First Impressions/First Character

[Kaptn_Lath]

What I'm hearing on this spell slot thing is "I want the spells known number to progress smoothly through a character's lifespan rather than be front-loaded like it currently appears".

If what I'm hearing is actually what you're trying to say...

then the easy answer is to cut the initial number in half (or in thirds, or quarters) and keep half (or two-thirds, or three-quarters) of the slots open in a reserve state, to be filled as the caster character sees fit. Adding Spellcasting ranks and/or points of Wisdom continues to increase the number of reserved known-spell slots you've got as normal, you just don't have to fill them right away.

How to fill them then becomes a campaign-specific house rule (and the rules as written don't preclude such house rulings). Can they only be assigned when a character levels? When he steals captures another Mage's spellbook/library/scrollcase/brain lobe/flesh? Only after investing time studying (and maybe some money, too)? Only by advancing along a Mage's Guild renown track? That's for your campaign world to decide.

Or... are you trying to say something else?  

works well enough for me, that is what I am trying to say, I didn't realizes I was failing so hard to say that. Tho I do still want to come up with something more concrete than that. But thats just me.

[Kaptn_Lath]

New question, Feathermaw (Drakes name, his preferred food is birds, namely pigeons, I took truescale-urban racial feat instead of Casting basics, also took birds as one of my interests) and truescale upgraded my breath weapon to fire (AP4) what does AP4 mean? Armor Piercing negating 4 points of damage reduction? or just negates 4 points of fire resistance? One of the racial feats I looked at was Greater Breath and one of the options was to change the breathweapon to a 15ft sphere, so a ball 15ft wide centered on a location of my choosing? Centered around me like a burst or wave? I dont understand. I have two proficiencies, if i put the both into unarmed does the +1 to hit apply to my claw and bite attack? If I dont put one point into unarmed does that mean I am not proficient with my bite and claw?

[Krensky]

New question, Feathermaw (Drakes name, his preferred food is birds, namely pigeons, I took truescale-urban racial feat instead of Casting basics, also took birds as one of my interests) and truescale upgraded my breath weapon to fire (AP4) what does AP4 mean? Armor Piercing negating 4 points of damage reduction? or just negates 4 points of fire resistance? One of the racial feats I looked at was Greater Breath and one of the options was to change the breathweapon to a 15ft sphere, so a ball 15ft wide centered on a location of my choosing? Centered around me like a burst or wave? I dont understand. I have two proficiencies, if i put the both into unarmed does the +1 to hit apply to my claw and bite attack? If I dont put one point into unarmed does that mean I am not proficient with my bite and claw?

So many questions.

AP4 means Armor Piercing 4, so it ignore 4 points of DR. It is still effected fully by Fire Resistance though.

Centered on you if I recall correctly.

Yes and yes.

[Mister Andersen]

New question, Feathermaw (Drakes name, his preferred food is birds, namely pigeons, I took truescale-urban racial feat instead of Casting basics, also took birds as one of my interests) and truescale upgraded my breath weapon to fire (AP4) what does AP4 mean? Armor Piercing negating 4 points of damage reduction? or just negates 4 points of fire resistance?

Both.

One of the racial feats I looked at was Greater Breath and one of the options was to change the breathweapon to a 15ft sphere, so a ball 15ft wide centered on a location of my choosing? Centered around me like a burst or wave? I dont understand.

It's not clear, but my working theory has been that it's a sphere whose perimiter has to be touching the edge of yours where your mouth is. So for simplicity's sake, picture a 3sq x 3sq x 3sq cube of affected area touching the narrow end of a 2sq x 3sq x 2sq space on a battle mat (1 sq = 5 ft). Very, useful when attacking/defending in a standard corridor or dealing with foes of varying sizes.

I have two proficiencies, if i put the both into unarmed does the +1 to hit apply to my claw and bite attack? If I dont put one point into unarmed does that mean I am not proficient with my bite and claw?

Yes to both.

[Krensky]

New question, Feathermaw (Drakes name, his preferred food is birds, namely pigeons, I took truescale-urban racial feat instead of Casting basics, also took birds as one of my interests) and truescale upgraded my breath weapon to fire (AP4) what does AP4 mean? Armor Piercing negating 4 points of damage reduction? or just negates 4 points of fire resistance?

Both.

Armor Piercing only effects DR, not Resistances.

And a 15 foot sphere is six squares across.

[Mister Andersen]

I can't find nything in the book saying that it doesn't affect resistances, and the volume of space affected by a 30 ft diameter sphere (72 sq!) seems rather excessive compared to the 8 sq of the line or 16 sq of the cone or ~ 21 sq of a 15 ft diameter sphere

[Antilles]

Armor-Piercing (AP): The weapon’s attacks ignore the
listed Damage Reduction. When a weapon and its ammunition
both have this quality, their AP values are combined.

