Review (A Work In Progress)

[erian_7]

[crispy3ed]

I agree with almost every point you made, to include loving Barsaive to bits. The one thing I dissagree with is Windlings and flight. I think they did a good job by making it like running. It may have gimped it a bit to much. The way it is written they will be able to fly for a minute or so before resting for another minute. They also can not fly in any kind of darkness, at night, in the fog. In fact, they can not fly and do anything else, as it takes them a FRA to fly.

Run from the PRD: You can run as a full-round action. If you do, you do not also get a 5-foot step. When you run, you can move up to four times your speed in a straight line (or three times your speed if you're in heavy armor). You lose any Dexterity bonus to AC unless you have the Run feat.
You can run for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score, but after that you must make a DC 10 Constitution check to continue running. You must check again each round in which you continue to run, and the DC of this check increases by 1 for each check you have made. When you fail this check, you must stop running. A character who has run to his limit must rest for 1 minute (10 rounds) before running again. During a rest period, a character can move no faster than a normal move action.

You can't run across difficult terrain or if you can't see where you're going.

A run represents a speed of about 13 miles per hour for an unencumbered human.

[erian_7]

Hmm, I missed that piece tying flight to the run mechanic--I concur that this approach likely shifts it too far in the other direction of being restricted. As written, then, a windling can't fight or cast spells while flying. I modified the flight bullet to note this shift.

[erian_7]

Added a note on Personality/Discipline versus Alignment mechanics. Starting on Ch. 4 now...

[erian_7]

Posted Ch. 4 thoughts (I like this one a lot!) and Ch. 5 issues (I'm very concerned here--I'm not sure the mechanics will work in play and may diverge too much from PF core).

[talysian]

Erian,

You have some very good points, I haven't had a chance to do a thorough read through on it, my initial thoughts are I'm going to be giving everyone who is an adept 2-3 extra skill points.

[erian_7]

Mine is more of a scan right now--reading some sections in detail but not everything. I wanted to do a once-over this way to form some initial thoughts/questions (and also get some comments from others) then do a more thorough read with these things in mind. I've fiddled with d20 mechanics for over a decade now and am probably showing some of my bias--i.e. I like less sub-systems/more streamlined approaches, utilization of existing core mechanics (BAB, saves, AC, etc.) with more "standardized" alterations, etc. Oddly enough with that last one, at least at present I actually favor new classes or archetypes versus trying to fit things into the core PF classes in this case. I'll have to do a few character builds with these rules to really be sure on that, and of course, even that isn't comparable to true play testing. My greatest concern is for a balance between making the system "feel" right for ED without introducing mechanics that are so divergent from PF as to slow down the game. In my experience for that, players can accommodate a new class far easier than a change to the standard underlying mechanics.

[Bishop]

Right now my guess (without seeing the Savage Worlds version) is that they are trying to keep the mechanics roughly similar between the Pf and Sw editions and not completely adapt to the respective rules. With one developer handling the work on both lines, I imagine that by working off the commonalities between the games (skill systems, perks/feats) it lets them maintain a higher volume of production than if the mechanics were specifically adapted for each rule set.

[erian_7]

[erian_7]

Finished up my initial notes. I'm going to do a more thorough read, plus build some test characters, but overall I've currently concluded the use of custom skills vs. alternate classes/archetypes is probably not for me. I'd much prefer ED-specific classes to fill the role of adepts, considering this is the same mechanical role between original ED and PF.