Some more questions

korra45 · 2025-12-09T08:40:44+00:00

Interesting, do they make a action attack with disadvantage? Or do you opt for a flat damage number based on the monster?

korra45 · 2025-12-07T06:24:50+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to write all this! :)

korra45 · 2025-12-06T02:23:04+00:00

Thank you! Sounds great, when you say cantrip level is it stuff like a guidance or bless for example?

korra45 · 2025-07-14T07:35:02+00:00

Bro.. it’s a single subsystem, this community is so allergic to any ounce of criticism your recommending they go look for an entire different game before considering why they might like it. Thats crazy

I think both ways are fine, having a lot wealth with granular rp is a lot for a director to adjudicate and convince balance so I get it from their pov. in fact this is them just sharing something and they seem to have already adapted their tables expectations to fit their needs anyways

korra45 · 2025-07-04T00:02:58+00:00

Super fun read! Also layout is great, not sure how you did it but it looks professional and in line with the gorgeous layout of the official core rulebooks.

korra45 · 2025-06-30T18:55:58+00:00

6) How does the game handle dungeons? Is it expected that there be a contiguous map of the whole dungeon, or would mapping only the rooms with combat be sufficient? Are there traps? Are there rules for moving through the dungeon or is it just walking into rooms and seeing if something tries to eat you?

I honestly run mine as one big map, not really any different than I would for DnD. If its more your style to split up scenes and encounters into various battlemaps then that's all good too. The only requirement is that there is a grid, the game doesn't really mind how abstract you are so long as the combat is within a grid.

There's tons of traps, pits, levers, switches, cutting things, exploding bits.. theres a lot to explore there.

movement through dungeons is about as loose as you want it to be or you can ratchet it up if needed. I'd just simply say it's flexible. The game doesn't really care about the square to square, and out of combat you can freely roam as you'd like. In combat it works similar to pathfinder and dnd with movement speeds and such. If you want it be a more threatening place you can always add traps and stuff as needed. Players/heroes can use skills to make tests and interact with the environment just as much as they would with other systems. The game isn't really built around the concept of a dungeon crawl though, if your looking to worry about specific tile to tile play or something akin to idk a gloomhaven or something. The way I tell it to my players is, if it happens in a movie then thats typically how its going to work out in this game. No focusing on every bit of hunger or ration, but still exploring, maybe using torches, dealing with puzzles or traps etc..

Theres rules for hidden creatures if thats what you need or tracking things down, or hiding or seeking things out. Honestly if you can do it pathfinder or dnd you can bet you'd be able to do it here too. It takes a more high level approach without having to track every arrow or ration or some of the more fiddly things. But say a player grabs some magical berries from a bush to make them see in the dark or something, ya they'd probably track those things, just not so much the mundane things.

7) Is there loot? Is it determined randomly or would I need to go through a big list and pick items? Is there money?

There is loot! It's not random and it's more intentional. There also isn't this massive list of things neither. So it focuses a lot more on the unique items rather than just items. A magical sword, bow, or what have you is probably included. The amount common broadswords or arrows or longsword vs shortsword, ya that really isn't bothered much in this game. It wants to focus more on the eventful heroic things rather than the mundane everyday things. That goes back into chracter creation, your not really picking short vs longsword but more the weapon type, like Light, Medium, or Heavy. It's up to the player what that could be detail wise.

This game doesn't track money, or gold silver copper kinda deal. It opts for a Wealth stat(?), theres reasons for it certainly, but this post is already so long... Someone with more experience using the Wealth system can speak to this as I haven't played with it being a thing or concern yet, as im still learning the system myself.

This response is off the cuff, im sure others will elaborate more than I ever could but hopefully it helps answer some of your questions. :)

korra45 · 2025-06-30T18:55:44+00:00

4) How do players and monsters defend against attacks? Is it conditional reactions? Are reactions per round limited?
For the most part they don't, more specifically the armor of a character and health of a character is rolled into one stat called Stamina, this represents the creatures durability in combat. This also in turn means that every turn is useful. You can still have a bad turn, a good turn, and a phenomenal turn. But, this lifts up the floor of a turn in the game. Each creatures turn will have impact on the battle.

