BRCS Chapter 1 - Feats

[Shade]

I`m moving through the doc a lot slower than some other people, so that`s
why I haven`t contributed to the discussion on a lot of topics. I finally
got to the feats and here are my thoughts:

There is a lot of cool stuff here that shows tremendous creativity and
innovation on the part of the BRCS team. However, some of it is imbalanced.
In the design process, for every free-thinking creative (these people are
necessary for good and fun ideas) you need a hard-assed balance fiend
(someone like myself or Daniel :) to keep things in perspective.

When balancing feats, I think these are good guidelines to use:

1. Does it go beyond the scope of feats of its type?

(For example, many feats give +2 to 2 different skills. If a feat gives +3
to 2 different skills, it probably goes too far.)

2. Does it make any other feat obsolete?

(For example, FR`s Foe Hunter feat gives +1 to damage and Improved Critical
against a certain creature type. Favored Critical from MotW gives Improved
Critical against a certain creature type. Since Foe Hunter is in every way
better than Favored Critical, it makes Favored Critical obsolete.)

3. Is it a must-have or a no-brainer feat?

(For example, FR`s Spellcasting Prodigy is so good pretty much every
spellcaster type should pick it.)

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, the feat is probably
overpowered.

Using these guidelines, here are my thoughts on the BRCS feats:

Animal Whispers - cool feat, makes a lot of sense.

Arcane Sanctum - this is really freaking cool :) The wording needs to be a
bit more clear. I`d actually up this in power a bit, making the +1 DC work
in an entire province rather than a number of miles based on source level.
In any case it is still far weaker than Spellcasting Prodigy, but still a
good feat. I`d also change the requirement from Bld 13+ to "must control a
source (1) in the province where the sanctum is located" or somesuch.

Battle Caster - good feat. The skill requirement should be removed - feats
never have skill requirements.

Black Strike - this feat does a good job of representing the original
flavor of the blackstrike proficiency. However, it might be overpowered -
there are two feats that resemble it, Off-Hand Parry from MotW and FR`s
Twin Sword Style.

BS grants +2 dodge w/ offhand, no attacks offhand, no TWF attack penalty.
OHP grants +2 dodge w/ offhand, no attacks offhand, but you keep the -2 TWF
attack penalty.
TSS grants +2 armor bonus vs. 1 opponent, keep offhand attacks, keep -2 TWF
attack penalty.

BS is clearly overpowered relative to OHP; effectively it is OHP that gives
you a +2 to attack rolls. TSS itself is a balanced feat.

How to balance BS without making it identical to OHP or TSS? Let`s look at
the original blackstrike for inspiration: it required you to use a rapier
and something else (usually a dagger, shortsword, cloak or buckler), gave
the AC bonus against 1 opponent only, and you lost your offhand attacks.

How about this:

You receive a +3 dodge bonus to AC against a single opponent when you wield
a second weapon in your off-hand but do not attack with that weapon. You
incur no penalties for attacking with two weapons when you use the
Blackstrike feat.

Blood Focus - looks good. My only concern is that getting +2 DC and +2 vs
SR would cost you 2 feats for spells, but I think it is ok because blood
abilities are far more limited than spells.

Bloodline Prodigy - looks good on paper, but it MUST be playtested.

City-Dweller - well done.

Conqueror - looks good, assuming we keep the Lead skill, which is not
something I`m convinced we should do (more on that later).

Daily Blessing - a really cool idea. Looks good to me.

Discipline - nifty.

Divine Sanctum - really cool! Whoever came up with the idea for these feats
is a genius. :)

Dwarven Artisan - this is really shady. wtf is a superior masterwork item?
As far as I know `superior masterwork items` are not mentioned in the DMG
and are not intrinsic to the flavor of Birthright. I think this feat should
be removed entirely.

Elven Artisan - this feat is balanced and mimics the power of the Magical
Artisan feat.. BUT, considering that magic items are supposed to be rare in
BR, should we really include a feat that facilitates their construction?

