Dark Sun Special Rules and other stuff

[frankthedm]

[IMaGel]http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/52/dragons4sorcerers4photoql0.th.jpg[/IMagel]

Yes I have. I appreciate all the work those guys have done, but I do not like the turn TSR took Dark Sun after the revised boxed set and after they killed off Borys in the Novels. Athas.org embraces that version of Dark Sun more than I like. Bring me back the Dark Sun that Brom's art inspired, that is the real Dark Sun to me.

I did not like the turn TSR took Dark Sun after the first boxed set. Dark sun stopped being dark sun to me with the Death of Kalak in Freedom.

BTW, you might like this dragon toy if you are a fan of Borys of Ebe. look soon though as it was released a year back.

Here was an older discussion of this subject...

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=77001

Troy Denning created the setting but he also destroyed it.

The Prism Pentad was the death knell for Dark Sun. Everything that you knew about the setting from the original boxed set was thrown right out the window. Half the sorceror-king's died along with the world's only dragon.

NPC's should never have that kind of drastic change on the setting. Never. Its bad design and even worse marketing.

I also blame Bill Slavicsek for releasing the abomination that was the "Revised" Dark Sun campaign setting. Talk about nerfing the entire feel of the setting.

 

[Torack]

You could take the taint rules from Heroes of Horror and change the fluff around a bit...

 

[Najo]

[IMaGel]http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/52/dragons4sorcerers4photoql0.th.jpg[/IMagel] I did not like the turn TSR took Dark Sun after the first boxed set. Dark sun stopped being dark sun to me with the Death of Kalak in Freedom.

BTW, you might like this dragon toy if you are a fan of Borys of Ebe. look soon though as it was released a year back.

Here was an older discussion of this subject...

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=77001

IMO the first products and books 1-4 of the prism pentad were ok to good. Kalak makes himself vulnerable by attempting to accelerate his transformation. The PCs in the novels take advantage of this. Once they defeat him, and Tyr becomes a "free" city, most of the events following (Rikus marching on Urik and losing, Tithian becoming king, Aegis being killed by Tithian) showed a brutal and doomed world. It was the lame slaying of Borys in the last book that was a huge mistake. The dragon should have remained in the legendary/ mythological level of the story. It was a key icon of the setting, a single dragon that began as a power hungry sorceror king. Most of the initial supplments were fine enough.

As for the dragon toy, he is very awesome.

 

[Najo]

You could take the taint rules from Heroes of Horror and change the fluff around a bit...

I tried, but they are not quite right and are even more overly complicated. I want streamlined taint rules

 

[Najo]

Sorry, IMHO the Taint of a defiler is that they have blasted athas to barren wasteland, can never be good, and cause all wizards to be hated. Dark sun was not about using supernatural punishments for the unheroic, that was Ravenloft. Brom era Dark sun was about survival in a blasted land ruled by wicked sorcerer kings where the very concept of paladin had gone extinct long ago. Defilers even earned XP notably faster than preservers to boot. What balances that out? Nothing other than how much your allies are willing to put up / be seen with you.

Being a preserver means you are taking the moral high road on a world where that is not rewarded. If the DM wants to reward that, make the Veiled Alliance more helpful.

The revised Dark sun box set gave defilers a Charisma penalty when interacting with others to offset the faster advancement.
1st-5th level -2 Cha
6th-10th -4 cha
11th-15th -6 Cha
16th-20th -8 Cha

That may be so, but the idea of a defiler embracing a quicker road to power and becoming corrupted by it is cool too. It fits the setting as much as perservers avoiding defiling do.

 

[frankthedm]

As far as brainstorming for weapon breakage,

A weapon also takes all damage it deals* beyond its [maximum damage die amount plus it's hardness.]

Might be too low a threshold, but i think something should be workable under this idea. FPAATT should be wrecking inferior weapons by the first hit.

*excludes precision based damage

 

[irdeggman]

I tried, but they are not quite right and are even more overly complicated. I want streamlined taint rules

Try something like force points from Star Wars.

You get so Dark Side Points when you defile, after so many your alignment starts to change, etc. Or so many above your level (like say level +3 which is similar to skill ranks).

Also allow atonement to remove some of the Defiling points (but not all) - Sadira attempting to come back from the dark side - but couldn't make it all the way.

 

[FEADIN]

I think there are also Taint rules in the Oriental adventure and in Unearthed arcana books.
Hope it helps.

 

[Torack]

I think there are also Taint rules in the Oriental adventure and in Unearthed arcana books.
Hope it helps.

There are and the ones from Unearthed Arcana can be found in the SRD.

Fort Save DC 10 +5 for every 24 hrs spent in tainted area, change that to +5 for every 24 hrs spent not redeeming/cleansing yourself and AFAIC you're solid. A defiler could simply choose to fail the save...

 

[Shin Ji]

As far as brainstorming for weapon breakage,

A weapon also takes all damage it deals* beyond its [maximum damage die amount plus it's hardness.]

Might be too low a threshold, but i think something should be workable under this idea. FPAATT should be wrecking inferior weapons by the first hit.

*excludes precision based damage

Wow. That pretty much means any high Str character is fighting unarmed most of the time. Heck, even metal weapons break like toothpicks under a system like that. I'd make any Nat 1 force the weapon (or the wielder) to Fort save or have the weapon break at most. Even that's pushing it. Athas.org has some great stuff, as I recall, but the problem with any "realistic" fix of this nature is that it pushes everyone into playing a Psion.