KirayaTiDrekan
Adventurer
Divine energies flow through all living things. We are all born of the gods in that sense. Their power gives us strength and empowers our magic. It is the very essence of our souls. You feel it when another being dies - a portion of their soul energy passes to all around them while the rest makes its journey to the Divine Realms. Wizards and clerics siphon a portion of their soul energy to empower their more powerful spells and give a bit of false life to magic items. And we accumulate it naturally over time - the older and more experienced a being, the more life energy it has...and thus the more life energy you can take from it.
This is the world you were born to. But you are something even more powerful. You are the child of a god. Destined to one day become a god yourself, your power marks you as something more than a mere mortal. It also marks you as a target to any who would seek to control or harness your power. You must tread carefully, but you must also increase your power - you will never join your godly parent in the Divine Realm unless you prove yourself.
Your journey thus begins in the small frontier village of Aavenloche. Situated on the shores of a freshwater lake, the villagers eke out a humble existence fishing, farming, and appeasing the dragon of the lake. The dragon is said to dwell on a fog-shrouded island in the middle of the lake and demands a yearly tribute of a young maiden. The maiden is crowned Princess of Aavenloche and treated like royalty for a week...and then is shipped off alone in a small fishing boat and never seen again. For 152 years, the villagers of Aavenloche have managed to avoid the wrath of the dragon. But this year, things may go quite differently. This year, the tribute is a child of the gods.
This game is built upon a premise I've been toying around with in my head for years, involving the 3.5 version of D&D. What if experience points were a tangible energy, soul energy essentially, that is a quantifiable and known element of the world? Its expended to make magic items and to cast certain spells; it is absorbed by those nearby upon the death of any creature; and it is naturally accumulated over time. Thus, as a house rule, XP is only gained by killing other creatures (or simply being present for their death). Also, XP is divided among all those present (within 100 feet, though barriers and walls of 1 inch or greater thickness of most materials serve as a barrier, preventing the XP from being dispersed beyond them), regardless of whether they participated in the slaying of the creature or not. No XP is gained from a creature dying of old age. All living beings naturally accumulate 100 XP per year.
I'm also combining this idea with the concept of player characters with divine ranks from Deities & Demigods (as updated in the 3.5 SRD).
Player characters will be created with the following guidelines in mind...
1. 32 point buy for ability scores.
2. In addition to normal classes, characters may take levels in Outsider. This provides - d8+Con mod hit points, all good saves, good BAB (+1 per level), 8+Int mod skill points per level (quadruple at 1st level; select any 10 skills as class skills), the Native subtype, and Darkvision 60 ft. Each level of Outsider provides a special ability, selected from any monster in the Monster Manual, appropriate to the character's levels in Outsider (for example, at 1st level, the character could select a natural attack, or a 1st-level spell-like ability, or a +1 natural armor bonus, etc).
3. At level 20 (if we make it that far), player characters gain Divine Rank 0 and gain an additional Divine Rank every 4 levels there-after.
4. Every character begins with normal starting gear and also has a Bonded Weapon. The character may spend their own experience points to give the weapon permanents enchantments, such as a +1 bonus or the flaming property, for example. Bonded Weapons may also be made Intelligent (gain the requisite abilities) with the expenditure of additional XP. The cost in XP to do so is the same as if the character were using an item creation feat to enchant a weapon. However, the character need not expend gold pieces. The Bonded Weapon starts as a masterwork weapon with the special property that it is never permanently lost or broken. 24 hours after being separated from the character, damaged, or broken, it returns to the character, intact and undamaged. It retains this property regardless of additional enchantments placed on it.
5. The following books are available to use for character creation and advancement - Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, Spell Compendium, Magic Item Compendium, www.d20srd.org (specifically the Divine, Psionic, and Epic rules). We will be using the Rules Compendium as the most up to date rules reference during play. Races with level adjustments and even monster hit dice are available to play, with a maximum ECL of 5. Bear in mind, however, that you will gain levels much more slowly and will eventually fall behind the other PCs.
6. Choose a deity from the PHB as a divine parent. This divine parent will influence how your character develops. For example, a child of Heironeous is likely to be a paladin or a fighter. Your alignment and general outlook on life need not match your divine parent, but the parent's influence will be a strong pull on the character. A child of Erythnul, for example, will have powerful violent urges that will be hard to contain, regardless of their alignment.