Elven Voice - the concept is good, but it is mechanically overpowered. +2
to a skill (diplomacy) is equal to half a feat. You further get a +2 to
another skill in a limited form (which is almost a restricted version of a
half-feat), and +2 to specific types of enchantment spells (which is a
restricted version of a full feat). The problem lies in that almost all the
enchantment spells that require saves are charms anyway, so this is really
almost as good as a whole feat.

This feat definitely needs to be nerfed somehow. I think the best way to
balance it would be to compare it to the Alluring feat from Song & Silence,
which is powerful but lists 2 crappy feats as prerequisites. As always,
drop the skill requirement for the feat. I`d suggest this effect:

Prerequisites: Elf, Skill Focus: Perform, Cha 13+. You get a +2 to Perform
(Song) checks and a +2 to the DCs of mind-influencing spells that depend on
the power of your voice.

This makes it very slightly weaker than Alluring, but that`s okay as it has
fewer prerequisites.

Erudition - this feat is clearly overpowered as it makes Education
obsolete. Make it identical to Education to balance it. (I guess we cannot
reprint Education because of OGL concerns.)

Forestdweller - looks good.

Great Leader - I don`t know what gets a synergy bonus to Lead, but my hunch
is that this feat is slightly overpowered.

Hardiness - this feat is REALLY shady. Anything that flat out doubles the
effect of something else is just waiting to be abused. One example that
springs to mind: imagine if a character had the Hardiness feat, and then
proceeded to pick Dragon`s Toughness (MotW). +24 HP, it is balanced so far
as this is just as if he had picked Dragon`s Toughness twice. But if he
picks Dragon`s toughness again, he gets a further +24. You can see where
this is going, and it has the potential to be really sick.

This feat serves no essential purpose and I think it should be removed or
redone entirely.

Highlander - nice. I think the feat needs to be powered up slightly by
taking away the restriction on terrain, OR by making the bonus a +3 or 4
and keeping the terrain restriction.

Improved Shadow Guide - may need playtesting.

Inscribe War Tattoo - nice job on the conversion, but this MUST be playtested.

Leadership - interesting twist. Needs to be playtested to ensure balance,
though.

Master Administrator - I feel this feat has the potential to be
overpowered, but I`ll outline the reasons when I discuss skills.

Master Merchant - This feat is slightly overpowered, as it is equal to a
standard feat (+2 to 2 skills) but gives an additional benefit at the
domain level of play. Possibly reduce the skill bonuses to +1.

Military Genius - looks good.

Northerner - nice.

Plainsrider - sweet.

Regent Focus - This feat could potentially be really strong. Think about if
you used Regent Focus (contest). This could have the effect of saving you
dozens of RP every season.. regardless of whether this feat makes it into
the final document, I know I would not allow it in my campaign as I feel it
gives too much of an advantage, and almost becomes a must-have feat.

Regional Arms Training - ...

This is hands down the most broken feat I have ever seen. It puts
Spellcasting Prodigy to shame. This feat is a must-have, overpowered feat
that goes far beyond the scope of what a feat should do and makes many
other feats obsolete.

To my knowledge, NO feat in D&D gives you a +3 to hit. I don`t think there
is any non-epic feat that gives a flat out +2 to hit.. and all the feats
that DO give +2 to hit (Tread on the Blade, for example) are all conditional.

Furthermore this feat makes Weapon Focus completely obsolete. This is to be
avoided. This feat gives so much bang for the buck there is no reason for
every character that spends a significant amount of time using weapons not
to take it.

One possibility for RAT is to change it to give proficiencies only. In this
form the feat is still overpowered relative to Martial Weapon Proficiency
(which only gives 1 prof), but in my mind that is ok because I think MWP is
way underpowered anyway.

The problem with this feat comes in here: who would actually pick this
feat? 1st level commoners is the logical answer, but they would probably
spend their only feat on something related to their everyday life, like
Skill Focus: Profession (farmer). A 3rd level commoner might take it, but
if a 3rd level commoner has had that much experience with fighting, he
would probably be a Com2/Warrior1 anyway, and already have access to the
proficiencies. The other answer is that a rogue or cleric might pick it, in
which case it makes sense to keep a weakened version of this feat.

The power of the feat DEFINITELY needs to be reduced, although IMHO the
best solution is to drop it altogether. Even if we keep Regional Arms
Training in a reduced capacity, I think Elite Arms training should be
completely removed, as the only people that would train with Elite Arms
would be fighters and warriors anyway.

