Current Errata for True 20?

[Pseudonym]

I am not sure if this is errata or intentional, but in the True20 Companion, page 63, the plasma sword is listed with a cost of 5. Is that right?

[Jackal]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before (other than by me in the Wealth thread) but I thought I'd move it in here to keep things all in one place:

Either I'm missing something (very possible) or the Losing Wealth section is a little messed up. At the top of page 74 in the core book it says you lose one point of Wealth for every 5 points the purchase difficulty is higher than your current Wealth bonus (1 point for 1-5 higher, etc).

But, under Losing Wealth, it says that you lose 1 point of Wealth for any item that is a 15 or higher cost, which works fine so far. But, then it goes on to say you lose 1 point for every 1-10 points the purchase difficulty is higher than your current Wealth score.

Note: The above post was the start of my Wealth thread.

[Ruin]

I think I have a few more points for clarification/errata. Apologies if these have already been discussed elsewhere.

Page 29, 39 and/or 40, Errata: The page 29 skill chart says Slight of Hand is a standard action. On page 40 this is repeated the Slight of Hand description at the end under the Action heading. Yet on page 39 it says you can perform the Quicker Than The Eye challenge as a move action. Either this challenge is supposed to be a standard action, or the other descriptions should be updated to be "standard or move action". (Compare to the Swim skill description, which reads "move or full".)

Page 39, Errata or Clarification: Slight of Hand, why is Quicker Than The Eye listed as a challenge? It lacks the +5 (or greater) difficulty normally associated with challenges.

Page 55, Clarification: "Familarity" lists the least difficult catagory as Present, which can mean "visible to the naked eye". This seems inadequately defined. Is a distant mountain top considered visible to the naked eye? How about a cloud? How about the sun? Presumably we don't want low-level characters using the Aport power, page 58, to teleport [small plot object] into the sun at +0 difficulty, proclaiming "I can see the sun, therefore this is easy" just as we don't want high-level characters sending an opponent 2000 feet into the "visible to the naked eye" sky. It would be great if we could define practical, reasonable limits for this Familiarity catagory.

Page 64, Errata: Light Shaping's grey header simply says "Fatiguing" when it should say "Fatiguing, Maintenance". (Text at the beginning of page 65 indicates the power is maintained.)

Page 64, Clarification: Light Shaping says you can create a 3-dimensional image of light in a 10-foot cube. Can this image be moving, such as might befit a troll shaking his fist angrily, or must it be static, such as a bridge? Also, may the 10-foot cube itself be moved, such as might befit the image of a troll running away or a bird in flight?

Thanks!

[True20Chick]

I think I have a few more points for clarification/errata. Apologies if these have already been discussed elsewhere.

Page 29, 39 and/or 40, Errata: The page 29 skill chart says Slight of Hand is a standard action. On page 40 this is repeated the Slight of Hand description at the end under the Action heading. Yet on page 39 it says you can perform the Quicker Than The Eye challenge as a move action. Either this challenge is supposed to be a standard action, or the other descriptions should be updated to be "standard or move action". (Compare to the Swim skill description, which reads "move or full".)

This just means that whereas most uses of Sleight of Hand are standard actions, the Quicker than the Eye challenge is a move action.

Page 39, Errata or Clarification: Slight of Hand, why is Quicker Than The Eye listed as a challenge? It lacks the +5 (or greater) difficulty normally associated with challenges.

It just appears that the text mentioning a -5 penaly was left out. Reatd the first sentence of the challenge text as: "For a -5 penalty on your check, you can make a Sleight of Hand check as a move action in melee combat to slip past an opponent's defenses."

Page 55, Clarification: "Familarity" lists the least difficult catagory as Present, which can mean "visible to the naked eye". This seems inadequately defined.

IMO, this would be up to the Narrator to define or deny, as the Narrator sees fit.

