Crafted-only Magic Items for Pathfinder

    I was talking to a fellow GM a few days ago and he told me a story about a time when he had tried to help out a player by creating a specific magic item, only to have that player turn around and sell it.  I've run into that before, magic items that either I made or choose that ended up going to waste - and it happened a lot when rolling on the random treasure tables.  Which got me thinking, what if there was an easy system to let players pick their own magic items, so that they would always be something useful, but still limiting that player's power level?  I think I have something, it sounds easy on paper at least :)
    First, some back-story: magic is the primal living force of the universe.  While inanimate objects can hold magical power, they cannot use it.  So every magic items needs to be bonded to a single person.  It them becomes an extension of that person and cannot be used by anyone else.  The owner of a magic item can choose to sever the bond, which leaves the item ready to be bonded to another.  But, if the owner dies, the magic of the item follows them into the outer planes and the item becomes non-magical.  To prevent losing this power crafters, and then adventurers, carry octagonal crystals that capture magical energy when it's released.  This energy can be used to craft new items, and is a form of magical currency.
    Okay, so the rules.  Whenever an NPC is killed and they have a magic item, the party does not gain the item as usual - instead the party collects Mana Resonance that has the same type as the arcane school of the magic item, is rated at the same GP value (measured in "beats" since the crystals that collect it seem to pulse like heartbeats when filled) as the item's value, and has a GM-applied type.  For example, a magic flaming sword would have the evocation (I think, going off what I remember and not the book right now) school, and the GM would add the "Fire" descriptor to the Resonance collected.
    During downtime between adventures the party can use Resonance to create new magic items.  The Resonance has it's full value applied towards the item's value if it is the same type as the new item, or half value if the new item is a different type from the resonance.  So the Fire Resonance above would be worth full value towards making a new fire sword, or a ring of fire resistance, but only have half-value towards making a shocking sword or ring of acid resistance.  The rest of the cost can be made up from other Resonances, or gold.  Exactly what items can be crafted is up to the GM, so not every community may be able to craft every type of magic item (since the skills of craftsmen and scholars will logically vary by community).

    And that's it.  Mechanically this should work the same.  After all, you'd have the full value of the flaming sword if you took it and used it, or half it's value if you sold it.  So this should keep the same ratio of power.  You could add a small fee, like 5-10% of the new item's value in gold (and/ or Resonance) since it is a bonus to be able to make/ choose your own magic items.  Crafting could be the same, you just need half the item's value in the right Resonances - but honestly I think this kind of needs a crafting revamp, I just can't think of how exactly at the moment.
    I can see a fun way to use this system, if a magic item is destroyed when the owner is killed, then it might be fun to have the party require a magic item that is already bound.  That way they can't just kill the owner, and they can't steal it (no "command words" that anybody could use, items only obey their owners in this system) - so they have to figure out how to convince/ trade/ blackmail/ something the owner to help them.  Also, there could be items just lying around, that were never bonded or that previous owners had relinquished, and if the PCs want one, they have to get to it before anybody else or it could be lost to them forever.  A bit of extra tension to liven up the story.
    So there you go.  This mostly uses the existing rules - you can ignore the extra type part if you want to make it easier with no extra rules/ bits to track.  It should keep the same general power levels, and restricting what kinds of items can be made where can keep the party from being able to make anything game-destroying.  Heck, you could give crafters a bonus and say they can spend Resonance during an adventure to make a one-shot magic item like a potion or scroll, if you wanted to give your crafters some love (which also conflicts Resonance as a resource to spend now for an emergency boost or stockpile for later to make a permanent item).  Also magical creatures could drop Resonance, which might make a little more sense than finding random items on them.  So I think there is lots of potential to help make a more magic-friendly system (which may not be your style of game, of course) with minimal rules overhead and a low risk of unbalancing the game.  At least, in my head it seems that way - if you try it let me know.

Looking at the 5th Edition SRD - part 7 - Equivalent Exchanges

    I'm borrowing the term from Fullmetal Alchemist because of something I was wondering.  In general, the fighter gets weapons and the magic user gets spells.  So ideally the two should be about the same, right?  Weapons tend to be less dramatic, lower damage and effects, but freely reusable - while spells are big and flashy but limited.  At least, that's the general theory: but how do they compare to each other?  And also, how do things like attributes compare to each other as well?  So this post is going to be a random grab-bag of numbers looking at some things from behind the curtain.

Weapons
    Let's start with weapons.  The shortest list is for the Sorcerer and Wizard, they are only proficient with the: dagger, dart, sling, quarterstaff, and light crossbow.  Those give d4, d6 and d8 ranges for damage.  Type of damage also matters, since some monsters may be resistant to some damage types.  The Sorc/Wiz weapons are piercing and bludgeoning only (no slashing).
    Taking a step up, let's look at all the simple weapons in general.  Across all of them we get the following damage ranges: d4, d6 and d8.  And there are 8 bludgeoning, 3 slashing and 8 piercing weapons.
    Okay, so if that is the median of the simple weapons, then the martial weapons should all be better, right?  And they should be significantly better: fighters do not gain as many or as spectacular abilities as magic users, on average, so the weapons list should be worthwhile, right?  Well, the martial weapons have the following damage ranges: d6, d8, d10, and d12/2d6.  So two ranges overlap, the d6 and d8, the d10 is only a single step higher - and just how much of a difference is there in 2 potential damage points? - and only the d12/2d6 is a pretty solid step up.  Also remember that hit point inflation will make a small difference less significant as you level up and every monster has more and more hp.  Martial weapons also have 6 bludgeoning, 11 slashing and 12 piercing options - that does expand on the somewhat weak simple weapon slashing options.
    So having proficiency in all weapons is better than only simple or an even smaller list.  But how much better is it?  Not a lot really, at least on average.  Now you also have to take into account that fighters will focus their attributes on the physical ones to get better combat scores while magic users will go mental and that difference in priorities will drive the gap between the two wider.  Still, I just feel like fighters kind of get the short end of the stick - while they are meant to be smaller yet constant benefits, it kind of feels like they are under-powered.  I'd like to see them have a few more options or abilities given that combat and weapon use are their entire concept (magic users at least can do a variety of non-combat stuff).  I don't think it's a huge problem, I wouldn't say the balance was broken, I just think it's a little off for my tastes.
    At least, by the weapon numbers it doesn't look too far off - but there's more to it that that...
   
