Thoughts On Version 0.3

[imported_Rasyr]

How is Magic damage covered? Does armor reduce the damage? When we applied this, our Wizard was doing no damage. When I ruled that standard armor does not reduce Magical damage then the game was able to continue with no more problems. And it seemed to work. The Wizard was able to feel like he was contributing to the game with magical attacks instead of just standing around waiting to shoot his crossbow every three rounds or so.

Tim; can you address that?

Question -- were you giving the magical attacks Scaled damage as well? Each point that the casting roll was above the DEF of the target should have done an additional point of damage - in addition to the 4 + stat bonus that is the Base Damage of the spell?

But to answer the question, yes, AR does subtract from magical damage as well. Just as the roll being over the foe's DEF increases the damage done by the attack.

[gamewizard]

How is Magic damage covered? Does armor reduce the damage? When we applied this, our Wizard was doing no damage. When I ruled that standard armor does not reduce Magical damage then the game was able to continue with no more problems. And it seemed to work. The Wizard was able to feel like he was contributing to the game with magical attacks instead of just standing around waiting to shoot his crossbow every three rounds or so.

Tim; can you address that?

Question -- were you giving the magical attacks Scaled damage as well? Each point that the casting roll was above the DEF of the target should have done an additional point of damage - in addition to the 4 + stat bonus that is the Base Damage of the spell?

But to answer the question, yes, AR does subtract from magical damage as well. Just as the roll being over the foe's DEF increases the damage done by the attack.

As far as I can see, most of the Elemental Bolt attacks don't go against a Defense. They just have a CTN and then do a set number of damage, don't they? I have the most recent version as far as I know. So if they just have a CTN they don't do scaleable damage, do they? I didn't have enough time to describe the issues exactly as we ran into them last night, my son needed the comp for homework earlier.

[imported_Rasyr]

As far as I can see, most of the Elemental Bolt attacks don't go against a Defense. They just have a CTN and then do a set number of damage, don't they? I have the most recent version as far as I know. So if they just have a CTN they don't do scaleable damage, do they? I didn't have enough time to describe the issues exactly as we ran into them last night, my son needed the comp for homework earlier.

Every spell has a CTN, so don't go by that.

If you look at the spell description, there is a "Vs." line. This tells whether or not the spell gets a Save and what stat that Save is against. In some cases, that line says "DEF".

If you look at the spell descriptions for all of the Bolt spells, they are ALL "Vs. DEF". And if you look at the sidebar on page 38, you will see an explanation of how to resolve spells that are "Vs. DEF" and it clearly states that you compare the roll against CTN, and then you compare that SAME roll against DEF, and that the attack DOES get scalable damage.

[splocke]

Tim, something I have been meaning to put in the errata thread is that the elemental bolt in wizardry is listed with a vs of - instead of DEF which hopefully can  be corrected in the next printing.  I have always assumed it should be vs DEF and played it that way during playtesting.   My players as gratefull for the change of Spellcasting from being only a Will based skill.  One of them had to change races when he was unable to create an Elven druid without having a negative Will bonus limiting his ability to cast spells.

[imported_Rasyr]

Aha!! That would explain the confusion that gamewizard encountered (he did say that the character involved was a Wizard). Without it saying Vs. DEF, it could easily be assumed that the spell did not go against DEF/AR and that it didn't scale.

So. my apologies to gamewizard. The problems you encountered with that spell are MY fault because I missed the fact that the Elemental Bolt was missing the "DEF" in the Vs. line.

[gamewizard]

Yes, that was where my confusion was coming from. I looked at all the damage spells last night and every one except the Wizard Elemental Bolt spell has "Base: Attack" and a VS DEF line. So I assumed the Wizard's Bolt spell was also supposed to have the same VS DEF. I will address it with my Wizard player this Saturday.

Thanks.

[imported_Rasyr]

It will be corrected in version 0.4

[Fidoric]

I think that in the character creation process, stat generation should come before race choice.
Currently, when you generate a character, you receive stat bonuses before having determined your stats.,Though not a real problem for most races with fixed bonuses, it is not intuitive when you create a human and have to choose stat bonuses without having determined your stats.

[samwise7]

I think it is good to know what race you have first, and then do stats with your racial stat modifiers, but I can also see your point.

[imported_Rasyr]

The problem is that you could go either way with it, doing chargen in several different orders.

However, the way that I see it, the current order fits better overall.

You do your character concept. This is likely going to be where you decide which race and class you want to play (race at least, class may be more of finding which is closest to what you want).

However, Race tells you that you are good or bad at some stats. Then Class tells you what stats are important for your Class (i.e. your character).

Then you actually determine the stats. At this point, you know your racial mods, and you know which are important for your class, so you know which ones you will want to have the better scores in (not min-maxing, per se, just judicious placement of the stat numbers).

To me, that is the more natural progression. Now, there are obviously other orders which other people will be more comfortable with, but then again, once used to the chargen process, they can do it in which ever order best suits their temperment.

[Fidoric]

That's true.  You can easily swap stages of creation as you prefer.

[Mando]

From my experience, this choice depends most on the player's approach (if the system allows it): some want to play a dwarf, and then try to find a job that fits. Some will always start by thinking of a class, and then choose a race that fits. So, priority does not seem to be based on an organisational matter, but on different possible approaches. If this can be handled by the rules, it's a plus, perfect, keep the choice in the hands of the guy who bought the book and let him go his way!

[samwise7]

One of my players mentioned that movement might be an issue.

He mentioned that it might be better if movement were in increments of 5' for those groups that prefer to use miniatures and grids.

[samwise7]

I wonder if using measuring tapes could work though, with the system as it currently is?  I know the miniatures players use them all the time.

[imported_Rasyr]

Movement -- This will be 5' + Speed Bonus (3' + Speed Bonus for Halflings and other small beings).

If using miniatures and grids, you can always round off to the nearest multiple of 5. I can easily add in a note for this, thus allowing it to be a GM/Group choice on how to handle it

Measuring tapes -- the only folks I know that use measuring tapes are those who play miniature games on a regular basis.