E6 SRD - community project

[Lord Xtheth]

Well, with the help of any of you who contributed to the spell descriptions, my Alpha stage E6RPG "book" is ready to have it's first read through and edit.
That should keep me occupied for a little bit.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Well, with the help of any of you who contributed to the spell descriptions, my Alpha stage E6RPG "book" is ready to have it's first read through and edit.

Already! That's zippy work!

I'm focusing on this srd for now-- at least until its alpha-- but I might be able to take a look a little later down the line.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Ok, for the files/rules discussed above, let's go with the following:

PRESTIGE CLASSES: Go ahead and put the few prestige classes in the SRD, just to maintain compatibility. I believe those are: Assassin, Dragon Disciple, Horizon Walker. If presented as examples, then hopefully it won't seem quite so odd. Still, we might roll back this decision, or decide to include a couple of the "almost" E6 classes for "lean-up" or gestalt games (as those are mentioned in the original E6 doc), but that's unlikely.

TRAPS: As the file in post#62, assuming review at some point.

TREASURE: Truncate the tables presented at EL12, assuming monsters get trunc'd at CR10 or 12. Treasures beyond that level in a strict E6 game are likely to be very special and not suitable for a randomizing table, anyway.

If someone wants to tackle any of this before I get to it, go ahead. Let's use the same system as before, with file, status and comments. I'll maintain the master progress list in post#60, using the same conventions as before. And I'll continue posting discussion points as we move along, so folks can chime in whenever.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

file: Prestige Classes

file: Prestige Classes

status: awaiting proofread

comment:
Assassin, Dragon Disciple and Horizon Walker are the three core PrCs that seem to be attainable by PCs in the strictest E6. Removed all other PrCs, as well as chopped down remaining tables and feature lists to one level.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

file: Treasure

file: Treasure

status: awaiting proofread

comment:
I simply truncated the relevant tables at EL12.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Another call for input, and more stuff to start thinking about....

FEATS

These are split across two files: feats for PCs, and feats limited to monsters. I think the simplest thing to do at this point is just to sort out the feats that strict E6 PCs cannot attain, and move those over to the Monster Feats (but keeping them categorized). The E6-specific feats in Stoughton's original doc will have to be added in, as well.

At some point (after monsters are sorted out, I suppose), we'll have to completely remove any unused feats. However, aside from really obvious non-E6 ones, tracking down those unreferenced feats might be a hassle and something to keep an eye on in the long term.

[edit] Also, should we include the General feats from other WotC Divine, Epic, and Psionics rules? (I believe there are fewer than 10 that I can find at d20srd.org, iirc. Actually, I just counted, and there are actually roughly 25 E6-appropriate feats from other WotC ogc.) Ordinarily, I'd say no; however, because E6 is very feat-dependent, and because these are "official" WotC OGC, I'd like to consider this.

Any other ideas, comments or suggestions on how to handle/approach feats?


MONSTERS

Ugh. This could get messy. For starters, I think we ought to simply chop at some arbitrary CR, then add/delete later. I'm leaning toward CR12 (because those are solidly "overpowering" at ordinary 6th level), but I'm open to other opinions. According to the database at Pen, Paper and Pixel, there are 586 monster statblocks in the SRD (not really a monster count, but it's the quickest number I could come up with). Chopping at CR12 drops that to 486, whereas chopping at CR10 drops it to 448. Not a lot of difference.

Ideally, this will get pared down further by selecting other criteria to narrow things down (eg, spells referenced)-- but after skimming the various "MonstersA-Z" files, plus the two "SpecialAbility" files, I'm realizing that this will be difficult; we'll likely have to return to this a few times to get it internally consistent.

So for now, I think cutting at a specific CR is good enough, if only so we can continue making progress and get to that First Draft stage. But in the meantime, be thinking about how to further prune the monster list down; and how/whether to reference monster special abilities or powers that reference non-E6 spells, class features, or other excised material.

Seriously, I'm more than happy to hear any and all suggestions on this, because it's potentially a big headache!

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Here's a first shot at arranging the feats according to E6 restrictions.

The first two sections are the SRD Feats and Monster Feats, but with higher-level feats moved over to Monster Feats. (Fwiw, only 10 feats moved so fas as I could find with a quick search.) The second group consists of Stoughton's suggested E6 feats. The groups after that are the E6-appropriate General feats from the Divine and Psionics rules (there were no new ones from the Epic rules).[sblock]SRD E6-APPROPRIATE FEATS

