There are 5 base classes: Soldier, Scoundrel, Scout, Noble, and finally Jedi. These classes all have their own talent trees and bonus feat lists which come at every other level (Talent, feat, talent, feat, talent etc) in addition to the regular 1st/3rd/6th/etc feats.
The talent trees are all very different, flavorful, and allow you to pretty much customize your character however you want to; they are pretty much the meat and potatoes of your abilities when it comes to combat. In addition, there are generic talent trees (the only one right now officially is the Force talent trees, that any force sensitive can take). Each class is basically a suite of abilities and do not confine its members to being whatever they say they are. For example, not all nobles are rich guys with silken tongues. You can be, but there's also abilities to bolster your allies and demoralize your enemies. The same goes for Jedi: anyone who has studied the 'jedi arts' is qualified to take levels in Jedi. This is pretty much advanced level lightsaber combat.
The Force is pretty much done up like Tome of Battle maneuvers. You pick the feat Force Training (not on the bonus feat list of ANY class, mind you) and you get to pick Force powers equal to your Wis modifier + 1. You can pick it as many times as you like, and each power can be taken multiple times to give more uses of it per encounter. The most common way to get your force powers back is to relax for one minute between an encounter, and this refreshes your suite fully.
In addition, there are prestige classes that function pretty much the same to the base classes but with prerequisites, and most of them have their own talent trees and also special abilities (Elite trooper gets more combat talents and also DR).
There is no penalty to multiclassing, and concept is not limited by class choice. The most famous example is the jedi with no actual Jedi class levels. He is most commonly represented by levels in noble and maybe scout, scoundrel, or soldier.
It's really the best d20 system out there, hands down. My buddies and I have a Saga buttfuck-canon Infinities-style game going. We started at 9th and are now 13th level, and with Saga system backing it it's pretty much the best gaming experience I've had.
See, I have never heard of this saga system, I had just assumed the star wars game was D&D but with lasers.
It basically used to be in the previous ruleset, and it was a pain in the ass. It was dnd 3.0 in space, and I was not thrilled with it... I freakin love saga edition, it's so much better.
When I was playing a monk there were so many things I wanted to do that I just kept on asking myself why I couldn't.
Imagination. This is up to you and your DM to work out. No roleplaying system can come up with every single thing possible. Also: what is so wrong with just describing the really cool thing you are doing instead of having to have a mechanical representation of it in the game? This is part of role playing.
Why cant my monk get a bonus for jumping over a teammate and jump kicking some jerk in the face.
You can do this with an "aid another" from the teammate, or possibly with a tumble check set by the DM if he's okay with it. Or, you could just make your attack, describing the awesome Jet Li move you just pulled, which is still fun as hell.
Or why cant he automatically have a chance to toss someone who charges him and doesn't meet his ac.
Improved Grapple or Improved Trip... once again if the situation would allow you an attack of opportunity you could grapple and throw the opponent, or trip him and just call it a throw... he hit the ground after all, didn't he? DM's call may also apply. Maybe you and the DM can substitute this extraordinary combat ability for one of the others you would normally get. Or, you just do it the next round, and describe how your enemy made the grave mistake of charging an expert grappler, who uses his momentum to throw him to throw him down. That is also pretty cool.
The exact technique your monk uses is not anywhere in the rulebook, it's whatever you describe it as. Was your unarmed strike a kick, punch, elbow, knee... or a bizarre flying headbutt? That's up to you as a roleplayer.
Thinks like flurry, stun palm, and quivering palm should be just a few of many leveled abilities that are in essence treated like martial spells, for example stun palm is a first level ability that you can use once a day and it ramps up as you level up, there are also other first level abilities that you can treat like that, and its not a once and forever choice like a feat. Just monks like martial sorcerers as far as Wuxia stuff is concerned.
Dude, what? Monks have better progression of abilities than any other class in the core rules. Not a single "dead level" in all twenty levels of the class. With each level they get either a new bonus feat or an extraordinary or supernatural ability, in addition to progressive bonuses of armor class, speed, and unarmed damage while still gaining iterative attacks as they level up. Every single level of monk you have something new and pretty damn awesome to look forward to.
Don't like stunning fist? You can take Improved Grapple instead... better yet, if your DM allows Unearthed Arcana (heck, it's in the open gaming license system resource document) you have access to a wide variety of variants and martial arts styles that may replace your first and second level feats with things you like better.
