Changelog: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 17:48, 27 July 2024

27 Jul 2024

Adjusted the language of Sunder to clarify that monsters, unless specifically stated otherwise, inflict only a single point of durability damage on a successful Sunder maneuver (or 2 points of they exceed the target's Maneuver Defense by 5 or more). Also added rules for what happens to broken magic items.

6 Apr 2024

Wizard: Powerful cantrip can no longer be mana-burned. This is to address the fact that the wizard seems to be more powerful than the sorcerer in raw damage output, while also being considerably more versatile in spell availability and selection. Mana-burning the powerful cantrip effectively allowed the Wizard to use Quicken Spell for free every round starting at level one, which was never the intent. Powerful cantrips, like other cantrips, are meant to be fall-back abilities, or useful buffs, but not main-line damage-dealers.
Sorcerer: Forceful Presence is getting buffed. Instead of adding your CHA modifier to the damage dealt to each creature targeted (once per creature per spell), it is now CHA modifier times the number of Experience tiers the character has in the Sorcerer class. This means an 11th level Sorcerer (3 tiers of Sorcerer) would add triple their CHA modifier as damage dealt to each creature affected by one of their damaging spells. As before, this bonus damage can only be applied once per creature per spell cast, so if a spell can hit the same creature multiple times (like Magic Missile), the bonus damage is only applied once.

1 Apr 2024

We are instituting a new system of 1 GM per 2 player characters, to manage the record-keeping and overhead of traditional RPG games. At tables that don't have enough volunteers to be players, we are also creating rules for an all-GM table.
In order to address some balance issues, we are eliminating races and classes entirely. Instead, everyone will just be a collection of feats that they get at every odd level. Even levels now grant +2 to each ability score (+1 modifier). This should greatly speed up character creation, and eliminate issues of envy. We are also considering allowing players to declare that any low die roll is, in fact, a high die roll, but we're still playtesting this.
In an effort to streamline combat, we're replacing to-hit rolls and damage rolls with a single die roll per encounter. Even -- players win. Odd -- monsters win. Since we've also streamlined character creation, this should be fine.
The Weapon Focus feat as been renamed to April Fool's Day feat.

22 Mar 2024

As part of the ongoing Epic Path 1.1 updates, added three new feats for the Prowler.

We also will note that the quiet upgrades and additions to the Bestiary have been continuing steadily behind the scenes, and has reached an important milestone!

As of this date, we have a minimum of one Monster Blueprint available at every CR all the way from level 1 to level 40! Woohoo!
We now have monsters available for base use all the way from the most basic CR1-Stirge up to the eye-peeling danger of the CR40-Garuda Bird!
Of course, all these monsters have been fully integrated into the Million Monster Machine, which we STRONGLY advise for use, but if you are a traditional GM, well, monster blueprints are now available at every level!
Keep an eye on the Bestiary! We'll keep adding and expanding more monsters as time goes by!

2 Mar 2024

As part of the ongoing Epic Path 1.1 updates, added a new level 20 class feature for the Sorcerer. They deserve it, and gosh darn it, people like them.
Added 3 new feats for the Partisan:

9 Dec 2023

Changed Solarian Cloak (Rage Power) from immunity to one (or more) energy types, to Hardened to one (or more) energy types. Hardened reduces damage by half.
Completely revamped the Keen‎‎, Sharpness, Deathly, Butchering, and Vorpal melee weapon properties. They are now very much focused on being highly beneficial to crit builds.
Removed the crit bonuses that previously existed in the Foeseeker, Force, Foecaller, and Annihilation weapons. Removed Force Majeure, Foeslayer, and Calamity properties.
Added the Multitarget (Feat), Improved Multitarget (Feat), Greater Multitarget (Feat), and Perfect Multitarget (Feat) feats. This is a fresh new line of metamagic feats we think you'll like.
Selective (Feat) is now a metamagic feat (which it likely should have always been). Kind GMs might be willing to grandfather in the Old Selective (Feat).

26 August 2023

Did an edit pass across a bunch of the status conditions, focusing primarily on the conditions which previously had the potential for players to inflict their damage on another player. Since player damage is MUCH higher than monster damage, this was quite OP. In all cases where this previously existed, the damage has been replaced by a new fixed value that is independent of the player's normal damage.
Several other status conditions were clarified, simplified, or just generally tweaked to be easier to use.

12 August 2023

We humbly direct everyone's attention to the newest Magic Items to grace the pages of Epic Path! The Seafoam Foundation and Hauberk of the Magus are two entirely new item families that fit into the Armor Slot. While there are literally millions of armors that could already fit into that slot, we felt that all those 'clothies' out there deserved a couple of new item families to tempt them away from their precious money. Kindly read them over, and see how they can help YOUR character!

The Monster Pass continues! Using the Million Monster Machine, we have been stealthily increasing (and often decreasing) the levels at which dozens of monsters are available, using special GM Sauce behind the scenes to cook up millions of more exciting and challenging monsters for your enjoyment! If you are running Epic Path, we STRONGLY ENCOURAGE the use of the Million Monster Machine. While you can certainly run dozens, if not hundreds, of encounters using the 'raw blueprints' as published on our web page, using the Million Monster Machine will give you access to literally millions upon millions MORE monsters to confound, amuse, terrify, and delight your players!

27 June 2023

Please be aware, the Flat-Footed, Wobbly, and Helpless conditions have been made even worse! Of course, Helpless is so bad it barely even matters....
As of now, casting a Spell while under any of these conditions requires a Caster Check, and if you fail this check...you lose the spell! (As usual for failing such a check.)
Please note that this technically effects everyone before they have their first turn in every combat (since you're flat-footed until you get to act), but honestly, since you can't act, you can't cast spells anyway. So it's not that terrible.

8 Apr 2023

Added in that old DnD classic item, the Ring of Regeneration! Everybody go look in awe at the magnificence.
Buffed the various Goodberry spells, to make them more useful in general.
Rebalanced and revamped the Victory Laurel, with an eye to balance with the new Ring of Regeneration, the various Caduceus Rods, and the existing Ring of Caring. Everything should be nicely balanced against each other now, and if you want to create a 'healing Rogue' sort of character, now you totally can!
Re-re-re-balanced the poor Necklace of Fire at all levels. It's still super awesome, as befits the highest damage item in the game, but we pulled in the absolutely crazy top end to set that top end damage at a place we're a little more comfortable with.

1 Apr 2023

Updated magic item damage (order damage) so that it caps at various character levels, based on the order. An item that inflicts order 1 damage, for example, now caps at level 8, dealing a maximum of 8d6 damage.
Updated the Necklace of Fire +1 such that it only triggers when the wearer is successfully struck in melee (was hit or miss). Note that the above order damage change also places caps on the damage of the Necklace of Fire. (A double-nerf! OMG!)

14 Jan 2023

Updated the Grabbed, Grappled, and Pinned conditions, as well as the Grapple combat maneuver. These conditions now only last a single round (until the start of the creature that initiated the grapple's next turn), and inflict penalties similar to other status conditions. The combat maneuver and its associated conditions are now much simpler for everyone. Hopefully this means they'll see some use.

30 July 2022

Power Attack (Feat) now applies to all weapon to-hits, instead of just melee, which combines it with the Piranha Strike and Deadly Aim feats. Piranha Strike has been removed from the game entirely, and Deadly Aim (Feat) has been completely re-written and re-purposed to allow players who wish to be equally as good with melee and ranged attacks to do so...for a small (but inescapable) price.
This change was precipitated by the recent changes to Weapon Focus (Feat) and the Returning weapon property, as we make it easier to be good at melee AND ranged attacks at all levels of the game. Those changes revealed an additional issue in the core rules that we are addressing with this change to readily-accessible feats.
Once again, we strongly encourage all DM's to allow this change to happen 'behind the scenes' through the use of GM fiat, but if you'd rather have the players use the retraining rules, well, that's up to you! It IS your game, after all!
Note that these various rule changes now make it MUCH easier to play so-called 'gish' characters, which we heartily approve of, if that's your cup of tea! Who doesn't like a nice, zesty spell-blade, after all?

22 Jun 2022

It is now possible to use a War Shield to make Shield Bashes. Light Shields, Heavy Shields, and War Shields can perform Shield Bash, Bucklers and Tower Shields cannot. Get out there and start bashing!

18 Jun 2022

We've gone mad with power! As recently announced, we are moving forward with Epic Path 1.1. As announced below, we had to make some small buffs to player classes to fit in the new Traps rules. But now? We've deleted the Point-Blank Shot feat...COMPLETELY! Muahahaha!
But never fear, because this is actually another buff in disguise. In the interest of making the use of melee weapons and ranged weapons easier for all those weapon-users out there, we took all of the functionality of the old Point-Blank Shot feat and migrated it into the Weapon Focus (Feat). Because nobody EVER took weapon focus....
Weapon focus was actually always a very good feat, but it was, honestly, a bit dull. Now, it is less dull, and every player out there who ever took it is now allowed to pick a ranged weapon to ALSO be good at. Any players that had the old Point Blank Shot feat should replace it immediately with the Weapon Focus Feat, and if you ALSO had the Weapon Focus feat, you should choose a NEW feat...for free! Note that this new feat must be one you would have been eligible for when you took the replaced feat, following the normal retraining rules.
We strongly encourage all DM's to allow this change to happen 'behind the scenes' through the use of GM fiat, but if you'd rather have the players use the retraining rules, well, that's up to you! It IS your game, after all!
In other news, we also made the Returning magic weapon property much easier to access at low levels. In the original rules, you had to place it on an enchanted weapon, meaning, it was impossible to have a returning weapon at character creation. Now, it costs 50 gold, but may be applied to even a mundane weapon, meaning, you can buy a returning weapon with your starting money, if you budget for it properly.
These two changes make ranged attacks much more accessible to tier 1 players, so, go out there and start shootin'!

11 Jun 2022

As part of updating the traps rules for Epic Path, a few character classes needed to have some of their class features updated to reflect these new rules (and be useful). Overall, these are buffs to the classes that give them more utility when traps are present in an encounter.
Rogues' lost their "Trap Spotter" line of class features, and it was replaced with the "Trap Escapist" line of class features. Where before it gave them some numerical bonuses versus traps, the new class feature gives them a once-per-encounter ability to significantly reduce (or negate) the effects of an attack by a trap for themselves, and at higher levels, several nearby allies as well.
Rogues also had a rogue talent that let them trigger a trap remotely, which has been replaced by Cunning_Trigger_(Talent), which lets them include or exclude a square in a trap's next attack after a successful Dismantle Trap maneuver against that trap.
The Saboteur (Feat) was added to the game for those people who don't like the idea of swapping their weapon for some thieves' tools in the middle of a dangerous battle.
Prowlers get the Saboteur feat as a bonus feat at level 4 (replaces the Trapfinding feature which gave them some bonuses to spotting traps).
Prowlers get an ability at level 9 that lets them slide closer to a trap once per encounter as a swift action (replaces Trap Sense, which gave them some defensive bonuses against trap attacks).
Prowlers get an ability at level 24 that lets them take only half damage and no secondary effects (like status effects) from a trap once per encounter (replaces Trap Spotter, which let them ret-con a trap triggering, which doesn't really make any sense under the new trap rules).
Partisans had their favored class bonus "Fanaticism" altered to be usable once per day as an attack action, instead of requiring an action point. This restores action points to being an optional component to Epic Path, and keeps this ability relevant (being able to heal a second time in an encounter can be a lifesaver, and the improved action economy -- it normally costs a move action to activate -- also makes the favored class bonus a little tastier than the normal power, without overshadowing anything).

29 May 2022

MONSTERS, MONSTERS, MONSTERS! We have been thickening, expanding, and enriching clades of monsters at every level of the game, and can now say with great satisfaction that we have at least 20 monsters available (with the use of the Million Monster Machine) at every level of the game from 1st to 35th and beyond! But fear not, we have lots and lots more Bad Guys coming to fight, so we're just scratching the surface!

As a note, we just finished a comprehensive pass through the Monster Patterns to address some balance issues, so all those millions of monsters are sure to be a great, fun, challenge to your players at any level!

The ConTRAPtion is live! Traps and hazards are now officially a part of the Epic Path menagerie, and boy, have we got plenty of them! All the traps usable with the ConTRAPtion tool can scale to almost any challenge level, automatically, and by adding Complications you can adjust and fine-tune the traps to do exactly what you need them to do! Have fun presenting lots of new challenges to your players!

In other news, the Mass Combat rules are doing well in play-testing, so expect the next big expansion of the Epic Path rules to be Coming Soon (TM)!

Last but not least, ongoing play-testing has revealed a few 'tweaks' that might be required for a few player character classes. Epic Path 1.1 is currently under discussion and development! Stay tuned for lots of fun stuff to come!

19 March 2022

Updated the Action Points rules to include two new uses for action points, which can be used during any round of combat:

Heroic Defiance: used during your turn when you are above your Bloodied Hit Points Value, prevents you from being reduced below your Bloodied Hit Points value until the start of your next turn.
Heroic Last Stand: used during your turn when you are below your Bloodied Hit Points Value, prevents you from being reduced below 1 hit point until the start of your next turn.

Note that neither of these abilities reduces, cures, or prevents any status conditions or other non-damage negative effects.

12 Feb 2022

Clarified that rods, staves, and wands can be used to perform somatic components of spells while wielded, in lieu of a free hand. This rule was already in place, but was difficult to find. It's freaking everywhere now.
Updated Body Capacitance (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell) (and the alchemist version) to make it a little easier to use, at the expense of doing less base damage.
Created the Dismantle Trap combat maneuver. The traps system is nearly complete, though many classes (such as the rogue) have class features that still need to be updated to reflect the new rules.
Sunder maneuver has been updated to reflect changes to the siege damage numbers. Siege damage numbers haven't been fully promulgated throughout the game yet, but that is also coming soon.

22 Jan 2022

Finished editing all references to 'Miss Chance' to properly work with the new, simpler, integrated bypass implementation. This took a while because, the Sylph's 'Wind Skin' power had to change, and we were reluctant to make a class-affecting change without a good long think about it. In the end, we rebuilt 'Wind Skin' in a way that we feel is fair, and honestly, a small buff. Take a look and see what folks think!

The Traps system is getting closer, and the early templates are up on the page to verify how traps will display. We are extremely excited about this new content, and have a lot more planned!

30 Dec 2021

Well, Epic Path has been at Version 1.0 for a whole year! As promised, we have not altered any player-affecting rules in any significant way, and we don't plan to start anytime soon. But we have hardly been resting on our laurels, either!

As you may have noticed, we have greatly increased the number of Monster Blueprints, and have begun the process (the very long, arduous process...) of populating Monsters all the way to level 40. Given that Player Characters cap out at 35th, we feel that there is PLENTY of stuff to do if anyone ever manages to 'cap out' a game.

True Dweomers have been 'filled out' until it is now possible to fully populate all five True Dweomer feats, so that system is logically complete. Obviously, we need a LOT more TD's written before that system will be as content-rich as we'd like it to be, but there's no terrible rush.

Auramancy and Potenz Machenvar are two personal favorites of ours, but alas, they are still in the development queue. Sometime in the future, have no fear!

We are interested in providing a dedicated Game World for all players of Epic Path, should they want one, and we have the bones of a campaign setting as notes in the page today, as the Game World of Celegia. We have the domain Celegia.com all ready to go, although for the foreseeable future, it's just pointing back to Epic Path....but that won't last forever!

Equipment needs some modest expansions, and that project has been perking along on the back burner because it is a dependency on the next BIG system we are implementing, namely, Traps!

Traps are a D20-system staple reaching all the way back to the beginning (ugh, Tomb of Horrors, oh man...), and we have been busy in the background developing a deep, rich, broad set of rules that will allow GM's to utilize these old-school classics in powerful, exciting, challenging, and fun ways. We're very excited for this new system, and it is getting close to ready!

Now, in the background, the Traps system has to integrate into at least three more major systems that are still to come, so we expect the upcoming months to be productive and content rich for everyone out there!

Keep an eye on the 'Change Summary' link right under the round Epic Path logo to see all the new stuff coming up, everybody stay safe and healthy, and here's to Epic Path's NINTH BIG YEAR coming up in 2022!

27 Sep 2021

Updated the Skill Specialist and Skill Prodigy feats to provide a host of new special abilities depending on which skill they are applied to. The Skill Virtuoso feat was also clarified to interact with these new special abilities.

8 Aug 2021

We changed some rules, even though we said we wouldn't. Does that make us bad people? It probably does.
Critical Threats: Any roll that critically threatens is always considered a hit, even if the total doesn't exceed the target's AC. Obviously, since a confirmation roll just needs to 'hit', any natural die result in the weapon's crit range during a confirmation roll is also a hit (and therefore a crit). This only applies to attack rolls, not skill rolls (but remember that any spell with a to-hit roll can crit). This makes those high crit builds especially powerful during the 3rd and 4th attacks of the round. Of course, it also makes some monsters a little meaner... See Critical Hits for details.
Concealment: We got rid of that extra 'miss chance' roll for concealment (partial and total). Attacks performed against concealed creatures now just automatically miss on a natural die result that is low (6 or less for partial concealment, and 12 or less for total concealment). This makes concealment more annoying to those characters with really high to-hit bonuses (who can normally hit even on a bad die roll), but leaves the people who were already struggling with their to-hits alone. It's progressive like that. See Concealment for details.

