Dusk: The World of Carthasana

[Celebrim]

A wizard with no con modifier will have 40 hit point on average, to a barbarian with an 18 con having 200, 5x as much. If the attacks of the monsters deal 20 points each, the wizard goes down in 2 hits, the barbarian in 10. But these are averages - because of the dice there's a spread, so a 10d6 damage trap could kill the wizard, but never seriously hurt the barbarian, roughly speaking.

Some amount of hit point divergence is ok, but I get the feeling that, for the longest time the game has been running on tradition here and not on math.

I think you would be mistaken in that assumption. In general, always take the assumption that the games traditions are, when you get down to the bottom of them, based on very extensive organic play testing regarding what works and that the math was often worked out in detail.

In particular, I think that under the 1e model it was entirely assumed that the difference between a fighter and a wizard's durability would be in large part defined by the fact that the wizard - while capable of phenomenal world shaking power - was always one bad round away from death, while a fighter classed individuals always had an extensive hit point cushion between it and death from anything of its expected challenge level.

In otherwords, it's was expected that the fighter would have 2, 3, or even 5 times the hit points of his wizard counterpart. You can see that the 1e game tried to force this by going so far as capping the constitution bonus available to wizards at +2 hit points per level. In this way, even a wizard with a high consitution would expect to be disadvantage in terms of hit points versus a fighter, and compared to a high level fighter would still have less than half has many hit points.

3e in my opinion was something of an abberation because constitution was relatively more important than HD, and resulted in practice in pretty tight hit point groupings at high level (due to the Christmas tree effect, among other factors). For example, a high level Wizard might a 22 Con, while the Barbarian might have a 24 Con, with the net result that the wizard had 8.5 h.p./HD, while the Barbarian had 13.5 h.p./HD. This in general meant that just when the Barbarian might expect to need a boost in power to stay in the spotlight with a spellcaster, the spellcaster was relatively catching up to the Barbarian's strengths.

First off. How many swings should an character take, on average, before dropping? 1? 2? 3?

It very much depends on the class. And in general, the answer I think is less dependent on swings, than on expected rounds before getting in trouble (no longer having a hit point cushion) when going toe to toe versus the expected foe. In traditionally, the wizard after going toe to toe versus the expected upper end foe (an orc perhaps at low level, a monster with a claw/claw/bite reutine at higher level) for only a single round, should now be worried (ei, death lurks in the next round). Whereas, it might be that the fighter can go 3 or 4 or even 5 rounds before now being worried, and certainly if he enters a fight unwounded he should have litte fear being killed outright by a single attack.

The separation of hit point scores remains tight across all levels, con being equal.

If you go for this design, as opposed to the more traditional wide spread regardless of level, then you must also accept that the overall epic power of spellcasters must be rolled down greatly compared to traditional D&D. Spells will need to be comparitively mundane, scarcely better than what can be accomplished by the application of an ordinary skill or attack (or alternatively, ordinary skill and attacks must because capable of supernatural and extreme consequences). Now, you seem to be going that way somewhat already, but just checking to make sure it is deliberate.

 

[Michael Morris]

True. Let's talk about damage loading

I'm wanting to go to a rather simple spread of weapon damage types. As with class hit dice weapon damage dice are d6, d8 or d10. Feats or races can raise or lower the dice to d4 or d12.

d6 weapons are light weapons by definition
d8 weapons are medium,
and d10 weapons are heavy.

A further simplication - a class' available weapons match their hit die. So if the class has a d6 hit die it can only use the d6 weapons.

The only problem is keeping weapon variety up - but if I can come up with a way to satisfy the problem I think it can work well. The very first problem to solve - why use a short sword over a dagger? Here's my crack at it.

Dagger - d6 - Piercing, Throwing (You can throw this weapon) no Parry (You cannot parry action with this weapon), speed 2

Short Sword - d6, speed 2, penetrating (this weapon can freely penetrate armor heavier than itself - normally weapons deal 1/2 damage when striking characters in armor that is heavier than the weapon).

So here we have a way to differentiate armor. Again, there are three levels of armor (light, medium, heavy) and classes normally equip armor of a weight equal to their class. Light weapons already deal less damage, but they become sorely over-matched when confronted with heavy armor. This gives a solid reason to equip heavier armors.

This again is fragmentary, but I think it's a servicable start. What about spell damage.