Cantrips
    You see, magic users get cantrips.  Cantrips are spells that can be used at will, just like a weapon attack.  And while casters only get a few of them, they are pretty darn useful.  Acid Splash only does d6 with a Dex-save, not that much better than a simple weapon really, but not bad and it can hit 2 people if they're within 5 feet of each other.  But then you get Chill Touch, Ray of Frost and Shocking Grasp - all do d8 damage and have some kind of extra effect.  That's at least as good as a martial weapon.  The real balance-breaker though is Fire Bolt.  It has a range of 120 feet, on the low end but a pretty good since it doesn't take a penalty to hit like most ranged weapons.  It uses a "spell attack" which is spellcasting ability modifier + proficiency, so best attribute and proficient means it's just as effective as a fighter attack.  And it does d10 damage, which is a glaive, pike, 2-handed longsword or heavy crossbow (solidly a martial weapon and higher than any simple weapons).  So since a magic user has a ranged martial weapon to use at will, what exactly is the difference between the two again?  Funny, I've heard some people revile 4th Edition D&D for making all the classes the same, but there's a lot of similarity here.  And again, a lot of the cantrips have special effects that plain weapons don't have, so it is debatable that they are superior to using weapons in at least some ways.
    With the addition of offensive cantrips, the fact that magic users can't use the full range of martial weapons isn't really much of a drawback.  Add in that spells allow for non-combat actions and increase in damage and you could say that magic users are a lot more useful than fighters overall.  Sure, they can't soak as much damage (again though, there are defensive spells) - but I would love a party to try making all magic users and see if they couldn't kill things (or charm them, put them to sleep, or otherwise incapacitate them) fast enough to make up for the lack of a tank.  It just reinforces my feeling that fighters are a bit weak.  Or rather, say that fighters don't feel very special.  They don't seem to have that "awesome moment" built into their class.  When your wizard disintegrates the dragon and the cleric banishes the demon, what does the fighter do to feel as useful to the party and story?

Saving Throws
    Thinking about spells, and ranking things, gets me thinking about saving throws.  The 5e SRD has each attribute be a saving throw (unlike the 3.5 SRD that only had 3).  But the value of having a saving throw is in what all it can protect you from: so just how many different effects target each saving throw?
    This is one of those questions I knew I was going to regret asking myself.  Since there are about 130 pages of monsters in the SRD, I decided to limit my madness to just the spells.  So I went over each spell description and tallied up how many of each attribute there were:

37  Wisdom  (33%)
32  Dexterity  (28%)
26  Constitution  (23%)
13  Charisma  (12%)
3  Intelligence  (3%)
2  Strength  (2%)

    Okay, Intelligence is weird.  There are only 3 spells that call for an Int save, but there are 9 illusion spells that call for an Intelligence/ Investigation roll to spot the illusion.  I don't like that, it weakens an already useless save by having a skill check in place of the saving throw.  Strength is also really bad as a saving throw, it's almost never used - and I'd be surprised if that many monsters have Str-based saves (not opposed checks, which are a different kettle of fish).
    So if you want to resist spells, get a high Wis and Dex, and classes that give save proficiencies to both.  I'm glad to see Con has so many effects, it's an attribute that has no skills, and only one application in combat, so at least the abundance of saves makes it more important.  There are a few spells that should have different saves.  Slow should be resisted by Str (which needs more effects to resist), and polymorph should be Con or even Str - and both types are Wis, which makes no sense to me.
    Another reason this matters, no class is proficient in both Wis and Dex saves, if you did give that to a class it would be much better at resisting spells and effects.  Likewise nobody has Int and Str saves, because they would be getting hosed.  Something to keep in mind while creating your own classes.

Damage Resistances
    While looking at spells I also wanted to see how many damage types there were, to see if one type of resistance might be better than the rest.  And there is a clear frontrunner (again, from the spells only, monsters could skew these numbers a little to a lot):

19  Fire
9  Cold, Radiant
8  Lightning
7  Necrotic
6  Acid, Bludgeoning
5  Psychic
4  Force, Thunder
3  Poison
2  Piercing
1  Slashing

    Fire does have twice as many spells as any of the other types, so get it first.  A fairly even spread after that (Radiant did surprise me for being so high, but then it does make since given that should be one of the common types for divine casters).
    This is the one I really need to go over the monster list to  fill out, there are only a few poison spells (which I had thought there would be a few more of for some reason) - I'm sure there are lots of monsters that poison though.  I'm sure I'll sit down and add the monsters to this list someday.


    Okay, so this was a random list of things to look at, and I'm not sure just how much use this has all been, but it was interesting to look behind the scenes a little.

Wallpaper - Computer Games vol 3

I could never get into playing WoW, but I do like some of the wallpapers out there...

A game that is entirely too much fun...

For my buddy who like Thief (which, sad to say I've never played myself)...

Creating A World Map - or, well, trying to...

    I've got a ton of ideas in my head for the world I'm creating, but I'd really like to see it on paper (or, in pixels I guess) as well - so I thought it would be nice to look into making a map of some kind.  Doesn't have to be anything fancy.

    My first thought was to make one myself, so a quick search turned up a program that looked like it would work: Hexographer.  With this you can make your won hex maps.  Since it's free (though there is an upgraded paid version) I thought I'd give it a try.  This is the first screen, I set the map bigger (100 hexes, think the default was around 20-30) to be "world scope" and my poor little laptop took a while to think and create a map...

    This was a pretty crowded map, and I didn't see an option to juggle the ratios of land and water and such to customize things.  So I thought I'd make a new map with a blank slate to work from...

    From what little I played with it, I like this program.  The hexes look pretty good, and there are quite a few options for placing cities and text as well as the terrain shown above.  I think this could be a pretty good program for making maps.
    The downside though is that placing every hex by hand is, well, a long process.  To say the least.  And it's tricky to lay out the terrain in a way that feels right.  While it's possible to make a world map this way, it's for someone with more artistic talent and patience than me.  Maybe there was an automated generator?  Hah, of course there is, the Internet has everything after all :)

    Thus began a few hours of Google searching and testing.  Here's a roundup of some of the programs/ sites I found.
    First, there's Terra Incognita.  This is a pretty simple map, again I didn't see anywhere to change the settings to adjust the amount of terrain to water or any other features.  I do really like the style of it though, it looks very pretty.

    Roll For Fantasy has another kind of neat style, though not quite as nice.  It is a bit of a pain to use, I had to scroll around a lot on the screen, and trying to picture the terrain block when you can't see it is a challenge.  I made a few random maps and some of them didn't look too bad.

    The Polygon Map Generation Demo continued the trend of pretty but not quite what I was looking for - though at least this one had a lot of settings to customize, which was nice, but it's also only geared for a single landmass it appears, so you'd have to create different continents and then stitch them together.  Not terrible, but would take some work.

The final image is a pretty good size...

    The Fantasy World Generator from the d20 SRD looked like what I wanted, but for some reason I couldn't get it to actually run and make a world :(

    The Planet Map Generator also looked good, and this one I could get to run properly.  This program has quite a few options...

I like this site a lot.  Having the different layouts is nice, and you can change the colors and the maximum image size is pretty big...

    The one that really took the cake though was Donjon.  This is very similar to the Planet Map Generator before, but I liked it a little bit more, and the final image options are very nice.  There are also a ton of different random generators at the site.

I ended up with these two that I liked the most, in a flat format and I love having the rotating globe as well..

    None of these maps totally hit the feel I wanted, but it was nice to find some options.  I think Hexographer will be great for making smaller maps, and the generators good for the global level maps.  But, since they are randomly generated I'm going to have to sit for a while and make a ton of them to get the one I want.  Oh well, that'll keep me busy until next week at least :)

Constructing Target Numbers

    Most games with skills use a Target Number or Difficulty Class, the number you have to roll equal or over to succeed.  These can be a little problematical though, since they are usually just given a general descriptor like "Easy," "Difficult," or "Hard."  Those are pretty subjective measurements.  But if a game doesn't use such broad terms then it tends to have a list of TNs/DCs for each and every skill, which is more helpfully specific, but also more work to look up and keep track of at the table (or stuff into your brain with the rest of the game world).

