Author Topic: Rules and Game World  (Read 3489 times)

Offline phaedrusxy

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Rules and Game World
« on: November 10, 2011, 10:11:40 PM »
Original link: http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9135.0

The Basics

  • Starting level 3
  • 36 Point Buy
  • Max hit points at first level, average after that (3.5 on a d6, for example). Or you can roll after first, if you'd prefer.
  • Wealth by level is basically thrown out the window. You can only use 5 attuned continuous magic items at a time, anyway. See below for details.
  • 2 flaws allowed, and 1 Trait.
  • Everyone has to be psionic somehow. So you all get Wild Talent for free. This automatically makes you a "criminal" in the eyes of the state, and in fact the game will begin with all of you being exiled (or already living outside the cities).
  • Partial BAB and saves (see below details. It is a bit different than unearthed arcana.)

  • No item crafting feats. Everyone can craft one item of their level at every character level. No XP cost for item crafting. If you get an item crafting feat as a bonus from a class, pick another feat that is appropriate for that class instead.
  • Guidance of the Avatar is banned, because it makes most skill checks meaningless. The Dark Chaos feat shuffle, and buying magical location feats and retraining them are both right out also. Other similarly broken things will be banned too. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
  • Leadership and other feats that grant one or more characters comparable to your own level are banned. Classes which grant something like this will probably be allowed on a case-by-case basis, but I don't want to have to deal with armies of followers in combat. So figure out a way to leave them somewhere "off-screen", if you have them. I'd like to see at most one "cohort" for each PC (and prefer none).
  • Traditional spellcasting has become unavailable to most people, and is in fact impossible without a special "focus", access to which the government heavily regulates. Racial spellcasting (which includes Psionics) works just fine, but is outlawed, and all of those capable of it are considered to be dangerous criminals.
  • Custom setting, but most materials available. (All official D&D, and homebrew on a case by case basis)

I myself can usually post multiple times per day during the week, and much less frequently on the weekends. I'd like to have everyone post once per weekday if possible. Games that go slower than that tend to die out due to loss of momentum, it seems.

For details on magic items and wealth, see the post below this one.

Ammunition is not magical. I might allow individual magical ammunition that works basically like a potion in arrow form.

We're going to hand waive magic item creation stuff. Don't bother taking feats. If you want to say you crafted your stuff, you can. It will take time is all, and it won't give you any economic advantage over someone who buys theirs. It won't cost any XP, either. XP also won't be given out for killing things. You'll be rewarded for completing storyline objectives, regardless of how you do it.

Only "lesser" magic items will be for sale with gold and "dangerous" items will only be found on the black market, or outside the cities. Inside the city, magicial baubles that run off the power of the mythal will be quite common (1/4th normal price, subject to DM approval, only works within 1 mile of the city where it was purchased). Items that function outside will be quite a bit rarer, and more difficult to obtain (these will be priced according to the DMG). "Hacked" items that are powered by the mythal, but do something other than what they were designed for (a street lamp that acts as a tazer) will be available on the black market for 1/2 the cost listed in the DMG, but they are highly illegal, and only function within 1 mile of the city they're tied to.

When you get new items, we can RP it as you upgrading the items somehow, or it can just represent your growing skill at using the item, however you would prefer. So you don't have to replace your magic sword every 3 levels. Items that just provide some static bonus to something, like Cloaks of Elvenkind, are not being used.

It might be possible to trade for more powerful magic items (worth more than 15,000 gp and/or listed on the Medium or Major tables in the DMG), but you'll have to offer something of relatively equal value. This might not always be an object. Of course you can always kill people and take their stuff, too. ;) I'll try to make sure and keep everyone outfitted appropriately, and try and fit acquisition of items into the game in ways that are fun and appropriate. It would be helpful if you all made "wish lists" of things you'd like to get.

Combining magic items is totally fine, as long as they are appropriate for your level in the end. There is no charge at all for combining items. You just add the price of the items together to get the final item value.

It is entirely possible for someone to use a magic item that is above their level if they somehow obtain one. However, medium and major items (that cost more than 15,000 gp) are highly coveted by powerful creatures and individuals. So if you get your hands on something wildly more powerful than you should probably have, expect and be prepared for them to try and take your stuff, if they know about it. See the Wish Economy rules for more details on this.