Page 64, Errata: Light Shaping's grey header simply says "Fatiguing" when it should say "Fatiguing, Maintenance". (Text at the beginning of page 65 indicates the power is maintained.)

I'd go along with this.

Page 64, Clarification: Light Shaping says you can create a 3-dimensional image of light in a 10-foot cube. Can this image be moving, such as might befit a troll shaking his fist angrily, or must it be static, such as a bridge? Also, may the 10-foot cube itself be moved, such as might befit the image of a troll running away or a bird in flight?

Again, IMO, this would be up to the Narrator to define or deny, as the Narrator sees fit. I wouldn't have a problem with making mobile visual illusions. Note that the illusion does not make noise, so something like a troll running away in total silence would certainly give the observers a Will ssave.

[True20Chick]

I don't know if this has been mentioned before (other than by me in the Wealth thread) but I thought I'd move it in here to keep things all in one place:

Either I'm missing something (very possible) or the Losing Wealth section is a little messed up. At the top of page 74 in the core book it says you lose one point of Wealth for every 5 points the purchase difficulty is higher than your current Wealth bonus (1 point for 1-5 higher, etc).

But, under Losing Wealth, it says that you lose 1 point of Wealth for any item that is a 15 or higher cost, which works fine so far. But, then it goes on to say you lose 1 point for every 1-10 points the purchase difficulty is higher than your current Wealth score.

Note: The above post was the start of my Wealth thread.

I'd add this to the list of questions fo Steve K., but it's convention season so it may be a while before he can answer.

If it were up to me (and it isn't ), I'd suggest just ignoring the paragraph about decreasing your wealth by 1 for every 5 points over until we hear back for certain from Steve. That parts appears to be a new inclusion, rather than a conversion from the Wealth rules in d20 Modern. The rest of the Wealth system follows what's in the Modern SRD (except for having d6 rolls converted to +2s, and so on).

[Jackal]

Thanks, that's what I've been doing so far.

[Ruin]

True20Chick, thank you for your response. I have a couple more for you:

Page 17, Errata: The Gnome background says that for your favored feats you can take a supernatural power, but it lacks text explaining how Gnomes are supposed to calculate their Adept level for that power. Presumably it should include text that reads like the text for Elves, who treat their supernatural power's Adept level as being equal to their character level. (And if not, things will get really confusing for Gnomes who don't have any Adept levels but have taken a power with mechanics that assume you have at least one, such as Blink, Imbue Unlife or Phase.)

Page 57, Clarificaiton: The Mental Contact section states that mental contact involves the use of the Mind Touch power. Then on page 58, the Beast Link power states that it forges "a mental connection" with an animal. Although not specifically called out in the Mental Contact section, could Beast Link count towars the mental contact required to use Dominate on an animal? (I understand that since both these powers requires concentration, attempting this would require a concentration check each round to perform one power's concentration as a move action while the other was maintained using standard actions, per the concentration rules on page 56.)

Page 61, Clarification: Can the Elemental Weapon power, which says it effects a melee weapon, be used to effect a Psychic Weapon (page 68), which says it creates an immaterial melee weapon out of psychic energy?

Thanks again!

[True20Chick]

Page 17, Errata: The Gnome background says that for your favored feats you can take a supernatural power, but it lacks text explaining how Gnomes are supposed to calculate their Adept level for that power.

I'd say that it works that way for anyone who swaps favored feats for a power, or who takes a favored feat in which role level is a factor; that would include some expert feats such as Inspire and Suggestion.

Page 57, Clarificaiton: The Mental Contact section states that mental contact involves the use of the Mind Touch power. Then on page 58, the Beast Link power states that it forges "a mental connection" with an animal. Although not specifically called out in the Mental Contact section, could Beast Link count towars the mental contact required to use Dominate on an animal? (I understand that since both these powers requires concentration, attempting this would require a concentration check each round to perform one power's concentration as a move action while the other was maintained using standard actions, per the concentration rules on page 56.)

