TOPIC: Arcanum Set Bonus

Scott Kwiker wrote: Jeff, I like the proposed set bonus. Would you consider adding +1 focus as well to the bonus? They are the Arcanum set after all?

How about this folks?

2 piece set power: +1 level, +4 HP, +1 to AC & saves, you may equip +1 Figurine of Power

Additional pieces: +1 Focus, +1 to max HP and +1 to AC & saves for each additional piece

Scott Kwiker wrote: Jeff, I like the proposed set bonus. Would you consider adding +1 focus as well to the bonus? They are the Arcanum set after all?

The set bonus is already going to rewrite builds for how they need saves, and will broadly ratchet up AC. I don’t think Focus is a necessary add.

I think I like Arcanum bonus being strictly defensive in nature to mirror the offensive boosts from the Elemental Eldritch set bonus.

I agree with Endgame on this. The set bonus gives survivability to everyone, possibly opening slots in other places to add damage. Adding Focus to the set bonus disproportionately benefits casters. You could potentially add Focus to the ring, though those pesky double dipping Druids would love it. On that mindset though, guess the set bonus could kind of make up for the ring having minimal caster benefit, think I'll quit rambling now...

Maybe I'm not done rambling, what about instead of an FoP it unlocks a second Mark? Just thinking of theme, but might be overpowered depending on future marks if those will be a thing.

I agree that I like the defensive nature of the original proposal. Adding Focus seems to help some members of the group more than others, for tokens “everybody” gets access to.

Jeff Martin wrote:

Scott Kwiker wrote: Jeff, I like the proposed set bonus. Would you consider adding +1 focus as well to the bonus? They are the Arcanum set after all?

How about this folks?

2 piece set power: +1 level, +4 HP, +1 to AC & saves, you may equip +1 Figurine of Power

Additional pieces: +1 Focus, +1 to max HP and +1 to AC & saves for each additional piece

I like it more without the focus bonus, for a few reasons:

1. People tend to add saves up to a certain target, not indefinitely (like damage/focus bonuses), so the +saves component of these will implicitly free up other slots and allow people to increase their focus/damage in those locations.

2. Adding focus to these makes this set substantially better for Wizard/Druid/Cleric and to an extent Bard than other classes, which I think would be a large negative based on prior experience:

Prior versions of the Eldrtich Elemental set were notably better for some classes or build types than for others.

This was, in my view, a broadly negative feature of those prior versions that causes a lot of unnecessary frustration and invidious class comparisons.

For top end rarity tokens like these that are aspirational for any build, I think it's best to keep the bonuses as generically useful as possible and not favor some set of classes or build strategy substantially more than others.

3. The Eldrtich Elemental set already adds +spell healing, damage, and polymorph damage - in other words it adds focus.

(It also adds damage to other non-focus stuff.)

Adding focus to the Arcanum set makes for a lot more overlap with the Eldrtich Elemental set.

If there's going to be that much overlap - it might be better to just have the two set bonuses be identical.

Scott Kwiker wrote: Jeff, I like the proposed set bonus. Would you consider adding +1 focus as well to the bonus? They are the Arcanum set after all?

+1 Focus would be nice, even if AC had to drop off in response.

Jeff Martin wrote:

Scott Kwiker wrote: Jeff, I like the proposed set bonus. Would you consider adding +1 focus as well to the bonus? They are the Arcanum set after all?

How about this folks?

2 piece set power: +1 level, +4 HP, +1 to AC & saves, you may equip +1 Figurine of Power

Additional pieces: +1 Focus, +1 to max HP and +1 to AC & saves for each additional piece

Jeff, I do like that. Maybe simplify it to starting out at +1 Level, HP, AC, Saves, Focus, Figurine of Power, and then each additional piece would add +1 HP, Focus, AC, and Saves.

I do like the suggestion that at some point (maybe four items) it also unlocks a sub-class once per year.

Jeff Martin wrote:

Scott Kwiker wrote: Jeff, I like the proposed set bonus. Would you consider adding +1 focus as well to the bonus? They are the Arcanum set after all?

How about this folks?

2 piece set power: +1 level, +4 HP, +1 to AC & saves, you may equip +1 Figurine of Power

Additional pieces: +1 Focus, +1 to max HP and +1 to AC & saves for each additional piece

I like it. Simple, straightforward, no new keywords

Jeff, how about this for simplicity?

Tier Lvl/FOP HP AC/Saves/Focus
2-piece +1 +4 +1
3-piece +1 +5 +2
4-piece +1 +6 +3
5-piece +1 +7 +4

Mike Steele wrote: Jeff, how about this for simplicity?

Tier Lvl/FOP HP AC/Saves/Focus
2-piece +1 +4 +1
3-piece +1 +5 +2
4-piece +1 +6 +3
5-piece +1 +7 +4

I would rather have more HP than focus, as I play a class that doesn't use focus.