Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Willie the Duck 02-23-04, 09:44 PM	Okay, much of UA is inherently outside of any debate about balance (since things like gestalt classes and injury states instead of hp change the very fabric of the game). Many things, however, are not. What did everyone think about: 1) climatological and elemental racial variants. I found them relatively generic, but quite balanced. 2) bloodlines. While I would have a hard time giving them lower "LAs", they are somewhat underpowered compared to templates or ECL races. waiting til 20th level only to get dr 5/evil is hardly worht the 3 levels lost. The biggest problem is that the abilities are all over the place, instead of being cohesive to a certain build. Yes another skill bonus or spell like ability 1/day can't hurt, but it also can rarely help. 3)paragon classes. Suggestion to WotC: the same prestige class should not be made for both spellcasters and non-spellcasters. It is inherently unbalanced. 4) Variant classes. Okay. about 40% are very poor choices from a min/maxing standpoint. The balance of the battle sorcerer is going to be debated for a long time to come. I can't seem to find any downsides to the domain wizard. 5) Class feature variants. No balance problems that I see. whirling frenzy, for instance, isn't so uber as rage, but you don't get an AC penalty. 6) Character traits. 7) Flaws.
Banpai 02-23-04, 10:11 PM	Okay you asked for them now you get it: 1 I agree with you 2 Yes it seems so at first but if use with classes like sorcerer its much stronger ( no loss of the all important caster level) 3 I think that intentional so both Fighters and Casters give something up. I donīt really think they are unbalaced chause if you are going to allow one of them you will mostly allow all of them so every race gets their stuff. 4 I could not find a downside too. And the discussion about the Battle Sorcerer will definitely chause more debates. About the Cleric variant I have to say that it seems rather balanced until you take a cleric PrC and get the vleric BAB and better HD. And, the battel sorcerer really does not help do balace the sorcerer which is IMO still to weak/lacks real class abilities. 5 Agreed. 6 and 7 Definitly an interresting idea and its very likely that someone will create a 1001 new traits and flaws thread. My players (the play vampire too) love it (but i still have to covince them on Gestalts when I DM again)
Archtyrant Terevoth 02-24-04, 07:29 PM	Originally posted by Willie the Duck [B] 2) bloodlines. While I would have a hard time giving them lower "LAs", they are somewhat underpowered compared to templates or ECL races. waiting til 20th level only to get dr 5/evil is hardly worht the 3 levels lost. The biggest problem is that the abilities are all over the place, instead of being cohesive to a certain build. Yes another skill bonus or spell like ability 1/day can't hurt, but it also can rarely help. Most of the bloodlines were really weak IMO. I wouldn't seem any of them as being more than a +1 LA or +2 LA at most. The lesser bloodlines are not by any means worth even a single level. Okay. about 40% are very poor choices from a min/maxing standpoint. The balance of the battle sorcerer is going to be debated for a long time to come. I can't seem to find any downsides to the domain wizard. Yeah, I'm still trying to find the disadvantage to the domain wizard. He's the specialist who doesn't give up anything to specialize. The battle sorcerer I'm still uncertain on balance wise. No balance problems that I see. whirling frenzy, for instance, isn't so uber as rage, but you don't get an AC penalty. I think whirling frenzy is really unbalanced... give up the bonus to will saves and con for a bonus to reflex saves and a bonus (not a penalty) to AC. And as a kicker, he gets another attack on a full attack. The con bonus for standard rage wasn't even that great because it went away so quickly. The will save was good admittedly but I'd still take that AC bonus and extra attack over it. Battlewise, whirling frenzy seems to kick the crap out of rage. Your will saves are hurt somewhat, but no worse than a standard fighter, yet those bonuses make you way better than a normal fighter.