a possible 10% or even 20% discount on prices is too good to pass up, so at least one party member should be trained in this, probably two.

Bluff (Car): You can make someone believe a lie with an opposed Sense Motive check as a standard action. Your opponent still get a bonus or penalty depending on how bad/good you can phrase your lie, from +20 to -5. You can also use this to disguise yourself (needs a kit and 10 minutes), with a stacking -2 penalty for each of different sex/race/age category. Also the other guy gets a bonus on their Perception checks depending on how well they knew the real person, from +2 to +10. You can also forge documents, again with a series of situational +2 and -2 for diferent conditions, opposed by a Perception check (seriously paladins are kinda screwed trying to do their job whitout Perception as a class perícia). You can combine bluff with profession to makefake goods, like glass jewels and whatnot. Finally you can feint, Bluff vs Intiative, makes the enemy flatfooted against your next attack whitin 1 round. This last one doesn't take an action it seems!

Stealth (Des): Hide+Move Silently, opposed by Perception. Same as before, including penalties if you move over half your speed . You can even charge while stealthing, by taking a -20 penalty, however it then says if you attack while stealthing you also take a -20 penalty. Do those two stack? I guess charging is kinda more noisy than trying to snipe someone from cover. No need of action, always part of movement, which is a bit better than the 3.5 rules.

Spellcraft: Usual uses for identificating spells, but can also be used  as Use Magic Device with a fixed DC 25 or can even be used to try to overcome Armor Spell Failure (DC 25+spell level). Also identifying potions with a 1 minute DC 20.

Even if magic items are more rare in Tormenta, this sounds like an auto-pick if you have acess to it. If nothing else, it makes sure that you can use whatever random special bling you find.

Initiative (Des): Still decides who goes first in combat, besides being used to resist a bunch of stuff. Train it. 

Intimidate(Car): Opposed check against Will save, fear resistance /immunity applies. If you suceed, the victim colaborates with you while they're in your presence and for another 1d6x10 minutes. After that they dislike you, or even hate you, so I guess better backstab them before the effect runs out. If you fail by 5 or more they don't obey you, or may make the opposite of what you asked. So, what happens if you fail by less than 5? Also what's the action?

Mundane mind control (in 3.5 it only made the victim friendly). You can build up your own army as long as you keep them close. Even if you can't use it in combat (which would make it kinda broken I guess), it's awesome utility. Demoralize option is nowhere to be seen.

Sense Motive: Feel things that can't be perceived by normal senses (which is covered by Perception). Allows you to notice magic trickery with a DC 20+spell level, from mind-controled creatures to polymorphed wizards to illusory walls. Can also be used to notice lies made by bluff, or simply notice if someone is trustworthy with a DC 20.

This allows both mundanes to notice when casters are trying to screw with them, or simply if someone is trying to set them up. Still  doesn't actually help you solve problems after you notice them, but it's definetely an improvement over 3.5 and something to pick up if you have the chance.

Thievery(Des): Open Locks+Sleight of Hand+Disable Device. And also Use Magic Device again. All of them the same as before. I guess it's there to allow rogues to get their signature skill perícia. Thus an auto-pick if you don't have/want Spellcraft.

Gather Information (Car):Pretty much the same as before, spend money to gain a bonus on learning more stuff from the locals. Pick Diplomacy or Intimidate instead.

Profession (Int): No longer Wis Sab based, you still pick a specialization like Metallurgy (includes weapons, armor and other metal stuff), Jewelery, a specific art, and so on. You can use it to determine the worth of an item connected, as well as detecting forgeries. Also crafting stuff related to your profession (about time if you ask me), a week per 100 GP TO. DCs go from 10 for simple stuff to 25 to really complex stuff, and you can take a -5 penalty on the check to try to double working speed. (3 days for a 100 TO item, a week for a 200 TO item, and so on). You can also repair stuff related to your profession. This takes one day and 1/5 the original cost. Failure means wasted time and money, but you don't make the item more broken. Finally you can use this as a living income, at the rate of 1 TO per point you exceed a DC of 15. Trained workers gain 1 TO per week usually, untrained workers gain 1 silver piece (yes, they call it “piece” instead of the new coin name). You need a kit or -5 penalty.

Nice consolidation overall, but unless there's some more uses for professions hidden in the book, or you get to craft some cool mundane items, I don't see this being worth it.

Perception: Spot+Listen+Search, actually with separate uses. Noticing a certain person in a market is DC 5, finding a specific soldier in the middle of a battle is DC 20. You can also read lips with DC 20. Listen allows you to hear trough obstacles, or even notice invisible enemies (DC 20 or stealth+10, whichever's bigger), but you'll still count as blinded when fighting them. Sleep means a -10 penalty. Perception also allows you to notice hidden doors/chests/secrets whitin 3 m, altough it's then a fullround action to examine a 1,5 m space in detail. DCs for this go up to 30. Finding traps also goes here.

It's kinda hard to kill what you can't see. Pick perception.

Survival(Sab): Don't get lost in the wilds, forage food to feed your party. DCs go up to 25 depending on terrain, and you take a -5 penalty for bad weather. You need Track to follow specific trails.

Another one that remains mostly unchanged. But at least now druids and rangers aren't auto-immune to it. I wonder how much DMs actually keep track of the party's food supplies. This is, worst comes to worst you can always just roast the monsters you killed today.


This image looks a lot more like “classic” D&D than anything else on the book so far.

Overall: Just like Pathfinder, a lot of consolidation around, altough Initiative being a perícia now means one less training slot. However you can get more easy with multiclassing as long as you're not a fullcaster. And again, thanks to consolidation, your other training slots will be worth more when you usually get more stuff for each trained perícia you pick.

There's also no clear  one “trash” choice: Gather Information. Diplomacy or Intimidate just seem like a more reliable way of getting the same effect, plus some extras. Otherwise Perform is still essential for bards, and I trust that there will be some nice equipment for you to craft with profession.

 Only serious issue I see is that Indimidate has no listed action to use, which is bad when it's such a powerful effect. In 3.5 at least it took a minute to get to boss other people around, meaning they could just leave or try to kill you back. Also the demoralize option just vanished, altough I guess it won't be missed too much.

[Libertad]

Hey Oslecamo, are you still planning on continuing the review?  I'm still interested, as are some other people here I'm sure!

[oslecamo]

Part VIII-Talentos


Perhaps we could get to see some Tormenta monsters for a change? No? Oh, wait, that woman looks like a naga actually.

Chapter 5: Talentos starts with another short story about our amnesiac hero and his halfling friend, now facing three trained warriors with axes sent by some new Gideon big guy. Fancy fight follows, including a complain that thieves don't know how to use axes. The last bleeding thug says the amnesiac hero is already dead, but aparently that's just final bravado and not some Hokuto-axe special move.

