Homebrews - Stealing the best - what to steal?

[Nightfall]

Agreed! It's got great spellcasting power, great fighting power (well decent anyway but still better than Warmage!), and really cool class abilities.

If I had to change anything about Mageblade, it would only be their BAB. But that's nominal for me.

 

[RichGreen]

More stuff I've remembered:

* Litorians and magisters from AU/AE in Zazesspur (FR)
* Races, monsters & magic from Nyambe in the jungles of Hepmonaland (Greyhawk)
* City map of Azadmere (Harn) for Havenhill in the Principality of Ulek (Greyhawk)

There's a lot more.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That reccomendation on Litorans is not only seconded, it reminds me:

For those who like using "monsters" as PC races, the AU/AE method is slightly superior to the Savage Species way. In SS, a monster PC has to take all of its racial levels before taking a PC class level. In AU/AE, there are still racial levels to take, but they are entirely optional.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

To expand things further, don't dismiss lifting from other games & systems.

Palladium RPG/Heroes Unlimited/RIFTS for instance, is often ridiculed for its clunky rules- heck, I like the games, and I think some of them are horrid- but there are a LOT of good roleplaying/campaign world/race/class type ideas there that could be ported into your game. For example, check out Dremmen's thread about Palladium's Wolfen.

GURPS- a game I dislike intensely- has some of the best researched & fleshed out "historical" game supplements out there. If a game store is having a sale, I always check out whether SJG stuff is on sale. GURPS Martial Arts is one of the best supplements of its kind out there.

Space 1889 is full of all kinds of cool stuff culled from/inspired by the Victorian era and the work of writers like HG Wells and Jules Verne. IMHO, its better (in flavor and depth, at least) than the conceptually related games Etherscope (a D20 game) and For Faerie, Queen and Country (Alternity)- both fine games in their own right, BTW.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hmmm...the more I think, the more I remember...

From DCv1, you should use the Battledancer, the weapons, and the Feats (at the very least, the Bloodline feats & the ones for Polearms).

AU/AE has some nice feats, too- Hands as Weapons springs immediately to mind. It lets an unarmed combat specialist enhance his unarmed attacks just like manufactured weapons. IOW, imagine your Monk (or Oathsworn, if you're using that class) with Shocking Burst Thundering fists...or with Undead Bane Disruption fists. The caster feats are nice as well- some improve your healing ability, others pump damage output, but not in the way PHB Metamagic feats do- they're more akin to Favored Enemy or Domain type bonuses.

AU/AE also has nice rules for varying the power of a spell as well as for using special material components to improve or otherwise alter the potency of a spell. Most AU/AE spells can be cast as lesser or more powerful versions than the standard version- almost like built in Metamagic feats would. Using superior or inferior material components can do much the same.

 

[Nightfall]

Had a lot to say today huh Danny?

But that's cool. I'm glad someone is promoting the excellence of not just d20 but AE/AU. It's a great system and some very great things that can be used in any d20/D&D game.

*liked Battledancer too but loved Death Master* Are you that surprised?

 

[Nyaricus]

Hey Psion, great thread here!

Note here... I'm not just talking about races.

Okay, for classes, here are my suggestions:

The Bruiser from EN World. Best acultural smack-down class ever. Think fighter meets monk with one of that clunky oriental feel.

Pretty much anything by Shadowfoot from the Wizards Boards. This guy has made hundreds of feats tons of PrCs and some very good base classes. Highly recommended. Check out the Swashbuckler class if you want a nice take on it

Villains... I've used Cult of the Dragon with the serial numbers filed off before. What good villains do other settings have.

Well, here's one I recently thought up of: Have you ever heard of the Black Circle? When the black metal scene was in it's heyday in Norway, there was this group of musicians and associates focued around the bands Mayhem and Burzum were a scary group of people. The singer of Mayhem, "Dead" (a psuedonym) was fasinated with death (after nearly dying as a child), and wore distinctive "death paint" (see pic in sblock below). There were many rumours of devil-worship, there were church burnings (some set by black metal musicians and some by their associates in the scene), there was the eventual suicide of Dead, who shot himself in the head with a shotgun (his band-mate Euronymous, instead of calling the cops, ran down to a corner store, bought a camera, and took pictures [later to be used as an album cover], and also supposedly made a stew from some brian matter; plus skull fragments were used to make necklaces. Lyrically, there was a focus on the bleak, the nihilistic, satanism, paganism, the occult, evilness, darkness, death, and all sorts of other nasty stuff.

