I would like to talk about Draw Steel, a grid-based tactical combat RPG, loosely inspired by D&D 4e.I just played some combats at level 8, and I really have to say: the Silencing weapon seems a little too good for its ability to shut down a plurality of level 9+ leaders and solos. Between the soulraker hivequeen, the fire giant chief, the war dog taxiarch, Aurumvas, Strategos Alkestis, the meteor dragon, Count Rhodar von Glauer, the lich, and Ajax the Invincible, only the fire giant chief and Strategos Alkestis are not reliant on magic-keyworded abilities. Everyone else here suffers an unceremonious shutdown from a Silencing weapon.https://steelcompendium.io/compendium/main/Rules/Chapters/Downtime%20Projects/#stop-right-thereIt feels a little silly for Ajax to be unable to swing his Blade of the Gol King just because it is magic-keyworded. Yes, he has more turns, but losing even one turn is bad for tempo.https://steelcompendium.io/compendium/main/Bestiary/Monsters/Monsters/Ajax%20the%20Invincible/Ajax%20the%20Invincible/#tactical-stance-ajax-featureVictims of a Silencing weapon cannot even free strike because their free strikes inherit keywords from their signature ability.https://steelcompendium.io/compendium/main/Bestiary/Monsters/Draw%20Steel%20Monsters%20-%20Unlinked/#creature-free-strikesTier 3 results are not that uncommon at 3rd echelon and above, due to simple dice math. (This is to say nothing of the level 9 tactician's Grandmaster of Arms, which can get out of hand with the Rapid-Fire kit's Two Shot.)https://steelcompendium.io/compendium/main/Rules/Classes/Tactician/#grandmaster-of-armshttps://steelcompendium.io/compendium/main/Rules/Kits/Rapid%20Fire/#two-shotAll this is from a single level 5 weapon imbuement. In my case, the PCs had multiple Silencing weapons on hand, so shutdowns were common.What Draw-Steel-related topics are you interested in?
>>96726692Draw Steel is DOA. Nobody is playing it and the only people talking about it already post on the MCDM reddit.
I playtested the beastheart at levels 1 and 8: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rAp08tP0oUlOXbtbdjyWd3dcNhAI0c48OZuUO_9kfh0/editI think that this is a superb start for a pet class. I like it a lot better than the summoner, mostly because it does not clog up the field anywhere as much, and because it creates a satisfying sense of teamwork between the beastheart and their companion (e.g. flanking). The action economy between the two feels very interesting and tactically engaging, and it encourages mixing up abilities from round to round. I appreciate the sheer degree of customization the class offers, between wild nature, companion, and kit. It is not quite a high-damage striker class, but I do not think it needs to be.I have a number of sticking points, though. My biggest complaint is the incredible durability that Heart of the Beast offers, especially on a +12 Stamina per level class; I understand that the beastheart and their companion need some compensation for being two targets on the battlefield, but there has to be a better solution. My second-largest disappointment is the rampage mechanic, which I find cumbersome and awkward (even before we dive into the fact that the size adjustment benefit can be spammed and abused in multiple ways). My other issues are detailed in the rest of the document.It is a fantastic start, but as usual, it could be polished a great deal. I eagerly await the open playtest.What do you think of it?>>96726725I like the game.
>>96726907For reference, here is Heart of the Beast. Note that the Recovery spent heals the user, and that the temporary Stamina costs no Recovery.>You and your companion share a primordial bond so intense that your hearts literally beat as one. If your partner is lost, you can rip out your beating heart and summon them back to your side.>Both of you can use the following ability.>HEART OF THE BEAST>“Better look away, this might not be pretty.”>Magic, Ranged>Maneuver>Distance: Self>Target: Self>Effect: You spend a Recovery as your partner rips their way out of your chest or climbs from your unnaturally wide jaws. Your partner teleports to your space over any distance, even if they don’t have line of effect to you. Your partner gains temporary Stamina equal to their recovery value.>Spend 1 Ferocity (Beastheart Only): You rip your heart from your chest and throw it up to 10 squares to an unoccupied space. Your heart then transforms into your companion, teleporting them to that space instead of to your space.>Spend 1–3 Ferocity: The teleported creature gains additional temporary Stamina equal to their Recovery value times the number of Ferocity you spend in this way. If they are dead, you can spend 3 Ferocity to restore them to life with 1 Stamina, even if their body was destroyed, and they gain no temporary Stamina.
