>>96434718
TQ: A cult leader from underground city that served some Far Realm monstrosity. He was supposed to be a great and terrible evil, but he wasn't memorable because of that. No. The dice hated him. He literally failed each and every actually important roll during confrontation. Attacks, spells, saves. It was like Fate itself decided "fuck this guy in particular and the horse he rode on".

So instead of a terrible foe we got to fight a bumbling fool, that managed to slip in grease, barely crawled out of it, got slammed by a fighter into the wall, flailed around with his weapons ineffectively, got disarmed and slam dunk into the ground, got peppered by rays of enfeeblement, all of his attempted spells failed and the fighter drove him through the table before carving him up like a turkey in the end.

>>96434718
One of the main reoccurring antagonists that gets brought up at least once a month is a NPC that used to be a PC that betrayed the party long before my character joined, years ago IRL.

>>96434918
>Fate itself decided "fuck this guy in particular and the horse he rode on".
Beautiful thing about Table-Top RPGs. When your boss is underwhelming because of the dice fumbling, while that lv1 Goblin encounter becomes legendary due to multiple-crits scored by that one Goblin.

For antagonists do people make custom bad guys? Nowadays me being lazy I just pick the default stat block from the bestiaries and if they survive they get a template or a class (rinse & repeat per surviving).

So, last thread, it was suggested that you should ban core for a balanced game with the exception of core feats but what about spells? Wouldn't classes like the shugenja, warmage, healer, etc. lose out a lot while psionics would remain untouched.

>>96436181
>but what about spells?
The core spells are the main problem and the main reason people say "Ban Core" in the first place. It's not like wizards and sorcerers are overwhelmingly more powerful that Sha'ir, it's that Time Stop, Contingency, and Polymorph are overpowered.

>>96436181
Psionic limitation on the amount of PP you can spend per power is a way stronger limitation than spell slots. You can fuck it over but for that you either need a very high level of some shenanigans that most DMs won't allow you to get away with.

Arguably D&D plays way better if you mostly remove standard casters and leave only alternative magic systems - Incarnum, Binders, Psionics, Warlocks and so on. If you want some bullshit effects especially with permanency they are way better done through ritual Incantations.

>>96438185
The main issue with psionics is that they have a million and one ways to refresh their entire PP pool between encounters, a thousand and one more ways to fuck over the action economy with any of the abilities that manipulate time(create in-universe save files, unlimited standard actions per turn, throw things outside of time, etc), and finally a hundred way to break character building by reshuffling all the stats/skills/etc, giving themselves all the psionic powers in the game, or even breaking the xp system completely.
>>96436181
Easiest fix is to ban the psionics books too. Alt-magic is fine by itself.

Let's talk about Dragonmech a little more.

In my personal opinion the best approach would be to make mechs as vehicles but replace the 10 feet sections with more abstract free size pieces. So, say a mech would have engine, weapons, controls and so on, plus of course it would have to use maneuverability rules for vehicles especially if it is super large.

So say a Huge mech would have up to 8 Large pieces filled for example with - reinforced armor (2), engine (1), reinforced cockpit (1), two arms/weapons (2), secondary weapon tower (1) and cargo container (1). As with vehicles you can attack each of the sections separately and it will have its own HP. Plus you can add further subdivisions for each part if say you want smaller weapons, some crew quarters for long hauls and so on. Make internal parts that can't be directly attacked outright take more space.

On city sized mechs you would have also residential areas as modules where people actually live and so on.

Attacks are probably best to be relegated to siege engine style - each weapon/arm has its own number of attacks or abilities but uses driver or gunner BAB and skills. You can add places for people to attack from like on normal vehicles but with shit like 10 hardness and 50+ HP of armor even on smaller mechs it wouldn't be very effective unless those guys are of decently high level and in that case you probably have better uses for them than glorified turrets.

I'd like some feedback on this homebrew feat. Is it overpowered? Underpowered?