Note that there are still quite a few references in the rules for 'miss chance'. We're working on cleaning those up, but there's over 100 of them, so it may take a little while.

Ambushes: simplified how ambushes and surprise rounds work. The TLDR of it is: whoever successfully pulls off an ambush can set up the starting locations of all creatures on both sides of the encounter, within some limitations. See Surprise for details.

6 May 2021

Swarms are now a role that can be applied to most monsters, via the Million Monster Machine.
The Million Monster Machine has also been updated to allow up to two patterns to be applied to any monster. This means its name is no longer hyperbole. There really are over a million monsters available to play right now in Epic Path (and many more to come... <insert evil laugh here>).

27 Dec 2020

Epic Path 1.0 is finally here!!!

After thousands of hours of assessing, analyzing, over-analyzing, agonizing, and self-aggrandizing, as well as a

full-blown global pandemic (which we probably had nothing to do with), Epic Path 1.0 is finally ready to be played.

We hope you enjoy it.

This means that the Class Balance Pass is finished, both Offense and Defense. The Monster Scaling Pass is also finished, which means, sadly, that all Legacy classes are now obsolete. If you wish to avoid fairly severe balance problems, GM's must adjust encounter difficulties 'by hand', players must rebuild their characters into the new rules, or, tables must start a fresh campaign. We apologize for any inconvenience!
Of course, this doesn't mean we're done, and we are promptly moving on to the next Big Thing. We're still going to write up more monsters, more magic items, more feats, more spells, even possibly more character classes (like the pariah and sharp), and many more things besides, such as:
We're also going to work on the settlements system, upgrade the Million Monster Machine to support up to two patterns, build some Potens Machenvar to completely break a campaign or two, write up some optional new rules systems for those bored by how simplistic and generic our base game is. As well as a few other things along the way.
However, there will be no more core rules changes, no more nerfs to character classes, spells, feats, magic items, etc., except where game-breaking problems are discovered.

GMs are, of course, always encouraged to house-rule anything they feel doesn't work the way it should.

23 Dec 2020

Maneuver Defense: characters now add their natural armor bonus (if any) to their maneuver defense calculations.

Skill DC's have been updated. In general, they are easier at higher levels, but largely unchanged at lower levels.

21 Dec 2020

Death checks are no longer a Might skill check. Instead, they are a simple d20 roll versus a DC of 12. A few (very few) class features, feats, and magic items can help with this, but generally, they're meant to be hard. Dying characters should be tended to by their allies quickly.

The Epic Path 1.0 Class Balance Pass continues! We are very pleased that we have finally finished the Offense Balance Pass. Whew!

We have begun the Epic Path 1.0 Defense Balance Pass, and as we expected, this is going 'relatively' quickly. We have found and corrected a number of issues, and as a result, we have rebuilt the way that Armor works. Specifically, the old 'Max Dex' quality of Armor was found to be scaling poorly at the higher levels of play, and we have replaced the concept of Max Dex with the concept of 'Dex Penalty to AC'. This applies a penalty to the contribution your Dexterity can grant to your Armor Class, rather than a hard cap on your Dexterity.

This change means that Armor now scales MUCH better with Dexterity increases, with the expense that at low levels, almost all Armors now penalize low level characters with a high Dex. This has the effect of greatly widening the dynamic range of Armor as your level increases, and makes the Medium and Heavy armors more valuable at all levels, especially if you invest in magic items (warrior harness, muleback cords, dweomermetals) that mitigate the ill effects of the heavier armors.

Remember, as we finish the Epic Path 1.0 Balance Pass, we will soon begin the Monster Scaling Pass! This means that Legacy Epic Path Classes will rapidly become obsolete, as the game is re-tuned and rebalanced away from their older design state. Be ready!

12 Dec 2020

The Epic Path 1.0 Class Balance Pass continues! This has been a huge amount of work, and we are very happy to finally be at (or close to) the end of the first phase of the Balance Pass. We have one class to complete for the Offense Pass, and then we will begin the Defense Pass.

We do not expect the Epic Path 1.0 Defense Pass will take as long as the Offense Pass did, because we can build on the progress made, which should move this along more quickly. As always, expect there to be large changes in the 1.0 Classes that will affect gameplay, although we expect these will mainly be above level 10 (unless we're wrong). However, this means that the 1.0 Pass is Almost Complete! HOORAY!

What this means is that we will then begin the Monster Scaling Pass, so that all Epic Path Monsters are properly tuned to work with the new 1.0 classes. This means there will be CONSEQUENCES, to wit:

ALL LEGACY EPIC PATH CLASSES ARE RAPIDLY APPROACHING OBSOLESCENCE! Once we run the Monster Scaling Pass, old-style EP characters will be out of scale, and unexpected gameplay problems may occur!

Campaigns may continue using legacy classes for a while longer, but be warned, for the legacy classes: THE END IS NIGH!

16 Nov 2020

The Epic Path 1.0 Class Balance Pass continues! We are well along into the first stage of the 1.0 balance pass now, and keen observers will note that many changes and tweaks are being made to the new classes. (We're also still slipping in a bit of other new content, like the Honcho Helmet, which is huge fun for all those Summoners out there.) The huge majority of the changes so far are being made to scale and balance the high-Epic levels, and even better, the huge majority of the changes so far have been nice, juicy buffs. All the 1.0 classes that are finished with this first-stage pass have been noted on the front page with a little green checkmark.

We feel that most of the classes (even the ones not officially balanced up into the thirties) are currently 'fine to play' up to at least tenth level (first and second Tier), so if anyone wants to try things out, feel free to give it a go! Of course, as always, until the balance pass is complete, expect changes to the classes that might affect gameplay.

Now, even once we have finished this first-stage balance pass, the tweaking will not be completed, as we then have a second-stage pass following along behind this one. But rest assured, steady progress is being made on this project, even with all the collaborative difficulties of social distancing as we assure everyone stays safe and healthy.

On the subject of safe gaming, please note our partner site, Virtua Rasa, linked off the sidebar. Virtua Rasa is a fully virtual remote game-display application presented as a web page. Virtual gaming is the best gaming in the Age of COVID! In all cases, game safely, practice social distancing, maintain good cleanliness (wash those hands!), and keep your chin up!

11 Oct 2020

The first stage of the Epic Path 1.0 balance and tuning pass is getting close to completion, and we have enough data compiled to begin making some early balance and buffing changes to the player character classes. This has been a very busy time for us 'behind the scenes', even though we're still pushing out new True Dweomers and the occasional 'fussy' magic item in our spare time. We're still not too close to the end of the balance pass, but we think it's fair to state that we're almost to the end of the beginning part of the balance pass. Stay tuned, expect changes, and rest assured, enormous progress is being made to give everyone who plays Epic Path the best, most stable, most exciting, most flexible, and most balanced set of D20 rules ever!

26 Sep 2020

The Empower Spell feat now bypasses Spell Resistance, and has no other effects.

12 Sep 2020

Updated Cloistered to reduce incoming damage by half, instead of granting DR and ER (which was complicated)
Updated Isolate spell to only last for 1 round (until start of caster's next turn).
Updated Spell Circle 1 to 1d6 per caster level, to a max of 4d6 at CL 4 (was 1d4 per CL, to a max of 5d4 at 5th).
Updated Perfect Spell and Absolute Spell feats, but no one was ever high enough level to look at those, so who cares? (We do, of course!)

31 Aug 2020

Altered Selective again...

Deleted Selective Spell (Feat), Selective Channel (Feat), Selective Bomb (Feat), Selective Symphony (Feat), and Precise Bombs (Discovery).
Smushed them all into a single feat: Selective (Feat)

Altered functionality of Selective to (hopefully) simplify its use at the table. Instead of altering caster level of the effect, it just reduces the effect of the dice (usually damage, but sometimes healing, etc.) by 1 per die per target excluded after the first.
You can also take the feat more than once to increase the number of 'free' excluded targets.
added a 'special' that accommodates truly large party sizes.

19 Aug 2020

TRUE DWEOMERS ARE LIVE!

Well, sort of....

All the game mechanics are written and available and integrated into the rest of the rules, and there is a single True Dweomer Spell available. With Mana Burning and Metamagic Feats, this is enough content to test the function of the entire system, from top to bottom. Any games currently running at levels 19+ will also have the ability to use the system, with perhaps limited functionality. Needless to say, we will be fleshing this out extensively in the coming months.

In other news, the Epic Path 1.0 testing and balance pass continues. The latest work is building more test characters and fleshing them out, and fixing issues we find in that process. Many Feats just got a 'buff and polish' pass as part of this effort, and of course, we decided to implement the bare-bones, early-access True Dweomer system so we can accurately model the Mythic and Legendary end of game.

The Final Balance Pass for 1.0 is still progressing well, although the current pandemic lockdown conditions are slowing us down in our collaborative efforts. Apologies for the delay, but rest assured, it is getting closer every day, and the extra time is allowing us to be thorough and rigorous in our tests and checks.

05 Aug 2020

New Magic Items! As we steadily progress through the final steps in polishing up Epic Path 1.0, we are finding and fixing a few small oversights. Part of this process involved adding a dozen or more new families of magic items! Many of these are powerful and interesting Wands, but we've also slipped in such goodies as the Hornet Wing Cloak and the Hardened Cassock, which have a broad appeal to everybody with a taste for adventure!

The Final Balance Pass for 1.0 is progressing well, and as we've been busy testing and balancing rules, we have been extremely pleased at how well everything is working, all the way from level one to the sky-high level 35. We're very excited, and we think that once you see how it all works together, that you will be excited too!

13 Jul 2020

The new Remnant rules are now live. There are now quite a variety of (optional) ways to use remnants. Players should consult with GM's as to which (if any) of these uses are available in their campaign setting.

20 May 2020

Unarmed strikes no longer provoke when you don't have the Improved Unarmed Strike feat.
The Improved Unarmed Strike feat now just increases the base weapon damage of unarmed strikes to 1d6, regardless of the character's size.
Monks and Brawlers still get this feat, even though it doesn't do anything for them, because it is still useful as a prerequisite for other feats.
Deleted the "Non-Threatening" and "Provocative" weapon qualities. The theory being heroes know how to fight with any weapon well enough not to get themselves stabbed (or chewed) for doing so. (This is the same justification we gave for removing the attacks of opportunity from combat maneuvers).

1 May 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Wizard is now complete. This means all classes have now been updated for 1.0.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
The final step before 1.0's release is a review of each character class through every character level, to assess its numbers against the numbers for monsters, to make sure the game is still fun and challenging at all levels. Character classes will also be reviewed against each other to ensure that no one class is head-and-shoulders better than any other. Each class will have its own strengths and weaknesses, and should each be relatively balanced against its peers (note however that high-damage classes will still greatly out-damage the high-defense classes, while high-utility classes may find their damage and defense to be a bit more middle-of-the-road).

28 Apr 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Warlord is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

24 Apr 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Rogue is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

2 Apr 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Ranger is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

26 Mar 2020

Combat maneuvers no longer provoke attacks of opportunity (it is no longer necessary to take a feat to negate the AOO of a combat maneuver).
You can only perform one combat maneuver per turn, unless you spend an action point to do it a second time (and the action point has to grant you an action big enough to do so).
Reduced the number of feats related to combat maneuvers to 3: Improved Combat Maneuvers (Feat), Quick Combat Maneuvers (Feat), and Mass Combat Maneuvers (Feat)
Clamber is a combat maneuver that uses the Movement skill (was Might). It deals damage if successful (as a maneuver), and requires an attack action to perform.
Charge is now a combat maneuver that uses the Movement skill (was an attack roll). It is still almost identical to the previous rules with the following changes:

no longer immediately ends your turn
no longer inflicts the -2 penalty to AC
if you critically fail (miss the DC by 5 or more, or roll a natural 1), you provoke an AOO from the target.

Withdraw is now a combat maneuver that uses the Movement skill, and is only a standard action to perform (was a full attack action). You only move your move speed (was double your move). You choose a primary target, and that target cannot make any attacks of opportunity against you due to this movement. You can then make the maneuver check to attempt to prevent other nearby enemies from making attacks of opportunity against you. You MUST move away from the primary target with every square of your movement during the maneuver.
Cleave is now a combat maneuver that uses the Might skill. It is an Attack Action to perform (was a free attack). It otherwise works the same. The big advantage it now offers is that it is a skill check, and can be used in place of any of your attacks in a full attack action, potentially replacing your worst to-hit. Plus, anyone can do it, it no longer costs a feat.

25 Mar 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Prowler is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
Renamed "Standard Attack" to "Attack Action" so it stood out a little more from "Standard Action". (It's still a little too close to "Full Attack Action", but I can live with that.)

19 Mar 2020

Partial cover (e.g. being around a corner) now grants only a +2 bonus to AC and a +1 bonus to Reflex saves (changed from +4 to AC and +2 to Reflex saves).

Improved cover now grants either double this bonus (+4 AC, +2 Reflex), or triple (+6 AC, +3 Reflex), depending on how good the improved cover is (changed from +8 to AC and +4 to Reflex saves).

17 Mar 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Partisan is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

5 Mar 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Paladin is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

23 Feb 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Monk is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

18 Feb 2020

Updated castigate to allow clerics to target themselves with the healing (instead of adjacent allies only). However, you can now only grant castigate's healing effect to a character a maximum of once per round. This forces the cleric to spread that healing around, rather than become some unstoppable regenerating tank that can fully heal themselves every round just by hitting things more often.
Added Hallowed Weapon back in, and updated it to allow the cleric to also imbue the effect of a single Rod or Wand into the weapon. It now requires a full 1-day ritual to create a Hallowed Weapon.

16 Feb 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Fighter is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

12 Feb 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Druid is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

3 Feb 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Cleric is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

30 Jan 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Bard is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

18 Jan 2020

A very simple version of the Character Sheet is now available on the sidebar, in either PDF format or as a Google spreadsheet.

Download the PDF here: File:EP Character Sheet Print Only v1.pdf
Open the spreadsheet here: Spreadsheet

To save anything in the spreadsheet, you'll have to make a copy of it for yourself first (it's read only).

Removed trained-only, as a concept, from the game. Any character (or monster) can make a skill check with any skill now, though people who haven't put any ranks into a skill should still expect to stink at it.

Removed the Journeyman Check from the game. It wasn't really achieving its purpose (to allow people to make checks against things they weren't trained in).

As a reminder to players and GMs alike, skill DC's are ALWAYS based on the thing being tested against. This is not necessarily the same as the level (or CR) of the creature attempting the check. Just as a low-level character would have no hope of picking the lock on the Imperial Vault, a high level character would (probably) never struggle picking the lock on a peasant's house.

Moved Reposition, Subdue, and Trip out of the Might skill and into the Sleight of Hand skill. This puts 6 combat maneuvers into each skill. (Might was getting a little too good, and sleight of hand needed a little boost.)

16 Jan 2020

Removed Non-Lethal Damage from the game.
Added three new status conditions: Secured → Subdued → Sapped. These conditions make it possible to capture an opponent (or PC) without killing them.
Added a new combat maneuver called Subdue, which uses the Might skill (versus target's Maneuver Defense). If successful, inflicts the Secured condition on the target.
Created a new weapon quality called Subduing (Quality), and applied it to the Sap (Weapon) and Mancatcher (Weapon).
Poisons are now deadlier; Environmental damage is now deadlier; Drinking booze is now... deadlier? Nah, I'm sure that's supposed to say 'tastier'.

4 Jan 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Brawler is now complete.
Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

1 Jan 2020

The new 1.0 version of the Barbarian is now complete.

This also includes the 1.0 version of all the Barbarian Rage Powers.

Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

21 Dec 2019

Updated spell casting rules to clearly state that if a spell is castable as a standard action, it can also be cast as the first attack of a full attack action. This is more consistent with how other standard action-based attacks work, and felt reasonable.
The 1.0 version of Epic Path will not include the Favored Class bonus of +1 to either a hit point or a skill point each level. We are removing this. It is possible that we will look over hit point and/or skill point distribution when we do the numbers pass, but for now, this is simply going away. Currently running campaigns may wish to ignore this change (keep granting the +1 hp or +1 skill point when a level of the favored class is gained), since the 1.0 rules include specific bonuses for favored classes (unique to each class) that are meant to replace this.

On a related note, dual classing (alternating between two classes every other level) will gain both favored class bonuses for their two chosen classes. See Changing Classes for details.

12 Dec 2019

The new 1.0 version of the Sorcerer is complete.

This also includes the 1.0 version of all the Sorcerer Bloodlines.

Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass. The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass. Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.

24 Nov 2019

The new 1.0 version of the Alchemist is complete. All discoveries and feats specific to the alchemist have also been updated or reviewed.

Observant readers will notice that the multi-classing language was left in. Multi-classing will be included in the 1.0 character pass, despite being more work. We felt that this is something we'd regret not doing, if we didn't do it. Furthermore, the whole point of the 1.0 pass is to COMPLETE the game, finalize the rules, and stop making changes that would disrupt campaigns. We felt that adding the multi-classing rules in later would do that. So we're doing it now.