And on that note, here is something on style: There are certainly more powerful things than your character in the game, and the world is quite lawless. I won't go out of my way to kill you, but if you blunder into the cave of an ancient dragon and piss it off, I won't pull any punches because you're in over your heads. I will try to provide "in game" warnings if you're headed for something that is almost certain death for you, but please try to play intelligently. Not everything that you might encounter in the game is something I specifically placed there for you to kill.

« Last Edit: March 20, 2012, 09:01:56 PM by phaedrusxy »
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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Rules and Game World
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2011, 11:53:09 PM »

For saving throws:
Levels with a "good" save add +0.5 for every level, with a +2 for the first time you add a class with that good save (but not if you add a level of another class with that good save). For the levels with "bad" saves, you add +1/3.

For BAB: Just take the fractions for each level and add them up. So a wizard gets +0.5 BAB per level, a cleric gets +0.75, and a fighter gets +1, etc.

You always round these down, but you have to keep track of the fraction left over for when you next level up.


Magic items that just provide a bonus are not being used. Instead, you all get the following bonuses as you level up:

  • All characters have an enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls, enhancement bonus to armour or shield AC bonuses (if any), resistance bonus to saves and enhancement bonus to all ability scores equal to their character level divided by 3, rounding down.
  • All characters have a deflection bonus to AC equal to their character level divided by 4, rounding down.
  • All characters have a competence bonus to all skills equal to their character level.

We're going to go with the 8 item limit that they talk about in the Book of Gears, but lower it to 5 items to reflect the bonuses you guys are getting for free. You can only have 5 functioning "constant effect" magic items at a time. Single use items like potions don't count against this, and neither do "use activated" items (like magic weapons that only do damage, for example). Wands and dorjes don't count as "attuned" items, but staves and psicrowns (staffs) do. We'll use the rules on page 225 of the Magic Item Compendium to estimate what levels are appropriate for magic items with the modifications below. We're dumping the "body slot" system entirely. You can totally wear 5 magic rings if you want to, but that will be all the magic items you can benefit from at once. You can own more than that, but swapping them out will usually take 15 minutes of "attunement". If you put on a magic item, and you already have 5 attuned, it won't function for 15 minutes. At the end of that 15 minutes attunement period, you can choose which of your current items functions to replace with it.

Item Levels
We're not tracking wealth or wealth by level at all. Instead, we're going to use the chart from the MiC on page 225 as a guideline for what are appropriate magic items at each level, and equip your characters accordingly. Unfortunately, it's really for equipping NPCs. So I've revised it a bit. We'll still use the chart, but for PCs we're going to do a little calculation to determine what item levels are appropriate. We're going to divide your level by 2, round down, and add that to the item level that is appropriate to you on the chart. So for you guys, that would be 7/2 + 7, or 10th level items.

We'll say that you can start with or craft only one item of each level above your actual character level (so one 4th and one 3rd starting out, on the 1st chart), but can have basically as many as you want of lower level items. These guidelines are just for what you can manage to get on your own via trading, crafting, etc. It is certainly possible to gain and use items which would be considered too powerful according to these charts. They won't just stop working because they fall into the hands of a weaker character. However, placement of such items in the game would be up to me as the DM. You wouldn't be able to trade for them anywhere, or craft them yourselves.

(Added 12/9/09) We'll say that you can add non-magical things to your equipment without increasing the effective item level. So you can have mithril or adamantine armor for free, basically. You can also add mundane items to your magic ones for free.


Here are some charts if you'd rather just look at them instead of doing the calculation yourself.

Original chart, as in MiC:
Item Level Market Price  Range (gp)   
1/2      1 - 50      
1st      51-150      
2nd      151-400      
3rd      401-800      
4th      801-1,300   
5th      1,301-1,800   
6th      1,801-2,300   
7th      2,301-3,000   
8th      3,001-4,000   
9th      4,001-5,000   
10th      5,001-6,500   
11th      6,501-8,000   
12th      8,001-10,000   
13th      10,001-13,000   
14th      13,001-18,000   
15th      18,001-25,000   
16th      25,001-35,000   
17th      35,001-48,000   
18th      48,001-64,000   
19th      64,001-80,000   
20th      80,001-100,000   
21th      100,001-120,000
22th      120,001-140,000
23th      140,001-160,000
24th      160,001-180,000
25th      180,001-200,000
26th      200,001-220,000
27th      220,001-240,000
28th      240,001-260,000
29th      260,001-280,000
30th      280,001-300,000