Edna I honestly appreciate the coverage you offer into niche mechanics of various games, but holy shit stop being such a balance sperg.
>>96727100I do not know. This is a class in playtest, and it is important to find the various ways in which the class distorts balance in one way or another.One Recovery's worth of healing and then four Recoveries' worth of temporary Stamina for 3 Heroic Resource, all for a level 1 maneuver, is certainly unprecedented.
There's a soft correlation between tabletop games being balanced and being unfun.
>>96726907>I like the game.You also type like a large language model that somehow developed even worse autism. You aren't a representative slice of the tabletop games community.
>>96727266No there isn't.
>>96727266somehow the dumbest post itt
>>96727468He didn't imply he was, moron
>>96726692I fucking hate the way it names features and abilities.
>>96727204Have you given your feedback to the developers?
>>96726692>What Draw-Steel-related topics are you interested in?gtfo botshill.
>>96728936Yes, I sent in the survey.
I haven't played Draw Steel yet but I have learned a lot about it from skimming the rules, watching Youtube videos, and other threadsIt seems like a fine game, but they seem allergic to naming things in any traditional or intuitive fashion.Like it's not a Paladin, it's a Censor. Not a Wizard, it's an Elementalist. Not a Monk but a Null? Shadow is fine, I guess. What does a Talent do? Obviously, it's the psychic, duh! Bard is the Troubadour. Wood Elf... Sorry, /Wode/ Elf. Dragonborn is a Dragon Knight. Halfling is Polder?? Like seriously, WOTC isn't gonna break down your door for naming something in a conventional way.Elementalist has different elemental specializations. Air, Earth, Fire, and... Green??Also Time Raider feels like a really strange inclusion -- leather wearing punk multi-arm time travelers in a medieval fantasy setting? They stand out so much, it's really jarring.Aesthetics aside, my biggest worry is how much cognitive load the Heroic Resources, Surges, and other fiddly things look like. Tracking some stuff is fine, but there looks like so much + having to be constantly locked in, watching out for all the ways you can gain heroic resources, e.g. Troubadour's drama. Also there's a lot of skills, there's like 50 skills? Brag. Jump. Climb. Lift. Fletching? So many skills that could be so easily condensed into just a handful of skills. Like Lift, Climb, Jump, etc. can just be Athletics or something. Do we really need a Eavesdrop skill? Sneak and Hide are two skills? Why not just Stealth? More skills =/= better imo.
Surprised Draw Steel isn't getting nearly as much mainstream coverage, unlike DaggerheartMCDM seems committed to not really marketing the thing all that much. Maybe they're waiting for the Kickstarter books to finish shipping? Maybe some big retail deal?The price might be a huge factor in its lack of coverage too. $90 for a 1 hardcover book or a PDF bundle is rough
>>96726692What does it do better than 4e?
>>96728193He in fact did by claiming that his interest in the game was enough to keep his attempts at threads about it alive and on topic.
>>96729500He said he liked the game, you fucking sperg.
>>96729464>Surprised Draw Steel isn't getting nearly as much mainstream coverage, unlike DaggerheartIf you've been in this hobby more than a year or 2 you really shouldn't be. This is a niche game, in a saturated market, that's hostile to new products and it's not a very good one at that. It's a fantasy amine ttrpg focused on combat. Why should i play this one over the dozen others? Especially if we already know a system and have spent the capital to get a suite of books and pdfs.Daggerheart may be just another dnd clone but it's getting attention due to its association with critical roll. Something normies and secondaries love to act like is an acceptable replacement for actually playing games. It too will die in short order, though probably a bit later due to it's pop-culture connection. Mostly I can't wait for all of them to realize that they're unwelcome in these spaces.