What exactly is your exception to flurry? It's essentially a free two-weapon fighting progression that makes the ranger combat tracks look like a piece of crap.
As far as "wuxia" goes... monks are designed to be exactly that and it's done pretty well.
gongfu = (unarmed fighting skill) flurry of blows, bonus feats. from a roleplaying standpoint, your feat selection pretty much defines your character's "style", whether they are an eagle claw stylist who focuses upon quinna techniques, a tiger/crane stylist who focuses upon powerful strikes, etc etc.
neigong = (inner power) still mind, diamond body, etc.
dim mak = (deadly precise 'poison hand' techniques) quivering palm
fajin = (explosive power) ki strike
dit sung gung = (iron palm) unarmed strike bonuses
dit sam = (iron shirt) ac bonuses
shit, i mixed up my cantonese and mandarin on that... oh well.
So stunning fist, ki strike, and quivering palm have limitations on the number of days that they can be used. And of course they can't. It's not a "special move" if you can use it on every single attack. It ain't wuxia without a sense of drama, and saving your special technique is one of the ways you do this.
In my opinion monk is the most well thought out class in 3.5 and it shows... it's one of the few core classes where taking all twenty levels is a great option. Most other classes lose very little by going into prestige classes, and many of them might as well because they aren't as well developed as the monk.
Imagination. This is up to you and your DM to work out. No roleplaying system can come up with every single thing possible. Also: what is so wrong with just describing the really cool thing you are doing instead of having to have a mechanical representation of it in the game? This is part of role playing.
The exact technique your monk uses is not anywhere in the rulebook, it's whatever you describe it as. Was your unarmed strike a kick, punch, elbow, knee... or a bizarre flying headbutt? That's up to you as a roleplayer.
Horseshoe, you come out with so much truth sometimes. I take my hat off to you. I'm a huge advocate of this style of roleplaying. To me, abstract combat + a DM with a flair for description = Awesome Combat!
I agree. Though I am not that good a DM, I try to work this into my storytelling style. If a character declares that he strikes at the face of his opponent, I will describe the result accordingly, an attack with a mace dealing decent damage might make me describe how his nose was broken and he staggers backwards, raising his hand to stem the flow of blood. Od maybe you open up a gash across his face.
One game I played, I declared that an enemy goblin was striking at the head of one of the characters. The goblin got a critical hit almost downing the character, which I described as a dep cut over his eye and cheek, almost making him blind. They never healed the wound up completely, and the player was then the proud owner of a kickass scar.
In a similar situation, a blunder involving a hand grenade blew off a hand of one of the players in a game of Mage. Needless to say his dismay over this passed after a friendly tech-magi gave him a mechanical replacement.
You can really go nuts with stuff like this, and it is a great way to make your games more exciting. It's not all just rolls and stats.
I doubt it. Condition tracks have existed for some time in many different RPGs, including Star Wars RPG by WEG. It works well in rpgs where injury is supposed to mean something and not, "oh I'll drink a pot of cure light".
I doubt it. Condition tracks have existed for some time in many different RPGs, including Star Wars RPG by WEG. It works well in rpgs where injury is supposed to mean something and not, "oh I'll drink a pot of cure light".
Who knows though.
I dunno, healing is fairly cheap in that game too. It's not omg cleric spam heal, but its not exactly unheard of to have a dedicated medic party member. Also when you're not on the battlefield you can cure anything other than death. That being said, condition track makes perfect sense. Easy to apply penalties, easy to keep track off. Also it allows you to have more "fleshed" out roleplaying of injuries.
Yea, the condition track wouldn't be a horrible addition to D&D. They would need to generally tone down damage (or raise the threshold some) because most damaging spells would always result in condition modifiers.
Basically every character has a 'Damage Threshold' which for the average character is his Fortitude Defense (there are feats, talents, and armor increases it). Everytime you take damage equal to or surpassing your damage threshold, you get knocked down the condition track and take a penalty to all rolls.
The track goes -1, -2, -5, -10, and disabled.
Thus, particularly damaging attacks can end the fight a lot quicker.
Also, critical hits do not need to be 'confirmed' anymore. They just double the damage.
Yea, the condition track wouldn't be a horrible addition to D&D. They would need to generally tone down damage (or raise the threshold some) because most damaging spells would always result in condition modifiers.
Maybe.
Damage Threshold usually equals Fortitude Defense.
