Specifically, will we see any mention of the new races/classes in their appropriate chapters? How about the monsters? What kind of retro-fitting will those go through?
Originally posted by Tembo-Pie
Specifically, will we see any mention of the new races/classes in their appropriate chapters? How about the monsters? What kind of retro-fitting will those go through?
The races, probably not.
For the introduction of the Elan and the Maenad ... I think we're going to respect the timeline from Dragon for thier introduction...
For the other handful of races, the Half-giant is being soundly ignored. we might adjust the thri-kreen. Duregar, Githyanki and Githzeri are not present. The Xeph and the Dromite might have potential to go in, but probably not core.
The classes, on the other hand, I think we're going to adopt whole cloth. The only one that might not appear is the Soulknife, but I don't see a major reason not to.
Some of our wild-talent feats will get dropped, given that XPH provides them.
Our powers will require looking into and adjusting. This may well be the longest part of the deal.
Monsters? ... up to the monster's Bureau for the most part.
-The Metamind PrC is deamed worthless by the community
-The Soulknive has one major problem concerning number of blades manifested per round
-Psionic Dominate is inferior to Dominate from the PHB
Point three as recently been solved by an early errata release by Andrew Finch and Bruce Cordell:
If you spend 1 additional power point, this power’s duration is 1 hour rather than concentration. If you spend 2 additional power points, this power’s duration is 1 day rather than concentration. If you spend 4 additional power points, this power’s duration is 1 day per manifester level rather than concentration.
For races, I think leaving them out would be preferable IMO. Half-Giants MUST be athas.org's version, and I don't want ALL thri-kreen to be psionic, because it would simply make Wild Talents irrelevant (as all thri-kreen would essentially be wild talents). However, if you wish to go with Dragon's timeline ideas (many of which are actually pretty cool), the elans could be introduced. Indeed, according to that timeline, the elans were created by the Order, just before their downfall. Elans should therefore be available, though quite rare, during the age of heroes, and perhaps a bit before. I think I could go with this, actually.
Classes are good, except for the soulknife. I will NOT allow soulknives in my Dark Sun campaigns, for several reasons:
1- Zealots belong on Aiur, not Athas. ;)
2- This psionic ability would be waaayyy to appealing to warrior types in a setting with deficient weapons and magic weapons.
3- I just don't see soulknives gladiators, but you would see lots of them if you include them, since they'd get a big advantage compared to bone weaponed gladiators, or even worse, unarmed ones. It just doesn't fit IMO.
4- Prestige class, maybe. Base class makes it far too available IMO.
Anyways, point 2 is the strongest reason, since it dwells on mechanics and not simply personal preferences.
Feats are good, and the Wild Talent feat (taking on the Hidden Talent form, for high psionics settings) is pretty good. It only adjust it so that wild talents get to manifest their wild talent power even if they don't have the necessary Cha. The resulting DC can be low though.
Works fine in DS I think, though I plan to make a Minscape variant of it all, when I get the time...
As for classes, most if not all would fit into dark sun, but I would have to agree with the soulknife comments as well. Very similar to the problems with monks on athas mechanics wise. Although soulknives tend to be a little less broken than monks when thrown onto Athas, IMO.
The biggest changes I can foresee are with the monsters. Can we get one of you monster bureau members to post something up here? Any plans to retro-fit the new psionics rules into Terrors of Athas anytime soon?
I like the soulknife class, however I didn't think about the itmes on Athas. I had forgotten that things tend to break a lot easier and bone weapons suck. Yeah, I'd probably adopt the old Soulknife PrC for this setting instead of the class itself.
Originally posted by Tembo-Pie
Any plans to retro-fit the new psionics rules into Terrors of Athas anytime soon?
Yes.
We are currently about to start working on that.
At least a few of us are anyways.
Originally posted by Naga_Slayer
I recall the DS novels almost hinting at a bug empire. If the metaplot were advanced some (like the Dragon Mag did), then the Dromites owuld be more than perfect.
Later products do more than hint at a bug empire: Thri-kreen of Athas details an enormous empire of Thor-Kreen to the east of the Tyr region (beyond the Hinterlands, and on the down side of an enormous cliff).
It's pretty well laid out that they're Thri-kreen over there, rather than Dromites.