New chart

Your level    Items you should have
1st&2nd     I doubt I'll ever run a game at these levels...
3      One each from 3rd to 4th on the chart above
4      One each from 4th to 5th on the chart above
5      One each from 5th to 6th on the chart above
6      One each from 6th to 9th on the chart above
7      One each from 8th to 10th on the chart above
8      One each from 9th to 12th on the chart above
9      One each from 10th to 13th on the chart above
10      One each from 11th to 15th on the chart above
11      One each from 12th to 16th on the chart above
12      One each from 13th to 18th on the chart above
13      One each from 14th to 19th on the chart above
14      One each from 15th to 21st on the chart above
15      One each from 16th to 22nd on the chart above
16      One each from 17th to 24th on the chart above
17      One each from 18th to 25th on the chart above
18      One each from 19th to 27th on the chart above
19      One each from 20th to 28th on the chart above
20      One each from 21st to 30th on the chart above


You can still only have 5 continuous items "attuned" at once, regardless of how many you have, and it takes 15 minutes to exchange which items you have attuned.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2012, 09:02:40 PM by phaedrusxy »
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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Rules and Game World
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2012, 10:51:24 AM »
I don't mean to be neglecting you guys. I've just been really busy IRL. After a PM, I realized that I hadn't told you guys much at all about the society of exiles (need to come up with a name for this, taking offers) that exists outside the city walls, despite the fact that all but one of you are already quite familiar with it. Go here for a brief recap of the game world itself: Rules, World, and Game Info

Here is the very brief version:
1) The world is a frozen wasteland, and it is perpetually night.
2) Most of "civilization" is entirely within heavily controlled and defended city-states, which are inside giant metal domes. All access to magic is strictly controlled by the government.
3) Magical baubles are common within the city walls (everyone has access to Prestidigitation and Mending at will, etc), but more powerful magics are very restricted. The cities themselves have powerful golems and all kinds of "high magic" things, though, as well as powerful magic users.
4) Any creature with innate magical abilities (including psionic characters) are seen as dangerous, as their access to magic can't be controlled. Creatures born with such talents inside the cities are exiled. Those born outside are not allowed to enter the cities, and are basically treated as dangerous "monsters". (aka shoot on sight)

5) Over time, pockets of exiles organized themselves into small communities outside the city walls. Generations of them have been born outside the walls. Life is hard for them. However, these groups are beginning to band together into a larger organization, the main goal of which seems to be to secure better living conditions outside the city walls. They're also interested in unearthing ancient magical artefacts and information which might help them to reach their goals.

6) The "new" group has been sent to meet up with some new exiles (of which only X-codes' character survived), and then you're all to enter the ruins in search of some ancient knowledge and/or artifacts (I'll give more details on this later).

