Friday, April 6, 2012

Ending Fighter-Only limitation on some Proficiencies

In looking over the specialty priests, assassins, exceptions for thieves, etc., I noticed that five weapon proficiencies listed as "Fighter Only" are frequently given as exceptions for various classes. As a result, I have removed the fighter only status of these. Most of them basically came down to everyone but mages could have them. I figure if a mage wants to muddy up his very few Weapon Proficiency slots with them, the mage should go right ahead, and having them listed as fighter only except when A, B, C, D, etc. was stupid. These are as follows, and in the parentheses are the exceptions I found in the rules before I changed them:

  • Ambidexterity (which is given as a bonus to characters who roll ambidexterity regardless of class, anyways)
  • Non-Lethal Combat (which is given as a bonus or allowed to many types of cleric and mentalists and is not much different in theory from the NWP "sap" which many rogues take.)
  • Martial Arts [X] [X=A, B, C, D] (Which is allowed of most clerics, most thieves and some mages)
  • Missile or thrown weapon style (which is allowed of some rogues, archer god priests, etc.)
  • Two-Weapon Fighting (which is allowed of some rogues, and some clerics already)
From now on these will just be listed with the Weapon Proficiencies in the core rules without italics (remember italicized entries are Man-At-Arms only.)

In addition, I updated the "higher levels of specialization" entries to read "specialization + 1 slot" so that there can be no question about the number of slots involved. I thought the "adding an additional slot to a specialization" in the initial explanation was clear enough, but no one should be confused by this:

Weapon Mastery [Specialization+1 additional slot]:

In lieu of taking proficiencies in additional weapons, players may choose to add a proficiency slot to weapons they are specialized in. This will raise specialists in melee weapons from +1 to hit, +2 to damage to +3 to hit and +3 to damage. Archers and Crossbowmen go to +3/+3 at point blank, and gain an additional +1 to hit at all other ranges. [This is only available at 5th or higher level.]

High Mastery: [Specialization+2 additional slots]:

Critical hit on 19 & 20 (this is not cumulative, if character already has this ability, i.e.: Swordmage, it does not improve.) Increased speed on weapon (subtracting 2 from initiative rolls in d10 or 4 in d20.) Missile or thrown gain a range category: Extreme range (or ~33% further, -7 to hit.) [This is only available at 9th or higher level.]

Grand Mastery [Specialization+3 additional slots ]:One additional attack or missile per round (in addition to those from specialist), increase damage die to next standard die. A 1d6+2 weapon does 1d8+2, A 2d4 does 2d6, a 1d12 does 1d20. Missile/Thrown: All ranges count as one less. [This is only available at 12th or higher level.]

Please tell me if any of this is still confusing. Seriously, tell me.

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