Fort Def = 10 + level + con modifier + class bonus (think 1st level fort save) + bonus from armor or other items.
For a character with a lot of hit points (let's say average hp for a high con fighter guy), his damage threshold will be less than half of his hit points early on, but tail off and by 20th level will be about 20% of his hit points. A single hit that takes off a fifth of your hit points is pretty nasty, I can see that as appropriate for moving down the condition track. Still, these fightery types are also more likely to be wearing armor that adds to their fortitude defense, or possibly take prestige classes that give them higher fortitude defense.
A character with fewer hit points (let's say average hp for a avg con wizard guy) is never going to have many hit points, so his damage threshold will always be more than 50% of his hit points. For the first five or six levels it's probably going to be higher than his hit points.
It could work without tweaking the formula much.
Horseshoe on
0
Options
INeedNoSaltwith blood on my teethRegistered Userregular
If my schedule could accomodate a regular chat or ventrilo game I'd start one myself, but I'm all over the damn place lately.
And play by post is tough... I think every game I've played has dropped off after little more than a week because half of the party members lose interest and/or stop posting.
Horseshoe on
0
Options
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
edited August 2007
I've had PBP games last for a few years over at the ORP. I've yet to manage the first session of a chat game, although that is likely due to my non-American timezone and general fairly random schedule.
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
The Condition Track also works well for all the variety of status effects D&D has.
In Saga, they discarded dazzled, fatigued, exhausted, shaken, etc.
Abilities that do that kind of thing now just move you down the Condition Track.
Poisons and diseases, instead of doing all kinds of messy (and game-slowing) stat damage, now just move you down the Condition Track and make it "Persistent". A Persistent Condition can't be healed away until the cause of the Condition is removed (ie the poison or disease is cured, in this case)
D&D has a lot of things that cause funky status effects and such. Simplifying that system would do the game a world of good, especially with stuff like poison and disease, which at mid to high levels can bring combat to a screeching halt as you have to recalculate everything.
The Condition Track also works well for all the variety of status effects D&D has.
In Saga, they discarded dazzled, fatigued, exhausted, shaken, etc.
Abilities that do that kind of thing now just move you down the Condition Track.
Poisons and diseases, instead of doing all kinds of messy (and game-slowing) stat damage, now just move you down the Condition Track and make it "Persistent". A Persistent Condition can't be healed away until the cause of the Condition is removed (ie the poison or disease is cured, in this case)
D&D has a lot of things that cause funky status effects and such. Simplifying that system would do the game a world of good, especially with stuff like poison and disease, which at mid to high levels can bring combat to a screeching halt as you have to recalculate everything.
I both like and am wary about that concept.
Speeding things up makes me happy, but it sounds like Poisons and stuff might turn into nothing more than a nuisance, really - I kinda liked the way a good poisoning could just wreck a character really badly, if not kill them outright.
The Condition Track also works well for all the variety of status effects D&D has.
In Saga, they discarded dazzled, fatigued, exhausted, shaken, etc.
Abilities that do that kind of thing now just move you down the Condition Track.
Poisons and diseases, instead of doing all kinds of messy (and game-slowing) stat damage, now just move you down the Condition Track and make it "Persistent". A Persistent Condition can't be healed away until the cause of the Condition is removed (ie the poison or disease is cured, in this case)
D&D has a lot of things that cause funky status effects and such. Simplifying that system would do the game a world of good, especially with stuff like poison and disease, which at mid to high levels can bring combat to a screeching halt as you have to recalculate everything.
I both like and am wary about that concept.
Speeding things up makes me happy, but it sounds like Poisons and stuff might turn into nothing more than a nuisance, really - I kinda liked the way a good poisoning could just wreck a character really badly, if not kill them outright.
Yeah.
Different poisons have different potencies. Some might move you only -1 step on the Condition Track, being little more than making your tummy upset.
Some might go "You move -5 steps down the Condition track and die".
The Condition Track also works well for all the variety of status effects D&D has.
In Saga, they discarded dazzled, fatigued, exhausted, shaken, etc.
Abilities that do that kind of thing now just move you down the Condition Track.
Poisons and diseases, instead of doing all kinds of messy (and game-slowing) stat damage, now just move you down the Condition Track and make it "Persistent". A Persistent Condition can't be healed away until the cause of the Condition is removed (ie the poison or disease is cured, in this case)
D&D has a lot of things that cause funky status effects and such. Simplifying that system would do the game a world of good, especially with stuff like poison and disease, which at mid to high levels can bring combat to a screeching halt as you have to recalculate everything.
