d4 campaign

[Zhure]

I'm preparing to take over the rotating DM duties in a few weeks and I've decided upon a campaign idea I've been working on for awhile. The premise is a bit contrived but since it isn't a long-term campaign I'm not too concerned.

Each of the PC's has to be a d4 class (Psion, Wizard, Specialist, Sorcerer) to belong to the Order. The Order basically runs the entire civilized world.

A thousand years ago a cataclysm rocked about half the known world and left some weird magical zones. To enter into these badlands can cause serious mental harm to anyone not disciplined in the arcane arts (i.e., the d4 dudes). The badlands are full of bestial creatures, like orcs, who were once human fighters and such, and their descendants live on.

Divine casters are all defunct, as their gods stopped granting powers when the cataclysm occured. So Rangers and Paladins are also not around.

To make this playable, I've introduced a few things:

* Way stations - anyone from the Order can re-equip in these forts in the badlands. Mundane only.

* Mage Heal - As members of the Order, anyone can swap out for a healing spell, that does 1d4 per caster level (up to 5d4) any spell except specialist bonus spells, like a cleric can spontaneously cast a Cure Spell.

* A powerful artifact can cast certain regenerative healing and resurrection spells, that the Order will do for free for any member.

These are all things I've established to make it a workable campaign and a fun campaign, and the players seem excited with lots of ideas for characters.

What I'm looking for is:
1- more ideas to implement why there aren't any non-d4 good guys wandering around the badlands (as the mental disablities seem a bit cheesy).

2- ways to make the campaign run smoother.

Any help would be good.

Thanks!
Greg

 

[Mark]

Find a reason to halve all melee/physical damage...

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

Find a reason to halve all melee/physical damage...

Truth.

Or...

1-- You could posit that these d4 types generate a field of a certain radius (when alive!) that protects mundanes from these harmful effects.

This would open up the possibility of allowing Fighters, Rogues, etc. to accompany them--and talk about a motivation for protecting the d4's at all costs!

This could also set up some other interesting situations, for example...

The Rogue might have to leave the protective radius in order to climb an obstacle and effect the party's escape from otherwise certain death--will he make it in time, or will he expire mere inches from the lever?

2-- No multi-classing d4's with the mundane classes. You can assume that the extreme mental discipline required precludes such lack of focus. If you dislike this approach, perhaps you could instead merely reduce the damage done over a given exposure for those who have dabbled in the art.

 

[Kyramus]

a d4 character would probably have high mental capacity.
I don't see why you couldn't have the brawns around.

I can see barbarians with their INT and WIS and CHA limited to around 12.

---
Back to topic:

suggestion:
Set up d4 characters. Like a d4 fighter, where all the feats gained have to be fluid instead of power attacking.


Thoughts:
why are there no non-d4 characters. Are we to assume experts nobles and the like don't exist? Which means by default d4 is the highest player/humanoid class or race HD.

With that in mind, you might want to put peasants as level 1 of the d4 characters. It should hinder players from just killing these people outright.

The reason why they are safe is that the combined total energy within the city based on their psion/arcane abilities protects the city and possibly an area outside of it.
sorcerers and wizards have been trying to extend this influence further in hopes to find others.

I'd say a cataclysm of this nature not only made the gods leave, but possibly dumped a huge radiation factor on the world. Maybe this causes damage for anyone outside the protective area that is not a d4 character. This would imply that rogues, fighters, barbarians are either crazy when encountered, or mutated into the monsters that these people face.

"The orcs from outside the city are trying to get in again"
"Hey that one looks like my grand pa from before the gods left. nah it couldn't be, he should have been dead by now"
"Watch out, he's throwing a rock at you"

 

[willpax]

You may also want to increase the effectiveness and duration of some of the buff spells (and cross list them from cleric spells, perhaps) to create some kind of melee ability. Come to think of it, you might consider cross listing nearly all of the divine spells into arcane.