After the fluff, the chapter repeats the rate at which characters gain Talentos, and then uses a 1st level Fighter as an example. Always nice for beginner players I guess.

Talentos are divided in several groups, which are Combat, Perícias, Magic, Granted Powers (aka for clerics and paladins), Tormenta (powerful, but at a cost), and Destiny (aka don't fit in any of the other groups).

It then explains that several Talentos have prerequisites, and you can't choose them until you meet said prerequisites, using Kenzuke Murayama, the Samurai who wants to learn Mounted Archery, as the example. Also, if you lose the prerequisites for a Talento you have, you can't use it anymore until you meet them again. Something which I believe was never properly clarified in 3.X, so pretty nice to see here.

Also, Talentos don't stack. You can pick Weapon Focus multiple times to cover multiple weapons, but you can't use it to gain an increasing higher bonus to the same weapon. Some talentos stack, but then that'll be pointed out on the Talento itself. And 1/day Talentos can be picked multiple times to gain more uses. Wait, Weapon Focus still just gives +1 to attack rolls with a single weapon? Eerr, let's check everything before any early judgements, shall we?

Then there's 3 pages of tables 3.5 style with Talentos organized by groups and prerequisites, except here there's no clues given of what anything does besides the Talento name itself. And they do have quite a bit of blank space on those tables, they could've easily fit in a third column with short descritions if you ask me.

Finally we reach the crunchy details, starting with Combat Talentos!

(click to show/hide)

Improved Critical-Same as 3.5, except it now demands Weapon focus on the relevant weapon, and only doesn't stack with other critical doublers, plus is always the first to be applied. So kinda a nerf in that you now need Weapon Focus, but on the other hand a boost since  it will stack with critical boosters that don't specifically double your threat range.

Weapon Finesse-Same as 3.5, except that if you go shield and sword, you take the Shield's penalty on all attack rolls. Nerf.

Improved Grapple: Now needs For 13 instead of Des 13, plus Improved Unarmed Strike, and gives you a +4 bonus on Grapple attempts. Also taking a quick glance at the Tormenta grapple rules, it doesn't seem like those provoke automatic aoos anyway, so the end result is the same as before. Except this is now just a numeric bonus, and you may actually be able to viably grapple those weaker than you whitout need of a feat Talento at all.

Deflect Objects-Needs Des 13 and Improved Unarmed Strike. Whenever someone tries to hit you with a ranged attack, you can attempt a Reflex save with DC equal to the attack roll to stop it. Very large projectiles like siege weaponry, or magic attacks, can't be blocked at all, and you need an hand free... But  there's no “1/round, needs to be aware of the attack and not flatfooted” limitations anymore! Meaning a whole army of archers can ambush you, and you still get to try to deflect all their arrows! Awesome! 

Catch objects-Same as 3.5 catch arrows. Catch the stuff that they throw at you. May be visually cool, but not that pratical unless you want to make some juggling troupe our something like that I guess.

Parry-Needs Des 15, Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise and Bab +6, and for all of that, you get to try to block any one attack that would hit you by making a better attack roll with a finessable weapon. Just 1/round, but you don't need to actually be holding any kind of specific weapon, and there's no limitation the kind of attack you can attempt to parry. Cannon balls? Magic rays of death? B****, please, I can now swat them away with my chest off-hand dagger! Just once per round ok, but since iterative attacks aren't a thing anymore, and you can wait to check if an attack would hit you or not, this sounds great. I would say it's worth picking weapon finesse even if you're For based just so you can pick this.

Harmless Looks-Needs Car 13, and forces any creatures with Int 3 or more that want to attack you to make a Sense Motive check with DC 10+1/2 your level+Car mod  or lose their action. Regardless if they suceed or save, they're not affected by this Talento anymore for the rest of combat. Sounds awesome for any Car-based class, and I could see taking Car 13 just to pick this as an anti-mook defense, as most enemies probably aren't trainted in Sense Motive at all, so they'll still fail the check more often than not.

Stunning Attack-Needs just Sab 13 and Improved Unarmed Strike and can be used 1+Sab times per day. Otherwise it's pretty much the same thing as Stunning Fist, except you can pick it multiple times to gain 2 extra uses per day. Oh, and you can attempt it multiple times per round. Still good for monks (more uses at early levels, less uses per day at higher levels), but I could see a wildshape druid built around this.

Improved Shield bash-Same as 3.5

Improved Unarmed Strike- Same as 3.5, except that it seems like making unarmed strikes whitout this Talento wouldn't provoke aoos. Actually, checking a bit ahead, it seems like aoos aren't a base rule anymore at all.

Double Attack-Needs Weapon Focus and Bab+6. You can attack twice with the chosen weapon as a standard action, but you take a -5 penalty on both attacks. Penalty seems nasty, but extra attacks are rare, so worth it I guess.

Spring Attack-Needing Des 13, Dodge, Mobility, Bab+4, you can move, attack in melee, and then move again, as long as the total movement isn't higher than your base move speed. This was kinda crap in 3.5, and now that Aoos aren't a thing anymore and you can make multiple attacks as a standard action trough other means, it seems even more crappy. Skip.

Whirlwind Attack-Needs Des 13, Int 13, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Combat Expertise, Bab+4. As a fullround action, make a melee attack against each adjacent opponent. Eeer, if you didn't need the crappy Spring Attack, this may be an low-average choice, but as it is, just skip it as well.

Power Attack-Needs For 13, take a -2 penalty on a melee attack roll to gain +4 on the damage roll. No bonus for two-handed weapons, so unarmed fighters, dual-wielders, shield-and-sword and guys with natural weapons rejoiced.  Lack of scaling kinda sucks, but definetely worth picking for melee guys.


Dwarves, dwarves never change.

Precise Attack-Needs Des 15, Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise, Bab+11, and makes you deal an exttra 1d6 damage with weapons that benefit from weapon finesse. Just 1d6 seems kinda meh, but at least it applies to all your attacks, so worth a pick if you're going that route.

Cunning Attack-Needs Int 13, Weapon Finesse, and Bab +4, allows you to add your Int mod to damage rolls with weapons that benefit from Weapon Finesse. Good if you're making an Int-based Rogue, but the only other class that seemed to care about Int was the wizard, and those guys don't seem to be wanting to fight in melee.

Improved Overrun-Needs For 13 and Power Attack. When you use Overrun, your opponent can't choose to evade you, and you gain a +4 bonus on the attack rolls to Overrun.

Two-Weapon Defense-Needs Des 15 and Two Weapon Fighting. While fighting with two weapons (or a double weapon), +1 to AC. Eerr, that's a straight nerf to something that was already weak.

