One million and one things to respond to.
Escape Buttons
I've solved the escape buttons issue for the Assassin already; rather than an escape button the Assassin needs a way to escape after Assassinate so that she isn't forced to stick around and fight after making someone lose an order. I think that's perfectly fine, if you look at Alexia in this playtest, Crimson Flash achieves just that, but Safety in a Crowd's teleport + disguise was unnecessary.
As for general escape buttons, I guess the rationale for is that people don't want to just straight up lose an order spell because they happened to run into a bad match-up while wandering about. I'm still not very in favor of escape buttons because they make danger in the game less scary and cause it lengthens the game, and PSW is already long enough. I may give extremely limited escape abilities that might be once or twice per game only, however, but even those should remain extremely uncommon.
Telekinesis
Well, Grapple TK has the same problem as Black Tentacles does, but I find it much more acceptable because it's concentration. This coupled with how vulnerable Masters are now makes it an acceptable level 5 for me, especially when you factor in that Defensive Combat Training straight up beats it. Perhaps it should have a nerf on its range, but I would like to see more discussion on this for sure before I do anything.
Assassin
For now I plan to ban Dastardly Finish and make Assassinate 30d6 sneak (this averages 105 damage) which should probably be good enough. I agree that hiding should be harder, and I already have ideas in mind to deal with it.
Mana
I have some ideas on dealing with mana overflow but my best idea right now is to allow players to use mana for healing. Obviously this is imperfect because it gives the Savior a mana overflow but it can be balanced. Still trying to think of a better solution. I also have a few other minor solutions in mind but I'd prefer to keep those secret for PSW III.
Berserker
I want to replace the 11 feats innate with the Mad Enhancement ability that The Ice King had, but I'd like discussion on the specifics (how much should the bonus be? Should the ability to spend mana for more stay in?)
Escape Buttons
I've solved the escape buttons issue for the Assassin already; rather than an escape button the Assassin needs a way to escape after Assassinate so that she isn't forced to stick around and fight after making someone lose an order. I think that's perfectly fine, if you look at Alexia in this playtest, Crimson Flash achieves just that, but Safety in a Crowd's teleport + disguise was unnecessary.
As for general escape buttons, I guess the rationale for is that people don't want to just straight up lose an order spell because they happened to run into a bad match-up while wandering about. I'm still not very in favor of escape buttons because they make danger in the game less scary and cause it lengthens the game, and PSW is already long enough. I may give extremely limited escape abilities that might be once or twice per game only, however, but even those should remain extremely uncommon.
Telekinesis
Well, Grapple TK has the same problem as Black Tentacles does, but I find it much more acceptable because it's concentration. This coupled with how vulnerable Masters are now makes it an acceptable level 5 for me, especially when you factor in that Defensive Combat Training straight up beats it. Perhaps it should have a nerf on its range, but I would like to see more discussion on this for sure before I do anything.
Assassin
For now I plan to ban Dastardly Finish and make Assassinate 30d6 sneak (this averages 105 damage) which should probably be good enough. I agree that hiding should be harder, and I already have ideas in mind to deal with it.
Mana
I have some ideas on dealing with mana overflow but my best idea right now is to allow players to use mana for healing. Obviously this is imperfect because it gives the Savior a mana overflow but it can be balanced. Still trying to think of a better solution. I also have a few other minor solutions in mind but I'd prefer to keep those secret for PSW III.
Berserker
I want to replace the 11 feats innate with the Mad Enhancement ability that The Ice King had, but I'd like discussion on the specifics (how much should the bonus be? Should the ability to spend mana for more stay in?)