Cormyr and the Dalelands

I recall there being a thread on the old forums, wherein Vincent threw out the possibility of opening up Dwarven Defender and Arcane Archer to all races.  Was any decision made in this regard?  I'm ambivalent about AA, but I would really, really like to see DD opened up for other races.

If I recall correctly, DD was gonna get opened up but AA was not. These changes would come in the ever-mythical HAK update with Swordmage that has been whispered on the lips of wise men for centuries.

I think that AA should be open up as well if DD is going to be.....to keep things fair but that's just my opinion

Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on this as well for the whole DD thing, gonna go ahead and put my vote in for AA also being for everyone.

Both classes will be opened up to all races

I will likely be opening up both, just to provide more options.  

Barbarians are also going to get some love.

I'm going to require your shipping address and preferred brand of brew.

But can we get an ETA on this? I think most of us would rather have what's already complete thrown in than all the extra bells and whistles that can wait.

When I have time.  I work full time and have school on top of that.

Most of the core stuff is done, though I do have to test a few things in regards to appearances and things added in.


A fair bit of .2da work and some .tlk work remains.
Off the top of my head:
Still need to fix spell school issues in spells.2da, in addition to finishing new entries for classes and spells
Fix crafting issues in the various craft related .2das and add the new content
Edits/changes to a number of epic spells (removing some we don't use, adding new ones) [this may wait]
Class changes mentioned above (very quick fixes there)
Remaining .2da files for Swordmage and Tempest additions.
.tlk lines for all new feats/spells/classes/etc.  Description fixes for a number of existing spells/abilities.

Now for those who've never done it, this is a LOT of tedious text entry.
Then of course there is a lot of testing. I've put in 3-4 tilesets, numerous item appearances (shields), over 500 creature appearances, a handful of heads and clothing parts etc.  Most of this needs a quick visual rundown.

Translation: A lot of work, time and effort, that we are ever grateful for because Vince is literally the only person we have who can still do it. (I apparently lost track of the number of projects that kept getting thrown in).

Translation: Don't get excited any time soon, folks.

I have a 3 month break from school in March due to scheduling conflicts.

It will be finished before I resume class.


Edit: And those 500 new appearances, don't count the few hundred I replaced as well. I added -ALL- of the Project Q creatures.
I've also re-organized our entire hak set.

There will also be an update to the head models released shortly, since that's not dependent on 2da editing.

While we are releasing the secrets of dwarven and elven war colleges to the lesser races, why don't we do away with alignment restrictions too?

Dwarves get DD because they are tough as all holy hell and train for decades underground in full plate to get that distinction.  It's perverse to think humans could ever do that.

But why not?  I think halflings are just as tough as dwarves, and elves are by far superior when it comes to being a dwarven defender.

I believe alignment restrictions were being opened on DD. And you elves with your pitiful -2 CON can't survive a gentle breeze

It's called House Rules.

Both classes will be renamed as well. Alignment restrictions may be adjusted.  It is being done to offer more variety, as their abilities can not be duplicated to other classes.  If you wish to RP they are still the restrictive classes they currently are, do so.

Yes, essentially it's us taking the class mechanics and altering the associated lore to let us use it more broadly, since we're highly limited in our ability to create fully functional combat-oriented prestige classes.

I don't want to start a fight or a flame on here...but if that is our idea for opening up PRCs and certain ones....then why don't we just open up all the PRCs for any racial type to use...so that way we will open up more of an ability to create a fully functional combat-oriented prestige classes.  We should open up Bladesinger....and Dwarven Battlerager...... Barbarians could really use Battlerager....however, I do not know what Vincent plans on doing with barbarian though.  However, this is just my opionion on the matter so don't take it as an attack just an observation...

DD and AA will be renamed and their descriptions changed to reflect these alterations.

I chose to leave Bladesinger as it is, as it is one of the classes we still lock due to IC restrictions.  Also, there is Eldritch Knight and Spellsword for the non-elves who want that type of class.

