candidus_cogitens
Explorer
(double post)
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Cosmology: material plane and plane of spirits and dreams
- Thread starter candidus_cogitens
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candidus_cogitens
Explorer
(triple post)
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BSF
Explorer
candidus_cogitens said:
I will have to flip through the book when I get home before I can provide useful details on how Occult Lore's Dream Adventuring works. I could try to do it from memory, but I am sure I would miss something.
The Shaman's Handbook has a Core class for the (wait for it ... )Shaman. Basically, a Cha based Divine spellcaster. I like it better than the OA Shaman. The Shaman gets a Spirit Familiar.
The Shaman's Handbook is interesting to me because I needed to read it once, and then think about it before I understood why the class existed. On my first read, I thought it was just a weird Cleric/Druid hybrid. Not quite. It is pretty interesting actually. I have a player that will be playing one soon, so I will get a chance to playtest it.
BSF
Explorer
OK, a little background for those that are not familiar with Occult Lore: It is a book on additional Magic. All sorts of stuff. I won't get into details on it all. The chapter on Dreams is titled Oneiromancy. It is 27 pages long with both OGC and PI. There are some really good ideas on using dreams in your campaign. On to the specifics...
The base mechanics revolve around the Lucid Dreaming skill. It is untrained and Wisdom based. All characters have Dream Points when they are in a dream. Dreams are just projections and you cannot be permanently killed in dreams. However, if you die in somebody else's dream, you may take subdual damage and temporary Wisdom damage. Combat basically works the same, except you are in a dream and the impossible is suddenly possible right? Enter the Lucid Dreaming skill.
Most classes get a limited number of dream points, 2 + Wis bonus as base, +1 + Wis bonus for every character level above 1st. Monks, Sorcerors and Wizards get twice as many to start, and 2 + Wis bonus per level above 1st. There is also the Oneiromancer PrC that gains 4 + Wis modifier for each level in the PrC. And a character with ranks in the Lucid Dreaming skill gets bonus dream points.
With Dream Points, you can try to alter your dream reality. You can modify the environment, you can give your weapons a greater threat range, you can mimic a skill, feat, or any spell affect, you can change your stats, and you can even modify die rolls. A lot you can do. Take an example of a well trained mage/oneiromancer that, in a dream combat, goes before everyone in the party and strikes out in a whirlwind attack, with his quarterstaff that is larger and has razor blades, knocking all the opponents down in the first round. That might surprise the fighters. Of course, when the tank suddenly starts flying, it might take everyone off guard as well.
Each attempt to do something different in a dream requires a roll of the Lucid Dreaming skill and the expenditure of Dream Points. There are limits as to how many Dream Points you can spend in a round.
Back to the dream world. You can adventure in somebody else's dream. One thing I am contemplating is having the characters adventure in the dream of one of their nemisis'. However, instead of having all their normal equipment, the villian is dreaming about them being trapped in his dungeon, without equipment, etc. Basically, in a bad situation. Then they can try to save themselves. In the process, they would have the chance to learn more about the villian. And if they won, it might really give the villian a shake about his "bad dream". It could be an interesting scenario. But, I digress. You can adventure in the dreams of just about anything. Obviously, for the dreams to be an interesting component of the game, it should be in the mind of something that has a story hook. Like the mind of the BBEG, or of a forgotten God. There are new magic items and a property called "Transient" that allows magic items to exist in dreams. The item has a different appearance in the dream world and it actually disappears from the real world when the owner begins dreaming. One idea seed is a quest to recover an artifact that is in the Dream World. The party must recover the item in whatever dream prison it is in and then bring it back to the real world. Some neat ideas actually. For combat variance, there are also some templates that you can apply to creatures to make them appropriate dream constructs. Think of a wolf with the Id Manifestation that is even more brutal, and vicious, and tough, than a normal wolf. That sort of thing.
I have basically highlighted the crunchy bits dealing with dreams. There is a lot of flavor text that I find to be good reading. The MSRP is $29.95 for Occult Lore so I would suggest taking a look at one of the reviews to see if the rest sounds useful to you. I won't use everything in the book for my games, but there is certainly enough that I will use that I think it is a good book.
I hope that helps some.
The base mechanics revolve around the Lucid Dreaming skill. It is untrained and Wisdom based. All characters have Dream Points when they are in a dream. Dreams are just projections and you cannot be permanently killed in dreams. However, if you die in somebody else's dream, you may take subdual damage and temporary Wisdom damage. Combat basically works the same, except you are in a dream and the impossible is suddenly possible right? Enter the Lucid Dreaming skill.
Most classes get a limited number of dream points, 2 + Wis bonus as base, +1 + Wis bonus for every character level above 1st. Monks, Sorcerors and Wizards get twice as many to start, and 2 + Wis bonus per level above 1st. There is also the Oneiromancer PrC that gains 4 + Wis modifier for each level in the PrC. And a character with ranks in the Lucid Dreaming skill gets bonus dream points.
