# WoBS:  Players Guide - {Calling Ranger Wicket!}



## Primitive Screwhead (Jan 25, 2007)

Starting a thread for discussion/tweaks/comments specific to the Players guide. If we keep all the comments here it will be easier to track back over the discussion than trying to filter through other posts.

Copied from the main thread to spin the discussion off here
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First of all, I like the fluff and the crunch tie-ins to the various factions in Gates Pass. I think it would be possible to expand that one city and keep alot of adventures right in that area, even without a war.

But on to the nit-picks and 'I woulda...'s 

Student of War, the wording is a bit weird. It looks like the feat allows a caster to spend longer in casting a spell in order to increase the spells DC by 1? WHy not replace the last line of the benefit with: "When you do so, the modified spell's save DC increases by +1 for each creature affected."... That makes it truely a useful ability for large scale battles. Rewriting to match a meta-magic affect might be a good thing as well.


Stand the Heat.. I get the idea of what this is meant for, but again, the wording is weird. It doesn't have D20 mechanics, instead has the physics of 'withstand temp as high as...'. Preferably it should provide Fire Resistance 15.

Leader Feats
Is the intent to make the Bard the primary combat leader? Using perform/chr does this. I would suggest a total re-write of this section and base it instead on an already present mechanic, the Leadership Score. {level+Chr+mods}. The Commander Class would add to this score. An additional mod, beyond those in RAW, would be a scale of proven combat:
> Civilian -3
> Greenhorn - 2
> REMF -1
> Combat Vet + 1
> Combat Expert + 2
> Combat Hero + 3

I like the concept and the intent. I haven't had the chance to really go over them closely, but have some general concepts as to how I would prefer them to work. 
The 'Manuever Leader' feat is, IMO, too strong. I would probably have the benefit change to "As a standard action you can orchestrate the melee combat to inflict greater damage on your foes. All allies within range gain a Skirmish ability of +1D6. This stacks with any Skirmish damage the character might already have."

Operation Leader... Love it! Bit longwinded... but thats okay 


Thanks again for this campaign set-up.. looking forward to the first adventure!


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## Primitive Screwhead (Jan 29, 2007)

62 reads and no reply 

Guess I need to bump this and edit the title to call for RW!


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## Morrus (Jan 29, 2007)

Primitive Screwhead said:
			
		

> 62 reads and no reply
> 
> Guess I need to bump this and edit the title to call for RW!




He's very, very, very busy right now!  The first adventure is literally coming off the presses!  I'm sure he'll have more time to look at things like this in a couple of days, once we get chance to breathe.  Even _I'm_ having trouble getting anything out of him right now!


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## RangerWickett (Jan 30, 2007)

*growls angrily*


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## RangerWickett (Jan 30, 2007)

Student of War

You get the feat for free, so I don't want it to be really powerful. Also, I really don't want fireballs having a DC of 30.


Stand the Heat
It's meant to be slightly better than endure elements for heat, but useless for cold. It only exists for the purpose of one of the adventures, so saying it helps with a forest fire is all the info you need.


Leader Feats
The intent is to work with commander or bard. And the actual feat leadership is a stupid thing to have in D20. It doesn't fit with the rest of balance in d20, and so I wanted to make sure people didn't have to use it to use the leadership performance feats. I would never allow the leadership feat in my game, but I would (obviously) use the leadership performance feats.

'Maneuver Leader' 
This parallels the Marshal class feature, but it scales more interestingly.


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## Primitive Screwhead (Jan 31, 2007)

Just so ya know, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions...and I *really* appreciate the time you are putting in on the adventure 
 I was also hoping to stir up some debate amongst the non-author population here, much as we have with EoM... I am a strong beleive that just because someone published a work doesn't make them the best person to talk to regarding balance/mechanics issues.

On to the topic at hand   

Student of War: I agree that a 'free' +30 DC is a bit much... but on the flip side I think a +1 is a bit weak. Ability Focus increases the DC of spell-like abilities by +2 and does not cost the extra time in casting. Perhaps adding the casters WIS mod to the DC would work.

Stand the Heat...I understand.. just more comfortable with solid numbers to refer to, and didn't realize that 'Endure Elements' was written the same way.  Endure Elements specifically calls out that it does not help against smoke inhalation, I presume this variant trades the protection from cold for protection from smoke.

Leader Feats: I agree the whole Leadership deal needs reworked, and I do like the 'Skills-n-Feats' approach better. I just am not sure about the synergy between the leadership mechanics and the Bard... and apparently I need to read the Marshall class sometime


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