Category Archives: Talent Design
Energy Resistance and Subtypes
These are a couple of very straightforward and honestly pretty boring talents, but structurally they turn up a lot. This suggests they might be better treated as ‘common elements’ used in constructing other talents (especially cornerstone and capstone) but for now I’ll write them as standalone talents. Energy Resistance You are resistant to damage from [...]
Dragons in Echelon, Part 4: First Cut at Red Dragons
I was thinking today about how different dragon types might be modeled. The original thought was that the cornerstone would cover the common abilities, the color-specific parts (spell-like abilities, other special abilities) might be a common talent, then the remaining common talents could be used to flesh out general abilities such as flight and breath [...]
Dragons in Echelon, Part 3: Comparing RSRD to Pathfinder
I was originally using the Revised System Reference Document (“D&D 3.x”) as my base, but as I described in Finding a New Path, Pathfinder is richer and more accessible, and gives me more options. This is a case in point. The RSRD red dragon description is quite boring. Apart from the fluff (which is okay): [...]
Dragons in Echelon, Part 2: Common Abilities
In Dragons of Echelon, Part 1: Introduction I decided that my easiest path forward for now is to model, with some changes, how dragons are currently implemented in Pathfinder. Dragon Creature Type The Dragon creature type has: d12 Hit Die. Irrelevant, hit points are derived from level, tier, and Martial Training Bonus, and modified by [...]
Dragons in Echelon, Part 1: Introduction
I was prompted by a couple conversations on Google+ to delve a little into how dragons might be implemented in Echelon. I originally looked into this a couple years ago at my other site and it’s long past time to revisit the topic. There have been a number of changes since then that will affect how [...]
Another Take on Sneak Attack
I took David’s post on Sneak Attacks and the Executioner and incorporated some of the comments from our conversation below it. I do still like the token mechanic, but in this case I think there might be a better approach. Sneak Attack provides its own resource (sneak attack dice) that can be spent to pay [...]
The Basics of Cornerstones and Capstones
David asked at google+: Has anyone been thinking about keystones (corner and cap) at the Basic level? We have Warrior Born and Steeped in Magic cornerstones, but for a character who upgrades these to the Expert version (where adventurers start), they need to replace them with something else. I’ve been having a lot of trouble [...]
Martial Training: Traditions, Combat Elements, and Styles
My original model of martial training was much as the model for caster training. A character could have a ‘Martial Training’ cornerstone talent (I was calling it “Warrior Born”) that provided half the possible Martial Training Bonus, and some generic combat-relevant benefits I never got around to defining. A character could also take a ‘Martial [...]
Spell Casting Rules: Traditions, Spell Knowledge, and Racial Magic
I had initially aimed to create a unified casting system where all casters follow the same rules and cast the same spells in the same way, then use talents to control spell access, secondary powers, and alternate casting methods. I realized while examining Knowledge skills that there is probably a better way, at least as [...]
Cornerstone Talent: RSRD Elf
That’s the dwarf out of the way. I’m going to try to get through the rest of the RSRD races, hopefully tonight. I hope you’ll excuse the lack of commentary in exchange for more (draft) content. RSRD Elf Traits +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution. Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due [...]