Ask Jiro presents an assortment of kobold scribes and sages to clarify Tales of the Valiant RPG rules and confirm errata sleuthed out by the ToV community!
Since the announcement of ToV, the dynamic community on the Kobold Press Official Discord has been a vital asset. They’ve helped shape the direction and momentum of the game. If you haven’t already joined this diverse, dedicated, lively community, head over and get involved! Your voices, ideas, and opinions are welcome!
Let’s get to the questions!
Victronicon asks about “disoriented” in the Monster Vault
Looking at the stat block for the unska demon in the Monster Vault, its Whirl of Ink bonus action causes a victim to be “charmed, disoriented, or frightened (the unska’s choice) until the end of its next turn.”
What is the mechanical implication of “disoriented?” I don’t see this listed as a condition in the Player’s Guide.
ANSWER!
“Disoriented” isn’t an official new condition. It’s defined within the unska demon’s Whirl of Ink trait: “When a disoriented creature moves, it moves in a random direction.” Disoriented is used on a few monster traits that cause victims to move unpredictably, and it’s always clarified where it appears in the Monster Vault.
You might think of disoriented as a lesser version of the “1” result on the Confusion Effects table in the confusion spell. A disoriented creature can move as much or as little as it wants. If it uses any of its movement, that movement is in a random direction. It can still take an action, although if that action is Dash, that still happens in a random direction.
The unska might decide to disorient someone if it doesn’t want the target to move . . . or at least make it risk the consequences of moving in the wrong direction.
If the random direction would put the creature in obvious danger, then it is affected by that danger. Wise characters feeling a bit woozy (“disoriented”) next to the edge of a cliff might want to stay put rather than risk moving off the edge.
If it helps for roleplaying clarity, being disoriented is like the dizzying feeling you get from spinning around too fast. You take a step in what you think is one direction and stumble in another.
KidTheGeek asks, “Any reason not to use Frenzy?”
In the Player’s Guide, page 26, the Bererker’s Frenzy subclass feature says you can choose to go into a frenzy when you rage. Is there any reason not to do that? In the SRD, going into a frenzy adds one level of exhaustion afterward, but this isn’t the case in ToV, so it doesn’t seem like there’s any reason not to do it. In addition, the Mindless Rage feature to ignore exhaustion seems to have been built so that a barbarian can use Frenzy and not suffer any disadvantages in combat.
ANSWER!
There’s no reason not to use Frenzy. Frenzy is simply the unique style of raging that the Berserker barbarian does. In the same way that a Wild Fury barbarian’s rage comes with animalistic features, a Berserker’s rage is a frenzy. Frenzy is presented as a choice in the text in the very rare event that something might remove the Frenzy feature from your Berserker’s menu of options. You can still use the Rage feature in that case.
Craig W. C. probes for mechanical motivations behind PB changes
Wouldn’t it have been easier and more convenient to add the Proficiency Bonus of monsters into their stat blocks? What was the design reason for decoupling the ability score modifier from an actual ability score in the monster stat blocks? I also wonder why monster skill proficiencies were removed from the game?
ANSWER!
We get a lot of “Why did you make this choice?” questions about format and style. They’re good and worthy questions. The easiest and shortest answer to most monster stat block questions is that we wanted to optimize the play experience for GMs at the table.
We had three goals for monsters: to ensure each monster had a clear identity, unique features, and streamlined statistics. That meant folding some aspects of a monster’s underlying construction out of visibility so you had ONLY the stuff you needed to run the monster in front of you.
For more discussion about monster goals and their examples, check out the Monster Vault Preview articles on the blog. For instance, this article gives you some of thinking behind what we did with the mimic.
GMToolbox asks about multiclassing mathematics
While doing a side-by-side comparison of fifth edition and ToV to better understand the differences, I was looking at multiclassing. For the most part, the two seem similar, but I noticed a few differences. For example, in D&D (2014 and 2024), you would typically get one skill proficiency when multiclassing into ranger. In ToV, you do not. Same with bard. What was the reason for this design choice? At first glance, it seems to make multiclassing less desirable, but there may be other factors I haven’t seen yet.
ANSWER!
Good eye. Multiclassing is fun and cool, and it’s an option we wanted to leave on the table. But we’ve seen players most often use it to get certain specific features sets (the Warlock/Paladin combo, for instance) or to try to break the game for individual advantage.
And hey, look, breaking the game can be fun for some people! We get that. It isn’t fun for everybody, though. We’ve watched it be a net negative in the community overall.
With that in mind, we redesigned classes, not so much to make multiclassing less desirable, but to make single-classing more desirable. The things a player might want to get out of multiclassing are now more available without it.
For instance, Heroic and Epic Boon class features allow extra customization as a character levels up, reducing the need to multiclass and rewarding you for sticking with a single class. The talent system can also help you get some of the aspects you want from another class without having to multiclass.
We think this makes ToV a stronger, more cohesive game and we hope that players will enjoy spending all 20 levels in a single class.
Did you know the Kobolds are cooking up something exciting over on Discord? Get involved with Project: Chiron, the latest, “practically top-secret”, playtesting endeavor from Kobold Press.
Need more Tales of Valiant RPG goodness? Here’s what people are saying:
“A wonderful upgrade in almost every regard to 5e.”
“There’s really nothing to not like here! This is a smart retooling of the 5E rules set, with improvements across the board.”
“I’m beside myself. “This game is sensational. Easily attainable for players of ‘that other game'”
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