Regional Rogue Training - I see no real reason to keep this feat, and
besides, it is potentially overpowered (it can give +5 to skills in some
cases). If it must be kept, I would prefer the mechanic to be something
like: You get +2 in 2 of your region`s rogue skills. That way it is capped
at +4 skill points no matter what.

Seafarer - nice.

Shadow Guide - this feat might not be necessary if we decide to make
halflings +1 ECL (which I am in favor of). Otherwise it is fine in my book.

Shadow Magic - Nice concept, but the feat is slightly overpowered. +1 DC
for Illusion and Necromancy would be balanced, but the extra +2 to Illusion
(Shadow) is too much. I`d make up a separate feat, Improved Shadow Magic,
that gives a +3 to Illusion (Shadow) magic and stacks with Shadow Magic
(giving +4 to Illusion(shadow) in total).

Shadow Walker - see shadow guide.

Spellsong Mastery - cool idea. The feat looks good, but the skill
requirement should be removed (as with all other feats).

Spymaster - cool feat but it is overpowered as it gives too many skill
points. +6 is too much; cut it down to +2 to gather information and bluff,
or keep the bonus to all 3 skills but make the bonuses conditional, as was
done with Seafarer and Plainsrider.

All in all, I think a lot of the feats are really cool and have great
concepts, but need to be tweaked somewhat in the interests of balance. IMHO
a couple should be taken out entirely. Keep in mind this is only my
opinion, and I hope I have sufficiently explained the rationale behind my
recommendations. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

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[Mark_Aurel]

Excellent post.

Some clarifications and thought process explanations;

Battle Caster - good feat. The skill requirement should be removed - feats
never have skill requirements.

Mounted Combat. Other feats expand upon what is possible to do with a skill; Track - Wilderness Lore, for instance.

Black Strike - this feat does a good job of representing the original
flavor of the blackstrike proficiency. However, it might be overpowered -
there are two feats that resemble it, Off-Hand Parry from MotW and FR`s
Twin Sword Style.

Black Strike has some prerequisites that makes it more of an end-chain feat than a starting feat. The feat's benefit is primarily comparable to the benefit of a large shield; +2 to AC. I've actually wondered if this feat was weak, myself.

Erudition - this feat is clearly overpowered as it makes Education
obsolete. Make it identical to Education to balance it. (I guess we cannot
reprint Education because of OGL concerns.)

Does it really? It grants less immediate benefit; what it does is reward characters who spend more feats on skill focus (knowledge: whatever). Education, on the other hand, grants +1 to two knowledge skills by itself.

Great Leader - I don`t know what gets a synergy bonus to Lead, but my hunch
is that this feat is slightly overpowered.

The reference to a synergy bonus is an error; what it does is grant a +2 bonus to Lead and domain actions keyed to that skill - primarily Agitate.

Hardiness - this feat is REALLY shady. Anything that flat out doubles the
effect of something else is just waiting to be abused.

This addresses one point of the design process here - the feats in the BRCS were designed considering core feats primarily, not feats from splatbooks and independent d20 publishers (it'd be nuts to try and survey all of that). Anyway, the original benefit of this feat was different: It granted double the constitution bonus to hit points at first level, and +1 bonus hit point every time each of the other mentioned feats was taken.

Master Merchant - This feat is slightly overpowered, as it is equal to a
standard feat (+2 to 2 skills) but gives an additional benefit at the
domain level of play. Possibly reduce the skill bonuses to +1.

This, and the other "master" feats, as well as the "great leader" feat were intended to support the domain level of play; note that this particular feat has more stringent prerequisites than the others.

Regent Focus - This feat could potentially be really strong. Think about if
you used Regent Focus (contest). This could have the effect of saving you
dozens of RP every season.. regardless of whether this feat makes it into
the final document, I know I would not allow it in my campaign as I feel it
gives too much of an advantage, and almost becomes a must-have feat.

