#1 - I like your suggested change. It would be very pleasant to see skilled people be rewarded for being skilled rather than replaced by magic items.
#2 - I have a feeling the reason the magic items’ spells ended up with shorter durations is because back then, you had to plan out your spells, so it would be more effective if you sacrificed that one spell slot for “Detect Evil” rather than planning in advance and whipping out your wand of detect monsters. There’s also the consideration that non-magic users can use the wands, so it’s more accessible in that regard. ACKS allows for spellcasting on the fly, but magic items are very rare. I think the lower duration or range is still acceptable for magic items, but perhaps not as harsh as it currently is. Maybe just a quick and easy rule like cut the duration in half or reduce range by one-third because a “fresh” spell is more powerful than one stored in a container for a few months or wizards concentrate more when pulling it out or something. Perhaps there could be a system where if the item crafter puts in that much more oomph, time, or materials, the spells in the magic item work as well as if a wizard casted them personally. Just a thought.
#3 - Intelligent items can’t access all general proficiencies. It’d be silly to see a sword ride on a horse or tend to patients. The intelligent items would probably just know languages, sagey bits of lore, or can identify arcane or divine symbols. I don’t see this as a concern of gameplay balance but rather another character where you can go, “Hey, do you know what this is?” I think it would be nifty if they had proficiencies, but I can’t possibly imagine them having many. Maybe 2 at most. There wouldn’t be that many to choose from. Ideas for specific intelligent items with built-in proficiencies that I can think of immediately are staves that can identify arcane symbols from whatever organization built it or holy avenger swords that can intimidate in Infernal (or whatever chthonic things use to communicate).
#4 - I accept that the definition for bard has always been some performer. Taking Musical Magic away would give less reason to shoot for the performance angle. What I rather see is an adventuring scholar show up in the Player Companion. Decent fighting capability, decent arcane magic, Loremastery, but no kissy face, look at me abilities. This is probably more personal preference, though.
#1 - Agree about boots and cloaks. I would suggest +8/10+, so that those items add a “proficiency level” power; 8+ for a non-thief still seems to steal the spotlight from the bona fide sneaking classes. That said, I haven’t done the math, so whatever yall think best.
#2 - I agree about Veketshian about the background reason for the discrepancy. Make it the same as the spells; the magic items are still valuable because its one more casting ‘slot’ you get for one more day, while I don’t mind magic items like rods and staves replacing spells anyway.
#3 - No need for proficiencies. I think you could add some Sage-type powers to the sword based on other rolls. I would suggest Sage powers to go with any motivations rolled (slay orcs=orc sage) and to add a history column (Sword of great warrior, great wizard, etc have corresponding sage power of military tactics or loremastery).
#4 - No, please don’t take this from bards. I have a Bard in my campaign now and it’s really no problem. Seducing women is both commonly known about bards and not overpowering, while soothing beasts I limit to natural beasts and so also works. These are not overpowered, but just the sort of useful and sensical things that make bards fun to play without breaking the lore of the game world.
#5 - Simple statement of mounted combat, combing the saddle, riding, and warhorse rules would be nice. I would like Skirmishing rules, preferably something like Pendragon: characters fight as normal, if they all defeat their enemies their unit does well, if they half defeat their enemies their unit takes high casualties, if they all lose their unit it wiped out. Maybe with an extra Leadership style roll to influence the results. (But any sort of skirmish rules for 10-100 a side battles would be good.) Finally, I’d suggest some greater examples of Conqueror and King levels of play. Conqueror needs some clearer objectives, I’m confused about what levels this really represents and what the characters can do that’s “new”: lead warbands before gaining followers? go on arbitrage expeditions? For King I’d definitely like to see what larger kingdoms look like, how they interact with the PC domains, examples of kinds of plots you have going at these levels.
I have a question:
#A - what is the timeline for releasing more Auran Empire information? I’m using a modified Birthright/Cerilia in my current campaign, but I’d love to see some thoughts on this well-thought out late Roman/Byzantine empire setting/gazetteer.
Based on this random sample of 4 enthusiastic backers:
#1) yes
#2) yes
#3) mixed and not worth focusing on right now
#4) no, don’t change bards
#5) summary of mounted combat
Longshanks - I would assume a minimum of 3 months. I have a lot of material written, but the translation of “Alex’s notes” into “usable material” is slower than one would hope.