___General Feats
o Acrobatic
o Agile
o Alertness
o Animal Affinity
o Armor Proficiency (Light)
+ Armor Proficiency (Medium)
# Armor Proficiency (Heavy)
o Athletic
o Augment Summoning
o Blind-Fight
o Combat Casting
o Combat Expertise
+ Improved Disarm
+ Improved Feint
+ Improved Trip
+ Whirlwind Attack
o Combat Reflexes
o Deceitful
o Deft Hands
o Diligent
o Dodge
+ Mobility
# Spring Attack
o Endurance
+ Diehard
o Eschew Materials
o Exotic Weapon Proficiency
o Extra Turning
o Great Fortitude
o Improved Counterspell
o Improved Familiar (? borderline ?)
o Improved Initiative
o Improved Turning
o Improved Unarmed Strike
+ Deflect Arrows
+ Improved Grapple
+ Snatch Arrows
o Investigator
o Iron Will
o Leadership (but must modify table)
o Lightning Reflexes
o Magical Aptitude
o Martial Weapon Proficiency
o Mounted Combat
+ Mounted Archery
+ Ride-By Attack
# Spirited Charge
+ Trample
o Natural Spell
o Negotiator
o Nimble Fingers
o Persuasive
o Point Blank Shot
+ Far Shot
+ Precise Shot
+ Rapid Shot
# Manyshot
+ Shot On The Run
o Power Attack
+ Cleave
# Great Cleave
+ Improved Bull Rush
+ Improved Overrun
+ Improved Sunder
o Quick Draw
o Rapid Reload
o Run
o Self-Sufficient
o Shield Proficiency
+ Improved Shield Bash
+ Tower Shield Proficiency,
o Simple Weapon Proficiency
o Skill Focus
o Spell Focus
+ Greater Spell Focus
o Spell Mastery
o Spell Penetration
+ Greater Spell Penetration
o Stealthy
o Toughness
o Track
o Two-Weapon Fighting
+ Two-Weapon Defense
+ Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
o Weapon Finesse
o Weapon Focus
+ Weapon Specialization

___Item Creation Feats
o Brew Potion
o Craft Magic Arms And Armor
o Craft Wand
o Craft Wondrous Item
o Scribe Scroll

___Metamagic Feats
o Empower Spell
o Enlarge Spell
o Extend Spell
o Heighten Spell
o Maximize Spell (? borderline utility; only applicable to cantrips)
o Silent Spell
o Still Spell
o Widen Spell (? borderline utility; only applicable to cantrips)


SRD MONSTER FEATS

o Ability Focus
o Awesome Blow
o Craft Construct
o Empower Spell-Like Ability
o Flyby Attack
+ Improved Flyby Attack
o Hover
o Improved Natural Armor
o Improved Natural Attack
o Multiattack
+ Improved Multiattack
o Multiweapon Fighting
+ Improved Multiweapon Fighting
# Greater Multiweapon Fighting
o Quicken Spell-Like Ability
o Snatch
o Wingover

___plus those moved over from the normal feats section:
- Stunning Fist
- Improved Precise Shot
- Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
- Greater Weapon Focus
- Greater Weapon Specialization
- Craft Rod
- Craft Staff
- Quicken Spell


E6-SPECIFIC FEATS FROM STOUGHTON'S DOC (7)

Expanded Spell Knowledge
Expanded Caster Stamina
Restoration
Stone to Flesh
Wondrous Rings

Ability Training
Ability Advancement


FEATS FROM WotC OGC DIVINE RULES (18)

Blindsight, 5ft
Energy Substitution
Extra Music
Eyes in the Back of Your Head
Fleet of Foot
Hold the Line
Jack of All Trades
Knock-Down
Persistent Spell
Plant Control
Plant defiance
Power Critical
Reach Spell
Repeat Spell
Sacred Spell
Sharp-Shooting
Subdual Substitution
Superior Expertise


FEATS FROM WotC OGC EPIC RULES
(I believe all of these are already included among the SRD Monster Feats)


FEATS FROM WotC OGC PSIONIC RULES (7)

Deadly Precision
Greater Manyshot
Open Minded
Rapid Metabolism
Reckless Offense
Sidestep Charge
Stand Still[/sblock]All the funky symbols are cut'n'paste artifacts. Please let me know if anything looks amiss.

And now that the actual list of (technically) non-SRD WotC OGC feats is out there, do they look worthy of inclusion at this point, or should they be kept on hold, until we get around to an expanded SRD with variant rules?

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

more thoughts on...

MONSTERS

After thinking more about it and briefly looking over the monster list, it's looking like it might easier to make the cutoff at a lower CR (for ex, at CR6, which shows 325 monsters in the PPP database) then add monsters to the list, rather than define a high CR cutoff and delete a lot of monsters.

In either case, the most serious issue definitely appears to be determining how to include which monster spells/spell-likes that are excluded from PC use in the strictest E6 rule set. Holding to only 6th level PC rules cuts out many otherwise excellent E6 creatures; but allowing higher-level powers means we have to decide exactly how they should be included (eg, a "Monster Spells" section? Inlined in the monster description text? Tweak the monsters to fit E6, or a "conversion guide" for each monster? or...?).

Anyway, we're still not quite ready to actually start editing Monster files yet, just thinking about approaches at the moment. As always, I'd love to here others' input and perspective on any of this!

Also, apologies for the long monologue of posts, here!

 

[Lord Xtheth]

What I was thinking about with monsters is updating them, cleaning them up and including all the rules that pertain to them in their stat block. Taking 4e monsters as an example of how it should look. Don't change anything, so it is still compatable, but make sure all the rules for the monster are included with the monster.
It'll take a little bit of work, but thats my plan for when I get to "my" E6Monsters write up.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I definitely think updating the statblocks to a more modern and inclusive style is in order-- especially for "public" presentations (eg, books or online references). I do worry a bit about extra-long statblocks, especially for creatures with caster levels, and/or complex Types and a Subtype or two. Even a modest, low-level outsider has a lot of references to references to references in their descriptions; when "unfolded" into a single statblock, that becomes quite wordy. But hopefully it's doable with some clever formatting.

Of course, that's also a pretty good argument for including fewer monsters, rather than statting up the kitchen sink....

Gah, one problem always leads to another, doesn't it! For the time being, I guess we'll just collate the info itself, and organize it later.