Going with that, I'd suggest a Chaotic Evil villian cult, into ritual sacrifice, death and demon-worship, and comprimised of CE fighters, barbarians, dread necormancers, evil clerics of death, descruction or demon gods, and a large, underground network of associates who crusade against other, goodly churches, life itself, and goodness in general. Their leader could be a lich, or a vampire - some sort of powerful undead who hates life and wishes to crush humanity and all other intelligent races under his unforgiving, iron heel; afterwhich he will kill himself. He has to immortal (so he may see his plan through for as long as needed), and his cause has to be far reaching and depraved in the most unsettling of senses. He would use undead, demons, devil, yugoloths, possibly even far realm creatures as a part of his plan - what or whoever despises life to no end. He hates himself, but has an unquenchable hate of is enemies which is even larger than he. Y'know, stuff like that
[sblock=Dead, Mayhem's Vocalist]

[/sblock]

Hope that one helps

Deities? Being too busy to work at a pantheon right now

There was a thread awhile back which wished that there was fewer gods in Faerun. The following is the article which I wrote up for it, and is easily enough adapted for other worlds. You could potentually just "file off the serial numbers" and have a set of 20-30 gods and goddesses for you world. In any case, here you are:

Fewer Faerun Deities

20-30 deities... *rolls up sleeves*... lets see what we can do here...

okay, first off, we want the 4 elemental lords and ladies:

• Akadi (air)
• Grumbar (earth)
• Istishia (water)
• Kossuth (fire)

reasoning: D&D puts a lot of importance into the elements, so we might as well get 'em out of the way, right? Eldath and Umberlee were both subsumed by Istishia and Talos (with Talos getting the destructive part of the portfolio) during an epic battle during the time of troubles in which Istishia took them both out. Likewise, Valkur was killed during the Time of Troubles and Istishia again stepped in and took his portfolio - though Talos nabbed soem of his followers too. They are all still Greater Gods.

Then we have the seasonal deities:

• Auril (winter)
• Lathander (spring)
• Chauntea (summer)
• Mielikki (autumn)

reasoning: it only makes sense to have a god for every season: so here they are. Ulutiu was finally killed by Auril. Lurue was subsumed by Mielikki after being killed by Malar during the Time of Troubles. Auril is still a Lesser God, Mielikki is still Intermediate, Lathander is Still a Greater God and Chauntea is still Greater as well.

Then we have the gods of life and death:

• Lathander (life)
• Kelemvor (death)

reasoning: people are born and people do die, so these gods make sense. Jergals portfolio gets subsumed by Kelemvor. Both are still Greater Gods.

Then we have the deities of the sun and the moon:

• Lathander (sun)
• Selune (moon)

reasoning: these are around as well, so these deities stay. lathander is a Greater God, Selune is still Intermediate.

Then we have the deities of good and bad luck:

• Beshaba (bad)
• Tymora (good)

Alternatively, you could use the old deity Tyche which was both good and bad luck before being split in half. Both are still Intermediate. If using Tyche, then Greater.

The we have the gods of Justice and of Tyranny:

• Torm
• Bane

reasoning: these two had the big duke-out in the Time of Troubles, so ret-con it and say that Torm took over the Triad when he fought Bane, and the two other gods gave Torm all their power and their portfolios too - and a bunch of minor deities helped out as well. Thus, Torm has taken over Tyr, Imater, Red Knight and Siamorphe. During the battle Bane forced Gargauth and Loviatar to give him their powers during this battle, and even killed Oghma to try to find out how to kill Torm - though he still lost in the end (Azuth came and got the knowledge part of the portfolio before Bane could and Bane didn't want any of the other parts of the portfolio). Bane was pretty peeved at this, and after he killed and took over from his son, Iyachtu Xvim, Bane killed Hoar and took on the portfoilos of revenge and retribution. Torm has now swelled up to being a Greater God from a Lesser, and Bane is still a Greater God.

*whew* that was a good 10 gods and goddess down

Then we have some nature deities:

• Malar
• Shaundakul
• Talos
• Silvanus

Malar killed many during the Time of Troubles: Shillia and Lurue first, whos portfolios were largely taken by Chauntea, as well as Nobanion and Sharess who were making kittens in a thicket when Malar came in and slaughtered them. He then went down to Chult and ripped out Ubtaos heart at the top of a pyramid, taking over his portfolios.
Shaundakul subsumed both Finder and Gwaeron throughout the Time of Troubles, when it became apparent that they wouldn't be able to defend themselves if they ran into Malar.
Talos took over much of Umberlees church when she was killed by Istishia, and even siphoned off a bit of Valkurs followers.
Silvanus witnessed Malar killing Shillia, but he could not (or would not, perhaps) help the dying goddess. He took over her portfolio, increasing his patronism of woodlands and foirests.
Malar is now a Greater God alongside Talos and Silvanus, and Shaundakul is still intermediate - though his church has grown a bit.

