Changelog 26/1/23 0.7.0 -> 0.7.1

Hey all! This week I’m back with a new update for The Sleuth, my Intelligence-based occult detective class. It’s been a couple weeks since the first fully public playtest went live here, and I’d like to thank everyone who’s sent feedback! I wanted to address some of your feedback with this small patch, though I also wanted to address a common topic of feedback I’ve seen: complexity. Complexity can be a very nebulous term when talking about game design so being just a little more specific would be very much appreciated. Is the formatting or wording of features hard to parse? Do you feel that you have too many choices at a given time? Details are very helpful!

The one other caveat I would like to add is that I don’t think the modular features of the Sleuth—Investigative Aces—are going anywhere, as I think this kind of in-depth character building can help reinforce the fantasy of building your own specialized investigative toolkit. That’s on top of the fact that it has appeal to many players in the 5e space (including tables I play at).

Otherwise however, feel free to leave your feedback here in this thread or in my new Discord server linked in the document below.

Class Chassis

Not too much change here. I got some feedback from multiple places that the class’s skill access is probably too abundant when coupled with Investigative Ace, as well as that people liked being able to learn the school of a spell affecting the Suspect more than I thought. Those are the primary impetus behind these changes.

1st Level // Skills // Reduced from three to two. In addition, skills must now be chosen from Arcana, Deception, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Perception, Persuasion, Stealth, and Survival.

3rd Level // Discerning Suspicion // Restored the ability to learn what school a spell affecting a Suspect is.

Methods of Inquiry

Bloodhound

18th Level // Greater Dane // The Greater Dane’s Strength modifier is reduced by one, and so are its attack and damage bonuses, but it now has a new ability. This new ability—Meddler—allows the Dane to slow Suspects down.

Detective

10th Level // Reconstructionist // Updated due to changes to Detect Clues. Memorizing auras is now unique to you, but you can only have a number of auras memorized equal to your INT mod.

Heat

While the balance on the previous version of Heat was probably in a fine spot, the design felt a little bit scattered. Here I’m trying to streamline the design a little bit more, as well as give a variant for those who find the Exploit system to be overwhelming or just not quite for them.

3rd Level // Field Tested // Now gives Discombobulate I instead of a list of Aces.

18th Level // High Heat // Now unified in a single feature identical to the Back to Basics feature of the previous release.

Variant // Simplified Heat // A simplified variant of the martial Method of Inquiry for those who wish not to interact with Laserllama’s Exploit system.

Spells

1st Level // Detect Clues // You can no longer memorize auras unless you are a Detective. Instead, you can imprint an aura onto a 1sp small glass disc to sense them and check for matches in the future. Having to track your memorized auras felt strange design-wise, so having such a method to make them physical objects and pass them onto other Sleuths felt flavorful and like a neat solution. Now your imprinted discs can be stolen as well, so better keep your evidence locked up!

1st Level // Illicit Minor // Clarified wording.

Miscellaneous

Added a blurb clarifying the design intent behind Elevated Reasoning’s Rational Limit.

Added a link to my new Discord server: The Muse’s Tent!

Added a link to my new Linktree page.