    I had an idea, what if we tried to keep the best of both with a list of general difficulty components?  These would still be flexible and open to some interpretation, but hopefully specific enough to make it east to remember and adjudicate on the fly.
    Here are some of the things that create difficulty, in my mind, and this list is in no way complete:

• Difficult to comprehend - I think this is what most people first think of when we talk about difficulty, the idea that whatever you're doing is hard to understand all by itself.  If you think my HTML, CSS and JavaScript is hard to follow, stuff like C++ and Assembly Language is even harder.  This element is for things that are hard to do in and of themselves.  Reading is easy, it does not increase the TN/DC - but reading something in a code, or even just a specific group's jargon or accent, may qualify for this.
• Difficult to Track -here by "track" I mean that there is a lot going on, that the action or situation is confusing in part from how many different things you have to be mindful of or react to.  Adding more and more balls you're juggling will trigger this, or fighting in a crowd or mob of people (even just the "flanking" aspect), or texting and driving (which is why you shouldn't do it).  This adds to the difficulty because you have to split your attention.
• Outside Stress -this is kind of like "difficult to track" above, but in a more basic sense.  This adds to the difficulty because there is something related to the problem at hand but not immediately from it.  If your brother was kidnapped and you had to hack a computer for the bad guy to let your brother go, then there is a lot of background stress that is going to make the hacking more difficult.  Even something like the Super Bowl- a regular football game is a challenge, but when it's the last game, the biggest crowd and the best opponents; that makes it even harder.
• Hazard/ Cost of Failure -this increases the difficulty because you know something bad is going to happen to you if you fail.  Walking a tightrope 2 feet above the ground is not as difficult as one 200 feet above the ground - the actions may be the same, but the fear factor makes them noticeably different.
• Incomplete (knowledge, tools, whatever) -here the difficulty comes from the fact that you're missing something important.  It could be physical by not having the right tools, or mental by not having the right understanding or information.
• Unfamiliar/ Unusual/ Uncommon -lastly (for this example) is the difficulty of the unknown.  You may be the best mechanic on Earth, but you're going to have a hard time fixing that alien spaceship.  Even something more subtle like a foreign fighting style, or a culture you have not been exposed to, can increase the difficulty of an action.

    This is relative, so each of these can change based on the character.  One character may be from the city, so milking a cow is "Unfamiliar" to him, another might have grown up on a farm, and so wouldn't have that penalty.  Likewise at a lower level some actions might be "Difficult to comprehend" but would lose that and become commonplace at higher levels.  There is some wiggle room here in determining if each element should apply, it is not a simple one-size-fits-all list.  And, the idea is that it should be explained to the players/ reasoned out, so I would walk the PC through how the TN/DC was created just before they roll (before they are committed to the action if I wanted to be nice, after they were committed to watch the dread as each difficulty increasing element was revealed if I wanted to be mean :).  I think most players would like knowing that know that the difficulty was logically constructed.  And, possibly, they might be able to find a way to negate or remove some of those difficulties once they have them laid out to clearly see.
    Mechanically this is easy, but varies by game.  Basically, each element is worth so many points to the target number total.  The 5e SRD goes by 5s, so each one of these would be worth 5 points to the final TN/DC total.  A game with tighter math, like Fate, might use 1 point per item.  And of course a larger percentile-based system would want 10 or even 15 percent for each.  The goal is to make each item worth the same increase in difficulty so it's easy to remember and create at the table.

Looking at the 5th Edition SRD - part 6 - Spellcasting Progression

    So out of 12 character classes 8 of them can cast spells.  The 4 non-casters are the: Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, and Rogue.  There are 2 classes that can cast spells, but not until second level and not a lot - so let's call them the "partial casters" - the Paladin and Ranger.  Then there are the full casters, who specialize in magic, the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, and Wizard.  And then there's the Warlock.

    When looking at spellcasting there are several things to consider:
    First, spells have levels just like characters, spell levels go from "cantrip" (or 0) to 1st through 9th.  Each level of spells is a step up in options, offering new types of things to do as well as more powerful versions of lower-level spells.  I have always hated that spells and characters both share the word "levels," it's an unnecessary potential confusion.  So I'm going to rate spells by "tiers" since the really important thing is that each new tier expands your available options in the game.  For example, at Tier 1 you can cast Jump, at Tier 2 you can cast Levitate and at Tier 3 you can cast Fly.  So one option, movement, has limited power at lower tiers that expands - not just getting faster, or measurably better offering new abilities.  Levitate is like a jump in that it moves you vertically, but with levitate you can hover and stay in the air; flight allows the same thing, but also allows you to move horizontally.
    Second, characters can only cast or use a limited number of spells per day (or in-between long rests).  This is the limiting effect on magic, while spells can be very powerful and do things that cannot be accomplished in any other way, you only have so many of them, so you have to choose when to use them carefully.  How many spells you can cast is rated by each tier, so you may have 3 Tier 1 and 2 Tier 2 "spell slots."  You cannot combine or divide these (so 2 Tier 1 slots cannot be used to cast a single Tier 2, nor can 1 Tier 2 slot be used to cast a pair of Tier 1 spells) but you can upgrade them (so a Tier 3 slot can be used to cast a Tier 1 spell, but that spell will have an increased effect from it's basic Tier 1 version).  Now, of course there are exceptions.  Cantrips (Tier 0) do not use spell slots, they can be cast an unlimited number of times (which also breaks the pattern that spells are large, uncommon effects, these are low-powered constant abilities that a typically non-caster, blurring the lines between the two) (which is not necessarily a bad thing).  Also, some spells can be cast as "Rituals."  A spell must explicitly say it is a ritual spell, and casting it that way does not use a spell slot but does take 10 minutes instead of the usual 6 seconds or so.  So a ritual is not much good during a fight (though a fight could break out trying to stop one).
    Third, besides the limit of how many spells can be cast in a day, there is another limit in how many spells can be prepared at any time.  You can only cast a spell that you have prepared, and different classes can prepare different numbers and in different ways.
    Finally, each class has a "spell list" or what spells that class can try to cast.  They have to choose which spells from that list they know, and from the known spells which to prepare, and then expend slots (excepting cantrips and rituals) to cast those spells.
    So, with that overview let's start looking at the spellcasters and how they progress.