I both like and am wary about that concept.
Speeding things up makes me happy, but it sounds like Poisons and stuff might turn into nothing more than a nuisance, really - I kinda liked the way a good poisoning could just wreck a character really badly, if not kill them outright.
Yeah.
Different poisons have different potencies. Some might move you only -1 step on the Condition Track, being little more than making your tummy upset.
Some might go "You move -5 steps down the Condition track and die".
Whooooops!
A few sessions ago someone in our party got infected with an Imperial nano-virus (people... don't fuck around on Wayland) that knocked him down to "helpless" pretty quickly and we had to stick him in a stasis field to keep him from dying.
The Condition Track also works well for all the variety of status effects D&D has.
In Saga, they discarded dazzled, fatigued, exhausted, shaken, etc.
Abilities that do that kind of thing now just move you down the Condition Track.
Poisons and diseases, instead of doing all kinds of messy (and game-slowing) stat damage, now just move you down the Condition Track and make it "Persistent". A Persistent Condition can't be healed away until the cause of the Condition is removed (ie the poison or disease is cured, in this case)
D&D has a lot of things that cause funky status effects and such. Simplifying that system would do the game a world of good, especially with stuff like poison and disease, which at mid to high levels can bring combat to a screeching halt as you have to recalculate everything.
I both like and am wary about that concept.
Speeding things up makes me happy, but it sounds like Poisons and stuff might turn into nothing more than a nuisance, really - I kinda liked the way a good poisoning could just wreck a character really badly, if not kill them outright.
Yeah.
Different poisons have different potencies. Some might move you only -1 step on the Condition Track, being little more than making your tummy upset.
Some might go "You move -5 steps down the Condition track and die".
Whooooops!
A few sessions ago someone in our party got infected with an Imperial nano-virus (people... don't fuck around on Wayland) that knocked him down to "helpless" pretty quickly and we had to stick him in a stasis field to keep him from dying.
The Condition Track actually works better for poisons and diseases because it allows for a real feeling of partial effect or fighting it off or slowly losing the battle.
It also makes non-lethal poisons, like the ever-popular Drow Sleep Poison, easier to adjudicate. "If the poison beats the target's Fort Defense, they move -5 steps down the Condition Track and are rendered unconscious. This is a Persistent effect with a duration of 1 hour" etc. etc. or whatever.
I dunno, I kinda like how some poisons only effect certain things. Making a poison effect everything seems like it kinda takes away from them. Plus then you can only have a few poisons, they'll just knock you down a few levels depending on the potency.
I think I would rather have the condition track for all the dazed and blinded type effects, and leave poisons as they are.
Also, I was talking with a friend and I think I would rather have the skill points be reduced, and each class just gets a base +1 to all their class skills every so many levels like a base attack bonus. That way it gives everyone the ability to "learn on the job" without having to neglect some skills.
I dunno, it's just something we were tossing around and of course means nothing because we dont exactly have a say in what happens in a finished system.
The Condition Track also works well for all the variety of status effects D&D has.
In Saga, they discarded dazzled, fatigued, exhausted, shaken, etc.
Abilities that do that kind of thing now just move you down the Condition Track.
Poisons and diseases, instead of doing all kinds of messy (and game-slowing) stat damage, now just move you down the Condition Track and make it "Persistent". A Persistent Condition can't be healed away until the cause of the Condition is removed (ie the poison or disease is cured, in this case)
D&D has a lot of things that cause funky status effects and such. Simplifying that system would do the game a world of good, especially with stuff like poison and disease, which at mid to high levels can bring combat to a screeching halt as you have to recalculate everything.
I both like and am wary about that concept.
Speeding things up makes me happy, but it sounds like Poisons and stuff might turn into nothing more than a nuisance, really - I kinda liked the way a good poisoning could just wreck a character really badly, if not kill them outright.
Yeah.
Different poisons have different potencies. Some might move you only -1 step on the Condition Track, being little more than making your tummy upset.
Some might go "You move -5 steps down the Condition track and die".
Whooooops!
A few sessions ago someone in our party got infected with an Imperial nano-virus (people... don't fuck around on Wayland) that knocked him down to "helpless" pretty quickly and we had to stick him in a stasis field to keep him from dying.