Next up: Sorcerer bloodlines, and format work on the 1.0 versions of the character classes.

16 Nov 2019

Updated player poison rules. Player poisons can now be applied to a weapon (or up to 3 pieces of ammunition per dose of poison) between encounters, and the poison lasts until the end of the next encounter. Furthermore, a poisoned weapon inflicts its poison on the first creature successfully struck by that weapon each round of the encounter in which it is poisoned (instead of getting used up in the first hit). See Poisons, and/or Sleight of Hand for details.

15 Nov 2019

The updated alchemist class is now mostly done. We're still going to review and re-write their discoveries, but the main character page (Alchemist) is now ready to go.
The class is currently written to demonstrate how the "Prestige Multi-Classing" system would work, if we decide to implement it. Prestige multi-classing offers players a huge variety of character class options. The way it works is:

You can only change classes as you transition between experience tiers. That is, upon reaching any of 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th, or 31st levels.
When you reach a new tier, you can choose any experience tier of any character class, as long as you are at least high enough level for the tier you are choosing (and you can't take the same tier of a class more than once, obviously). This means that, if you are 6th level, you can choose any Courageous Tier or Intrepid Tier from any class. As a result, this means you can 'skip' lower level tiers of a character class, if you want to. When you do so, you miss out on class features that are exclusive to that tier. However, core features of the class are always 'seeded' through each higher level tier, to ensure the class works at any tier, and still feels like you are playing that class. In the case of the alchemist, this means that you always get bombs and extracts, regardless of which tiers you take.

The progression tables of each tier also show in parentheses when a numerical value of the class (e.g. BAB, saving throws, extracts) increases from the previous level. These are referred to as "deltas". When you multi-class, you ONLY receive the deltas, instead of the full listed value.

We're still debating whether we want to make multi-classing such a big part of Epic Path. We really like our single classes, and want people to feel like taking the same class from 1 to 35 is a great idea, and not somehow weaker or sub-optimal than multi-classing. Multi-classing should be there for people who want to design a character to fit a specific idea, or who just want to try out new things, but it shouldn't be dramatically more powerful than a single-class build (ideally, it would be exactly as powerful, but that would be nearly impossible to design).

If you feel strongly about whether or not multi-classing should be a major part of Epic Path, please let us know.

4 Nov 2019

Removed caster level penalty from Paladins. Their caster level is now equal to their class level, just like any other caster or demi-caster class.

26 Oct 2019

The character class pass is proceeding smoothly! We started this process by making some deep decisions on how character classes are mechanically going to work, as well as how we are going to present these classes to players.

We have decided that we don't really want to present the character classes as 'one huge stat block'. Instead, we are breaking the level progression from levels 1 to 36+ into multiple 5-level experience tiers. This means that the information you will need to play a low level character is all in one place, while the higher level information is 'tucked away' further down the page.

The experience tiers, in order, are:

Favored Class Information - The very basic stats you get simply by choosing this class as your 'favorite' character class. (Not really an experience tier.)
Courageous Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 1 to 5.
Intrepid Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 6 to 10.
Heroic Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 11 to 15.
Undaunted Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 16 to 20.
Valorous Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 21 to 25.
Mythic Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 26 to 30.
Legendary Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 31 to 35.
Apotheotic Tier - What happens when you hit the level cap? At 36+, we really don't know! If your game ever gets to this point, do what you like, the sky is the limit, and that's exactly what this section is all about.

To generate an Epic Path character, this means you only need to review the Favored Class block and the Courageous tier information. All that Heroic and Valorous and Mythic stuff can wait a while, if you just want to get your game on!

The Alchemist is the first class we're busy converting into this new format, and we're taking our time to be sure we get all the nuts and bolts in the right places. As part of this pass, we're taking the opportunity to completely rebuild the Alchemist, starting with re-writing all of their Extracts, and rebuilding their class abilities. Grand Discoveries are going to show up MUCH sooner, and new and improved class features will be available from top to bottom. We won't even mention their new Bomb damage model!

Keep an eye out for all the fun, and have a Happy Halloween!

28 Sep 2019

Magic Items are now done!

There are over 1300 magic items to choose from, which should keep everyone busy for a while.
We will be adding more in the future, as inspiration comes to us, but this should be enough to get things started.

Next up: the character pass.

This will be a full, soup-to-nuts review of every character class in the game (and likely the feats, spells, and possibly even races) to update, balance, and streamline each class, and get them in line with our expectations for monster offense and defense numbers.
During this time, we will also be finishing the Pariah and Sharp character classes.
Warning: the character pass will be very disruptive to anyone playing Epic Path during this time. Changes will be happening fairly quickly, and they will impact any existing character in play. We will try to keep the changelog up to date with these changes, but expect it to be difficult to keep up with things while all this is going on.
We expect the character pass to go on for approximately 5 months (end of February 2020, is our best guess).

Once the character pass is done, we will declare Epic Path 1.0 to be complete

Epic Path 1.0 will mean that the rules will be final (except for fixing mistakes), and no further game-interrupting changes will be allowed.
Optional systems, like vehicle combat, siege warfare, settlement building, auramancy, and true dweomers, will still be on the table as possible additions, but GM's are welcome to ignore these systems if they want, or add them into their campaigns if they seem appropriate. They will not alter the core rules, balance, or systems of the game.
We will also continue to add new monsters, feats, spells, magic items, etc. to the game even after EP 1.0 is released. These will only augment existing rules and content, and will also not change core rules, balance, or systems.

10 Sep 2019

Added rules for potions and scrolls.
Added rules for Magic Staves.

27 Aug 2019

We are pleased to announce that we have reached a fun milestone in the Magic Items pass: As of today, we have 101 fully developed families of magic items, with well over 1000 items fully written and ready for play. This huge number of items range in caster level from 1st level to well over 35th, and every family of items is completely developed for all levels of play...although some of the fancier items might be bit expensive for the lowest levels of the game!
These families of items are well-distributed across all available magic item slots every character has, and the functions of the items in every slot have been carefully chosen so that nearly every character can find something useful for their style of play, in every slot!
We have deliberately and carefully written these items in such a way that there are no 'bottlenecks'. There are no 'essential' items that only exist in a single slot, so that YOU can choose exactly how to equip YOUR character the way you want to!
These items are in addition to literally millions of possible weapons, armors, and shields that can be custom built by every player to be exactly what YOU want to use.
Despite the huge number of interesting, exciting, and downright useful items already finished, this process is ongoing! We expect to be adding scores of new Rods, Staves, and Wands to the game in the coming weeks, which are incredibly useful items for all character types. You will never have to worry about finding something cool and fun to spend your hard-won loot on!

8 Aug 2019

Everything that used to be a wand (e.g. wand of cure light wounds) is now a rod (e.g. Light Caduceus Rod), and things that were rods (e.g. metamagic rods) are now wands (e.g. Wand of Quickening).

This is because caster types should be running around waving wands, not rods, and non-casters should think rods are pretty cool (since you can also hit people with 'em — they're light maces!).
Many more on the way, including rules for making rods of any caster level.

Be sure to check out the Component Pouch and the Limitless Quiver if you are a caster or an ammunition user.
A Note On Metamagic Wands: we are radically changing the way these work. You have to actually know the metamagic feat in order to use the wand, but the wand removes the spell level increase caused by using the metamagic feat. As a reminder, metamagic feats no longer increase the casting time of a spell (though they can reduce it, depending on the feat). Similarly, metamagic wands do not negatively impact casting time.

30 Jul 2019

Removed 'integral bonus' from skills; it was poorly integrated anyway
Removed Skill Focus, and Epic Skill Focus feats. Replaced them with Skill Expert (Feat), Skill Specialist (Feat), and Skill Prodigy (Feat).

Change: a natural 1 is now considered a 'critical failure' if the skill use can be critically failed. The Skill Expert feat changes natural 1 results to normal failures.
eventually, most skills will have additional skill uses that are exclusive to those who possess either the Skill Specialist feat, or the Skill Prodigy feat. These skill uses will be INSANE. Things like gaining a greater flight speed from the movement skill, or seeing through walls with perception, or raising the dead with Heal. You get the idea.

Added Journeyman Check to the Skills page, and updated rules there.

A Journeyman check is a check you can use as a 'catch-all', in place of any other skill. It is equal to Character Level -2. You cannot add stats or ranks to it.

eventually, some character classes may get a class feature which grants a bonus to this (in particular, the Bard, Wizard, and Rogue), but for now, nothing adds to it.
eventually, there may be some magic items which grant a (small — +1 to +5) bonus to the Journeyman check as well.

29 Jul 2019

IMPORTANT: We have removed Touch AC from the game. Melee and ranged touch attacks are still a thing, however, they just target a creature's normal AC. Touch attacks receive a +4 bonus to hit, over and above your normal melee to-hit (or ranged to-hit, if it's a ranged touch attack). Furthermore, touch attacks always hit on a die result of 17 or higher, regardless of the target's AC (although, at the moment, there are two armor properties and a fighter tactic that can negate this... there might be more in the future).

27 Jul 2019

Updated the rules for crafting magic items (using the Creator feat). You can only craft items that already exist in the game.

Essentially, magic item crafting lets you trade time for money — crafted magic items cost half as much, but take a while to build.

9 Jul 2019

Updated rules for monsters with action points.
Updated death and dying pages to clarify that 'bloodied', 'injured', 'dying', 'dead', and similar statuses are NOT conditions which can be fixed with abilities that remove conditions.
Updated monster role condition immunities — roles with condition immunity no longer apply that to the first x times of each condition being applied, but to the first x conditions applied. For example, a threat can ignore the first 5 conditions applied to it in an encounter, but the sixth condition is resolved normally. (Previously, it would have had to have been six of the same condition, and each condition had its own stack of immunities).
Updated monster role action points. Roles now have more action points, overall. They can only spend a maximum of 1 per round, though, just like players.

22 Jun 2019

Added rules for shield bash, and completely revamped it. It is now a combat maneuver using Might. If successful, it inflicts rattled on the target, and does basic combat maneuver damage (base weapon, no adders). It no longer causes your AC to drop.
Completely removed Shield Spikes and Armor Spikes. They were dumb, anyway.
Full Attack Action page clarified; you can no longer make a normal 5-foot step if you trade away attacks for bonus 5-foot steps (they count as movement).

8 Jun 2019

Brawler - stick and move got +1 DR added to it, and now scales into Epic levels. Burly and Gliding Steps (epic class features) were also updated to grant a flat amount of DR to stick and move.

also clarified that Counterstrike happens at level 2 (there was a mismatch). Moved Retaliation from level 17 down to level 11. The dead level at 17 will be addressed (probably) at a later time, when we do the character rebalance pass (likely winter 2019).

Fighter - deleted the Adamantine Focus feat (epic), and rebuilt the fighter tactics Tough Hide and Improved Armor Mastery, to simplify a fighter's access to DR.
Paladin - changed all class-granted DR to DR/-. Moved Aura of Righteousness from level 17 down to level 6, and it now grants a scaling bonus to DR. Updated Improved Armor of Righteousness (epic class feature) to grant DR to all allies in the aura, assuming they don't have DR already.
Monk - changed all class-granted DR to DR/-. Moved Perfect Self from level 20 to level 8, and it now grants a scaling bonus to DR. Updated Warrior of the Spirit (epic class feature) to grant a greater bonus to the Monk's DR.

31 May 2019

The Magic Items pass is proceeding steadily. We have a solid foundation of concepts for all slots, with numerous unique and interesting items for each. However, for the last several weeks we've been giving the largest item system in the game, weapons, armor, and shields magic properties, a thorough top-to-bottom rebuild.

As a result, there will be the ability to custom-build many thousands of custom effects in weapons, armor, and shields. This is a very large portion of the magic items pass, and we're taking the time to make sure its a good result. If anyone has any questions, let us know!

27 April 2019

Added Reforging, Brine Quench, Reforging, Blood Quench, and Reforging, Astral Quench to the services page.
Character classes will soon have different Base AC and Base Touch AC values (instead of the default 10). Please make a note of it.

20 April 2019

IMPORTANT: We have removed Flat-Footed AC from the game. Flat-footed is now only a condition that inflicts a -4 penalty to AC and Maneuver Defense, as well as some other stuff. You can no longer lose your Dex bonus to AC from anything you do, or anything that is done to you. If you see things which refer to losing your Dex bonus to AC, please let us know so we can clean it up (we think we got it all, but it's a really big wiki).
As part of this change, Brawlers got a buff to their "Thick Skinned" class feature, which has a positive effect on their "Tempered" class feature, as well.
Implements are no longer a separate thing you have to buy and hold as a caster. Instead, there is a class feature, called an implement bonus, which improves your touch attacks (and ranged touch attacks) as long as you are wielding a rod, staff, or wand (or an instrument if you're a bard).

15 April 2019

The Magic Items pass is proceeding smoothly, as we've designed various pricing and damage models, as well as had extensive discussions about 'how items will work.' We expect that there are going to be lots of fun, cool, useful, and interesting things to buy, but any feedback or suggestions are cheerfully accepted.

The changes in Magic Items are, as expected, cascading into many other parts of the rules, and in particular, are affecting how character classes work. As a result, we've decided to implement a set of fairly large changes to all classes.

Negative BAB. Effective immediately, all classes may, by declaring a Full Attack Action, make multiple attacks in a single round even at first level. Now, the fact that BAB goes to negative values means that many of those attacks may not HIT anything, but you can certainly make them.

Combat Mobility. To increase the amount of dynamism in combats, we've added the ability to trade off attacks for five foot steps. To access this additional movement requires you to declare a Full Attack Action, but you can now forgo taking your least-accurate attacks in order to take additional 5-foot steps. We anticipate this will make combat a lot more fluid, and introduce a lot more options for players, so be sure to try this out and let us know.

1 April 2019

We at Epic Path are pleased to announce that we're introducing a brand new system of play, that will be included in all character classes as a class feature available at level one: Pony Power! This exciting enhancement to the upcoming Auramancy system is a potent ability to shapeshift at will into a form of peace, love, and power, that we're really excited to introduce. Stay tuned for details!

In other news, the edit pass for the new Spells is going smoothly, as thousands of edits and changes are re-molding the entire Spells system from top to bottom. All of these changes are mainly cosmetic, but we think presentation and polish are very important, so the work continues.

The next big project is Magic Items. We're well along into the planning stage of the upcoming magic items pass, and we've got over two hundred candidates for acculturated 'lines' of items. The new magic-item model is, that every item is actually a family of items, and as you invest more resources into upgrades for an item, it gets better and better. No more obsolete items! A lot of this magic-item work is going on 'behind the scenes' but expect big things in the upcoming months.

Wizards are now limited to either a "Generalist" school, or one of the seven schools of spells: Abjuration, Conjuration, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, or Transmutation. Specialist wizards get bonuses for spells with their primary school, and get access to the two neighboring schools, and the universal spells. See Wizard#Arcane School for details.

Cleric domains are being removed (maybe only temporarily). Deities will still have domains that they care about, but functionally, Clerics seem interesting/complex enough without them. We improved their spontaneous casting ability so they can always swap in any 'cure' or 'inflict' spell in place of an existing memorized spell of equal or higher level. (This was mostly done because the domains pages were just a sea of red links, containing a lot of content we had removed. In addition, a number of the domains were absurdly specific. We may revisit domains in the future, but expect there to be far fewer of them.)

8 March 2019

All spells have now been updated to the new Epic Path standards. No legacy spells will be used any longer without GM permission, and we strongly recommend NOT using legacy write-ups, as the scaling is quite different now. That said, there is still quite a lot of work to do in the Spells system, and we encourage people to read over the new material. We wrote somewhere over 100,000 words of new text for this pass, and we're quite sure there's at least a few "speeling and grammer typo's" that we haven't caught yet. When you find something, please be kind, and let us know!

Over the next few weeks we'll be doing some background cleanup on the spell categories, tweaking some balance numbers, and getting ready to start working on lots and lots of cool magic items. If anyone has any suggestions or requests, let us know.

23 Feb 2019

The entire Ranger Poultices and Bard Spells lists are now fully converted to the new system. Wow! Don't we ever sleep?!?

17 Feb 2019

The entire Paladin Spells list is now fully converted to the new system. Go see what all the fuss is about.

20 Jan 2019

Updated all character classes to call out favored class, and increment BAB and saving throws as deltas (differences) rather than sums. This greatly simplifies how multi-classing and dual-classing characters advance these stats. The total bonuses provided by each class for these stats remains unchanged... for now. (* evil laugh *)

As a note, additional attacks during full attacks due to higher BAB (at +6, +11, and +16, but only if they occur before level 21) remain the same. I will be adding language into the rules to clarify this, since it is no longer obvious on the character class pages.
Class features which do not get added to other class' class features, such as the rogue's Sneak Attack dice, were not converted to deltas, since they don't get added to anything when dual- or multi-classing.