This feat was balanced with its limited versatility in mind - if you spend every action contesting, that's 12 RP saved per season - I guess it really depends on how common contest actions are in your campaign; you'd also need to consider the change in the contest action itself, I think, to get the full picture on that. The feat was originally part of a pyramid as well; statesmanship - master a/d/m - regent focus. Also note that this feat is very depedent on your campaign. In a PBEM-style environment, where domain-level interaction is 99% of the game, it is certainly too strong. The feat, however, is balanced for a normal campaign, with a distribution between adventure and domain-level play.

Shadow Magic - Nice concept, but the feat is slightly overpowered. +1 DC
for Illusion and Necromancy would be balanced, but the extra +2 to Illusion
(Shadow) is too much.

I'm not quite sure - spell focus provides a larger bonus in a single area; even though this feat totals up to more than spell focus does, I'm not quite sure it's stronger - i.e. consider skill emphasis (+3) vs alertness (+2/+2). Actually a bad example, but I don't really think this feat would make it to a must-have list - I'd put it on a "strong feats" list, but it doesn't supplant existing feats. I'd use the excuse of "not all feats are perfectly equal" and mutter something about skill focus, but I'll definitely keep what you've said in mind.

[Birthright-L]

Interesting that the discussion has proceeded to feats. I`ve been balancing
feats for the Netbook of Feats for years now, and I look forward into
putting my teeth into these. Due to time constraints, I have only skimmed
the BRCS, but I can still comment on some of this.
Most of your comments seemed initiated, though I have not analyzed them in
depth. But some things I can`t agree with.

First, feats can have skill requirements. Check out Mounted Combat. It is
rare to have a requirement of more than a single skill rank, but it is
definitely not a no-no.

Second, on Black Strike. I think this is a balanced feat, and it is very
simple to use. Off-Hand Parry is clearly a very underbalanced feat. With
Black Strike, you have to learn two feats in order to get a +2 AC bonus, one
of which you could have gotten by simply using a buckler. And there are
cheap magical bucklers that make the buckler way superior to the off-hand
blade (Well, perhaps magical bucklers are rare in Birthright, but in general
it is true).



From: "Lord Shade" <lordshade@SOFTHOME.NET>

> Black Strike - this feat does a good job of representing the original
> flavor of the blackstrike proficiency. However, it might be overpowered -
> there are two feats that resemble it, Off-Hand Parry from MotW and FR`s
> Twin Sword Style.
>
> BS grants +2 dodge w/ offhand, no attacks offhand, no TWF attack penalty.
> OHP grants +2 dodge w/ offhand, no attacks offhand, but you keep the -2
TWF
> attack penalty.
> TSS grants +2 armor bonus vs. 1 opponent, keep offhand attacks, keep -2
TWF
> attack penalty.
>
> BS is clearly overpowered relative to OHP; effectively it is OHP that
gives
> you a +2 to attack rolls. TSS itself is a balanced feat.
>
> How to balance BS without making it identical to OHP or TSS? Let`s look at
> the original blackstrike for inspiration: it required you to use a rapier
> and something else (usually a dagger, shortsword, cloak or buckler), gave
> the AC bonus against 1 opponent only, and you lost your offhand attacks.
>
> How about this:
>
> You receive a +3 dodge bonus to AC against a single opponent when you
wield
> a second weapon in your off-hand but do not attack with that weapon. You
> incur no penalties for attacking with two weapons when you use the
> Blackstrike feat.
>



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[ConjurerDragon]

Lord Shade wrote:

>...
>
>When balancing feats, I think these are good guidelines to use:
>1. Does it go beyond the scope of feats of its type?
>(For example, many feats give +2 to 2 different skills. If a feat gives +3
>to 2 different skills, it probably goes too far.)
>2. Does it make any other feat obsolete?
>(For example, FR`s Foe Hunter feat gives +1 to damage and Improved Critical
>against a certain creature type. Favored Critical from MotW gives Improved
>Critical against a certain creature type. Since Foe Hunter is in every way
>better than Favored Critical, it makes Favored Critical obsolete.)
>3. Is it a must-have or a no-brainer feat?
>(For example, FR`s Spellcasting Prodigy is so good pretty much every
>spellcaster type should pick it.)
>If the answer to any of these questions is yes, the feat is probably
>overpowered.
>
>Using these guidelines, here are my thoughts on the BRCS feats:
>Arcane Sanctum - this is really freaking cool :) The wording needs to be a
>bit more clear. I`d actually up this in power a bit, making the +1 DC work
>in an entire province rather than a number of miles based on source level.
>In any case it is still far weaker than Spellcasting Prodigy, but still a
>good feat. I`d also change the requirement from Bld 13+ to "must control a
>source (1) in the province where the sanctum is located" or somesuch.
>
Arcane Sanctum is a very strong feat. A similar feat is "Sanctum spell"
Metamagic feat from Tome&Blood - and this feat raises your effective
spell level by one if cast in your sanctum (which is only 10 foot/level)
but if not cast in the sanctum you have -1 spelllevel!