The Beast Link power says you enter into mental contact with the animal, so IMO you could use that as a stepping stone to use Dominate on the animal (or any other power that requires mental contact, such as Sleep).

Great catch! This really helps with a "Druid" concept for adepts.

Page 61, Clarification: Can the Elemental Weapon power, which says it effects a melee weapon, be used to effect a Psychic Weapon (page 68), which says it creates an immaterial melee weapon out of psychic energy?

On this, I'd say no, because the psychic weapon is not a physical weapon. As Narrator, you can rule otherwise, of course.

[Ruin]

Thanks, True20Chick! I have one more.

Page 68, Clarification: The Psychic Weapon power states that the weapon created has no effect on non-intelligent creatures or objects, and that it cannot sunder or block material weapons. Is the reverse true? That is, can opponents use their parry bonus against a Psychic Weapon if they're armed only with a non-living material weapon or shield?

Thanks!

[True20Chick]

Well, the description of the power specifically says it is "immaterial," which makes it pretty clear that the Psychic Weapon is incorporeal.

Going further, it can't sunder or block material weapons, it ignores physical armor... so no, you can't parry one with a physical weapon either, nor would a physical shield add to your Defense against one.

You could rule that a weapon imbued with the Ghost Touch power could parry a Psychic Weapn, or that armor with the Ghost Touch power would add to Toughness. That's up to you, though.

[Dragonspawn]

I am not sure if this is errata or intentional, but in the True20 Companion, page 63, the plasma sword is listed with a cost of 5. Is that right?

No, that is incorrect. Not quite sure how that happened. It should be a 17.

[Ruin]

You could rule that a weapon imbued with the Ghost Touch power could parry a Psychic Weapn, or that armor with the Ghost Touch power would add to Toughness. That's up to you, though.

Hrm! I actually like that a lot. It adds more value to the Ghost Touch power, which I look at as a good thing. Thanks for the idea!

[Ruin]

True20Chick, I have some more errata and clarifications to bother you with.

Pages 45 and 83, Clarification: How does the Deflect Arrows feat (page 45) interact with Shuriken (page 83)? Once a round you can use Deflect Arrows to deflect a ranged weapon, but Shurikens can be thrown in groups.

Page 83, Clarifications: The Shuriken (page 83) can be thrown in groups as autofire weapons. How many Shurikens are in a "group"? How many can you draw at once using a Move Action? If you can draw a whole group as a draw action, can you then throw them one at a time as non-autofire weapons and piecemeal them out over several rounds to avoid some further draw actions? Once you buy them, do they ever run out or have you effectively bought an infinite supply?

Page 83, Clarification: Same question goes for bows and crossbows (page 83). Do they have infinite ammo (that of course needs to be loaded a shot at a time)? If this is specified in the rules somewhere, I've missed it.

Pages 82 and 84, Clarification or Errata: Projectile weapons (page 82) use clips and take a move action to load. Clips of ammunition are given a cost (page 84), but not a number of shots. When do you run out? When must you reload?

Pages 97 and 100, Errata: The fact that loading a weapon is a Move Action isn't listed anywhere under Actions (page 96). I was only able to learn that it was a Move Action by reading the Quickdraw feat and Equipment section. Loading a weapon should probably be mentioned under the Move Action action catagory (page 97) as well as explicitly listed under "Manipulate Object (Move Action)" (page 100), the way drawing a weapon is.

Thanks!

[True20Chick]

Pages 45 and 83, Clarification: How does the Deflect Arrows feat (page 45) interact with Shuriken (page 83)? Once a round you can use Deflect Arrows to deflect a ranged weapon, but Shurikens can be thrown in groups.

This one I'd say is up to the discretion of the Narrator. Either that, or you can house-rule an "Improved Deflect" feat that lets you handle multiple incoming slow projectiles.