Partial Casters
    Okay, I want to start with the two partial casting classes, the Paladin and Ranger.  They are different from what I've been looking at in that they do not start casting spells until second level (as opposed to the first level abilities I've described and the full casters who start at first level).  Still, it seemed logical to put them in the spellcasting overview, and they have a fairly short and simple pattern to their spellcasting progression.  I'm going to list each spell tier they can cast, and how many they can cast per day for each tier:

Tier 1
2/ rest at 2nd Level
+1 at 3rd Level
+1 at 5th Level
(so a max of 4 spells/day)

Tier 2
2/ rest at 5th Level
+1 at 7th Level
(so a max of 3 spells/day)

Tier 3
2/ rest at 9th Level
+1 at 11th Level
(so a max of 3 spells/day)

Tier 4
1/ rest at 13th Level
+1 at 15th Level
+1 at 17th Level
(so a max of 3 spells/day)

Tier 5
1/ rest at 17th Level
+1 at 19th Level
(so a max of 2 spells/day)

    Okay, so this is a pretty clear and mostly solid pattern.  They start casting at 2nd Level, and oddly they start with Tier 1 spells instead of learning any Tier 0 cantrips.  I really don't get this.  Some cantrips like Light, Mending, Minor Illusion, Resistance and True Strike would be very helpful to those classes, even if you broke the pattern and made them #/day instead of at-will.  Also, since these are the partial caster classes, magic is not as necessary to their concept and execution, so starting them at Tier 0 would not be a bad thing or really hinder their abilities or usefulness.  Oh well.  After that, from learning spells at 2nd level, they gain a new Tier at 5, 9, 13, and 17 - so 3 levels later and then an even 4 levels afterwards.  I like nice clear patterns.  Why make some sort of random jumble unless there is a compelling story or mechanical reason to do so?  This is almost a nice pattern, but just a little off here and there, which I find is the common state of the 5e SRD.  It's like the designers didn't want to just make some patterns and always follow them, they have to constantly shift and move things around.  And, almost like clockwork after gaining a new tier of spell they gain another slot 2 levels later, except of course for the couple of exceptions.
    Okay, so that lists how many spell slots they have to cast, but how many spells are known and can they prepare?  Well, so much for sharing a pattern because the two classes calculate that in different ways:

The Paladin can prepare his Cha mod + 1/2 Paladin level (rounded down).  Those can be chosen from the complete Paladin class list of spells.  The Paladin class list has 11 Tier 1, 8 Tier 2, 6 Tier 3, 3 Tier 4 and 3 Tier 5 spells available/known.  So every day the Paladin has that many choices to draw from to prepare.

Rangers also have a class list, with 11 Tier 1, 11 Tier 2 (3 more than the Pal), 9 Tier 3 (3 more than the Pal), 4 Tier 4 (1 more than the Pal) and 2 Tier 5 (1 less than the Pal).  They have to choose which of those spells they know, and the known spells are always prepared.  They start knowing 2 spells at 2nd Level, gain 1 spell known at 3rd, and then another spell known every two levels after that (5, 7, 9, etc).

    At 20th level a Ranger would have a maximum of 11 spells known/prepared.  A 20th Level Paladin would have 31 spells known (their entire list) and 10 + Cha mod spells prepared (likely at least 14-15 with mod).  So while Rangers have a bit more to choose from in general, Paladins have a lot more flexibility in changing their day-to-day options.  That does give them a somewhat different feel.  I kind of think the Paladin is a better caster from looking at the raw numbers, but there are so many variables there and it doesn't seem to be an overwhelming advantage.


The Full Casters
    The Bard, Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer and Wizard all share a fairly common progression, so let's take a look at them together.
    First, let's go over the spell slots:

Tier 0 cantrips
2 at-will at 1st Level for the Bard and Druid
3 at-will for the Cleric and Wizard
4 at-will for the Sorcerer
+1 at 4th Level for all
+1 at 10th Level for all

Tier 1
2/ rest at 1st Level for all
+1 at 2nd Level
+1 at 3rd Level
+1 at 5th Level

Tier 2
2/rest at 3rd Level for all
+1 at 4th Level

Tier 3
2/ rest at 5th Level for all
+1 at 6th Level

Tier 4
1/ rest at 7th Level for all
+1 at 8th Level
+1 at 9th Level

Tier 5
1/ rest at 9th Level for all
+1 at 10th Level
+1 at 18th Level

Tier 6
1/ rest at 11th Level for all
+1 at 19th Level

Tier 7
1/ rest at 13th Level for all
+1 at 20th Level

Tier 8
1/ rest at 15th Level for all

Tier 9
1/ rest at 17th Level for all

    Okay, so something strange about this progression: everybody is identical except for the number of cantrips.  What?  Is having 2 or 3 or 4 cantrips such a big deal that it's even worth doing?  Why not give everybody 3 and then you could print this table once in the spells/magic chapter instead of re-printing it for each class?  Also, Tiers 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 all gain a spell every level after they unlock that tier.  Then Tier 5 gains one the next level and then has a several-level gap.  And Tiers 6 and 7 have several-level gaps.  Then the last Tiers 8 and 9 only ever get 1 spell (though, granted, they are big spells).  I kind of get that, they wanted to slow down the higher tier spells, but at the same time it just kind of looks like a muddle.
    The next question is, how many spells does each class have on their list?

Tier 0 cantrip
7  Cleric, Druid
9  Bard
14  Wizard, Sorcerer

Tier 1
15  Cleric
16  Druid
17  Sorcerer
20  Bard
27  Wizard

Tier 2
17  Cleric, Druid
19  Bard
21  Sorcerer
31  Wizard

Tier 3
12  Druid
15  Bard
19  Cleric
20  Sorcerer
28 Wizard

Tier 4
8  Bard, Cleric
10  Sorcerer
15  Druid
23  Wizard

Tier 5
11  Sorcerer
13  Cleric
14  Druid
16  Bard
23  Wizard

Tier 6
7  Bard
9  Druid, Sorcerer
10  Cleric
19  Wizard

Tier 7
5  Druid
8  Cleric, Sorcerer
10  Bard
15  Wizard

Tier 8
4  Cleric
5  Bard, Sorcerer
6  Druid
12  Wizard

Tier 9
3  Bard
4  Cleric, Druid
5  Sorcerer
12  Wizard

    So the Wizard always has the most spells available, and it's a toss-up between the rest.
    Okay, so many spells does each class prepare?
   
Bard / Sorcerer
4        2
5        3
6        4
7        5
8        6
9        7
10        8
11        9
12        10
14        11
15        12
15        12
16        13
18        13
19        14
19        14
20        15
22        15
22        15
22        15

Cleric                                      
Wis mod + Cleric Level

Druid
Wis mod + Druid Level

Wizard
Int mod + Wizard Level

    Wow, Sorcerers get screwed over, they have the fewest spells they can prepare, and only get one more cantrip spell slot than all the other casters.  And a Bard should have at least a +4 to +5 Cha mod by 20th Level, so is only short 2-3 spells from just using the exact same Attribute mod + Level formula most other casters use - so why don't they?  Again, we see a pattern established and then broken, but what benefit is there to breaking the pattern?


