J.E. Sawyer

1. Yes, people in the same culture often share names, regardless of race. Orlans dominantly come from a few areas: Eir Glanfath (where they tend to have Glanfathan names), the Dyrwood (Glanfathan or Aedyran names), and Ixamitl (loosely, Nahautl names). PM me your ideas. 2. a) There are quite a few military structures/fortified areas in the Dyrwood ranging from fortified cities to castles. The Dyrwood does not have a standing army, but many erls keep professional soldiers organized in groups the size of a platoon or (for high-conflict areas) a company even during peacetime. The Saint's War was fought in part by these private armies but dominantly with peasant soldiers. The Dozen, the twelve men and women who held Dana Eobhainn Bridge to ensure the destruction of St. Waidwen, were all peasants. b) More-or-less yes, though there may be a few differences. The "lieutenant" rank in the Dyrwood uses the title "steadman" but is functionally the same. There are no subdivisions of steadman, sergeant, or corporal ranks. c) Yes. Fortified communities are not uncommon, especially near the Dyrwood/Eir Glanfath border. d) Professional armies serve their employers, who often are nobles (though sometimes simply wealthy individuals). Of course, all of those nobles pledge (and re-pledge) to serve the will of their elected duc. This does not always work in practice. When nobles levy armies in the Dyrwood, they only lawfully do so under a ducal order of conscription. The service that peasants pledge is to the duc and their country, not individual nobles. In practice, they always serve under regional nobles (typically erls and thayns). Erls and thayns hold hereditary positions. Ducs are elected by the seven erls. 3. Lions exist in this world, but are exotic in the Dyrwood. Staelgar are the dominant big cat in Eir Glanfath and the Dyrwood. They have a tiger-like build, lion-like mane and tail, "sabre" teeth, and a dark spotted coat.

By all means, design whatever you want, but if every backer at this tier insists on proposing the equivalent of +5 holy avenger long swords, the likelihood that a given player will see any one of them will spiral downward. Applebane was an example of an item that a huge number of players saw (and evidently, remember), not what I actually think backers should propose. This is the backers' chance to design an item for the game. Maybe you want to propose the equivalent of a +1 icy morning star or a suit of +2 hide armor. Or, maybe you really do want a +3 long sword. If a backer uses this opportunity to design something that's like hundreds of other items, it may not stand out. My comments are not meant as a prohibition, just something to keep in mind.

In D&D, a lot of classes already have a single stat that governs damage. For fighters, it's Strength. You can easily play a Strength-damage fighter from level 1 on. The issue, IMO, is not that there's a single stat that governs damage for any given class (or all classes), but that there are many stats that do not provide an appealing incentive to take instead of that damage stat.

A question for anyone reading the thread: if you saw a list of stats presented like this: Might Constitution Dexterity Perception Intellect Resolve or Power Constitution Dexterity Perception Intellect Resolve What would you assume the stat that affects damage would be? Based on that answer, if you discovered that stat affected all damage and healing, including damage and healing from sources like guns and wands and bows and fireball spells, how would you feel about it?

That has never been a goal and I've stated so on the forums previously. Players still have to play to their strengths. If they can safely ignore their weaknesses, then they aren't really weaknesses. It's one of the things that commonly makes GURPS games so lopsided for min-maxers. Who cares if your sniper is colorblind, shy, and triskadekaphobic when she can lobotomize a fly with a rifle at 200 yards? The A/D&D analogue would be something like the classic kensai. They're amazing with one weapon, but they stink with all other weapons which they never use unless the DM contrives a circumstance for them. With fighters, Int qualifies. You can make Int-based fighter builds with core rules, but if you tank it, who cares? You can ramp Str, Dex, and Con through the roof and go nuts. I don't disagree that the current drawback of dumping Strength in PoE is more of a strategic/convenience concern, but it is something that every character would have to deal with. Ideally all of the attributes will influence obvious and immediate tactical elements.

