A new Developer's Blog? Why yes!

[Panda]

You are correct, Scout's get Safe Path at 7th Circle, not Riposte.

"Free" Talents will improve naturally with Circle. Their Rank will be equal to the adept's Circle, unless improved with some external means. This makes them very similar to Half-Magic, but are explicitly called out since Half-Magic no longer has skills/talents.

Armor-Defeating Hits are no more, that is the change.

[Mataxes]

To clarify a bit on the armor-defeating hits thing, rather than armor being "all or nothing" where you get full protection from armor unless the attack scores over a certain level (the old Excellent-success thing), each additional success over that needed to hit provides a damage bonus (+2 per success by default, higher circle abilities or powerful magic items may play with this). That damage helps overcome armor.

For example, if you roll +10 over the target's Physical Defense (every +5 over the DN is an extra success), you get +4 Damage -- which completely overcomes lower armor ratings, but allows higher armor to still provide some (albeit reduced) protection.

[Telarus_KSC]

Yah, instead of all armor being defeated at the same level, this now basically says that different armors need different success levels to completely bypass. Also, note that Shields now improve PD instead of granting armor (magic items may be an exception), which makes carrying a Shield around a VERY good idea if you have one of the light armors on.

Welcome back to ED!

[Roth]

[Kasbak]

[Sundahk]

Still considering whether I like the new Armour Defeating rules or not.

Can you clear up how this change makes combat more streamlined? It seems to make things slower:

Under the existing rules: Roll to hit V PD. Check chart. Excellent Success means Armour Defeating Hit. Straight damage roll - don't subtract armour.

New rule: Roll to hit V PD. Do math: for every +5 over PD, add 2 to Damage Step. Look up new Damage Step on Step Table. Roll damage. Do math: Damage Result minus Armour Rating.

Also - Do you still get the +2 Damage bonus per Success Level on hit if the target character is not wearing armour? Because unarmoured opponents are really going to feel the hurt if that's the case.

Thanks

[Lys]

Generally speaking, for on the fly bonuses it's most convenient to just add it to the test result rather than the step. So under the new system, if you roll a 19 swinging your axe against a Physical Defence of 9, and your axe does Step 12 damage, you roll Step 12 damage like normal and then just add +4 to your result. This is on average the same as rolling Step 16 damage, and it's much easier to do than looking up Step 16 on the chart. It is a little different in that your minimum result for the roll becomes a 6 rather than a 4, but on the other hand since you're only rolling 2 instead of 3 the chances of dice exploding are lower. It means you get to keep some of that consistency you had in the old system were if you rolled armour defeating even a bad damage roll would still do some damage, though not so much that it makes heavy armour worthless. I find myself rather liking it.

[Sundahk]

Ah, got it. Didn't realise it was a result bonus, not a Step bonus.

I guess if it's no longer considered an 'armour defeating hit' it doesn't matter if the opponent's wearing armour or not.

[Mataxes]

You can run it either way.

In my games, we tend to run with the "add to result" because it is faster than looking up new steps all the time.

(And yes, the bonus damage applies regardless of whether the target is actually wearing armor or not.)

[Roth]