As a rule, I'd never run one of my rough drafts in a real game. When I release one, I always am thinking one of two things:
A) This rough draft is 100% perfect and nothing could be wrong with it (I am always wrong)
or
B) Eh... well, it's definitely a proof of concept.
With the rough draft of the Archaeologist, it was definitely in B territory.
Usually when I'm in that zone, I release a draft because I'm stuck and need some insight from you guys. You all haven't failed me yet, and you didn't fail me with the rough draft of this one.
With your help, I think this class option is in a shape to properly present. It's still a little rough around the edges - think of it as a second rough draft - but it could certainly use a look-over and some quality criticism.
CHANGELOG:
- Fiddled with Field Training. No longer offers you a skill from a list, now gives you a climb speed!
- Revamped Intelligent Combat. Doesn't reduce (or require) your Sneak Attack any more. Needs a saving throw for everything, hinges on Intelligence heavily.
- Switched the levels for Forgotten Magic and Seasoned Explorer, and added an initiative boost to Seasoned Explorer in place of its missing climb speed.
- Paragon of Adventure has been adjusted to account for changes in Intelligent Combat.
CONCERNS:
- Still not 100% on the balance of Intelligent Combat. Input would be appreciated.
- Paragon of Adventure is flavor-lite. I'm open to suggestions on how to make it more flavorful.
WHAT I LEARNED:
- Apparently, the criticism on the blog alone is quality enough to revise a rough draft. Thanks!
I like it a lot better know. But I think you might have slightly overstepped Intelligent Combat's limitation. Since each ability is now tied to a save, having to use you bonus action is a high enough cost for a rogue, making the limit of uses based on Int mod somewhat "too much". In my expeperience most rogue characters really utilize Cunning Action quite heavily to make up for their lacking HP. If a rogue is pressed to choose between either Cunning Action or Intelligent Combat, that's a high enough cost I feel.
ReplyDeleteThat's reasonable. It already uses INT in the save, now, rather than DEX, so it hinges on INT in an important way.
DeleteI also feel limited uses kind of go against the "theme" of a rogue, the ability to do whatever, whenever, but to a point. It doesn't seem like such a hard-and-fast rule that it can't be broken, but it's nice to keep to a class' theme if I don't have to go against that.
That's a good point as well, and one of the beautiful things about 5e is the quick and simple way that it is usually played. And another layer of record keeping is always something that should be avoided if at all possible and as you said: the ability keying on Int via its DC conveys the "intelligent" part quite well enough
DeleteFor Paragon of Adventure, refreshing a bonus action on the first successful Intelligent Combat hit after rolling initiative could help with flavor, I think. Keeping in line with the rules of the feature, it could only happen once, on a failed INT save from an enemy.
ReplyDeleteThink about the link with perception. Indy has high intelligence but that is solidly in rune with his perception (sometimes) everybody else knew that chic was a Nazi!
ReplyDeleteAnyway look at a perception bonus to be added to either his encounter role, initiative roll or his saves roll (player must call which one first) and only one per encounter.