FrankTrollman at [unixtime wrote:1083527694[/unixtime]]I usually compare to the Core Rogue, although lately I've been thinking that comparisons should be made to the Wizard.
The rogue isn't a bad comparion. He's about in the middle of the power spectrum.
I really don't like using casters as comparison because there's just too muhc you can do with them and too many playing styles, and we're never sure what exactly is allowed with casters. Are we allowing hide life? Wall of iron/fabricate? atral projection...
there's just too much wizards can do which makes them a bad balance standpoint.
The rogue is great because most of his stuff is in the core. You really don't need to use noncore stuff to be a good rogue, so I think that the rogue should be the balance standard.
Besides the obvious suckage of the Soulknife (I viewed it last night at my friend's house), are there any other mechanical or power problems with any of the XPH's classes, powers, or psionic items?
I know there is a lot of hub-bub over the +0 ECL Elan (Aberration) as being overpowered and hue-&-cry over the Blue's +1 ECL as costing too much due to its +2 INT status.
I usually compare to the rogue, too. IMO, it's the perfect class, well-balanced all around for both combat and non-combat. But that's just me. I love rogues.
As for Monks, I disagree w/ Frank a little bit. Even w/o odd rule interps and broken magic, they can be very powerful depending on the campaign b/c they have lots of weird abilities that come into play sometimes and turn very powerful. But none of these abilities synergize well w/ each other, so you don't get uberpowerful at any one thing. OR even reasonably powerful at any one thing.
And, of course, at 20th level you turn into the weakest sort of outsider you could possibly be. Any class that, as its "best" class feature lets you turn into a lame outsider form, should be banned.
The_Hanged_Man at [unixtime wrote:1083609517[/unixtime]] And, of course, at 20th level you turn into the weakest sort of outsider you could possibly be. Any class that, as its "best" class feature lets you turn into a lame outsider form, should be banned.
Why are you weak? You can be raised normally and you have no real disadvantages from this.
Because you don't get any advantages, either. It's lame. Anything that lame shouldn't be part of any class. If it actually makes the class better, the class was so stupid bad the class shouldn't have been created in teh first place. If it doesn't make the class better (which is almost always), why bother?
Wrenfield at [unixtime wrote:1083603064[/unixtime]] I know there is a lot of hub-bub over the +0 ECL Elan (Aberration) as being overpowered and hue-&-cry over the Blue's +1 ECL as costing too much due to its +2 INT status.
The Elan isn't great from what I can see. Psychic reformation lets you swap your feats out at a small xp cost. If you can't find ways to abuse that you're not a min/maxer.
There are various ways to get power points back, I highly doubt similar mechanisms for wizards would be called balenced.
Overall XPH thumps PsiHB senseless. Best D&D psi system ever.
The_Hanged_Man at [unixtime wrote:1083616108[/unixtime]]Because you don't get any advantages, either. It's lame. Anything that lame shouldn't be part of any class. If it actually makes the class better, the class was so stupid bad the class shouldn't have been created in teh first place. If it doesn't make the class better (which is almost always), why bother?
It gives you some damage reduction. DR 10/magic is pretty good in 3.5, despite sucking in 3.0, because many creatures don't attack as though they had magic weapons anymore. Also it grants you immunity to stuff that only targets humanoids, which is a minor advantage, though granted not great for a 20th level character.
Also it grants you immunity to stuff that only targets humanoids, which is a minor advantage, though granted not great for a 20th level character.
That's debatable...
Technically you are now an augmented humanoid, which among other things means that per the subtype rules in the Monster Manual you can be targetted by things which target humanoids.
The Monster Manual is the primary source for type and subtype abilties, the PHB is the primary source for class features. Um... you can make of that what you will.