Updates and leaky pipes

Right, moving house is still in full swing, and as a result I haven't had the time to do as much Providence work as I wanted. As promised, the Providence Weekly will be up soon, but only until I get full blown Internet rather than huffing off of the local pub's.

Having written up the main characters of the Providence Weekly, I've also noticed a few problems with some of the existing class layouts, including typo's and class design that contradicts the mission statement;

Inquisitors gain small bonuses based on who their adventuring party consists of. This alone is fine, but the 1st level choices become extremely limiting, detailing three specific powers per selection. This defeats the point of Providence, as each style of play is tailored to one ability score, essentially forcing an Inquisitor to behave in a specific manner. This has been resolved. Each power, instead of being grouped into three, are now individual. At 1st level, an Inquisitor chooses three of these powers as his personal oath of service. Many of these powers have an INT based component to be true to their toolbox nature, and existing powers have been re-written to hammer out any confusion.One thing that alarms me is that Inquisitors gain a lot of things in comparison to other classes. Usually, I arrange class growth with one or two independent systems, such as fighter bonus feats or monk martial arts, that grant bonuses at even level. Then, every now and again, the class gains a power that defines it, such as a Sorcerer's Wings of Magic. Inquisitors have a lot of these powers, but all of them run on a large variety of skills. I worry that, since no inquisitor can make good use of the whole list of powers, some of these gifts will essentially be dead weight. Still, as far as numbers go, inquisitors are far from overpowered.

This runs nicely along to Barbarian. Aside from their 1st level choice, of which Barbarian has only a few, there is no other class customisation. Compared to more recent classes, again like Monk or Shadowdancer, this is crippling. These classes gain access to their growth system at 1st level, in Monk's case, two Martial Arts. Barbarian does not, and having run some numbers, Barbarians can't pull the same kind of weight as a Mountainheart Monk.To fight this, barbarians are being given a lot of love to put them back on their pedestal as the number one damage dealer. A Barbarian can choose 3 of their rage powers at 1st level. Since the Providence list of rage powers is a truncated and adjusted version of the pathfinder list, there aren't enough rage powers to see a barbarian into epic play and retain a feeling of individuality, thus the list of rage powers is going to be greatly increased. In addition, the list of rage powers will be rewritten to make its format more in line with the current style.

Chronarchs are a class quite close to my heart, because it is one of the few classes that I feel is original. What can I say? I'm bias.Still, after running several character sheets and listening to my friends, they felt like a one-trick pony. The whole design was built around the use of scythes, and despite a selection of 1st level choices, all of the builds ended in the same manner, were used in the same manner, and attempts to make scythes compete with military weapons was confusing.
Changes have been made.
Scythes have been dropped, so too has Cut the Weave and similar powers based on scythe play. Instead, there are Chronarch feats that grant bonuses to Scythe use to keep the original options open.
Chronarchs are now proficient with military melee weapons, keeping in line to their original basis from Battlemind/Psionic Warrior.
Army of One's effect has been changed. Now Teamwork Feats is the realm of Warlord, there is very little reason to keep the Chronarch's independent reliance on them. Army of One now grants a Warrior's Kairos at 4th level and every 4th level thereafter, which not only grants a bonus to one of the four defences, but a unique power as well. With the Warrior's Kairos, players can make any kind of time bender their minds can conceive of; a mental bastion of saving throws, an iron-hard warrior, a time thief, an unstoppable slayer, or perhaps a certain Time Lord in a blue box. I believe that is a great deal more choice than a dude with a scythe.

Clerics are getting a slight nerf, as are all of the major spellcasters. Because the spell lists of Providence are becoming so extensive, granting all of the 0 level spells as standard becomes a little bit overkill. A 1st level cleric with a high INT is, without competition, the greatest support toolbox in the game.To combat this, each of these classes will be restricted to the number of 0 level spells they gain access to, but their ability to cast them at will will remain unchanged. It is a great depreciation in power, I know, but at the same time the choices a player makes will add a certain degree of flavour to their caster.

The Rangers' Beastmaster Style will be removed from the game. This has had a myriad of balance issues since its inception, and its problems were emphasised in the fallout of Totemic. Not to say that the idea has been abandoned, it will merely be absent from Ranger. In fact, the full design for another Martial class, Beastmaster, has already been written, but the controls of the pets are still up in the air with the coming of the monster manual, which I'll get to later.

There are a few new classes in the works to fill the remaining holes in the power sources. As mentioned above, Beastmaster is a melee pet class, and is a more fiddly Martial class to counteract the more straightforward classes in the group. Runepriest is a dedicated Divine damage dealer, and will be blessed with a 1st level knowledge of Supernal and Infernal. It works by assembling letters, each possessing a very minor effect, and creating a word, which augments the Runepriest's next attack. It's still under immense construction.

Pariah is Providence's answer to Wilder. Instead of casting Psionic spells, a Pariah gains powers as they grow in level. When certain powers are used in succession, the results are impressively explosive. In addition, the nature of these powers change dependant on the Pariah's emotional state.

Puppetmaster doesn't fill a role, and chances are, it will be abandoned. Originally the pet option for Artificer, the concept if a fully customisable robot to be controlled like a second character, but since it doesn't fill a mechanical role, it will most likely be scrapped.

The Providence Monster Manual is beginning to be written. Instead of previous monster manuals, which provide one monster template for one monster level and given a rough scaling formula, I want to try something a little different. What I envision is a monster generation book that gives specific templates,allowing for pick up and play monster stats, as well as a method of creating balanced and easily scalable monsters.
Specific Monsters will be given a similar layout like the Race layouts, detailing ability score bonuses, racial powers and the like.
Monsters will grow similar to players. Monster subtypes grant a selection of powers at 2nd level and every 4th level thereafter, reflecting a monster's beastly heritage.
Taking off from where 4E started, there will be monster classes that grant bonuses at 1st level, 4th level and every 4th level thereafter. Classes such as Brute, Warrior and Leader allow for monstrous flavour, whilst allowing a clever GM to make tricky dungeon dwellers. At 5 level intervals, there are prompts for GMs to create their own optional powers for these monsters, specific twists that fits into their campaign or make a specific boss unique.
On top of all this, monster stats and classes are interchangeable with player stats and races. Why not have a human rabble of Minions, or an untrained pit fighter NPC be represented as a Brute? Equally, if you want to create a lasting necromancer archenemy for your heroes, give him some player class levels to make his level of power more apparent.

Are you excited for the coming year? I am.