1. Contradictions in source material. Not only history which can be subjective but mechanics. Halfling Preservers and Clerical spheres come to mind.
2. Paraelemental priests/planes. Hated them, could quite happily retcon them away.
3. Gladiator class. Should have been a profession, not a class. Also mechanically it was overpowered (why be a fighter).
4. Balence issues. Don't expect everything to be perfect but back in the 90's I recall alot of Half Giant and Mul gladiators. No one liked Kreen though even though they were powerful as well. Templars and Druids seemed plain out better than Clerics as well.
5. Dwarven focus. Fine as a background thing for the race, not very good as a mechanic.
6. "TSRitus". Essentially the Prism Pentad. Athas wasn't the only world to suffer from this and it seemed to be a cliche in TSR worlds. FR had the Avatar Crsis, Krynn had the 2nd cataclysm, Planescape had the Orcus thing, Grewhawk had the Grewhawk Wars etc.
Oh yeah, RAFOADK was **** weak, and sucked yeti nutts
Psionics - way overpowered at low levels. Rest was all good (just about)
Oh yeah, RAFOADK was **** weak, and sucked yeti nutts
While not the most accurate book I thought RaFoaDK was one of the best DS books. No real WSE (World shaking event) in it.
Psionics has more or less sucked in all editions mechanically. 3.5 was about the only one that got it right but it was essentially a magic varient.
While not the most accurate book I thought RaFoaDK was one of the best DS books. No real WSE (World shaking event) in it.
Psionics has more or less sucked in all editions mechanically. 3.5 was about the only one that got it right but it was essentially a magic varient.
Have to disagree about the book ;) I think Psionics in 3.5 were OK - the only good thing about 2e psionics was the psionic combat system, powers were whack, but in 3.5 all Psionics really was was another magic system without much effort to make it unique, hence it didn't really appeal, but i gotta admit astral constructs and customising them was good
OK 3.5 was the only Psionics that made any sense mechanically and were more or less balenced (compard to magic anyway).
So yeah, balance is good, but not at the expense of flavour :P
Yeah, that's what also ****** me off about 3.5 - the obsession with Balance. For flaming out loud, Defilers are SUPPOSED to be more powerful than Preservers, that's why they are awesome baddies! and, on the odd occasion in 2e when i had pc's play Defilers, they learnt the awesome power of team-work when the veiled alliance teamed up on them.
So yeah, balance is good, but not at the expense of flavour :P
You'll love 4th ed then:P
I don't some things being slightly unbalenced but spellcasters were a bit much after level 11 or so in 3.5. Defilers were a bit much in 2nd ed. You can have both with Defilers being a wizard varient with minor bonuses/disadvantages and ban some of the more retarded wizard spells for example (along with some divine spells/abilities). Theres something wrong when 5 8th level PCs come across a 10th level defiler and only 2 of them walk away as happened in our 3.5 group. Go metamgiced fireballs/scorching rays, and enervate. That was achieved using the "fair" spells. High level/epic PCs dreaded the initiative roll more than anything else as lost initiative often meant you didn't get your turn, not counting timestop cheese.
2. Paraelemental priests/planes. Hated them, could quite happily retcon them away.
I have to agree with this one. I do not like the paraelemental priests. Instead of removing them completely, I just have them be cults that have strayed from the path of regular elements. So Silt priests are really earth priests gone mad.
I think I probably did not remove them completely because I like the paraelemental krags.
One of the big things that bothered me was the inconsistencies of travel time, by the map it takes X days, by the adventures it took Y days. My GM and I got into some legendary arguments about that when PC’s started dieing of thrust on the way to Urik.
...when PC’s started dieing of thrust on the way to Urik.
Death by thrust? Sounds pretty hardcore. And kinky... ;)
When I first read about it, I absolutely hated the revelation about the halflings being the original race and almost all the other races being mutations of them. All these years later, I'm still not overly fond of it.
Oh, and killing off Borys was also a very bad move, imho. Dregoth is cool and all, but Borys was da man.
Which leads me onto my third point. Borys? Stupidest. Name. Evar. For a super-cool setting, DS had some really ridiculous names. Apart from Borys, I recall a templar called Mogadisho as being another particularly odious offender...