7) Tetch (Nanshork) is a member of the Exile/Aberrant society, and was sent into one of the cities, then exiled back into the wastes. He has led the new group of exiles to meet up with Flay, Funk, and dna1's characters (sorry still learning character names).
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Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Rules and Game World
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2012, 09:05:03 PM »
Classes
  • An Alternate Fighter class is being used (found here). It is a significant power up from the core fighter, especially at the upper levels. It is an amalgamation of things I saw and compiled from various places and reworked, with one ability ripped from the Races of War fighter (Foil Action, but with a limit on daily uses).
  • An alternate Sorcerer class is being used. It is not that different from the PHB sorcerer, so I will just list the  changes here. There may be slight modifications made to this in the future.
    -class Skills: Add Intimidate and Diplomacy to the list. A sorcerer has a much stronger force of personality than most  other characters, and can learn to use this to get others to do what he wants.
    -Spell progression: Same as the wizard
    -Leveling Benefits: As the sorcerer gains levels, he learns to cast his spells in new and strange ways. Sorcerers gain all  the benefits listed under the "Special" column in the Wu Jen class chart in the Oriental Adventures book.
    -The Battle Sorcerer will also have its spell progression modified as above, and have Intimidate added to its class skills list (instead of replacing bluff).
  • Rangers and other characters with species enemies may choose organizations as their hated foes, with DM approval. (For  example, the Red Wizards of Thay would include any red wizard or solider or minion of the Red Wizards. Favored Enemy:  Shadowlands creatures would also be acceptable, if the character knew of the Shadowlands and had trained to fight creatures  from there.)
  • The caster level for all base spellcasting classes will be equal to the class level, including "hybrid" casters like  paladins and rangers.
  • Similarly, if you get an animal companion from any source, then your effective druid level is always your character level. The same holds for psicrystals, familiars, etc.
  • We're dumping the stupid penalties for losing familiars. From now on, all pets (including psicrystals) work like an animal companion. If they die, you can get another one after a day of "meditation".
  • There are no multiclassing restrictions. Also, Monks and Paladins may freely multiclass, and Druid weapon and armor restrictions are being dropped. Consider the druid weapons and armor listed to be the only ones the druid is proficient with, unless she acquires the proficiencies  elsewhere. Most druid NPCs will probably still use only these weapons and armors though, and those who use other weapons,  especially those radically different from the druid list, may be shunned or looked down upon by other, more formal druids.
  • Dropping alignment restrictions for all core classes but the Paladin. The standard Paladin is still restricted to Lawful Good, but I also allow the optional Paladins from Unearthed Arcana for other alignments. PrC alignment restrictions will still be used in most cases.
  • The Arcane Archer Prestige Class gains caster levels at every level (WTF were they thinking?). Other spectacularly crappy PrCs will probably receive the same treatment on an individual basis, like Fiendblooded (full casting progression). If you have one in mind, ask.
  • The Forsaker requirement to destroy magic items to recieve his powers does not fit the PrC and I am dropping it. Also,  the bonuses he gets each level to add to his ability scores will be considered "unnamed" bonuses and as such are no longer  subject to the +5 maximum of inherent bonuses. I still doubt anyone will want to play one.
  • All prereqs for knowing maneuvers to take a particular maneuver for Martial Adept classes are dropped. So you no longer are required to take Wolf Fang Strike before taking any other Tiger Claw maneuvers, for example... You still have to meet all other prereqs like initiator level, etc, and this is for choosing maneuvers only. It has no impact on prestige class prereqs or anything else.

  • Everyone gets the benefits of the Able Learner feat for free. Cross-class ranks only cost 1 point, but your maximum ranks in a skill is still determined normally (character level +3 for any skill that's a class skill for any of your classes, half that for skills that are not a class skill for any of your classes).
  • Everyone gets the benefits of Wild Talent for free, also (2 bonus power points).
  • A monk's flurry of blows ability can be combined with the Two Weapon Fighting feats. All benefits, penalties, and restrictions stack (not really a house rule).
  • Tumble checks can be opposed. The DC will be the highest opposed Tumble check of all the opponents who could make  Attacks of Opportunity on the tumbling character.
  • The rules on Sorcerers and other spontaneous casters using metamagic feats is the same as in the Players Handbook, except for spells cast using the Quicken Spell feat. These classes can spontaneously cast spells as a free action using the Quicken Spell feat.  Spells cast in such a manner use a spell slot four levels higher than the normal spell. No other metamagic feats may be applied to Quickened spells cast by sorcerers, unless they have some other feat or class feature which lets them apply metamagic without increasing the casting time.
  • I am using Rich Burlew's modified system for Diplomacy skill, which can be found here.
  • Mindsight is countered by anything that blocks or makes you immune to [Mind Affecting] effects. Also, the Slippery Mind ability allows someone to attempt to hide from a creature with Mindsight. In order to "see" them using Mindsight, the telepathic creature must make a Spot check which only includes their ranks in Spot, Wisdom modifier, and magical enhancement bonuses to Spot. This will be opposed by a Hide check that is charisma based, and only includes magical enhancement bonuses to Hide.
  • The Mage Slayer feat ([Combat] and the original from CArc) are replaced by the Spellcasting Harrier feat below.
  • The knowledge skill works as described in the PHB, except when identifying creatures we're going to use the following modifications:

    (click to show/hide)

Feats and skills
    Although we have opted to not allow all of the Tome material, I feel that many core feats are a bit too weak. So I am replacing specific ones with Tome versions, and also have written up a bunch of homebrewed feats that you can take. All references to
[Combat] or Tome feats generally refer to the feats found in Races of War. I definitely encourage you to look up these feats, as they are significant power-ups compared to those in "normal" D&D (and I feel that this is a good thing, especially for non-casters).

    Modifications to existing feats:

    (click to show/hide)

    Additional Feats: (compiled from various places. mainly from the WotC boards, again. I've reworked most of them extensively to try and bring their power level up somewhere near the Combat feats from the Tomes, though.)