The Condition Track actually works better for poisons and diseases because it allows for a real feeling of partial effect or fighting it off or slowly losing the battle.
It also makes non-lethal poisons, like the ever-popular Drow Sleep Poison, easier to adjudicate. "If the poison beats the target's Fort Defense, they move -5 steps down the Condition Track and are rendered unconscious. This is a Persistent effect with a duration of 1 hour" etc. etc. or whatever.
I dunno, I kinda like how some poisons only effect certain things. Making a poison effect everything seems like it kinda takes away from them. Plus then you can only have a few poisons, they'll just knock you down a few levels depending on the potency.
I think I would rather have the condition track for all the dazed and blinded type effects, and leave poisons as they are.
Also, I was talking with a friend and I think I would rather have the skill points be reduced, and each class just gets a base +1 to all their class skills every so many levels like a base attack bonus. That way it gives everyone the ability to "learn on the job" without having to neglect some skills.
I dunno, it's just something we were tossing around and of course means nothing because we dont exactly have a say in what happens in a finished system.
The skills are already done that way in Saga... Everyone gets a static 1/2 Heroic level + attribute in all skills. Whatever skills they are trained in get a +5, and Skill Focus gets another +5. Everyone can be passable at more or less everything; most skills just also have a couple 'trained only' uses under them.
Shit. I just went and bought all 3 of the 3.5 core rulebooks last month. Why does this happen every time:(
I guarentee you there will still be a 3.5 community after 4e comes out.
There are people who will hate 4e no matter what it does.
Pony on
0
Options
Der Waffle MousBlame this on the misfortune of your birth.New Yark, New Yark.Registered Userregular
edited August 2007
Not to mention that, aside from craaaazy new official settings and all new versions of the Monster Manual, I think they've effectively tapped the well dry as far as new materials go.
Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
edited August 2007
That new monster book that is mostly fluff sounds like it might well make me happy in new and exciting ways. Hopefully it'll be like the WFRPG MM (but less of a painful ripoff).
Shit. I just went and bought all 3 of the 3.5 core rulebooks last month. Why does this happen every time:(
I guarentee you there will still be a 3.5 community after 4e comes out.
There are people who will hate 4e no matter what it does.
It'll be like the thriving 3.0 community and the not dead at all AD&D community. As much as people bitch and moan, they always move on as every edition has seen a collection of mostly positive changes.
Mojo_Jojo on
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
It'll be like the thriving 3.0 community and the not dead at all AD&D community. As much as people bitch and moan, they always move on as every edition has seen a collection of mostly positive changes.
Looking back over 3.5 I'm not certain I hold that the above statement is true. The only 3.0 thing I remember being considerably nerfed was Haste, which was a fairly large blow to Sorcerers (and less so Wizards). In exchange we got all the Power Attack silliness, the Divine Metamagic stupidity and rather quite a bit more stuff that was far more broken than anything I recall from 3.0.
Not sure if this was mentioned yet, but I am really excited about the online component. It will in no way replace the actual experience of being with a group of friends in person, DMing a game. But it will help us play the game a bit more often. With school, work and family its getting tough to find time to sneak out and play for a few hours.
What would be fantastic is if they ported this to a console.
suadeo on
My 360 is [strike]back[/strike] [strike]bricked[/strike] back!
Lets hope the online tool is slick and well integrated.
I ought to be able to pull up stat sheets, assign experience, place items and expect them to behave as real items according to the game world and the rules, and do this speedily and seamlessly, as well as do things on the fly.
The only thing more i could ask for would be a complete map of the campaign settings, complete with names and dungeons, such that you could customize things easier instead of having to do the legwork first.
Lets hope the online tool is slick and well integrated.
I ought to be able to pull up stat sheets, assign experience, place items and expect them to behave as real items according to the game world and the rules, and do this speedily and seamlessly, as well as do things on the fly.
The only thing more i could ask for would be a complete map of the campaign settings, complete with names and dungeons, such that you could customize things easier instead of having to do the legwork first.
This would maybe be $10/month worth of value.
I'm guessing it's going to be more like OpenRPG, only with a clunkier interface.
Thanatos on
0
Options
Der Waffle MousBlame this on the misfortune of your birth.New Yark, New Yark.Registered Userregular
Lets hope the online tool is slick and well integrated.
I ought to be able to pull up stat sheets, assign experience, place items and expect them to behave as real items according to the game world and the rules, and do this speedily and seamlessly, as well as do things on the fly.
