v0.5.0 - Finally a few monsters

General

• Reloading updated. Players may attempt to reload as a bonus action.
• Primer and Detonator rules added as variant rule.

Thermal Clips

• New thermal clips added: Drill, Explosive, Phasic
• Thermal clip mechanics changed to account for addition of primer and detonators.

Armor Mods & Sets

Armor or mods that granted an increase in shield regen die type, now increase shield regen by 5. Armor sets that had +shield points, have the total shields and regen amount listed.

Shields

• Shields
  • Flat temporary HP that no longer increase with level
  • Gained from armor and items, not inherent to the player character
  • Regenerate fully on a short/long rest
  • Regenerate in combat if the player takes the Dodge or Hide action then takes no damage until the start of the player's next turn.

Something that's been nagging me for some time is the shield mechanic. The idea was this: shields make up half of a player's health and slowly regenerate if they don't take damage. Sounds great, right? But a simple, great sounding idea can get complicated quickly. The first major hurdle was divvying up player health. Trying to 'split dice' resulted in a total health pool about 10% higher than in 5th edition. When I factored in the average rate of shield regen the increase jumped to more than 25% higher.

More importantly, rolling each turn to get shields back wasn't very exciting and took up a lot of time. Each round of combat, players had to think: did I take damage? I didn't... [rolls dice] ...oh, goody, 2 sp I need track. I found that players actively choose not to roll because they didn't really care for the benefit.

The final problem was the mechanic didn't fit the fiction. What happens when a player removes their armor? Do they still have shields? What is the underlying effect that causes you to gain more shields when you level up?

Through discussions with Swampson, we cam up with an alternative that we believe fixes all of these problems:

1. Shields no longer level up with the character.
2. Shields are a small regenerating pool of temporary hp.
3. Shields come standard in all chest armor pieces, with a base of 5 shield points and a regen of 5. Both can be increased with mods.
4. Shields only recharge an amount equal to their regen when the character takes the Hide or Dodge action and then takes no damage until the start of their next turn.

#1 & #2 fix the health and fiction issues. But I'm especially excited about #3. The idea of hiding or dodging to recharge your shields is a great reflection of Mass Effect combat. Plus, the reward has more potential for the player. Although, 5 additional hit points doesn't sound like a lot, it is for a level 1 character wearing standard armor, and as players level up they can get upwards of 30-40 shield points via upgrading their armor. What I really enjoy is that players now have an active choice in regaining shields, but there is still some luck involved.

Mechanically, I'm also a fan of how well this mechanic blends with the existing 5th edition rules. Instead of a more complex set of hp, shields are akin to a cantrip that provides temporary hp. The increase in health isn't too much to break the system, but enough to help mitigate the lack of healing spells.

If you've got any thoughts on this change, feel free to use the feedback form.

Spells & Powers

Any spell effect that had a player 'gain shield points', now only effects players wearing armor.

• Annihilation Field: Drain option replaced with Phasic, which bypasses shields.
• Shocking touch: Absorbing Shock option replaced with Reach, increasing the range of the power.
• Siege Pulse: Shield point cost reduced to 5.

Races

Geth

• Hunter Mode: No longer reduces shields. Movement increase reduced to 2m, attack bonus reduced to +1. Soldier class bonus reduced to only necrotic and force damage resistance.

Bestiary

Collector forces added. Reaper forces added (excluding Reaper Destroyers and Reaper Capital Ships).

As mentioned in my previous post, I've still been working on the bestiary. My goal is 100 unique monsters and npcs by the end of April (no promises!). For now, I am happy to be able to give you the Reaper and Collector forces. Before you get too excited, no, this does not include a Reaper. That's a task that will take extensive play testing. But, with the random grunt generator, I hope this is enough to get you started on a fun campaign. From here on out, instead of a huge drop in April, I'll add factions as I complete them. Cerberus is next, followed by the Geth, then the mercenary factions (Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Blood Pack). Finishing out the bestiary with some aliens, re-skined 5th edition monsters that I think fit well into the universe, and some named NPCS. When I finally do drop a Reaper stat block into the mix, I'm sure I'll have a very long post explaining my choices, math, and play testing notes.

Site improvements

Probably least exciting to the average user (but exciting for me) are the minor site enhancements I've added. Spells, weapons, monsters, and grunts can now be bookmarked for quick reference. Conditions and some rule references now have tooltips. And we've added spell cards to the [Printables]({{ site.github.url }}/printables) section. Special thanks to Swampson for banging those out. We're not 100% on the layout and style, but when we are, we'll release a printing guide to go along with them.

• Rule dialogs added for quick reference.
• Tooltips added for conditions
• Special thermal clips added as possible npc feature in the grunt generator.
• Spell cards added to printables section
• Bookmarks allow you to save spells, weapons, and npcs for quick reference