Post by reaperwolf on Jan 7, 2015 0:49:43 GMT -5
My copy of Magi Carta arrived on my birthday, lovely!
Enjoying it very much especially the staff, grimoire, and spell stone rules.
Anyways, while reading the Familiar rules I noticed the Toad grants the equivalent to 2 AV without any penalties. That's equivalent to wearing leather armor without any penalties.
Huh? I couldn't believe my eyes.
All the other familiars grant a modest bonus to a skill or a reaction, which is far more limited to a flat 2 AV. Based upon my knowledge of D&D 3.X era familiars, which was obviously the template for the HOW familiar rules based upon the language and some odd references to skills that don't exist (spot and listen for example) the toad gives the master the Toughness feat, which in later 3.5 and Pathfinder era games a +3 to hit points up to level 3 then +1 hp per level thereafter. Naturally this bonus is pretty hefty at the low levels but as the caster climbs in levels this bonus really isn't all that significant (+20 hp by 20th level).
So the 2 AV is actually very powerful and it's always on. The caster basically acquires natural armor equivalent to leather armor without DX penalties to consider.
Harsh! I can imagine a lot of casters are gonna have toads.
So what are the options? Well, you could just grant an extra EN or two but that means the caster has an extra spell point or two to power magic, not something the toad originally granted. Another option is to grant a point or two of ST but that's even more impactful (damage, resistances, ENC, etc.) again not satisfying. One option that comes to mind is granting AV 1 so long as the caster has NO OTHER AV from any other source, magical, shield, armor, item, etc. That seems better balanced because the AV only comes up if the caster is unarmored and otherwise unprotected. Seems a better balance.
Enjoying it very much especially the staff, grimoire, and spell stone rules.
Anyways, while reading the Familiar rules I noticed the Toad grants the equivalent to 2 AV without any penalties. That's equivalent to wearing leather armor without any penalties.
Huh? I couldn't believe my eyes.
All the other familiars grant a modest bonus to a skill or a reaction, which is far more limited to a flat 2 AV. Based upon my knowledge of D&D 3.X era familiars, which was obviously the template for the HOW familiar rules based upon the language and some odd references to skills that don't exist (spot and listen for example) the toad gives the master the Toughness feat, which in later 3.5 and Pathfinder era games a +3 to hit points up to level 3 then +1 hp per level thereafter. Naturally this bonus is pretty hefty at the low levels but as the caster climbs in levels this bonus really isn't all that significant (+20 hp by 20th level).
So the 2 AV is actually very powerful and it's always on. The caster basically acquires natural armor equivalent to leather armor without DX penalties to consider.
Harsh! I can imagine a lot of casters are gonna have toads.
So what are the options? Well, you could just grant an extra EN or two but that means the caster has an extra spell point or two to power magic, not something the toad originally granted. Another option is to grant a point or two of ST but that's even more impactful (damage, resistances, ENC, etc.) again not satisfying. One option that comes to mind is granting AV 1 so long as the caster has NO OTHER AV from any other source, magical, shield, armor, item, etc. That seems better balanced because the AV only comes up if the caster is unarmored and otherwise unprotected. Seems a better balance.