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Playtest Group of the Month
(March)

Playtesters At Work:

In case you were wondering what kind of impact playtesters can have on 3rd Edition, here is an example of playtester feedback and the resulting changes to the rules document. What you're seeing here is the "before" and "after" versions of the rules. Sandwiched in between is the excerpt from the playtesters' report that helped convince us to make the change.

3/31/00 From the playtest document:

Observation from Todd Antill’s playtest group:

"I had a little question about the spell Enchant Arms and Armor. Where it says that it costs 1/40 th the cost of item in XP, does this mean that a spell-caster must sacrifice experience to create the item? Also, the spell seems a bit powerful for 3rd level. Just look at Enchanted Weapon, a 4th-level spell. It makes a weapon magical for only a short period of time, while Enchant Arms and Armor does so for good.

I really like the uniformity of magical item creation, with the new spells, though. This is really the right direction to go!"

From the revised rules:

As Todd pointed out, the uniformity in the system for creating magic items was a good thing-and we maintained that uniformity while avoiding potential problems related to the casting of spells (such as, Is this spell the right level compared with this other one?) by turning the spells into feats.

Item creation feats are only available to spellcasters, and most of them are not available to a character until he or she has reached a certain level (making them like spells in that respect). The best aspect of the change, for spellcasting characters, is that they don't have to prepare a spell (and use up a spell slot) just because they want to create a magic item. The time it takes to complete the process is now simply expressed as an amount of time, rather than an amount of casting time. An item creation feat can't be interrupted the way the casting of a spell can be, and thus there is no chance of a character not being able to finish the process because he was interrupted or distracted.

3/24/00 From the playtest document:

In the rules for aging and its effect on ability scores, we said that when a character reaches Old Age, his Strength and Dexterity decrease by 2 points each, his Constitution decreases by 1 point, and his Wisdom goes up by 1 point.

When that character reaches Venerable age, he loses 1 point of Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution and gains 1 point of Intelligence and Wisdom.

Observation from Todd Antill’s playtest group:

"Why does your Strength go down more drastically at Old Age than at Venerable?"

From the revised rules:

Changes to ability scores because of age are now standardized, and Todd’s question is resolved.

A character who attains Old Age gets a –2 decrease to all of his physical ability scores (Str, Dex, Con) and a +2 increase to all of his mental ability scores (Int. Wis, Cha). When that character reaches Venerable age, he loses an additional 3 points from each of his physical ability scores and gains 1 more point to each of his mental ability scores.

3/17/00 From the playtest document:

At the start of the sorcerer class description, we said this:

"Unlike wizards, sorcerers wield magic ‘naturally’ or ‘intuitively.’ The sorcerer powers each spell he casts from his own innate magical ability."

Observation from Todd Antill’s playtest group:

"One of my players is running a sorcerer and he has a couple of problems. He is very interested in knowing exacly where his spells come from. My on the fly explanation was that he has learned how to channel his magic through the power of his ancestors. He was looking for a more definitive where, why, and how.

"I am not looking for an explanation, just wanted you to be aware that the question came up."

From the revised rules:

In the next draft of the rules, we went into more detail about the question of where a sorcerer’s spells come from . . . and we may have surprised a few people:

"Sorcerers create magic the way a poet creates poems, with inborn talent honed by practice. They have no books, no mentors, no theories—just raw power that they direct at will.

"Some sorcerers claim that the blood of dragons courses through their veins. It may even be true—it is common knowledge that certain powerful dragons can take humanoid form and even have humanoid lovers, and it’s difficult to prove that a given sorcerer does not have a dragon ancestor."

3/10/00 From the playtest document:

The playtest document introduced and defined metamagic feats, but did not provide a detailed explanation of how the feats are gained and used.

Observation from Todd Antill’s playtest group:

"Can you choose a metamagic feat more than once, and use multiple feats when you prepare spells?"

From the revised rules:

Todd’s questions are answered either directly or indirectly in the new version of the rules design draft.

First, a character selects a certain metamagic feat only once, and afterward can use the feat to enhance any spell he wants to cast.

The new rules go on to say, in a section called "Multiple Metamagic Feats on a Spell":

"A spellcaster can use multiple metamagic feats on a single spell. Changes to its level are cumulative,."

3/3/00 From the playtest document:

On the "Strength and Weight" table were the following figures for how much weight a character or creature with a certain Strength could carry:

Observation from Todd Antill's playtest group:

"One player had a little problem with the weight rules. He thinks that the characters’ carry score is a little bloated."

From the revised rules:

The table is now called "Carrying Capacity," and the numbers for how much weight a character or creature with low Strength can carry have been scaled down. In addition, the table includes figures for Medium Load (which slows you down) and Heavy Load (which slows you down even more):