Thick Hide-Needs com 13, you get to add your Con bonus to AC, but doesn't stack with armor. Sounds like an auto-pick for those classes that can't use armor, and I could see a dwarf rogue or something like that having high enough Con to choose this over light armor.

Mounted Combat-Needs training in Ride, otherwise same as 3.5.

Two Weapon Fighting-Needs Des 15. While wielding two weapons and at least one of them is light, you can attack with both as a standard action by taking a -4 penalty on the attack rolls. It seems like you can't fight with two weapons at all whitout this feat, but you do get to add your full For bonus to both of them!

Improved and Greater Two Weapon Fighting-Same prerequisites as 3.5, but instead of granting you extra attacks, they further reduce your penalties for TWF by 2, meaning after three talentos you're no longer taking a penalty at all. Considering that everybody else is taking considerable penalties for making multiple attacks in a single round, sounds like a good deal, altough somewhat plain.


Dual wielding is the new melee!

Improved Trip/Disarm-Needs Int 13 and Combat Expertise, +4 on Trip/disarm tests. Next ones.

Hard to Kill-Once per day if you take damage that would reduce you to zero or less HP, you get to ignore that damage. Immunity to being one-shotted sounds like a better deal for enemy mooks than for player characters, but I guess it's still worth picking it for the hero's side for those times you get hit by a big damage crit.

Powerful Grip-You get to use weapons one size category above you by taking a -2 penalty on attack rolls. Normally you would take a -4 penalty. So basically monkey grip, except that you can use it with ranged weapons. The only benefit for using a bigger weapon seems to be bigger damage, but considering that Power Attack doesn't scale (and ranged damage boosters seem pretty scarce as well), probably worth it now.
Improved Bullrush-Needs For 13 and Power attack, +4 on bullrush attempts.

Weapon Specialization (and Improved version)-Same as 3.5.

Armor Specialization-You need Armor Focus and Fighter 8th level,   granting you DR 2 while wearing the chosen armor. Seems like it would've been nice at lower levels, but when you're able to actually pick it, I bet everybody is hitting too hard for this to matter.

Combat Expertise-Needs Int 13, if you're in melee allows you to take a -2 penalty on attack rolls for +4 AC for 1 round. Since Combat Expertise only scaled up to -5 attack/+5 AC, capped by your Bab this seems like an actual boost!

Dodge-Needs Des 13, you gain +1 AC all the time against everything.

Improved Feint-Needs Int 13 and Combat Expertise, you get to Feint as a move action instead of standard action. Considering that fullattacks are now standard actions, definetely better than in 3.5.

Strategic Feint Flirt-Needs Car 13 and Improved Feint. You can seduce or humiliate enemies in combat, like slashing their clothes, putting roses in their hair, revealing interesting parts of your anatomy... Eerr, when you use feint against an enemy that could feel sexually atracted to you and you succeed, they take a -2 penalty on attacks, saves and perícias until the end of combat. “Why yes the king should go all gar for my manly abs!”

Weapon Focus-Same as 3.5, except now you need it for a bunch of actually useful stuff, so you'll probably pick it more often than before.

Improved Weapon Focus-same as 3.5

Armor Specialization-You gain+1 AC with one kind of armor, and the respective perícia penalty is reduced by 1. If you already picked Dodge and want more AC, go ahead I guess.

Two Handed Strike-Needs For 15 and power Attack. If you hold a weapon with both hands and attack in melee, you get to add twice your For mod to damage rolls (normally you would only add it once it seems). Can't be used for light weapons.

Grenadier-Needs training Profession (alchemy), gives you +2 to attack and damage rolls with weapons that allow a Reflex save to reduce their effects, like alchemical fire and grenades (there are grenades in core?)

Cunning Insult-Needs Car 13 and Improved Feint. You know how to troll your opponent in combat, meaning that when you Feint them in combat, they take a -2 penalty to AC for the rest of the combat.

Mounted Charge-Is Ride-By-Attack from 3.5

Unstopable Charge-Is Spirited Charge from 3.5

Blindfight-You can re-roll missed attacks due to concealment, and you're not flatfooted against enemies that you can't see.

Weapon Mastery-Needing Fighter 16th level and all of the Weapon Focus and Specializations, you gain +1 to attack and damage rolls with the chosen weapon, plus the respective crit threat increases by 1. Once per day you can re-roll one attack.

Seasoned Aim-Needs Sab 13, Far Shot, Precise shot. Take a move action to gain +1 to ranged attack rolls against one target.

Deadly Aim-Needs Des 17, Sab 13, Bab +11, Seasoned Aim, Precise Shot, Far Shot, and for all of that your critical threat with ranged weapons increases by a whooping 1!

Mobility-You gain +2 AC every time you use a move action to change positions. What's the duration? This could be actually half-good if it lasts 1 round, or basically useless if it only lasts while you're moving.

On the Target-Needs Des 13, Precise Shot, Point-Blank-Shot. You get to add your Des mod to ranged damage rolls.

Panache-Needs Car 13 and Improved Feint. More trolling in combat! When you sucessfully feint an enemy, they only can make one standard action next round (I guess it implies they can't make a move action).

Weapon Expert-Needs Des 13, Int 13, Weapon Focus and Finesse. A number of times per day equal to your Car mod, you can replace a perícia check by an attack roll.

Trample-Same as the respective mounted combat feat from 3.5.

Rapid Reload-Choose a weapon. You can recharge that weapon one step faster (for example, standard action reload becomes move action). Since gunpowder weapons seems to take work to reload, this sounds useful.


Is that a ninja with a baseball cap on the background?

Combat Reflexes-Needs Des 13, when you're adjacent to a flatfooted opponent, you get to make a free melee attack. I guess this is the replacement for Aoos.

Quick Draw-Same as 3.5

Improved Sunder-Needs For 13 and Power Attack, +4 to Sunder attempts and doudle damage against objects. It would be nice if the other talentos of this kind had an extra bonus besides the +4.

Point-Blank-Shot-Same as 3.5.

Shot- In-The-Run-Same as 3.5.

Far Shot-Same as 3.5 Actually doubles your range increment with all ranged weapons.

Mounted Shot-Same as 3.5 Mounted Archery.

Multi Shot-Needs Des 17, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Bab+6. As a standard action, you can make two ranged attacks against a single opponent whitin 9 m, by taking a -4 penalty on the attack rolls, and only the first can crit.

Precise Shot (and Improved version)-Same as 3.5.

Rapid Shot-Needs Des 13 and Point-Blank-Shot. If you use a ranged weapon as a fullround action, you get one extra attack but take a -2 penalty on the attack rolls. So basically same as 3.5

Cheering Crowd-Needs Car 13. While there's creatures that aren't doing anything besides watching you fight, and most of those creatures are shouting your name/hoping you win, you gain +1 to attack rolls, AC and saves. You can also make a DC 20 Perform or Diplomacy attempt to fall in the good graces of a crowd for the purpose of this ability.

