RULES! (No Really)

[Zydana]

Thank you for adding a bleed out stop to transfusion - that will really help (especially with the change to extend life).

Mimic – Timed Skill/Special per Skill mimicked
With this skill the character may mimic any first level Discipline or Basic Path. It takes 5 minutes to receive the skill, but the skill lasts until the character begins to Mimic a different skill or the end of the event.

Were restrictions intentionally removed? There's nothing about not mimicking skills you already have like having necropsy from Valkin'Vi and then mimic sage necropsy to have 2 levels of necropsy. Jared made a nice long list sometime last year - shouldn't something outlining that be added? Also, there's no restriction mentioned about being able to mimic swap out skills or racial discipline skills. I believe this is probably an oversight.

Valkin'Vi Racial discipline - While I do agree that this discipline was rather powerful, I feel the new line up looks like it was super nerfed. No more power of the stars and no more Divination (aka - reset button). Why? Although beyond the name "power of the stars" the skill might not have had a very "valkin'vi" feel to it, it did speed up areas of the game that were down time where a group of people in the woods would otherwise be sitting around staring at each other until time was up and we got a sage hint/greater sense magic hint/necropsy hint/something else. If removed from Valkin'Vi, I would like to see the skill available elsewhere - like a level 300+ perk maybe? Just a thought. I will now mention how we've been working to reduce skill times that cause too much downtime etc for the last 5+ years... Decipher script took 1 hour when I started playing and was reduced to 5 minutes. Mimic was 30 or 15 minutes, now 5 ... it used to take an empath an hour to rez someone..


(more later.. must head to school)

[Abaddon]

let us know on the quick casting. It really matters.

[GM-Mike]

Just to clarify my post, I wrote up the spells with the idea that quick casting would impact the reload times, so if that is not the direction we were all thinking, then the reload times will be drastically reduced (and then casting times will be slightly increased). Since everyone can do magic now, we needed longer times for the non-Magus and as you can see, it is significantly longer for others to cast (or at least that is the intention): 10 minutes versus 2.

[GM-Mike]

So why not power of the stars? Good question. If you notice we added this whole variable time based upon GM discretion thing. That is there to speed up the game so things can happen instantly when the GM is prepared for the question or significantly reduced when the GM needs a moment to think of an appropriate answer...which makes power of the stars less relevant. There are times there for when a GM is not present but that is mainly to prevent spamming.

A private suggestion was to release some of the spells we are thinking of adding. That's a fair suggestion. I will post some but give me about a week to get that document in order.

[Abaddon]

the wording doesn't match that right now. (casting times are listed separate from reload times, you will need to clarify it. Also, hp has no mention of reload times.)

[GM-Mike]

Yep, like I said, if quick casting is not going to impact reload times, then all of the spells with relaod times will be reworked.

[Abaddon]

are hero point perks bought with regular perk slots?

[Zydana]

If you notice we added this whole variable time based upon GM discretion thing.

Didn't notice - zoomed right to the disciplines to see how they changed.

So..mimic?

(Edit: Added quote reference as to not confuse Travis)

[GM-Mike]

The Mimic Omissions were intentional. The only restriction is that the skill ends at the end of an event, so no between events skills can be mimicked and provide benefit to the player.

[Mahto Snowbringer]

I haven't gotten a chance to read over everything in detail but I like what I see thus far and can't wait to try all of this stuff out!

[Zydana]

New question - what's the purpose of labeling something a "Swap Out Skill?" If it's not there for mimic restrictions, and a "swap out skill" will never be the first listed for a basic path swap with another path type skill, I don't see the point of labeling it. We just know to pick 4 of the basic, 4 of the Advanced, and 4 of the Master skill abilities (which can be stated in the rules under the explanation of paths - Character sheet reinforces that).

[GM-Mike]

Jack of all Trades cannot choose swap out skills, nor can the Sage's master skill that lets them choose any master level path skill.

Also, you cannot buy individual swap out skill from other paths.

[ollie]

With this release I stand by my original thought after I read the initial bit after the one day that this rules overhaul was unnecessary and done just for the sake of change. Here's my full opinion.

Changing wizard to magus and adding yet another pool to track ontop of reloads, cooldowns, etc is ludicrous. I second everything Travis has said thus far about the path. Instead of increasing choice in this path, I truly feel that there are skills you must take to be actually effective.

Healer feels like it was the least screwed with. Even then, the removal and changes that were made took away some fantastic tools. Why? To make them weaker in PvP? Because they didn't feel like a healer would have those skills?

Rogue became broken. Period.

Empath lost one of my favorite skills in charm pacify.

Warrior got a decent facelift besides the removal of sure footed.

Reading through the disciples, I feel that the swap outside, great in concept, fall short.

I really want to know how difficult it is for check in that it seriously warranted the removal of personal wealth to the current state along with character and item upkeep. How are characters supposed to get their materials for spells except by what they walk into game with? Just accept the fact that they will be limited by what they get and maybe what gets handed out as swag (because there's always been a fair loot distribution)?

I really could keep going on with my distaste for the changes, but I'll refrain.

[GM-Mike]

I appreciate your opinion, and as I said, if it doesn't work, we will adjust. We're not above admitting if things fail and won't drive the game into the ground out of stubborness. We would like to see it in action first, of course. I'm not as convinced as you that rogues are broken. We did add the complexity of the essence pool, but we did remove cool downs entirely.

The only thing I take exception to (and you're not the only one who has said it) is this:

done just for the sake of change

If you think we would devote this amount of time to something, "just because," you sorely underestimate how much we have going on in our normal lives. To take on a challenge of this magnitude we needed to have serious reasons to do this. In fact, the only way I was really willing to talk about these rules again was if we were going to address everything that we felt was lacking.

Now, what we did may have been a mistake (obviously we don't think so but I never have a problem admitting if I am wrong) and time will tell, but I assure you we didn't do all of this, "just because," or "just for the sake of change."

Like I said, you may be right about everything else. Just wanted to correct that misperception since I have heard it from several people now.

[Abaddon]

i Want to be clear that with reloads covered under quick cast, it's not as limiting. There are aLOT of different thing you can do, like using you essence in place of life. this helps when things are immune to magic.