Author Topic: Campaign Information, House Rules and Announcements  (Read 2954 times)

Offline brainpiercing

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Campaign Information, House Rules and Announcements
« on: November 13, 2011, 07:30:03 PM »
My info from original thread:
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On the Campaign:

I will be using a scenario based system instead of a completely written campaign. I will do my very best not to railroad anything. As such, there will be story flow presented as flavour text paragraphs, which the PCs are not expected to know about, while the PCs will have to drive their own story forward. There will of course be hooks, but no force. You are free to divert your PC at any time. There will be no pre-defined outcome of the campaign - except a probable PC victory IF they so desire. There will be no fixed sides. Of course there will be villains and people fighting them. The PCs can choose a side, BECOME a side, or just wiggle through the middle, if they so desire. (And yes, become means become. If you're evil and want to supplant the previous main BBEG, you will probably be able to do so - if you can.)

This is a HIGH ROLEPLAYING campaign, not a dungeon crawl. Fights will happen because they SHOULD happen. When they happen they might be tough. You won't find many random critters attacking you (simply because this detracts from the story and takes up a LOT of time in PbP). XP-awards will be given for fights, but also out of fights.
Story posts and player posts should be written in descriptive style in past tense, as writing an actual story. Elements like "he said", etc. should be used when appropriate. Only using colour coding is not always sufficient, especially when writing about several people. Rolls should be included in bracketed form.

Example combat posts:
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Since this is PbP there will be some quirky house-rules, which I will announce as I find the time over the next few days. Some of these are a bit experimental. These will be categorized for easier reference.

Allowed Books
: All WotC, no mags. Certain erratas will be ignored and re-ruled. (Like Fauxlymorph.) All sources must be stated. Campaign setting specific material is subject to approval if it's from a non-faerun setting. [Edit] I don't own the Rules compendium. As such, previous representations of the rules will have to suffice. I also am not entirely familiar with every splat-book game mechanic available. I expect players to explain their characters upon request and direct me to relevant sections of those books.[/edit]

I would like to employ a Responsible Use system: Most things will be allowed, but I expect you to find IC reasons why your character cannot use them to rule the world (or do whatever). As such, there is no gentlemen's agreement, there is only wrath of the gods if you take it too far.

There will be coexisting creatures and individuals of all levels at all times. Since your characters are free to do what they want, they MIGHT run into places where they should not be at their level. For that reason there will be a new system to make it possible for a character or creature to gauge a situation:

AURA: Every creature will have an aura that corresponds to its power. A character has an Aura equal to his ECL. A creature has an aura equal to its CR. A PC can at any time gauge his aura relative to another's. To do so he makes an opposing Aura-check, rolling a D6 plus his Aura-value vs. the opponents D6 plus Aura-value. If he loses, he should feel reason to flee or submit (and likewise). Gauging an aura is a free action.

Concerning PCs
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NPCs
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The Game World
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Game Mechanics
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More later.

Revisions
2) Added stuff. Edited stuff. Mostly editing should be bracketed with [edit][/edit].
3) Added stuff in the PCs and NPCs sections, added the game mechanics section.
4) Added stuff in game mechanics section (crafting, etc.)
5) Edited some details. Rearranged some aspects into different categories. Added stuff on party play and character management. Added example combat post.
6) Minor corrections. Added paragraph on epic levels and warfare.
7) Added the Game world section. Lots of new stuff there.
8) Added the Monsters as PCs section in the PCs section. Made some changes here and there. Defined starting wealth.
9) Added Inoffcial Errata section. More to come, there.
10) Edited Errata section. Added HP rule to Game mechanics.
11) Started Polymorph errata.
12) Some edits in PCs section about races and templates; A bit more Polymorph errata.
13) MORE Polymorph errata, and moved the errata section to subsequent post. This post has gotten LONG.
14) Death from massive damage house-ruled.
15) Sundering rules in Game Mechanics section changed.
16) Added Empty Level clause
17) Added pounce nerf in conjunction with damage multipliers
18) Added Negative Energy/Positive Energy stuff and blurb about intelligent undead
19) Copied stuff about Reach weapons and Initiative from OOC Discussion

Offline brainpiercing

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Re: Campaign Information, House Rules and Announcements
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2011, 07:30:45 PM »
Bonus Stuff which is here because the first post is too large.
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Inofficial Errata by me, open for discussion in the OOC discussion thread

Classes

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Offline brainpiercing

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Re: Campaign Information, House Rules and Announcements
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2011, 07:32:16 PM »
Spells
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Epic Spellcasting
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Templates, Races, Monster classes redone, etc.
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As usually, show me what you want to do. Sometimes I may nerf, but sometimes I may also improve your ideas.

Sucky Feats redone or Feats errata
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If you can think of any other sucky feats that need changing (and are also prerequisites for many prestige classes), please tell me.

Custom Content

Stuff that is open to be used

Templates
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Feats or Special Abilities
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If you have custom content you would like added to the campaign world, please make it known to me.



Some of the information for monsters as characters was taken from here:

http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=33294

Offline brainpiercing

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Re: Campaign Information, House Rules and Announcements
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2011, 07:33:01 PM »
Consolidated PAO Infos

Change the Target of Polymorph any Object to 1 or more Objects! which are not animated and not undead.