First spells are getting a natural nerf by having their damage set by the level they are cast at. A spell deals 1d6 damage per level it is prepared at as a base. Magic missiles deal up to 9d6 damage at 9th level (which requires a 24th level caster because of the slower progression). This is 31.5 damage average against 24th level opponents which will have 48 hit points before constitution and class are applied, but a wizard with a con of 10 would be clocking 64 hit points, or roughly twice the damage output of a 9th level spell. Meteor swarm will hit more targets - but it's damage output will be roughly the same. Basically, as spells go up in level they become more flexible and larger - but not more individually damaging as a rule.

Martial Techniques (which I'm still working on) will have similar damage scopes. However, these tend to occur near the close of the fight, while spells can open a fight.

Max spell level increases once every 3 levels on the chart. So by the time a damage die can be picked up the potential targets will be 6 hit points tougher. So as damage buckets wizards and sorcerers won't be the go to they once where. That said, they will be far more efficient at mook control than martial classes since their spells will be about the only way to hit multiple targets at range.

Which brings us to attack rolls and the like. I'm not certain I'm going to have an auto increase to these as a character goes up in level. Divergence is a problem in being able to hit a target as well. I'm pretty sure the baseline will be +1 to hit / 2 levels for all classes, and through feats and class abilities the fighter will have around a +5 to +10 bonus above this baseline.

But it's still up in the air.

 

[Michael Morris]

A bounce once in 9 days isn't too unreasonable. Haven't had time to work on this lately.

 

[Michael Morris]

Today I'll be looking at some spells, starting by their format. I want to have cleaner spell descriptions to work with and only list statistics for a spell when they vary from the norm.

Alignment
Spells have an alignment as has been discussed previously. The alignment of a spell is its thematic purpose and goal, as opposed to its mechanical outcome. Each color reflects the two classes that use that color, so Valra has excellent healing and protection (cleric/druid), Balcra has illusions, air/water elemental spells and divinations (bard/wizard), Sodra has death magic, necromantic and psionic attack magic (sorcerer/cleric), Shunra blasts stuff with fire and earth magic (sorcerer/wizard) and Abora has nature spells and restorative magic (bard/druid). The exact spells that fall on the lists will make this more clear. Spells can be gold, but for simplicity the first setting book will stay away from gold spells and effects.

School
For tradition the eight schools of magic remain, evocation, divination, transmutation, illusion, enchantment, conjuration, abjuration and necromancy. I will make some attempts to cull the breadth of transmutation effects - in previous editions the school had more spells than some pairs of schools combined.

Descriptors
Even more specific than school are the descriptors. These determine in general what affects the spell and what is affected by it. All fire spells will have common rules on their side effects, just as in 3e.

Minimum Level
In this new system spells have a minimum level at which they can be cast. As they go up in level they add extra damage dice.

Components
This entry will no longer be present on any spell. Instead, components is part of the casting class. Clerics must mutter holy incantations and present their holy symbol when casting, druids will use salves and reagents from nature, bards sing or play an instrument, wizards use wands or staves and sorcerers usually have no props and are essentially verbal and somatic. Specific spells might have props called out in their spell descriptions.

Casting Time
Here's an area where 3e started simple and got complex - swift action, immediate action, standard action, and so on. Rather than have a casting time line the spell's type determines it's casting speed. Most spells can be cast on a character's turn in combat, whereas a ritual spell must be cast outside of combat. A character's movement distance is reduced by the minimum level of the spell, so if you choose to use a fireball you can only move 9 squares on the turn you do that. Weapon speed works the same way.

Range
This will be simplified down to personal (obvious), 'touch' (also obvious), close (12 squares), encounter (around 100 yards, the area covered by most groups battle mats) or line of sight (which could be miles if your on top of a mountain.

Area/Effect:
Targets will called out on the range line. Only spells with an area will have this entry.

Duration
In my experience counting down durations is a formality - few fights rarely run more than 5 rounds. So, as in 4e, a spell will have durations of Instant, 1 round, 1 encounter, 1 hour and then up according to increments we are familiar with. This line will be omitted when it is instant or 1 encounter, the spell's description should make it clear as to which duration applies.

Defense
The ability score that defends against the spell - this is what was called saving throw. If there is no defense this line will be omitted. Dexterity, Constitution and Wisdom will be the most frequent entries substituting in for will, fortitude and reflex. Strength may defend against a spell that can be parried (one of the powers of shields in general is they allow strength to defend in place of dexterity), intelligence will defend against mental attacks that are wit based rather than will based.

Spell Resistance
This entry will be gone. How spell resistance works will be reworked.


