[ooc] dnd - the nameless [thread closed]

[doghead]

Further revisions below, skill selection to follow shortly.

A couple more quick questions (sorry)

No apologies are necessary. I've made you my lab rats for just this reason.

--how are skills handled, in terms of class skills vs cross-class skills vs. exclusive skills, or are they all the same?

All skills are taken at at 1:1 cost. There is no class and cross class distiction. As someone said, a skill point is a skill pooint. If a fighter wishes to spend his two sp on learning to be sneaky, so be it. I've always felt that if the skill fit the background, take it.

What do you mean by exclusive skills? Do you mean trained only? Trained only can be taken if there has been some training, easy enough to write into the background. In game, it would require some exposure to someone who could provide that training.

--Would Inspire Courage, Fascinate, etc. be a progression of feats, or would Bardic Music be one feat that encompasses them all (this for possible future advancement, rather than immediate use)

Humm, hold on a moment ...

The basic idea is that there are no developing abilities. ie Rage 1/day does not become Rage 2/day over time. Rage 2/day needs to be purchased separately.

Intuitively, I would say that Bardic Music is the entry feat, and Inspire Courage +1, Fascinate, etc are progressions requiring Bardic music. The problem with that is that Bardic music offers has no intrinsic benefit, other than allowing you to get the other abilities. Is that too harsh? It does mean that Inspire Courage +1 would cost 3 CP rather than 5 CP, as would Countersong, Fascinate and Inspire Competence. A saving of 8 CP.

*********
Fredar
Human Male 1
Concept: Ne’re-do-well
HP: n/a - everything has 25 life pips.
Initiative:
Speed: 30 ft.
Armor Class:
Base Attack: 0.5
* defence = base ref + dex mod + shield mod = +5
* soak = con bonus + armour bonus + Toughness = 1
* attack = 2.5 (Melee) -or- 3.5 (Ranged)
* damage = 1d4 + 1 (+ amount rolled over required to hit)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Saves: Fortitude +1[auto], Reflex +2 [2], Will +0
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 17, Con 11, Int 10, Wis 7, Cha 16
Skills: 4 + 1 [human] +2 [1] = 7x4 = 28

Feats: light ap [auto], simple wp [auto], Entry: Deft Hands [4], Entry: Improved Unarmed Strike [4], Entry: Toughness [Human]

Equipment (pre-Guard): Peasant Outfit, Dagger, Brass Knuckles, Dice, Cards, Wineskin and wine, Whetstone, Chalk, Pan Pipes, sling, 20 bullets

After he joins the Guard, he'd like to pick up some armor (Studded Leather, if possible), and a quarterstaff (it's more imposing than a dagger, he feels).
*******************
Background:

.... The next morning, he presented himself to the Captain of the Guard as a volunteer. He regretted it almost instantly.

The background is good. Very good. Nice internal motivation. Have him join up about a week ago - shortly before the goblins raids started.

You can gett studded leather, helmat, shield and a simple weapon or sword as you want. The guard has no set weapons, prefering to allow everone to use what they are comfortable (and capable) with. However, training with short and long swords is fairly common.

I'll post up a style sheet for the rg thread asap.

 

[doghead]

sorry about the formatting of my last post - it was late last night, and didn't realize all the text came up black. fixed.

No problems at this end, I use the stealth style. Having experimented with several styles, I realised that pretty much any color is going to cause someone problems - so the safest way is to stick to default, and the boards handle the in style differences.

I'll try and get a link up to ken hood's gng revised rules, but if you want one now, there is a thread in the House Rules forum.

cheers.

 

[Maerdwyn]

All skills are taken at at 1:1 cost. There is no class and cross class distiction. As someone said, a skill point is a skill pooint. If a fighter wishes to spend his two sp on learning to be sneaky, so be it. I've always felt that if the skill fit the background, take it.

cool.

What do you mean by exclusive skills? Do you mean trained only? Trained only can be taken if there has been some training, easy enough to write into the background. In game, it would require some exposure to someone who could provide that training.

By exlusive skills, I mean skills that are limited to certain classes - read lips being only available to rogues, for example, or animal empathy to druids and rangers only (the skills with "x"s under most classes on the SRD . I think Your answer to my previous question probably implies the answer to this one, though.

Intuitively, I would say that Bardic Music is the entry feat, and Inspire Courage +1, Fascinate, etc are progressions requiring Bardic music. The problem with that is that Bardic music offers has no intrinsic benefit, other than allowing you to get the other abilities. Is that too harsh? It does mean that Inspire Courage +1 would cost 3 CP rather than 5 CP, as would Countersong, Fascinate and Inspire Competence. A saving of 8 CP.

How about Bardic Music being the entry feat for the progression, but also providing something like a +2 perform bonus? Just a thought.

I'll post up a style sheet for the rg thread asap.

Yeah - the way I did it was looking like a bit of a bear.

More quick ?'s for you:

How do you handle seduction/flirting, should it come up? Pure rp, bluff check, diplomacy check, something else?

Should I bother with gambling as a skill or just assume it's something he does without much in-game effect (could use sleight of hand for cheating if necessary)?

 

[doghead]

Its past bed time for this little black dog. I'll get back to you tomorrow.

dog.ed

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Improved toughness is from complete warrior, and it gives you +1 hp/level, effectively improving your con by one for hp purposes.