Death by thrust? Sounds pretty hardcore. And kinky... ;)
When I first read about it, I absolutely hated the revelation about the halflings being the original race and almost all the other races being mutations of them. All these years later, I'm still not overly fond of it.
Oh, and killing off Borys was also a very bad move, imho. Dregoth is cool and all, but Borys was da man.
Which leads me onto my third point. Borys? Stupidest. Name. Evar. For a super-cool setting, DS had some really ridiculous names. Apart from Borys, I recall a templar called Mogadisho as being another particularly odious offender...
Is Borys pronounced Boris? My PCs laughed when they found that out. I actually didn't mind the Halfong being the original race twist. makes a change form the creator races/gods/uber elves stuff common to fantasy.
I didn't mind them killing Boyrs off so much more the way it was done. heres our kewl new setting and 2 years later half the SK'k and The Dragon were dead. I think I'll add Dragon Kings book to the lit of stupid stuff.
I was annoyed at all of Mind Lords of the Last Sea and the whole Halfling Life-shaper thing. I'm just glad they pulled the plug before they developed the whole Lafe-shaper Halfling UFO Invasion metaplot that was rumored to be in the works.
Mind Lord seemed a bit random to me. Fun idea but a bit incongruous. On the other hand, it did have the squark, which is the coolest monster in any setting anywhere.
The "space halflings" thing is a rumour that has been wildly overblown with time. It originally was just meant to be three ancient rhulisti - two nature-masters and a nature-bender - returned to Athas in the Messenger. They would spark some plotlines and help introduce the lifeshaped into the setting. Over time it got exaggerated into an invasion, but was actually going to be something much more low-key. It was also kinda foreshadowed in (iirc) Book Three of the Prism Pentad, where the heroes find some rhulisti in suspended animation (at Cleft Rock, I think...)
I did like Borys' name though, because it was a turnover of such a startingly mundane name, used in such an exotic context. Because of this, all tough men named Boris seem a bit ominous to me now ;)
When I first read about it, I absolutely hated the revelation about the halflings being the original race and almost all the other races being mutations of them.
yeah...not much of a Halfling fan, but I always thought it was a Tolkien kinda legacy thing...IMHO
Some of the add ons were good, "Dune Trader" being a fave
But the way the novels drove the setting, smashed it all up.,.which should be left only to PCs, or WTH is the point of being a player, hm?
Player charcaters should be the only ones to cause such mayhem ;)
SKs are *gods* on Athas, simple as that: mysterious, uber powerful, and beyond mere mortals.
Avagnoins/dragons should be out of reach of players because it's inherently not good for play, and if you do allow it, lvl 30 only.
Sks and dragons etc, are waaaaay out of the league of "people", so keep it that way.
Explaining the back story of Athas torpedoed it, and also made no damned sense (woo, halfling space ships, woooo! :p)
Ever read the "Clark Ashton Smith" short stories? Awesome, weird, mad stuff, "Zothique" is kind of like how I see Dark Sun: you are not supposed to understand it, it just IS, it's weird and harsh and you have got to try and survive there.
Templars should be clerics of the SKs, simple as that, they NEVER needed ot be a seperate class. Their beauracratic functions sho how power given to you by others, and personal power, are not the same thing at all. Very important!
The High Templar can be a 5th level combat-useless braniac who can pull strings, knows the ins and outs backwards, or have unique powers or charisma out the ass.
Thus, the legal powers templars have, should be divorced from their class levels completely, it's even noted several times in the original works, but foolishly, the game rules have class level and legal powers linked
Half-giants should have just had Str/Con bonuses and outsized weapon damage (which alas was not properly done until 3.5 ed). The double hit dice was waaaay out of line.
However, in my games, folk were loathed ot play them as psionic domination would soon make "Mongo the half giant" a liability, hehe ;)
in 4th ed they should be Large, half-giants are NOT Medium sized, jeesh :D
Give them high Str and Con (maybe +6 or +4), but unlike most of 4th ed, give them a penalty, either a -1 ECL or to Wis/Int.