04/26/2025 - Rulebook 0.16.0

04/26/2025 - Rulebook 0.16.0: HP OVERHAUL

Hello everyone,

Today I bring an update that shakes the very foundations of Ignited, as the changes touch parts of a core system. I told myself that it shouldn't be done, but I felt that this would be better for everyone in the end. This update will come in two parts, as most of it is simply just changing Abilities, Items, and even Archetypes to reflect the change to the system.

The issues I intended to address with this update were:

 1. EXP spending reduced as Journeys progressed.
-- Players would eventually run out of things to spend EXP for, as the usual EXP sinks of Damage Upgrades would eventually hit a limit, and once a Planeswalker's "kit" has been perfected or completed, there's little reason to acquire more Abilities or change your current ones, leading to a naturally tapering expenditure of EXP as Journeys went on.

And so,

• Level EXP thresholds reduced by 2
  • "To next level" thresholds are now 3 EXP at level 1 all the way to 8 EXP at level 20 and onwards.
• EXP Conversion has been increased to 3 EXP of any combination of Colors from 2.
  • The spent EXP to perform the conversion will now also be counted towards leveling up.
• Number of Known Tiered Abilities capped at 10
  • But MND now also increases the number of Known Abilities alongside giving more Prepared Ability Slots
  • Outside of investing in MND, you may also Spend 3 EXP to gain one more Known Ability Slot.

2. Planeswalkers had too little HP, even with all the tools for survivability.
-- GM's have commented that they shared my fear of unintentionally killing their players despite the players being able to output several times more damage than they could receive, leading to overinflated enemy HP pools and relatively miniscule Damage dice values.

To address this,

• Max HP increases now come in +10s, and they occur every other level (3,5,7,...) instead of every 4th level
  • These HP increases stop after Level 20 instead of scaling infinitely past level 20.
  • (The maximum HP any Planeswalker can now have by level 20 is 110, 135 HP with +5 WIL)
• You can still gain more HP beyond this by Spending 8 EXP in any combination of colors to gain +5 Max HP.
  • (This change also doubles as a response to the previous issue)

Other System Changes Include:

• Faith Counters now given an entry in the Counters section
  • And the Ritual Job action given two new benefits: Rejuvenation and Intervention.
• Leveling Milestones have been reworked
  • All three Basic Ability (Signature and Mastery) Slots now available from level 1 (You used to only have 2 and gained the third at level 4)
  • Prepared Abilities reduced to 3 at Level 1
    • This is compensated for by giving 5 more prepared slots across level 4 to level 12 .
    • In short: instead of starting with 5 and gaining 3, you now start with 3 and gain 5.
• Archetype Changes
  (These changes were mainly to reflect the new HP scaling system-- core targets for these were Barbarian, Fighter, and Warlock)
  • Barbarian
    • Both Passives' "HP counting" increased to every 10 HP from every 5 HP
    • Resentment's Damage Bonus increased to +2.
  • Fighter
    • Relentless changed to grant THP equal to twice your Level instead of Half your Max HP instead.
  • Warlock
    • Eldritch Spell reworked to be simpler-- Now you can only pay HP equal to 5 times the Spells tier to cast Unprepared Spells.
  • Paladin
    • Sworn Oath's Oathsworn now chosen once at the start of Combat, and the Casting Bonus increased to +2 from +1.
    • Protector changed to grant your Defend target Armor equal to your WIL instead.
  • Cleric
    • Altruistic slightly reworded so that the Movement bonus for both you and your target lasts until the end of your next turn.
    • Devoted reworked: Choose a Job Tool besides Ceremonial Items. Whenever you perform any of that Tool's Job Actions you gain 2 Faith Counters.
  • Artificer and Druid
    • Given the option to start with Alchemy Reagents
    • (this was because they could start with Alchemist's Tools but not Reagents, so I had to fix that.)
  • CHANGES TO THINGS IN THE DATABASE (ABILITIES, ITEMS, ETC) CAN BE FOUND HERE