The Revised Rulebook - Update v105
Added 2023-08-08 02:31:11 +0000 UTCFriends, Aurans, countrymen - I give you v105 of the ACKS II Revised Rulebook. This update is relatively small as we are very close to finalizing the text. A few changes to note:
- "ordinary damage" has been renamed "mundane damage". This re-labeling avoids confusion with natural language references to the ordinary damage that an attack does in the absence of e.g. a backstab.
- "magic damage" has been renamed "extraordinary damage". This re-labeling emphasizes that, while the underlying metaphysics and physics of the fantasy setting are ubiquitously magical (e.g. giants that violate the square-cube law walk the earth, creatures that couldn't fly can fly), without necessarily being "magic" in the sense of spells-and-items.
- The mechanics by which creatures deal mundane vs extraordinary damage have been clarified. The overall mechanic is similar to that in ACKS I, except that animals need to be of at least Huge size as well as 5HD+ in order to deal extraordinary damage.
- A number of classes have had their proficiency lists revised to grant them access to more interesting proficiencies.
- A missing spell, Life Transfer, has been added to the spell descriptions.
- The explorer's range of familiar territory is now keyed off "settled terrain" rather than "civilized terrain." This avoids the absurd outcome of an explorer only being able to go 24 miles from Cyfaraun without losing his class powers. (Oops)
- A large and thorough editing and proofreading effort by Arbrethil has eliminated the numerous typos and errors in the text. (Thanks Arbrethil!)
- A comprehensive review of template encumbrance by Piisami which discovered a number of weighty errors (sorry) in the encumbrance math. (Thanks Piisami!)