Cleave (and Greater Improved version)-Same as 3.5.

 (Light, Medium or Heavy) Armor/Shield/ (Simple, Martial or Exotic) Weapon Proficiency-Same as before, except you can learn all simple weapons with just one pick, or learn all martial weapons with just one pick if you already know how to use Simple weapons.


Sherif-Knight? Remember people, Rule of Cool!

Use Poisons-Needs training in profession (alchemy), nongood Alignment. You can apply poison to weapons whitout risk of poisoning yourself, otherwise it's a 10% chance of screwing yourself.


Toughness Vitality- You gain +1 HP per level, increasing when you level up, and can take  this multiple times. Considering that everybody starts with some nice extra HP at first level, I don't see much of a reason for this, unless you have some leftover feats at later levels (yeah, right).

So, a good chunk of the talentos seem to be unchanged, or just adapted to reflect the new rules. A few got nerfed (Two-Weapon Defense), several got both a nerf and a boost (Imp Crit now needs Weapon Focus, but can be combined with more stuff, Power Attack doesn't scale but gives you 2-for-1 damage gain in return for less acuraccy), and some got a straight buff (Dodge, Deflect arrows has no use limit ).

Two-Weapon fighting seems the way to go in melee, as you can use it as a standard action to use while benefiting from Power Attack+Precise Attack and  and eventually reduce the penalties on attack rolls to just -2. Two-hander may still be viable by wielding an oversized weapon with Double Attack, but you'll be taking a nasty -9 penalty on attack rolls total.

There's also plenty of new talentos, in particular lots of support for a Car-based warrior, using Feint to debuff the enemy like nobody's business, which helps the whole party. Poison use being a feat is something quite simple

But my favorite new Talento is definetely Parry. I'll repeat that I would pick this at any cost for a warrior build of any kind in a Tormenta game, even if I had no other use for Weapon Finesse. Definetely another reason for going TWF and wielding finessable weapons, in particular because you get to power attack with them now. Free blocking of any one attack per round is just that good if you ask me (and remember, Power Attack only applies to attacks of your choice, so if somebody else of your level is using it against you, your Parry Roll will have better odds of suceeding).

On the other hand, aoos not being a default rule anymore seems... Strange. The reason seem to be for simplicity's sake. There's a table much later on with an option to include them tough.

So overall, I would say that combat Feats Talentos have been buffed (not that much, but you still get more of them). Only real loss is Power Attack and Multishot shenigans, but that's probably for the best, while TWF and Car-based guys got quite a bit of love. Rocket Tag has been kicked on the nuts, as you're a lot less vulnerable to things like swarms of kobolds with crossbows, can parry the super ultimate attack of the BBEG, and even if a lucky hit gets trough for a bazillion damage, that's for what you picked Hard to Kill right? Just don't understand why they couldn't make Whirlwind Attack a standard action as everything else.

Oh, and a fighter that picks only Hard to Kill as every Talento choice should be hilarious.

Next time, we'll check the Perícia Talentos.

[Atmo]

The ninja with a baseball hat? Capitão Ninja.



........yeah. T.T

[Threadnaught]

Eu provavelmente deveria colocar em Português para a lista de idiomas que eu quero aprender. Então, muitas pessoas de digitação on-line em português.
Seria muito mais conveniente para aprendê-la, em vez de confiar em Traduz Google cada vez que eu quero saber o que alguém escreveu.

Omg todos os peitos em que a arte. Faz-me lembrar o artigo de Libertad.


Just in case that got mangled by google translate, here's what I used it to translate.
I should probably put Portuguese on to the list of languages I want to learn. So many people online typing in portuguese.
It'd be far more convenient to learn it rather than rely on google translate every time I want to know what someone wrote.

Omg all teh bewbies in that artwork. It reminds me of Libertad's article.

[Atmo]

Eu provavelmente deveria colocar em Português para a lista de idiomas que eu quero aprender. Então, muitas pessoas de digitação on-line em português.
Seria muito mais conveniente para aprendê-la, em vez de confiar em Traduz Google cada vez que eu quero saber o que alguém escreveu.

Omg todos os peitos em que a arte. Faz-me lembrar o artigo de Libertad.


Just in case that got mangled by google translate, here's what I used it to translate.
I should probably put Portuguese on to the list of languages I want to learn. So many people online typing in portuguese.
It'd be far more convenient to learn it rather than rely on google translate every time I want to know what someone wrote.

Omg all teh bewbies in that artwork. It reminds me of Libertad's article.

Agh, my eyes!

No caso do google translate avacalhar, aqui está o que eu costumava traduzir.
Eu deveria colocar Português na minha lista de línguas que eu quero aprender. Tantas pessoas online digitando em português.
Seria mais conveniente aprender do que confiar na porcaria do google translate toda vez que eu quiser saber o que alguém escreveu.

Omg todos os peitos naquela arte. Me lembra do artigo do Libertad.

Now it's better!

[Libertad]

Omg todos os peitos em que a arte. Faz-me lembrar o artigo de Libertad.


Omg all teh bewbies in that artwork. It reminds me of Libertad's article.

Which article are you referring to?  I wrote a lot of stuff.

[Threadnaught]

Which article are you referring to?  I wrote a lot of stuff.

More specifically, you wrote this one which mentions the artwork issue.
Or at least, it's mentioned in the final draft.

Thank you btw, I skimmed the article and the whole thread while typing this post.

[Ziderich]

Parry-Needs Des 15, Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise and Bab +6, and for all of that, you get to try to block any one attack that would hit you by making a better attack roll. Just 1/round, but you don't need to actually be holding any kind of specific weapon, and there's no limitation the kind of attack you can attempt to parry. Cannon balls? Magic rays of death? B****, please, I can now swat them away with my chest! Just once per round ok, but since iterative attacks aren't a thing anymore, and you can wait to check if an attack would hit you or not, this sounds great. I would say it's worth picking weapon finesse even if you're For based just so you can pick this.

Parry need to be used along with a light weapon. Also, i believe it only works against mundane attacks, but i'll check.

[oslecamo]

You're correct about needing a Light Weapon, I missed it because it's just at the bottom of the text, fixed that. Man, dual wielding just keeps looking better than the other melee options in Tormenta.

However, I still see no mention about it only working against mundane attacks (which Deflect Arrows makes an explicit exception for), so deflecting death rays with rapiers remains a valid option.

[Ziderich]

Your question about Parry is fair, I had doubt pro FAQ system to see that. It had never occurred to me.