    (click to show/hide)

    Fighter Only Feats: (these can only be taken by someone with levels in the fighter class. They are all considered fighter bonus feats.)
    (click to show/hide)

    Even More Feats (Too big to add to this post, so click the link :P )

    NEW USES FOR OLD SKILLS
    (click to show/hide)
    [/list]

    General
    • If you get an ability twice (Evasion, Telepathy, etc), we'll let them stack in whatever manner seems appropriate. So Evasion twice would upgrade to Improved Evasion. Telepathy twice would likely just add the ranges, etc.
    • We're not using level adjustments at all, if possible. Instead, if you want to play a monstrous race, we'll work together to come up with something that gives you an appropriate amount of hit dice and abilities. We'll be using Races of War for guidelines.
    • Half racial hit dice count towards class progressions, for all purposes.
    • Likewise, half the levels in non-manifesting/casting classes will add to your caster/manifester progression, for all purposes including powers known, power points, ML, etc. So a psion 2/fighter 2 would manifest powers as a psion 3. This will work for most other abilities too, like Binding (ToM Binder), sneak attack progression, etc. We'll look at each on a case-by-case basis.
    • Abilities similar to Rage (such as Ki Frenzy from OA) may be used as prerequisites instead of Rage for PrC's. Similarly,  spell-like abilities may be used to meet spellcasting requirements.
    • One-handed weapons made of Mithril count as both light weapons and one-handed weapons, whichever is most beneficial. Two-handed weapons made of Mithril may be wielded with one hand. (No, this doesn't include bows... so please don't ask.  :p )
    • The Bastard Sword is considered a Two-Handed weapon and gains a few benefits as such, even when wielded in one hand. They are as follows: +4 on disarm checks, same hit points and hardness as a greatsword.
    • Bloodlines only add to any one class ability once. So if you're a Binder/Ardent/Anima Mage/KotSS, for example, a major bloodline would only add a total of +3 to your binder level and ardent manifester level.
    • Any other feats, spells, or Prestige Classes not mentioned above, but published in any WotC publication will probably be allowed, pending DM approval. A few items that I will not allow in their published form are: The Thought Bottle, and the Mage Slayer feat. I have a custom feat (Spellcasting Harrier) that replaces Mage Slayer below.
    • If there is some character concept, class, spell, or other idea that you have that you'd like to try out in the game that isn't covered by the rules I've laid out, or that you found on a website somewhere, etc, please tell me and we'll see what we can come up with. I've seen tons of very neat prestige classes, spells, magic items and feats online that I would be happy to allow in my game, including the Divine Trickster by Rich Burlew. I just don't have time to include them all in this material.


    [/list]
    « Last Edit: July 13, 2012, 09:11:25 AM by phaedrusxy »
    I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

    Offline phaedrusxy

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    Re: Rules and Game World
    « Reply #4 on: March 20, 2012, 09:05:33 PM »
      Spells, Magic, and Items
      • Neither Arcane nor Divine spellcasting works at all without a special focus, which the Keys handed out by the city-states are one example of. Other foci exist and are possible, but the majority of the people living in the cities do not know of them, and they are of course incredibly rare and valuable (read: Plot Items).
      • "Racial" spellcasting is not affected by this limitation, and neither are certain kinds of magical abilities that rely upon making a pact with a powerful magical being or outsider. I'm not considering the powers of those who gain sorcerer casting solely from taking the sorcerer class to be "racial", though they are often considered to gain their powers "racially" in some sources. Creatures with innate sorcerer casting would be considered to be "racial", though (such as the Sylph). Warlocks all gain their powers from a supernatural pact in this setting, much in the way Binders do.
      • You incur no penalties for using Legacy Weapons/items. Ignore the penalty tables.
      • You can't cast spells from scrolls. They are only used to transfer spell knowledge.
      • Spells and other effects with emanations centered on a creature are calculated starting at the edge of the creature, not the center of its space. Their effect still encompass the spaces the creature occupies, however.
      • If a spell appears on the spell list of a core caster, then all magic items crafted which duplicate the effects of that spell must use it at the level it appears on the core list. So no trapsmith wands for ju!
      • All spells with the (Healing) descriptor, including Heal, all Cure spells, Raise Dead, etc, are now back in the Necromancy School, as they were in earlier editions. Why WotC saw the need to move them to Conjuration, I'll never know...
      • Astral Projection: Items duplicated via this spell still drain charges from the original item. Likewise, spell slots used, XP used, etc, all transfer back to the orginal body and its items.
      • Planar Binding: See the Wish rules in the Tome section. Otherwise, works as written.
      • For the Candle of Invocation , I'm going to say that each individual can only use the Gate function of such an item once in their entire existence. It's basically a boon from "the gods" or whatever powers that favor you, and you only get one.
      • Synchronicity: This needs a fix, but I'm not sure how to do it. Let's just ban it, unless someone proposes a good fix and wants to use it.
      • Mind Blank vs. True Seeing: Mind Blank will block True Seeing from detecing the true form of a polymorphed creature, but it will not keep True Seeing from piercing an Illusion such as Change Self or Invisibility. Mind Blank will also keep True Seeing from revealing the aura of a creature, if True Seeing is cast as a Divine Spell.
      • Mind Blank vs. True Strike: Mind Blank has no effect.
      • Mind Blank + Invisibility vs. See Invisibility: Mind Blank has no effect.
      • Mind Blank + Displacement vs. True Seeing: Mind Blank has no effect.
      • Mind Blank vs. Detect X: Mind Blank prevents the spell from divining information about the subject. Mind Blank is also effective against Detect Magic, even though strictly speaking Detect Magic is a Universal spell, not in the Divination school.