The only thing more i could ask for would be a complete map of the campaign settings, complete with names and dungeons, such that you could customize things easier instead of having to do the legwork first.
This would maybe be $10/month worth of value.
I'm guessing it's going to be more like OpenRPG, only with a clunkier interface.
Yea, my main complaint is that it takes so freaking long to set up a game. Even if you have the plot and major characters all worked out there is just tons of legwork to do with locations, traps, etc. I want a way to streamline this process and have all the information i ought to have on my fingertips. I want to be able to modify a players character sheet and/or items without them knowing, secure communication between GM and player. Imbedded rules that will take care of the mundane things that i shouldnt have to think about, like torches, vision, whether or not chairs catch fire etc.
I don't think the online tool will work that well. It will be satisfactory at best. Just look at some of the other online programs WoTC/Hasbro has put out, such as MTGO, and they are kind of buggy, and their servers aren't that great.
It's not that bad. I mean if this were the 20th century it would be great. I just expect more server stability, and an interface that doesn't look like something off a Win 95 box.
I don't think the online tool will work that well. It will be satisfactory at best. Just look at some of the other online programs WoTC/Hasbro has put out, such as MTGO, and they are kind of buggy, and their servers aren't that great.
Hell their forums are down like 4 times a day.
But it should, really in this day and age, anything else is just a spit in the eye.
Posts
There are 5 base classes: Soldier, Scoundrel, Scout, Noble, and finally Jedi. These classes all have their own talent trees and bonus feat lists which come at every other level (Talent, feat, talent, feat, talent etc) in addition to the regular 1st/3rd/6th/etc feats.
The talent trees are all very different, flavorful, and allow you to pretty much customize your character however you want to; they are pretty much the meat and potatoes of your abilities when it comes to combat. In addition, there are generic talent trees (the only one right now officially is the Force talent trees, that any force sensitive can take). Each class is basically a suite of abilities and do not confine its members to being whatever they say they are. For example, not all nobles are rich guys with silken tongues. You can be, but there's also abilities to bolster your allies and demoralize your enemies. The same goes for Jedi: anyone who has studied the 'jedi arts' is qualified to take levels in Jedi. This is pretty much advanced level lightsaber combat.
The Force is pretty much done up like Tome of Battle maneuvers. You pick the feat Force Training (not on the bonus feat list of ANY class, mind you) and you get to pick Force powers equal to your Wis modifier + 1. You can pick it as many times as you like, and each power can be taken multiple times to give more uses of it per encounter. The most common way to get your force powers back is to relax for one minute between an encounter, and this refreshes your suite fully.
In addition, there are prestige classes that function pretty much the same to the base classes but with prerequisites, and most of them have their own talent trees and also special abilities (Elite trooper gets more combat talents and also DR).
There is no penalty to multiclassing, and concept is not limited by class choice. The most famous example is the jedi with no actual Jedi class levels. He is most commonly represented by levels in noble and maybe scout, scoundrel, or soldier.
It's really the best d20 system out there, hands down. My buddies and I have a Saga buttfuck-canon Infinities-style game going. We started at 9th and are now 13th level, and with Saga system backing it it's pretty much the best gaming experience I've had.
It basically used to be in the previous ruleset, and it was a pain in the ass. It was dnd 3.0 in space, and I was not thrilled with it... I freakin love saga edition, it's so much better.
Imagination. This is up to you and your DM to work out. No roleplaying system can come up with every single thing possible. Also: what is so wrong with just describing the really cool thing you are doing instead of having to have a mechanical representation of it in the game? This is part of role playing.
You can do this with an "aid another" from the teammate, or possibly with a tumble check set by the DM if he's okay with it. Or, you could just make your attack, describing the awesome Jet Li move you just pulled, which is still fun as hell.
Improved Grapple or Improved Trip... once again if the situation would allow you an attack of opportunity you could grapple and throw the opponent, or trip him and just call it a throw... he hit the ground after all, didn't he? DM's call may also apply. Maybe you and the DM can substitute this extraordinary combat ability for one of the others you would normally get. Or, you just do it the next round, and describe how your enemy made the grave mistake of charging an expert grappler, who uses his momentum to throw him to throw him down. That is also pretty cool.
The exact technique your monk uses is not anywhere in the rulebook, it's whatever you describe it as. Was your unarmed strike a kick, punch, elbow, knee... or a bizarre flying headbutt? That's up to you as a roleplayer.