6 Jan 2019

Bard: no longer gets to choose between Spellcraft or Spycraft as their bailiwick skill... on review, without Spellcraft, the bard technically can't learn new spells, which makes Spycraft a poor choice. Bards now just get Spellcraft, and cannot take Spycraft via their class (there's always racial traits). This also makes the character sheet a bit easier to automate.

28 Dec 2018

Evasion now reduces damage against any attack which deals damage and permits a Reflex save (not just those that deal half damage on a Reflex save)

in addition, it only reduces the damage on a successful save to one-quarter (¼). On a failed save, it reduces the damage to three-quarters (¾).
evasion cannot be used if you are using a shield, wearing heavy armor, are unaware of the attack, are denied your DEX to your AC, or are carrying a medium or heavier load.

Improved Evasion applies in the same updated circumstances as the new Evasion, but its effects are the same as they were: no damage on successful Reflex save, half damage on a failed Reflex save.

12 Dec 2018

The Spells Pass is proceeding smoothly, with hundreds of new and old spells upgraded to the new Spellcasting rules.

New Systems: Spell Circles, Mana Burning, Variable Save DC's, Arcane, Divine, and Dual Charges, Synergies, Spell Research, Spell Levels 10-17, and much more!

The Spells Page has been fully updated to reflect the new systems and rules.
The optional Environmental Effects rules have been fully updated and now auto-scale to all levels.
Alchemist mutagen ability completely overhauled.

29 Nov 2018

Updated Monk:

moved 'Versatile Attack' from level 2 to level 1
removed bonus feat at level 1

20 Nov 2018

IMPORTANT: .

Initiative checks are now a Movement skill check, instead of a (modified) DEX check. You'll want to update this, as the monsters will be going MUCH faster now.
Death Checks are now a Might skill check, instead of a CON check. The target DC is now a flat(-ish) 15 + double your character level, instead of anything to do with your negative hit points. You no longer lose 1 hp per round when dying, but instead have to make these might checks each round. If you fail 3 in a row, you die.

Finally added a Shopping entry for Knowledge (Local).
Added an 'Identify Accent' entry for Knowledge (Geography).

24 Oct 2018

Explicitly called out that non-lethal damage is not resistible with DR or ER, unless you have an ability that specifically states it can be applied to non-lethal damage.

13 Sep 2018

Radically overhauled Summon Monster I (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), Summon Monster II (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), Summon Monster III (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), Summon Monster IV (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), Summon Monster V (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), Summon Monster VI (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), Summon Monster VII (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), Summon Monster VIII (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), and Summon Monster IX (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell).

02 Sep 2018

Multi-class and dual-class characters now accrue Action Points at the same rate as Single Class characters.

11 Aug 2018

Many metamagic feats are being removed, to be installed as magic items (at some point in the future, when we have time)
Quelled, Prone, and Splayed now inflict a penalty to concentration checks.
Monsters cannot voluntarily inflict a status condition on themselves to overwrite an existing status condition; however, a clever monster ally can apply a weaker debuff on their fellow monsters to overwrite debuffs, if they think of it.
Bard Staccato and Harmony damage updated
Cleric channel divinity (as damage) updated
Alchemist bomb damage updated
Changed Selective Spell (Feat), Selective Channeling (Feat), Precise Bombs (Discovery) and Selective Symphony (Feat). Added a new feat: Selective Bomb (Feat).

Selective Spell is no longer a metamagic feat; it does not alter the spell level of a spell.
All of these feats now allow the caster to exclude one or more creatures from the area of effect of their respective effects, at the expense of reducing their effective character level by 1 per creature excluded. This allows pure AOE spells to be more balanced against limited-number-of-target spells. Now, pure-AOE's are more situationally useful -- if the field is (relatively) clear of allies, AOE's will nearly always be a better choice. However, once your allies get into melee range, the limited-number-of-target spells will usually be a better fit. Selective allows the AOE's to be used at any time, but it's not quite the no-brainer any more that a fireball is always better than a lightning bolt.

11 Jul 2018

Updated Damage and Resistance page.

NOTE: We will be changing the way DR and ER work in the coming days. Both DR and ER will work the way ER currently works. Namely, the thing listed is the thing it resists. (Currently, the thing listed with DR is the only thing that can bypass it).
We are consolidating all damage types down to 7 broad types: common, uncommon, or rare physical damage, and common, uncommon, or rare energy damage. The 7th type is Primal damage, which is neither physical, nor energy, and cannot be resisted by either ER or DR.
Characters who currently have some source of DR x/- or ER x/- will be unaffected by this change.
Characters who have more specific types of DR or ER should expect the value to change (especially if it's DR).

30 Jun 2018

Updated Sorcerer's "Forceful Presence" ability to apply to ANY spell or spell-like ability they cast which inflicts damage.
Added "Mana Burn" to Wizard class. Once we're happy with it, we'll be pushing this out to all casters and demi-casters as a 3rd level class feature. You have been WARNED!

26 Jun 2018

The Warlord's Marching Orders ability is no longer a stance.
The Brawler's Stick and Move ability is no longer a stance.
The Partisan's Intractable Ground ability is no longer a stance.

the abilities are unchanged, except that they aren't a stance any more. They can still be disrupted by being knocked prone (or getting a condition which reduces your number of actions for the round), and still require the same action to activate. This was done to open up more options for multi-classing and dual-classing.
note that bardic performances still require a stance, as does entering stealth.

9 Jun 2018

Updated Pulls to prevent traffic jams.

5 Jun 2018

New Rules:

Monsters can only have 1 condition on them at a time. If a new condition is introduced, you either replace the old one, or ignore the new one (inflicting player's choice).

Any damage is still resolved as normal, regardless of how the condition is resolved.

Metamagic rods can only be used on spells which require a standard action to cast
Metamagic rods turn the standard action spell into a full-round action to cast

Except a Quicken rod, which turns the standard action into a move action (yes, this is worse than the feat, a little).

Metamagic feats that you know no longer increase casting time; they only increase the spell level and/or spell slot required.

2 Jun 2018

added the ability to 'develop a contact' in the Between Adventures rules.

1 Jun 2018

Updating Between Adventures (was Character Retraining) Rules - generally unchanged, just clarifying.

shopping will now be a downtime activity; you can only buy a limited number of magic items per day (due to traveling between shops, bartering, etc.)

a good Knowledge (Local) check can improve how many items you can buy in a given day (you know where to go, and how to get there faster).
this impacts the 'party designated shopper' phenomenon -- namely, if the high barter character wants to buy stuff for the party, it uses up their time to do so

open to conversations about whether this is fair or not. The question is 'should the high barter character be able to grant their buy/sell discounts to everyone without any cost to themselves or the party'? An auxiliary question is 'are the buy/sell bonuses from barter so good that barter is a mandatory skill?'

each downtime activity now costs different amount of days depending on the success category of the skill check.
included a transclusion of the Libraries page on the Between Adventures page, since it's highly relevant.
added rule for quitting a downtime activity before completion (because you hate the skill check result, for example) — you have to wait half the max time to try again (though you can do different downtime activities in the meantime).

New Self-Improvement option: Spell Research.

15 May 2018

Added Mounts page

includes rules for making any creature into a mount, and advancing the CR of a mount.
includes costs for mounts at all CR's.

Updated rules for how mounted combat works on the Ride page:

Mounts now provide bonus melee damage to their riders only if their CR exceeds the minimum amount required for the movement speeds they provide.
essentially, you have to 'buy' their movement speed(s) with CR, and any leftover CR is applied as bonus to melee damage while mounted.
mounts also have special abilities which can be unlocked with one or more 'points' of CR.

4 May 2018

Removed Peerless Thieves' Tools and Peerless Musical Instrument. These got too close to being magic items, and should just be magic items.

28 Apr 2018

updated Haste (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell), please read.
Discussion Topic: (rephrase) we're getting rid of the school of divination, but any spells previously in that school that don't completely suck, or have the potential to break the story of a campaign (which is quite a lot of them), will be moved to a different school.

23 Apr 2018

Discussion Topic: only one debuff condition (that requires tracking) on a monster at a time. E.g. "rattled" and "stunned".

players applying the new debuff will get to choose whether to overwrite the existing one or not.
obviously any damage component would still be applied, whether the new debuff is applied or not.
would not apply to most class features, such as fighter's challenge, ranger's quarry, paladin's smite, prowler's encroaching jolt (?), etc.

would apply to spells that inflict a condition
might apply to combat maneuvers that inflict a condition other than forced movement (prone?).
only care about conditions that persist; forced movement is resolved instantaneously, so stacking is irrelevant.

this change would allow us to include significantly more variety of status conditions in spells, class abilities, etc., without fear of the 4e "giant stack of debuffs" making combats too trivial. Also, the giant stack of debuffs is a nightmare to track.

3 Apr 2018

Combat Reflexes (Feat) changed to grant a maximum of +4 bonus attacks of opportunity per round, based on half your DEX modifier.

31 Mar 2018

Please note: any red-linked (missing) spell entries you may find are spells we are planning to remove from the game. This is part of the spell review process, which is ongoing.
Added over 57 million new character class combinations to the game. Wow!
Updated Between Adventures to remove all gold costs. Some downtime activity times have also been adjusted downwards. You can thank us with donuts.

14 Mar 2018

increased number of poultices that rangers get by 1 at all levels.

13 Mar 2018

fixed an error with monster skill numbers.

27 Feb 2018

Monday Night Game: added Geography and History pages to campaign page.

3 Feb 2018

Discussion topics:

the end of selective?

most aoe spells have a fixed number of targets within the aoe, and therefore do not require selective. They're selective for free!
some spells may still be non-selective aoe's (fields), but there will no longer be a way to selectively exclude allies from these spells.
such spells will also be marked with the 'aoe' descriptor to deal with swarms/troops. (as a note, perhaps AOE's do 150% dmg to swarms/troops, while fields do 200% dmg to swarms/troops)
may also want to talk about capping channel divinity, and removing the selective channel feat...

limitations on slotless items?

max 3 per character
question about whether lay magic counts (lightstones, water stones, etc.)
handy haversacks, bags of holding are already slotless, and would be affected by this limitation.

24 Jan 2018

added several new magic weapon properties at +3 and +4.

20 Jan 2018

removed Counterspell

updated Dispel Magic and Greater Dispel Magic to incorporate the good bits of Counterspell

removed the Universal Monster Rules page. Terms which remain in use have been moved to the Glossary of Terms page.
Updated all references to concentration (including caster level checks, combat casting, etc.), to make use of Caster Checks as the base mechanic (a bailiwick skill check).

if you find any references to this which don't point to a bailiwick skill check, please let me know so I can fix it.

14 Jan 2018

Added a list of player-purchasable Poisons, as well as rules for how they work. Player poisons are much simpler than monster poisons, having only an instantaneous damage effect and (potentially) a 1-round debuff.

13 Jan 2018

Added rules for voluntarily holding your breath. Updated the movement skill for swimming to incorporate these rules.

holding your breath outside of combat is very abstract. GM's can decide how long the party can do so, but generally a couple of minutes, regardless of CON.
in combat, holding your breath is quite hard.

8 Jan 2018

Updated Treasure and XP page to detail the Remnants system, which replaces Crafting Materials.

updated monster template to reflect these changes also.

MONDAY GAME: Added a few sentences to Fontaigne, Ottovar, and Fallen Nations pages.

3 Jan 2018

All characters now gain natural talents in their Bailiwick and one additional skill at level 1, and gain additional natural talents at 11th, 21st, and 31st levels. (Italicized text is unchanged.)

NOTE TO SUNDAY GAME: The party has already received a 'bonus' natural talent, which counts as the natural talent we would have received at level 11. That is, until level 21, this change will not affect characters in the Sunday party.
In addition, a rule has now been added to allow players to add a natural talent to a skill which is already a natural talent for them. Such double-natural-talent skills no longer automatically fail on a natural 1, and can never fail by 5 or more, regardless of the target DC or the suckiness of the roll. See Natural Talent for details. This is a boon for high-skill classes in particular, who may not want to remap very many of their skills, but is nice for any character that wants to deeply specialize in a skill.

Several fear status conditions re-written to make running away considerably less mandatory.
Epic bard feats (group inspiration, mass inspiration, colossal inspiration, epic inspiration) written, in light of recent changes to bard performances.

14 Dec 2017

Added a "Bribes and Tips" section to the Money and Merchants page.

4 Dec 2017

Fixed Rattling Fist Feat to remove references to old Brawler.

2 Dec 2017

Spells:

removed See Alignment spell - breaks stories, and steps on paladin ability.
changed Ant Haul - only 10 lbs per caster level increased carry capacity instead of "triple".

Note: this may affect magic items in the party! You can either cash them in for what you paid, or update them to the new rules.

