mighty28 wrote:
I would like to also add that significant tweaks like this have happened "late in the game" in every campaign I have played. In LG, they changed how Ray attacks worked in regards to sneak attack dice, causing one friend to make significant changes to his Arcane Trickster. Another had to completely re-tool his fire Mage at Level 18 or so.
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We understand and empathize that this will create problems for some characters. But, as Cody pointed out, male Ssressen are second class citizens. They are bred to hunt, fight, do menial labor, and possibly breed.
It could be that my experiences have been different because I have not played much d20 league (besides 4e where Hasbro/WotC was
very permissive (I don't think anything was ever banned or changed significantly - the rule was "if we publish it, you can use it")). I've just played many other games and I don't remember any character-killing errata/changes anywhere near 5 years into the game/campaign.
I understand that males are second-class citizens but having Templars with DSC makes them much more effective as fighters - something that should be desirable given the relatively low Black Talon numbers.
I'm apparently the only one on the forums massively opposed to this change so I don't really expect a reversal (though I'm still hopeful). I'll just try to sum up briefly why this bothers me so much and why it might be a bad idea (some of this assumes existing characters must be rebuilt and will not be grandfathered):
- The ARG rules have clearly and unambiguously said that male Ss'ressen Templars can take DSC for 5 years.
- There has never been a hint that this was not intended. The first even hint of any change was Cody's announcement earlier in this thread lumping male Ss'ressen in with others that have had significant questions/confusion.
- There has never been any question about it on the forums. I think everything else in Cody's announcement has been questioned openly on the forums (and all(?) previous similar errata had similar discussions).
- Players have characters built around this rule that they've spent significant time and effort on for 4+ years.
- This is potentially a character-killing change. Is this change worth potentially alienating players? Given the Arcanis player base, is it worth risking losing even one die-hard player?
- The change does not mechanically improve the game (eg it's not fixing anything that is broken).
- I believe some other significant changes have been deferred until a possible 2nd edition. What makes this one important enough to include now?
If existing characters will be forced to rebuild, can that at least be deferred until the new Ssethregore book is released (assuming the campaign guide will be out first)?