#4 - a 1st level Bard’s not just some O-level musician/storyteller so I would expect some almost-preternatural honed ability to connect with others through performance - but as it stands:
‘These abilities require one minute (6 rounds) of playing and may not be used if combat has already begun.’
one minute is too short - maybe change to
‘These abilities require three minutes (18 rounds) minus (Bard’s level rounds) of playing and may not be used if combat has already begun.’
This reinforces that it’s not just WAM BAM SEDUCED YA MAM, although it doesn’t have to be Freebird length - just nearer 3 minutes for low-level bards. It takes time to soothe the savage beast.
#5 - are there swimming/drowning/falling rules ?
Question #6: Potion of Polymorph
A potion of polymorph (self) grants its imbiber the ability to polymorph self once per round for the duration of the potion. It is otherwise as the arcane spell of the same name. On the other hand, the polymorph self spell merely allows you to change yourself once. This creates an inconsistency between the two.
Is the best choice:
a) To allow the caster of Polymorph Self to change shape once per round, akin to how wizards are sometimes describe fighting in myth and legend (and Disney movies)
b) To remove the ‘once per round’ power from the potion
c) To assume the potion represents a higher level spell, perhaps a 6th level spell called ‘Polymorph Self Repeatedly’
Question #3B: Sword Powers, Part II
What do you think of this list of “Sword Motivation” Opponents:
1 Animals
2 Beastmen
3 Constructs
4 Fantastic Creatures
5 Giant Humanoids
6 Humans & Demi-humans
7 Summoned Creatures
8 Oozes & Vermin
9 Undead
10 Opposed alignment (lawful if chaotic, chaotic if lawful, either if neutral
Does it make sense that, if these sorts of swords are breathtakingly rare, the enemy types should be fairly broad, to make the swords quite powerful?.
Question #3C: Sword Powers, Part III
At present, when a sentient sword is used to attack a being that fits its motivation, a special power is used against the opponent. These powers are determined by the alignment of the sword. A chaotic sword will petrify an opponent of the appropriate type. Likewise, a lawful sword will paralyze an opponent of the appropriate type. Saving throws are allowed for each of these effects. A neutral sword grants the sword wielder a bonus of +1 to Armor Class, attack throws, and saving throws when combating an opponent of the appropriate type.
The questions are
(a) Should the special powers be battle-ending (petrify and paralysis)?
(b) If not, would making the chaotic power be “energy drain” instead of petrify, to allow for “Stormbringer”-esque swords, be cool?
(c) What should the lawful power be if something other than paralysis?
(d) Is the neutral power as lame as it seems relative to the others?
UPDATE: Based on this random sample of 5 enthusiastic backers:
#1) yes
#2) yes
#3) mixed and not worth focusing on right now
#3b, #3c) no answers yet
#4) no, don’t change bards
#5) summary of mounted combat, summary of swimming/drowning
#6) no answers yet
It’s almost as if our backers don’t check the ACKS forums at 8pm Friday night.
#1: I like these changes, they’d need to be very rare at the current power level. Even +8 seems like a lot to me for something that’s always active. How much would they cost to make?
#2: Bring the wands up to function like the spells, both for standardization and to be consistent with item creation rules. Creating an item of Detect _____ shouldn’t need an odd rule exception to match what you’d find in the field.
#3: I wouldn’t give the swords proficiencies, because most of them seem like a really poor fit.
#3B: I like the list. “Humans & Demi-humans” is most of civilization, but I like it anyway.
#3C: I’d rather see a broader range of special powers that aren’t necessarily alignment-based. (Chaotic swords always petrifying things seems bizarre.) That makes sense if sentient swords are created by the Greater Powers of the Alignments, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here (and I forget where that’s from). This would be a good place to use proficiencies; a special power could be that while fighting against foes that match the motivation, the wielder gains the benefit of Proficiency X. In that context…
(a) Some of the could be, and that would be awesome.
(b) That would be great to add to the list.
(c) Vorpal is always good too.
(d) Yes, but that would be another good choice to add to the list.
#4: Since it’s a campaign class presumably flavored by the implied setting, it seems fine as it is. (I really like that Loremaster version of the class that came up, though.)
#5: …I’ll ponder that…
#6: Once-per-round polymorph is nice and mythic, but - never having played that situation - it sounds like it would grind combat to a halt while you figure out new stats for each change. I’d remove the “once per round” from the potions.
UNDERCRYPT #1: I like these changes, they’d need to be very rare at the current power level. Even +8 seems like a lot to me for something that’s always active. How much would they cost to make?
APM: A cloak of elvenkind costs 25,000gp, as do boots of elvenkind. The set would be 50,000gp.