Two weapons is really the better choice to fight, in the long-term, but the others isn't far behind: for example, a fighter with 22 Strength can pick up Power Attack, Mighty Grip, Two-Handed Strike and hit with a large tauric sword of adamantine and reach impressive 6d8 +16! And with only a -2 penalty to attack. The supplements there are also other useful talents to fight with shields, polearms and others. Everything is well treated, with strengths and weaknesses.

[Atmo]

Your question about Parry is fair, I had doubt pro FAQ system to see that. It had never occurred to me.

Two weapons is really the better choice to fight, in the long-term, but the others isn't far behind: for example, a fighter with 22 Strength can pick up Power Attack, Mighty Grip, Two-Handed Strike and hit with a large tauric sword of adamantine and reach impressive 6d8 +16! And with only a -2 penalty to attack. The supplements there are also other useful talents to fight with shields, polearms and others. Everything is well treated, with strengths and weaknesses.

Don't forget you add your level to spell damage.

[oslecamo]

Part IX-Perícia Talentos

Audacious Acrobatics-Demands training in acrobatics, allows you to move trough difficult terrain at normal speed, and even to charge trough difficult terrain. Looks good if you're going for a charge build, otherwise probably not worth it.

Acrobatic-You can re-roll an Acrobatic test you just made, but you must take the second result even if worst. Meh, unless there's some really good acrobatics combo I missed, skip this.

Animal Affinity-As Acrobatic, but for Handle Animal.

Agile-Needs Des 15, you can use your Des instead of For for Athletics test. Sounds nice for rogues and swashbucklers who are probably pumping Des and dumping For.

Magical Aptitude-As Acrobatic, but for spellcraft. Considering that Spellcraft now doubles as Use Magic Device, this one actually sounds like it's worth the Talento slot!

Artist-As Acrobat, but for Perform. If bardic music was based on perform checks, may be useful for them. But as it isn't, probably better to pick something else.

Athletic-As Acrobat, but athletics.

Self-Suffecient-You don't take a -5 penalty on using Heal on yourself (ups, seems like I overlooked that detail last time ) and you get a +4 bonus on Survival tests if you're “alone”, which is defined as no allies whitin 18 m. Eerr, if you have people whitin rock throwing distance I don't think that really counts as alone, but I guess the alternative would be counter-productive for a group-based game.

Create Masterwork-Needs training in Profession and having Perícia Focus (Profession). You can build masterwork stuff! That work the exact same was as in 3.5, except it's a flat +100 TO to the cost increase to craft them (and +5 to the DC).

Agile Fingers-As Acrobatic, but for Thievery. Sounds good for rogues.

Diligent-As a move action, you can gain a +2 bonus on all Perícia tests until the next round. Hmm, the bonus is small, but applying to everything probably makes it worth it for skill perícia monkeys.

Perícia Focus-Choose a perícia you're trained on, you gain a +4 bonus on checks with it. Slightly bigger bonus than in 3.5, and probably applying to more stuff!

Fraudulent-As Acrobat, but for Bluff. If you're going for a feinting build, probably worth it.

Impostor-Needs Car 13, perícia focus on Bluff. You're so good at pretending you have skills you don't have that you can actually do them! A number of times per day equal to your Cha mod, you can replace a check with any Perícia with a Bluff check. That actually sounds pretty awesome!


Alas, there doesn't seem to be any stuff here to make clockwork familiars.

Improved Initiative-As Acrobat, but for Initiative. Ah, yes, Initiative is a perícia now. Every character has a compeling reason to burn two Talentos in this and Perícia Focus (Initiative), unless they're dumping their Des for whatever reason.

Investitagor-Needs Int 13, you can add your Int mod to Gather Information and Perception checks to search stuff. Only rogues would have any interest on this, but rogues won't invest that much on Int, so skip.

Fast Hands-Needs Des 15 and Thievery training. Once per round you can make a Sleight of Hand as per the Thievery rules as a free action. Basically putting or retrieving stuff from other people's pockets. Sounds pretty good if you can get creactive. In particular when explosives seem to be a core part of Tormenta.

Negotiator-Needs Profession training. When you reach a community, you can make a DC 20 Profession training. If you succeed, you can buy everything at 75% standard price, rounded down! If you fail, you can try again in a month, or go somewhere else. Not very clear if it stacks with the Diplomacy discount. Would probably be a bit OP if it did. I would say worth it even if they don't stack, in particular if nobody trained Diplomacy.

Persuassive-As Acrobat, but for diplomacy. Diplomacy is awesome. If you trained it, this is a tempting pick.

Readyness-As Acrobat, but for Perception. Noticing enemies is important or so I heard.

Track-Needs training in Survival. You can now use it to follow tracks left by creatures. DC 10 for soft ground, 15 for regular ground, 20 for rocks/house floors. +1 for each 3 creatures on the group you're following, -1 for each day since the creatures passed, and a -5 if the weather is screwing with your vision. The last one seems to be always just -5, so you don't suffer a bigger penalty  for a rainy misty night than there just being a mist hindering you. One check to find tracks, another for each day of following. More simple and viable overall than in 3.5, in particular since random stuff like snow doesn't screw you over anymore. Sure, you no longer get a bonus for tracking the tarrasque, but you can probably spot that one in the horizon.

Nature Sense-As Acrobat, but for survival. Should come in handy if you picked the above.

Quiet-As Acrobat, but for Stealth checks.

Perícia Training-You gain training in a perícia of your choice. Eerr, just play an human and get two of those for free, plus two other talentos.

Overall : Half this section could've probably be consolidated in a single Talento, that lets you pick a perícia and re-roll stuff with it. Anyway, the value of this one is highly dependant on how much you value the perícia they're boosting itself. Most of them sound useful if you're already planning to make heavy use of the relevant Perícia, but none of them sound like “OMG I'm gonna train myself on this perícia just so I can use this talento!“. Which is probably a good thing. Still, the love of the designers for Car-based dudes keeps strong, with Impostor clearly standing out from everything else in terms of origininality/cool factor.

Next, magic talentos!

[oslecamo]

Part X-Magic Talentos


Let nobody say that tormenta doesn't offer fanservice for both genders.

We get our first Talento tag, [metamagic [metamágico]! Those allow you to spend extra PM when casting to boost up spells. Otherwise pretty much the same as regular metamagic, except there doesn't seem to be a limit besides “each metamagic can only be applied to each spell once”. So as soon as you learn fireball, you can start throwing maximized versions if you already have the talento as long as you have the PM to burn!

Quicken Spell[metamágico]:For +4 PM, you can cast a spell as a free action, as long as it didn't take more than a fullround action to cast to begin with, and only 1/round. Casting a quickened spell doesn't leave you flatfooted.

Widen Spell[metamágico]: For +3 PM, you can double the area of a spell. For example, a fireball becomes radius 12 m instead of 6m... Eerr, I'm pretty sure mathematics don't work that way. Won't do anything for spells that don't affect an area. Also, why does it costs almost as much as the much stronger Quicken spell?