Dude, what? Monks have better progression of abilities than any other class in the core rules. Not a single "dead level" in all twenty levels of the class. With each level they get either a new bonus feat or an extraordinary or supernatural ability, in addition to progressive bonuses of armor class, speed, and unarmed damage while still gaining iterative attacks as they level up. Every single level of monk you have something new and pretty damn awesome to look forward to.
Don't like stunning fist? You can take Improved Grapple instead... better yet, if your DM allows Unearthed Arcana (heck, it's in the open gaming license system resource document) you have access to a wide variety of variants and martial arts styles that may replace your first and second level feats with things you like better.
What exactly is your exception to flurry? It's essentially a free two-weapon fighting progression that makes the ranger combat tracks look like a piece of crap.
As far as "wuxia" goes... monks are designed to be exactly that and it's done pretty well.
gongfu = (unarmed fighting skill) flurry of blows, bonus feats. from a roleplaying standpoint, your feat selection pretty much defines your character's "style", whether they are an eagle claw stylist who focuses upon quinna techniques, a tiger/crane stylist who focuses upon powerful strikes, etc etc.
qinggong = (swift and light movement) slow fall, abundant step, speed bonuses
neigong = (inner power) still mind, diamond body, etc.
dim mak = (deadly precise 'poison hand' techniques) quivering palm
fajin = (explosive power) ki strike
dit sung gung = (iron palm) unarmed strike bonuses
dit sam = (iron shirt) ac bonuses
shit, i mixed up my cantonese and mandarin on that... oh well.
So stunning fist, ki strike, and quivering palm have limitations on the number of days that they can be used. And of course they can't. It's not a "special move" if you can use it on every single attack. It ain't wuxia without a sense of drama, and saving your special technique is one of the ways you do this.
In my opinion monk is the most well thought out class in 3.5 and it shows... it's one of the few core classes where taking all twenty levels is a great option. Most other classes lose very little by going into prestige classes, and many of them might as well because they aren't as well developed as the monk.
SoogaGames Blog
One game I played, I declared that an enemy goblin was striking at the head of one of the characters. The goblin got a critical hit almost downing the character, which I described as a dep cut over his eye and cheek, almost making him blind. They never healed the wound up completely, and the player was then the proud owner of a kickass scar.
In a similar situation, a blunder involving a hand grenade blew off a hand of one of the players in a game of Mage. Needless to say his dismay over this passed after a friendly tech-magi gave him a mechanical replacement.
You can really go nuts with stuff like this, and it is a great way to make your games more exciting. It's not all just rolls and stats.
For D&D, which has even more confusing layers of status effects and stupid minuses to keep track of, the Condition track makes even more sense.
Plus, the combination of Condition and HP makes for very thematic and roleplay-heavy combat.
It makes high-damage attacks more evocative, because you do more than just lower HP, you whack a guy with an injury of some sort.
Who knows though.
I dunno, healing is fairly cheap in that game too. It's not omg cleric spam heal, but its not exactly unheard of to have a dedicated medic party member. Also when you're not on the battlefield you can cure anything other than death. That being said, condition track makes perfect sense. Easy to apply penalties, easy to keep track off. Also it allows you to have more "fleshed" out roleplaying of injuries.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
The track goes -1, -2, -5, -10, and disabled.
Thus, particularly damaging attacks can end the fight a lot quicker.
Also, critical hits do not need to be 'confirmed' anymore. They just double the damage.
Maybe.
Damage Threshold usually equals Fortitude Defense.
Fort Def = 10 + level + con modifier + class bonus (think 1st level fort save) + bonus from armor or other items.
For a character with a lot of hit points (let's say average hp for a high con fighter guy), his damage threshold will be less than half of his hit points early on, but tail off and by 20th level will be about 20% of his hit points. A single hit that takes off a fifth of your hit points is pretty nasty, I can see that as appropriate for moving down the condition track. Still, these fightery types are also more likely to be wearing armor that adds to their fortitude defense, or possibly take prestige classes that give them higher fortitude defense.
A character with fewer hit points (let's say average hp for a avg con wizard guy) is never going to have many hit points, so his damage threshold will always be more than 50% of his hit points. For the first five or six levels it's probably going to be higher than his hit points.
It could work without tweaking the formula much.
And play by post is tough... I think every game I've played has dropped off after little more than a week because half of the party members lose interest and/or stop posting.