The Warlock
    And lastly, there is the Warlock class.  You might think that the Warlock would be a full spellcaster, but it isn't.  It isn't a partial spellcaster either, instead it uses it's own progression that's kinda similar to the partial casters.  Warlocks can only cast up to Teir 5 spells (like partials) but they also get Tier 0 cantrips (unlike partials).  They are limited in their spells known to a max of 15, like a Sorcerer, but only have 4 spell slots total - yeah, not a typo, 4.  Wow, even the partial casters get 15 slots total.  Warlocks make no sense, they have a totally different way of using magic and I do not understand why.  If they aren't really spellcasters but should instead use their custom "invocations" then why not drop the spellcasting part altogether?  If they should only be partial casters, they why not use the same tables as the Paladin and Ranger, who are both at least pretty consistent with each other?  Again, with 7 other spellcasters setting some kinds of patterns (granted, filled with a Swiss cheese load of exceptions) why not try to use at least one of those patterns, why make something totally different?  Does that really make the Warlock such a worthwhile character?  Is the extra complexity (since it's now harder to balance the Warlock class against the other spellcasters because they have such different rules) really providing anything worthwhile?  It doesn't look like it on paper, though I'll admit I haven't played or GMed a Warlock so I don't know how they are at the table.


Last Thoughts
    Like everything in the 5e SRD I wonder what exactly the designers were thinking.  I see things that seem to have a pattern, to have been thought out, and then there are so many exceptions you wonder why they decided to make those patterns in the first pace.  I see so much that is random and unbalanced in the mechanics, I wonder if the classes play well at the table in spite of the rules and not because of the rules.  That's the problem with RPGs actually, the fact that people can use their creativity and change things in play or set up the scenarios means that the players can fix a lot of the problems - thereby hiding the mechanical defects.  Which is good from a marketing standpoint, your product looks better when the end user is fixing the problems with it, but it's a bad stand to take as a game designer.  And as I'm trying to figure out how to add my own settings and abilities to these rules, in many places I feel pretty lost about how to measure and judge any new concepts to change the rules (I do not want to set myself up for even the possibility of any future Pathfinder bloat).
    And we're just getting started in terms of the total rules, so I'll be back next week to keep looking at classes and class related mechanics.  Until then!

Learning Twine and Harlowe - The Road to Adventure

    This is a great little story if you're learning Twine and Harlowe, it has a ton of comments and while it's short there is a decent variety in the story to copy and paste to build on; and lots of comments to learn how things work.  I tip my hat to the writer.  If you're new to Twine/ Harlowe check it out at the link below:

The Road To Adventure

Wallpaper - Nature

The Elemental Empire - part 1 - The Grand Sweep of History

    Okay, enough world-building theory, let's start writing something and throwing out ideas.  No doubt some (or even all :) of these ideas will get re-named, revised and quite possibly thrown out altogether - but I feel like it's time to start brainstorming.  First off, I do have to say that the world of 13th Age struck a chord with me when I first read it, so I'm going to take some loose inspiration from it; though I'm also going to significantly shake things up.  I don't want or intend to step on anyone's copyright, I just mention it first to say to any 13th Age players out there that yes, I really liked the game's setting, and second to remind myself to watch my thinking so I don't cross that line.  Thus, let's start building the Elemental Empire.
    I like the idea of Ages, or periods of history that are clearly defined.  Now, in real life things are not so neat, and one culture's Age is another's inconsequential period.  So for my new world I'm going to force "ages" - which I'm currently calling "Conjunctions."  In the night sky there are several lights, colored so they stand out from the basically white stars, that move at erratic and unpredictable intervals.  Eventually they align, say there are 5 or 7 of them (enough to form a distinctive pattern), and with each alignment (called a conjunction) something terrible happens.  A magical catastrophe, plague, mass death, famine/ drought - something really bad.  No one has been able to predict exactly when it will happen, but it does get more obvious as time passes (and the lights draw closer together, I'm thinking they don't line up but rather make a shape of some kind) (I'm also debating making them disappear instead - in this initial idea they are symbols of disaster, but maybe they should be symbols of hope/ good and as they disappear they signal oncoming disaster?  I think I'm going to switch it to that, not sure yet though).  I like this idea as "something to fear" events, a powerful force that is not understood and unstoppable - the only hope is to mitigate it.  I want to leave the interval open (hence it's being a random number of years/ amount of time) so that GMs who don't want to use this can just set their stories in-between the conjunctions and not worry about it.  And while they cannot be stopped, let's say they can be mitigated, that either people have been able to divine the oncoming doom and take steps to lessen it, or that the player's have the potential to be the first to do so.
    So, this is going to be a fantasy setting, vaguely medieval, and I also want it to be big.  I've been watching a lot of Crash Course's World History on YouTube (for fun and in preparation to write this) and it's struck my by just how many different empires and kingdoms have all been active and interacting at the same time.  There seem to have been few periods of history that did not have a lot of different civilizations that all had some degree of contact.  So I want this to be a big world, with several different societies.  We've got to have magic of course, and I'm still up in the air about gunpowder and steampunk/magitech - I'm not sure just how advanced I want tech to be - though I am leaning towards having at least one society be more technologically advanced that the rest (both to give the option of tech to players/GMs and because it does sound cool to have a gun-slinging wizard [though I was not impressed by Pathfinder's archetype in Ultimate Combat]).
    My main society, one of if not the biggest, is going to be Roman Empire-esque, though also split into Western and Eastern halves that are fairly different.  It needs some "barbarians" to fight, which are going to be in the East.  Demons and Devils are in the West.  And South of it are the remains of the old empire.  Okay, let's shift gears before I go into more history - lets talk races.  I want to use the available races, but I also want to really mix them up.  The stereotypical elves, dwarves and humans have been done to death since Tolkien and while creating new versions of them means loosing out on the collective culture built around them, I just want something different.  I'm thinking that I'm not going to make completely new races (though that's tempting, another one of my favorite settings is Talislanta, who's tag line was "no elves" because it made it's own races - which creates a kind of steep learning curve, but also makes a fresh, new world to explore), but I am going to change them from some of the stereotypes that I've read.
    So first we have the Dwarvin, Nomin, Elvin, and Giatin: these are the oldest races.  Dwarves become Dwarvin, they are still shorter, extremely durable, and craftsmen.  They are physically related to stone, I'm not sure if I want to say they're essentially living stone, which sounds kinda cool but is going to little too far I think, rather maybe they are stone-like, which stone bones and tough skin (maybe even with stone plates as a kind of exoskeleton).  They are family and clan focused.  They are amazing singers, because they don't have darkvision, instead they have echolocation like bats (or "blindsight" in Pathfinder terms), and their mouths are formed in a way that gives them that ability and also makes them incredible singers (maybe magically enhanced).  They are also consummate liars, exaggerators, hagglers, and braggarts.  Gnomes become the Nomin, they are the shortest race (or one of the shortest races) and while Dwarvin are craftsmen like blacksmiths, Nomin are craftsmen in engraving and fine detail.  They are secretive, quite and taciturn among outsiders - they like to listen and watch.  They are nimble and intelligent, natural scientists, researchers, inventors and detectives.  Not cartoon-ish buffoons like in the Dragonlance series (which other settings seem to emulate as well), but rather smart, clever and crafty.  Elves become the Elvin, who are tied to the land and nature.  Like the Dwarvin I'm debating having the Elvin be living plants (maybe like the Sylvari in Guild Wars 2).  Elvin are master herbalists, weavers, astronomers.  They were the first Druids.  They are very serious, and hold oaths to be sacred and unbreakable.  Last of the oldest or original races are the Giants, or Giatin.  I'm thinking they're 10-15 feet tall, which is around the 12-20 they seem to be in most editions of D&D.  I don't really want to go with the "large, slow and stupid" trope, but I'm not sure what kind of unique identity to hang onto these guys.  I think they're the architects and city-builders of the setting (maybe also administrators and bureaucrats).
    These are the oldest races, the first in the world, and the first few Conjunctions/ages had them fighting with each other, which culminated in a magical war and disaster that created the Humin.  Humans, err... Humin are creatures of magic.  They take to spellcasting like breathing, and all have some minor aptitude with magic at least.  They have the shortest lives, living to just 50 years or so compared to the hundreds of the first races, but Humin also live the most with what they've got.  They grow and reproduce the fastest, which over time has led them to become the dominate species on the planet because their population can bounce back the quickest from the periodic disasters of the Conjunctions.  Physically Humin are weakest of the races, they have no special innate abilities like the First Races, but the Humin gift for magic (or magick ?  I do kind of like spelling it with the "k" for some reason) - the Humin gift for magick means they can be very powerful.  The First Races broke the laws of magick in the disaster that created the Humin.  A side effect of being so tied to magick is that Humin are highly unique.  There is no "DNA inheritance" like we Humans have, a Humin child can have nothing in common with it's parents physically.  This "wild magick" also means that Humin can breed with virtually any other living beings, creating the "crossbreeds." (there has to be some damn explanation for why the only half-whatever races are human-based :)
    So the earliest Conjunctions/ ages were ruled by the First Races, until they nearly wiped themselves out in magickal warfare and created the Humin.  The next several ages saw the Humin rise to power, culminating the the Wizard Kingdom - which then caused another magickal disaster that almost destroyed everybody.  After two near-extinction events based on magick, the Humin and First Races grew closer and began to restrict and control magick (outlawing it was not an option, Humin are innately magickal after all) and together (for the first time) formed the Elemental Empire, which would seek to create and maintain balance in the magick of the world, and between all the races (which had mostly been warring with each other so far).
    The same Conjunction that created the Humin (or shortly thereafter) also created the "Barbarian Races."  These are generally split into the Bestial Races, hybrid animal creatures like the Pegasi and Gryphons, and the Elemental Races, humanoid elementals (not cross-breeds, but rather advanced elementals with sentience).  The disaster that destroyed the Wizard Kingdom also created the undead, minions of the Silent King.  The Elemental Empire would spend the next few Conjunctions fighting these three forces.  After a few conjunctions the Prismatic Dragons would rise (so named because they were multi-colored), leading to the conjunction that ended with the Draconic Sundering (a dragon civil war that nearly wiped out the Empire).  The following conjunctions would see the invasion of the Demons and the intervention of the Pantheon (the general term for all the gods of light/ goodness), which would split the expanding Empire into two halves, each technically the same Empire but with significantly different customs and development.  The Western Empire, the closest to the Demonic Invasion, began to develop and rely on technology - the first major culture to do so - because the Demons are able to twist and warp magick (the Infernal are incapable of directly using magick, they can only manipulate it).
    Which is about where I want the setting to start.  This is all focused on one continent, the northern half of the map, and I'm working on filling out the rest of the world (since I want a variety of cultures and civilizations).  I've rambled on for quite a while (well, this is feeling kind of long to me at least :), so I'm going to wrap it up here and be back next week with some more broad brush-strokes of the world, then I'll start writing some specific details.  Until then, if you have any thoughts or comments feel free to make them below - you can find my email address in my Google Profile on the right and I'm @d100mechanic on Twitter.