30 Nov 2017

updated Blind - added sections for non-targeting senses and natural blindness.
Renamed Monster Templates to Monster Patterns. This was done to de-duplicate the game system from the wiki software.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-This page will be used to log changes made to Epic Path which directly affect players in current campaigns.  This will allow them to quickly determine if any changes have been made that concern them, without having to wade through hundreds of entries in the [[recentchanges-url|Recent Changes]] page.
+__NOTOC__
+=== 27 Jul 2024 ===
+* Adjusted the language of [[Sunder]] to clarify that monsters, unless specifically stated otherwise, inflict only a single point of durability damage on a successful Sunder maneuver (or 2 points of they exceed the target's Maneuver Defense by 5 or more).  Also added rules for what happens to broken magic items.
-This page will probably not contain detailed notes on what changes were made (or why).  More often, it will only be a link to the updated page, or a very brief summary.
+=== 6 Apr 2024 ===
+* '''Wizard:''' Powerful cantrip can no longer be mana-burned.  This is to address the fact that the wizard seems to be more powerful than the sorcerer in raw damage output, while also being considerably more versatile in spell availability and selection.  Mana-burning the powerful cantrip effectively allowed the Wizard to use Quicken Spell for free every round starting at level one, which was never the intent.  Powerful cantrips, like other cantrips, are meant to be fall-back abilities, or useful buffs, but not main-line damage-dealers.
+* '''Sorcerer:''' Forceful Presence is getting buffed.  Instead of adding your CHA modifier to the damage dealt to each creature targeted (once per creature per spell), it is now CHA modifier times the number of Experience tiers the character has in the Sorcerer class.  This means an 11th level Sorcerer (3 tiers of Sorcerer) would add triple their CHA modifier as damage dealt to each creature affected by one of their damaging spells.  As before, this bonus damage can only be applied once per creature per spell cast, so if a spell can hit the same creature multiple times (like Magic Missile), the bonus damage is only applied once.
-Changes to the game which have no impact on players in current campaigns will not be put here. Go to the recent changes page for that.
+=== 1 Apr 2024 ===
+* We are instituting a new system of 1 GM per 2 player characters, to manage the record-keeping and overhead of traditional RPG games.  At tables that don't have enough volunteers to be players, we are also creating rules for an all-GM table.
+* In order to address some balance issues, we are eliminating races and classes entirely.  Instead, everyone will just be a collection of feats that they get at every odd level.  Even levels now grant +2 to each ability score (+1 modifier).  This should greatly speed up character creation, and eliminate issues of envy.  We are also considering allowing players to declare that any low die roll is, in fact, a high die roll, but we're still playtesting this.
+* In an effort to streamline combat, we're replacing to-hit rolls and damage rolls with a single die roll per encounter. Even -- players win. Odd -- monsters win.  Since we've also streamlined character creation, this should be fine.
+* The [[Weapon Focus (Feat)|Weapon Focus]] feat as been renamed to [[April Fool's Day]] feat.
+=== 22 Mar 2024 ===
+* As part of the ongoing Epic Path 1.1 updates, added three new feats for the Prowler.
+:* [[Lost and Alone (Feat)]]
+:* [[Consummate Loner (Feat)]]
+:* [[Lone Wolf Pack (Feat)]]
+We also will note that the quiet upgrades and additions to the Bestiary have been continuing steadily behind the scenes, and has reached an important milestone!
+:*As of this date, we have a minimum of one Monster Blueprint available at every CR all the way from level 1 to level 40!  Woohoo!
+:*We now have monsters available for base use all the way from the most basic CR1-Stirge up to the eye-peeling danger of the CR40-Garuda Bird!
+:*Of course, all these monsters have been fully integrated into the Million Monster Machine, which we STRONGLY advise for use, but if you are a traditional GM, well, monster blueprints are now available at every level!
+:*Keep an eye on the Bestiary! We'll keep adding and expanding more monsters as time goes by!
+=== 2 Mar 2024 ===
+* As part of the ongoing Epic Path 1.1 updates, added a new level 20 class feature for the Sorcerer. They deserve it, and gosh darn it, people like them.
+* Added 3 new feats for the Partisan:
+:* [[Convincing Shove (Feat)]]
+:* [[Inescapable Force (Feat)]]
+:* [[Dominating Press (Feat)]]
+=== 9 Dec 2023 ===
+* Changed [[Solarian Cloak (Rage Power)]] from immunity to one (or more) energy types, to [[Hardened]] to one (or more) energy types. Hardened reduces damage by half.
+* Completely revamped the [[Keen (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Keen‎‎]], [[Sharpness (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Sharpness]], [[Deathly (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Deathly]], [[Butchering (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Butchering]], and [[Vorpal (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Vorpal]] melee weapon properties.  They are now very much focused on being highly beneficial to crit builds.
+* Removed the crit bonuses that previously existed in the [[Foeseeker (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Foeseeker]], [[Force (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Force]], [[Foecaller (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Foecaller]], and [[Annihilation (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Annihilation]] weapons. Removed Force Majeure, Foeslayer, and Calamity properties.
+* Added the [[Multitarget (Feat)]], [[Improved Multitarget (Feat)]], [[Greater Multitarget (Feat)]], and [[Perfect Multitarget (Feat)]] feats. This is a fresh new line of metamagic feats we think you'll like.
+* [[Selective (Feat)]] is now a metamagic feat (which it likely should have always been).  Kind GMs ''might'' be willing to grandfather in the [[Old Selective (Feat)]].
+=== 26 August 2023 ===
+* Did an edit pass across a bunch of the status conditions, focusing primarily on the conditions which previously had the potential for players to inflict their damage on another player.  Since player damage is MUCH higher than monster damage, this was quite OP.  In all cases where this previously existed, the damage has been replaced by a new fixed value that is independent of the player's normal damage.
+* Several other status conditions were clarified, simplified, or just generally tweaked to be easier to use.
+=== 12 August 2023 ===
+* We humbly direct everyone's attention to the newest Magic Items to grace the pages of Epic Path! The [[Seafoam Foundation]] and [[Hauberk of the Magus]] are two entirely new item families that fit into the Armor Slot. While there are literally millions of armors that could already fit into that slot, we felt that all those 'clothies' out there deserved a couple of new item families to tempt them away from their precious money. Kindly read them over, and see how they can help YOUR character!
+* The Monster Pass continues! Using the Million Monster Machine, we have been stealthily increasing (and often decreasing) the levels at which dozens of monsters are available, using special GM Sauce behind the scenes to cook up millions of more exciting and challenging monsters for your enjoyment! If you are running Epic Path, we STRONGLY ENCOURAGE the use of the Million Monster Machine. While you can certainly run dozens, if not hundreds, of encounters using the 'raw blueprints' as published on our web page, using the Million Monster Machine will give you access to literally millions upon millions MORE monsters to confound, amuse, terrify, and delight your players!
+=== 27 June 2023 ===
+* Please be aware, the [[Flat-Footed]], [[Wobbly]], and [[Helpless]] conditions have been made even worse!  Of course, Helpless is so bad it barely even matters....
+* As of now, casting a Spell while under any of these conditions requires a [[Caster Check]], and if you fail this check...you lose the spell! (As usual for failing such a check.)
+* Please note that this technically effects everyone before they have their first turn in every combat (since you're flat-footed until you get to act), but honestly, since you can't act, you can't cast spells anyway. So it's not that terrible.
+=== 8 Apr 2023 ===
+* Added in that old DnD classic item, the [[Ring of Regeneration]]! Everybody go look in awe at the magnificence.
+* Buffed the various Goodberry spells, to make them more useful in general.
+* Rebalanced and revamped the [[Victory Laurel]], with an eye to balance with the new Ring of Regeneration, the various Caduceus Rods, and the existing [[Ring of Caring]]. Everything should be nicely balanced against each other now, and if you want to create a 'healing Rogue' sort of character, now you totally can!
+* Re-re-re-balanced the poor [[Necklace of Fire]] at all levels. It's still super awesome, as befits the highest damage item in the game, but we pulled in the absolutely crazy top end to set that top end damage at a place we're a little more comfortable with.
+=== 1 Apr 2023 ===
+* Updated magic item damage (order damage) so that it caps at various character levels, based on the order.  An item that inflicts order 1 damage, for example, now caps at level 8, dealing a maximum of 8d6 damage.
+* Updated the [[Necklace of Fire +1]] such that it only triggers when the wearer is successfully struck in melee (was hit or miss).  Note that the above order damage change also places caps on the damage of the Necklace of Fire. (A double-nerf! OMG!)
+=== 14 Jan 2023 ===
+* Updated the [[Grabbed]], [[Grappled]], and [[Pinned]] conditions, as well as the [[Grapple]] combat maneuver.  These conditions now only last a single round (until the start of the creature that initiated the grapple's next turn), and inflict penalties similar to other status conditions.  The combat maneuver and its associated conditions are now much simpler for everyone.  Hopefully this means they'll see some use.
+=== 30 July 2022 ===
+* [[Power Attack (Feat)]] now applies to all weapon to-hits, instead of just melee, which combines it with the Piranha Strike and Deadly Aim feats. Piranha Strike has been removed from the game entirely, and [[Deadly Aim (Feat)]] has been completely re-written and re-purposed to allow players who wish to be equally as good with melee and ranged attacks to do so...for a small (but inescapable) price.
+* This change was precipitated by the recent changes to [[Weapon Focus (Feat)]] and the [[Returning (Melee Weapon Magic Property)|Returning]] weapon property, as we make it easier to be good at melee AND ranged attacks at all levels of the game. Those changes revealed an additional issue in the core rules that we are addressing with this change to readily-accessible feats.
+* Once again, we strongly encourage all DM's to allow this change to happen 'behind the scenes' through the use of GM fiat, but if you'd rather have the players use the retraining rules, well, that's up to you! It IS your game, after all!
+*Note that these various rule changes now make it MUCH easier to play so-called 'gish' characters, which we heartily approve of, if that's your cup of tea! Who doesn't like a nice, zesty spell-blade, after all?
+=== 22 Jun 2022 ===
+* It is now possible to use a War Shield to make Shield Bashes.  Light Shields, Heavy Shields, and War Shields can perform Shield Bash, Bucklers and Tower Shields cannot. Get out there and start bashing!
+=== 18 Jun 2022 ===
+* We've gone mad with power! As recently announced, we are moving forward with Epic Path 1.1. As announced below, we had to make some small buffs to player classes to fit in the new Traps rules. But now? We've deleted the Point-Blank Shot feat...COMPLETELY!  Muahahaha!
+* But never fear, because this is actually another buff in disguise. In the interest of making the use of melee weapons and ranged weapons easier for all those weapon-users out there, we took all of the functionality of the old Point-Blank Shot feat and migrated it into the [[Weapon Focus (Feat)]]. Because nobody EVER took weapon focus....
+* Weapon focus was actually always a very good feat, but it was, honestly, a bit dull. Now, it is less dull, and every player out there who ever took it is now allowed to pick a ranged weapon to ALSO be good at. Any players that had the old Point Blank Shot feat should replace it immediately with the Weapon Focus Feat, and if you ALSO had the Weapon Focus feat, you should choose a NEW feat...for free! Note that this new feat must be one you would have been eligible for when you took the replaced feat, following the normal retraining rules.
+* We strongly encourage all DM's to allow this change to happen 'behind the scenes' through the use of GM fiat, but if you'd rather have the players use the retraining rules, well, that's up to you! It IS your game, after all!
+* In other news, we also made the Returning magic weapon property much easier to access at low levels. In the original rules, you had to place it on an enchanted weapon, meaning, it was impossible to have a returning weapon at character creation. Now, it costs 50 gold, but may be applied to even a mundane weapon, meaning, you can buy a returning weapon with your starting money, if you budget for it properly.
+* These two changes make ranged attacks much more accessible to tier 1 players, so, go out there and start shootin'!
+=== 11 Jun 2022 ===
+* As part of updating the traps rules for Epic Path, a few character classes needed to have some of their class features updated to reflect these new rules (and be useful).  Overall, these are buffs to the classes that give them more utility when traps are present in an encounter.
+* '''Rogues'''' lost their "Trap Spotter" line of class features, and it was replaced with the "Trap Escapist" line of class features. Where before it gave them some numerical bonuses versus traps, the new class feature gives them a once-per-encounter ability to significantly reduce (or negate) the effects of an attack by a trap for themselves, and at higher levels, several nearby allies as well.
+* '''Rogues''' also had a rogue talent that let them trigger a trap remotely, which has been replaced by [[Cunning_Trigger_(Talent)]], which lets them include or exclude a square in a trap's next attack after a successful Dismantle Trap maneuver against that trap.
+* The [[Saboteur (Feat)]] was added to the game for those people who don't like the idea of swapping their weapon for some thieves' tools in the middle of a dangerous battle.
+* '''Prowlers''' get the Saboteur feat as a bonus feat at level 4 (replaces the Trapfinding feature which gave them some bonuses to spotting traps).
+* '''Prowlers''' get an ability at level 9 that lets them slide closer to a trap once per encounter as a swift action (replaces Trap Sense, which gave them some defensive bonuses against trap attacks).
+* '''Prowlers''' get an ability at level 24 that lets them take only half damage and no secondary effects (like status effects) from a trap once per encounter (replaces Trap Spotter, which let them ret-con a trap triggering, which doesn't really make any sense under the new trap rules).
+* '''Partisans''' had their favored class bonus "Fanaticism" altered to be usable once per day as an attack action, instead of requiring an action point.  This restores action points to being an optional component to Epic Path, and keeps this ability relevant (being able to heal a second time in an encounter can be a lifesaver, and the improved action economy -- it normally costs a move action to activate -- also makes the favored class bonus a little tastier than the normal power, without overshadowing anything).
+=== 29 May 2022 ===
+* MONSTERS, MONSTERS, MONSTERS! We have been thickening, expanding, and enriching clades of monsters at every level of the game, and can now say with great satisfaction that we have at least 20 monsters available (with the use of the Million Monster Machine) at every level of the game from 1st to 35th and beyond! But fear not, we have lots and lots more Bad Guys coming to fight, so we're just scratching the surface!
+* As a note, we just finished a comprehensive pass through the Monster Patterns to address some balance issues, so all those millions of monsters are sure to be a great, fun, challenge to your players at any level!
+* The ConTRAPtion is live!  Traps and hazards are now officially a part of the Epic Path menagerie, and boy, have we got plenty of them! All the traps usable with the ConTRAPtion tool can scale to almost any challenge level, automatically, and by adding Complications you can adjust and fine-tune the traps to do exactly what you need them to do! Have fun presenting lots of new challenges to your players!
+* In other news, the Mass Combat rules are doing well in play-testing, so expect the next big expansion of the Epic Path rules to be Coming Soon (TM)!
+* Last but not least, ongoing play-testing has revealed a few 'tweaks' that might be required for a few player character classes. Epic Path 1.1 is currently under discussion and development!  Stay tuned for lots of fun stuff to come!
+=== 19 March 2022 ===
+* Updated the [[Action Points]] rules to include two new uses for action points, which can be used during any round of combat:
+:* '''Heroic Defiance:''' used during your turn when you are above your Bloodied Hit Points Value, prevents you from being reduced below your Bloodied Hit Points value until the start of your next turn.
+:* '''Heroic Last Stand:''' used during your turn when you are below your Bloodied Hit Points Value, prevents you from being reduced below 1 hit point until the start of your next turn.
+: Note that neither of these abilities reduces, cures, or prevents any status conditions or other non-damage negative effects.
+=== 12 Feb 2022 ===
+* Clarified that rods, staves, and wands can be used to perform somatic components of spells while wielded, in lieu of a free hand.  This rule was already in place, but was difficult to find.  It's freaking everywhere now.
+* Updated [[Body Capacitance (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]] (and the alchemist version) to make it a little easier to use, at the expense of doing less base damage.
+* Created the [[Dismantle Trap]] combat maneuver.  The traps system is nearly complete, though many classes (such as the rogue) have class features that still need to be updated to reflect the new rules.
+* [[Sunder]] maneuver has been updated to reflect changes to the siege damage numbers.  Siege damage numbers haven't been fully promulgated throughout the game yet, but that is also coming soon.
+=== 22 Jan 2022 ===
+Finished editing all references to 'Miss Chance' to properly work with the new, simpler, integrated bypass implementation. This took a while because, the Sylph's 'Wind Skin' power had to change, and we were reluctant to make a class-affecting change without a good long think about it. In the end, we rebuilt 'Wind Skin' in a way that we feel is fair, and honestly, a small buff. Take a look and see what folks think!
+The Traps system is getting closer, and the early templates are up on the page to verify how traps will display. We are extremely excited about this new content, and have a lot more planned!
+=== 30 Dec 2021 ===
+Well, Epic Path has been at Version 1.0 for a whole year! As promised, we have not altered any player-affecting rules in any significant way, and we don't plan to start anytime soon.  But we have hardly been resting on our laurels, either!
+As you may have noticed, we have greatly increased the number of Monster Blueprints, and have begun the process (the very long, arduous process...) of populating Monsters all the way to level 40.  Given that Player Characters cap out at 35th, we feel that there is PLENTY of stuff to do if anyone ever manages to 'cap out' a game.
+True Dweomers have been 'filled out' until it is now possible to fully populate all five True Dweomer feats, so that system is logically complete. Obviously, we need a LOT more TD's written before that system will be as content-rich as we'd like it to be, but there's no terrible rush.
+Auramancy and Potenz Machenvar are two personal favorites of ours, but alas, they are still in the development queue. Sometime in the future, have no fear!
+We are interested in providing a dedicated Game World for all players of Epic Path, should they want one, and we have the bones of a campaign setting as notes in the page today, as the Game World of Celegia. We have the domain Celegia.com all ready to go, although for the foreseeable future, it's just pointing back to Epic Path....but that won't last forever!
+Equipment needs some modest expansions, and that project has been perking along on the back burner because it is a dependency on the next BIG system we are implementing, namely, Traps!
+Traps are a D20-system staple reaching all the way back to the beginning (ugh, Tomb of Horrors, oh man...), and we have been busy in the background developing a deep, rich, broad set of rules that will allow GM's to utilize these old-school classics in powerful, exciting, challenging, and fun ways. We're very excited for this new system, and it is getting close to ready!