I get the Strength argument, not so much the Con argument. I don't know a lot of D&D character builds that would dump Con.

With those attributes, if someone wants to build a puppeteer kind of spellcaster (mind affecting spells) he can totally dump dexterity, true. Then again, I don't think that each single attribute should benefit every build. I believe every attribute, if dumped, should harm every build because there are two logical consequences if they do not: 1) If I can dump without significant consequence, it is likely (though not necessarily true) that bumping it is similarly without consequence. This means character concepts that bump that attribute are inherently worse off for having done so. 2) If one class can dump stats without significant consequence and others cannot, in practice that class has more attribute points to play with. E.g. fighters vs. monks and paladins in 3.5. When one class has abilities that derive benefits from a narrow range of attributes, it becomes difficult to balance their powers against classes that derive benefits from a broader range of attributes.

My concern was not about counter-intuitive formulae but systems that promote stat dumping and, by association, non-viable class/stat builds. The formulae and derived stats affected by any given attribute could be relatively complex as long as they accomplish the two goals I stated, above.

I'd prefer magic and mundane physical attacks with weapons to be treated differently. Strength: weapon damage // offsets a % of the action speed penalty when wearing armor for spellcasting Constitution: stamina // health Dexterity: melee & ranged accuracy // accuracy for AoE spells like fireball Perception: affects critical hit damage with weapons // accuracy for non-AoE spells Intellect: affects spell damage and healing // increased DT penetration with weapons Resolve: duration and AoE size The differentiation is achieved and each stat is useful for every class. It would be slightly harder to balance, but that's something that goes together with complexity. In an ideal world I do think this would be a nice way to make a sensible system that straddles the line between the two extremes, I believe that Mr Sawyer is trying to simplify the systems for convenience however. In which case I suppose intelligence is as good a damage mitigater as any other attribute, though I suppose one could argue for almost any of the others as well. Pity that I won't be able to make a big dumb brute character however as I quite liked the Half Ogre playthroughs in Arcanum, but every system has its downsides. It's not for convenience but for build variety and viability. Valorian's suggestions are pretty good ones, though there are still gaps where as certain characters I might (correctly) think, "I can dump this and avoid the penalty." That's important, though less important than "I can max this and gain something," as any class, which Valorian's suggestions cover.

I've got a bad record with predictions recently, but I'd be surprised if this were the case because it generates serious frustration if you fall 1 point short of a cool item. What I'd be less surprised about is items that are always usable, but suffer some penalty if you fall short on a certain stat. Take STR in Fallout: New Vegas, for example: you can use any weapon while having any amount of strength, but if you have less than the minimum STR specified, you'll suffer accuracy penalties. The other problem it creates is tiered weapon types, which narrows certain classes/builds into using the higher tier weapons exclusively. A/D&D has never had particularly great weapon balance, but the contrast became stark in 3.X and even more clearly delineated in 4E. No fighter would regularly use a Simple Weapon in 3E because its Martial equivalents are almost universally superior. And of course, in 4E, no fighter would regularly use a Simple over a Military or a Military over Superior assuming they can take the requisite feat. More than even 3.X, 4E funnels characters into lifelong equipment types based around what's ideal for their stats. If you're wearing some form of hide armor and using a bastard sword at 5th level, you're probably going to be using more magical versions of the same stuff at 10th, 15th, and 20th level. The reason I think this is not particularly great is because it effectively removes (or at least drastically simplifies) decision-making for the character. Entire classifications of weapons and armor wind up essentially being junk choices. E.g. medium armor in 3.X is a plague upon almost any character. If you have no Dex bonus, you're going to wear heavy armor. Once you get full plate, you're going to wear full plate forever if at all possible. If you have a high Dex bonus, you're going to wear light armor. Once you get a chain shirt, you're going to wear a chain shirt forever if at all possible. I put STR reqs on weapons in F:NV to give more importance to STR, but I think it messed with the balance of weapons. High STR weapons didn't just have to be balanced relative to weapons in their tier. They had to be balanced relative to other weapons in their tier as superior weapons because they required an investment from the player to properly use them. Strength is one of the most difficult attributes to find immediate and universal applications for that don't wreak havoc with other game systems. Damage superficially makes sense but makes less sense when you think about attacks that aren't powered by the physical strength of the wielder. As I wrote earlier, these are what we're working with now. As we keep testing and listening to feedback, we may move them around.