Delayed but not Forgotten

    My life got thrown a bit of a loop last week so I'm still not on my desired schedule, but while posts may be coming out a day or two late, I am going to keep getting things out - so please bear with me.

Educational YouTube Channels - RainingChain

    This guy is awesome, he pretty much walks you start-to-finish through creating your own game in HTML/ CSS/ JavaScript - by watching him make his.  Here's his channel, and here's the game itself (you can play it in the browser).

Here are the first few vids...

Using Impossible Target Numbers?

    In Pathfinder there is the "aid another" action, which lets you give an ally a +2 on a roll.  This is not a huge benefit, though under the right circumstances it might be a critical difference.  Still, on average there is not much use to this action.  In the 5th Edition SRD I've been going over, the Bard has the ability to give a bonus d6 to an ally's roll.  This can potentially be a little better than the option in Pathfinder, but on average it's still not a world shaking option.

    My thought is this: why not set impossible target numbers, like a 32 AC at 1st level, and then let the players add their rolls together?

    This feels like an option worth thinking about for a few reasons.  First, if you tell the players (maybe after the first person tries something) that the target number is so high, then they will know (without a doubt and hopefully with a little fear) that this is a special "boss" monster/ circumstance.  Using such over-the-top numbers says that this is a group challenge, something impossible for a single player to accomplish.  Heck, you could even say the monster has an impossible to-hit, like they have a +20 to-hit, and so a player standing alone will be hit every turn without fail (now that's a dragon).
    Second, you can stretch the rules with this to encourage outside the box thinking.  Okay, let's take that dragon above, with the +20 to hit the 1st level players.  Well, we'll let any assisting player add his roll, so if the thief jumps on the dragon's back and starts climbing it, we'll reduce the dragon's to-hit by the thief's climb check - since the thief is distracting the dragon by climbing it.  Or maybe we'll let the bard make a perform check to create a distraction, and subtract that from the dragon's attack, also giving the fighter a, well, fighting chance to survive.
    Third, mechanically this is really easy.  Straight addition with clear target numbers should be pretty easy for the players or GM to work out the odds.  A simple mechanic can hopefully make it easier to focus on the narrative and planning.  You can tweak it lots of ways too, like letting all the PCs in a group divide the damage among themselves from a big attack like a dragon or giant - even a fireball (did one PC "jump in front" of it to shield the others?).  All you have to do is take a number that would be the total of however many players you have (or are involved) - you make the PCs figure out how to divide that.

    Sadly, I have no party to test out this idea, but it's been hovering around the back of my head for a while; so I thought I'd throw it out there for anybody brave enough (or crazy?) to give it a try in their game.  If you do, drop a comment below (or on Twitter) and let me know.

Looking at the 5th Edition SRD - part 5 - Starting Class Abilities

    Okay, having looked at the core elements of classes that they all share, let's start looking at the individual class abilities and see how powerful they are and how the classes compare to each other.  I'm going to start at the beginning and just look at the 1st level abilities for each class...

Barbarian
Rage - you can Rage as a bonus action, a number of times = your proficiency mod; it lasts for 1 min at most (10 rounds of combat), but ends early if you: are unconscious, do not attack an opponent or take damage for a turn, or if you choose to end it.  While raging you: have Advantage on Str checks and saving throws, add damage to melee weapons that use Str, are resistant to Bludgeoning/ Piercing/ Slashing weapons, and you cannot cast spells or wear heavy armor.