7. One character should be female and this year's chosen tribute for the dragon of the lake.
As this game is somewhat crunchier, so to speak, than my other games, a strong familiarity with 3.5 is preferred from the players. Recruiting will close when we have about five or so players.
This is the world you were born to. But you are something even more powerful. You are the child of a god. Destined to one day become a god yourself, your power marks you as something more than a mere mortal. It also marks you as a target to any who would seek to control or harness your power. You must tread carefully, but you must also increase your power - you will never join your godly parent in the Divine Realm unless you prove yourself.
Your journey thus begins in the small frontier village of Aavenloche. Situated on the shores of a freshwater lake, the villagers eke out a humble existence fishing, farming, and appeasing the dragon of the lake. The dragon is said to dwell on a fog-shrouded island in the middle of the lake and demands a yearly tribute of a young maiden. The maiden is crowned Princess of Aavenloche and treated like royalty for a week...and then is shipped off alone in a small fishing boat and never seen again. For 152 years, the villagers of Aavenloche have managed to avoid the wrath of the dragon. But this year, things may go quite differently. This year, the tribute is a child of the gods.
This game is built upon a premise I've been toying around with in my head for years, involving the 3.5 version of D&D. What if experience points were a tangible energy, soul energy essentially, that is a quantifiable and known element of the world? Its expended to make magic items and to cast certain spells; it is absorbed by those nearby upon the death of any creature; and it is naturally accumulated over time. Thus, as a house rule, XP is only gained by killing other creatures (or simply being present for their death). Also, XP is divided among all those present (within 100 feet, though barriers and walls of 1 inch or greater thickness of most materials serve as a barrier, preventing the XP from being dispersed beyond them), regardless of whether they participated in the slaying of the creature or not. No XP is gained from a creature dying of old age. All living beings naturally accumulate 100 XP per year.
I'm also combining this idea with the concept of player characters with divine ranks from Deities & Demigods (as updated in the 3.5 SRD).
Player characters will be created with the following guidelines in mind...
1. 32 point buy for ability scores.
2. In addition to normal classes, characters may take levels in Outsider. This provides - d8+Con mod hit points, all good saves, good BAB (+1 per level), 8+Int mod skill points per level (quadruple at 1st level; select any 10 skills as class skills), the Native subtype, and Darkvision 60 ft. Each level of Outsider provides a special ability, selected from any monster in the Monster Manual, appropriate to the character's levels in Outsider (for example, at 1st level, the character could select a natural attack, or a 1st-level spell-like ability, or a +1 natural armor bonus, etc).
3. At level 20 (if we make it that far), player characters gain Divine Rank 0 and gain an additional Divine Rank every 4 levels there-after.
4. Every character begins with normal starting gear and also has a Bonded Weapon. The character may spend their own experience points to give the weapon permanents enchantments, such as a +1 bonus or the flaming property, for example. Bonded Weapons may also be made Intelligent (gain the requisite abilities) with the expenditure of additional XP. The cost in XP to do so is the same as if the character were using an item creation feat to enchant a weapon. However, the character need not expend gold pieces. The Bonded Weapon starts as a masterwork weapon with the special property that it is never permanently lost or broken. 24 hours after being separated from the character, damaged, or broken, it returns to the character, intact and undamaged. It retains this property regardless of additional enchantments placed on it.
5. The following books are available to use for character creation and advancement - Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, Spell Compendium, Magic Item Compendium, www.d20srd.org (specifically the Divine, Psionic, and Epic rules). We will be using the Rules Compendium as the most up to date rules reference during play. Races with level adjustments and even monster hit dice are available to play, with a maximum ECL of 5. Bear in mind, however, that you will gain levels much more slowly and will eventually fall behind the other PCs.
6. Choose a deity from the PHB as a divine parent. This divine parent will influence how your character develops. For example, a child of Heironeous is likely to be a paladin or a fighter. Your alignment and general outlook on life need not match your divine parent, but the parent's influence will be a strong pull on the character. A child of Erythnul, for example, will have powerful violent urges that will be hard to contain, regardless of their alignment.
7. One character should be female and this year's chosen tribute for the dragon of the lake.
As this game is somewhat crunchier, so to speak, than my other games, a strong familiarity with 3.5 is preferred from the players. Recruiting will close when we have about five or so players.
(I have a strong aversion to starting at anything other than level 1...just a quirk of mine 