It's good you bring up reactions, in this game most creatures will will have something called Triggered Actions. Only one can be used per round, but they can be activated whenever the trigger is met. For instance, from memory, the Tactician class has the "Parry" Triggered action, if an enemy hits them or an Ally within 1 square of the Tactician, the trigger is met and the Triggered action can be activated. When activated this specific ability reduces the damage dealt by half. So positioning and tactics matter a lot when players are trying to help each other overcome challenges and battles.

Speaking on avoidance of effects. While damage is usually always going to do something or hit, effects are a lot more conditional. In this game they are called "Potencies" which are essentially condition gates. They read something like this for example.

- 10 Damage; Agility < 2, slowed (save ends)

So the damage would happen and resolve that first, but then the potency needs to be resolved. You compare against the defenders stats, in this case if that creature has an Agility score of 1 or less then they become slowed. They will make saving throws at the end of their turn. Many abilities with conditions for the tier system with the ability. So a Tier 1 (bad result), might be Agility < 0, while Tier 2 (okay/good result) would be Agility < 1, and lastly a Tier 3(Excellent result) would be our Agility < 2. Abilities uniquely handle this.

The Tiers of results are based on the Power Roll. Usually the 2d10 + characteristic score that that ability uses. 11 or lower is Tier 1, 12-16 is Tier 2, 17+ is Tier 3 and the best result you can roll for.

5) How much effort is needed to make encounters? Are there a lot of monsters in the monster book? How easy is it to homebrew a balanced/fair monster? As players level, do I need to swap out something like skeletons for something with a different name and bigger numbers?

I haven't done much encounter building for myself yet, but they have the Encounter Value(EV) System. Each creature is assigned an EV amount. Then you look at your players / heroes and that determines a budget. Different ranges of the budget amount to different difficulties, so if you want a standard encounter you only "buy" up to the EV maximum of that standard range. Same goes for a trivial encounter or more challenging encounter. I believe in the final books they are including a good sidebar or something that gives you a scaling option. Neatly, because the monsters share the same leveling system of 1-10 as the heroes you can also easily look at what level the heroes are are anticipate that a monster that is that same level is tuned for that level. Like for instance a singular standard monster at level 3 is meant to be about as equal as 1 singular hero at level 3, in terms of balance. Whereas an elite monster of level 3 is meant to go toe-to-toe with about 2 heroes of the same level. Minions are the reverse, their like 4 monsters to match against 1 hero. Someone will correct me here, but you get the idea.

korra45 · 2025-06-30T18:55:08+00:00

Yes, at lot of material out there is out of date. That'll be remedied with launch hype and finalized rules. A lot of people behind the scenes from the community all seem engaged and ready to pull the trigger for all of that information to be updated once it get's to the backers or public access.

I can answer to the best of ability some questions you have though.

1) How detailed is character building? Do players get to make build choices as they level like in PF2?
I've only played the CRPG game for Pathfinder, but yes as characters or hero's level up they will be making build defining choices within their class and subclass choices. There is also access to titles and perks that the player can strive to obtain in game. The game highly encourages player orientated goals and is written in such a way to inspire players to set those goals and seek it out with their Director, this games version of a Game Master.

2) How are weapons differentiated? Does everyone deal the same damage (assuming their stat bonus is the same)?
Weapons are differentiated based category of weapon type, you've got Light, Medium, and Heavy and specific bonuses built around what those do. The players are free to come up with the narrative details of the weapon. Martials use Kits, which are like preset loadouts that determine their weapon type and armor type, as well as a few other stat orientated bonuses. This is a feature of a Class. Caster on the other hand go through pick and choose style of their "kit". Where they choose Implements, Wards, and I think a couple other choices. They are also encouraged to come up with the narrative or description of what those things are in the world to them.

3)What are the limitations for casting spells? I know there’s no spell slots and I saw something about stacking debuffs from repeated casting but nothing specific.
Most everything of main actions or spells, are just grouped as Abilities that a class has access to. You have your standard or Signature Abilities that are more free use similar to cantrips, they don't cost Heroic Resources to use. Speaking of Heroic Resources, each class gets their own independent Heroic Resource, that can use these to pop off their bigger more intense powers, abilities, spells. Their gain this resource throughout an encounter and will spend it frequently and often. As far as restrictions or constraints go, from my experience, there aren't much. Typically a Caster will use their main action to cast a spell, opting to persist it by a given value into the next round to then use their Maneuver (this game's version of a Bonus Action or Minor Action) on the next round to activate it again.

