A helluva lot of change this time around. Everyone using this system will need to remake their characters (though Personal Equipment shouldn’t feel too much of a hit). Apologies in advance.
Attribute Distribution has changed. Characters can distribute a total of 6 points, down from 8, and may only assign a maximum of 3 points to any one score. This should hopefully tone down some roll bonuses, and put more emphasis on the Traits your character has. Speaking of...
The amount of starting Traits has raised to 5, up from 4. Between this bump and the fact that you no longer need to dedicate some of these picks to Racial Traits, everyone should hopefully be seeing more variation in character builds. Choices, choices.
NEW MECHANIC: Defenses may now be ‘sundered’ by various effects, preventing their use. This should add a bit more of a tactical approach to both combat choices and Trait choices, as well as making combat slightly more dynamic. I felt like roll battles versus traditional ‘Armour Class’-style target numbers were a bit of a lacking mechanic by themselves.
NEW MECHANIC: Critical strikes now give characters a choice of dealing more damage or sundering the foe’s defense. Again, another ounce of choice in the middle of combat. I personally think giving allies an opening on a tough opponent is nice, but if I hear that people are really only taking the ‘extra damage’ option, I may tweak this.
Multi-attacking penalties have been increased. Critical damage can’t be achieved while making three attacks. The penalties are now fairly extreme unless someone is specifically trained in flailing their weapon around that quickly, further emphasizing trait choices.
Spell DC formula has been tweaked. Your Spell DC now depends on how many spell slots you’re pumping into a spell. Also, a few changes that hopefully make the act of spellcasting a bit clearer.
Moving a Short Distance is now a main action. You may now do other minor things while running across a battlefield.
Healing DC formula has been tweaked. Similar to the Spell DC change, the difficulty of healing someone is now more dependent on how injured they are.
Rules for Temporary Hit Points have been made more prominent. In my endless attempt to make certain things seem less nebulous. There’s a lot of work to be done. Speaking of nebulous...
Fettles have been removed. I wasn’t a fan of how specific those rules were, and how they didn’t apply to certain situations. I encourage everyone who uses this system to improv rules whenever you need to. You have full control over what kind of rolls should go into things such as grappling and weakness.
Rules for Cover have been added to the ‘Additional Rules’ section. They were in the Fettles tab, but they’ve been tweaked and shoved into the spotlight, instead. Well. Maybe not the spotlight. But they’re on the stage.
Racial Attribute Bonuses are more racist. Races that are naturally gifted with a certain attribute can now have more of that attribute than the other, WEAKER races. Humans are no longer the best at everything, but fit into a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ role.
Many Traits can now be taken multiple times. Some traits increase the effectiveness of their bonus, others allow the ability they grant to be used more times. This should hopefully let characters specialize a bit more into their character concept, and once again, make builds a bit more diverse.
A new category of Traits, ‘Abnormal Traits’, have been added. These are special ‘subrace’ traits that grant a character both positive and negative effects. These are all pretty drastic changes made to cater to those types of characters.
'Stand Strong’ renamed to ‘Last Stand’ and tweaked. No longer grants its bonus most of the time, but the bonus now increases as hit points drop.
‘Spirit Guide’ changed to ‘Wild Adaptation’. Norn may now use their Spirit’s gifts, if any, in a more immediate and impactful manner.
‘Colossus’ formula tweaked, and can no longer be used multiple times. Taking significant amounts of damage now make it almost impossible to stay standing. Made it a one-time use to prevent further RNG from keeping norn standing forever.
‘Savage Striker’ changed to ‘Savagery’. This trait should no longer result in abrupt insta-kills on relatively healthy targets, while still making critical hits feel appropriately meaty.
‘Tech Mastery’ now makes characters choose a category of charr tech. Charr are no longer masters of every single technology their race has ever made.
‘Where Life Goes’ changed to ‘Dreamsight’. Gives a more meaningful and less specialized ability to sylvari players. Not all sylvari are looking for the mines of Moria.
‘Strong Roots’ now grants temporary hit points every rest, instead of permanent hit points all the time. That hardy bark-shell now requires more time to recover.