    I have never really liked the idea that "rage" can be controlled, that you start and end it at will.  That seems too tame, too domesticated for an ability that should be wild and primal.  Rage is quite the combat ability, it lasts for the whole fight and you can use it twice (to start), and it gives both offensive and defensive bonuses.  The drawbacks are minimal, in fact basically non-existent.  You don't gain any bonuses to Dex-related actions or weapons, not a big deal.  You can't wear heavy armor, which kind of matters when not raging (or would if not for your other ability below), but when raging your damage resistance is quite a nice benefit.  And you can't cast spells, which you shouldn't really need since you can hew foes limb-from-limb.  It seems like a very powerful ability.

Unarmored Defense - when you're not wearing any armor (but shield ok) add your Con mod to your AC.

    This reinforces the "lightly armored" fighter motif, adding your Con on top of you Dex mod.  Light armor is 11 or 12 base AC, and you should easily have a +2 Con mod if you're going to be a Barbarian, so you'll have at least the same AC as wearing light armor [if you have a 0 Con mod you picked the wrong class].  Medium armor goes from 12 - 15 base AC but limits your Dex mod to +2 (14 to 17 max with mod then); so if you went high-Dex and high-Con you should be able to get to Medium armor AC.  Heavy armor goes from 14 to 18 with no mods, and you should be able to hit 14 easy enough, maybe even 16.  Plus you can still use a shield for the extra +2 from that.  So even without armor you should have about as good an AC as being armored.

Bard
Spellcasting - can cast spells, but is limited in the number of spells known.  Every level (except for 3 of them) you gain more spells, and every 2 levels you access a higher tier of spells (which also have "levels," confusingly), but you are limited in the number of spells you can choose from and know.

    Spells are weird, there are 8 (of the 12) classes that can cast spells to some degree, and they vary by weird, hard-to-understand degrees.  It's complicated enough that I'm going to go over it in another post.

Bardic Inspiration - you can give one ally a bonus d6 to add to a roll (within 10 min of recieving it, only one at a time) your Cha mod times between longs rests (basically "per day").  The die increases over time.

    This ability is the worst ever for a class that tends to have marginal abilities.  One person, really, just one person gets inspired by your music - everybody else is bored and wishes you'd shut up?  This ability sucks, both because it doesn't make any logical sense and because it's so under-powered.
    Also, why have Bards always had both spellcasting and "bardic inspiration"?  Shouldn't they just have spells that duplicate the inspiration abilities?  That seems like it would make more sense.

Cleric
Spellcasting - again, I'll cover spells next post.
Divine Domain - again the sparse nature of the SRD creates a headache, as there is only 1 domain described, so trying to ascertain what power level would be appropriate is difficult.  But, from what little we see, the domain gives 2 spells prepared (not more to cast, just more to choose from), proficiency with heavy armor (for a healer?  I kind of see it and I kind of don't), and increases the effectiveness of all healing spells.
    In all, the domain does seem to do some useful stuff, and has an effect throughout the character's career.  Unlike previous versions, you only get one domain, which does seem to reduce your deity to a stereotype instead of a nuanced story element.  that might be a good thing for players who want the simple "heal and fight" cleric, but those who would like some more role-playing depth to the class might be disappointed (or, at least there is little mechanical depth to go with whatever RP elements you make up yourself).

Druid
Druidic Language - you can speak and write a secret language.

    Okay, what the hell?  Yeah, having a secret language can be a benefit (if the GM puts the right NPCs around, or if multiple players take the same class), but is it really enough of one to qualify as a class ability?  This is why I'm listing and comparing the abilities, I want to understand what kind of powers the designers consider appropriate for each level, and this one baffles me.  It seems way too weak to be a class ability and more like a Background element.  Also, what the hell is the purpose of putting a DC to detect a secret druidic message even if you can't read the language?  How the hell would you know it's a message if you can't understand it?  Not very secret if literally anybody can go "oh, that?  yeah, that's a druidic message, don't know what it says though."  The additional stupidity on top of the questionable ability is maddening.

Spellcasting - you know, if spells (and by extension magic) are going to be so common why not go the Earthdawn route and say that every class uses magic, just in a different way?

    I have to admit, I am also wondering about the difference between a Druid and nature Cleric and if they really need to be different classes?  It seems the Druid should be more like a shaman, talking to spirits, but they don't really have that feel.  I dunno... maybe it's just me.

Fighter
Fighting Style - choose from a list of bonuses with certain weapons or ways of fighting.  Generally a small bonus to hit, or damage, or defense/AC.

    This feels like the meat-and-potatoes of the fighter, being the best with weapons and situations, but by default you can only choose one.  Again, previous editions are messing with me here, generally the fighter was the one who had a whole lot of combat options so seeing them reduced to just one feels weird.  Also, I'm detecting a general trend throughout the classes that each gets one main ability that grows over time and one minor ability that provides a relatively small and static bonus.  In which case, this is baffling for the fighter.  If you gained a new style every 2 levels you would parallel all the spellcasters who gain a new tier of spells every 2 levels - but you don't.  Why not?  Even the Barbarian's Rage increases over time/levels.

Second Wind - you can heal once in-between any rest (short or long)

    This works, as the minor backup ability it is not super strong, and it fits the archetype, you can stay in the fight longer than anyone else (before resorting to magic).

Monk
Unarmored Defense - with no armor or shield add your Wis mod to AC.

    This is like the Barbarian, basically you've got the same AC without armor as most other classes do with it.  It makes me wonder though, how much of a benefit is that?  What downsides are there to wearing armor?  It takes time to put on or take off, that might be bad in some limited circumstances.  It costs money, but most classes who can wear it get it for free, and in most every game on earth money is only a short-term problem (since making a balanced RPG economy appears to be impossible).  Some types do give a penalty to stealth, which only matters if that's what you're doing - and the Barbarian does not seem like a stealth class, the Monk a little more-so, but really the Rogue is going to be the sneaky one.  Armor does have a weight, again though, how much of problem is that really?  Assuming you even track it, since most games I've ever played ignored encumbrance (honestly, just how much dramatic potential is there in encumbrance?).  Anyways, this is a useful ability in it's way, I'm just starting to wonder what it really means if non-armored characters have about the same ACs as armored characters - what's the point then?  They are not really different in any meaningful way I can detect.  Again, maybe this just bugs me and not anybody else.

Martial Arts - you gain special abilities with any "monk weapon" which are all simple melee weapons that don't have the heavy or two-handed properties - and shortswords.  With these monk weapons you can: use Dex instead of Str for hit and damage, change the damage die type according to a table (which increases over time), and make an unarmed strike as a bonus action.

