Big adventure game patch notes

V 0.2.3.1 - 09/25/24 - BETA PATCH 12

FEATURES:

NEUTRAL:

Chef: Changed prerequisite from 2 MND & 2 SEN to 2 VIT, OR 2 MND, OR 2 SEN

SPELLS:

BUFFS:

The Sphere mod now has a variable cost of 3-5, with each additional SP increasing the radius by 5. (3 is 10 feet, 4 is 15 feet, 5 is 20 feet.)
Circle of Empowerment: Increased radius from 10 to 15.
Circle of Regeneration: Increased radius from 10 to 15, decreased SP cost from 8 to 6, removed extended mod, added empowered mod. Still mathematically the best “out-of-combat” healing, but now doesn’t suck as much in combat.

OTHER STUFF:

Rearranged the order of a few PHB rules for smoother reading (will stop for now and do more in V1.0).
Clarified the training point distribution process, the caps on training points, and what can exceed those caps.
Think action options for [a lore thing] and [creature type] have been rolled into a 2-for-1 deal, since a creature’s type and its implications may vary depending on a setting’s lore.
Poisons can now only be applied to 5 pieces of ammo, rather than 10.
Added a “potion-able” icon to the PHB to quickly indicate which spells can be made into potions, and text explaining this further in three places (Symbology, Spellcasting, and Potions).
Made it so that the training downtime activity no longer completely bypasses Improvement Points. You can still gain training points this way while your party members do other stuff with their downtime, but now it forces you to gain the correct amount of IP instead of bypassing the system altogether.
Some typo corrections and formatting fixes.

V 0.2.1.5 - 08/09/24 - BETA PATCH 11

FEATURES:

NEUTRAL:

Frightening Criticals: Changed prereq from 2 STR & 2 CHA to 2 STR & 5 Intimidation
Performer: Now has a Performance prerequisite because duh
As a non-mage character, there was very little incentive to ever increase your MGC attribute to anything higher than -2, making the idea of having -1 or 0 MGC seem pointless during attribute assignment (aside from the tiny increase to MGC saving throws), while the benefit of getting other stats to 0 was more clear. The following features have had their prereqs changed to make “subtly magic” character concepts more interesting, and a few additional features coming in the V1.0 book will also have similar prereqs.
- Powerful Words: Changed prereq from 4 CHA to 3 CHA & -1 MGC
- Resistant: Changed prereq from 1 VIT & 1 MGC to 2 VIT & 0 MGC
- Share Burdens: Changed prereq from 1 VIT & 2 MGC to 3 VIT & 0 MGC
- Sleepless: Changed prereq from 1 VIT & 3 MND to 3 MND & -1 MGC

OTHER STUFF:

Knowing a spell now allows you to automatically succeed on crafting checks to produce potions and spell scrolls of it (you do still need the crafting kit and materials, or a settlement where you can buy them).
The Think action now includes an option to ask the GM a question about the creature’s lore, besides the existing options for combat info.
Added big, obvious, clarification on how to calculate Passive Detection at the end of the section on assigning training points, since many playtesters have had a tendency to accidentally skip past it.
Character Sheet: flipped carrying capacity “maximum” and “current” boxes, to be consistent with other similar boxes. Added a box for the name of a setting’s primary currency (“gold”, “silver”, etc.). Other minor formatting fixes.
Clarifications in the Attribute point buy.
Some typo corrections and formatting fixes.

V 0.2.1.1 - 07/14/24 - BETA PATCH 10 - first post-show patch

FEATURES:

NERFS:

Adrenaline Boost: This feature now has a 10-minute cooldown. You still get 2 uses per rest, you just can’t use them back-to-back in the same fight.

SPELLS:

NEUTRAL:

Detect Magic and Detect Life: these spells both had a typo listing two separate ranges, and have been corrected to always say the correct range of 60 feet.

SETTING LORE:

Added name of the Elven monarch and royal family.