"Cross Study I (Homebrew). Each time you select this arcana, you may choose a number of spells equal to your int modifier from among any spell casters spell list. You are then able to learn and cast those spells normally as if they were on your own class spell list, while ignoring domain requirements as well as divine focus requirements when casting them. You must still learn these spells from a mentor, scroll, or spellbook as normal and scribe them into your spellbook before you may prepare and cast them."

>>96439847
That's pretty damn brutal depending on the class you are playing. if it's wizard only as implied it wouldn't make them much more powerful but does ease some of the exploits they can get up to. For non-wizard classes, especially partial casters with limited spell lists, it goes pretty hard.

>>96439847
There are some spells that are 100% worth a feat, so pretty dope.
I like it that you need to find the spell first, so you could feasibly be in a situation where you stumble onto a really cool spell, then you consider taking the feat.

>>96440018
Thanks for the feedback, I nerfed it by adding a spell level cap but expanded it to be not just a wizard exclusive feat.

"Cross Study I (Homebrew). Each time you select this feat, you may choose three spells from among any spell casters spell list. You may only choose spells of up to third level and below. You are then able to learn and cast those spells normally as if they were on your own class spell list. Arcane spellcasters may ignore any domain or divine focus requirements for these chosen spells, though divine spellcasters must still meet them. You must still learn these spells from a mentor, scroll, or spellbook as normal for your class, before you may prepare and cast them."
>I like it that you need to find the spell first
Me too, this is for a campaign setting where ALL spellcasters do not receive ANY spells on level up and must acquire them within the game itself - I thought it was a great idea from the developers

>>96438376
>The main issue with psionics is that they have a million and one ways to refresh their entire PP pool between encounters
Almost all of them are solved by making Bestow Power below-standard-cost but actually transfer PP from the manifester's pool to another. Though the wording to exclude bag-of-rat Mindfeeder laundering gets a bit weird.

>a thousand and one more ways to fuck over the action economy with any of the abilities that manipulate time
Involved, feat-intensive, PP-hungry, and with very sketchy in-universe logic. Even so, not much more of a problem than spamming max-PP Powers is to begin with; that is, dependent on the DM making the grave mistake of pinning everything on One Big Fight without follow-up pressure.

>and finally a hundred way to break character building by reshuffling all the stats/skills/etc
Psychic Reformation is actually more restrictive than the PHB2 retraining rules (which DO cover fucking with ability scores) and costs 50 XP per level back you want to redo.

>giving themselves all the psionic powers in the game
Not remotely conveniently, Psychic Chirurgery is a 9th-level Power on a Discipline list that costs a mad 1,000 XP per Power level and needs somebody who knows the Power to pull it from, while Power Research still takes 200 XP and a week per Power level without the ability to access other lists.

>or even breaking the xp system completely
...Compared to nested Thought Bottles whatever TO bullshit has dug this into your brain is nothing.

In summary, skill issue.

>>96438723
I feel obligated to point toward Stronghold Builder's Guidebook for a sadly-price-inflated subsystem for building layouts that could be looted for parts, either as a translation layer or direct conversion into the Dragonmech price and staffing conventions.

Current party: ardent, warblade, warmage, wildshape ranger, and archivist

>>96442777
This. Psionics are bad but they're not as bad as spells.

>>96442777
>Almost all of them are solved by making Bestow Power
You'll also need to ban the psicarnum feats and the power-point steal enchantment. These are only the ones I know off the top of my head, the list of houserules will likely be ever-increasing until you finally do the smart thing and ban psionics entirely.
>Involved, feat-intensive, PP-hungry, and with very sketchy in-universe logic.
Anon, having infinite standard actions only requires you be a level 10 ardent with the linked power feat. The save game trick only requires a psicrystal, 4 psionic powers, and(optimally, but not required) a wizard in the party willing to cast status and imbue with spell like ability.
You can have both with little to no investment. Both have very solid raw and need to be houseruled. They're also not the only big action-economy exploits, just the ones off the top of my head.
>Psychic Reformation
>Psychic Chirurgery
>Thinks they're the only issue
Kek
>...Compared to nested Thought Bottles whatever TO bullshit has dug this into your brain is nothing.
Anon, comparing a nuclear blast to The Sun will make the nuke look pathetic.
That doesn't mean a nuke isn't a fucking problem when someone drops one on your house.
Oh you swee

>>96443191
>Oh you swee
WTF is this from and why is it here? I'm the one who typed it and even I don't know.