Amplify Spell[metamágico]:For +1 PM, double the range of a spell. Spells whitout a range measured in meters can't be affected by this.

Magic Knowledge: Learn two extra spells of any level you can cast. Can be taken multiple times. Sorcerors will probably be quite tempted by this, while wizards have the extra talentos to burn anyway.

Improved Counterspell: You can use any spell to counterspell, as long as it costs as much or more PM than the spell you're trying to counter. Seems like usually you could only counter with the same exact spell.

Dominate Magic:Reduce the PM cost of a spell of your choice by 1, to a minimum of 1. Sounds useful if you have a favorite spell you want to spam all the time.

Elevate Magic[metamágico]: Spend +1 PM to increase the effective level of one cast spell by 1, including increased DCs. You can spend extra PM to further increase the spell's level. The only thing that seems to keep this balanced is the part where you can't go over 9th effective spell level.

Extend Magic[metamágico]:For +1 PM double the duration of a spell with a duration other than instantaneous, permanent, or concentration. They use Hold Person as an example, lasting 2 minutes instead of 1, which is kinda funny when you consider that 1 minute of holding should be more than enough to do whatever you want to do to them anyway. Still sounds awesome for buffs as usual.

Familiar[metamágico]: Gain a familiar as a wizard. You need to be able to cast arcane spells to pick this, but can't choose it if you already have a familiar.

Spell Focus: Pick a spell. The DC when you cast it increases by 2. Well, considering that spells don't scale that much anymore, this sounds more useful for short campaigns where you don't expect to level up.

Improved Spell Focus: Need Spell Focus, further increase the DC of the chosen spell b y 4.

Natural Spell: Pretty much the same as in 3.5. Well, at least wildshape (and hopefully spells) got nerfed, so it isn't as bad...

Still Spell[metamágico]: Spend +1 PM to ignore the somatic component of a spell being cast.

Silent Spell[metamágico]: Spend +1 PM to ignore the verbal component of a spell being cast.

Combat Casting: You no longer get flatfooted when you cast cast spells.

Battle Wizard: Needs Int 13, Combat Casting, 4th wizard level. You get to add your Int mod to damage rolls with spells. . So now wizards are supposed to be better blasters than sorcerors?

Maximize Spell[metamágico]: +3 PM to maximize variables, pretty much the same as in 3.5.

Magic Power: You gain +1 PM. That's it. Ah, wait, you can take it multiple times, and you get more PM each iteration. So for example pick Magic Power x3, and you gain a total of 6 extra PM (1 for the first + 2 for the second +3 for the third).

Augment Summoning: Your summons gain +2 to attack and damage rolls. Actually a nerf from 3.5, since it doesn't boost Con!

Empower Magic[metamágico]:Spend +2 PM to increase a spell's random variables by 50%, pretty much the same as in 3.5, and still stacking with maximize spell.

Overall: Damn, tormenta spellcasters are sure being pushed towards the 5-minute workday. Let's see, a sorceror at 5th level will have 15+Car magic points, let's say +5. If she picked quicken, maximize and empower, she can throw  a maximized empowered fireball for 8 PM (3+3+2) followed right away by a quickened maximized empowered fireball (3+3+2+4). And then she's out, but whatever she was facing is probably reduced to a pile of ashes unless it was immune to fire (or picked Hard to Kill). Well, that sounds more like a 1-round workday. It also sounds a lot more dangerous in the hands of the enemies, since those don't mind going nova nearly as much as PCs do.

Another possible combo is a 1st level human sorceror picking up spell focus and greater spell focus for, say, color spray (which is still around as a Will vs Stun/Blindness, altough shorter duration), then amplify magic on top of that, for a whooping +12 DC. Sure, you won't cast anything else for the day, but pretty much everything at 1st level will only make that save with a natural 20. However you kinda burned two feats in the long run, because the spell focus and greater spell focus only apply to your Color Spray, that doesn't scale that well.


Now that I think about it, tormenta spellcasters should burn trough their PM pretty fast as they level up. Even a 20th level sorceror will just have 60 PM+ Car. That means she gets to cast a 9th level spell 7 times in a day, and then she'll only have some leftover PM. Contrast that with a 3.5 sorceror, that at 20th level would have “just” 6 9th level base slots, and then 6 other slots of every other level of spells to play with. Or a psion that just with the base 343 PP at 20th level, could manifest 17 9th level powers in a day, and still augment them to the max.

So basically, tormenta spellcasters get some pretty strong talentos to pick from, but they will also make them run dry pretty fast  if they decide to start throwing quickened empowered amplified versions of their best spells every round.  Except for Widen spell. Its +3 PM cost just seems completely out of touch with all the other metamagics in this book.

Next time:Destiny talentos!

[Ziderich]

That was fast.

[oslecamo]

Part XI-Other Talentos

Destiny Talentos

For those that don't fit in any of the other categories.


That's a pretty generic badass piece of art, pretty fitting for this section of the book.

Ancestral Help:Needs Sab 13, allows you to cast Divination 1/day whitout spending PM. What madness is this, low-level mundanes just gaining 4th level spells like that?

The Whim of Fate: Others trust magic bling. You trust your own skill and luck! This talento needs Car 13 and 5th character level. It starts by granting you a +1 on attack and damage rolls, and gives you something every level from now on until you're gaining +4 to attack and damage rolls, +3 to all saves, +6 to an ability score of your choice (spread out in 3x +2 bonus if you want), +3 AC and +4 to three perícias of your choice. But if you use any magic items but potions, you lose the benefits of this talento for 1 month. You can still use and receive spells as normal, as well as benefiting from magic bling from others, like being a passenger in a carpet of flying, as long as you aren't the one driving it. So basically vow-of-poverty, except it's "charismatic people only" instead of "goody two shoes only". But a significant advantage of this talento over VoP is that you can just give your share of magic bling to your teammates, so overall one or two players of the party picking this should be a viable plan, specially considering that magic items are supposed to be rare. Plus hey, you can still use potions and expensive mundane gear just fine!

Attractive: You gain +4 on diplomacy and Bluff checks against anybody that could feel physically attracted to you. Just claim that everybody is bi.

Command:  Needs Car 13, as a standard action you can shout orders to your allies, granting those that can hear you +1 on all their attacks, saves and skill perícia checks for a number of rounds equal to your Car modifier. The bonus is small, but applies to a lot of stuff, stacks with other buffs, and should last all battle as long as you have decent Car, so it looks like a tempting choice.

Run: You run. Fast. Gain +3 m to your movement speed. Not too shabby, strictly better than the 3.5 equivalent.