Then we have a bunch of disjointed, but important deitites:

• Azuth

Mystra was infact killed during the time of troubles, but was mostly dissolved into the weave. He also took out Velsharoon (though Shar took his portfolios) at this point and tookout Savras as well, forcing him back into that staff of his. When Oghma (who had since subsumed Deneir, who despaired at not being able to be at his scribing table in The House of Knowledge and commited dei-suicide) was killed by Bane (who hoped to find the knowledge on how to kill Torm), Azuth came by and snatched the knowledge part of his portfolio, as well as all of Deneirs. His church has swelled up to be one of the largest in Faerun, contested only by Bane, Cyric, Lathander and Torm. *Done, done, done, done and done.*

• Cyric

Cyric really went psycho and killed off quite a few gods and goddesses in the Time of Troubles. Among them were Mask and Talona. Now, Cyric is even more powerful with thievery and poison in his portfolio.

• Tempus

Tempus came upon Garagos and Uthgar fighting during the Time of Troubles and stood aside as the combatants fought. Uthgar eventually killed Garagos and took his portfolio and immediatly attacked Tempus - who fought a harried battle which he finally won. He is still a Greater God.

• Gond

When Oghma was killed by Bane, Oghma took over the Insiration and Invention parts of his portfolio, and his church is flourishing now. He is still an intermediate deity, but is on the verge of becoming a Greater God.

• Milil

Milil is much the same as before the time fo troubles, but he is a much more reserved now that both Deneir and Oghma are gone. He took in many of Oghma's and Deneir's bardic followers and his church has been doing quite well since - so much so that Milil is now and Intermediate God.

• Shar

Shar is still here, lurking and waiting. She is happy that he eternal foe Mystra is now finally gone, but is seething with rage to see how well Azuths church is doing - though she smiles at the fact that she stole Velsharoons portfolio. She eyes Cyric ver closely now, waiting for her chance to take him out and become more powerful, and she is likewise angry at the fact that he killed both Mask and Talona without her even having a chance at them (she was in particular eyeing Talona, for her poisons). With followers growing from Velsharoon and general Shadow Weave users, she is content that her church is safe... for now.

• Sune

Sune is still her beautiful, perfect self, but she is a little more cautious in how attached she gets to her lovers, now that more than half he clientele has been killed in one way or another.

• Waukeen

Waukeen's church is thriving off of all the new gold coming in from Maztica, and is likewise very close to Helms church now, who are one of the main fores in Maztica at this time. Still and Intermediate Goddess.

• Helm

Helm is the same old Iron-clad warrior he always was, and he maintains many of the same ties he did before the Time of Troubles.

cheers,
--N

 

[Turjan]

Wildwood from Bastion games certainly sound interesting. I don't own it mind you but that's not for lack of trying. I've been searching high and low for a copy and am about to give up and just buy a copy directly from the company.

It's still available here or here

Edit: Doesn't help much if you're in England, though.

 

[Psion]

That reccomendation on Litorans is not only seconded, it reminds me:

For those who like using "monsters" as PC races, the AU/AE method is slightly superior to the Savage Species way. In SS, a monster PC has to take all of its racial levels before taking a PC class level. In AU/AE, there are still racial levels to take, but they are entirely optional.

Thanks for reminding me:

World. Of. Warcraft. RPG.

The savvy developer at Sword & Sorcery realized Monte had something going on and made racial levels for the warcraft races, which as you suggest, is THE way to go for monstrous races. I could easily see porting Tauren, Night Elves, and Jungle Trolls over.

Of course, I use UA race paragon classes as well. Especially for long lived races, but it's also great for representing "high men" and the like.

 

[Psion]

The Mage Blade is, IMHO, the best take on the (single-class) magic-slinging warrior in any D20 product I've seen.

My hat of single class mage-warrior classes know no limit.

Regardless, I'm not about to use the mage blade, because it would sort of rely on me plugging into the AE magic system, which I am not about to do.

Now the unfettered is possibly the best take on a Swashbuckler I have seen, and have been strongly considering it.

Swashbuckling Adventures, I am dubious about. We've already used bits of it, but I've already had to shoo players away from several overpowered feats (all the AC boosting feats) and classes (the little pirate swordsman PrC).