Thus ends another busy month of sabre system development. I keep saying 'no more big changes' but then along come more big changes. I'm going to stop making that promise! The major part of work this month was the re-write of the magic system. After first creating the 5-tier spell point system in Sabre four years ago, I realised that there was a better way, where there are just spells (no tiers or levels) and you can spend additional points to buff them as you cast. Since I'd just finished writing the original system I wasn't keen on redoing it from scratch, but lately players have been coming to the same conclusion and urging me to do this change. You might have seen a hint of it with the armour spells, but what I've done now is apply this change to the entire magic system.
Magic System Rewrite
The amount of changes are far too numerous to go into detail here, except to say that the system is more flexible and there's no more duplication of spell effects at different tiers. Most of the spells remain intact, but now have additional abilities written up in the full description. If there is a downside, it's that you'll need to have the full description in front of you to see what you can do with a spell, but the effects are similar across the board, such as 'Increase spell range by 10 metres' or 'Increase damage by +5'. The patch notes below have more detail, but you'll really just need to read through the magic section to see what's what.
Armour System Balance
One of the questions I've been asked lately is 'what does a dedicated fighter bring to the party?' This is a very valid point, given how cool magic can be. The answer to this question was put forward by one of my contributors (thanks Ed!) who crunched the numbers and suggested a pretty substantial change to how armour and spells interact. All this time, I've been trying to allow some spell casting while wearing armour, mostly to cover the old classic 'armoured cleric' or 'arcane blade' style of fighter/mage, but now we've come up with a better way. The patch notes have the individual updates, but basically you can't wear any armour and still use Greater Magic. The only exception to this is the War devotion for divine magic, and that you can now use Lesser Magic in armour without penalty. Now, although you can't mix and match armour like before by default, special materials can still play a part, specifically wyvern and dragon skin leather, and mithral armour allow spellcasting without penalty. Some of them even stack with the Auric Armour spells that spellcasters can use, so if you're prepared to pay top prices for equipment, you can indeed be a fighting wizard or what have you.
This means that if the party wants people with lots of armour for absorbing damage, it'll most likely have to be a warrior in medium or heavy armour, as it should be! Spellcasters still have a bit of magic armour and other spells for protection, fear not.
Art Update
Well, instead of spending the month creating art, I spent most of the time on that magic overhaul! Mechanics and play overrule art I figure, but at least I finished one piece for the humans. I had started on the elf art but the elves I created looked very human! My style is improving so I'm redoing those elf characters and that should be done soon. With the magic revamp complete I'll (hopefully) just be focusing on the artwork now. Oh, and along with the new artwork is a layout change for the races section with more icons and larger text to make it all easier to see, just like this;
Although this release is done, I still have to update the bestiary's spellcasting monsters and NPC's, which number about 35 or so. I'll get this done asap, but I wanted to get the manual online so you could read up on the new changes.
v2.21 PREMIUM EDITION PATCH NOTES
General
* Added 'The Slow Road' skill advancement optional rule.
* Weapons that 'count as magic' for the purposes of bypassing protection against mundane weaponry are now called 'Auric Weapons'. The term has been added to the Glossary and spells which empower weapons in this way make reference to this new term.
* Added 'Collision' damage type for use with falling and colliding with objects.
* Condensed the file size of the pdf document.
* Improved the detail in the Weapons Modification section.
* Added 'Expanded Cartridge' weapon modification for crossbows.
* The 'Teach' skill's effects can be spread over 8 non-consecutive hours and it's been limited to skills no higher than 70%.
* Efficicent Study talent lets you spend 12 hours a day learning new skills/spells instead of 8.
* 'Reverse Engineering' and 'Eclectic Knowledge' now require double the normal learning time of acquiring a new spell, but there is no money or accolade cost.
* Added the 'Craft (Cooking)' sub-skill.
* Normalised all potions to 1d6+4 for their effects.
* Added more detail to Contacts, including a benefit for each one.
* Added 'Player Contacts' as a way to help player characters know each other prior to the start of the game.
* Pistols, Longarms and Martial Arts now use INT+AGI to determine their base skill numbers.
* Added a section for Recommended Character Builds to help new players make a character that fits a certain role in the party, such as Tank or Healer.
* Alchemy has been promoted to 'Greater Magic', and has its own background.
* Added 'Warrior Savant' 99% Martial Arts talent.
* 'Drunker Master' Martial Arts talent has been lowered to 90% skill requirement.
