I want to try Castles & Crusades. What hacks are out there for it?

[Gundark]

I would like to try out Castles and Crusades, I've looked at the Quickstart and there are things about C&C that I don't like.

#1 Wizards spells per day- I've never liked this, If I created a spell or two that the Wizard could always use and then keep everything else the same would that unbalance things?

#2 Different XP totals for each class- I've never liked this about prior D&D editions. If I threw that out would it break the game?

Thoughts?

 

[joela]

I would like to try out Castles and Crusades, I've looked at the Quickstart and there are things about C&C that I don't like.

#1 Wizards spells per day- I've never liked this, If I created a spell or two that the Wizard could always use and then keep everything else the same would that unbalance things?

#2 Different XP totals for each class- I've never liked this about prior D&D editions. If I threw that out would it break the game?

Thoughts?

Have you checked out the Troll Lord Game forums? They could probably answer a lot of your questions.

 

[jonesy]

Have you checked out the Troll Lord Game forums? They could probably answer a lot of your questions.

There's something weird going on with that link. It's got the right address, but it's broken in the middle by a jumble of random characters.

Try this: Troll Lord Games :: Index

 

[wolfpunk]

With the way Saves are set up in C&C, wizards are very powerful. They have the highest experience point table to balance it out.

So giving additional spell like abilities, and disabling the experience point penalty in my opinion would make the wizard very very powerful.

I think C&C is a more cereberal game, if the wizard keeps running out of spells, they may need a little help learning that not every problem needs to be solved with magic, or you might be throwing too many problems at them that require the use of magic.

Just some thoughts. If you go with your suggestions, let us know how it goes.

 

[scruffygrognard]

I would like to try out Castles and Crusades, I've looked at the Quickstart and there are things about C&C that I don't like.

#1 Wizards spells per day- I've never liked this, If I created a spell or two that the Wizard could always use and then keep everything else the same would that unbalance things?

#2 Different XP totals for each class- I've never liked this about prior D&D editions. If I threw that out would it break the game?

Thoughts?

You can try my extensive houserules, which I call AD&D 3rd edition as they are an homage to that game: LINK

They flesh out C&C a bit (more spells, plus background skills are included) and are more in line with AD&D/3.X than C&C was (the racial abilities are better balanced and the classes are more in line with their AD&D/3.X counterparts).

You'll be happy to see unified XP charts but will still see Vancian magic. An easy way around this is to allow all spellcasters to cast unlimited numbers of 0-level spells and change cure minor wounds so that it stops bleeding and stabilizes dying characters rather than restore 1 hit point.

 

[Philosopher]

#1 Wizards spells per day- I've never liked this, If I created a spell or two that the Wizard could always use and then keep everything else the same would that unbalance things?

That would depend the details of these spells. One option, which is used in Pathfinder, is to let all the spellcasters prepare their normal allotment of 0-level spells, then cast those spells at will. You may want to go through the spell lists and make sure that this wouldn't unbalance anything. For example, Pathfinder replaced cure minor wounds (which cures 1 hp) with stabilize (which stops the target from bleeding out). As it turns out, C&C does not have cure minor wounds, but replaces it with a spell called first aid, which basically acts like stabilize. In any case, I'd go through the rest of the 0-level spells to see what the effects would be of allowing them to be cast at will. You can check out how Pathfinder modifies some of those spells here.

#2 Different XP totals for each class- I've never liked this about prior D&D editions. If I threw that out would it break the game?

I'm not sure, off the top of my head. I say go for it and see how it works out for you. Besides, I'm not convinced that the XP totals as presented in the books are balanced as they are. For example, the paladin's XP requirements are similar to those in 1e, but the C&C paladin loses out on some of what made the 1e paladin so powerful.

 

[Philosopher]

You can try my extensive houserules, which I call AD&D 3rd edition as they are an homage to that game: LINK

They flesh out C&C a bit (more spells, plus background skills are included) and are more in line with AD&D/3.X than C&C was (the racial abilities are better balanced and the classes are more in line with their AD&D/3.X counterparts).

You'll be happy to see unified XP charts but will still see Vancian magic. An easy way around this is to allow all spellcasters to cast unlimited numbers of 0-level spells and change cure minor wounds so that it stops bleeding and stabilizes dying characters rather than restore 1 hit point.

I've come across this before, great work!

Is your Unearthed Arcana still unfinished, or is it done at this point?

 

[scruffygrognard]

I've come across this before, great work!

Is your Unearthed Arcana still unfinished, or is it done at this point?

Thanks!

I'm on vacation for the next few weeks, so I'll be working on it (adding poisons, diseases, traps, combat options, and a few more bits) once my wife goes back to work next week. Nothing necessary is missing from it but I really want to add these bits, just to spice things up a little.

 

[Treebore]

I have been using his AD&D 3 rules for my Tuesday game for the last few months, but I have still kept a number of my house rules as well. My group likes them.


As for the OP, these are my house rules about mages:


SPELL CASTERS:
A new class ability for ALL spell casters, except Paladins.

Divine/Arcane blasts. These are a pure energy attack that any spell caster can use every other round as long as they do not cast any spells on the round in between. Yes, this means all day long. This is because that round is a recharge/gather the power round. This attack requires a "To hit" roll versus the targets AC, but the casters BtH for purposes of this attack is equal to their level and its modified by their DEX. Damage is 1d4 per level of the caster and requires a "item" as the component for this ability. It costs 20 GP per dice of damage. Typically a cleric uses their Holy Symbol and Arcane Casters most frequently make a wand.

As usual, I do allow a SIEGE check to cast this every round, it will be CON based, and failed checks will cost a temporary loss of one CON point to simulate the exhaustive nature of wasting the energy as well as gathering it so quickly. The CL will equal the amount of dice you want to do for damage, and the base TN will always be 12, since this is now a "Class Ability" for all spell casters.

Lost CON is regained at 1 point per hour of rest, or from a Lesser Restoration.


Wizards:
SIEGE checks can be used to alter spells being cast. A SIEGE check can be made to change the energy type of a spell. For example, to change a fireball to a electric ball, ice ball, etc... you make a TN 12 check + your level to beat a CL = to the level of the spell. So to change the fireball to ice would be a CL 3, so beat TN 15.

Similar checks can be done to maximize damage, CL spell level +3

To double range, CL spell level +3

To increase number of targets effected, CL spell level +3 per additional target (example spell, Charm Person to effect two people instead of one)

Failure, in all cases, loses you the spell. Roll a natural 1 and pray for survival if it causes damage.



As for your XP issues, I have found the variable XP rules to do far more for class balance than anything done in 3E, so go with what you like and see what happens. If you typically only run games up to no more than level 8 I doubt you'll see much in the way of problems.

 

[Stormonu]

I like treebore's suggestions, though I had personally thought of giving wizards a 1d6 blast attack that they can use every round (affecting one target), with perhaps some way to make a minor augmentation (say, increase damage to 1d8 or affect more than one target at a time, possibly via giving up movement or some other drawback).

For casting non-combat spells, you might want to use SIEGE checks, with a penalty to the roll equal to the level of the spell. Failure to get the spell off should have some sort of drawback (d4 damage, temporary CON damage, money destruction, drain charges from charged items or make magic items cease functioning for 1 or more rounds, etc.) so that casters don't try to cast willy-nilly.

I also agree on the different XP values. They should have probably been kept in 3.5.