House Rules: Classes, Races, Magic, and More

[Imret]

My goblins are medium sized (specifically elf sized), are completely hairless, have eyes made of a solid puple, have very angled features and are incredibly emaciated. They are a semi-aquatic race, with a swim speed and the ability to hold their breath for an incredible amount of time. They also have a chameleon-like ability to change their skin color, and their skin color naturally changes to match the area they live in (river goblins have a more bluish green skin, while the goblins who live on city-ships have almost purely blue skin). They believe in loyalty, but only for as long as their trust isn't misplaced (one slight and they change from best friend to worst enemy). They are very lawful, but do not work well unless they are in a large group. They are incredibly communal as well; goblins have practically no understanding of "property", aside from what is one clan's and what is another's.

Well, that's a new tack for them, certainly.

The other half's get more complicated: Elf/Goblin makes Drow (LA +2), Orc/Dwarf makes Bugbear (LA +2), Elf/Orc makes "Wild Elf" (LA +1), and Goblin/Dwarf makes Duergar (LA +1).

I'll tackle this in a minute...

Sorcerers favor one element and cannot cast spells of the opposite element. Clerics spontaniously cast their domains spells. My ultimate goal is to assign each spell to an element, and to create a way to somehow determine the strength of a character's chakras, which will determine their caster level with each element: if your caster level is not equal to the minimal mana cost of a spell, you can't even access it. Being my ultimate goal, it's a long way off.

Hmmm. I quite like the shift in clerics from cure to domain spells for spontaneous casting; it both sheds a sacred cow and gives clerics additional flavor. The change to sorcerers makes sense for the elemental chakra theme, also, as long as the spell lists are engineered so they're all roughly equal in utility. For determining MP cost, caster level via chakra strength, and the like, there are a lot of ways you could tackle this. If you have some starting ground I'd be pleased to brainstorm some ideas.

That's exactly what my Zero level includes: and yes, max hp and x4 skill points is normally first HD, not class level, but after running several characters who had racial hit dice (one with dragon, one with aberration, and one with humanoid), I've noticed that that first HD can destroy character concepts (a 2 HD humanoid who took rogue did not have enough skill points until around level 12).

Well, here's another option I saw for characters with LA or racial HD in another thread - build short, simple, 1-4 level racial classes for them. HD, skill points, and abilities scattered over those levels. Keeps the same "less advancement in their class than the others" approach while ending that awkwardness - just take your first level as rogue and your second level as whatever racial class it is. Again, you're welcome to discard or accept any ideas I have - if your 0-level class is your preferred method, by all means use it. I just indulge my love of house rule brainstorming to offer up some ideas towards yours.

Some spells look like they have to be Void (Wish and their like), but I'd prefer to make Void be incredibly rare, and not put "required" spells into it.

Absolutely. L5R, which introduced a very very similar system in its d10 incarnation, kept Void for a very short list of things; enhancing actions, expending willpower, and a couple meditative skills (Tea Ceremony among them). There were no spells attached to Void, IIRC, until the Phoenix books introduced Void Shugenja. Of course, D&D has a lot more spells and a lot greater variety of applications for them, also, so this might not work as well.

If there's a demand, I can make a new thread with my classes. Should I make one thread for each class, or put them all in the same thread?

I'd say all in the same thread, one at a time, but I might be wrong on the forum protocol for this.