I like the idea of everyone (peasants included) having to concentrate to keep this mystical insanity at bay. The d4 classes are those individuals who have the ability to project a kind of individual protection (where most people must do all they can to keep the group protection going).

I envision a world of isolated, walled communities of desperate survivors. Perhaps the waystations aren't stations so much as areas of good farmland between seas of unspeakable chaos. Within the protected zones you could have fighters, etc., but they would be severly limited outside the zone.

That said, if you wanted to create a loophole to allow more melee oriented classes and you use a point buy system, you could simply set some level of combined mental stat bonuses (say, a total of +8 to allow a d6 class, and a total of +10 for a d8 class, and so on) would give that player the ability to maintain proper mental and physical conditioning outside of the protected areas. That would have the effect of creating skill-centered noncasting PCs (as I imagine INT would be the skill many would find most useful).

Alternately, you could require some kind of saving throw every so often to resist the effects of the area and allow d4 classes to add their level to their save.

This could be a lot of fun.

 

[F5]

To expand on the ideas that Willpax had:

Concentration checks. In order to maintain ones' sanity in the Badlands, the character must make periodic Concentration checks.

Say that when the gods were wiped from the material realm in the cataclysm, they left behind a spiritual rent in the fabric of reality, causing the badlands. The epicenters of the badlands act like a Black Hole, that draws a character's spirit and sanity away, and can only be resisted by force of will.

Give it a DC of 10 or 15 or so, every hour. Make the DC go up considerably, the closer you get to the Epicenters. On the outskirts, it should be pretty easy for a character with Concentration to make (and mostly, only d4-types will have the concentration skill, if clerics, paladins and Rangers aren't around). A character without Concentration will make maybe half of the checks but will eventually succumb to madness and degeneracy. The actual effects of failing a check could be Ability damage, or negative levels, or something similar. Being reduced to 0 by failing multiple checks turns you into a soulless creature of the Badlands.

Maybe to make it easier on the players (and not have to remember to roll periodic concentration checks), say that X ranks in spellcraft/psicraft lets you take 10 on these concentration checks. This gives the characters a limited distance they can go into the Badlands safely, which increases as they go up in level and their Concentration skills get better. It also gives you the option of the NPC rogue with a good Concentration skill, that's been living in the badlands for months, barely hanging onto the last thread of his sanity.

 

[MerakSpielman]

The Elements of Magic netbook might work really well for this setup.

 

[drnuncheon]

Each of the PC's has to be a d4 class (Psion, Wizard, Specialist, Sorcerer) to belong to the Order. The Order basically runs the entire civilized world.

A thousand years ago a cataclysm rocked about half the known world and left some weird magical zones. To enter into these badlands can cause serious mental harm to anyone not disciplined in the arcane arts (i.e., the d4 dudes).

OK...one big question you'll have to answer is multiclassing. If a 1st level psion is OK wandering around out there, why not a Psion1/FtrX?

I think it's a neat idea for a setting but you may be restricting it too much with the d4 classes - it could easily handle non-d4 classes, although you might want to make the arcane effects based on Will saves to encourage people to either MC or take will-boosting feats.

If I wanted a 'd4 class only' game, I think I'd set it at a magic school - just require that everyone be students and you're home free.

J

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

Re: Re: d4 campaign

OK...one big question you'll have to answer is multiclassing. If a 1st level psion is OK wandering around out there, why not a Psion1/FtrX?

This is something I alluded to in my earlier post.

Building on some of the other ideas presented...

"Pure" d4 types would be immune to the effects (perhaps projecting a field of a certain radius).

Mundanes would have to make a Save at various intervals.

Mundanes with 1 or more levels in the art would gain a bonus to this save for each level in a d4 class, and/or make these saves at reduced intervals.

 

[Zhure]

I'd like to thank everyone for the ideas. I've gotten lots of inspiration.

Thanks!
Greg