Devoted: You need Sab 11 to pick this one. Choose a god whose typical worshipers would include one of your kind. You can choose a 0th level divine spell and cast it 3 times per day as if you were a cleric. You can pick this multiple times, each one choosing a new 0th level spell to cast 3/day. Kinda meh, if not for the special clause at the end that says that picking this talento will allow you to qualify for  Granted Power talentos of the chosen god as if you were an actual cleric/paladin/druid.

Arcane Scholar:Needs int 11, pick a 0th level arcane spell. You can cast it 3/day. You can pick this multiple times, each one choosing a new 0th level arcane spell to cast 3/day. Unless you really want a familiar and don't want to dip wizard, skip.

Turn/Fascinate undead: Needs the ability to channel positive/negative energy. As a standard action and by spending one use of channel energy, you can affect all undeads whitin 9 m. If you channel positive energy, this makes them panicked for 1 minute. If you channel negative energy, they fall under your command. You need a move action to give them specific orders, and the added level of all undeads under your control cannot exceed your own level. Undeads are allowed a Will save with DC 10+1/2 level+Car mod to resist this. Negative energy channeling clerics will get a lot more mileage out of this if you ask me. Also since it scales with character level and not cleric level, seems like now you can make a decent undead leadr with just one cleric dip and this talento!

Improved Turning: The DC of your turn/fascinate undead increases by +2. If you picked the above, may as well pick this.

Great Fortitude: Gain +2 to Fort saves. Can be picked multiple times, stacks. You may gain this from a class, but otherwise don't bother.

Leadership: Now demands you to choose between a cohort or followers. Still demands 6th level, and the cohort is now always of a level equal to your own-2. You can build them with whatever race and class you want, but they must be whitin one alignment step of yourself, and if you mistreat them too much, they'll dump you. If you picked followers, you gain a combined number of follower levels equal to your Car mod times your level. So for example a 10th level paladin with 16 Car would gain 30 levels worth of followers. You can cherry pick and distribute those levels as you want to build your personal army/cult/fanclub/harem, but none of them can have a level bigger than half your own. They can be of any alignment, but are a cowardly lot and will run away if reduced to half or below HP. They don't gain levels with you either, you simply gain more followers when you level up. If you lose followers or cohorts, you need1d4 months to find others. The book also suggests that followers will be inneficient in combat and should be used only as mook-clearers/support/utility, but so far from the talentos I've seen, I can imagine some pretty nice uses for low-level dudes in combat. Like human fighters loaded with Hard to Kill that can tank a lot of damage, or spellcasters loaded with metamagic to go nova. Oh, and you can pick Leadership twice to gain both a cohort and followers. So basically Leadership still seems to be the best feat talento around, giving you either a second PC (for which you don't even need good Car now), and/or your personal army if you have good Car.

Linguist: You learn a new number of new languages equal to 3+Int mod, minimum 1. You can tecnically pick this multiple times to learn even more languages, but I don't see a reason why you should pick this even once, specially considering that Tongues is still a spell.

Lighting Reflexes: As Great Fortitude, but for Reflex saves.

Heroic Surge: Once per day you can perform an extra standard or move action during a round. Damn, Tormenta is really pushing the 5 minutes workday.  Oh, and it demands good alignment, so the BBEG and its minions probably can't use it. Remember kids, only goody-two-shoes can be heroes!

Familiar Terrain: Pick a type of terrain between desert, forest, mountains, swamp, plains, jungle, tundra, aquatic, underground or tormenta area. You gain +2 to AC, Acrobatics, Athletics, Stealth, Perception and Survival while you're in that kind of terrain. In alternative you can pick a specific location instead of a kind of terrain, like a certain city/road/boat, but not big geographic locations like the Bloodthirsty Mountains, Galrasia, the river of the gods, or any nation. Now this one sounds like something you want to give to the enemies, since PCs are expected to travel a lot.

Endurance: You gain +4 on Con checks to hold your breath and resist damage from starving/thirst, and on saves against cold and heat. You can also sleep in armor whitout becoming fatigued. Seemed kinda meh at first glance, but then I noticed it doesn't specify the +4 bonus to saves against heat and cold is limited to weather, so you could make a case the bonus will apply against stuff like Cone of Cold and Fireball! Still not sure if worth it when compared to stuff like Heroic Surge and Leadership, but would have an use in combat.

Granted Powers

Only for the servants of the gods, aka clerics, druids, paladins and anyone who picked the Devoted Talento.

Water Domain: Needs to worship Oceano or Wynna. You benefit from a constant Water Breathing effect. Nice if you're going for an aquatic campaign I guess.

Animal Domain: Needs to worship Alliahanna, Megalokk, or Oceano. You benefit from a permanent Speak With Animals spell, and survival is always a class perícia for you. I could see this being useful if you get creactive with Handle Animal.

Air Domain: Needs to Worship Ocean or Wynna. You benefit from a permanent Feather Fall effect. Probably skip.

Good Domain:Needs to worship Allihanna, Azgher, Khalmyr, Lena, Marah or Valkaria. The DCs of your divine spells increases by 1 against evil creatures. Sounds pretty handy if you're going for a more offensive cleric.


The proportions of this image just seem all messed up, and I can't see how it relates to theme of this section.

Chaos Domain: Needs to worship Hyninn or Nimb. The DCs of your divine spells increases by 1 against lawful creatures. Next.

Knowledge Domain:Needs to worship Kallyandranoch, Sszzaas, Tanna-Toh or Thyatis. You can use any knowledge skill as if you were trained on it, with a bonus equal to your level+Int mod. Now this one sounds actually useful if a non-situational way!

Healing Domain: Needs to worship Allihanna, Lena, Marah, or Thyatis. Your healing spells heal an extra PV per spell level... Eerr, unless healing is really, really scarce in Tormenta, I just don't see this being worth it.

Destruction Domain:Needs to worship Kallyadranoch, Keenn, Megalokk, or Ragnar. You gain +1 bonus on damage rolls in melee. Skip.

Trickery Domain:Needs to worshipm hyninn or Sszzaas. Bluff, Stealth and Thivery become class perícias for you. Rogue cleric, go!

Fire Domain:Needs to worship Azgher, Tauron, Thyatis or Wynna. You gain fire resistance 5. Skip.

Strength Domain: Needs to worship Keenn or Tauron. Once per day as a free action, gain a bonus equal to your level to your For score for 1 round. Yay, nova for melees! be sure to combine heroic surge with this to gain two full attacks with your boosted For!

War Domain: Needs to worship Keenn, Khalmyr, Lin-Wu, Ragnar, Tauron or Valkaria (damn that's a lot of war gods). You gain proficiency and weapon focus with the favoed weapon of your god. If your deity has an awesome favored weapon and you're a cleric/paladin, may be worth it, but otherwise just pick weapon focus right away.

