Icon 1.5 playtest released

Update notes (v1.5)

Hi ya’ll,

I’m very tired, but this is one of the largest and most comprehensive updates to the game yet, and I think the game will finally be in a content complete state and a stable testing state.

I don’t have comprehensive notes for a change log this time, because this has been well over a hundred hours of work and nearly everything has been updated, from the composition of the book, to basic mechanics. I’ll try and hit the highlights. You’ll have to dig in yourself to see how your favorite jobs have fared. Thanks very much for reading, there’ll be more comprehensive notes as we go through testing versions in the future.

Special thanks to the band Vildjharta, whose discography I listened to about fifteen times finishing the last part of this update.

MAJOR UPDATES

Character advancement has been reorganized - less narrative action dots, more ability points

Tons of new art!

Narrative

Narrative play has a more play sheet like structure for visual learners. I don’t think these are that usable as a character sheet but you can get a good look.

Gear system added for narrative play.

Got rid of some narrative play concepts (resistance, spending effort to avoid breaks) as I think they were unnecessary

Standardized strain and stress for all bonds

Changes to many bond powers

Moved some sections around for ease of reading

Tactical Combat

Tactical combat has received a massive update. The entire section has been reorganized in order of complexity.
The entire combat system has been smoothed out. Generally I was looking to redesign things to be more straightforward, effective, and require less overhead. Nearly all abilities have significantly changed and have been clarified and refined along with numerous balance changes.

All character capabilities in combat are now ‘abilities’

New triggered effects concept to unify some ability functionality

Nearly all glossary terms have been updated and clarified.

Small update to resolve

Dying is now ‘fallen’ if you gain 4 wounds, allowing more complexity

New statuses replacing old ones, and some old ones have been moved around.

Stun has been changed

Blights have been removed completely.

Removed many saves to avoid statuses.

Massive rework to summons, now standardized

Rework to how vigor works

Rework to how vigilance works

Rework to hatred

Update generally to range, ranged abilities, and how AoE works

Update to cover and LoS

Refocus concept to allow respecialization

Updates to all relics

Combat jobs

Talents are now mutually exclusive (you pick one or the other) but a little stronger

Base armor lowered to 2 for most red jobs

Rush (armored dash) added for stalwarts

New slashed and weakend statuses

New Rampart effect for red jobs

Update to finishing blow and new traits for vagabonds

Slow removed, changed to dazed (from old stalwart status)

Update to bless and most bless traits

Update to Aetherwall for consistency and new Slip trait

All jobs have received massive updates. In general, jobs have been rebalanced and refocused on just a few concepts and triggered effects, for build consistency. For example, Chanters are focused on flight, pits, combos, the charge triggered effect, and have a light gamble theme.
Just to give you an idea of what changed, here’s a list of new abilities replacing old abilities: Gates of Hell, Soul Blade, Massive Overhead, Raging Wolf, Gallows Humor, Party Favor, Paradiso, Exorcism, Trick Shot, Showdown, Warding Bolts, Nightmare, Shadow Play, Umbral Echo, Assassinate, Lycanthropy, Morrigan, Aria, Symphony, Gravebirth, Crimson Bloom, Chaos Tarot, Blazing Bond, Helix Heel, Bifrost, Rampant Nail, Geyser, Waterspout.

Yeah.

If that all sounds cool its best just to check out your favorite job to see what changed.

Other

Small updates to camp system to work with new gear system

Foes

Massive updates to foes. In general, I wanted to make them more effective and straightforward, streamlining the number of traits and actions they have in favor of making them more effective

Reworked how foe interrupts generally work

Complete rework to how mobs work

New Round Actions concept

Massive number of new foes and elites, including for factions that lacked them at certain chapters

All legend fights have received polish and numerous changes or updates. There are also numerous new legend fights for factions that lacked them.

Deeptower

Tiny updates to deep tower to reduce foe variety to make it easier on new GMs

Enjoy!