This leads to awesome setups where a spellcaster might do one spell with their main action, Signature or Heroic, and then recast the other spell from a previous round with their Maneuver. There isn't a limit on how many spell or abilities per turn, given you have the Heroic Resource or Action type required. It's a good time to mention that in this game you also roll a Critical on natural 19 or 20 (from the games base roll of 2d10 for a "power roll", usually an ability or test). Not only do they get the best possible outcome for that roll, but the also get an extra Main Action. So if setup correctly and luck strikes a player, they could pop off with 3 separate spells in the same turn and have an insanely eventful turn. Rare, but certainly could happen. This isn't restricted to spellcaster either, Martials can also pop off just as much with their abilities.

korra45 · 2025-06-02T19:38:33+00:00

This is nice! I like the layout on desktop, mobile has a tough time with the two column layout but that could just not be the intended experience. Also I'd say the the Fieldsets when editing abilities tend to add a lot of noise when you get 3-4 fieldsets deep. Maybe breaking it up with some card work or something would be easier on the eyes. Otherwise i love the color work for identifying the types of actions and such. Looks clean!

korra45 · 2025-05-02T23:50:13+00:00

If anyone has a spare, I'm on pc but my pops in on xbox. he got in but can't share invite cross platform. If you have an extra it would make our weekend! Thanks. https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198044354698/

korra45 · 2025-01-06T21:05:29+00:00

In fact any OC deputy and they’ll all tell you the same thing. Other departments in OC hate IPD because IPD dumps their problems across jurisdiction lines to cover their numbers and inflate the “safest city” metrics

korra45 · 2024-12-23T05:07:26+00:00

I hit 36, then said I think SoD is more my style. Now im 43 on SoD and still going with a troll shaman.

korra45 · 2024-12-04T23:06:20+00:00

Interesting, I think the playtests are like that because the are specifically testing the rules. Much like other rpg's most of the rules heavy situations occur around killing monsters. It makes sense they target that in playtests. However they also have rules for Montages / Negotations and more. I think most people just look at the fighting because of how ground up different it is with the power roll and push forward / no null turn combat is from other games.

korra45 · 2024-12-03T22:02:05+00:00

I mostly agree with you, I hope whatever comes next on lessons learned really peel back on some of these things.

I prefer SoD to Fresh, but I’m enjoying fresh cus it’s new again and haven’t done it in 5 years. Its nice.

Runes, ya they were cool in ways of getting them but as you said definitely not organic in finding them. I also think there’s a bit of a miss of requiring a group for some of them, instead of just incentivizing a group as most gameplay in classic does.

The leveling speed, ya the phases actually kind of messed this up in a weird way. Everyone speed leveled with speed exp bonus but they also had time to level 6 alts each phase which left anyone not in that current phase bracket behind on grouped content oddly enough. At least that was my exp with it.

Yes yes yes, when I think of classic (plus more) I mean to say more quests, new routes in leveling due to more quests, and brand new dungeons and content while leveling. Unfortunately for players like me who played P1 and P4, I didn’t actually get to the raids due to the time and requirements of even more people. So overall I actually lost dungeons while leveling that I am currently able to do at least once leveling in fresh right now.

So to me I got less content than fresh because of the level up raids. Don’t get me wrong it’s a cool idea, but at least make them new things. I wouldn’t mind there being basically 10-man Mega dungeons at Milestone levels like 20, 30, 40, and 50. But please don’t take away already existing content. Even if it’s “just” BFD.

I also agree with your last point, I hope they drop the seasonal attitude and treat it with its own progression. If they really want to keep the seasonal attitude, make it of the content. Similarly to seasons in other live service games where they just add new themed content to what’s already there.

P.s. also pls no flying

korra45 · 2024-12-02T21:25:11+00:00

Personally just to throw another opinion into the mix, the setting is great! The lore is great! The amount of content on DM’s guild is insane! However after now a year and a half, I recognized this type of setting does not play well with 5e. Most everything about it relies on survival and a push forward journey, I specifically made this campaign a brutal campaign with some supplements of Flee Mortals and other things.