Some of the items people make will become quest rewards, some will be on enemies, and some will be placed as treasure.

It's only basic physics if you think about weapons like swords and maces. Crossbows, guns, wands, and spells don't seem like they would intuitively gain damage bonuses from increased Strength. That's where you get A/D&D's quasi-simulationist damage bonus breakdown and dramatically variable weight to the Strength stat based on class and weapon type.

Yes. When you score a Crit with a duration-based effect, the duration increases significantly.

That would be a great rogue build, but so would Dexterity (Accuracy) and Perception (Critical Damage). Hitting more often means more damage on average and more Critical Damage is great for a class that naturally converts some of its ordinary Hits to Crits (through Dirty Fighting). That sort of a build emphasizes attributes that influence Reflexes, which is very rogue-like (but not... Roguelike). If you want to build a burly thug, Strength and Constitution will help a rogue gain ground where they typically stink: taking hits. This would give them a great Fortitude. Of course, you can also mix them up in different ways, like a high Con / Int rogue that has great Stamina and does a lot of damage, but isn't necessarily super accurate or durable in the long run. Or you could build a high Res / Str rogue that is very durable from fight to fight and relies on his or her long-duration status effects to keep an offensive edge. The goal is not necessarily perfect balance, but attributes producing broad and general effects that make players go, "I wonder if a high would be cool..." and the answer is "you bet". I'm positive that some builds will play more to the strengths of individual classes, but I think if we continue to tune these well, people will be able to make a really diverse number of fun characters -- from traditional to wacky.

It is completely for balance.

Well, ogres are actually pretty intelligent, but creatures like trolls (for example) rely more on the very high base damage of their weapons than on being smarty about where they land blows. A troll doesn't gain most of its damage from its Intellect, but from its insane claws. Ogres do a lot of damage based on their huge weapons, but have a larger bonus due to their much higher Intellect (compared to a troll, anyway).

I think an "F" for intuitiveness is a little much, maybe a "C". Strength affects inventory, Constitution affects Stamina, Dexterity affects Accuracy. I don't think those elements are particularly unintuitive, whether you've played D&D or not. Perception and Resolve are brand new, so I think players will look more closely at them. Strength and Intellect are the most different (as far as D&Dish carryover stats, not counting Resolve as a Charisma/Wisdom stand-in), but I think those are also two of the stats in D&D that have some of the worst class-related imbalances. Charisma is, IMO, the most problematic/frequently dumped, which is why it was replaced entirely by Resolve.

No, because it becomes incredibly difficult to balance. One of the great struggles with D&D-style attributes is the wild variability of what stats affect what abilities for individual classes. The influences of PoE's attributes are broad and general so they are always of some clear value to every class.

Attributes are set at character creation and their base values do not increase a lot as you level up.

Strength affects your Health and number of inventory slots. Constitution affects Stamina. Dexterity affects Accuracy. Perception affects Critical Damage. Intellect affects Damage and Healing. Resolve affects Durations and AoE size. We may slightly shift these, but this is what we will be working with in the foreseeable future. Each defense (other than Deflection) is equally influenced by two stats. Aside from level, the attributes that contribute to each defense are the primary determining factors of that defense. Class (now) rarely has a large influence on a character's defenses. Fortitude - Strength and Constitution Reflexes - Dexterity and Perception Willpower - Intellect and Resolve Deflection is the exception to this. While Fort/Ref/Will share roughly equal time in defending characters, Deflection is the most commonly-attacked defense. It is not influenced by any attribute and is mostly determined by level and class. Characters like fighters and paladins have great base Deflection. Characters like priests and wizards do not.