    Okay, umm... what to say about this one.  This is the "main" ability, the one that's going to grow over time, and it's pretty weak in a lot of ways.  First, the definition of "monk weapons" is passable - but falls short of any actual martial arts style (well, okay, given how badly generalized the weapons are, I guess it's that terrible - but the dojo fight in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is playing in my mind, though you could argue that was between two Fighters or a Monk and Fighter).  Also, the little note that nunchaku are just re-named clubs and use the club stats - uh... wow.... no.  Big no there.  Here's the easiest way to dispel that one, what are the odds of hitting yourself when swinging a club?  Now compare that to the odds of hitting yourself with nunchaku.  Seriously, that's one of those comments that tells you the person has never done the thing they're talking about (while not a nunchaku expert by a light-year, I have swung the damn things and discovered how tricky they are to use properly).  This goes with the whip and blowgun as lumping weapons together for simplicity in a bad way.
    The damage is a joke.  There are 9 weapons that qualify as "monk," 5 of them do more damage (d6) than the starting d4 - the others do the same damage.  So you literally cannot notice this ability at first level.  It takes until 5th level to see the difference (somewhat), and until 11th level (half your entire career, the chart stops at 20 after all) for an across-the-board benefit.
    The free "finesse" (use Dex instead of Str) is okay, there is only 1 monk weapon that already has it, so you add it to most of them.
    The bonus unarmed strike is also okay, but just feels a little weird.  Even if using a weapon, you don't make an extra weapon attack, it's an unarmed attack.  So instead of hitting somebody again with your enchanted dagger you're going to punch them?  It's another one of those things that I can see the reason for, and at the same time I kind of question the reason for.  If that unarmed attack can be changed to a maneuver (trip, disarm, etc) I'd see it a lot more (not sure if there's an ability to do that though).
    I'm not very fond of this ability.  It's one of the cornerstones of the Monk's definition, and it is okay but not great - and I'm picturing it next to the Barbarian's Rage and the Fighter's Fighting Style.  The Barb has a lot higher modifiers, but is limited to just 2 fights (at first, that goes up though), while the Monk and Ftr are small but constant - that seems balancing, but still, I don't know.  I almost feel like this is better than the Fighter's Styles, and actually, it is - while the Monk starts a little weak, they do at least grow over time while the Fighter is a one-and-done.

Paladin
Divine Sense - you can detect and celestial, fiend or undead within 60 feet and not behind total cover.  You know the type (broadly, literally just "celestial," "fiend," or "undead") but not the specific identity.  You can also detect any area that has been consecrated or desecrated via spell.  Usable 1 + Cha mod per day (long rest).

    Okay, every part of this bugs me.  60 feet is a semi-decent range, kinda close, but only if the creature isn't in total cover?  Why?  What are you doing to sense this then?  So a zombie behind you, got it, but one behind a door, nope... ?  Again, why not if your sight doesn't enter into it (again, behind you is not forbidden) ?  And I'm reading this as they wrote it, that you can only detect "undead" and not "vampire."  That may be bad writing in the rules, since "Lestat" is forbidden (granted, they use "Strahd").  So what you ask- well different types of undead have different types of abilities, so knowing "zombie" or "vampire" is actually helpful (heck, even just "weak" undead or "strong" undead).  The spell is fine, though you should also be able to detect the deity the area has been devoted to, IMHO.  And lastly, why the per-day usage?  First, it's not like the ability is so powerful, it can only detect 3 kinds of monsters (arguably 2, since celestials should be friendly to the presumably good character).  Second, again what exactly are you doing that is so stressful that you can't maintain it?  All of the other "minor" abilities so far have been passive, or "always on."

Lay On Hands - you can heal your level x5 HP per day, for 5 HP you can heal one poison or disease effect.

    As the "main" ability this seems a little limited, but it is helpful.  Free healing is not a bad thing, and being able to use it on poison or disease at first level is not bad (though, either would take your whole healing allotment, so you'd have to debate not healing anyone if you though you might need to heal poison or disease).  It does level up, being able to heal more points each level.  Still, it doesn't grow in having any new or expanded options over time.

Ranger
Favored Enemy - choose 1 type of creature, or 2 types of humanoids: you have Advantage on Wis/ Survival to track and Int to recall information about them, and can speak their language.  Choose another at 6th and 14th levels.

    Okay, this is hands-down the crappiest "favored enemy" in any RPG I can think of.  This ability is total garbage, and it's insulting that the designers though this was actually worthwhile.  Call this "Creature Lore" since there is actually nothing offensive or combative in the ability (which kinda sucks if that's the type of character you're trying to make).

Natural Explorer - choose one terrain type, double your proficiency mod and gain several bonuses in that terrain.

    This one is not bad, the mechanical bonus is nothing to sneeze at, and the various abilities are all useful to some degree.  Half the abilities apply to the whole group, so one Ranger makes quite a difference to how the party travels.

Rogue
Expertise - choose 2 skill proficiencies, or 1 skill and thieves' tools - double your proficiency bonus with those.  Choose two more at 6th level.

    Okay, not terrible.  I would prefer gaining 1 extra expertise every 2 levels (so you'd have 2 at 5th level, one of those at 3rd, and would keep growing after 5th) to be more in line with the spell progression - but this is not too bad.

Sneak Attack - do extra damage, starting at d6 and increasing to distracted foes.  A foe is distracted if you: have advantage to hit them with a finess or ranged weapon, or there is an ally threatening the enemy and you don't have disadvantage on the attack.

    Rogues have always back-stabbed, and they always will.  I'm not sure that's right for the class in some ways, but it doesn't hurt.  The qualifiers get a little long, and the wording is tortured.  The document talks about "the enemy isn't incapacitated" but it's referring to the enemy of your enemy, hence my using the word "ally." (hey, enemy of my enemy... right?)

Theives' Cant - you can pass secret messages face-to-face (takes 4 times longer) with others who speak this, and write short messages.

    Rogues are the only class to get 3 abilities at first level, and I'm cool with that since one is their secret language, which works better as a bonus ability then the Druid's minor ability.  Also, why do secret messages take 4 times longer and why do I care as GM or PC?

Sorcerer
Spellcasting - bet you thought I forgot about spellcasting?  Nope, the Ranger and Paladin can also cast spells, just not until 2nd level, so the spellcasters have been hiding among us :)
Sorcerous Origin - like the Cleric the SRD only has 1 choice, and the ability gives multiple benefits which also level up over time.  I do really like the idea that Sorcerers have a tie to some otherworldly origin, it just sounds cool.  It seems to be a decent ability, perhaps even a little over-powered for being the "minor" ability.

Warlock
Otherworldly Patron - again, like the Cleric and Sorcerer you get multiple benefits that level up.
Pact Magic - Warlock magic is even weirder than the other spellcasters, which I'll cover next post.

Wizard
Spellcasting - the final, and quintessential spellcaster.
Arcane Recovery - you can recover half you level (rounded up) in spells between short rests.  This is actually a pretty good ability, it is not too powerful and it helps bolster one of the weakness of the class (which is totally reliant/ dependent on casting spells).


    Okay, so with the general pattern of Major and Minor ability there is a lot of variation in the classes.  I think non-spellcasters seem to get the shorter end of the stick, since their abilities do not tend to upgrade as fast or expand as regularly as the casters.  But it's not a huge difference overall, though I think it's noticeable enough that it could stand to get fixed.  I'll have to think about that.
    Not done yet, with the prevalence of spellcasters we'll look at them next before we can say we've covered the basics of the class abilities.  Until next week :)