      My reasoning on the interaction of Mind Blank with True Seeing and the other spells above is as follows:
      (click to show/hide)

      • Polymorph, Alter Self, Polymorph Any Object, and Shapechange have been altered significantly. (See inside the spoiler below for details.) I have tried to simplify the shapechanging spells by dropping all the extraordinary and supernatural stuff from them. If you want access to some outsider's magical abilities, then call it using Planar Binding, or write your own entirely different spell for that.

        Also, I limit the modifications to ability scores and natural armor by caster level, and make all of them castable on other people. These two things combined will make them better to cast on the party "warriors" than on the casters themselves. The spells should still maintain alot of their usefulness, but not be too powerful (I think).
      (click to show/hide)

      • For the Wish spell, see the section here on Frank and K's tomes.
      [/list]
      « Last Edit: September 14, 2012, 11:29:27 AM by phaedrusxy »
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      Offline phaedrusxy

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      Re: Rules and Game World
      « Reply #5 on: March 20, 2012, 09:05:56 PM »
      Gameworld Details


      The world is a frozen wasteland, bathed in perpetual night. The last vestiges of civilization are small, enclosed city-states that dot the land, and their inhabitants live mostly in isolation from the citizens of other city-states and the world outside their walls. Life inside the cities is crowded, but comfortable for the most part. They are well lit, warm, and many of the basic amenities are provided for free, such as running water, sewage, garbage disposal, housing, etc. The economic systems of most are what would be considered Socialist, with the state owning all major property and capitol, and providing for the needs of the citizens. The citizens themselves are assigned to jobs that most suit their particular abilities. Overcrowding is always a problem, but strong population control laws largely take care of it.

      Simple magical baubles are common, with every household having a device that can produce the effects of Prestidigitation and Mending, and having magical lighting systems, and other similar things. Higher ranking households often have their own personal construct servants, and the cities themselves have powerful automated defense systems, including large war golems and massive beam weaponry. For the most part, all of these things are limited to functioning within 1 mile of the city they are tied to. They are all technically property of the state that produced them, and tampering with them is illegal and can lead to fines and imprisonment or worse, but that doesn't prevent the existence of a black market that trades in them.

      "Free-standing" magic items, as they are called, are rare, and are also only found on the black market, or through the government. Supposedly there was an earlier civilization where such items were the norm, and rumors persist of ancient ruins filled with them dotting the lands outside the cities. Only fools go Outside, though, or Exiles. To most citizens, Exile is a fate worse than death, for Outside the cities' walls live all sorts of monsters and maniacs who will do worse things than murder their victims.

      The creation of magical effects is also the purview of the state, and is in fact impossible for the most part without a "Key". Keys are only available from the government, and are only given out to trusted higher servants, officials, and their bodyguards and the military, for the most part. These Keys allow one to tap into the powerful energy system of each city, and produce magical effects using it, if one is trained to do so. Supposedly in the time before "the fall", anyone with the proper training could produce such effects, even without a Key, but some people say such myths are mere fairy tales. And what kind of dangerous and crazy world would it be if anyone who wanted could summon whatever effects they desired? No wonder it collapsed on itself.