Arcane Sanctum only gives the bonus without the penalty, and the
"Sanctum" is much larger as it is in miles, not feet.

>Battle Caster - good feat. The skill requirement should be removed - feats
>never have skill requirements.
>
In my opinion it is too restrictive.
1) To cast Battle Spells you have to have a military unit that has
special training which restricts the use of Battle Magic or else you can
do nothing with that feat.
2) Batle Magic is not nearly as devastating as the 2E Books of Magecraft
and Priestcraft made it, not even as the standard spells (Fireball,
Lightnign Bolt) as described on the warcards.
3) Caster Level 5+ would prevent regents like Rogr Aglondier (Illien) or
Harald Khorien (Taeghas) to be able to go on the battlefield as battle
casters.
4) The addition of the Warcraft skill which is a cross-class skill for
all casters as requirement (Cleric, Sorceror, Wizard) makes no sense in
my opinion - if a wizard knows to cast a Fireball and that it has a
certain range and can affect a certain area, then why should he know
military matters to cast it?. The USE of the Warcraft skill for a skill
check to see how good the effect of the spell is is even stranger in my
opinion - if you want Battle Magic to be difficult and sometimes not to
work, then require a Spellcraft check.

Good is that the strange rule of battle magic only every 3 round of
battle has been dropped in my opinion.
However as I played Torele Anviras in COG II my opinion is biased
towards mighty but rare magic.

The requirement "spellcaster level 5+" - would that mean a 5th level
Assasin could cast Battle Spells? Brrrrrr...

>Divine Sanctum - really cool! Whoever came up with the idea for these feats
>is a genius. :)
>
See Tome&Blood and my comment above.

>Dwarven Artisan - this is really shady. wtf is a superior masterwork item?
>As far as I know `superior masterwork items` are not mentioned in the DMG
>and are not intrinsic to the flavor of Birthright. I think this feat should
>be removed entirely.
>
I do not concur here. Dwarves are certainly masters of stoneworking,
just like elves are of woodworking.
Masterwork Items are certainly found more often in a world where magic
items or equipment is rarer.

To have Artisans of Dwarves or Elves BOTH produce non-magic superior
masterwork items sounds good.
Elven Mandolins or flutes would be highly praised, Dwarven Masons -->
remember the fortress in Binsada? would be highly sought...

The Feat Elven Artisan which allows the production of magic items at a
discount of 25% is too strong.
The "Arcane Craftsman" character concept from the "Quintessential
Wizard" from Mongoose Publishing allows to take the Craft Wondrous Item
at first level (not for free, you have to spend a feat to get it, only
you may take it at first level despite the normal restriction) and only
a 10% discount for not having the Scribe Scroll feat for free (which is
only a restriction for wizards) and for having to spend at least 1 skill
poin in a craft pertinent to the productino of magical items.