+Now, in the background, the Traps system has to integrate into at least three more major systems that are still to come, so we expect the upcoming months to be productive and content rich for everyone out there!
+Keep an eye on the 'Change Summary' link right under the round Epic Path logo to see all the new stuff coming up, everybody stay safe and healthy, and here's to Epic Path's NINTH BIG YEAR coming up in 2022!
+=== 27 Sep 2021 ===
+* Updated the [[Skill Specialist]] and [[Skill Prodigy]] feats to provide a host of new special abilities depending on which skill they are applied to.  The [[Skill Virtuoso]] feat was also clarified to interact with these new special abilities.
+=== 8 Aug 2021 ===
+* We changed some rules, even though we said we wouldn't.  Does that make us bad people? It probably does.
+* '''Critical Threats:''' Any roll that critically threatens is always considered a hit, even if the total doesn't exceed the target's AC.  Obviously, since a confirmation roll just needs to 'hit', any natural die result in the weapon's crit range during a confirmation roll is also a hit (and therefore a crit).  This only applies to attack rolls, not skill rolls (but remember that any spell with a to-hit roll can crit).  This makes those high crit builds especially powerful during the 3rd and 4th attacks of the round. Of course, it also makes some monsters a little meaner... See [[Combat#Critical_Hits|Critical Hits]] for details.
+* '''Concealment:''' We got rid of that extra 'miss chance' roll for concealment (partial and total).  Attacks performed against concealed creatures now just automatically miss on a natural die result that is low (6 or less for partial concealment, and 12 or less for total concealment).  This makes concealment more annoying to those characters with really high to-hit bonuses (who can normally hit even on a bad die roll), but leaves the people who were already struggling with their to-hits alone.  It's progressive like that.  See [[Combat#Concealment|Concealment]] for details.
+:* Note that there are still quite a few references in the rules for 'miss chance'.  We're working on cleaning those up, but there's over 100 of them, so it may take a little while.
+* '''Ambushes:''' simplified how ambushes and surprise rounds work.  The TLDR of it is: whoever successfully pulls off an ambush can set up the starting locations of all creatures on both sides of the encounter, within some limitations.  See [[Surprise]] for details.
+=== 6 May 2021 ===
+* Swarms are now a role that can be applied to most monsters, via the [[Special:MillionMonsterMachine|Million Monster Machine]].
+* The Million Monster Machine has also been updated to allow up to two patterns to be applied to any monster.  This means its name is no longer hyperbole. There really are over a million monsters available to play right now in Epic Path (and many more to come... <insert evil laugh here>).
+=== 27 Dec 2020 ===
+* <span style="font-size:150%; color:red;">Epic Path 1.0 is finally here!!!</span>
+: After thousands of hours of assessing, analyzing, over-analyzing, agonizing, and self-aggrandizing, as well as a
+: full-blown global pandemic (which we probably had nothing to do with), Epic Path 1.0 is finally ready to be played.
+: We hope you enjoy it.
+* This means that the Class Balance Pass is finished, both Offense and Defense.  The Monster Scaling Pass is also finished, which means, sadly, that all Legacy classes are now obsolete. If you wish to avoid fairly severe balance problems, GM's must adjust encounter difficulties 'by hand', players must rebuild their characters into the new rules, or, tables must start a fresh campaign.  We apologize for any inconvenience!
+* Of course, this doesn't mean we're done, and we are promptly moving on to the next Big Thing. We're still going to write up more monsters, more magic items, more feats, more spells, even possibly more character classes (like the pariah and sharp), and many more things besides, such as:
+* We're also going to work on the settlements system, upgrade the Million Monster Machine to support up to two patterns, build some Potens Machenvar to completely break a campaign or two, write up some optional new rules systems for those bored by how simplistic and generic our base game is.  As well as a few other things along the way.
+* However, there will be no more core rules changes, no more nerfs to character classes, spells, feats, magic items, etc., '''''except''''' where game-breaking problems are discovered.
+:* GMs are, of course, always encouraged to house-rule anything they feel doesn't work the way it should.
+=== 23 Dec 2020 ===
+* '''Maneuver Defense:''' characters now add their natural armor bonus (if any) to their maneuver defense calculations.
+* '''Skill DC's''' have been updated.  In general, they are easier at higher levels, but largely unchanged at lower levels.
+=== 21 Dec 2020 ===
+* Death checks are no longer a Might skill check.  Instead, they are a simple d20 roll versus a DC of 12.  A few (very few) class features, feats, and magic items can help with this, but generally, they're meant to be hard.  Dying characters should be tended to by their allies quickly.
+* The Epic Path 1.0 Class Balance Pass continues! We are very pleased that we have finally finished the Offense Balance Pass. Whew!
+* We have begun the Epic Path 1.0 Defense Balance Pass, and as we expected, this is going 'relatively' quickly. We have found and corrected a number of issues, and as a result, we have rebuilt the way that Armor works. Specifically, the old 'Max Dex' quality of Armor was found to be scaling poorly at the higher levels of play, and we have replaced the concept of Max Dex with the concept of 'Dex Penalty to AC'. This applies a penalty to the contribution your Dexterity can grant to your Armor Class, rather than a hard cap on your Dexterity.
+* This change means that Armor now scales MUCH better with Dexterity increases, with the expense that at low levels, almost all Armors now penalize low level characters with a high Dex. This has the effect of greatly widening the dynamic range of Armor as your level increases, and makes the Medium and Heavy armors more valuable at all levels, especially if you invest in magic items (warrior harness, muleback cords, dweomermetals) that mitigate the ill effects of the heavier armors.
+* Remember, as we finish the Epic Path 1.0 Balance Pass, we will soon begin the Monster Scaling Pass!  This means that Legacy Epic Path Classes will rapidly become obsolete, as the game is re-tuned and rebalanced away from their older design state.  Be ready!
+=== 12 Dec 2020 ===
+* The Epic Path 1.0 Class Balance Pass continues!  This has been a huge amount of work, and we are very happy to finally be at (or close to) the end of the first phase of the Balance Pass.  We have one class to complete for the Offense Pass, and then we will begin the Defense Pass.
+* We do not expect the Epic Path 1.0 Defense Pass will take as long as the Offense Pass did, because we can build on the progress made, which should move this along more quickly.  As always, expect there to be large changes in the 1.0 Classes that will affect gameplay, although we expect these will mainly be above level 10 (unless we're wrong). However, this means that the 1.0 Pass is Almost Complete! HOORAY!
+* What this means is that we will then begin the Monster Scaling Pass, so that all Epic Path Monsters are properly tuned to work with the new 1.0 classes. This means there will be CONSEQUENCES, to wit:
+* ALL LEGACY EPIC PATH CLASSES ARE RAPIDLY APPROACHING OBSOLESCENCE! Once we run the Monster Scaling Pass, old-style EP characters will be out of scale, and unexpected gameplay problems may occur!
+* Campaigns may continue using legacy classes for a while longer, but be warned, for the legacy classes: THE END IS NIGH!
+=== 16 Nov 2020 ===
+* The Epic Path 1.0 Class Balance Pass continues! We are well along into the first stage of the 1.0 balance pass now, and keen observers will note that many changes and tweaks are being made to the new classes. (We're also still slipping in a bit of other new content, like the Honcho Helmet, which is huge fun for all those Summoners out there.) The huge majority of the changes so far are being made to scale and balance the high-Epic levels, and even better, the huge majority of the changes so far have been nice, juicy buffs. All the 1.0 classes that are finished with this first-stage pass have been noted on the front page with a little green checkmark.
+* We feel that most of the classes (even the ones not officially balanced up into the thirties) are currently 'fine to play' up to at least tenth level (first and second Tier), so if anyone wants to try things out, feel free to give it a go!  Of course, as always, until the balance pass is complete, expect changes to the classes that might affect gameplay.
+* Now, even once we have finished this first-stage balance pass, the tweaking will not be completed, as we then have a second-stage pass following along behind this one.  But rest assured, steady progress is being made on this project, even with all the collaborative difficulties of social distancing as we assure everyone stays safe and healthy.
+* On the subject of safe gaming, please note our partner site, Virtua Rasa, linked off the sidebar. Virtua Rasa is a fully virtual remote game-display application presented as a web page. Virtual gaming is the best gaming in the Age of COVID!  In all cases, game safely, practice social distancing, maintain good cleanliness (wash those hands!), and keep your chin up!
+=== 11 Oct 2020 ===
+* The first stage of the Epic Path 1.0 balance and tuning pass is getting close to completion, and we have enough data compiled to begin making some early balance and buffing changes to the player character classes. This has been a very busy time for us 'behind the scenes', even though we're still pushing out new True Dweomers and the occasional 'fussy' magic item in our spare time.  We're still not too close to the end of the balance pass, but we think it's fair to state that we're almost to the end of the beginning part of the balance pass. Stay tuned, expect changes, and rest assured, enormous progress is being made to give everyone who plays Epic Path the best, most stable, most exciting, most flexible, and most balanced set of D20 rules ever!
+=== 26 Sep 2020 ===
+* The Empower Spell feat now bypasses Spell Resistance, and has no other effects.
+=== 12 Sep 2020 ===
+* Updated Cloistered to reduce incoming damage by half, instead of granting DR and ER (which was complicated)
+* Updated Isolate spell to only last for 1 round (until start of caster's next turn).
+* Updated Spell Circle 1 to 1d6 per caster level, to a max of 4d6 at CL 4 (was 1d4 per CL, to a max of 5d4 at 5th).
+* Updated Perfect Spell and Absolute Spell feats, but no one was ever high enough level to look at those, so who cares? (We do, of course!)
+=== 31 Aug 2020 ===
+Altered Selective again...
+* Deleted Selective Spell (Feat), Selective Channel (Feat), Selective Bomb (Feat), Selective Symphony (Feat), and Precise Bombs (Discovery).
+* Smushed them all into a single feat: [[Selective (Feat)]]
+:* Altered functionality of Selective to (hopefully) simplify its use at the table.  Instead of altering caster level of the effect, it just reduces the effect of the dice (usually damage, but sometimes healing, etc.) by 1 per die per target excluded after the first.
+:* You can also take the feat more than once to increase the number of 'free' excluded targets.
+:* added a 'special' that accommodates truly large party sizes.
+=== 19 Aug 2020 ===
+TRUE DWEOMERS ARE LIVE!
+Well, sort of....
+All the game mechanics are written and available and integrated into the rest of the rules, and there is a single True Dweomer Spell available. With Mana Burning and Metamagic Feats, this is enough content to test the function of the entire system, from top to bottom. Any games currently running at levels 19+ will also have the ability to use the system, with perhaps limited functionality. Needless to say, we will be fleshing this out extensively in the coming months.
+In other news, the Epic Path 1.0 testing and balance pass continues. The latest work is building more test characters and fleshing them out, and fixing issues we find in that process. Many Feats just got a 'buff and polish' pass as part of this effort, and of course, we decided to implement the bare-bones, early-access True Dweomer system so we can accurately model the Mythic and Legendary end of game.
+The Final Balance Pass for 1.0 is still progressing well, although the current pandemic lockdown conditions are slowing us down in our collaborative efforts.  Apologies for the delay, but rest assured, it is getting closer every day, and the extra time is allowing us to be thorough and rigorous in our tests and checks.
+=== 05 Aug 2020 ===
+New Magic Items!  As we steadily progress through the final steps in polishing up Epic Path 1.0, we are finding and fixing a few small oversights. Part of this process involved adding a dozen or more new families of magic items!  Many of these are powerful and interesting Wands, but we've also slipped in such goodies as the Hornet Wing Cloak and the Hardened Cassock, which have a broad appeal to everybody with a taste for adventure!
+The Final Balance Pass for 1.0 is progressing well, and as we've been busy testing and balancing rules, we have been extremely pleased at how well everything is working, all the way from level one to the sky-high level 35. We're very excited, and we think that once you see how it all works together, that you will be excited too!
+=== 13 Jul 2020 ===
+* The new [[Remnant]] rules are now live.  There are now quite a variety of (optional) ways to use remnants.  Players should consult with GM's as to which (if any) of these uses are available in their campaign setting.
+=== 20 May 2020 ===
+* Unarmed strikes no longer provoke when you don't have the [[Unarmed Strike, Improved (Feat)|Improved Unarmed Strike]] feat.
+* The [[Unarmed Strike, Improved (Feat)|Improved Unarmed Strike]] feat now just increases the base weapon damage of unarmed strikes to 1d6, regardless of the character's size.
+* Monks and Brawlers still get this feat, even though it doesn't do anything for them, because it is still useful as a prerequisite for other feats.
+* Deleted the "Non-Threatening" and "Provocative" weapon qualities.  The theory being heroes know how to fight with any weapon well enough not to get themselves stabbed (or chewed) for doing so.  (This is the same justification we gave for removing the attacks of opportunity from combat maneuvers).
+=== 1 May 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Wizard]] is now complete.  This means all classes have now been updated for 1.0.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+* The final step before 1.0's release is a review of each character class through every character level, to assess its numbers against the numbers for monsters, to make sure the game is still fun and challenging at all levels.  Character classes will also be reviewed against each other to ensure that no one class is head-and-shoulders better than any other.  Each class will have its own strengths and weaknesses, and should each be relatively balanced against its peers (note however that high-damage classes will still greatly out-damage the high-defense classes, while high-utility classes may find their damage and defense to be a bit more middle-of-the-road).
+=== 28 Apr 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Warlord]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 24 Apr 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Rogue]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 2 Apr 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Ranger]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 26 Mar 2020 ===
+* Combat maneuvers no longer provoke attacks of opportunity (it is no longer necessary to take a feat to negate the AOO of a combat maneuver).
+* You can only perform one combat maneuver per turn, unless you spend an action point to do it a second time (and the action point has to grant you an action big enough to do so).
+* Reduced the number of feats related to combat maneuvers to 3: [[Improved Combat Maneuvers (Feat)]], [[Quick Combat Maneuvers (Feat)]], and [[Mass Combat Maneuvers (Feat)]]
+* [[Clamber]] is a combat maneuver that uses the [[Movement]] skill (was Might). It deals damage if successful (as a maneuver), and requires an [[attack action]] to perform.
+* [[Charge]] is now a combat maneuver that uses the [[Movement]] skill (was an attack roll). It is still almost identical to the previous rules with the following changes:
+:* no longer immediately ends your turn
+:* no longer inflicts the -2 penalty to AC
+:* if you critically fail (miss the DC by 5 or more, or roll a natural 1), you provoke an AOO from the target.
+* [[Withdraw]] is now a combat maneuver that uses the [[Movement]] skill, and is only a [[standard action]] to perform (was a full attack action). You only move your move speed (was double your move).  You choose a primary target, and that target cannot make any attacks of opportunity against you due to this movement.  You can then make the maneuver check to attempt to prevent other nearby enemies from making attacks of opportunity against you.  You MUST move away from the primary target with every square of your movement during the maneuver.
+* [[Cleave]] is now a combat maneuver that uses the [[Might]] skill. It is an [[Attack Action]] to perform (was a free attack).  It otherwise works the same.  The big advantage it now offers is that it is a skill check, and can be used in place of any of your attacks in a full attack action, potentially replacing your worst to-hit.  Plus, anyone can do it, it no longer costs a feat.
+=== 25 Mar 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Prowler]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+* Renamed "Standard Attack" to "Attack Action" so it stood out a little more from "Standard Action".  (It's still a little too close to "Full Attack Action", but I can live with that.)
+=== 19 Mar 2020 ===
+* Partial cover (e.g. being around a corner) now grants only a +2 bonus to AC and a +1 bonus to Reflex saves (changed from +4 to AC and +2 to Reflex saves).
+:* Improved cover now grants either double this bonus (+4 AC, +2 Reflex), or triple (+6 AC, +3 Reflex), depending on how good the improved cover is (changed from +8 to AC and +4 to Reflex saves).
+=== 17 Mar 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Partisan]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 5 Mar 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Paladin]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 23 Feb 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Monk]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 18 Feb 2020 ===
+* Updated castigate to allow clerics to target themselves with the healing (instead of adjacent allies only).  However, you can now only grant castigate's healing effect to a character a maximum of once per round.  This forces the cleric to spread that healing around, rather than become some unstoppable regenerating tank that can fully heal themselves every round just by hitting things more often.
+* Added [[Cleric#Hallowed_Weapon_.28Ex.29|Hallowed Weapon]] back in, and updated it to allow the cleric to also imbue the effect of a single Rod or Wand into the weapon.  It now requires a full 1-day ritual to create a Hallowed Weapon.
+=== 16 Feb 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Fighter]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 12 Feb 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Druid]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 3 Feb 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Cleric]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 30 Jan 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Bard]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 18 Jan 2020 ===
+* A very simple version of the Character Sheet is now available on the sidebar, in either PDF format or as a Google spreadsheet.
+:* Download the PDF here: [[File:EP_Character_Sheet_Print_Only_v1.pdf]]
+:* Open the spreadsheet here: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19npepHHLf-8WQKCzLcmdjC8DuhfxUEqZCIe4bFe-sEI/edit?usp=sharing|Google Spreadsheet]
+::* To save anything in the spreadsheet, you'll have to make a copy of it for yourself first (it's read only).
+* Removed trained-only, as a concept, from the game.  Any character (or monster) can make a skill check with any skill now, though people who haven't put any ranks into a skill should still expect to stink at it.
+* Removed the Journeyman Check from the game.  It wasn't really achieving its purpose (to allow people to make checks against things they weren't trained in).
+:* As a reminder to players and GMs alike, skill DC's are ALWAYS based on the thing being tested against.  This is not necessarily the same as the level (or CR) of the creature attempting the check.  Just as a low-level character would have no hope of picking the lock on the Imperial Vault, a high level character would (probably) never struggle picking the lock on a peasant's house.