Originally posted by Pennarin
-The Metamind PrC is deamed worthless by the community...[/i]
Why is this PrC worthless? as I've only found why it's a GOOD PrC: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225243
Can you post the thread that shows this argument? Thank you!
Originally posted by Markus.l
Why is this PrC worthless? as I've only found why it's a GOOD PrC: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225243
Can you post the thread that shows this argument? Thank you!
Sure. Here's the thread. The thread you gave is an attempt at interpreting the wording of the PrC, so it can be useful and make more sense. But like many of the posters in that thread, I think it is imparting meaning where there isn't.
Basically I suspect that the official XPH errata will make changes, perhaps simply in wording, that will significantly affect the class.
Hope that thread helps to see both sides of the coin. ;)
Originally posted by Sean Dickson
The Dromites could easily be xik-chil modified halflings.
I think that would be a bad idea. The zik-chil can't modify creatures that much and it's an idea that's been done before a lot of times.
Besides, the Kreen Empire has insectoid slaves. The dromites could be one of those slave races.
Originally posted by (Psi)SeveredHead
I think that would be a bad idea. The zik-chil can't modify creatures that much and it's an idea that's been done before a lot of times.
Besides, the Kreen Empire has insectoid slaves. The dromites could be one of those slave races.
Well, if you go with the idea that the Zik-Chil are the decendants of the Blue Age Rhulisti "Nature Benders" (which there are several hints in the 2e material that can support this theory), and that they probably modified the Kreen to make them sentient, and effectively a warrior class to take back the Tyr'aga (sp?) region where they got thrown out of. They then modified themselves to get many of the advantages of the Kreen, but never quite looked completely Kreen. They began to rely on racial, genetic memories, and that was their downfall, as genetic meories end up degrading over millenia, and they have long since forgotten their original intent, but have just become part of the Tohr-Kreen empire, as the Priests of Change. They lost much of their original Lifeshaping knowledge, much like the Rhul-Thaun Halflings, but are still adept at doing little things (like making Zik-Chil), and the Tohr-Kreen empire still has an insatiable appetite to conquer and claim the Tablelands region.
With that in mind, it's quite possible that the Zik-Chil could have possibly made the Dromites. Maybe as a servant race for their empire. I doubt if they were made from halflings though. I'd say it might have been an experiment with other races that got captured over the centuries, millenia ago, and they tried to remake them soimewhat in the Kreen image, but failed (I envision captured gnomes, humans, elves, etc. pretty much any rebirth race that got down the Jagged Cliffs and survived the fetid swamps, got to the Crimson Savannah and was captured, rather than just eaten, for some obscure reason). as each of the rebirth races originated from halflings, maybe the Zik-Chil's modifications reflected this, and made them look closer to being the original halfling size as a result.
Originally posted by xlorepdarkhelm
With that in mind, it's quite possible that the Zik-Chil could have possibly made the Dromites. Maybe as a servant race for their empire. I doubt if they were made from halflings though. I'd say it might have been an experiment with other races that got captured over the centuries, millenia ago, and they tried to remake them soimewhat in the Kreen image, but failed (I envision captured gnomes, humans, elves, etc. pretty much any rebirth race that got down the Jagged Cliffs and survived the fetid swamps, got to the Crimson Savannah and was captured, rather than just eaten, for some obscure reason). as each of the rebirth races originated from halflings, maybe the Zik-Chil's modifications reflected this, and made them look closer to being the original halfling size as a result.
I like that.
For my illithid project, dromites are the duergar to the mind flayers of FR. They serve as thralls, slaves and psionic warriors, but they also did a revolution a long time ago and now have lands of their own even while some of their brethren are still used as slaves.
I have them escaping the visit of a Champion by saying that before they were "civilized" by the illithid's slaving efforts, they were like sligs, braxats or dark spiders or any of the myriad of intelligent and disorganized races on athas. Rajaat considered that the dromites would drown in the coming Blue Age and the ruling halflings would have no difficulty killing smart survivors, if any...
Originally posted by Pennarin
Sure. Here's the thread. The thread you gave is an attempt at interpreting the wording of the PrC, so it can be useful and make more sense. But like many of the posters in that thread, I think it is imparting meaning where there isn't. Basically I suspect that the official XPH errata will make changes, perhaps simply in wording, that will significantly affect the class. Hope that thread helps to see both sides of the coin. ;)
Thanx Pennarin!. You guys can all rest easy now (or cry) I did my homework.
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=230519