OTHER STUFF:

Complete reformatting of the travel roles rules, mostly to make them easier to read and understand. The only big mechanical change here is that poor rolls from a tracker/navigator now result in a party traveling slower, instead of traveling in the wrong direction.
Aimed attacks at legs now drop a creature’s speed to a floor of 10, instead of 0, preventing the easy complete immobilization of bipedal creatures.
The rules around readied actions have changed, no longer requiring specific triggers. The action you take still must be specific, but you can decide to use it at any reasonable time. For example, you no longer need to say “I will ready a shot with my longbow for when the NPC attacks”. You now say “I ready a shot with my longbow”, and you can fire that shot at any time before your next turn.
Craftable wands’ material cost changed to a magical corpse excluding humanoids, so people aren’t running around hunting humanoid wizards for crafting materials.
Performance has been removed as an option for the Reputation Building downtime activity, since this is meant to be a special option granted by the Performer feature.
Some typo corrections and formatting fixes.

V 0.1.1.9 - 07/02/24 - BETA PATCH 9

SETTING LORE:

Changed some of the names of Iborian leaders to sound a little more fantasy-Roman, rather than default-fantasy-English. A fuller map of Iborian social structure will be provided in V1.0.
Added a modified version of the seven deadly sins to the Clergy’s beliefs.

OTHER STUFF:

Added a textured background to the PHB and GMG, hopefully slightly easing eye strain vs. the old all white. I know this makes the files larger - I plan to offer an “optimized” version of the final rulebooks, but just sticking to one version for now to save time on re-exports.
Added a sentence to the “Flavor is Free” section of the PHB, explaining that features are also able to be re-flavored.
Character sheet: changed the way training points are noted for the light and medium melee skills, hopefully eliminating confusion about how thrown modifiers are calculated.
Some typo corrections and formatting fixes.

V 0.1.1.7 - 06/07/24 - BETA PATCH 8

- Adjusted IP costs for core attribute upgrades. Now, upgrading an attribute beyond 5 costs twice as much (lower upgrades unchanged). I came to the realization that a mage character could spend their first 90 IP going from 5 MGC to 8 MGC, which could happen relatively early in a campaign and destabilize things with very powerful spells. Less egregious, but a martial character could do the same with STR, potentially becoming one of the strongest people in the world after only a few sessions, and it was all just a little too fast. This way min-maxing is still possible, but it comes with more risk and takes longer to achieve those upper tier.
- Altered the material cost of the Attribute Enhancement enchantment to make it harder to acquire.
- Altered the material cost of the Speed Enhancing and Wand enchantments to make them easier to acquire.
- More efficient abbreviation of the cheat sheet, allowing for slightly more information to be squeezed in.
- Some typo corrections and formatting fixes. (more than usual)

V 0.1.1.5 - 05/16/24 - BETA PATCH 7

Features:

NEUTRAL:

Minor clarifications to the language of some disability features. No functional changes, just some clearer wording across the board.

SPELLS:

NEUTRAL:

The “Wonderwall” spell in the How To Homebrew section of the GMG has had its language updated to use the wording from the Wall of Fire and Wall of Stone spells coming in the full version of the book.

NPCs:

BUFFS:

Added the Sturdy feature to the following NPCs: Adult Dragon, Ancient Dragon, Eye Monster, Giant Sand Worm, Metal Golem, Hydra, Kraken, Lich, Master Vampire, & Werewolf
Added the Quick Attacker feature to the following NPCs: Adult Dragon, Ancient Dragon, Eye Monster, Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Stone Giants, Kraken, Master Vampire, & Werewolf
Author’s Note: The above changes are intended to make rare and legendary monsters feel more significant to parties capable of big burst damage, without simply increasing their HP to needlessly high numbers.

SETTING LORE:

Added a section describing the appearances of the Lineages in Krataris.

OTHER STUFF:

Clarified that the “extra training point” Backstory Boon option can be applied to any skill, regardless of how many training points are already in it.
Some typos and formatting fixes.

V 0.1.1.3 - 05/01/24 - BETA PATCH 6

NPCs:

NEUTRAL:

Several changes to the Earth, Ice, and Lightning Elementals. Mostly just corrections to some text that was copy/pasted in error across several of them, and minor stat bumps and drops to differentiate them slightly.