+* Moved Reposition, Subdue, and Trip out of the [[Might]] skill and into the [[Sleight of Hand]] skill.  This puts 6 combat maneuvers into each skill.  (Might was getting a little too good, and sleight of hand needed a little boost.)
+=== 16 Jan 2020 ===
+* Removed Non-Lethal Damage from the game.
+* Added three new status conditions: [[Secured]] &rarr; [[Subdued]] &rarr; [[Sapped]].  These conditions make it possible to capture an opponent (or PC) without killing them.
+* Added a new combat maneuver called [[Subdue]], which uses the [[Might]] skill (versus target's Maneuver Defense). If successful, inflicts the [[Secured]] condition on the target.
+* Created a new weapon quality called [[Subduing (Quality)]], and applied it to the [[Sap (Weapon)]] and [[Mancatcher (Weapon)]].
+* Poisons are now deadlier; Environmental damage is now deadlier; Drinking booze is now... deadlier? Nah, I'm sure that's supposed to say 'tastier'.
+=== 4 Jan 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Brawler]] is now complete.
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 1 Jan 2020 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Barbarian]] is now complete.
+:* This also includes the 1.0 version of all the [[Barbarian Rage Powers]].
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 21 Dec 2019 ===
+* Updated spell casting rules to clearly state that if a spell is castable as a standard action, it can also be cast as the first attack of a full attack action.  This is more consistent with how other standard action-based attacks work, and felt reasonable.
+* The 1.0 version of Epic Path will not include the Favored Class bonus of +1 to either a hit point or a skill point each level.  We are removing this.  It is possible that we will look over hit point and/or skill point distribution when we do the numbers pass, but for now, this is simply going away.  Currently running campaigns may wish to ignore this change (keep granting the +1 hp or +1 skill point when a level of the favored class is gained), since the 1.0 rules include specific bonuses for favored classes (unique to each class) that are meant to replace this.
+:* On a related note, dual classing (alternating between two classes every other level) will gain both favored class bonuses for their two chosen classes. See [[Changing Classes]] for details.
+=== 12 Dec 2019 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Sorcerer]] is complete.
+:* This also includes the 1.0 version of all the [[Sorcerer Bloodlines]].
+* Anyone currently playing Epic Path is cautioned against using any of the 1.0 material until we have completed all the classes and had an opportunity to perform a balance pass.  The numbers for the 1.0 classes are guesses, at best, and are very much subject to change when we do the balance pass.  Until then, it is recommended that players continue to use the legacy versions of the character classes.
+=== 24 Nov 2019 ===
+* The new 1.0 version of the [[Alchemist]] is complete.  All discoveries and feats specific to the alchemist have also been updated or reviewed.
+:* Observant readers will notice that the multi-classing language was left in.  Multi-classing will be included in the 1.0 character pass, despite being more work.  We felt that this is something we'd regret not doing, if we didn't do it.  Furthermore, the whole point of the 1.0 pass is to COMPLETE the game, finalize the rules, and stop making changes that would disrupt campaigns.  We felt that adding the multi-classing rules in later would do that.  So we're doing it now.
+* Next up: Sorcerer bloodlines, and format work on the 1.0 versions of the character classes.
+=== 16 Nov 2019 ===
+* Updated player [[Poisons|poison]] rules.  Player poisons can now be applied to a weapon (or up to 3 pieces of ammunition per dose of poison) between encounters, and the poison lasts until the end of the next encounter.  Furthermore, a poisoned weapon inflicts its poison on the first creature successfully struck by that weapon each round of the encounter in which it is poisoned (instead of getting used up in the first hit).  See [[Poisons]], and/or [[Sleight of Hand#Apply_Poison|Sleight of Hand]] for details.
+=== 15 Nov 2019 ===
+* The updated alchemist class is now mostly done.  We're still going to review and re-write their discoveries, but the main character page ([[Alchemist]]) is now ready to go.
+* The class is currently written to demonstrate how the "Prestige Multi-Classing" system would work, if we decide to implement it.  Prestige multi-classing offers players a huge variety of character class options.  The way it works is:
+:* You can only change classes as you transition between experience tiers.  That is, upon reaching any of 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, 26th, or 31st levels.
+:* When you reach a new tier, you can choose any experience tier of any character class, as long as you are at least high enough level for the tier you are choosing (and you can't take the same tier of a class more than once, obviously).  This means that, if you are 6th level, you can choose any Courageous Tier or Intrepid Tier from any class.  As a result, this means you can 'skip' lower level tiers of a character class, if you want to.  When you do so, you miss out on class features that are exclusive to that tier.  However, core features of the class are always 'seeded' through each higher level tier, to ensure the class works at any tier, and still feels like you are playing that class.  In the case of the alchemist, this means that you always get bombs and extracts, regardless of which tiers you take.
+::* The progression tables of each tier also show in parentheses when a numerical value of the class (e.g. BAB, saving throws, extracts) increases from the previous level.  These are referred to as "deltas".  When you multi-class, you ONLY receive the deltas, instead of the full listed value.
+We're still debating whether we want to make multi-classing such a big part of Epic Path.  We really like our single classes, and want people to feel like taking the same class from 1 to 35 is a great idea, and not somehow weaker or sub-optimal than multi-classing.  Multi-classing should be there for people who want to design a character to fit a specific idea, or who just want to try out new things, but it shouldn't be dramatically more powerful than a single-class build (ideally, it would be exactly as powerful, but that would be nearly impossible to design).
+If you feel strongly about whether or not multi-classing should be a major part of Epic Path, please let us know.
+=== 4 Nov 2019 ===
+* Removed caster level penalty from Paladins. Their caster level is now equal to their class level, just like any other caster or demi-caster class.
+=== 26 Oct 2019 ===
+The character class pass is proceeding smoothly! We started this process by making some deep decisions on how character classes are mechanically going to work, as well as how we are going to present these classes to players.
+* We have decided that we don't really want to present the character classes as 'one huge stat block'. Instead, we are breaking the level progression from levels 1 to 36+ into multiple 5-level experience tiers.  This means that the information you will need to play a low level character is all in one place, while the higher level information is 'tucked away' further down the page.
+* The experience tiers, in order, are:
+:* Favored Class Information - The very basic stats you get simply by choosing this class as your 'favorite' character class. (Not really an experience tier.)
+:* Courageous Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 1 to 5.
+:* Intrepid Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 6 to 10.
+:* Heroic Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 11 to 15.
+:* Undaunted Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 16 to 20.
+:* Valorous Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 21 to 25.
+:* Mythic Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 26 to 30.
+:* Legendary Tier - All the powers and abilities the class grants you at levels 31 to 35.
+:* Apotheotic Tier - What happens when you hit the level cap?  At 36+, we really don't know! If your game ever gets to this point, do what you like, the sky is the limit, and that's exactly what this section is all about.
+* To generate an Epic Path character, this means you only need to review the Favored Class block and the Courageous tier information. All that Heroic and Valorous and Mythic stuff can wait a while, if you just want to get your game on!
+* The Alchemist is the first class we're busy converting into this new format, and we're taking our time to be sure we get all the nuts and bolts in the right places.  As part of this pass, we're taking the opportunity to completely rebuild the Alchemist, starting with re-writing all of their Extracts, and rebuilding their class abilities.  Grand Discoveries are going to show up MUCH sooner, and new and improved class features will be available from top to bottom. We won't even mention their new Bomb damage model!
+* Keep an eye out for all the fun, and have a Happy Halloween!
+=== 28 Sep 2019 ===
+* Magic Items are now done!
+:* There are over 1300 magic items to choose from, which should keep everyone busy for a while.
+:* We will be adding more in the future, as inspiration comes to us, but this should be enough to get things started.
+* Next up: the character pass.
+:* This will be a full, soup-to-nuts review of every character class in the game (and likely the feats, spells, and possibly even races) to update, balance, and streamline each class, and get them in line with our expectations for monster offense and defense numbers.
+:* During this time, we will also be finishing the Pariah and Sharp character classes.
+:* '''Warning:''' the character pass will be very disruptive to anyone playing Epic Path during this time.  Changes will be happening fairly quickly, and they will impact any existing character in play.  We will try to keep the changelog up to date with these changes, but expect it to be difficult to keep up with things while all this is going on.
+:* We expect the character pass to go on for approximately 5 months (end of February 2020, is our best guess).
+* Once the character pass is done, we will declare Epic Path 1.0 to be complete
+:* Epic Path 1.0 will mean that the rules will be final (except for fixing mistakes), and no further game-interrupting changes will be allowed.
+:* Optional systems, like vehicle combat, siege warfare, settlement building, auramancy, and true dweomers, will still be on the table as possible additions, but GM's are welcome to ignore these systems if they want, or add them into their campaigns if they seem appropriate.  They will not alter the core rules, balance, or systems of the game.
+:* We will also continue to add new monsters, feats, spells, magic items, etc. to the game even after EP 1.0 is released.  These will only augment existing rules and content, and will also not change core rules, balance, or systems.
+=== 10 Sep 2019 ===
+* Added rules for [[Magic Potions|potions]] and [[Magic Scrolls|scrolls]].
+* Added rules for [[Magic Staves]].
+=== 27 Aug 2019 ===
+* We are pleased to announce that we have reached a fun milestone in the Magic Items pass: As of today, we have 101 fully developed families of magic items, with well over 1000 items fully written and ready for play. This huge number of items range in caster level from 1st level to well over 35th, and every family of items is completely developed for all levels of play...although some of the fancier items might be bit expensive for the lowest levels of the game!
+* These families of items are well-distributed across all available magic item slots every character has, and the functions of the items in every slot have been carefully chosen so that nearly every character can find something useful for their style of play, in every slot!
+* We have deliberately and carefully written these items in such a way that there are no 'bottlenecks'.  There are no 'essential' items that only exist in a single slot, so that YOU can choose exactly how to equip YOUR character the way you want to!
+* These items are in addition to literally millions of possible weapons, armors, and shields that can be custom built by every player to be exactly what YOU want to use.
+* Despite the huge number of interesting, exciting, and downright useful items already finished, this process is ongoing! We expect to be adding scores of new Rods, Staves, and Wands to the game in the coming weeks, which are incredibly useful items for all character types. You will never have to worry about finding something cool and fun to spend your hard-won loot on!
+=== 8 Aug 2019 ===
+* Everything that used to be a wand (e.g. wand of cure light wounds) is now a rod (e.g. [[Light Caduceus Rod]]), and things that were rods (e.g. metamagic rods) are now wands (e.g. [[Wand of Quickening]]).
+:* This is because caster types should be running around waving wands, not rods, and non-casters should think rods are pretty cool (since you can also hit people with 'em &mdash; they're light maces!).
+:* Many more on the way, including rules for making rods of any caster level.
+* Be sure to check out the [[Component Pouch]] and the [[Limitless Quiver]] if you are a caster or an ammunition user.
+* '''A Note On Metamagic Wands:''' we are radically changing the way these work.  You have to actually know the metamagic feat in order to use the wand, but the wand removes the spell level increase caused by using the metamagic feat.  As a reminder, metamagic feats no longer increase the casting time of a spell (though they can reduce it, depending on the feat).  Similarly, metamagic wands do not negatively impact casting time.
+=== 30 Jul 2019 ===
+* Removed 'integral bonus' from skills; it was poorly integrated anyway
+* Removed Skill Focus, and Epic Skill Focus feats.  Replaced them with [[Skill Expert (Feat)]], [[Skill Specialist (Feat)]], and [[Skill Prodigy (Feat)]].
+:* '''Change:''' a natural 1 is now considered a 'critical failure' if the skill use can be critically failed.  The Skill Expert feat changes natural 1 results to normal failures.
+:* eventually, most skills will have additional skill uses that are exclusive to those who possess either the Skill Specialist feat, or the Skill Prodigy feat.  These skill uses will be INSANE. Things like gaining a greater flight speed from the movement skill, or seeing through walls with perception, or raising the dead with Heal.  You get the idea.
+* Added [[Skills#Journeyman_Check|Journeyman Check]] to the Skills page, and updated rules there.
+:* A Journeyman check is a check you can use as a 'catch-all', in place of any other skill.  It is equal to Character Level -2.  You cannot add stats or ranks to it.
+::* eventually, some character classes may get a class feature which grants a bonus to this (in particular, the Bard, Wizard, and Rogue), but for now, nothing adds to it.
+::* eventually, there may be some magic items which grant a (small &mdash; +1 to +5) bonus to the Journeyman check as well.
+=== 29 Jul 2019 ===
+* <span style="color:red">'''IMPORTANT:'''</span> We have removed Touch AC from the game.  [[Melee Touch Attack|Melee]] and [[ranged touch attack]]s are still a thing, however, they just target a creature's normal AC.  Touch attacks receive a +4 bonus to hit, over and above your normal melee to-hit (or ranged to-hit, if it's a ranged touch attack).  Furthermore, touch attacks always hit on a die result of 17 or higher, regardless of the target's AC (although, at the moment, there are two armor properties and a fighter tactic that can negate this... there might be more in the future).
+=== 27 Jul 2019 ===
+* Updated the rules for crafting magic items (using the [[Creator (Feat)|Creator]] feat).  You can only craft items that already exist in the game.
+:* Essentially, magic item crafting lets you trade time for money &mdash; crafted magic items cost half as much, but take a while to build.
+=== 9 Jul 2019 ===
+* Updated rules for monsters with [[Action_Points#Monsters_With_Action_Points|action points]].
+* Updated death and dying pages to clarify that 'bloodied', 'injured', 'dying', 'dead', and similar statuses are NOT conditions which can be fixed with abilities that remove conditions.
+* Updated monster role condition immunities &mdash; roles with condition immunity no longer apply that to the first x times of each condition being applied, but to the first x conditions applied.  For example, a threat can ignore the first 5 conditions applied to it in an encounter, but the sixth condition is resolved normally. (Previously, it would have had to have been six of the same condition, and each condition had its own stack of immunities).
+* Updated monster role action points.  Roles now have more action points, overall.  They can only spend a maximum of 1 per round, though, just like players.
+=== 22 Jun 2019 ===
+* Added rules for [[shield bash]], and completely revamped it.  It is now a combat maneuver using [[Might]].  If successful, it inflicts rattled on the target, and does basic combat maneuver damage (base weapon, no adders).  It no longer causes your AC to drop.
+* Completely removed Shield Spikes and Armor Spikes.  They were dumb, anyway.
+* [[Full Attack Action]] page clarified; you can no longer make a normal 5-foot step if you trade away attacks for bonus 5-foot steps (they count as movement).
+=== 8 Jun 2019 ===
+* '''Brawler''' - stick and move got +1 DR added to it, and now scales into Epic levels.  Burly and Gliding Steps (epic class features) were also updated to grant a flat amount of DR to stick and move.
+:* also clarified that Counterstrike happens at level 2 (there was a mismatch).  Moved Retaliation from level 17 down to level 11.  The dead level at 17 will be addressed (probably) at a later time, when we do the character rebalance pass (likely winter 2019).
+* '''Fighter''' - deleted the Adamantine Focus feat (epic), and rebuilt the fighter tactics Tough Hide and Improved Armor Mastery, to simplify a fighter's access to DR.
+* '''Paladin''' - changed all class-granted DR to DR/-.  Moved Aura of Righteousness from level 17 down to level 6, and it now grants a scaling bonus to DR.  Updated Improved Armor of Righteousness (epic class feature) to grant DR to all allies in the aura, assuming they don't have DR already.
+* '''Monk''' - changed all class-granted DR to DR/-.  Moved Perfect Self from level 20 to level 8, and it now grants a scaling bonus to DR. Updated Warrior of the Spirit (epic class feature) to grant a greater bonus to the Monk's DR.
+=== 31 May 2019 ===
+* The Magic Items pass is proceeding steadily. We have a solid foundation of concepts for all slots, with numerous unique and interesting items for each. However, for the last several weeks we've been giving the largest item system in the game, weapons, armor, and shields magic properties, a thorough top-to-bottom rebuild.
+* As a result, there will be the ability to custom-build many thousands of custom effects in weapons, armor, and shields. This is a very large portion of the magic items pass, and we're taking the time to make sure its a good result. If anyone has any questions, let us know!
+=== 27 April 2019 ===
+* Added [[Reforging, Brine Quench]], [[Reforging, Blood Quench]], and [[Reforging, Astral Quench]] to the services page.
+* Character classes will soon have different Base AC and Base Touch AC values (instead of the default 10).  Please make a note of it.
+=== 20 April 2019 ===
+* <span style="color:red">'''IMPORTANT:'''</span> We have removed Flat-Footed AC from the game.  [[Flat-footed]] is now only a condition that inflicts a -4 penalty to AC and Maneuver Defense, as well as some other stuff.  You can no longer lose your Dex bonus to AC from anything you do, or anything that is done to you.  If you see things which refer to losing your Dex bonus to AC, please let us know so we can clean it up (we think we got it all, but it's a really big wiki).
+* As part of this change, Brawlers got a buff to their "Thick Skinned" class feature, which has a positive effect on their "Tempered" class feature, as well.
+* Implements are no longer a separate thing you have to buy and hold as a caster.  Instead, there is a class feature, called an implement bonus, which improves your touch attacks (and ranged touch attacks) as long as you are wielding a rod, staff, or wand (or an instrument if you're a bard).
+=== 15 April 2019 ===
+* The Magic Items pass is proceeding smoothly, as we've designed various pricing and damage models, as well as had extensive discussions about 'how items will work.'  We expect that there are going to be lots of fun, cool, useful, and interesting things to buy, but any feedback or suggestions are cheerfully accepted.
+* The changes in Magic Items are, as expected, cascading into many other parts of the rules, and in particular, are affecting how character classes work. As a result, we've decided to implement a set of fairly large changes to all classes.
+*: Negative BAB. Effective immediately, all classes may, by declaring a [[Full Attack Action]], make multiple attacks in a single round even at first level. Now, the fact that BAB goes to negative values means that many of those attacks may not HIT anything, but you can certainly make them.