Magic Domain: Needs to worship Kallyadranoch or Wynna. Once per day you can cast any spell you know whitout spending PM. You can apply metamagic to it, but then must pay the respective extra PM costs. Sounds like a pretty good choice for prepared spellcasters.

Evil Domain: Needs to worship Keen, Megalokk, Ragnar, Sszzaas or Tenebra. Your divine spells have +1 DC against good creatures. Perfect for villains wannabes.

Death Domain: Needs to worship Ragnar, Sszzaas, or Tenebra. Once per day make an unarmed touch attack. If you hit roll 1d6 per level. If the total is equal or bigger than the target's PV, they die. Otherwise they don't suffer anything. Considering that everything now seems to have more HP, skip.

Order Domain: Needs to worship Khalmyr, Lin-Wu, Tanna-Toh or Tauron. As the other alignment domains, but against chaotic creatures.

Plant Domain Needs to worship Allihanna, Lena, Megalkk, or Oceano. 3/day you can cast Entangle as a cleric whitout spending PM. Some extra BFC sounds nice, but you probably have better things to pick.

Protection Domain: Needs to worship Khalmyr, Lena, Lin-Wu, Marah, Tanna-Toh, Tauron or Tenebra. Once per day as a standard action, you can touch a target and grant them a force field that grants them a bonus on all saves equal to your character level for 1 minute. All saves for the duration, not just 1 like in 3.5, so this actually sounds like a good pick, in particular when you want to go nova in Tormenta anyway, so better to protect yourself as best as possible while doing so.

Sun Domain:Needs to worship Azgher or Lin-Wu, and Turn Undead. Once per day when turnind undeads, you can choose for undeads that fail their save to be destroyed.

Luck Domain: Needs to worship Hyninn, Marah, Nimb, Wynna or Valkaria. Once per day you can re-roll any one attack/save/perícia check you just made. This kind of effect is always handy to have.

Earth Domain: Needs to worship Khalmyr, Tenebra or Wynna. If you're standing on solid ground (but not something like a bridge/chair, rope), you can gain +2 bonus to AC as a move action, that lasts until you move. Meh, we've seen plenty of other effects to boost AC so far, and they don't limit your movement.

Travel Domain: Needs to worship Azgher, Tanna-Toh, Thyatis or Valkaria. Once per day, you can turn yourself immune against any effect that would restrain your movement, as if you were under a Freedom of Movement effect, for a number of rounds equal to your level. Like in 3.5, doesn't specify what kind of action it takes to start. But I guess this kind of effect probably doesn't take any specific action to use, otherwise it would be kinda counter-productive. Anyway, if Freedom of Movement is still as good as before, and if you can use it after you're been restrained, then definetely worth picking.

Tormenta Talentos

Each of those reduces your Car score by 1, representing both physical deformities and one losing their sense of self as they become one with the Tormenta.


In Tormenta, having claws and horns growing from your flesh makes you less intimidating.

Insane Anatomy: 25% chance to resist criticals/sneak attacks. Not really worth -1 Car if you ask me. Would be better if it scaled like most other Tormenta talentos.

Carapace: Gain +1 AC, plus another +1 for every other couple Tormenta Talentos you have.

Aberrant Body: Needs you to have at least one other Tormenta Talento, gain DR 1, that inceases by an extra 1 for every other couple Tormenta Talentos you have. Doesn't seem worth it on its own, in particular when you're paying 1 Car, but if you're picking lots of Tormenta Talentos, should scale well.

Extending Arms:Your melee reach increases by 1,5 m. Not scaling, but extra reach is always nice, and definetely better than the 3.5 version from Lords of Madness that only worked with natural weapons and inflicted -1 penalty on attack rolls.

Chaotic Mind:Needs Chaotic alignment, anyone trying to read your mind must make a DC (20+amount of Tormenta talentos you have) or become stunned for a number of rounds equal to the number of tormenta talentos you have. Flavourful, but how many enemies will try to read your mind over a campaign exactly?

Energy Resistance: Choose an energy kind between acid, electricity, fire, cold or sonic. You gain resistance 2 against the chosen element, plus an extra +2 for every other couple tormenta talento you have. Starts weak, but scales nicely.

Tremorsense: Needs Sab 13, you gain what's basically 3.5 tremorsense with a range of 1,5 m per Tormenta Talento you have. Extra senses are always nice to have.

All-Around Vision: Gain +4 on perception checks and you can't be flanked. Sounds good, but will make your eyes big and bulbous.


Not an actual illustration from the book, but I've been waiting years for an excuse to post this.

Darkvision:You gain darkvision 18 m, or increase your existing darkvision by 18 m.

Red Mistletoe: Your hands produce a dark tick liquid, that burns when in contact with other substances (shouldn't that harm your equipment as well as allies you try to help? ). Anyway, you gain a +1 bonus on melee attack rolls, that increases by an extra +1 for every other couple of tormenta talentos you have.

Surprisingly, not a single one of the Tormenta talentos are "1/day, go nova mode". Most seem useful, but are they really better than nontormenta talentos? Let's make a quick simulation with a Car 12 dude that picks 11 tormenta talentos. Let's say, Carapace, Red Mistletoe, Tremorsense, Aberrant Body, Extending Arms, All-Around vision and Energy Resistance x5, once for each element. You'll end up with +6 AC, +6 to all melee attack rolls, tremorsense 16,5 m, resistance 22 against fire, acid, cold, sonic and electricity damage, DR 6, +1,5 m melee reach, +4 to perception checks and immunity to flanking. You're pretty much immune against elemental damage and durable in melee as well,  hit back hard and can detect enemies pretty far. But you spent 11 feats and  have 1 Car, cutting yourself out from a bunch of options, and your saves aren't any better (they could actually be worst, because you couldn't pick any of the save-boosting ones). If you're going murder-loot mode and don't want to stop to rest after every battle, going tormenta should be worh it. But if you want to go all out, and then hide somewhere to recharge, you're probably better served by a combination of the other talentos.

Overall: Lots and lots of powerful talentos that are 1/day is a questionable design choice if you ask me. Heroic surge in particular is kinda insane, in particular when you can take it multiple times to make sure there's one battle per round where you're getting two standard actions every round. And remember those standard actions can be used to fullattack now. A sad side effect of the nova support is that it makes leadership army of followers much more dangerous than it may seem at first glance, but well, you could already pull stuff of that kind in 3.5 with all the support material out there.

So, comparing to core 3.5 feats, I would say tormenta feats end up stronger in average. Cheap re-rolls, extra actions, several cool options for mundanes (death ray parry!), cleaned up stuff, there's definetely plenty to pick. Some choices still lag behind, but there's much more good ones for basically everybody.

Next time- Chapter 6:Characteristics