OTHER STUFF:

Rule change: Now, when you score a critical hit (nat 20) on an attack roll, you ignore any negative modifiers to the damage. This is mostly meaningful in those rare cases where a low-STR character is forced to use a weapon attack, and would like a crit to actually feel good.
The “damaged” weapon modification can now also be applied to armor.
A few other minor text fixes to clarify other modification functions.
Some typos and formatting fixes (a lot of them this time actually).

SETTING LORE:

Changed the list of stoneborn names, from being sorted by gender, to a single any/neutral list, since you know, they’re rocks.

V 0.1.1.1 - 04/02/24 - BETA PATCH 5

SPELLS:

- Added the “Shared” spell modification - this allows “self” buff spells to be applied to other characters for +1 SP, opening up more options for support characters to apply buffs to teammates.

- Useable with the following spells: Acid Weapon, Altered Appearance, Awareness, Comprehension, Darkvision, Elemental Ward, Fire Weapon, Flight, Illusory Appearance, Ice Armor, Magic Sight, Stone Skin, Telepathy

- A feature to further support the use of shared spells is coming in the full game (similar to Stealth Mage).

NPCs:

BUFFS:
- Ancient Dragon’s breath now hits in Cone-60 instead of Cone-30. Just seemed appropriate for the big guys.
- Earth and Ice Elemental are now resistant to Prone, reflecting their sturdiness.
- The other 4 basic elementals are now immune to Prone. How the ---- do you trip a blob of air?
- A few NPC’s daggers were erroneously listed as having a thrown range of 30/40 instead of 30/50, and have been fixed.

NEUTRAL:
- Changed Banshee’s scream attack from VIT save to SEN save.
- Giant Sand Worm’s bite was just doing typeless “Damage”, and has been corrected to Piercing.

OTHER STUFF:

- Some typos and formatting fixes.

V 0.1.0.3 - 03/28/24 - BETA PATCH 4

FEATURES:

BUFFS:
- Slicer: Clarified that the nat 20 effect works on any size of creature.
- War God’s Favor: Doubled the HP & SP restored. We had a player use this in the second playtest, and because it only triggers when *YOU* specifically get a kill, it was happening very very rarely, so it’s been made stronger to compensate for its infrequency and unpredictability.

SPELLS:

NEUTRAL:
- Soundwave’s save changed from VIT to SEN
- Blind’s save changed from VIT to SEN

NPCs:

BUFFS:
- Giant Spider Queen’s bite attack was using the numbers from the standard Giant Spider Drone, and has been buffed appropriately. (For people who played the last test, I noticed this *before* we played lol.)

NEUTRAL:
- Harpy’s Shriek attack save changed from VIT to SEN

OTHER STUFF:
- Clarified healing kit rules.
- Some typos and formatting fixes.

V 0.1.0.1 - 03/10/24 - BETA PATCH 3 - FIRST MAJOR BALANCE PASS

FEATURES:

BUFFS:

- Alteration Mage: Now keys off of a d4, increasing the odds of a free spell from ~16% to 25%.
- Always Alert: Initiative bonus changed from +2 to Advantage
- Basic Martial Arts and Unarmored Defense have been merged into one feature, which is now also compatible with Lineages with claws. This should make starting martial artist characters feel more complete, while still offering the benefits of no armor to “barbarian” type characters.
- Chef: Now grants more temporary HP.
- Death God’s Favor: Now removes more death points. Requirement changed from MGC to LCK.
- Dual Wielder: Now also grants a bonus to the Defend action equal to that of having a buckler equipped.
- Eagle Eyed: Now includes lip-reading.
- Frenzy: Disadvantage on a few things removed.
- Gunslinger: Now allows you to knock targets Prone on crits.
- Healing Touch: Can now also end Sickened.
- Illusion Mage: AV buff now lasts 1 hour.
- Interception: Now restores 2 Hero Points per use.
- Mental Mage: Now prevents all creatures adjacent to the caster from making opportunity attacks for 1 round, instead of just letting the caster Disengage for free.
- Necromancy Mage: Now grants 1d8+MGC HP instead of 1d10.
- Peace God’s Blessing: Uses increased from 4 to 6.
- Performer: Now has a Performance prerequisite, but grants bonuses to the reputation building downtime activity.
- Poke: Increased AV penalty to 2.
- Protection Mage: Duration changed to one hour.
- Sea God’s Favor: Increased to 8 hours underwater, and now allows heavy armor.
- Sharpshooter: Aimed attacks increased from 2 to 3 uses.
- Sleepless: Added ability to hear while Unconscious.
- Speedy: Base speed increase has been changed from +5 to +10 (but Sprint bonus remains unchanged), Acrobatics has been added as a prerequisite.
- Spell Mastery: No longer stops working if you run out of SP.

