Update/Change Log

The 'big' update:

All classes get a level-based class bonus to AC. This counters the low AC issue that affected FFRPS. Now, attack bonuses are more important than even in D&D. Class bonus to AC is similar to Dodge bonuses, in that whenever you are flat-footed or otherwise denied your Dexterity bonus, you are denied your Class bonus to AC.

Armor still grants AC and AR, and is now slightly harder to wear as most classes are less proficient with armor (no class starts proficient with heavy armor, for example).

Other updates:

Modified the Rogue class: Rogues have Sneak Attack again, instead of Precise Attack. Sneak Attack damage is dealt to Vitality first (even on a critical hit), unless the target has no Vitality remaining.

Added/Finished the Mime prestige class. The Mime is able to mimic the class features of nearly any class, although not to the level of ability of that class, and only one class at a time. Only Humans or races with access to Human racial feats *coughhalf-elvescough* can become a mime.

In closing:

The class bonus to AC shifts importance back to attack bonus as opposed to damage, as characters will simply be harder to hit in combat. This slightly makes the Parry ability less powerful, but I feel that it was possibly too powerful before. The class bonus to AC will have to be tested to make sure everything is balanced, but I foresee very little tweaking to be needed.

I gave rogues the sneak attack ability because of a couple of reasons. The precise attack ability, while good, was terribly hard to word correctly, and therefore its meaning was lost in poor wording. Also, with the scout's skirmish ability, as well as a few other classes' ability to deal additional dice of damage, the rogue's sneak attack damage wasn't as overpowering as it was before these classes were added/modified.

Finally, I've started to upload some of the completed .rtf files that I use as the core of FFRPS. So far, only 14 of the core classes, the npc classes, and the mime prestige class is uploaded.

You can access these files here: [url]www.opnpw.com/saber/srd/[/url]. Enjoy!

EDIT: Added more completed files to the srd folder above.

Finished the Burmecian Paragon today, and uploaded all finished racial paragon sheets to the srd. Gonna edit the advanced and prestige classes to fit the new class bonus to AC, and will upload those soon.

Afterwards, I'll resume work on modifying spells to fit FFRPS's VP/WP system.

Added a temp folder to www.opnpw.com/saber/srd for files that aren't done enough to be permanent.

Added the sheet for weapons to the temp folder: It'll be a long time until that sheet is added to the finished section, because there's an insane amount of text I need to change over and add for each of the weapon's descriptions, as well as how everything pertaining to critical hits reads. Also, please note that not all of the weapons' stats are listed yet. Many more still need to be added.

I've come up with an ingenious way to handle food consumption for FFRPS: Every time you eat a meal, you restore VP. A ration restores 1 vp, 'poor' meals restore 1 vp, 'common' meals restore 2 vp, and 'good' meals restore 4 vp. You can only eat a maximum of three 'meals' a day, and they must be at least 3 hrs apart. I figure this'll get rid of me having to wonder "Hey... Did they eat anything for the past 20 days?" 'cuz there's actually an incentive to eating now... Other than avoiding starvation, of course.

Added new advanced class: The Knight. It's all shiny. Take [url=http://www.opnpw.com/saber/srd/classes/advanced/Knight.rtf]a look[/url] and critique! I'm certain it's not perfect, so any suggestions are welcome.

Next on the list of things to do: The White Mage and Black Mage Prestige Classes. Coming soon.

Entirely retooled the Duelist class and uploaded it. Feel free to critique that as well.

Finally found a way to acknowledge the unbalancing of weaponlike spells in FFRPS. I'll start with the percieved problem.

In FFRPS, each class is granted a Class Bonus to AC. At 1st level, it varies from a +1 bonus to a +3 bonus to AC. This bonus is similar to a Dodge bonus, and is lost if flat-footed. Also in FFRPS, armor grants less AC.

This makes touch attacks innately less effective. Let's take a look at statistics right now, shall we?

A 1st level Fighter with 10s as his stats, and a 1st level Wizard with 10s as his stats (assume 11 for Int, so he can cast 1st lvl spells). In D&D, the wizard would have a +0 ranged or melee touch attack to hit the fighter with his weapon like spells. Assuming the fighter has no bonuses that would affect his touch AC, the wizard would have to roll a 10 or better to hit; 55% chance.

In FFRPS, things go a little different. The wizard still has a +0 to his attacks, but the fighter now has a bonus to his touch ac, in this case, +3 (if he's a fighter class character). This makes the wizard need a 13 or better to hit; 40% chance.