      There are those who are born with the innate talent to produce supernatural effects, however. They are considered dangerous criminals, and are imprisoned immediately after such abilities manifest themselves. They are called "The Touched" by the common folk, but the governments call them Aberrants, and using the term "Touched" is sure to gain the ire of any officials nearby. The best an Aberrant can hope for is to be imprisoned for life. For those that are considered too dangerous to contain, Exile is the standard punishment. Stories are told of powerful Aberrants who have banded together outside the walls of the known cities with other Exiles to forge their own society, but such tales are officially declared to be false, and most people believe they are.

      Organized religion is mostly a thing of the past. There are a few different faiths and philosophies, but gone are the days of mysterious gods granting their faithful worshipers spells. Granting spells is firmly in the hands of the state now, whether they are of the arcane or divine variety. There are stories of those who make pacts with powerful demons and other strange beings to gain supernatural powers, but even if such stories are true, those who participate in such pacts would be violating the state laws against the uncontrolled use of magical effects, and so would be branded outlaws and likely exiled if caught.

      Entrance and exit to each city is heavily controlled, and is only possible via double airlocked doors which are guarded 24/7 by heavily armed guards and automated defense mechanisms. The cities themselves are completely sealed, with air being exchanged via magically warded filtration systems. The walls are also enchanted to prevent passage of incorporeal creatures, and block Teleporation and other effects. This is necessary to keep roaming monsters and undead from gaining access from the frigid outdoors. Magical travel between cities is possible through a system of permanent portals, but the use of them is heavily restricted. Most people live their entire lives never having left the city they are born in.
      I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

      Offline phaedrusxy

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      Re: Rules and Game World
      « Reply #6 on: March 20, 2012, 09:09:30 PM »
      I've been thinking a bit more about the world. It's going to be nearly completely barren, with no plant or animal life except in areas that are warmer than typical for whatever reason. So it will basically be like one big (frozen, dark) desert, dotted with oases surrounding natural hot springs and areas that are magically warmer than normal somehow. Long-term survival between oases indefinitely will not be possible without some kind of magical production of food and protection from the cold.

      Non-carnivorous plants will pretty much cease to exist. So there won't be any wood to start fires, except for old stuff found in city ruins, and most of that has probably already been burned. Mushrooms and other "weird plants" that can feed off of heat from volcanic vents, star/moonlight, or other things will exist, but be rare and only grow in areas like the oases described above. Heck, the carnivorous plants probably won't exist outside of those areas, either. Basically, in places far from an oasis (or city) you're only going to encounter crazy monsters that can somehow survive without food (or eat something deep in the ground, like Dune's sandworms, etc), or other intelligent creatures that can provide for themselves magically.

      Right outside the city walls, there will be scavengers and predators (both intelligent/humanoid and non-intelligent/non-humanoid) . The city guards won't really do anything to get rid of them, and in fact a favorite past-time of the guards is to bet on fights between creatures they see outside the walls and any exiled prisoners they've just released. They don't bet on who will win (prisoners vs. "monsters"), but instead on how long the prisoners will live, and which ones will live/die first or last. Of course, if any of these "stragglers" actually look like a threat to the city they'll be dealt with in a swift and deadly fashion.

      So expect your first adventure to be deadly, including immediate combat, and then after that expect just surviving to be difficult, at least until you can find an oasis or something.



      We'll be using the Frostburn rules for cold environments. The typical temperature range for outside areas is Severe Cold (-20 to 0 deg F). Having crude shelter (in the form of an igloo, or tent) counts as one level of protection.

      Severe Cold: Unprotected characters must make a Fortitude save every 10 minutes (DC 15, +1 per previous check), taking 1d6 points of nonlethal damage on each failed save. A partially protected character need only check once per hour. For complete protection against severe cold, a character must have a level of protection of 2 or higher (for example, wearing a cold weather outfit and fur clothing). A character whose level of protection is only 1 is considered partially protected.

      Here are some racial protection levels from the book:

      Base Level of Protection
      0 Character or creature with no cold adaptations
      1 Cold Endurance feat, Nonarctic animal with fur, Monsters native to cold terrain
      2 Cold-tolerant character (glacier dwarf or neanderthal), Arctic animal with fur, Monsters native to frostfell terrain
      3 Endure elements spell or effect, Resistance to cold 5 or more

      I think Jon's racial resistance to cold would probably be the equivalent of having the Cold Endurance feat. So if he just wore warm clothes he would be protected against Severe Cold. Alan would be completely resistant to Extreme Cold (-50 to -20 deg F) even if he were naked, thanks to his Cold 5 racial resistance.