Battlerager is a good class, but in part I think that unlocking it would mean just about any barbarian would take it.  I would like to instead make Barbarian worth taking on its own.  It is also just a very dwarven thing.  I don't know, we'll see.

Part of the reason behind unlocking DD and AA is that they provide things that are not available anywhere else. (A good archer class, and a durable tanky class.)  As I mentioned before, due to the black boxing of combat related things, I can't just copy these toys over to a new class.

As to what Barbarian will be getting:  Likely Toughness for free, and longer duration on Rage.  Probably an extra attack and fear immunity while raging added at various levels.  Perhaps immunity to fear constantly at some point.  Still working out the details. Before anyone asks, I can't alter their DR without significant work and so will not do so.  I will likely be increasing the uses/day of Rage.

To be fair, German, Dwarven Defender is nothing that no one else can't do, especially when we have 90+ characters running around with higher con than the standard dwarves get (and DR too).

As for Arcane Archer, it's...also something that can be figured out and emulated well. Hell, there are several classes in DnD that give similar abilities to Arcane Archer already (Spellsword just of the top of my head).

As a note, Arcane Archer in Pathfinder is open to all races.

And it also features a class called Stalwart Defender which looks a little bit familiar . . .

www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/s-z/stalwart-defender

Arcane Archer probably doesn't need a rename - given it's what it does and doesn't have a reference to elves in it - but I presume Dwarven Defender will be renamed to its racial-neutral Pathfinder name of Stalwart Defender?

EDIT: Or I could not notice there's a second page and get ninja'd by Masque.

On another note is there any plans to generalise some of the very faction specific PRCs? I noticed the other day how many PRCs this server actually has it always felt a shame that very few of them are used.

You know, I've always wanted a Purple Dragon Knight/Red Wizard of Thay/Drow Judicator.

I think the idea is to disassociate it from very niche and specific fluff and allow a greater depth of ideas and combinations. I think some classes are so very very specific to that niche it would be impossible to do so such with Drow Judicator and Red Wizard (because circle magic is a thing only a few groups can do).

Purple Dragon Knight however perfectly fits the gist of what I am aiming at - the class itself does not make you a better Purple Dragon Knight. Being a Purple Dragon Knight is an RP construction that is not enabled by mechanical abilities. To put it another way the world would treat a Fighter or a Paladin Purple Dragon Knight the same way it would treat a Fighter that PRC'ed into Purple Dragon Knight (the class).

You could rename it to simply 'Knight' or 'Commander' and it would allow more types of builds and character concepts without taking away from those who want to play inspirational Purple Dragons.

That's probably not a bad suggestion, Masque.  It resolves a lot of the issues with people wanting to take levels in the class before being granted formal RP recognition, and there really aren't any powers in there that are or ought to be dependent on being in the organization in the way that you can't really learn Red Wizardy stuff without being, y'know, an actual Red Wizard or RW in training, for instance.

That would probably be the dividing line for what could be made generic and what can't.

Make sure you check people who have the tatoo focus feat without being a Red Wizard or Thayan. Those two things are requirements for the feat, though I believe I have seen two characters have it without meeting either requirement.

The feat as listed comes up as a general feat and makes no mention to the fact it is faction locked. That is not to say your incorrect it is just very easy to not be aware of it. Requiem for example has it and while I can attest to him being many things Red Wizard or Thayan are certainly not on that list. The reason for this being I was not aware it is specifically for the above mentioned people.

I'm not sure if it is in the feat's description on the server or not anymore.

(bump)

Would it be possible to get a status update on where the 2DA/HAK changes are for DD and AA?

Forgive the annoying fly buzzing constant inquiries - just excited to change up a melee build of mine.

These will be put in at the same time as the rest of the hak update, which will probably include Warlock and Swordmage. At the moment, the ETA for all that is "when it gets done".

As has always been server policy, when new content is added players who feel it is more suited to their characters than prior available options will be generally allowed to rebuild or remake.

That feeling when you see a thread posted up by yourself, and don't recall having posted it.  I almost panicked, until I wondered why a hacker would take over my account just to post a completely innocuous thread.  Perhaps they're lulling me into a false sense of security.