* Revamped the race section, with more detail and a better layout for easier reading.
* Added art for the Human race (yay finally, more on the way).
* Added 'Sneak Shot' pistol manoeuvre.
* You can no longer move before taking a Death Blow action.
Armour Revision
* Removed the 'Endurance Training' talent.
* Greater Magic spells can no longer be cast at all while wearing any armour (the War devotion of divine magic is the exception).
* Lesser Magic spells can be cast in any kind of armour.
* Wyvern leather is now 5x normal cost, allows for the casting of Greater Magic spells and stacks with Auric Armour.
* Basilisk leather is now 3x normal cost.
* Spells which grant Auric Armour have been reduced in power, thus giving dedicated fighters a proper role as damage tanks within a party.
Magic System Revamp
* Revised the magic system to be 'tierless', with each spell costing 1 Spirit Point to cast but with built-in bonuses that can be added with the expenditure of more Spirit Points.
* The amount of Spirit Points that can be spent on a spell during casting (known as Spell Power) is limited by the character's skill level: 0%-49%=1, 51%-69%=2, 70%-89%=3, 90%-98%=4, 99%=5 and their Intelligence Attribute (it's all on one table, should be clear how it works).
* Spells have been removed where their power was either duplicated, or integrated into another spell of a given field of magic. This has condensed the spell list across the board.
* Removed the 'Channeled Spirit' and 'Expert Channel' magic talents (they are now effectively integrated into each spell).
* Spell cost and learning time is now adjusted by the INT of the spellcaster, just like skills (but cheaper/faster).
* Made it clear in the Attributes section that INT dictates the maximum number of spells and skills that can be learned.
* Fixed legacy rules and errors throughout the spell system.
v1.51BASIC EDITION PATCH NOTES
General
* The Backgrounds list now denotes which backgrounds give Greater Magic skills as part of their skill set.
* Weapons that 'count as magic' for the purposes of bypassing protection against mundane weaponry are now called 'Auric Weapons'. The term has been added to the Glossary and spells which empower weapons in this way make reference to this new term.
* Condensed the file size of the pdf document.
* The 'Teach' skill's effects can be spread over 8 non-consecutive hours.
* Efficicent Study talent lets you spend 12 hours a day learning new skills/spells instead of 8.
* 'Eclectic Knowledge' now requires double the normal learning time of acquiring a new wizard spell, but there is no money or accolade cost.
* Added more detail to Contacts, including a benefit for each one.
* Added 'Player Contacts' as a way to help player characters know each other prior to the start of the game.
* Pistols, Longarms and Martial Arts now use INT+AGI to determine their base skill numbers.
* Added a section for Recommended Character Builds to help new players make a character that fits a certain role in the party, such as Tank or Healer.
* Revamped the race section, with more detail and a better layout for easier reading.
* Added art for the Human race (yay finally, more on the way).
* Normalised all potions to 1d6+4 for their effects.
* Added 'Collision' damage type for use with falling and colliding with objects.
Armour Revision
* Removed the 'Endurance Training' talent.
* Greater Magic spells can no longer be cast at all while wearing any armour (the War devotion of divine magic is the exception).
* Lesser Magic spells can be cast in any kind of armour.
* Wyvern leather is now 5x normal cost, allows for the casting of Greater Magic spells and stacks with Auric Armour.
* Basilisk leather is now 3x normal cost.
* Spells which grant Auric Armour have been reduced in power, thus giving dedicated fighters a proper role as damage tanks within a party.
Magic System Revamp
* Revised the magic system to be 'tierless', with each spell costing 1 Spirit Point to cast but with built-in bonuses that can be added with the expenditure of more Spirit Points.
* The amount of Spirit Points that can be spent on a spell during casting (known as Spell empowerment) is limited by the character's skill level: 0%-49%=1, 51%-69%=2, 70%-89%=3, 90%-98%=4, 99%=5 and their Intelligence Attribute (it's all on one table, should be clear how it works).
* Spells have been removed where their power was either duplicated, or integrated into another spell of a given field of magic. This has condensed the spell list across the board.
* Removed the 'Channeled Spirit' and 'Expert Channel' magic talents (they are now effectively integrated into each spell).
* Spell cost and learning time is now adjusted by the INT of the spellcaster, just like skills (but cheaper/faster).
* Made it clear in the Attributes section that INT dictates the maximum number of spells and skills that can be learned.
* Fixed legacy rules and errors throughout the spell system.