The differences between Meadow Folk, Ocean Folk, and Savannah Folk (from Aedyr/Dyrwood, Old Valia/Vailian Republics, and Ixamitl) could be simplified as Euro/African/Central American, but those are just broad and superficial physical similarities. The real differences come down to culture. E.g. while the Vailian Republics are overwhelmingly populated by "Calbandrans" (Ocean Folk), there are Meadow Folk, Savannah Folk, and other races/ethnicities in the republics. Animancy has flourished in the last hundred years or so. It's been legal to research and practice in the Dyrwood (through omission from the law) since the revolution a few centuries ago, but it's only lately that it has received more official legal recognition and benefits from extensive interactions with the Vailian Republics. The Dyrwood and Vailian Republics are the two leading nations in animancy research. Notably, the Aedyr Empire and Readceras view it poorly and have legal prohibitions against it.

No, the Aedyr Empire is thousands of miles away across an ocean. The climate there is equatorial hot/humid. Aedyr itself sits on the equator. Rauatai is in the northern hemisphere, as are the Living Lands. Everything else on that list is in the southern hemisphere.

With names, generally try to avoid anything that sounds contemporary -- but I think most people avoid that anyway. Also, please don't use recognizable names from other settings (e.g. Westeros, Middle-Earth, Faerûn, the Young Kingdoms, Lankhmar, etc.). No Eddards, Tinúviels, Jarlaxles, Elrics, or Fafhrds -- or close derivatives -- please. Aedyrans, Readcerans, and Dyrwoodans used to speak a language called Eld Aedyran that is an analogue for Old English/Anglo-Saxon, Old Frisian, bits of Icelandic, and Scots (for Hylspeak, a more contemporary version). j, q, v, and z do not appear in their words and names, though the /v/ sound is found in medial and terminal f. E.g. "Wyflan" is pronounced "WEE-vlan". Male names: Aldwyn, Beacwof, Ethelmoer, Furly, Hafmacg, Unfric. Female names: Battixa, Bricanta, Esmy, Grimda, Iselmyr, Yngfrith. Vailian Republicans speak Vailian, which borrows from a mix of Italian, Occitan, Catalan, and French roots, but is Italian in overall flavor. "Romance-y", you could say. j, y, and x are extremely rare in their words and names. Male name: Cendo, Giandele, Liano, Randatu, Verzano. Female names: Ancelle, Laudira, Malita, Pallegina, Salgiatte. Glanfathans speak Glanfathan, which borrows elements of Cornish, Welsh, and a bit of Irish. q, u, x, y, and z are all unused in Glanfathan. w is both a consonant and a vowel ("uh" or "oo" if it has a circumflex). It has the Irish-style "si" ("shih" or "shee" when there's a circumflex over the i), the Welsh "ll" (hard to explain, like an aspirated l sound), and distinguishes between an unvoiced th (like "thought") and a voiced dh (like "the"). Male names: Arthwn, Brân, Enfws, Simoc, Thristwn. Female names: Bledha, Iswld, Onŵen, Sîdha, Tamra Those are the major definitions. Broadly speaking, the natives of Deadfire Archipelago use a language with some Inuit/Greenlandic roots. People in Rauatai (especially the nation of Rauatai itself) use a language with Maori roots. People from Ixamitl speak a language with Nahuatl roots. I have not done significant work on those, though.

A very powerful item is going to be much more likely to be edited by us because we need a lot more low- and mid-power items. Additionally, low- and mid-power items are much more likely to be found by players since they will often be placed in earlier game areas. Even a weapon like Applebane can be fondly-remembered by players.

I believe those are all listed in a drop-down on the backer survey. Let me know if they are not. Rings, amulets, and cloaks are all valid item types (though amulets and cloaks both take the same slot, the neck).