The following will count as a separate spell, with the simple name of Change Creature:

Target is one creature, powered by either positive or negative energy, or one construct.

Duration is Instantaneous. The spell cannot be dispelled in any way, nor undone except by another CC or by a Wish or Miracle spell with special requirements.

Casting time is increased to 24 hours, +24 per HD added and casting the spell takes the form of a ritual. Resting is permitted during the casting period.

You can do almost any change you like with the spell.
Want a few more arms?
Want wings?
Want a certain template?
Want to be another race? Become a monster? Get a certain racial featurec?

The Change Creature spells effectively creates a new racial progression for a character or creature. It can also create Substitution Levels for existing class progressions, even retroactively. (Want to get rid of that third level of fighter?) Any character wishing to receive a casting of Change Creature must have XP to advance one level immediately, unless the change carries no HD cost, or only retroactively creates a sub-level.
If the change carries a HD cost the character then advances with the first HD of the new progression immediately, and from then on can decide at any level to advance either a class level or a level of his creature progression.

Some possible changes:

A pair of limbs (arms, legs) will add one RHD and carry a minor stat boost of +2 to Str OR Dex.

Wings that grant double-land/average will cost 5000XP, unless you want special abilities like faster flight, better maneuverability, etc.

A template will add it's increase in CR+n, where n is anything from 0 to 3, depending on the template. Some templates lack LA but DO advance CR, I'm not sure about those, yet. Some templates offer worlds of suck for huge cost, basically I'll probably give you discounts on those, should you want them. Other templates give worlds of win for negligable cost, so you can probably expect n to be rather approaching 3 than 1.

Changing your race will add the new races LA in HD+n, and obviously change your type, etc. Existing RHD won't normally be recalculated, although you have the option of doing that for an added cost.

Turning into a monster will add the monsters CR+n in HD. You can give up class-levels to accomodate the RHD, and of course you will need to have sufficient total HD to allow the change.

Increasing your size in the range of an "Enlarge Person" spell will add the same bonuses as the spell, and cost 1RHD. Increasing your size further will gain benefits as the Giant Size spell and cost 1HD/size category +1. Obviously being colossal isn't always advantageous.

If you change yourself too much you should probably become an Aberration, although you will receive warning of this before the change, and will probably be able to do something about it.

Adding Spell-like abilities equivalent to the "Spell-stitched" template (but no other bonuses) adds one RHD. You must have sufficient HD to meet caster-level requirements of spells with your CL of HD-1, but this change acts like a scaling template, so you can get it early and automatically receive the benefits later.

Adding an at-will SLA of up to 6th level will cost 2RHD and offer a CL of HD-2.

All SLAs have a casting time as the spell, metamagic is possible. Special material components must still be provided. You must pay 10 times the average XP-cost of the spell during the PAO ritual, after that XP costs are no longer required.

All changes will have a roleplaying requirement, a gold cost, and also require special ingredients. I expect you to hold your own measure with this spell.

Racial HD will get some changes:

Dragon HD advance spontaneous! arcane CL

Aberration HD advance Psionics CL

Undead HD generally advance casting and Psionics CL

Outsider HD advance arcane OR divine CL

Human HD get an increase in the number of class skills and skills/lvl, and advance arcane or divine or psionics CL

Monstrous Humanoid HD are advanced to D10s and advance Initiator-level

Fey HD advance arcane CL

Giant HD gain full BAB and are advanced to D12s, OR stay with 3/4 BAB and advance divine casting.

Elemental HD advance Arcane or Divine CL

Magical Beast HD advance Arcane or Divine CL

Plant HD advance divine CL

I have ignored mindless types. This will necessitate reworking some monsters, but that is paperwork that is largely my own. My focus probably won't be on monsters, anyway, in this campaign.

Now granting all those possibilities is pretty hard if you hard-wire all the rules. If you have a special wish that will make the game considerably more fun for you I don't see special reasons to deny it. I will, however, request final say on all changes made. Also, I want to specifically boost non-casters with these possibilities. Pre-epic I primarily see them as recipients of this spell. Also, the possibilities and costs reflect the basic premise that Class-features > than everything else. The fact that this is not always so doesn't particularly speak for the WOTC writers. However, it is your responsibility to make sure you get sufficient gain for your class-levels.

Likely as not the spell will require material components that require a bit of adventuring to aquire. For instance, a change in Type to Dragon might require the heart of a dragon.

Offline brainpiercing

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Re: Campaign Information, House Rules and Announcements
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2011, 07:35:36 PM »
Game world blurb
As everyone may have noted the game world is developing technologically and societally into an era much like the early industrialisation. This is a direct consequence of the versatility of magic, and of the extreme intelligence that some characters running around the game world may have.

So if you wonder what kind of amenities might be available, think 1800 rather than 1200, in many cases. The main difference is that the idea of "manufacturing" by many hands hasn't taken hold yet. Crafts are still the main source of goods. Even magically created goods are created mainly by one person, and mass production isn't yet developed.

