EoM-R House Rules

[RangerWickett]

I'm actually curious what people do for House Rules for EOM also, because I'm working on a final version (a 'Third Edition,' actually) of EOM that fixes problems, gets rid of clunky mechanics, and adds in the best parts of Mythic Earth. If people have sort of a consensus of things they like or don't like, it would help me out.

Me personally, I hated the 'Magical Skills' from EOM-R in execution. They were only really in there because I didn't know of a better way to handle divination, dispelling magic, and so on in the form of 'spell lists.' Rather than break the 'verb + element' idea, I just shoved this clunky mechanic in. So unless I hear a huge outcry that it was awesome, I'm taking that out.

 

[sirwmholder]

I'm actually curious what people do for House Rules for EOM also, because I'm working on a final version (a 'Third Edition,' actually) of EOM that fixes problems, gets rid of clunky mechanics, and adds in the best parts of Mythic Earth. If people have sort of a consensus of things they like or don't like, it would help me out.

Me personally, I hated the 'Magical Skills' from EOM-R in execution. They were only really in there because I didn't know of a better way to handle divination, dispelling magic, and so on in the form of 'spell lists.' Rather than break the 'verb + element' idea, I just shoved this clunky mechanic in. So unless I hear a huge outcry that it was awesome, I'm taking that out.

I am personally a fan of the magical skills... it makes spell casting more dynamic and more importantly it works... it effectively does every combination I could think to do with it. Especially the way Overmastering and Dispelling work right out of the box... a great many Mage battles have been fought with both parties being satisfied with the outcome using those rules.

Personally, I have not found much use for the scrying or divination skills... I kind of felt they should have been put together though it wasn't a big issue in our game. Piggy-backing spells on a scry check was a very cool idea but have the potential to break the game... example: see an orc camp in the distance use a low level scry to see inside the camp. Wait for night fall without alerting the orcs to your presence... piggyback a massive fireball that envelops the entire camp. ( Mage + a lot of experience, rest of party +0 )

That being said I am curious as to what you have in mind to replace those skills sets with that is both as flexible as the original and easier to use. Very willing to playtest .

Thank you for your time,
Wm. Holder

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

The magical skills are a bit klunky in that they are not intuitive... it takes a bit to understand them. I like the variation and really enjoyed the scry and dispell rules. Never really goto to stress test them tho

I will toss my vote in for a proof-read ... I don't have a group again so no actual playtesting

 

[BSF]

I like the ideas behind the magical skills. But I agree that they are not an elegant solution. If you have something better, that would be cool. Of course, if you are rolling it into new spell lists, that would be troublesome for conversions of existing characters. I haven't looked at Mythic Earth so I am not conversant in what you might bring from there.

For some reason I missed the 1.2 update for EOM-R, despite having purchased it via RPGNow back in June 2004. So I am not entirely sure what rules I am using that might be considered errata and what might be considered house rules.

 

[sirwmholder]

Primitive Screwhead, ( btw, love the Bantha Skull ) I seem to recall you house ruling area increases to be in diameter and not radius due to a Move (Death) example with Zombie arrow fodder...

Our group currently uses an increased mana cost table for Move (Force)... we have also made every spell save based ( Ref half damage / Fort or Will nothing happens ). The group felt touch AC was too easy to hit at higher levels. Though personally I like the anchoring of spells using the disconcerting enhancement.

Thank you for your time,
Wm. Holder

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

You are correct... that Zombie arrow fodder showed how nasty the radius version can truely be

{for those who missed the conversation, a DM let me run an 8th level EOM Mage without reading the rules. I dropped a 20' radius Move Death spell that dropped movement the charging Zombies movement to 5'... because they are not intelligent they just charged on through.... while the archers on the other side pin-cushioned them with GMW'd arrows.. }

{Got the skull pic off my phone, of all places.. it was a special Star Wars edition from a marketing campaign Cincular did a while back and I ended up signing up 6 months later and happened to get a free 'left-over' for signing up... my ring is the Cantina song }


I like the idea of forcing Dicerning on all area affect, I was working a variant where you pay for spreads, bursts, and manifesting..but never got is clean enough to test.

 

[sirwmholder]

I like the idea of forcing Dicerning on all area affect, I was working a variant where you pay for spreads, bursts, and manifesting..but never got is clean enough to test.

I've been tinkering around with this very thing... I used the chart from the Epic Level Handbook for a basis... it was the closest thing to modular spell creation in core rules... one thing that's off is the MP calculation... everything is a bit more expensive using this chart. Area and range have been separated... anyway feel free to look over and critique.

**NOTE: This is by no means perfect or final... it's just something to give an idea about.

Thank you for your time,
Wm. Holder

EDIT: EOM-R GE.rtf was removed and new one was attached further down.

 

[sirwmholder]

Another House Rule we use in our game is the Infuse/Drain charts are the same... for some reason the Ice and Mist are reversed on the other side. Not a big deal and probably just a typo but worth noting.

Thank you for your time,
Wm. Holder

 

[Thomas5251212]

Our group currently uses an increased mana cost table for Move (Force)... we have also made every spell save based ( Ref half damage / Fort or Will nothing happens ). The group felt touch AC was too easy to hit at higher levels. Though personally I like the anchoring of spells using the disconcerting enhancement.

This is actually the one thing I need to address if and when I ever get around to using EOM (which I plan to some day, but many a slip as the saying goes...); currently, I don't think the to-hit and save versions of the spells are well balanced; the former is far more effective. On the other hand, I don't really want to get rid of them altogether, so I need some other method to balance them.

There are probably some others I'd need to work on (I seem to recall a few other things seemed a little dodgy when I read it, but its been a while) but that one was sufficiently problematic I honestly wonder it never got addressed in playtest.

 

[Archus]

I'm actually curious what people do for House Rules for EOM also, because I'm working on a final version (a 'Third Edition,' actually) of EOM that fixes problems, gets rid of clunky mechanics, and adds in the best parts of Mythic Earth. If people have sort of a consensus of things they like or don't like, it would help me out.

Sign me up for a third edition - it is still my favorite d20 spell system (over Mythic Earth as well) because of the flavor it gives spellcasters. Some conversion notes on using it with True20 would be nifty. I'm digging through my old stuff and trying to remember what house rules I had.

Me personally, I hated the 'Magical Skills' from EOM-R in execution. They were only really in there because I didn't know of a better way to handle divination, dispelling magic, and so on in the form of 'spell lists.' Rather than break the 'verb + element' idea, I just shoved this clunky mechanic in. So unless I hear a huge outcry that it was awesome, I'm taking that out.

They felt a little clunky as skills to me as well. I think that just verb spell lists that require spellcraft as the skill would be a fine replacement. If you really need verb + element, make a new element that is only used with those meta skills (like "magic" the root element only usable with 'Dispell + Magic', 'Scry + Magic', etc.).