In Saga, they discarded dazzled, fatigued, exhausted, shaken, etc.
Abilities that do that kind of thing now just move you down the Condition Track.
Poisons and diseases, instead of doing all kinds of messy (and game-slowing) stat damage, now just move you down the Condition Track and make it "Persistent". A Persistent Condition can't be healed away until the cause of the Condition is removed (ie the poison or disease is cured, in this case)
D&D has a lot of things that cause funky status effects and such. Simplifying that system would do the game a world of good, especially with stuff like poison and disease, which at mid to high levels can bring combat to a screeching halt as you have to recalculate everything.
I both like and am wary about that concept.
Speeding things up makes me happy, but it sounds like Poisons and stuff might turn into nothing more than a nuisance, really - I kinda liked the way a good poisoning could just wreck a character really badly, if not kill them outright.
Yeah.
Different poisons have different potencies. Some might move you only -1 step on the Condition Track, being little more than making your tummy upset.
Some might go "You move -5 steps down the Condition track and die".
Whooooops!
A few sessions ago someone in our party got infected with an Imperial nano-virus (people... don't fuck around on Wayland) that knocked him down to "helpless" pretty quickly and we had to stick him in a stasis field to keep him from dying.
The Condition Track actually works better for poisons and diseases because it allows for a real feeling of partial effect or fighting it off or slowly losing the battle.
It also makes non-lethal poisons, like the ever-popular Drow Sleep Poison, easier to adjudicate. "If the poison beats the target's Fort Defense, they move -5 steps down the Condition Track and are rendered unconscious. This is a Persistent effect with a duration of 1 hour" etc. etc. or whatever.
I think I would rather have the condition track for all the dazed and blinded type effects, and leave poisons as they are.
Also, I was talking with a friend and I think I would rather have the skill points be reduced, and each class just gets a base +1 to all their class skills every so many levels like a base attack bonus. That way it gives everyone the ability to "learn on the job" without having to neglect some skills.
I dunno, it's just something we were tossing around and of course means nothing because we dont exactly have a say in what happens in a finished system.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
I retract my worries. That sounds FUCKAWESOME.
The skills are already done that way in Saga... Everyone gets a static 1/2 Heroic level + attribute in all skills. Whatever skills they are trained in get a +5, and Skill Focus gets another +5. Everyone can be passable at more or less everything; most skills just also have a couple 'trained only' uses under them.
I guarentee you there will still be a 3.5 community after 4e comes out.
There are people who will hate 4e no matter what it does.
I doubt they'll even bother to try and fix shapechanging.
It'll be like the thriving 3.0 community and the not dead at all AD&D community. As much as people bitch and moan, they always move on as every edition has seen a collection of mostly positive changes.
Looking back over 3.5 I'm not certain I hold that the above statement is true. The only 3.0 thing I remember being considerably nerfed was Haste, which was a fairly large blow to Sorcerers (and less so Wizards). In exchange we got all the Power Attack silliness, the Divine Metamagic stupidity and rather quite a bit more stuff that was far more broken than anything I recall from 3.0.
Hell, Mr Ginsu is a fluffy bunny nowadays.
What would be fantastic is if they ported this to a console.
My 360 is [strike]back[/strike] [strike]bricked[/strike] back!
Lets hope the online tool is slick and well integrated.
I ought to be able to pull up stat sheets, assign experience, place items and expect them to behave as real items according to the game world and the rules, and do this speedily and seamlessly, as well as do things on the fly.
The only thing more i could ask for would be a complete map of the campaign settings, complete with names and dungeons, such that you could customize things easier instead of having to do the legwork first.
I'm guessing it's going to be more like OpenRPG, only with a clunkier interface.
That is impossible to achieve, good sir.
was gonna say.....
Yea, my main complaint is that it takes so freaking long to set up a game. Even if you have the plot and major characters all worked out there is just tons of legwork to do with locations, traps, etc. I want a way to streamline this process and have all the information i ought to have on my fingertips. I want to be able to modify a players character sheet and/or items without them knowing, secure communication between GM and player. Imbedded rules that will take care of the mundane things that i shouldnt have to think about, like torches, vision, whether or not chairs catch fire etc.
I would pay 10 dollars a month for that.
Hell their forums are down like 4 times a day.
But yea, I'm not expecting great things. I am expecting pretty things but I could give a fuck about software being pretty.
But it should, really in this day and age, anything else is just a spit in the eye.