Ley Lines

[Eosin the Red]

WOW, Wolf must have hit the nail with this one. I just got an email about it and saw it come up on Brithright-L.

Printing as we speak.

Maybe, I need to go out and by this dandy little book.

 

[DanMcS]

Hah, that was me. Knowledge like this needs to be shared. My next trip to my local store, saturday probably, I'll be looking for the elves book and probably the dwarves one too, the Runes excerpt on the website was about enough to sell me on it.

 

[Quickbeam]

I loved HoHF Dwarves, and now I have two EXCELLENT reasons to buy the Elves book:

1) An apparently fantastic array of rules and explanations for using ley lines & nexus areas.
2) A wicked idea for my current RttToEE campaign (yoink)!

 

[maddman75]

MORE RTTTOEE SPOILERS


































After going over the rules, I decided against putting them on the individual temples. First, most of the defenders of these temples probably don't have the knowledge(arcana) skills to make any use of them. Second, the remote casting would do them more harm than good, as the temples are fighting against each other.

However, I will put one on the Spire in the Inner Fane. In addition, I'm ruling that because its the central attention of Big T, the rating is 20 and the range is doubled, making it pass over the entire Inner and Outer Fanes. Second, the DoomDreamers trapped in reverie will have enough consciousness to block any remote casting. But even with these limits, the enhanced spellcasting available to friend and foe alike will really reinforce the idea that the Fanes are seething with power.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Thanks for all the kind words, folks. Funny thing is, and I have mentioned it before, I am personally far more fond of the Specialist Wizards section of the ELVES book. But, the Ley Lines are generating some good "buzz." I think, maybe, it is because it is more a DM's option section than a players' option section...?

Just following up on maddman's plans... I am ok with doubling the radius of the power nexus. I am cool with a rating-20 power nexus. But I hate to see you "automatically" block the nexus from remote casting. It seems you cut off a lot of options for the players and the power nexus boils down to just increased spellcasting during the "final fight." Seems it would be much cooler if the players have to create or find another power nexus, one that can contend with a rating-20 nexus and any attempts to shield it.

Can you imagine the players trying to get that first anchor to the power nexus?

Can you imagine them making their own power nexus and fending off enemy attempts to anchor to it? Or remote casting?

Can you imagine them trying to persuade the local elves to allow them to use their power nexus? Would anybody be willing to suffer the wrath of the Temple to help the heroes?

Can you tell that remote casting is one of my favorite parts of the rules?

All this-- and I ended up cutting the "Destroy Power Nexus" option, too.

Wulf

 

[maddman75]

Hmmm - all good points. I'll have to be careful with this, as the adventure goes to great pains to keep the characters from simply skipping over the Fanes. For one thing, they'd get slaughtered. Here's what I think I'll do.

I'll set up the ley lines as lost knowledge. I'll have them stumble on some research notes by some of the cultists to figure out the effect in the fanes.

To take advantage of the remote casting, they're going to have to do some more research on this ley lines thing. If they take time to research it, then they can learn about this property. Then, as you said, they have to find another Nexus, possibly alert the Temple to their activities, and so on.

So while you've convinced me to allow it to happen, they're going to have to go to some extra work. I already know where another nexus could be, but the players will have to realize it on their own. They won't reach this point for about eight more levels, but its good to have these things planned out.

Also, I too really liked the specialist wizard rules. I feel that 3e lost some of the flavor of the specialist. Having different abilities and feats that only a conjurer or diviner can take bring a lot of that back.

 

[DanMcS]

Thanks for all the kind words, folks. Funny thing is, and I have mentioned it before, I am personally far more fond of the Specialist Wizards section of the ELVES book. But, the Ley Lines are generating some good "buzz." I think, maybe, it is because it is more a DM's option section than a players' option section...?

I think it's probably because it's downloadable, so more people have quicker access to it. But that's a good thing, because I firmly believe in supporting good work like this, so I'm buying it this weekend, and probably the Dwarves book too.

All this-- and I ended up cutting the "Destroy Power Nexus" option, too.

Tease. Or *sniff* do I smell web enhancement? Did I mention I'm buying this, and that I recommended it to a good sized mailing list of Birthright players?

 

[nopantsyet]

When will we be able to purchase this fine-looking product?

 

[RingXero]

Actually, I think the 'destroy nexus' option is still there, just not bleedingly obvious, either move the bound object, or destroy it physically. poof. no more nexus.

Plus, I like the fact that there is no purely magical way to shut down/destroy the nexus, makes sense after a fashion, you don't get the following 'wierdness'
1. you are trying to destroy a magic sink/battery that absorbs obscene amounts of magic constantly by funneling magic directly into/at it?
2. you are trying to destroy the magic 'battery' by cutting off all ley lines pouring magic into it, without knowing how many could be connected at any one time, given that it could be connected to possibly all other nexuses(nexii?) across the continent/planet at the same time?

see? I like the 'implied' destruction rules much better.


RX

 

[HellHound]

Nice piece of work once again, Benjamin.

Put me down for one of these new-fangled elf books now too... I gotta get outta the house and to the FLGS more often, eh?