>>96443416
You were swiped by Candlejack, obviously.
That's the kind

>>96443440
Pretty sure anon is asking why letters he didn't remember typing showed up in his post. Kind of the exact opposite of the meme really. Bro got fucking pranked by his own subconscious.

>>96443191
>You'll also need to ban the psicarnum feats and the power-point steal enchantment.
The Azure Talent/Psicarnum Infusion combo takes three feats for remotely timely use, only covers a paltry trickle of PP, while the Midnight Augmentation feedback is dependent on Bestow Power. Mindfeeder was already mentioned, as again it causing problems is largely from laundering through Bestow Power, which handily catches Azure Talent recharge in the process of wording around "temporary" PP.

>Anon, having infinite standard actions only requires you be a level 10 ardent with the linked power feat.
Assuming the DM allows Synchronicity into the Time Mantle through the Substitute Powers ACF. That's less RAW than Arcane Swordsage game-breaks, you may as well be talking about Pun Pun inventing arbitrary new abilities with Manipulate Form.

>The save game trick only requires a psicrystal, 4 psionic powers
Which entails one feat while a single manifestation of each of those four powers is 30 PP and 15 XP. As for RAW, Time Hop is unambiguous about the target acting on its NEXT turn, while Forced Dream only operates on the turn it's Manifested; these cannot be fulfilled simultaneously to execute the save-point.

>Psychic Reformation
>Psychic Chirurgery
>Thinks they're the only issue
What other sources of additional Powers Known does a stock Psion have, Advanced Tattoo arrangements?

>Anon, comparing a nuclear blast to The Sun will make the nuke look pathetic.
The difference is that the horseshit of resetting XP is a directly-stated function of Thought Bottles. Cheating XP costs is overtly a thing they are FOR. If you're referring to curing level loss after spending XP, that's a general mechanical flaw in the system rather than at all specific to Psionics and one it requires significant hoops and very high level Powers to tap into.

>>96442784
Well, Dragonmech proper has a different problem. It's too fucking cheap - a gargantuan mech, though with pretty shitty stats, but made out of steel and with steam engine costs ~7k gp. Arguably with the benefits it provides it actually does cost that price. Since 22 strength on a 40 ft. speed gargantuan monster with average maneuverability and with damage that can be easily beaten by a level 6 fighter is horrible shit. But still its kinda sad.

>>96444759
Anon, that's for a generic base-model with no mechanical upgrades, magical enhancements, or spell-infusions. If your willing to drop a kingdoms worth of dosh, you can very much make a strength 50 mech that can outrun the flash. The cost wuld bankrupt a small kingdom though, so start moon-dragon hunting like a proper cogboy.

>>96447767
I mostly have a problem with the fact that something like 20 tons of steel costs similar to 4-5 full plates and can't fight its own way out of a paper bag.

When should you say this town with an 800gp limit is out of CLW/Lesser Vigor wands and Healing Belts? Like 1d3 available per month? per season?

File: town market.png (31 KB, 742x354)

31 KB PNG

>>96448674
PF has more reasonable rules about how this works

>>96448674
Does it have a native production capability or do they import them? If there are clerics around who know how to make them they have no reason to stop, short of running out of ingredients. And ingredients for the wands should be mostly some kind of healing plants and similar stuff with above average positive energy. Though if they create them out of plants their production would be tied to seasons - they would be able to make them from spring to autumn. Unless it's a more serious operation and they built a greenhouse.