I can think of a few ways to handle it in revised g'n'g:

1: Give a "soak progression," say 1/3 character level. In this case I'd delay taking it till 3rd level.

2: Have it give you an extra life pip reserve.


Beyond this, There are a few things I was wondering if we could homebrew.

The first is a "Brute Power" feat that is like weapon finesse in reverse, allowing you to use strength in place of dexterity to attack, can't be used with light weapons.

The second would be a progression of feats to diminish wound penalties, possibly requiring endurance as a prerequisite, and each feat lowering the wound penalties by one (minimum zero).

How would these work?

 

[Maerdwyn]

doghead, I'll be away until Sunday night, but I'll be ready to post if the IC starts up on Monday.

Thanks,
Ian

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Also, should we be first or second level?

 

[doghead]

By exlusive skills, I mean skills that are limited to certain classes - read lips being only available to rogues, for example, or animal empathy to druids and rangers only (the skills with "x"s under most classes on the SRD . I think Your answer to my previous question probably implies the answer to this one, though.

I had a quick look for these skills in the SRD but couldn't find them. But, yes, if they have some form of background or in game logic, they are taken at 1:1.

How about Bardic Music being the entry feat for the progression, but also providing something like a +2 perform bonus? Just a thought.

I was thinking along these lines, but wanted to wait and see what you came up with. A +2 Perform (any type of music/song/oration) sounds reasonable. Perhaps also a +2 Diplomacy bonus. I think that the bard would need to play for more than a round - perhaps 10 minutes or so before trying.

How do you handle seduction/flirting, should it come up? Pure rp, bluff check, diplomacy check, something else?

A diplomacy check would be my instinctive response. The RP could have a bearing on that. But as someone said, no one makes a thief RP their Search check, or a fighter their to hit roll.

Feat Option: (from the Modern SRD, Charismatic Hero): Charm - the hero selects one gender and gets bonus to any Cha skill role with a member of that gender. It can only be used on people whos initial attitude is indifferent or better. We could use something along these lines with a +2 bonus.

Humm, a good question this one. Thoughts anyone?

Should I bother with gambling as a skill or just assume it's something he does without much in-game effect (could use sleight of hand for cheating if necessary)?

Gambling seems to be an overlooked area. Resisted Int check would be my intuiative call, at least for card type games. For horse races, maybe Handle Animal would be more appropriate. But I think its definately an area in which skill has a big influence. I think that it is doable as a skill - let me know what you think about the crunchy bits. Perhaps a Profession skill?

See you Monday.

 

[doghead]

Improved toughness is from complete warrior, and it gives you +1 hp/level, effectively improving your con by one for hp purposes.

I can think of a few ways to handle it in revised g'n'g:

1: Give a "soak progression," say 1/3 character level. In this case I'd delay taking it till 3rd level.

2: Have it give you an extra life pip reserve.

As is, it basically translates to +1 Soak. I want to avoid any automatic scaling. Especially in the area of wounds/damage. I did think about the extra life pipe idea, but am inclined to avoid changing the life pips at this stage.

Beyond this, There are a few things I was wondering if we could homebrew.

The first is a "Brute Power" feat that is like weapon finesse in reverse, allowing you to use strength in place of dexterity to attack, can't be used with light weapons.

Sorry, I didn't say anything about dex variants to avoid confusion. I am planning on going with the basic Str rules in this game. I thought about it and realised that the dex variant makes dex the key melee skill. I tend to think that, basically (unfortunately for this 70kg weed) str is king in melee.

I did consider other alternatives, such as imposing quite high str requirements on the larger weapons. ie:
* Longsword - str 11
* Bastard Swords (2h) - str 13
* Bastard Swords (1H) - str 15
* Greatsword - str 15
So a low str, high dex weed would be dealy with the old shortsword, but wouldn't be able to use the really chunky weapons like bastard swords and two handed axes. Thus str would remain a key attribute for the fighter. I kinda like it, as it does aknowledge the importance of coordination in melee, but it seemed a more clumbersome way to do it. As the man said. KISS.

So at this point I am thinking the str variant is the way to go.

The second would be a progression of feats to diminish wound penalties, possibly requiring endurance as a prerequisite, and each feat lowering the wound penalties by one (minimum zero).

I was thinking of something along these lines myself. If you have any suggestions as to the crunchy bits, prereqs, etc please let me know. I would be tempted to say that this type of thinng would be fairly advanced and require at least a couple of feats as prereqs, possibly even some bab (combat stiffening).

Also, should we be first or second level?

You will be second level for part III, but I wanted to deal with the conversions first. Then let people put together their next level. Again, it seemed the best way to avoid confusion.

 

[doghead]

Status report.

I'm going to open the nameless III ic on monday for those that are in.

I'm going to open the game for recruiting on Monday as well. 4-6 would be ideal.

-- In --

Craddoc Pyes, Human male 1, Mountain farmer
Nac Mac Feegle

Fredar, Human male 1, Ner-do-well.
Maerdwyn

-- Unknown --

Oscar de Reign, Human male 1, Noble
Argent Silvermage

Nathan ayTennar, Human male 1, Blacksmith
DrZombie

Cromwell of St Richards, Half-orc male 2, Soldier of God.
Thomas Hobbes

***
muhcashin

***
djrdjmsqrd