>Elven Artisan - this feat is balanced and mimics the power of the Magical
>Artisan feat.. BUT, considering that magic items are supposed to be rare in
>BR, should we really include a feat that facilitates their construction?
>
No, or not with that discount ;-)

>Master Administrator - I feel this feat has the potential to be
>overpowered, but I`ll outline the reasons when I discuss skills.
>
As there are no longer Maintenance Costs for provinces and holdings on
which Administration could be used to save money, the use of this skill
is more limited than in 2E - what I do not like.
bye
Michael Romes

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[Birthright-L]

From: "Michael Romes" <Archmage@T-ONLINE.DE>

> Arcane Sanctum is a very strong feat. A similar feat is "Sanctum spell"
> Metamagic feat from Tome&Blood - and this feat raises your effective
> spell level by one if cast in your sanctum (which is only 10 foot/level)
> but if not cast in the sanctum you have -1 spelllevel!
>

While it is true that Arcane Sanctum is more powerful than Sanctum Spell,
the later is so weak as to be pointless. Nobody would EVER take the Sanctum
Spell feat. Even if it was free, it would still only be used very rarely.
And the penalty only applies if you actually add the metamagic to a spell,
which is optional. Wizards could get caught with spells prepared as Sanctum
Spells while out of their sanctums, but spontaneous casters would never be.

On the subject of Arcane Sanctum, I actualy feel that this could be a rule
that is always effective when you are near a source you control, with no
need for a feat. After all, fighters can get combat benefits from their
castles.

/Carl



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[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lord Shade" <lordshade@SOFTHOME.NET>
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 2:13 AM


> Battle Caster - good feat. The skill requirement should be removed - feats
> never have skill requirements.

Don`t forget the Mounted Combat feat requires the Ride skill. Its not
unprecidented. Skill Focus implies access to a skill. Could a fighter take
Skill Focus in a cross-class skill like Hide? If not, then at least having
a class skill is required for Skill Focus.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[Ariadne]

I like the feat descriptions in the 3rd Edition version. Some comments:

IMO "shadow magic" should be restricted for Khinasi (because of the five oaths). They would rather hunt down a spellcaster who cooperates with the shadow world and casts necromancy spells. The feat in general is good, I think.

Battle caster is a crying eye: This would mean every spellcaster who likes to help in a battle must take the feat...

Shadow walker, Shadow guide: Lowering Halflings this way isn't this good, I think. I would rather say they are a target for +1 ECL, but should keep their advantages...

[irdeggman]

Part of the reason for the battle magic feat was to have something reflective of avoiding friendly fire damage with a spell on the battlefield. A spellcaster with this feat cannot cause friendly fire damage, the way the 2nd ed rules worked a fireball cast in battle would by necessity (and range effects) cause damage to allied forces. The reason for simplifing the effects of battle magic was to eliminate many the problems caused by the BoM and how to ejudicate what spells can be used effectively in a battle situation.

[DanMcSorley]

On Sun, 9 Feb 2003, Kenneth Gauck wrote:
> Could a fighter take Skill Focus in a cross-class skill like Hide?

Yes.
--
Communication is possible only between equals.
Daniel McSorley- mcsorley@cis.ohio-state.edu

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[ryancaveney]

On Sun, 9 Feb 2003, Stephen Starfox wrote:

> On the subject of Arcane Sanctum, I actualy feel that this could be a
> rule that is always effective when you are near a source you control,
> with no need for a feat. After all, fighters can get combat benefits
> from their castles.

I agree completely. In fact, I`d make the bonus bigger as source levels
got bigger; say an additional +1 DC for every source level. If that seems
too much (it doesn`t to me), make it an additional +1 DC for every two
levels above the first (i.e. 1-2 = +1, 2-3 = +2, 4-5 = +3, etc.).

IMC, I give an extra effective *caster level* for every source level, and
apply the benefit throughout the entire province. I think regent wizards
on their own terrain ought to be that much more powerful; it also tends to
keep them in their own lands, since outside they become so much less
powerful than they`re used to, and become relatively easy prey for
whatever wizard does own the local sources. For example, in Conalier the
Sword Mage is pretty much invulnerable to Harald Khorien (levels 10+3=13
vs. 4), but in Seamist it`s an almost even fight (levels 10 vs. 4+6=10).
I extend this to spells per day as well as effect per spell, so I allow
Khorien to research and cast 5th level spells -- but only if he`s in one
of the three provinces where he has a source 6. Outside the seat of his
power, he just can`t access them anymore.

I apply the same benefit to regent priests, with temple level substituted
for source level. Surrounded by their loyal flock, they are much more
powerful than when among strangers or enemies; and they can perform much
more impressive miracles when a throng of the faithful are in attendance.


Ryan Caveney

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