Knowledge Checks
As with all things, to me fixed DCs don't seem to work sometimes. They may work, or they might not work. If you have no way of knowing something, even a low DC may sometimes not help you.

Also, I disagree with WoTC about not retrying Knowledge checks. A quick knowledge check takes no action, but the result of it isn't final. Whenever you think you should know more about a topic you can spend one hour of brooding to think about something and then retry your check. You can, however, only brood about one particular question once per day.
Brooding requires constantly thinking about one topic, which means that you may only take other actions that help you concentrate. You could, for instance, take a walk, or even purposefully cover a distance. You could not go drinking, or fight, etc.

Hirelings:

I'm trying to work out a suitable system to find the cost for hirelings. Due to the generally higher ECL this isn't so simple.
What I'm thinking of is a simple formula based on ECL and special abilities:
Mercenaries

Mercenaries lead a life of fighting. They get more than just age XP, so they are generally younger than the average population at the same ECL. They also have better equipment.
An NPC mercenary can be considered to have at least half his level in the Warrior NPC-class, just to differentiate them from important NPCs and PCs. Their stats are lower than PCs. (NON-elite-array)
As a rule of thumb, and all costs given are per day of hiring:

Mercenaries with at most 2 levels (usually the highest levels) of PC classes:
ECL squared x 1gp for normal fighting mercenaries per day.

Mercenary troupe leaders or Elite mercenaries who have half their levels in PC classes (Fighter, Marshall, Initiator classes, Bards) and Elite Array:
ECL squared x 3gp, and their ECL is expected to be at least 8 for leaders.

Spellcasters who are only Adepts take the same.
Spellcasters who are Adepts with a prestige class (generally SRD-prestige classes) take ECL squared x 3gp
Spellcasters with Elite Array and  a prestige class take ECL squared x 3gp

Rogue type characters with many skills with at most two levels of PC-classes:
ECL squared x 1gp
Specialist Rogues with half their levels in PC-classes and Elite Array:
ECL squared x 3gp

Monstrous mercenaries or non-humanoids will use the same rules as the PCs to determine their ECL. Advantageous races will take more money, generally add one gp for a powerful race, and play by common sense.

These prices are for dedicated mercenaries with decent loyalty, and for short-term engagements with at least one highly probable encounter. They will not run at the slightest sign of danger, but won't accept suicide missions, either. All mercenaries withdraw from combat if they have the chance at 30% of their HP, unless it's highly likely that they will win within another round, and they have the initiative. If they have no chance to flee, they will fight for their lives, of course.

You CAN pay less for hirelings (even without haggling them down), but this will increase the chance that they run. You can reduce prices if you arrange them to get a share of loot, and you can also haggle with them. Generally they will want an assessment of the risks involved, and might take less for simple duties like guard duty in a low-risk environment, or more if you go exploring the dungeon of death. Also, if you promise to hire on a long-term basis (at least one month) the price will generally go down, because they will expect a greater amount of paid downtime.

A mercenary troupe will turn you down, initially, if you don't win the Aura check against their leader. In that case you must win with Diplomacy, or offer more money. Play this with common sense and I won't interfere.
Troupes are considered to have one leader type, one healer type, one specialist and one spellcaster per ten grunts. Grunts have a level distribution, and you can expect most mercenaries below ECL 4 to stay back, use ranged combat or use the Aid another action in harder battles. If you hire a troupe and don't want to do all the bookkeeping for a battle, you can just decide that they bind their average ECL x their number worth of CR in enemies, and whittle them down to an appropriate percentage of their HP while you deal with other enemies.

Generally hiring mercenaries will not decrease your XP-award for a battle, since you are paying money for them, and money is at least half of what makes PCs strong. The mercenaries will gain XP as cohorts of their level. (So divide their ECL by your ECL and multiply with the XP you got for the battle.) They are expected to level and will then also ask for more money.

Now for general balancing it much depends on the paperwork you wish to do. With little paperwork you will get  smaller gains from hiring mercenaries, and I find nothing wrong with giving greater gains to people who do more paperwork. Generally mercenaries should not be completely optimised, though.

Unless I get serious disagreement with this system, I'll run it like that for now. You can hire yourselves out as mercenaries at rates above those given, if you wish, and you will of course get XP for encounters that play out normally.

Some stuff that's been on my mind, recently:

Spellcasting, SLAs, cheatbolds

SLAs can only be cast if you have enough caster level to match the primary source class list of the spell. If you are enchanting a spell as an SLA, you CAN use an alternate list. Assume CL=HD in almost all cases.

It is assumed that normal people cannot have a spellcasting level (including spells known/per day) above their ECL = HD. I just don't want a world populated by dragonwrought cheatbolds. I don't want to flat-out disallow them, because they don't entirely upset the game, but they DO upset the party play associated with D&D usually. So if you are playing one, you should basically choose to play separate, with only those other PCs who willingly associate with you. You may then pick challenges appropriate to your abilities - and those that come after you without your choosing will be similarly tailored. Within a party, challenges will not be made harder just for you, if you then make fights boring, that's just tough luck.

Offline brainpiercing

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« Last Edit: November 16, 2011, 02:39:24 PM by brainpiercing »