This, may or may not, seem like a big deal. Well, when you consider that the spellcaster already has a limited number of spells that he's able to cast a day, missing one is a big deal. And when you miss even more, that's a really big deal.

Proposed solution is multi-step. First, a small rules change:

All spells have a bonus to their attack rolls equal to their spell level.

So, in the above example, the wizard now has a +1 to his attack roll, needing a 12 or better; 45% chance to hit. Now, admittedly, this is only a 5% difference. As both characters level, their bonuses (to AC, to base attack bonus, and spell level) increases. Let's look at a 17th level example.

In D&D, the Fighter would have, again assuming no other modifiers, a touch attack ac of 10. The wizard would have a bab of +8. The wizard needs a 2 to hit; 95% chance. In FFRPS, the fighter would have a touch AC of 21. The wizard would have a bab of +8. Without the above mentioned change, the wizard would need a 13 to hit; 40% chance. With the above mentioned change, and if the wizard was casting a 9th level spell, the wizard would have a +17 bonus to hit, needing a 4 or better to hit; 85% chance.

This proposed change alone will ease the change. Of course, I can't change the rules so spells are able to hit equally well as in D&D, mainly because all attacks in general should hit less often in FFRPS. ACs are a little higher than in D&D. However, there's another part, for if you want your character to be a damage-based spellcaster.

The part I thought of is a feat. It works quite similar to a feat that's already in place. I present to you, Spell Finesse:

[size=14]SPELL FINESSE[/size] [GENERAL]
[b]Prerequisite:[/b] Caster level 1st.
[b]Benefit:[/b] With any weapon-like spell, you may use your primary spellcasting ability score modifier instead of your Strength or Dexterity modifier on attack rolls. If you are wearing any armor or are carrying a shield, its armor check penalty applies to your attack rolls.

As of [u]right now[/u], this rule change and this new feat [b]are implimented[/b] in all current and future FFRPS games.

Please feel free to question or comment on the new rule change. Thanks!

Somewhat important update: Added 'special spell components' to the goods and services page under the www.opnpw.com/saber/srd/temp folder. Take a look! I plan on adding more when I get home tonight.

EDIT: Moved the Goods and Services page to the equipment section, and broke it up into its individual pieces. Made sense to do it this way, so you open what you want.

Added a new section/folder to the srd, '[url=http://www.opnpw.com/saber/srd/characteristics]characteristics[/url]'. It's half of the stuff you used to be able to find in Description, as well as a new page on Action Points. Also, moved the action point related feats to the action points page, as they belong there. Wheee...

Test games always spur me to work on my system... Can you tell?

Did a lot of work tonight on FFRPS, but it's not likely you'll really be able to tell.

#1) Finished both the Characteristics and Description sections, and posted the 'final' (haha, yeah right) revision of both pages in the [url=www.opnpw.com/saber/srd]main srd folder[/url]. With that includes the Height and Weight page with the height and weight chart for all current races. Also, added Steel Giants to the chart on the Age sheet.

#2) This one took the most time. Went over a large number of spells and revised them to fit FFRPS rule structure (ie, hp to vp or wp, mod spells to account for AR, class changes, etc). I'm still not done; it takes utterly forever to read over every individual spell and try to find what doesn't match up with FFRPS. I'm certain there's things I've missed, but fuck if I care. I feel that if I got 95% of the changes that needed to be made, I'm happy. If you happen to spot one, [u]please[/u] let me know via forum PM or the complaints, comments, suggestions thread in this section of the forum. Thanks.

#3) Decided to use the following rules change (modded to FFRPS, of course) to the way the Resurrect spell chain works: [url=www.thegamemechanics.com/freebies/TGM_DeadHeroes.asp]The Game Mechanics: Dead Heroes Aren't Much Fun[/url]. I totally agree with every point the writer makes on this page, and I've debated on adding it to FFRPS for a long time. Tonight kinda forced me to make the decision, and it's offically how these spells will be ran in FFRPS.

Finished revising the PHB spells. Also, started to add spells from other sources that I like. These spells will be noted in their proper listing, as well as in the 'New Spells.rtf' page in the spells folder.

Uploaded a batch of new spells. A total of 20 spells have been added so far. Ones to note are those that improve your familiar, a new Mage Armor series, and some nice low-level Earth subtype spells.

Decided to upload two iconic creatures to the srd, the Bomb and the Yellow Chocobo. Take a look, and as always, feel free to tell me what you think.