This combined with the fact that in the Advanced Damage section only Damage Reduction mentions Armor-Piercing reads to me that AP only affects DR.

[Morgenstern]

Because of the 5/10 rule, a sphere is anything within that distance of the origin square. For a 15 ft. sphere the pattern will be~

□□□□□□□□□□
□□□FFF□□□□
□□FFFFF□□□
□FFFFFFF□□
□FFF●FFF□□
□FFFFFFF□□
□□FFFFF□□□
□□□FFF□□□□
□□□□□□□□□□

Drop the dot in any square you occupy (drakes being 2x3) and start the barbeque .

The Armor Piercing 4 benefit only reduces Damage Reduction (DR). Damage Resistance is pretty serious stuff.

To understand the front loaded spell list thing, the system was designed so that a mage could sketch out the whole style of magic he wanted to be a part of Day 1, then grow into that style, filling it out a little bit as needed and as he grows. That's also why the core ability hands you a pile of 0 level spells - so you can't possibly completely block yourself by picking nothing but higher level spells - you always have a few 0 levels to work with if you start out as a Mage.

How I envisioned that working was you could say "I'm gonna be a pyromancer!" then pick a spread of fire spells from 0 to 9th level right up front. Then as you leveled up, the extras you get from adding Spellcasting ranks would let you tune that vision as the story and your experiences dictate. Unfortunately it's a model that takes a very comprehensive knowelge of the spell library to really employ to the fullest, so the option of holding some of those choices in reserve has become quite common (and sanity saving).

Hope you find your character to your liking. Some of the nuaces will only become appearant after you've fiddled with it a bit. Your Drake Mage 2.0 will be a more formidible beast, I  promise .

[Mister Andersen]

So you're within the ara of effect of your own breathweapon? That doesn't make sense at all.

[Morgenstern]

So you're within the ara of effect of your own breathweapon? That doesn't make sense at all.

It covers a lot of cloud-like effects (say, acid and sphere-shaped) so yes, you are within it.

[Mister Andersen]

So given that you generally aren't immune to the effects of your own breath weapon, why would anyone ever choose the option that inescapably immerses them in its AOE?

[Nova]

Thats what I thought, seems odd that the system is BASED on taking spells before you can cast them.

Its actually not that bad. Most mages in most settings already have a damn good idea what they'll be casting in a few levels, they just, TECHNICALLY, don't have the spell yet. They still get the damn things for free from levelling, as well as whatever caster books they come across (unless you're playing hackmaster and your book's stone tablets and everyone you come across uses fortune-telling stick bags to remember theirs).

In this case, you start with, say, your teacher's old book. He's got a way better, more compact travelling one with like twice as many spells in there, and he's got like six other copies of this one anyways, so hey, why not. You know the spells, you've seen the spells, you understand the spells (as this is not a vancian system), you just don't have the power to get them going.

Since you'll not get quite as many new spells later (in fact, a 20th level FC mage will on average know less total spells than a 20th level 3.0 sorcerer. not 3.5 or PF, no no, the old one. nowhere near as many there), you still need to pick out a lot, and, for the most part, ones that you can use.  You're a lot weaker than any other d20 full caster types, but you're also full of skills and the metamagic feats are cool but not absolutely required. You can even 'gish' out however you like; its more a 'sliding scale' as opposed to "Full caster levels or useless junk".

[Morgenstern]

So given that you generally aren't immune to the effects of your own breath weapon, why would anyone ever choose the option that inescapably immerses them in its AOE?

Because you are immune to the effects of your own breath weapon? Or maybe in the process of waving your head around you fill the volume with death without hitting yourself. *shrug*

...I don't think I've ever heard of a GM melting the face off his own Green Dragon because it exhaled a cloud of chlorine gas?

[paddyfool]

@OP,

works well enough for me, that is what I am trying to say, I didn't realizes I was failing so hard to say that. Tho I do still want to come up with something more concrete than that. But thats just me.

I understood the whole purpose of starting off with a high proportion of your spells knownbeing meant to emphasize that a spellcaster's initial training might largely shape what they could eventually master.  But if you want them to develop their knowledge more progressively, I'd suggest something like this campaign quality, to keep Wis in the game for balance purposes etc.:

Progressive lore mastery (permanent)
Mages* do not add their Wis score to their spells known, but instead add their caster level to spells known**.  However, they may never learn spells of a level greater than their Wis score - 9***.

*A more generic term would be better.

** So knowing less spells at level 1, but a similar amount by level 20 (if they take classes that advance their caster level).  Possibly a tad harsh...

***Which means they would need a Wis of 9 for level 0 spells, and 18 for level 9 spells.  Also restricts (but does not prevent) the ability to learn spells before they may be cast.

[Foghorn]

I wouldn't worry about that final bit requiring a high Wisdom for high-level spells. Since you need to hit a DC with your Int-based Spellcasting check, a high mental stat already helps with those high-level spells