      COLD ENDURANCE [GENERAL]
      Either because of growing up in a frostfell or training your body and mind to ignore the biting effect of cold, you can
      exist with ease in low-temperature environments.
      Prerequisite: Base Fortitude save bonus +2.
      Benefit: You can exist comfortably in conditions between 0° F and 90° F without having to make Fortitude saves (as described in Cold Dangers, page 8). You also gain a +2 bonus on saving throws against cold effects. Cold Endurance doesn’t provide any level of resistance to cold damage.
      I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

      Offline phaedrusxy

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      Re: Rules and Game World
      « Reply #7 on: March 20, 2012, 09:10:05 PM »
      There was an entire post of feats that I meant to include in here from my house rules, but which I forgot. I'm sorry if that impacts anyone. I'll go ahead and post them here (and edit them into the feats section above), and if you want to replace one of your feats with one of these, feel free.

      Even More Feats

      (click to show/hide)

      Some things I want to include from the Tome rules, even though we're not using the bulk of them:

      Combat Expertise, Weapon Finesse, and Power Attack are no longer feats. They are attack options, like fighting defensively. Everyone is considered to have all of these feats when it comes to prereqs. This will likely impact some of you (positively), so I wish I'd said it earlier, but I forgot... You can of course pick new feats to replace any of these that you want, and rearrange stats.

      You can use Power Attack with light weapons at -1/+1, as with a one-handed weapon.

      And per discussions at the gaming den, the Daze part of the Combat School feat (which we're using to replace WF and WS) only triggers once per round per enemy.
      I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.

      Offline phaedrusxy

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      Re: Rules and Game World
      « Reply #8 on: April 27, 2012, 12:37:40 PM »
      This is a copy/paste of Prime32's original Races of War style conversion of the puppeteer, which Nanshork is using for Tetch. The only thing I changed was making the ML of racial Psi-like abilities equal character level instead of half character level.


      Puppeteer (Races of War style conversion)
      ECL: 2
      HD: 2d4 (Poor BAB, all good saves)
      Racial ability score modifiers: Str -8, Wis +2, Cha +2

      Fine size (+8 attack/AC, -16 grapple, +16 Hide)
      Natural weapon: Bite (1d2)
      Speed: 5ft

      Psi-Like Abilities (Ps): 3/day— detect psionics, mental barrier, psionic charm. Manifester level equals the puppeteer's character level. A puppeteer uses Charisma as the primary manifesting stat for his PLAs.

      Enthrall (Ex): If a puppeteer is in physical contact with a person it has charmed (the puppeteer establishes a physical hold by means of slender infiltrating tendrils), the subject acts as if dominated. (Puppeteers often seek to charm victims first and then “ask” to be picked up.) So long as the puppeteer remains in contact with the victim, the domination remains in effect, even if a check would normally indicate that the effect is broken.

      Hide Mind (Su): A puppeteer cannot be identified as psionic by divination spells or clairsentience powers.

      Host Protection (Ex): A puppeteer in control of a host is treated as an attended magic item for the purpose of making saving throws, even if the puppeteer is specifically targeted. A puppeteer that is attached to its host is treated as a creature in a grapple for the purpose of striking at the puppeteer instead of the host (but the host is not considered grappled in turn).

      Blindsight (Ex): A puppeteer can ascertain creatures by nonvisual means within 60 feet.

      Telepathy (Su): A puppeteer can communicate telepathically with any creature within 20 feet that has a language.

      Also, don't forget these general rules for the campaign:
      • Half racial hit dice count towards class progressions, for all purposes.
      • Likewise, half the levels in non-manifesting/casting classes will add to your caster/manifester progression, for all purposes including powers known, power points, ML, etc. So a psion 2/fighter 2 would manifest powers as a psion 3. This will work for most other abilities too, like Binding (ToM Binder), sneak attack progression, etc. We'll look at each on a case-by-case basis.
      « Last Edit: April 27, 2012, 12:42:35 PM by phaedrusxy »
      I don't pee messages into the snow often , but when I do , it's in Cyrillic with Fake Viagra.  Stay frosty my friends.