Jesters Supplement

Creating game materials? Monsters, spells, classes, adventures? This is the place!
User avatar
Solomoriah
Site Admin
Posts: 12394
Joined: Thu Nov 13, 2008 8:15 pm
Location: LaBelle, Missouri
Contact:

Jesters Supplement

Post by Solomoriah »

Post your comments here for the Jesters Supplement.

https://www.basicfantasy.org/showcase.cgi?sid=116
My personal site: www.gonnerman.org
User avatar
JakeCWolf
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:25 pm

Re: Jesters Supplement

Post by JakeCWolf »

Wow first in six years to post feedback on the supplement? That's a hell of a thing, haha.

Was curious what the "official" ruling was for Jesters using darts/throwing blades from the Equipment Emporium supplement, it says in the Jester's own supplement that they can use daggers with no stated ban on thrown weaponry, and to be honest a thrown blade seems very much a Jester kind of weapon, something that's a novelty or last resort to others would make sense for nimble taunting buffoons to suddenly pull out from their sleeves and hurl at an unsuspecting foe.

If I where to make an recommendation in earnest, I'd add throwing blades and the hand crossbow to Jester's available arsenal, as the later also makes sense, very much a niche "gag" weapon most other classes wouldn't utilize in favor of a full sized crossbow, in addition maybe make a special note that the Jester can fire/throw two of the above weapons at the same without the normal penalty.

I have no idea if this will imbalance them in least, as evident by the emptiness of this topic not many people have given feedback in earnest. I will be playing a Bardic Jester in an upcoming game so I'll let you guys know how that turns out.

As long as I'm here I might as well ask, how does the Jester's +1 bonus to allies moral affect other player characters if at all?
User avatar
SmootRK
Posts: 4225
Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:03 am
Location: Nashville, TN

Re: Jesters Supplement

Post by SmootRK »

I think Jester archetype has a very narrow list of fans. The idea just does not resonate with all the same. I happen to be one of the people that likes the idea of Jesters, at least as a potential for inclusion in my games. That said and while I have had intentions of doing a basic re-write of the supplement (as I had with Illusionist, Druid, and others), no one playing with me has ever expressed interest in that direction, so I have done little to actually work on it. I did include Jester-ish ideas in the Bard Supplement that I wrote (and indirectly applies to the Bard Quasi-Class which also appears in my latest Quasi-Class draft).

I have not looked at the supplement in a very long time, so I have little input to your questions, but I find your rationales to be sound. Just need to worry about how your proposed modifications might tip the balance.
Is it really the end, not some crazy dream?
User avatar
Dimirag
Posts: 3607
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2011 1:24 pm
Location: Buenos Aires (C.A.B.A.), Argentina
Contact:

Re: Jesters Supplement

Post by Dimirag »

I'm not against Jesters as adventurers but this class has some points I don't like (their skill values and their magic usage are among the top of the list).

As to the weapon question: Use whatever work for you as the GM, if it fits the concept and does not break anything then go ahead.

Considering that a Jester can use a d8 weapon (longsword) giving him a d3 weapon won't break the class.
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
Drawing portfolio: https://www.instagram.com/m.serena_dimirag/
User avatar
JakeCWolf
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:25 pm

Re: Jesters Supplement

Post by JakeCWolf »

I see the Jester as something of an "acrobatic skirmisher", one that can serve as a difficult to hit distraction to give her allies a better chance to deal with the enemies at hand. The magic I think is fine, they could use a few more spell befitting their them but using the Sorcerer style casting also seems make sense as well, as they are just magical gags they use for more mischief and merriment.

Though I would get rid of the spell failure chance, as 1% per spell level is (ironically and some what complementary) rather laughable, which equates to only a 6% chance with a 6th level spell, which would make for some awkward moments when a critical spell fails, but is more of a bother to the GM/Player having to roll an extra d100 every time they use a spell to see if it fizzles or not.

Just my two copper. :P
User avatar
Dimirag
Posts: 3607
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2011 1:24 pm
Location: Buenos Aires (C.A.B.A.), Argentina
Contact:

Re: Jesters Supplement

Post by Dimirag »

I don't see them magically skilled nor gifted at all as to let them cast spells, plus I'm not fond of using alternative system to already existing ones.

I don't like the skill value progression, its ok for them to start with lower values than thieves, but they become better at a faster rate even with the XP difference, plus I don't see them as climber-type characters.
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
Drawing portfolio: https://www.instagram.com/m.serena_dimirag/
User avatar
JakeCWolf
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:25 pm

Re: Jesters Supplement

Post by JakeCWolf »

I can see climbing being a perfectly reasonable skill for them, as they are nimble and dexterous, they are performers ala Circus acrobats, which demands a wide range of skills. Besides how often does a thief really call on their climbing skill in your typical dungeon?
User avatar
Dimirag
Posts: 3607
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2011 1:24 pm
Location: Buenos Aires (C.A.B.A.), Argentina
Contact:

Re: Jesters Supplement

Post by Dimirag »

JakeCWolf wrote:I can see climbing being a perfectly reasonable skill for them, as they are nimble and dexterous, they are performers ala Circus acrobats, which demands a wide range of skills.
But they don't get a wide range of acrobatics skills... I can think of other skills to better fit the acrobatic aspect. Its just a matter of taste.
JakeCWolf wrote:Besides how often does a thief really call on their climbing skill in your typical dungeon?
I have a lvl 10 Thief, climbing is one of the skills that have saved him from lots of dangers inside dungeons...
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
Drawing portfolio: https://www.instagram.com/m.serena_dimirag/
User avatar
JakeCWolf
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:25 pm

Re: Jesters Supplement

Post by JakeCWolf »

Neat, didn't think it would be that useful to be honest.

Anyhow I had another suggestion for the Jester, namely giving them the Quasi-Bard's Tumble class skill, but with a higher base chance of success per level to reflect their nature as masterful acrobats. I can see a progression like this;

1st - 30%
2nd - 36%
3rd - 42%
4th - 48%
5th - 54%
6th - 60%
7th - 66%
8th - 72%
9th - 78%
10th - 84%
11th - 90%
12th - 96%
13th-20th - 99%
Numberlyric
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu May 05, 2016 12:48 am

Re: Jesters Supplement

Post by Numberlyric »

i have a jester in a campaign and he was horribly underpowered. the player constantly looked for creative ways to make him useful but in the end, it is designed to frustrate players and we had to make changes.

As written, his taunting brought attacks towards him, where his poor armor made him an easy target. the bad armor pushed him to be a ranged attacker, I allowed him to use darts. but his inability to deal much damage, along with to his poor Attack bonus relegated him to bystander during combat who occasionally nicked people.

I absolutely had to up his capability during game, I did the following:

1) gave jesters the tumble ability of bards. this offsets his lousy armor class.
2) officially made jesters a thief sub-class with access to thieves guilds and knowledge of Thieves Cant
3) gave them the ability to sneak attack - but not used in combination with moving silently or hiding in shadows like regular thieves, but instead jester's sneak attack is only used in combination with a successful tumble with an enemy in melee. This required both a successful tumble roll and a to hit roll. this distinction was needed because of the jester's gaudy dress and distracting taunts. Sneaking in stealth mode wasn't fitting.

This did make the jester more fun to play, Especially #2, it still did not change the fact that his spells were mostly useless. By the time he was high enough level to use sleep or charm the enemies were too high hit die for those spells to be of any use. his spell casting ability needs to either be removed or revised.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Amazon [Bot] and 9 guests