So with that out of the way, here are some spell drafts - one for each color. Also, these spells will help to illustrate other mechanics I've been working on.

Infusion
Valran Conjuration [Healing]
Range: Touch

The touched creature recovers stamina equal to 1 hit die / spell level.
Ritual: The touched creature recovers all their stamina.
​

Our first example will be a stock cleric and druid spell. A character has a pool of health and stamina equal to their hit points. A character's stamina are what we currently use as hit points - as long as a character has any stamina he can act. At half stamina a character is staggered. Health replaces 'negative hit points'. As long as you have stamina, you lose stamina when attacked. When you've been reduced to health only every attack that hits you can knock you out and does real, lasting damage. Most characters have ways to recover stamina without a cleric or druid's help, but health is harder to recover once lost.

This spell gives an example of a modal spell that has two choices depending on how fast it is cast. Its more effective between combats, but situations may demand its use in combat.

One interesting new wrinkle is the effectiveness of the spell is tied somewhat to the target character class. A dwarf barbarian gains more stamina from this spell than an elven wizard would.

Magic Missile
Shunran Evocation [Force]
Range: Encounter

This spell conjures 1 missile per spell level which strikes living or animated targets unerringly for 1d4+1 hit points of damage. Each missile may be assigned to different targets, but all targets chosen must be in the same direction from the caster.

+0: The spell isn't unerring, but may damage non-living objects. The defense becomes Dexterity, and the damage increases to 1d6
+1: Change the spell descriptor from force to cold, fire, or electricity.
​

While 9d4+9 doesn't seem like a lot for a 9th level spell, call back to previous hit point discussions to see that characters do not have as many hit points as in editions past. 9d4+9 is 31.5 average damage. This is from a 24th level character. A 24th level dwarf barbarian's hit points will be 79, so 31.5 is about 40% of that, and the max roll of 45 is over half damage. So the spell remains a constant threat.

Magic Missile also presents our first spell with level options. Each option may change the level of the spell. A +1 option means the spell must be prepared or cast 1 level higher, and that level doesn't count towards the spell level. So if you take the +1 option above and prepare magic missile at 2nd level it would still deal 1d4+1 damage, but it will be fire damage. This is still edge useful against creatures that take double damage from fire attacks. There are global options that can be applied to any spell that I'll discuss in a future post.

Bolster
1st level Aboran Enchantment [Enhancement]
Range: Touch

You bolster a touched creature's physical attributes for an encounter by +1 / spell level, divided however you choose. No attribute may receive more than a +5 bonus.

+2: The spell's range becomes close and you may divide the effect among the creatures in range.
+2: You may bolster yourself for a day.

​

So at 9th level a +5 / Strength, +4 to Constitution is possible. Or you can do without a 9th level slot to have a +5 to strength +2 to con. Fair? At this point it should be clear how multiple spells are going to be subsumed into one flexible entry.

Clairvoyance
1st level Balcran Ritual Divination [Scrying]
Duration: 1 round

You may see from any point as if you where standing there at a distance of 10 ^ (spell level - 1) miles. (So, 1 mile at first, 10 miles at 2nd, 100 at 3rd and so on).

+1: You may smell as well
+2: You may hear as well

​

This spell gets better by orders of magnitude, becoming planetary in scale around 6th level when the characters are 15th level. Still, it's a six second vision barring other metamagic feats.

This is also the first ritual spell that doesn't have a combat mode associated with it as infusion did.

Infliction
1st level Sodran Necromancy
Range: Touch
Defense: Constitution 1/2

The touched creature is dealt 1d8 damage / spell level, you gain half that amount as stamina (Stamina gained beyond your maximum disappears at the end of the encounter).
​

Finally Sodra. While unable to heal, its willing to steal.

Hopefully this first crop will make clear where I'm planning to go.

 

[Michael Morris]

I'm not sure of the role of metamagic feats yet, but I have attributes that should be applicable to any spell for the cost listed. As seen in the spell descriptions above all spells have attributes that are custom to them that can be appended to them.

One thought is that perhaps sorcerers could learn these feats directly and apply them to any of the spells they know, but wizards would learn these as part of a new spell in their book and each spell with the variation would count as a specific spell for them. Not sure..

But while that's mulled over, here are the universal modifiers.

Keep in mind that when a modifier is applied to a spell, the levels in the modifier do NOT count towards the spell's prepared level for damage. So, an encounter based magic missile does only 1d4+1 damage even though it occupies a 2nd level slot.

