Planescraft (Planescape with Fantasy Craft)

[Brakk]

Hi Catodon,

it's good to see you back
We're meeting this Sunday so that will be an excellent opportunity to review your comments.

Thank you for the latest review

[Catodon]

Back but not for long. Going bush again this afternoon. No net for a few days from then 
Therefore my replies to responses will be a bit slow.
Back online late Sunday/Monday.

[Brakk]

Nethling
At some point he was an Ooze but then we remembered that is just our misinterpretation of his shape-shifting abilities. He's a Construct since he's built from a plane and the shapeshifter ability is clearly described in his racial abilities. Perhaps the Ooze type could be acquired through a Species feat?

Spellward
Yes, you can carry for a friend but cannot use. If you use or keep them as a Prize, you lose the benefits of this feat. We'll clarify that.

Legacy feats
We followed the format for Legacy feats already established in FC.

Arcane Loop
You may only cast a spell that you know but we'll look into this again.

Equilibrium
We have a high AD traffic on our sessions. The GM grants a lot of bonus ADs and we spend a lot. So it all depends on someone's style of playing. Regardless, we'll look into this one again.


Mechanoid Ally and Dead Ally.

Where the Type of the NPC is restricted (eg. Animal Partner) can you use these?
Yes, you can.

Do these feats add or replace the NPC’s original type?
They Add.

Do these feats add these templates in addition to the usual xp limit of the NPC.

Yes, they do.


Mind Gate
Breakdown is a physical manifestation of a psychological breakdown.
We'll note that. I don+'t think we ever described what it looks like other than that the surrounding NPCs all start wailing in pain, they get nose/ear bleeding, head buzzing/pain, feel sorry for being ever born, etc.

Thank you for the praise on Alignments as prerequisites. Everything you mentioned is exactly the reason I wrote so many feats for each Alignment. I aimed at 5 feats for each Alignment. We wanted to have 6 (or even 9!) but there's a limit at how much philosophical articles I can read or lectures I can listen to in a given timeframe Also, we wanted to add glimmerrat's (Mark Newman's) Planescape feats but he didn't give us the green light (yet)

Planar Call
You can summon just about any NPC as long as you meet the Reputation Cost prerequisite. I believe the spell had a saving throw in an earlier incarnation but I an glimmerrat agreed it should be removed since it's a 9th level spell, has a high reputation cost and God knows what will happen once the summoned NPC arrives

Rain of Fire
Yeah, everybody likes this spell  

Lens/scopes
Yeah, we shall note that. Thanks!

Sickle of light
I believe these items are from the Warriors of Heaven. I'll have to double-check them.

Chocolates
They can come in all flavors and shapes

Organizations
Yes, we will mention that.

Thanks again for your very insightful comments.

[Catodon]

glad to be useful. More to come soon.

[Catodon]

Hi, personal computer in for service, work is busy etc. Expect more from me next week.

[Catodon]

Ring givers
Possible archetype
Ascetic: I am without material’s bonds. All I had I have given away. All my gifts now are actions.
The Society of Sensation
Possible archetype:
The Traveler: everyday another hill, another plane, with each new place I am closer to having seen it all.

Rogue templates.
If you go with removing species like Aasimar, Tiefling, and Genasi in favor of just using the species feats from the core book. The rogue templates for these spp. might need looking at again or removed as superfluous.

A useful addition might be to add a heading ‘Native Planes’ to the creature descriptions. Those new to Planescape might not event know where an aurumvorax comes from. Sure many creatures have this information included in their descriptions but making it a consistent heading within the entries ensures that old hands don’t miss providing this information for those new to planescape.

I don’t have a lot of experience with building npc’s so my ability to spot issues is pretty limited here.

Shadow Mastiff: an old favorite, a long time ago a gnome of mine barely survived…(insert reminiscence). Anyway lots of AD&D favorites here making this a great resource for old timers like me even if they don’t want to use the Planescape setting. Might be worth telling people this.

An aside: have you seen the Psychic specialty on the database? This marries well with how psionics was handled in Planescape, esp the early books (i.e. psioncs represented with spell-like powers).

P165

[Brakk]

New archetypes sound great.
Native Plane entry is a must, especially when paired with a random encounter table (another must-have).

I'll post the Foe XP table in another thread. That should inform others about converted monsters.

I haven't seen the Psychic specialty in the database. I'll definitively check it out since I'm playing the psychic currently using the Psychic's Handbook. It's a great d20 add-on: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10300.phtml

Thanks for the latest review!

[Catodon]

Had a quick look at the review. While the speciality does a good job of emulting the early 2e AD&D relases' approach of pretty much ignoring psi, from the review the book looks like its taking a similar approach to the skill based 2e Psionic's Handbook. Both approaches were used in the original Planescape books.

Anyway more from me in a week or so.

