The Spectrum Rider
First Post
I was very happy to have my articles about the Plane of Radiance and its inhabitants published in Dragon #321. The concepts in it originated in my campaign world, Gärd, and it's a lot of fun to imagine other campiagns using these ideas.
As you can imagine, there were some changes in the journey from my campaign to the Dragon articles. Some of my stuff is heavily flavored to fit Gärd's style and its house rules, and some of it has more built-in variation than you normaly see in a WotC product - I made changes to make things a little simpler and more generic (and to fit space constraints) before I ever submitted the articles.
The Dragon editors made additional changes after that, for their own product style, for simplicitly, and for space. I have no complaints; I think the articles came out quite well. I think that some of their changes were just the right thing to do, and others didn't do much, if any, harm.
But a few people have expressed interest in the versions I actually use in Gärd, and I thought some more people on this board might like to see them. I would be happy to hear your opinions, both of the articles in Dragon and what I post here. In this post I talk about the Glimmerfolk, who probably went thorugh the most changes.
***
In Gärd the Glimmerfolk are only found in one place, their forest, Glimmerwood, a vast, old-growth temperate forest that is infused with radiant energies. It's not particularly sylvan - you won't find many dryads, satyrs, or treants there - but there are standard animals (bears, owls) and strange radiance-infused monsters and magical beasts. The Glimmerfolk are the rulers of Glimmerwood, ruling over the mostly human clans (Wolf Clan, Panther Clan, Snake Clan, etc.) that also live their. The Glimmerfolk are sophisitcated and "noble;" the clans are a little more primitive. (One suspects the Glimmerfolk like it that way.)
The Glimmerfolk are of type humanoid (glimmerfolk), and are native to the material plane. Their racial abilities are a little different than the version in the Dragon articles. The most important differences are:
(a) Ability Scores: +2 Cha.
(b) When a Glimmerfolk character enters a locale that is not infused with radiant energy (that is, he leaves Glimmerwood, and *not* for the Radiant Plane), he immediately loses 2 points of Con. Every 1d6 days he's outside of Glimmerwood, he must make a Con check s. DC 10 or lose 0-2 (1d3-1) more points of Con. If he reaches 0 Con, he dies.
There are magical spells, items, and concoctions that can slow down or stop the on-going Con loss (but *not* the original loss of 2 points). These tend to be rare and expensive, and the Prince and his Council try to keep a monopoly on them. They don't always succeed, and there are some Glimmerfolk runaways.
When a character returns to Glimmerwood, he ragins the lost Con points at the rate of 1 per day.
(c) Each Glimmerfolk character has 2-5 nimli (singular: nimlo), rolled when the character is created. They are of different colors, selected at random. Each new character level, starting at 1st level, the character can "link" one nimlo to a spell. Then he can use the nimlo to cast that spell once per day.
The character's caster level is equal to his character level or his number of nimli, whichever is less. The spells he can choose from depend on his caster level:
1st: Dancing lights, flare, know direction, light
2nd, 3rd: Color spray, calm animals, charm animal, detect animals or plants, disguise self, entangle, faerie fire, goodberry, hide from animals, obscuring mist, shillelagh
4th, 5th: Continual flame, animal messenger, animal trance, barkskin*, blur*, fog cloud, gust of wind, hold animal, hypnotic pattern, invisibility*, mirror image, reduce animal, summon swarm, tree shape, warp wood, wood shape
(*self only)
In order to link a spell to a nimlo, the character must make a roll of d20 + 1/2 caster level + Wis mod vs. DC 10 + spell level. If he fails, he can never link that spell to any nimlo - he has to go on to a different spell.
Save DC's are based on Wis, but the spells are cast as arcane spells. They're not spell-like abilities; they actually have to be cast, with whatever components are specified in the spell definition. The character suffers arcane spell failure due to armor as though he were a bard.
(d) The most common classes among the glimmerfolk are druid, illusionist, and ranger. After that, fighter and wizard (non-specialists mainly, although you'll find some diviners). Clerics, rogues, and sorcerers are uncommon. Bards, monks, and paladins are unknown within Glimmerwood itself (although runaways may pick up those classes), due to historical and religious reasons. There are no Glimmerfolk barbarians.
Most Glimmerfolk clerics (which are very rare) follow the Lady Cloaked in Green, said to be ths spirit of Glimmerwood itself. She is NG, with domains Animal, Plant, and Radiance. There is a secretive cult of Lumerr, the god of radiance (who is as aloof and detached as elemental gods), devoted to the overthrow of the Prince and the taking over of Glimmerwood society. Most clerics and other followers of this sect are CE (although Lumerr is not himself evil). Domains Luck, Radiance, and Trickery.
Glimmerfolk do not have a favored class. Instead they have two favored multiclass combinations: druid/illusionist and illusionist/ranger. The level difference between a character's druid classes and illusionist classes is never counted against their XP award. Similarly for illusionist/rangers.
***
So that's the Glimmerfolk as they exist in Gärd. I'm sure you can see why Dragon wanted to change some of the details, but this variant is right for some campaigns - well, mine, anyway. There's a cool PrC called Glimmerwood Knights. I'll post it if people are interested.