- Thrower: Aimed attacks increased from 2 to 4 uses.
- War God’s Favor: Now restores 1 HP & SP per level of the creature slain, rather than a flat amount.
- Well Traveled: Changed to automatic success on one role, Advantage on two roles.

NERFS:
- Wound Striker: Damage increased to 1d8, but limited to once per round.

NEUTRAL:
- Biological Immortality has been removed. It offered little tangible gameplay benefit, and felt out of place among the others.
- Fleet-Footed’s prerequisite has been changed from SEN to Acrobatics.
- Heavy Hitter: Now allows you to reroll 1s and 2s, instead of just 1s, but only once per attack.
- Holy and Unholy Smites have been merged into a single feature (Smite) that allows you to choose a damage type.
- Rager now states that Rage ends if you fall unconscious (this was always intended, just not stated).
- Point Blank Expert: Damage changed to flat +2 instead of 1d4, melee effect replaced with easier disengagement.
- Sneak Attack: No longer applies to extra things like magic weapon buffs, but now adds REF to damage. This will make it more consistent for general use, without making it OP when buffed.

SPELLS:

BUFFS:
- Awareness: Added Safe mod, increased radius to 15.
- Circle of Pain: Increased radius to 15.
- Detect Life: Increased radius to 60 feet, BUT now can’t detect elementals.
- Detect Magic: Increase radius to 60 feet.
- Draw Aggression: Cost reduced to 1 (considering characters likely to use it won’t have high SP).
- Fairy Dust: Reduced cost to 2SP.
- Ice Armor: Reduced SP cost to 4, changed casting time to quick action.
- Push/Pull: Now allows any direction of movement.
- Soundwave: Added sphere mod.
- Stoneskin: Duration increased to 1 hour.
- Telepathic Link: Added extended mod.
- Thunderblast: Damage die changed from d6 to d8.
- Vine Grasp: Decreased SP cost from 4 to 3.
- Nature Sense: Increased cost from 2 to 3 SP, but you gain all the info in one cast.

NEUTRAL:
- Minor teleport: Changed to quick action (always intended, technically a bug fix).
- Summoning Spells: Changed SP cost to be variable based on summoned creature, like Animal Shapes.

OTHER STUFF:
- Some typos/capitalization/color highlights.
- Wrote clearer wording for the way HP is calculated in both the PHB and GMG.
- Several changes to the pre-made characters to reflect these updates and the first community playtest.

V 0.0.1.1 - 03/03/24 - BETA PATCH 2
- "How to Homebrew" section of the GMG has been added.
- PHB page 15 & 110, wording on thrown attack instructions was slightly unclear, and has been reworded.
- PHB pg 32: Ranger spell list template listed the spell DV as 12, when it should have been 13. Fixed now.

V 0.0.0.2 - 02/26/24 - BETA PATCH 1
- Medium armor was missing its costs and weights, added those in.
- The "Assassin" attributes template is now just as good as the others, instead of being 2 points worse.
- Added a very abbreviated section about movement to rules primer.
- Added a "Line" spell modifier, alongside Sphere and Cone.
- Split slings into light and heavy variations, like crossbows, and added their ammo to the misc items table.
- Typo fixes

V0.0.0.1 - 02/14/24 - BETA LAUNCH VERSION
- Base version of the game, no updates