-Fair enough on the Poison Arrow example---it is something of a trope of my youth as Greek Mythology was a focal point hence I tend to lean towards a classical "Nessus with Poisoned Arrows".
Though it would be a different resistance and such.
-CR Range looks good, and pretty much confirms that Elementals and the few other summons that track with the Caster level are the way to go for full game use---with the others perhaps being situationally useful in early-mid and there as a distraction/blocker the rest of the time.
-Mainly with the Environmental feats it was literally passives to do with the surrounding terrain, with a given type of terrain acting as a little personal buff to competency checks and/or whatnot, not impaired when it is raining/snowing/hailing/etc---that sort of thing. Little flavourful things of some tactical use that would showcase the Druid becoming more comfortable with the harsh realities of nature as the level progresses---getting more into his or her elements as it were.
-Glad I caught a few corrections.
-Fair enough on the water breathing, as my main concern was something like a protracted bit of forced combat and exploring underwater to where it would get ridiculous to not have access to it.
-Fair on the Paladin as well, the spells ARE functional afterall.
-Any sort of "Cover" abilities always seem to lead to healing battery/tanking in most RPG's where the AI's fixation on the one target or so into wasting their spells and time against a focused healing stream to de-fang them.
-Point taken on hitting level 20 in this instance. Really, it comes down to my thinking that the element of surprise is one to shoot for----shaking people from the predictable to spur their interest moreso. Many RPGs do slim to nothing to "celebrate" with the player over hitting the pinnacle of their experience---often due to it being little more than a few minor stat increases after excessive grinding. KotC 2, as a thing, is a 20 level campaign. As such, to what degree does the Engine itself allow for scaling in terms of player level without imploding upon keeping track of it all for future modules and all else? 50...99..some 3 digit number? That kind of consideration...my vaguely recalling something about "Epic Levels" in D&d in general...would dovetail nicely into the level-range you DO reckon demi-godhood and beyond to begin to moreso enter into it---as that helps to shape lore reckoning, module/campaign plans, and so forth.
-Heh, though I suppose this opens the door for Force and Sonic Summons as well----not that such unorthodox ideas seem bad to me in the slightest!
Perhaps early for an appearance in FWE though...perhaps... (Seriously, you punch that Monster Manual if it looks at you funny----I'd imagine the spirit of the thing is to provide guidelines for DM ad-libbing as it is, so rock onward with "missing" content within the general framework or so as you reckon it. Such things could open up entirely new possibilities and situations.)
-Oops on the Magic Stone confusion. Mainly it came down to my liking the notion of a Spell "mutually" castable via, I'd presume, Divine means versus traditional Spellcasting to have little differences given the source. For an example likely too late and that could go either way: The Druid could get more Stones total while the Cleric more damaging ones, Cleric's could do half Blunt/Divine damage while Druid half Blunt/Slash or Piercing (some stones smooth, some jagged via "Nature". This holds with Psionics too----I'm generally down with shared spells in name only, but little quirks to the details add lots of personality to the respective classes----not to mention a potentially large tactical boost to the nature of Scroll Casting across classes.
-I echo the sentiment that, seemingly at this junction with improvements already implemented, it isn't about "power" with some of the classes like Cleric so much as it is "Intrigue". All well and good to have Classical tropes filling things on out, but flavour/personality/surprises---these are where KotC 2 has an especially clear shot at polishing up and shining beyond the D&D games of the past that clung to their precious official endorsement rulesets to the letter: errors, pc game incompatibilities in terms of P&P designs, and all. Balance only really goes so far before you get diminishing realities, so at that point what is left might as well be "cool stuff", just for the sake of being over-the-top, game universe/lore centric, and so forth. The swagger.
-Main thinking on Sleep not having a roll against something is that most other spells that affect tended to---I would've personally guessed a Will save to the point of Willing thyself to stay awake and that is it classed as Mind-affecting.
-Good deal on Reduce, I mainly thought to mention it as the language would indicate you can't friendly target the same was a Enlarge. Plus, this would give the AI another tactic to buff their archers.
-There are definitely times I could imagine where I would rather say, Exhaust a target instead of briefly Paralyze them, or Confuse them, with damage dealt being the same high level across the board. Plus the spell is rather unique in terms of the wealth of tactical and flavourful options it gives...so I'd strongly reckon it worthy of a Feat of Mastery over the Special Effects(but still keeping the higher damage, that could make for a nice CL 19/20 pre-requisite with knowing the spell.
Definitely a good flavour-analog to the Energy Specialization stuff as the Color/Chormatic stuff in general is a bit exotic outright.
-Ah, got it on the Spider familiar. That'll certainly have a noticeable impact then.
-[Glitterdust and Fairie Fire] They'd serve as a rather potent combo against the concealed and otherwise invisible, as would I hope they could both be applied given the new Dispel Magic mechanics which seem to strip things separately. Besides, it makes for an interesting mental picture of an enemy covered in Glitter while Glowing.
-Again with Sorcerer, it is as I mention it as it related to Clerics. Likely powerful, but surprises are nifty.
-Good to know on the Claws of the Beast Progression. Though that does I suppose lend yet more math wonderment if a Half-Giant that has been Enlarged somehow then comes to have the power in effect...?
-Understood on the Swap magic
-3 crystal spells seems a decent number to me to consider a Feat booster, even aside from them being unique to a theme versus the other magicks. There's only what, 5 in the Energy sect? 3 more or less fits with the Piercing/Bludgeoning/Slashing triangle as it is. Gotta tempt/reward people to get these Chromatic, Color, and Crystal builds and beyond a proper whirl instead of just cookie-cutter ones that make up the "usual suspects"!
-Glad to see use of Drain stuff not crippling exp gains from combat.
-Good to know on Death urge...let's have some Water Elemental throw themselves into Braziers!
-On concerns of Domination spells: My reckoning is that short'ish durations should be the norm across them all, with multi-control not really so much being a thing beyond Constructs or maybe Undead. Though, if some battles are indeed going to be long/survival wave affairs, then the "not short'ish" duration probably makes sense as that would be a valuable tactical concern as the party is faced with diminishing resources/spell slots of their own in a protracted large conflict. I might like to see a slight rework where one of the spells is Group targeting, but, instead of control outright it just has all that failed rolls choose a random offensive attack to perform at full benefit on their next action or so and target the nearest foe in range of it or themselves if another target isn't around----something of a more...vicious..."nigh ideal" Confuse?
Lots of nifty ideas from other folk thus far...excellent.