With Dream Points, you can try to alter your dream reality. You can modify the environment, you can give your weapons a greater threat range, you can mimic a skill, feat, or any spell affect, you can change your stats, and you can even modify die rolls. A lot you can do. Take an example of a well trained mage/oneiromancer that, in a dream combat, goes before everyone in the party and strikes out in a whirlwind attack, with his quarterstaff that is larger and has razor blades, knocking all the opponents down in the first round. That might surprise the fighters. Of course, when the tank suddenly starts flying, it might take everyone off guard as well.
Each attempt to do something different in a dream requires a roll of the Lucid Dreaming skill and the expenditure of Dream Points. There are limits as to how many Dream Points you can spend in a round. Back to the dream world. You can adventure in somebody else's dream. One thing I am contemplating is having the characters adventure in the dream of one of their nemisis'. However, instead of having all their normal equipment, the villian is dreaming about them being trapped in his dungeon, without equipment, etc. Basically, in a bad situation. Then they can try to save themselves. In the process, they would have the chance to learn more about the villian. And if they won, it might really give the villian a shake about his "bad dream".
It could be an interesting scenario. But, I digress. You can adventure in the dreams of just about anything. Obviously, for the dreams to be an interesting component of the game, it should be in the mind of something that has a story hook. Like the mind of the BBEG, or of a forgotten God. There are new magic items and a property called "Transient" that allows magic items to exist in dreams. The item has a different appearance in the dream world and it actually disappears from the real world when the owner begins dreaming. One idea seed is a quest to recover an artifact that is in the Dream World. The party must recover the item in whatever dream prison it is in and then bring it back to the real world. Some neat ideas actually. For combat variance, there are also some templates that you can apply to creatures to make them appropriate dream constructs. Think of a wolf with the Id Manifestation that is even more brutal, and vicious, and tough, than a normal wolf. That sort of thing. I have basically highlighted the crunchy bits dealing with dreams. There is a lot of flavor text that I find to be good reading. The MSRP is $29.95 for Occult Lore so I would suggest taking a look at one of the reviews to see if the rest sounds useful to you. I won't use everything in the book for my games, but there is certainly enough that I will use that I think it is a good book.
I hope that helps some.
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Arkhandus
First Post
Regarding the Shaman animal companion replacement.... How about removing the Animal Friendship spell from the Shaman spell list (they don't really gain Magic Fang or similar spells to make their companions useful anyhow), and in its stead, give the Shaman a class ability to summon a Dream Reflection / Companion / Echo / Ally (whatever you'd like to call it.
The Dream Companion or whatever could appear to be like the Shaman, or maybe any desired form, depending on your preferences (i.e. if you call it a dream reflection or echo, it might be a part of the Shaman's soul or mind normally left behind in the Dream World when he awakens, or if you call it a dream companion or ally it might simply be an imaginary creature dreamed up by the Shaman and willed into reality). The Dream Companion ability would be a spell-like ability useable any number of times per day, requiring a full-round action to activate and drawing attacks of opportunity. It could be active for a total number of rounds per day equal to the Shaman's class level plus their Charisma modifier (and the round it is activated on counts towards that duration, but not the round it is deactivated on). De-activating the Dream Companion ability would be a free action, but could only be done at the start of the Shaman's own turn.
The Dream Companion would be a creature, which would gain its first action immediately after the Shaman who summoned it (though it could change its initiative order through refocusing, delaying, etc. as usual). It appears in whatever form, coloration, and so on desired by the Shaman at that time (each time it is summoned forth, it could take a different form and such if the Shaman desired), unless you make it a dream reflection/echo of the Shaman him/herself, in which case it would simply appear to be the Shaman with only minor differences reflecting its nature.
The Dream Companion would function statistically just like an Astral Construct (from the Psionics Handbook), except instead of being created from astral ectoplasm, it is created from the stuff of dreams (and magical in nature rather than psionic, so its special abilities would be magical instead of psionic as well). Astral Constructs can be shaped pretty freely when created, and can possess many different abilities each time, designated by their creator from a small list in the Psionics Handbook, so it could work well. Unlike an Astral Construct, it might have an intelligence score, constitution, etc. and might be of the Outsider type (with appropriate modifications to its base attack bonus, hit dice, immunities, and so on).
The type of Astral Construct you base the Dream Companion on would be determined by hit dice. Like an Animal Companion, the Dream Companion when summoned, could have up to twice as many hit dice as the Shaman him/herself, but not necessarily. The Shaman would summon a Dream Companion resembling an Astral Construct with hit dice as close as possible to that number of HD, but without going over that amount (Astral Constructs have no advancement, so they can't be made with more or less hit dice. Instead, each of the nine Astral Construct types has a certain number of hit dice and a certain number of special abilities).