Page 83, Clarifications: The Shuriken (page 83) can be thrown in groups as autofire weapons. How many Shurikens are in a "group"?

IMO, four. One between the thumb and forefinger, one between the fore- and middle finger, one between the middle and ring finger, and one between the ring and little finger.

How many can you draw at once using a Move Action?

That's up to the Narrator, IMO, but I'd let all four be drawn.

If you can draw a whole group as a draw action, can you then throw them one at a time as non-autofire weapons and piecemeal them out over several rounds to avoid some further draw actions?

That sounds reasonable. They are small enough to be held out of the way in the palm of the hand by the middle finger, and rapidly flicked up to the thumb and forefinger. As for how many you could grab like that? That, too, would be up to you. Grabbing more than 4 or 5 would seem unwieldy, though, as they'd tend to slide against each other.

Once you buy them, do they ever run out or have you effectively bought an infinite supply?

Page 83, Clarification: Same question goes for bows and crossbows (page 83). Do they have infinite ammo (that of course needs to be loaded a shot at a time)? If this is specified in the rules somewhere, I've missed it.

The Wealth system doesn't really work like that. Even though just about anyone can afford the Purchase Difficulty of 3, just because you can afford one doesn't mean you can afford billions of them. There are practical, common-sense limits on such things. Even if you bought out a store's entire inventory, you'd probably only get 100 or so. And then there's the issue with carrying them all around.

There isn't a rule for everything, BTW. Sometimes common sense is the rule.

For arrows, most quivers carry about 20-50 of them.

Pages 82 and 84, Clarification or Errata: Projectile weapons (page 82) use clips and take a move action to load. Clips of ammunition are given a cost (page 84), but not a number of shots. When do you run out? When must you reload?

The firearms rules are mum on clips and ammo. Most clips for semiautomatic weapons hold 20-30 rounds. Most pistol clips hold 5-10 rounds. Unless you are running a campaign that's like your stereotypical action movie, you must reload.

As for how many rounds a spray of autofire uses up? That's been discussed here on the forums a few times. In d20 Modern, firing a weapon on autofire expends 5 rounds. That might not be realistic, per se, but it's fair.

Pages 97 and 100, Errata: The fact that loading a weapon is a Move Action isn't listed anywhere under Actions (page 96). I was only able to learn that it was a Move Action by reading the Quickdraw feat and Equipment section. Loading a weapon should probably be mentioned under the Move Action action catagory (page 97) as well as explicitly listed under "Manipulate Object (Move Action)" (page 100), the way drawing a weapon is.

It's worth calling attention to. I'll add this to the errata document as a clarification. Thanks!

[Ruin]

There isn't a rule for everything, BTW. Sometimes common sense is the rule. :D

True20Chick, thanks for all your responses to date. I'm always impressed with the level of attention you pay to these boards.

In regards to some of my questions, I'm actually sometimes asking about rules that I can imagine a solution to, but I'm asking anyway because I think the rules are vague or incomplete on certain matters and I want to draw attention to that point. But I increasingly feel that answers such as "that's up the Narrator" and suggestions to use common sense are not optimal and actually worry me to a degree. While leaving decisions to the Narrator is a perfectly valid answer for experienced T20 Narrators, it leaves inexperienced Narrators or those new to T20 rules unsure of how to proceed or what the consequences of their decisions will be on the balance of the game.

I don't mean to sound critical of you or your answers when I say this. I find your answers to be generally thoughtful and well considered. But I also think the rules should be really clear on all mechanics wherever possible and efforts should be made resolve unclear interactions or even outright omissions by updating the rules rather than addressing the matter in the forums, however well. In cases where there might be more than one reasonable way to go about the rules, I think a core rule should be decided upon with the alternative perhaps provided as an optional rule provided in a sidebar. I really like a lot of things about T20, but I'm concerned that some of the blind spots in the core rules may provide a barrier to entry for new players and I'd really like to see the system succeed.