Opinions encouraged and welcome. Thanks
The Spectrum Rider
As you can imagine, there were some changes in the journey from my campaign to the Dragon articles. Some of my stuff is heavily flavored to fit Gärd's style and its house rules, and some of it has more built-in variation than you normaly see in a WotC product - I made changes to make things a little simpler and more generic (and to fit space constraints) before I ever submitted the articles.
The Dragon editors made additional changes after that, for their own product style, for simplicitly, and for space. I have no complaints; I think the articles came out quite well. I think that some of their changes were just the right thing to do, and others didn't do much, if any, harm.
But a few people have expressed interest in the versions I actually use in Gärd, and I thought some more people on this board might like to see them. I would be happy to hear your opinions, both of the articles in Dragon and what I post here. In this post I talk about the Glimmerfolk, who probably went thorugh the most changes.
***
In Gärd the Glimmerfolk are only found in one place, their forest, Glimmerwood, a vast, old-growth temperate forest that is infused with radiant energies. It's not particularly sylvan - you won't find many dryads, satyrs, or treants there - but there are standard animals (bears, owls) and strange radiance-infused monsters and magical beasts. The Glimmerfolk are the rulers of Glimmerwood, ruling over the mostly human clans (Wolf Clan, Panther Clan, Snake Clan, etc.) that also live their. The Glimmerfolk are sophisitcated and "noble;" the clans are a little more primitive. (One suspects the Glimmerfolk like it that way.)
The Glimmerfolk are of type humanoid (glimmerfolk), and are native to the material plane. Their racial abilities are a little different than the version in the Dragon articles. The most important differences are:
(a) Ability Scores: +2 Cha.
(b) When a Glimmerfolk character enters a locale that is not infused with radiant energy (that is, he leaves Glimmerwood, and *not* for the Radiant Plane), he immediately loses 2 points of Con. Every 1d6 days he's outside of Glimmerwood, he must make a Con check s. DC 10 or lose 0-2 (1d3-1) more points of Con. If he reaches 0 Con, he dies.
There are magical spells, items, and concoctions that can slow down or stop the on-going Con loss (but *not* the original loss of 2 points). These tend to be rare and expensive, and the Prince and his Council try to keep a monopoly on them. They don't always succeed, and there are some Glimmerfolk runaways.
When a character returns to Glimmerwood, he ragins the lost Con points at the rate of 1 per day.
(c) Each Glimmerfolk character has 2-5 nimli (singular: nimlo), rolled when the character is created. They are of different colors, selected at random. Each new character level, starting at 1st level, the character can "link" one nimlo to a spell. Then he can use the nimlo to cast that spell once per day.
The character's caster level is equal to his character level or his number of nimli, whichever is less. The spells he can choose from depend on his caster level:
1st: Dancing lights, flare, know direction, light
2nd, 3rd: Color spray, calm animals, charm animal, detect animals or plants, disguise self, entangle, faerie fire, goodberry, hide from animals, obscuring mist, shillelagh
4th, 5th: Continual flame, animal messenger, animal trance, barkskin*, blur*, fog cloud, gust of wind, hold animal, hypnotic pattern, invisibility*, mirror image, reduce animal, summon swarm, tree shape, warp wood, wood shape
(*self only)
In order to link a spell to a nimlo, the character must make a roll of d20 + 1/2 caster level + Wis mod vs. DC 10 + spell level. If he fails, he can never link that spell to any nimlo - he has to go on to a different spell.
Save DC's are based on Wis, but the spells are cast as arcane spells. They're not spell-like abilities; they actually have to be cast, with whatever components are specified in the spell definition. The character suffers arcane spell failure due to armor as though he were a bard.
(d) The most common classes among the glimmerfolk are druid, illusionist, and ranger. After that, fighter and wizard (non-specialists mainly, although you'll find some diviners). Clerics, rogues, and sorcerers are uncommon. Bards, monks, and paladins are unknown within Glimmerwood itself (although runaways may pick up those classes), due to historical and religious reasons. There are no Glimmerfolk barbarians.
Most Glimmerfolk clerics (which are very rare) follow the Lady Cloaked in Green, said to be ths spirit of Glimmerwood itself. She is NG, with domains Animal, Plant, and Radiance. There is a secretive cult of Lumerr, the god of radiance (who is as aloof and detached as elemental gods), devoted to the overthrow of the Prince and the taking over of Glimmerwood society. Most clerics and other followers of this sect are CE (although Lumerr is not himself evil). Domains Luck, Radiance, and Trickery.
Glimmerfolk do not have a favored class. Instead they have two favored multiclass combinations: druid/illusionist and illusionist/ranger. The level difference between a character's druid classes and illusionist classes is never counted against their XP award. Similarly for illusionist/rangers.
***
So that's the Glimmerfolk as they exist in Gärd. I'm sure you can see why Dragon wanted to change some of the details, but this variant is right for some campaigns - well, mine, anyway. There's a cool PrC called Glimmerwood Knights. I'll post it if people are interested.
Opinions encouraged and welcome. Thanks
The Spectrum Rider
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