[Catodon]

ok so its been a bit longer than a week 

p167 What you were beaten up by a pech?
No, not a Halfling a PECH.

Random thought: Githyanki and Githzerai are descended from humans, could they be represented by a species feat for humans? Yes, difference counts for more than any in-story line of dscent but it might be worth a look.

Hmmm, nethlings: I’m still not 100% convinced about the construct type, don’t they bud off the demiplane like amoeba? The Ooze type abilities would only apply while the nethling is willing to give up its disguise. I would also given them the second type Outsider.
When considering Type you might also consider how the special abilities of other characters (turning, favoured foes, killing blow etc.) interact. A character with Favoured foe oozes or outsiders might expect her ability to repel a nethling…

Belief is Power: this is great, the influence of the planes can be reaaly felt with this. Also fits with ideas of planar energies being another way to give rise to Asimar, tieflings etc without any cross-species breeding.

Subjective Direction: A few paragraphs discussing how this works and various affects would be very useful. For example: clueless tend to panic and fall in a random direction, those close to the ‘ground’ of a djinn palace might have trouble convincing themselves that towards the ‘ground’ is not down and so fall to the pavement, experienced cutters can choose the direction of down to fly about etc.


P243

[Brakk]

ok so its been a bit longer than a week  

It's OK, we're not rushing things here

p167 What you were beaten up by a pech?
No, not a Halfling a PECH.

We're all pech!  

We could treat them as a pech subspecies, what do you think?

Random thought: Githyanki and Githzerai are descended from humans, could they be represented by a species feat for humans? Yes, difference counts for more than any in-story line of dscent but it might be worth a look.

I'll have to scour the official books for any info on this. I vaguely remember there was none, but maybe I missed it somewhere. For starters, I know that the githyanki lay eggs. We can always group them together with alternative versions of aasimars and tieflings (something we talked about earlier).

Hmmm, nethlings: I’m still not 100% convinced about the construct type, don’t they bud off the demiplane like amoeba? The Ooze type abilities would only apply while the nethling is willing to give up its disguise. I would also given them the second type Outsider.
When considering Type you might also consider how the special abilities of other characters (turning, favoured foes, killing blow etc.) interact. A character with Favoured foe oozes or outsiders might expect her ability to repel a nethling…

Yes, they should get the Outsider type. I'll also see how we can replace the Construct type with the Ooze type. Their feats should be double-checked as well.

You're pretty close to finishing the review. I'll wrap up the 1st playtest version after you're done

[Catodon]

From the first edition AD&D Fiend Folio Githyanki entry:
"Millenia ago the mind flayers (see ADVANCED DUNGEONS &
DRAGONS MONSTER MANUAL - Mind flayer) conquered a race
of evil humans and bound them to service, usually employing them as
slaves but from time to time selecting particularly choice victims for
food. The humans harboured deep resentment for centuries but could
not summon up sufficient strength to free themselves from..."

I is old school.

[Brakk]

I was thinking of any info on giths being treated/considered the same as human. Can they even have offspring with humans?

P.S. I'm old school too, lots of monsters in the Foes chapter appeared only in 1e

[Catodon]

Can't think of any reference to inter-fertility in 1e or 2e but by 3e everybody is doing it and having kids with everybody else so what the hell. (Make the biologist in me cringe).

[MilitiaJim]

Can't think of any reference to inter-fertility in 1e or 2e but by 3e everybody is doing it and having kids with everybody else so what the hell. (Make the biologist in me cringe).

Relax:  A Wizard Did It.

(Or the folks who really wanted to have kids took a gander at the notebook of the guy who made the owlbear.  We just aren't getting into the "reasonable" explanation for centaurs.)

[Catodon]

Last post from the read through.

P243
The list of known layers of the Abyss is great: nice to help referee’s in keeping somewhat to canon and a read through sparks many ideas for adventures.

The prime material plane has the following traits entry:
“Traits: Prime Material Plane”
This makes perfect sense to planescape fans but for a general gamer audience has the potential to cause confusion. I’d alter this to :
“Traits: Nil. The prime material plane contains ‘ordinary’ mortal worlds typical of most fantasy settings”

P272: “Twig: To take a liking to, as in, “One
particular deva twigged to the idea of interfering with
the Blood War.”
I’m very certain this definition is wrong. Trust me "twigged" is not fantasy slang for me but part of my living vocabulary. Planescape slang is based on 18th century English slang* some of which has survived and is still used by English people like myself. To twig is to realize or suddenly understand. “Then he twigged what the berk was up to” Then he sudden realized what the fellow was actually planning. In your example: “One particular deva twigged to the idea of interfering with the Blood War.”
Means: " one particular deva realised the implications/potential of interfering with the Blood War"
*See “The Vulgar Tongue” by Francis Grose.

Thank you for an enjoying read I look forward to seeing more Planescraft materials.