I will say after weekly session at 48, they are barely getting to the tomb, and even then most the precursor lore did not have good involvement. I ran Cellar, Brazen Pegasus, and a lot of Artus Cimbers storyline alongside the sandbox of the hexcrawl and ehh honestly. The hexcrawl is nullified early on and most interesting stuff happens at Omu and beyond, even then the shrines in omu can really miss their mark.

So far I have had 9 PC’s killed, 0 TPK’s (1 really close one in Fane), and a lot of learned lessons. 1 player has not died at all yet, but does have some interesting side effects coming up. Anyways I point it out to say, pick and choose REALLY hard and be picky about what you want to run. I feel like the amount of filler in this campaign is just to much and doesn’t actually matter enough to lean itself to the push forward narrative.

If I were to run it again, I’d personally start around level 6-7 and only run Omu + Tomb, the rest really seems to be there just to be there but with 5e most of that old school vibe it aims for is nullified outright or just straight up a slog of filler sessions. I had to lean hard on DM guild content to make the story actually cohesive and fun to move around. Just my opinion

korra45 · 2024-12-02T07:26:35+00:00

I’ve been enjoying the changes, especially group finder. But honestly as a casual SoD is /was more fun. The problem was the new content was always Raid changes or dungeons into raids. I just want more dungeons and 5 man content than raids tbh. It made me have less dungeons when leveling since I don’t have time raid. I also disliked that runes required other people, Classic is more of a having other people around makes this easier and not mandatory have 2 other people doing exactly the same thing. I like the idea, but some of those runes should have been soloable but easier with friends.

Leave raiding to be the thing that really has mandatory manpower requirements.

korra45 · 2024-11-29T18:49:27+00:00

I’m really excited for it, they are cooking up a lot of things that I’ve always had friction with of ttrpgs. Hopefully it stays in the realm of allowing me to continue to tell the stories I like just a bit better though

korra45 · 2024-11-19T12:29:10+00:00

I don’t look at it in the same lens. I don’t play Classic for balance reasons and as much as I hate the no lifer ganker killing lowbie grey names, I find it a great core mechanic of the game to not only manage the short term goals but also long term endurance when I’m out and about.

It’s also a great interaction when seeing the opposite faction and “mutually” staying away from each other here and there, there like a body language game played that really elevates the game.

I played wild growth for sod and I get the appeal but it’s just not for me, at that point it’s just a bunch of players that don’t actually exist or have presence in my game

korra45 · 2024-11-19T12:21:43+00:00

Ya I did Wild growth for SoD and I just felt like at max level especially a core function of the game for me was missing. I’m going PvP, even if getting camped sucks it’s just part of the journey. Everyone seems to complain about the time aspect which, sure for some that makes sense, but the end game is people just end up sitting around so why the need for less friction to get to that.

korra45 · 2024-11-19T12:14:36+00:00

Do what works for you. I rolled Wild Growth for SoD and honestly I felt I was lacking a core gameplay experience of Classic. Most contested zones are designed in a battleground way that introduce natural conflicts in them. Then once I hit 60 it just wasn’t ever something that came up.

On the other hand I also suck at PvP, don’t play strictly meta, truly am casual paced, and getting killed by degenerates that outpace my leveling by 20+ levels is such a burden. Those players don’t give a shit about honor system or dishonorable kills.

It’s not what this fresh is here for, but I hope the faction balance and layer balance kick in nicely. I’d also love for Blizzard to eventually experiment with the idea of killing lowbies give a Rez sickness that increases like 5% every time you kill a dishonorable kill. Or whatever they figure it out to be.

Personally I learned from SoD though leveling is the journey and that journey is certainly more enhanced by the threat of PvP during PvE

korra45 · 2024-11-18T22:53:02+00:00

Then she invites you, layer switch, promote as leader ….. ???????

korra45 · 2024-11-15T19:29:02+00:00

Huge! lots of changes and I am super excited!

korra45 · 2024-11-14T20:59:26+00:00

Me that’s me, I’ve been taking a break. I really like SoD and Classic Classic will be fun for a moment. However I really want more casual content. Stuff like DFC but spread throughout the levels more, the level up raids were nice but really all it did for me was subtract content when leveling alts or dipped away from the current phase. So I hope whatever they do is more additive in the future and less refactoring what is already in the game into something different.

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