+*: Combat Mobility. To increase the amount of dynamism in combats, we've added the ability to trade off attacks for five foot steps. To access this additional movement requires you to declare a Full Attack Action, but you can now forgo taking your least-accurate attacks in order to take additional [[5-foot step]]s. We anticipate this will make combat a lot more fluid, and introduce a lot more options for players, so be sure to try this out and let us know.
+=== 1 April 2019 ===
+* We at Epic Path are pleased to announce that we're introducing a brand new system of play, that will be included in all character classes as a class feature available at level one:  Pony Power!  This exciting enhancement to the upcoming Auramancy system is a potent ability to shapeshift at will into a form of peace, love, and power, that we're really excited to introduce. Stay tuned for details!
+* In other news, the edit pass for the new Spells is going smoothly, as thousands of edits and changes are re-molding the entire Spells system from top to bottom. All of these changes are mainly cosmetic, but we think presentation and polish are very important, so the work continues.
+* The next big project is Magic Items. We're well along into the planning stage of the upcoming magic items pass, and we've got over two hundred candidates for acculturated 'lines' of items.  The new magic-item model is, that every item is actually a family of items, and as you invest more resources into upgrades for an item, it gets better and better. No more obsolete items!  A lot of this magic-item work is going on 'behind the scenes' but expect big things in the upcoming months.
+* Wizards are now limited to either a "Generalist" school, or one of the seven schools of spells: Abjuration, Conjuration, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, or Transmutation.  Specialist wizards get bonuses for spells with their primary school, and get access to the two neighboring schools, and the universal spells.  See [[Wizard#Arcane School]] for details.
+* Cleric domains are being removed (maybe only temporarily).  Deities will still have domains that they care about, but functionally, Clerics seem interesting/complex enough without them.  We improved their spontaneous casting ability so they can always swap in any 'cure' or 'inflict' spell in place of an existing memorized spell of equal or higher level.  (This was mostly done because the domains pages were just a sea of red links, containing a lot of content we had removed.  In addition, a number of the domains were absurdly specific.  We may revisit domains in the future, but expect there to be far fewer of them.)
+=== 8 March 2019 ===
+* All spells have now been updated to the new Epic Path standards. No legacy spells will be used any longer without GM permission, and we strongly recommend NOT using legacy write-ups, as the scaling is quite different now.  That said, there is still quite a lot of work to do in the Spells system, and we encourage people to read over the new material. We wrote somewhere over 100,000 words of new text for this pass, and we're quite sure there's at least a few "speeling and grammer typo's" that we haven't caught yet. When you find something, please be kind, and let us know!
+* Over the next few weeks we'll be doing some background cleanup on the spell categories, tweaking some balance numbers, and getting ready to start working on lots and lots of cool magic items. If anyone has any suggestions or requests, let us know.
+=== 23 Feb 2019 ===
+*  The entire [[Ranger Poultices]] and [[Bard Spells]] lists are now fully converted to the new system.  Wow! Don't we ever sleep?!?
+=== 17 Feb 2019 ===
+* The entire [[Paladin Spells]] list is now fully converted to the new system.  Go see what all the fuss is about.
+=== 20 Jan 2019 ===
+* Updated all character classes to call out favored class, and increment BAB and saving throws as deltas (differences) rather than sums.  This greatly simplifies how multi-classing and dual-classing characters advance these stats.  The total bonuses provided by each class for these stats remains unchanged... for now. (* evil laugh *)
+:* As a note, additional attacks during full attacks due to higher BAB (at +6, +11, and +16, but only if they occur before level 21) remain the same. I will be adding language into the rules to clarify this, since it is no longer obvious on the character class pages.
+:* Class features which do not get added to other class' class features, such as the rogue's Sneak Attack dice, were not converted to deltas, since they don't get added to anything when dual- or multi-classing.
+=== 6 Jan 2019 ===
+* '''Bard:''' no longer gets to choose between Spellcraft or Spycraft as their bailiwick skill... on review, without Spellcraft, the bard technically can't learn new spells, which makes Spycraft a poor choice. Bards now just get Spellcraft, and cannot take Spycraft via their class (there's always racial traits).  This also makes the character sheet a bit easier to automate.
+=== 28 Dec 2018 ===
+* [[Evasion]] now reduces damage against any attack which deals damage and permits a Reflex save (not just those that deal half damage on a Reflex save)
+:* in addition, it only reduces the damage on a successful save to one-quarter (&frac14;). On a failed save, it reduces the damage to three-quarters (&frac34;).
+:* evasion cannot be used if you are using a shield, wearing heavy armor, are unaware of the attack, are denied your DEX to your AC, or are carrying a medium or heavier load.
+* [[Improved Evasion]] applies in the same updated circumstances as the new Evasion, but its effects are the same as they were: no damage on successful Reflex save, half damage on a failed Reflex save.
+=== 12 Dec 2018 ===
+* The Spells Pass is proceeding smoothly, with hundreds of new and old spells upgraded to the new Spellcasting rules.
+:* New Systems: Spell Circles, Mana Burning, Variable Save DC's, Arcane, Divine, and Dual Charges, Synergies, Spell Research, Spell Levels 10-17, and much more!
+* The [[Spells]] Page has been fully updated to reflect the new systems and rules.
+* The optional [[Environmental Effects]] rules have been fully updated and now auto-scale to all levels.
+* [[Alchemist]] mutagen ability completely overhauled.
+=== 29 Nov 2018 ===
+* Updated Monk:
+:* moved 'Versatile Attack' from level 2 to level 1
+:* removed bonus feat at level 1
+=== 20 Nov 2018 ===
+* <span style="color:red">'''IMPORTANT:'''</span> .
+:* [[Initiative]] checks are now a [[Movement]] skill check, instead of a (modified) DEX check.  You'll want to update this, as the monsters will be going MUCH faster now.
+:* [[Death Check]]s are now a [[Might]] skill check, instead of a CON check. The target DC is now a flat(-ish) 15 + double your character level, instead of anything to do with your negative hit points.  You no longer lose 1 hp per round when dying, but instead have to make these might checks each round.  If you fail 3 in a row, you die.
+* Finally added a Shopping entry for [[Knowledge (Local)]].
+* Added an 'Identify Accent' entry for [[Knowledge (Geography)]].
+=== 24 Oct 2018 ===
+* Explicitly called out that non-lethal damage is not resistible with DR or ER, unless you have an ability that specifically states it can be applied to non-lethal damage.
+=== 13 Sep 2018 ===
+* Radically overhauled [[Summon Monster I (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]], [[Summon Monster II (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]], [[Summon Monster III (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]], [[Summon Monster IV (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]], [[Summon Monster V (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]], [[Summon Monster VI (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]], [[Summon Monster VII (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]], [[Summon Monster VIII (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]], and [[Summon Monster IX (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]].
+=== 02 Sep 2018 ===
+* Multi-class and dual-class characters now accrue Action Points at the same rate as Single Class characters.
+=== 11 Aug 2018 ===
+* Many metamagic feats are being removed, to be installed as magic items (at some point in the future, when we have time)
+* [[Quelled]], [[Prone]], and [[Splayed]] now inflict a penalty to concentration checks.
+* Monsters cannot voluntarily inflict a status condition on themselves to overwrite an existing status condition; however, a clever monster ally can apply a weaker debuff on their fellow monsters to overwrite debuffs, if they think of it.
+* Bard Staccato and Harmony damage updated
+* Cleric channel divinity (as damage) updated
+* Alchemist bomb damage updated
+* Changed Selective Spell (Feat), Selective Channeling (Feat), Precise Bombs (Discovery) and Selective Symphony (Feat).  Added a new feat: Selective Bomb (Feat).
+:* Selective Spell is no longer a metamagic feat; it does not alter the spell level of a spell.
+:* All of these feats now allow the caster to exclude one or more creatures from the area of effect of their respective effects, at the expense of reducing their effective character level by 1 per creature excluded.  This allows pure AOE spells to be more balanced against limited-number-of-target spells.  Now, pure-AOE's are more situationally useful -- if the field is (relatively) clear of allies, AOE's will nearly always be a better choice.  However, once your allies get into melee range, the limited-number-of-target spells will usually be a better fit.  Selective allows the AOE's to be used at any time, but it's not quite the no-brainer any more that a fireball is always better than a lightning bolt.
+=== 11 Jul 2018 ===
+* Updated [[Damage and Resistance]] page.
+:* '''NOTE:''' We will be changing the way DR and ER work in the coming days.  Both DR and ER will work the way ER currently works. Namely, the thing listed is the thing it resists.  (Currently, the thing listed with DR is the only thing that can bypass it).
+:* We are consolidating all damage types down to 7 broad types:  common, uncommon, or rare physical damage, and common, uncommon, or rare energy damage.  The 7th type is Primal damage, which is neither physical, nor energy, and cannot be resisted by either ER or DR.
+:* Characters who currently have some source of DR x/- or ER x/- will be unaffected by this change.
+:* Characters who have more specific types of DR or ER should expect the value to change (especially if it's DR).
+=== 30 Jun 2018 ===
+* Updated Sorcerer's "Forceful Presence" ability to apply to ANY spell or spell-like ability they cast which inflicts damage.
+* Added "Mana Burn" to Wizard class.  Once we're happy with it, we'll be pushing this out to all casters and demi-casters as a 3rd level class feature. You have been WARNED!
+=== 26 Jun 2018 ===
+* The [[Warlord]]'s Marching Orders ability is no longer a stance.
+* The [[Brawler]]'s Stick and Move ability is no longer a stance.
+* The [[Partisan]]'s Intractable Ground ability is no longer a stance.
+:* the abilities are unchanged, except that they aren't a stance any more.  They can still be disrupted by being knocked prone (or getting a condition which reduces your number of actions for the round), and still require the same action to activate. This was done to open up more options for multi-classing and dual-classing.
+:* note that bardic performances still require a stance, as does entering stealth.
+=== 9 Jun 2018 ===
+* Updated [[Pull]]s to prevent traffic jams.
+=== 5 Jun 2018 ===
+* '''New Rules:'''
+:* Monsters can only have 1 condition on them at a time. If a new condition is introduced, you either replace the old one, or ignore the new one (inflicting player's choice).
+::* Any damage is still resolved as normal, regardless of how the condition is resolved.
+:* Metamagic rods can only be used on spells which require a standard action to cast
+:* Metamagic rods turn the standard action spell into a full-round action to cast
+::* Except a Quicken rod, which turns the standard action into a move action (yes, this is worse than the feat, a little).
+:* Metamagic '''feats''' that you know no longer increase casting time; they only increase the spell level and/or spell slot required.
+=== 2 Jun 2018 ===
+* added the ability to 'develop a contact' in the [[Between Adventures]] rules.
+=== 1 Jun 2018 ===
+* Updating [[Between Adventures]] (was Character Retraining) Rules - generally unchanged, just clarifying.
+:* shopping will now be a downtime activity; you can only buy a limited number of magic items per day (due to traveling between shops, bartering, etc.)
+::* a good [[Knowledge (Local)]] check can improve how many items you can buy in a given day (you know where to go, and how to get there faster).
+::* this impacts the 'party designated shopper' phenomenon -- namely, if the high barter character wants to buy stuff for the party, it uses up their time to do so
+:::* open to conversations about whether this is fair or not. The question is 'should the high barter character be able to grant their buy/sell discounts to everyone without any cost to themselves or the party'?  An auxiliary question is 'are the buy/sell bonuses from barter so good that barter is a mandatory skill?'
+:* each downtime activity now costs different amount of days depending on the success category of the skill check.
+:* included a transclusion of the Libraries page on the Between Adventures page, since it's highly relevant.
+:* added rule for quitting a downtime activity before completion (because you hate the skill check result, for example)  &mdash; you have to wait half the max time to try again (though you can do different downtime activities in the meantime).
+* New Self-Improvement option: [[Between Adventures#Spell Research|Spell Research]].
+=== 15 May 2018 ===
+* Added [[Mounts]] page
+:* includes rules for making any creature into a mount, and advancing the CR of a mount.
+:* includes costs for mounts at all CR's.
+* Updated rules for how mounted combat works on the [[Ride]] page:
+:* Mounts now provide bonus melee damage to their riders only if their CR exceeds the minimum amount required for the movement speeds they provide.
+:* essentially, you have to 'buy' their movement speed(s) with CR, and any leftover CR is applied as bonus to melee damage while mounted.
+:* mounts also have special abilities which can be unlocked with one or more 'points' of CR.
+=== 4 May 2018 ===
+* Removed Peerless Thieves' Tools and Peerless Musical Instrument.  These got too close to being magic items, and should just be magic items.
+=== 28 Apr 2018 ===
+* updated [[Haste (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)]], please read.
+* '''Discussion Topic:''' (rephrase) we're getting rid of the ''school'' of divination, but any spells previously in that school that don't completely suck, or have the potential to break the story of a campaign (which is quite a lot of them), will be moved to a different school.
+=== 23 Apr 2018 ===
+* '''Discussion Topic:''' only one debuff condition (that requires tracking) on a monster at a time.  E.g. "rattled" and "stunned".
+:* players applying the new debuff will get to choose whether to overwrite the existing one or not.
+:* obviously any damage component would still be applied, whether the new debuff is applied or not.
+:* would not apply to most class features, such as fighter's challenge, ranger's quarry, paladin's smite, prowler's encroaching jolt (?), etc.
+::* would apply to spells that inflict a condition
+::* might apply to combat maneuvers that inflict a condition other than forced movement (prone?).
+::* only care about conditions that persist; forced movement is resolved instantaneously, so stacking is irrelevant.
+:* this change would allow us to include significantly more variety of status conditions in spells, class abilities, etc., without fear of the 4e "giant stack of debuffs" making combats too trivial. Also, the giant stack of debuffs is a nightmare to track.
+=== 3 Apr 2018 ===
+* [[Combat Reflexes (Feat)]] changed to grant a maximum of +4 bonus attacks of opportunity per round, based on half your DEX modifier.
+=== 31 Mar 2018 ===
+* Please note: any red-linked (missing) spell entries you may find are spells we are planning to remove from the game.  This is part of the spell review process, which is ongoing.
+* Added over 57 million new [[Changing Classes|character class combinations]] to the game. Wow!
+* Updated [[Between Adventures]] to remove all gold costs.  Some downtime activity times have also been adjusted downwards.  You can thank us with donuts.
+=== 14 Mar 2018 ===
+* increased number of poultices that rangers get by 1 at all levels.
+=== 13 Mar 2018 ===
+* fixed an error with monster skill numbers.
+=== 27 Feb 2018 ===
+* Monday Night Game: added [[Geography_of_the_Silath_Tyr_Region|Geography]] and [[History_of_the_Silath_Tyr_Region|History]] pages to campaign page.
+=== 3 Feb 2018 ===
+* Discussion topics:
+:* the end of selective?
+::* most aoe spells have a fixed number of targets within the aoe, and therefore do not require selective. They're selective for free!
+::* some spells may still be non-selective aoe's (fields), but there will no longer be a way to selectively exclude allies from these spells.
+::* such spells will also be marked with the 'aoe' descriptor to deal with swarms/troops. (as a note, perhaps AOE's do 150% dmg to swarms/troops, while fields do 200% dmg to swarms/troops)
+::* may also want to talk about capping channel divinity, and removing the selective channel feat...
+:* limitations on slotless items?
+::* max 3 per character
+::* question about whether lay magic counts (lightstones, water stones, etc.)
+::* handy haversacks, bags of holding are already slotless, and would be affected by this limitation.
+=== 24 Jan 2018 ===
+* added several new magic weapon properties at +3 and +4.
+=== 20 Jan 2018 ===
+* removed Counterspell
+:* updated [[Dispel Magic (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)|Dispel Magic]] and [[Dispel Magic, Greater (Sorcerer/Wizard Spell)|Greater Dispel Magic]] to incorporate the good bits of Counterspell
+* removed the Universal Monster Rules page. Terms which remain in use have been moved to the [[Glossary of Terms]] page.
+* Updated all references to [[Spellcraft#Concentrate|concentration]] (including caster level checks, combat casting, etc.), to make use of [[Caster Check]]s as the base mechanic (a bailiwick skill check).
+:* if you find any references to this which don't point to a bailiwick skill check, please let me know so I can fix it.
+=== 14 Jan 2018 ===
+* Added a list of player-purchasable [[Poisons]], as well as rules for how they work.  Player poisons are much simpler than monster poisons, having only an instantaneous damage effect and (potentially) a 1-round debuff.
+=== 13 Jan 2018 ===
+* Added rules for voluntarily [[holding your breath]].  Updated the movement skill for swimming to incorporate these rules.
+:* holding your breath outside of combat is very abstract.  GM's can decide how long the party can do so, but generally a couple of minutes, regardless of CON.
+:* in combat, holding your breath is quite hard.
+===8 Jan 2018===
+* Updated [[Treasure and XP]] page to detail the Remnants system, which replaces Crafting Materials.
+:* updated monster template to reflect these changes also.
+* '''MONDAY GAME:''' Added a few sentences to [[Fontaigne_(Red_Sails)|Fontaigne]], [[Ottovar_(Red_Sails)|Ottovar]], and [[Fallen_Nations_(Red_Sails)|Fallen Nations]] pages.
+===3 Jan 2018===
+* ''All characters now gain natural talents in their Bailiwick and one additional skill at level 1,'' and gain additional natural talents at 11th, 21st, and 31st levels.  ''(Italicized text is unchanged.)''
+:* '''NOTE TO SUNDAY GAME:''' The party has already received a 'bonus' natural talent, which counts as the natural talent we would have received at level 11.  That is, until level 21, this change will not affect characters in the Sunday party.
+:* In addition, a rule has now been added to allow players to add a natural talent to a skill which is already a natural talent for them.  Such double-natural-talent skills no longer automatically fail on a natural 1, and can never fail by 5 or more, regardless of the target DC or the suckiness of the roll. See [[Natural Talent]] for details.  This is a boon for high-skill classes in particular, who may not want to remap very many of their skills, but is nice for any character that wants to deeply specialize in a skill.
+* Several fear status conditions re-written to make running away considerably less mandatory.
+* Epic bard feats (group inspiration, mass inspiration, colossal inspiration, epic inspiration) written, in light of recent changes to bard performances.
+===14 Dec 2017===
+Added a "Bribes and Tips" section to the [[Money and Merchants]] page.
+===4 Dec 2017===
+Fixed Rattling Fist Feat to remove references to old Brawler.
+===2 Dec 2017===
+* Spells:
+:* removed See Alignment spell - breaks stories, and steps on paladin ability.
+:* changed Ant Haul - only 10 lbs per caster level increased carry capacity instead of "triple".
+::* '''Note:''' this may affect magic items in the party!  You can either cash them in for what you paid, or update them to the new rules.
 ===30 Nov 2017===
 * updated [[Blind]] - added sections for non-targeting senses and natural blindness.
+* Renamed Monster Templates to Monster Patterns. This was done to de-duplicate the game system from the wiki software.