=====EXPLORATION TRAITS=====
‘Healer’ now turns single-target heals into bonus actions.
‘Hidden’ now more clearly states what it does for you.
‘Inspiring’ has been changed significantly. Inspired characters may now choose when to grant themselves a bonus. The bonus now scales with your Charisma score.
‘Leadership’ now states what rolls it grants bonuses to.
‘Ley Conduit’ may now be taken up to four times. For when you really, really want to cast a spell.
’Pack Master’ has been tweaked. It now buffs a specific pet attribute. Its bonus has also been reduced, but the trait can be taken twice.
‘Spell Potency’ has been tweaked following the new Spell DC formula.
‘Well-Equipped’ has been changed to allow existing Personal Equipment to be ‘upgraded’. Personal Equipment should generally only begin with 1 beneficial effect (and, of course, however many negative effects you would like). This change now gives you a clear way to add more than one effect to a single piece of equipment.
The ‘Yak Herder’ trait is now the most powerful trait in the system. All hail the Yak Herder. All hail the Yak Herder. All hail the Yak Herder.
The old ‘Tidebreaker’ trait is now ‘Awareness’, and it no longer grants bonuses to all Defenses.
‘Death Siphon’ can now drain from creatures with 2 maximum hit points, down from 3.
‘Deny the Witch’ can now be made more effective by spending more spell slots.
‘Durable’ now only grants 1 maximum hit point, but can be taken up to four times.
‘Eldritch Battery’ has been tweaked to be a more reliable source of damage negation compared to similar traits.
The penalty reduction from ‘Flurry’ is now 2, up from 1. It pairs nicely with the new ‘Dual Wielder’ trait.
The bonus gained from ‘Furious’ now applies to spell DCs, and the rate at which you gain those bonuses have been back-loaded. You must now be in extremely dire straits to gain the full effect.
‘Selfless’ has been renamed to ‘Guardian’, and is more dependent on your Skill.
The critical range of ‘Precise’ has been reduced, but may be bumped back up to its previous benefit by taking the trait twice.
‘Quick Draw’ was buffed slightly. When taken twice, it should almost guarantee your acting first in combat.
‘Successive Attack’ has been renamed to ‘Reaper’, and may be taken multiple times.
‘Riposte’ no longer grants a counterattack against every single opponent that fails to hit you. ...but its bonus and number of uses per encounter have been raised to compensate.
’Second Wind’ is now a bonus action, and recovers less health. It is no longer a completely free maximum health boost.
’Smite’ has been changed significantly. It now grants a large accuracy boost instead of bonus damage. Also, the penalty for using it has been made more severe.
The bonus from ‘Stability’ has been doubled to be more impactful.
The penalty inflicted by ‘Taunt’ now scales with your Charisma.
'Witch Hunter’s spell DC penalty is now dependent on the character’s attributes, but should generally be lower.
‘Adrenaline Rush’ has been added. Rewards characters for takedowns.
‘Arcane Reaction’ has been added. Allows for spell opportunity attacks.
‘Backlash’ has been added. Grants bonuses the more your defenses are sundered.
‘Balance Breaker’, ‘Guard Breaker’, and ‘Spell Breaker’ have been added. Allows for non-damage, but more accurate attacks aiming to sunder specific defenses.
‘Battlemage’ has been added. Allows multi-attacks to include a single spellcast.
‘Desperation’ has been added. Being close to death bolsters a single defense massively.
‘Distraction’ has been added. Another way for Charisma to be used in combat. Shout something and screw up an opponent’s roll.
‘Dual Wielder’ has been added. Multi-attacks are more accurate while dual wielding. Pairs nicely with the ‘Flurry’ trait.
‘Momentum’ has been added. Characters are rewarded for successful combat rolls. Rewards can be spent for a sudden steroid boost.
‘Tactician’ has been added. Yet another way for Charisma to be used in combat. Allows allies to follow your orders, potentially acting twice in a single round.
‘Unbreakable’ has been added. Automatically recover a sundered defense at will.
And that’s it. Again, these changes are drastic, and a remake of your characters is necessary. Hopefully you enjoy what comes out of it.