>>96729322The names do not bother me too much. Elementalists being named that is beneficial because it distinguishes them from being catch-all, do-anything wizards. (I find elementalists to be the one class in the game with the lowest optimization ceiling, but that is another matter.)>in a medieval fantasy settingMatt's setting is, from a meta perspective, divided into three segments: """""medieval""""" fantasy Vasloria, the big fantasy city Capital, and the more space fantasy upper worlds. The kuran'zoi/time raiders and the memonek are intended more for the upper worlds, but you can play them in the lower-tech areas of the setting if you really want to.>Aesthetics aside, my biggest worry is how much cognitive load the Heroic Resources, Surges, and other fiddly things look like.This was one of my issues with the system back when I ran it, such as here at level 5: https://desuarchive.org/tg/thread/96497917/#96497917Constantly fluctuating Heroic Resources and surges can be a pain to track at times. I find it simpler to track 4e's AEDU, if only because it is easier to vividly recall having used this power or that earlier in the fight.>Also there's a lot of skills, there's like 50 skills?This is another issue I have with the system. In theory, it is fine because the game and its negotiations and montages tend to be exceptionally generous with applicability of skills. On the whole, I am not a fan, and I would have preferred a much smaller list.>>96730506Draw Steel is a grid-based tactical RPG with 4e-like mechanical design. That is its main selling point, in my opinion. It is no more "anime" than Path/Starfinder 2e, Daggerheart, and similar games.
>>96729973You're the one whose irrationally angry about the truth, desu yo.
>>96729473I think that Draw Steel and D&D 4e are both decent games. I would not call one outright better than the other. I play and run both nowadays.Draw Steel has better out-of-the-box, non-house-ruled game balance than D&D 4e, I think. Draw Steel has a more constrained optimization floors and optimization ceiling, and characters are significantly easier to build. Draw Steel's minions and solos work better than 4e's, in my opinion, and I find the Malice mechanic interesting.
I find the Bloodbound Band strange from a mechanical perspective. First of all, it is technically treasure "armor" in that it grants a non-stacking +6/+12/+21 Stamina; there is nothing wrong with this.https://steelcompendium.io/compendium/main/Rules/Treasures/Leveled%20Treasures/Other%20Leveled%20Treasures/Bloodbound%20Band/Suppose a four-PC party has Bloodbound Bands, all bonded to one another.If one PC gets pushed 1 square into another PC, both take 1 damage, and then the splash triggers on three PCs twice.If two PCs each get pushed 1 square into one another, both take 2 damage, and then the splash triggers on three PCs four times.On the other hand, I have found the Bloodbound Band very popular at level 5+ simply because it grants a global damage immunity 2. The metagame tends to be equipping a Bloodbound Band just for that, unbonded. Indeed, when I ran Draw Steel at level 5 for four players, three out of four them wore a Bloodbound Band, unbonded; the only reason why the fourth PC did not have a Bloodbound Band was because they were a talent with Steel Ward.https://desuarchive.org/tg/thread/96497917/#96497917Atop all this, the 9th-level benefit seems too situational to me. One PC still ends up dying anyway, and the party has just lost a 450-project-point treasure. It would have taken only a 90-point consumable to resurrect a dead PC during a respite.https://desuarchive.org/tg/thread/96497917/#96497917What do you think of the Bloodbound Band?
>>96732877Aside from the "just use the Bands only at level 5+, unbonded" strategy, maybe it is better to bond only the highest-Recovery-value PC and the lowest-Recovery-value PC. This way, they can still gain some benefit out of bonding, while not being as inconvenienced by 1-damage splashing from collisions and other little damage pings.
>>96732617Dude, mild derision of retardation has nothing on the all-caps melty you threw a few posts back. Actual toddler behavior.
>>96732877>>96732912I have been told elsewhere that when the developers played through The Delian Tomb, with just two PCs bonded together with Bloodbound Bands, the bond caused them to lose more Stamina than they saved.I stand by the strategy of using a Bloodbound Band unbonded, and mostly for the damage immunity 2 at level 5+.
>>96729464in addition to what other people said, they didn't close a deal with a big publisher like Darrington Press did, which would have helped with everything, especially the prohibitive price point (not helped by the huge pagecount) and the physical books are only being delivered about now, so if any coverage was going to happen it would be about now.