/2 Encounter Spell: The spell can be used once per encounter. When this modifier is applied divide the spell level in half and round down. If this results in 0 this modifier can't be applied to the spell.

/3 At Will Spell: The spell can be used at will, once per round. When this modifier is applied divide the spell level in third and round down. If this results in 0 this modifier can't be applied to the spell.

+1 Widen: Increase the area of effect. If the spell is personal, you may deliver it by touch. If touch you may deliver it at close range. Further purchases of this attribute increase the number of targets by 1 each.

+2 Elemental Trick: Change the elemental type of a spell from any of the following to any of the following: force, fire, cold, electricity, nectrotic, sonic, acid.

 

[Michael Morris]

A one person thread is spam, so if there are no comments on the following I'll be letting the thread die.

Here's the playtest version of the powers system the martial characters get.

Powers fill a similar role to spells for casters. However, where a spell caster can use a spell anytime he has the slot open/prepared, a power is only available when its situation requirements are met. Playing towards setting up those situations should give each of the five martial classes a different feel in combat.

Many (though not all) powers have a power point cost. This is akin to a spell level in gauging how much impact the power has. A character must pay the point cost of the power to use it. As he gets better at using the power the cost can be reduced to 1. A character gains power points through activities in combat. When a character rests power points are lost and stamina is restored, setting up a tension in the decision to rest.

How you gain power points depends on your class. Each class has two ways to gain power points, one for each alignment. Each class therefore shares a way to gain power points with one other class.

Valra (Gold): The two Valran classes, monk and fighter, gain a power point for each successful hit they land on foes.

Balcra (Blue): The rogue and the monk gain a power point each time they use a skill in combat or succeed at evading an attack.

Sodra (Violet): The ranger and rogue gain a power point for each advantage attack they make (higher ground, opponent flat footed or flanked, etc)

Shunra (Red): The fighter and barbarian gain a power point every time they are hit.

Abora (Green): The ranger and barbarian gain a power point for each attack on them beyond the first (keep in mind most creatures at all levels attack only once).

These aren't set in stone, and I don't particularly like the Aboran one so would love a better suggestion.

A character can have a number of power points equal to 3 + 1/2 character level (round down). A character starts with 0 power points.


Powers are aligned like spells. The rules for off color powers and spells are still up in the air.


Crushing Blow
Cost: 1

Attack deals 50% extra damage. This damage will be dealt even if the attack misses.


Sneak Attack
Cost: X

You deal 1d6 extra damage / power point spent to a foe you have advantage against.


Focus Attack
Cost: 3

Cancel the next normal attack by a foe and attack them. If they would have miss you gain a bonus to hit and damage equal to the margin they missed by.


First Strike
Cost: 1

Entering your threatened squares provokes an attack of opportunity (normally it does not). If you hit, the foe's movement is checked (it stops on the square they where in before entering the threatened square).


Whirlwind Attack
Cost: 4

Attack all threatened creatures.



Keep in mind these are a very early draft. The point costs need a lot of testing.

 

[Ramaster]

Sorry that I can't comment much, but I always read/look forward to these updates on Dusk. Please, don't dump this, I would really appreciate it!

 

[Michael Morris]

Two more Spells

Spectral Armor
1st level Valran Abjuration [enhancement]
Range: Personal

The touched creature gains a +1 enhancement bonus to AC for the encounter.

/3 Ritual: The spell effect lasts the full day.


Regeneration
1st level Aboran Ritual Conjuration

The touched creature gains 1d4 health / level of the spell.
+1: Cure blindness or deafness
+2: Cure loss of fingers or toes
+3: Cure loss of hands, feet, eyes or ears
+4: Cure loss of limbs.

 

[Ramaster]

Cool, I like the armor spell. Will you consider using "Augments" on the spell to increase the AC bonus?

+2: +1 AC
+4: +2 AC

So on and so forth. I like the Ritual option.


I really dig the Healing Spell (bearing in consideration the difference between Health and Stamina in your game.) I might consider upping the lvl to 2 or 3 (maybe give a cheap material component, like 20 GP or something, to give a nod to the ACTUAL re-composition of living tissue and injuries).

 

[Cor Azer]

Abora (Green): The ranger and barbarian gain a power point for each attack on them beyond the first (keep in mind most creatures at all levels attack only once).

These aren't set in stone, and I don't particularly like the Aboran one so would love a better suggestion.

Perhaps something movement related? Gain a power point when engaging a new enemy (encourages tha barbarian to run around battlefield or the ranger to stalk new targets).

Also, very much enjoying the designer/development insights.