Status Update, May 26

Well, I'm back from my two weeks business trip and I'm finally getting over the cold from this past week. I've got a LOT of notes to type up from the trip but I haven't had a chance yet. Once I get 1.37 knocked out for NWN2 I'll be spending some downtime writing up all the notes.

I'm slowly working out the concept for the first of the player's companions but I'm torn between a Dryad light melee and a human vampire 'anti-hero' archtype.

Here are the inspiring artworks (done by StandAlone-Complex of Deviant Art):

Upcoming core system topics

There are a number of topics I'll need to flesh out from my notes before I can post these but here is the expected list of core systems:

Armor types
Bonus types (Item, Class, etc)
Class Focus (one for each)
Combat and Defense
Combat Conditions
Creatures
Feats and Talents
Item Crafting
Leveling up
Skills
Weapon types

The core systems are drawn from a number of sources (3.5e, 4.0e, Guild Wars, Warcraft, and the Witcher to name but a few) and focused around a key idea that every level should be fun and relevant to the gaming process. Having crafting skills/feat weaken your ability to fight or even interact with the world doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'd like to try getting away from that while making each class fun, balanced, and worth playing. That's goal #1.

Most levels in 3.5e are chaff and only serve as achievements on the way to the next uber set of spells, feats, or skill thresholds. 4.0e, Guild Wars, Warcraft, and the Witcher all focused on making each level provide new or improved capabilities to existing abilities. Nothing ever becomes worthless and abilities improve with time.

Core System: Races

The following races represent the core races and subraces of Tierdrial. While other races are known to exist (such as the Cerulean elves), these are the only ones that tend to become adventurers. Their primary stats are listed in ( ) and each stat receives a +2 bonus at level 1. While some of these attribute sets may seem excessively strong in D&D, in this new system they provide variety for the various defenses and attacks that classes have available to them. This will be covered more in the upcoming Core System: Combat and Defense post.

Dwarf, Mountain (Con, Wis )
Dwarf, Deep (Con, Str)

Elf, Dusk (Con, Int)
Elf, Moon (Int, Wis)
Elf, Sun (Dex, Wis)
Elf, Wild (Dex, Str)

Genasi, Air (Con, Dex)
Genasi, Earth (Str, Wis)
Genasi, Fire (Int, Str)
Genasi, Water (Dex, Int)

Halfling (Cha, Dex)

Human (one stat, 5 subraces)
Human, Divine (Cha, Wis)
Human, Half-Elf (Cha, Con)
Human, Infernal (Cha, Int)

Reptilian, Skarrak (Cha, Str)

Core System: Classes Redux

While I was breaking out the class abilities it hit me: I was trying to plan for 40 separate classes (10 base, 30 specializations) and make them all balanced and fun. Occam's Razor: The simplest solution is often the most correct.

I'm going to keep it at 10 base classes (cutting the Adept since unarmed should just be a weapon like any other and adding one for general creature use) and allow each base class access to all the tools I had planned for the specializations. This will mean that two level 10 Champions can be *quite* different since each could focus on different aspects of their class to excel in.

The final base class list will be: Bard, Champion, Creature (non-player), Druid, Elementalist, Priest, Ranger, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard.

An example with the Warrior base class:
At each level you choose from a variety of martial strikes, offensive stances, warcries, teamwork bonuses, and weapon expertise talents. You could focus on the path of a weapon master and improve drastically with a single weapon class (swords, axes, maces, etc), specialize in teamwork bonuses and team fighting abilities, or spread the talents around to where you are skilled in teamwork abilities and weapon talents without being a focused expert.

I'll likely keep the "titles" of the specializations as a way to reward specialists or perhaps just as an achievement.

Core System: Classes

The premise for the new class system is that there are ten core choices and each provides a different style of gameplay. For each of these classes there will be a few specialization choices to further customize your character. Each ability a class has will scale with their class level. This will allow multi-class characters a broad range of gameplay styles and abilities while those that choose to focus on a class become specialized experts at their craft.

The following is the basic list of classes (and specializations) that I have so far.

Champion (Crusader, Marshal, Defender)
Elementalist (Ash, Mist, Shadow)
Mage (Summoner, Necromancer, Artificer)
Ranger (Blade Dancer, Hunter, Beastmaster)
Warrior (Weapon Master, Soldier, Barbarian)
Priest (Healer, Cleric, Avenger)
Rogue (Trapsmith, Assassin, Infiltrator)
Bard (Lyrist, Songblade, Hexer)
Druid (Shifter, Warden, Shaman)
Adept (Arcane, Divine, Martial)