Question #8: Transmogrification
Transmogrification: The character has mastered grotesque arts of transformation. The character can cast polymorph spells and create magical crossbreeds (see Crossbreeding in Chapter 7) as if he were two class levels higher than his actual level of experience. Targets of his polymorph other spells suffer a -2 penalty to their saving throw.
Should I include this proficiency?
#5 - Quick start rules or flowchart for random encounters. I realize this after just having a botched encounter with two giant rattlesnakes. Should I be seeing these things 560 yards away? How do I catch them unaware? Why is it that giant rattlesnakes can catch up to us but tuataras can’t? What rolls should we be seeing where the Judge goes, “Well, that’s not important, moving on.” Should the Judge be making 6 rolls just to be blown off by a group not willing to fight 6 HD characters 400 yards away? These are the issues we just ran into tonight trying to run this.
Also, knowing the saves for 0th level guys would be awesome. And I second mounted combat rules now that I’m rocking a lamellared warhorse and a lance. Thanks.
(repost - board just ate my post)
3b - broader caregories are fine even though some are broader than others.
3c - I think all sentient swords should energy drain whatever the alignment. Maybe it gives a +1 bonus if an influence check has to be made if it’s killed a prefered enenmy that day.
6 ‘B’ but if use ‘C’ then I’d cut the spell duration to [Caster Level] rounds.
- where’s ‘7’ ?
8 - No, it should be a specialist class variant**, one for the player companion maybe. I think it would really unbalance Casters if you allowed generic mages to possess it alongside all their other spells.
**who have a slower attainment of other spells compared to mages.
Q3B/C - I like the list of enemies, I also endorse the suggestion of NOT having them be petrify/paralyze. Go with energy drain from the proper opponent, that’s cool.
6 - I like the repeating polymorph, but I’m afraid of calculating new stats every round. That said, err on the side of having a simply way to calculate stats every round, rather than changing the potion to work once.
8 - I love this power, but yeah, it’s unbalancing IMO. I suggest having some Auran mage-varients like transmogrifiers.
TO UPDATE:
#1) yes, change elf cloak and boots - done
#2) yes, rationalize wands and sword detection with the spells - done
#3) no, don’t worry about sword proficiencies - OK
#3b) yes, special motivations are good - OK
#3c) yes, change the powers - OK
#4) no, don’t change bards - OK
#5) summary of mounted combat, summary of swimming/drowning, flowcharts - noted
#6) concerns over complexity of changing stats every round
#7) I reserve the right to ask #7 at a later time 
#8) no, transmogrifier is too powerful
Re: 8, do you feel that Black Lore of Zahar is overpowered as well?
Here is my current Black Lore text:
Black Lore of Zahar: The character has studied the terrible necromancies of ancient Zahar. He can control undead as a Chaotic cleric of one half his class level. If the character casts spells that require a saving throw versus Death, his targets suffer a -2 penalty on the save. Finally, the character can cast necromantic spells (such as animate dead) and conduct necromantic research (see Necromancy in Chapter 7) as if he were two class levels higher than his actual level of experience.
The only change from the v26 version of this proficiency is being able to do Necromantic magic research as if 2 levels higher.
Is that overpowered?
What part of Transmogrifier was overpowered? The magic research, the saves, etc?
This bit: ‘character can cast polymorph spells [snip] as if he were two class levels higher than his actual level of experience.’
To cast Polymorph spells (4th lvl), the Mage has to be 7th Level. So, is he able to cast Polymorph Self at 5th Level, to become a creature with Hit Dice as if 7th Level ?
If so, at level 6 he can change into a Woolly Rhino (8HD) doing 2d12 damage for 14 (6+8) turns. or a Hill Giant, Giant Octopus or Juvenile Dragon.
Am I interpreting this wrong ?
I just think the power is such a gamechanger in combat and evasion that to allow a mage to access a more advanced version at a lower level could be unbalancing. I don’t mind it as much if this is their one specialisation and they’re a bit iffy with other types of spell.
#8: Mages and Spellswords don’t get Polymorph spells until Level 7, and mages don’t start crossbreeding until 11th level, so it’s either a class proficiency you take at level 6 in anticipation and deal with a “useless” proficiency for a level, or you take it at level 9 (Spellsword) or 12 (Mage) when it’s immediately useful. Since it specifically says spells cast, it presumably wouldn’t apply to things like wands and potions, so I don’t see a lot of potential abuse at low levels.
Seems in line with Black Lore and Elementalism, I’d say go for it.