"No Core" game
- Thread starter the Jester
- Start date
the Jester said:
Well, does a game using Arcana Unearthed, Al Qadim (the AD&D2 materials), the Net Book of Feats, and an assortment of other D20 System products (such as various monster books), count? That is, as far as i'm concerned, the game i was running was D&D. It just didn't happen to use any of the D&D3[.5]E books. Well, no, not "just didn't happen to"--it was a conscious choice to avoid them, after having played straight-up D&D3E, and hating it, and feeling that it just didn't feel like "D&D" to me. Anyway, in 2.5 years, i think i only grabbed one monster from the D20SRD (and, right now, i can't even think what that might've been). Oh, and at one point one of the players was very enamored of, and took a couple levels of, arcane archer (the version from the D&D3E DMG).
So, ok, it wasn't completely free of material from the core books. But, then, it wasn't predicated on dogmatically avoiding the core books, as you're suggesting, just on using what was cool--and there wasn't anything "cool" to me in the core D&D3E books.
Oh, and my review of the game: it was great fun, certainly much more fun than i had playing D&D3E. And felt more like D&D (that is, more like my decade or two of playing D&D, under most of the pre-D&D3E incarnations at one point or another) to me. So it's certainly doable.
kenmarable
Hero
I would absolutely love to convince my group to try this sometime, but I won't hold my breath.
Getting rid of core feats, spells, and magic items might be the hardest part if you are going that far. If it's a one-off or short term thing, then sure it won't be much problem (except maybe allowing feats that are prereqs), and you would need to figure out what spells from Spell Compendium and such some of the casters would get. But non-core monsters and magic items for a short term thing wouldn't be difficult at all. There's plenty to fight and Christmas-tree yourself up with in other books.
But given how I don't think I've played a core race or class in a very long time, I definitely think it's a fun idea. About the closest to core I have considered doing recently is a sorcerer using only Spell Compendium spells. Sometimes after playing for decades, it's fun to limit yourself to none of the old stand-bys.
Getting rid of core feats, spells, and magic items might be the hardest part if you are going that far. If it's a one-off or short term thing, then sure it won't be much problem (except maybe allowing feats that are prereqs), and you would need to figure out what spells from Spell Compendium and such some of the casters would get. But non-core monsters and magic items for a short term thing wouldn't be difficult at all. There's plenty to fight and Christmas-tree yourself up with in other books.
But given how I don't think I've played a core race or class in a very long time, I definitely think it's a fun idea. About the closest to core I have considered doing recently is a sorcerer using only Spell Compendium spells. Sometimes after playing for decades, it's fun to limit yourself to none of the old stand-bys.
the Jester
Legend
Okay, so I started this game last night.
There were only three players present. We started at 4th level (to give some wiggle room on race choices with LAs). The pcs were:
A tabaxi (ECL 4) with intent to go into either ninja or dread necromancer or, ultimately, both.
A neanderthal elementalist (homebrewed class) with fire as his first element
And a warforged samurai (OA style, not CW style).
It was great fun. I had to do a lot of swapping out of spells from the elementalist list to eliminate PH spells, but that was a quick enough process. The hardest thing was actually 0-level spells- I had to create about half a dozen fire cantrips.
To touch on a couple of the questions people have asked:
WotC only? Not necessarily. If someone brings up something that they're interested in from a 3rd party company, I will happily review it with an eye towards saying "Yes."
Healing?? That's right, there are none of the standard cure spells- or items! One of the pcs started with a couple potions of lesser vigor and the warforged had a couple potions of repair x damage. This will be one of the big challenges in this game- healing will be harder to accomplish. For that matter, so will big melee damage (no Power Attack).
We had a blast with it, though we barely got anything done last night- mostly it was character creation, with two encounters knocked out. We're keeping a lot of the background details vague and undefined, with a very light dash of plotting- this game is "off the record," so to speak.
Hopefully, when next we play, we'll be able to get a couple more people in on it and make an even weirder group!
There were only three players present. We started at 4th level (to give some wiggle room on race choices with LAs). The pcs were:
A tabaxi (ECL 4) with intent to go into either ninja or dread necromancer or, ultimately, both.
A neanderthal elementalist (homebrewed class) with fire as his first element
And a warforged samurai (OA style, not CW style).
It was great fun. I had to do a lot of swapping out of spells from the elementalist list to eliminate PH spells, but that was a quick enough process. The hardest thing was actually 0-level spells- I had to create about half a dozen fire cantrips.