You might choose to allow Shamans to instead summon any number of Dream Companions (aka Astral Constructs), of any mix of types, that don't exceed that hit die limit, each time they use the ability. For instance, each time a 1st-level Shaman activates Dream Companion, they could choose to summon either one 2nd-level Dream Companion (that is, equivalent to a 2nd-level Astral Construct: medium-sized, 2 hit dice, CR 1, and two minor astral construct special abilities), or they could summon two 1st-level Dream Companions (i.e. level 1 Astral Constructs, small-sized, 1 hit die each, CR 1/3 each, one minor ability each).
If you find that to be a little too weak, increase the duration to 1 minute per Shaman level + 1 minute per point of positive Charisma bonus, or something like that. Anyway, this is the best suggestion I can think of at the moment.
The Dream Companion or whatever could appear to be like the Shaman, or maybe any desired form, depending on your preferences (i.e. if you call it a dream reflection or echo, it might be a part of the Shaman's soul or mind normally left behind in the Dream World when he awakens, or if you call it a dream companion or ally it might simply be an imaginary creature dreamed up by the Shaman and willed into reality). The Dream Companion ability would be a spell-like ability useable any number of times per day, requiring a full-round action to activate and drawing attacks of opportunity. It could be active for a total number of rounds per day equal to the Shaman's class level plus their Charisma modifier (and the round it is activated on counts towards that duration, but not the round it is deactivated on). De-activating the Dream Companion ability would be a free action, but could only be done at the start of the Shaman's own turn.
The Dream Companion would be a creature, which would gain its first action immediately after the Shaman who summoned it (though it could change its initiative order through refocusing, delaying, etc. as usual). It appears in whatever form, coloration, and so on desired by the Shaman at that time (each time it is summoned forth, it could take a different form and such if the Shaman desired), unless you make it a dream reflection/echo of the Shaman him/herself, in which case it would simply appear to be the Shaman with only minor differences reflecting its nature.
The Dream Companion would function statistically just like an Astral Construct (from the Psionics Handbook), except instead of being created from astral ectoplasm, it is created from the stuff of dreams (and magical in nature rather than psionic, so its special abilities would be magical instead of psionic as well). Astral Constructs can be shaped pretty freely when created, and can possess many different abilities each time, designated by their creator from a small list in the Psionics Handbook, so it could work well. Unlike an Astral Construct, it might have an intelligence score, constitution, etc. and might be of the Outsider type (with appropriate modifications to its base attack bonus, hit dice, immunities, and so on).
The type of Astral Construct you base the Dream Companion on would be determined by hit dice. Like an Animal Companion, the Dream Companion when summoned, could have up to twice as many hit dice as the Shaman him/herself, but not necessarily. The Shaman would summon a Dream Companion resembling an Astral Construct with hit dice as close as possible to that number of HD, but without going over that amount (Astral Constructs have no advancement, so they can't be made with more or less hit dice. Instead, each of the nine Astral Construct types has a certain number of hit dice and a certain number of special abilities).
You might choose to allow Shamans to instead summon any number of Dream Companions (aka Astral Constructs), of any mix of types, that don't exceed that hit die limit, each time they use the ability. For instance, each time a 1st-level Shaman activates Dream Companion, they could choose to summon either one 2nd-level Dream Companion (that is, equivalent to a 2nd-level Astral Construct: medium-sized, 2 hit dice, CR 1, and two minor astral construct special abilities), or they could summon two 1st-level Dream Companions (i.e. level 1 Astral Constructs, small-sized, 1 hit die each, CR 1/3 each, one minor ability each).
If you find that to be a little too weak, increase the duration to 1 minute per Shaman level + 1 minute per point of positive Charisma bonus, or something like that. Anyway, this is the best suggestion I can think of at the moment.
Necropolis
First Post
Hi
If you guys want a good deal of cool information on the spectral plane you should buy the new book from bottled imp games , it will be released on 17th November and it's called :
The Lords Of The Night : Liches , It will give you information on the plane that the Arcane Live in , The Spectral Plane and full rules on how to use that plane in you campaign ...
Other then that if you like undeads and liches like me , it will give you everything that you ever wanted to know about liches , new types of liches and other cool things that you have never thought about , It's a very special book .
For more information you can go to the company site at :
http://www.bottledimpgames.com
And while you are there enter the forums and the chat , there are some realy cool guys out there and you will get answers to almost any Topic and of course D&D
If you guys want a good deal of cool information on the spectral plane you should buy the new book from bottled imp games , it will be released on 17th November and it's called :
The Lords Of The Night : Liches , It will give you information on the plane that the Arcane Live in , The Spectral Plane and full rules on how to use that plane in you campaign ...
Other then that if you like undeads and liches like me , it will give you everything that you ever wanted to know about liches , new types of liches and other cool things that you have never thought about , It's a very special book .
For more information you can go to the company site at :
http://www.bottledimpgames.com
And while you are there enter the forums and the chat , there are some realy cool guys out there and you will get answers to almost any Topic and of course D&D
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