To touch on a couple of the questions people have asked:
WotC only? Not necessarily. If someone brings up something that they're interested in from a 3rd party company, I will happily review it with an eye towards saying "Yes."
Healing?? That's right, there are none of the standard cure spells- or items! One of the pcs started with a couple potions of lesser vigor and the warforged had a couple potions of repair x damage. This will be one of the big challenges in this game- healing will be harder to accomplish. For that matter, so will big melee damage (no Power Attack).
We had a blast with it, though we barely got anything done last night- mostly it was character creation, with two encounters knocked out. We're keeping a lot of the background details vague and undefined, with a very light dash of plotting- this game is "off the record," so to speak.
Hopefully, when next we play, we'll be able to get a couple more people in on it and make an even weirder group!
Slife
First Post
Sounds like quite an interesting game. I'm still a little unsure about how you're handling stuff that's reprinted, though. How is the Magic Item Compendium handled?
Obligatory plug for the Blue Mage class here. Because of how spells work, you don't need to do any conversion (since the spell list depends entirely upon what everyone else has).the Jester said:
AnonymousOne
First Post
Hmmm Ideal party?
Warblade - Goliath
Artificer - Some 'Races of Stone' Gnome Variant
Marshal - Warforged
Dragon Shaman - Spellscale
Wu Jen - Something .... maybe an Arcana Unearthed race ...
Once again you have the healing problem. The Favored Soul could more than make up for the difference if most of the damned spells weren't core.
Warblade - Goliath
Artificer - Some 'Races of Stone' Gnome Variant
Marshal - Warforged
Dragon Shaman - Spellscale
Wu Jen - Something .... maybe an Arcana Unearthed race ...
Once again you have the healing problem. The Favored Soul could more than make up for the difference if most of the damned spells weren't core.
Nifft
Penguin Herder
Every time I look at this PrC, it seems terribly weak. Particularly in comparison to the Chameleon. :\Thurbane said:
There are far better "prefixes" to Chameleon, depending on what sources you can use to buy temporary feats with your floating bonus feat.Thurbane said:I'm seriously considering running a Factotum who goes into both of these PrCs...be the ultimate jack of all trades, master of none.
- 1 level of Ranger + Extra Favored Enemy = Favored Enemy against whomever you're facing today
- 1 level of Cleric + Divine ____ = flexible use of your Turn Undead class feature
- 1 level of Barbarian + some of those Rage feats
- But of course the best is being a 3rd or 5th level spellcaster, so you can take temporary item creation feats.
One build I've always wanted to try is a Changeling Rogue 2 / Paladin 4 / Chameleon 10 / Warshaper 4. His total BAB would be +16 (for that 4th attack), he'd have Turn Undead and Paladin spellcasting at caster level 2 (so with Practiced Spellcaster, he'd qualify for many item creation feats), he'd have decent Charisma synergy, and the number of options available to him would be downright silly.
Cheers, -- N
Robert Ranting
First Post
Good to hear that this idea is working out for your group!
This thread has inspired me to work on my own non-core setting, which I have aptly named Naankhor
. Set several thousand years after the fall of the Human civilization, the two dominant races of the world, the Illumians and the Aventi are poised on the brink of war over theological differences. The Illumians blame the fall of the Human Empire and the Dark Age which followed it on the humans' rampant study of all magic, and on their putting faith in the Old Gods. Afraid of the broad range of power available to true wizards and sorcerers, they have made efforts to segregate the different types of spellcasting traditions so that no individual can study all the schools of magic, and thereby court madness. Moreover, they see anyone who would worship the Old Gods as dangerously misguided, putting their faith in beings who probably instigated the destruction of Mankind in their endless need for worship, sacrifice, and warfare in their name.
While the Aventi agree with the notion that arcane magic probably played a role in the destruction of humanity, they fundamentally disagree when it comes to the Old Gods. Their patron deity, Aventernus is one such deity, and he is credited with the preservation of their people through the Fall and the Dark Age, and they refuse to cease worshiping him.
With War looming, moderates from both sides have come together to discover the truth of what happened to the human civilization. To this end, they have hired a rag-tag group of politically neutral adventurers to delve into the ruins of the human civilization to look for clues and to recover artifacts from that time. Of course, the undead remnants of Humanity, and their various servants, not to mention wandering monsters have taken up residence in such places in the intervening time...
It definately promises to be fun!
A list of classes and races I plan on using for this campaign can be found at http://naankhor.pbwiki.com
Robert "Weird Variants Appeal to Me" Ranting
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