Opinions needed: Several house rules in conjunction

[Emirikol]

Here are the house rules for our upcoming lower magic campaign. We've used several of them in the past.

Please feel free to comment on what you think the implications will be..and be rough!

jh




STATISTICS
* Ability Scores are determined using the “Standard Point Buy” system from the DMG p.169. (25 points).

* Hit Points Half-HD +1 or DM watch roll; re-roll1’s once

* Alignment is not used (except for protection spells)

* Skills All Skills are Class Skills

* Feats Ability score minimums for feats are not required

CHARACTER CLASSES
Due to the Riddle of the Steel, one level in a non-spellcasting class must be taken for every 4 levels of spellcaster starting with 1st level. (E.g.Expert1, Wiz4) Multiclassing restrictions and favored classes are not used.


LEVELING
· Bonus feats at 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th
· Single Ability score increase 2nd, 4th, 8th, 12th
· All ability scores gain one point at 3rd, 7th, 11th



MAGIC & SPELLS
All Spells Are Affected by Armor that the Spellcasting Class is Not Inherently Proficient With This is because all magic in Hyboria is of Arcane origin. Regardless, no class may cast in heavy armor without a failure check.


COMBAT
* Brawl Unarmed attacks do d6 subdual damage.

* Fumbles on a Natural 1
Two options:
1) Either drop the weapon 2 squares out of reach in a random direction (d4) (or break a bowstring 1d2 full rounds to re-string) or
2) Hit the enemy for a critical and the weapon (or bow) is destroyed

* Nergal’s Grip To reach –10 or more from attack damage, a character must fail a constitution check (DC12), otherwise they remain at -9 and their initiative is moved to last. Regardless of any feat or ability, at -9 the character is still considered “not stabilized and dying.”


BACK-UP CHARACTER
Replacements begin with 5% less x.p., 50% less level wealth (DMG135) and max single item may be ¼ of wealth. All items lose their magic and are buried with the old character unless they are crucial to a plot.


There are a few more (such as a few spells that I bumped up a level to disencourage them..for theme), but I won't post them unless someone's dying to see them.


jh

 

[the Jester]

Looks nice. I use a (more heavily modified) similar system for a low-magic campaign that I'm running... it's a lot of fun!

 

[Quartz]

CHARACTER CLASSES
Due to the Riddle of the Steel, one level in a non-spellcasting class must be taken for every 4 levels of spellcaster starting with 1st level. (E.g.Expert1, Wiz4) Multiclassing restrictions and favored classes are not used.

This doesn't seem particularly low magic to me.

Also, you're boosting stats significantly. Are stat buffs gone?

 

[Emirikol]

This doesn't seem particularly low magic to me.
Also, you're boosting stats significantly. Are stat buffs gone?

Considering that spellcasters (all of them) are 1 spell level behind normal per 4 levels, plus the fact that there are essentially few-no uber-magic-items like in regular D&D, I guess you could say that stat buffs are gone

I can't remember who said it, but "it's your character, not your items" mentality is what we're going for.




jh

 

[Emirikol]

Looks nice. I use a (more heavily modified) similar system for a low-magic campaign that I'm running... it's a lot of fun!

You should upload your house rulebook!

Jay

 

[Nifft]

* Hit Points Half-HD +1 or DM watch roll; re-roll1’s once

Does this mean that a d6 guy could auto-get 4?

If so, this is a no-brainer for Wizards & Sorcerers, but pretty nicely balanced for the rest .

Cheers, -- N

 

[Emirikol]

Does this mean that a d6 guy could auto-get 4?
If so, this is a no-brainer for Wizards & Sorcerers, but pretty nicely balanced for the rest .
Cheers, -- N

It's one of the nice things that came out of the RPGA living campaigns.

jh

 

[Celebrim]

I'll echo the statement that it doesn't seem that low magic to me - more like medium magic - not that there is anything wrong with that but I wonder just behind things are really going to be. I'd happily build toward something like a bar4/clr16 or ftr1/rog3/wiz16 under such rules. At 10th level I've got a ft1/rog1/wiz8. How low magic is that really going to seem? You've slightly slowed toned down magic progression, but I can still get 6th and 7th level spells eventually and you've mentioned nothing to suggest that you've toned down item creation feats.

The only rule I see that I don't like is 'all skills are class skills'. This seems garaunteed to have everyone dump all thier points into the same half dozen or so most useful and most frequently encountered skills, and unless you've dropped UMD from the list probably everyone is going to take it.

 

[Emirikol]

I'll echo the statement that it doesn't seem that low magic to me - more like medium magic - not that there is anything wrong with that but I wonder just behind things are really going to be. I'd happily build toward something like a bar4/clr16 or ftr1/rog3/wiz16 under such rules. At 10th level I've got a ft1/rog1/wiz8. How low magic is that really going to seem? You've slightly slowed toned down magic progression, but I can still get 6th and 7th level spells eventually and you've mentioned nothing to suggest that you've toned down item creation feats.

Thanks for the assessments. That helps me measure it.

THere are magic item and spell drops, that I didn't bother to list, but those are definately helpful suggestions.

Thanks,

Jay

 

[Flynn]

An Alternate Suggestion: Maybe D20 Modern could by your base?

Emirikol,

I would suggest using a variant of D20 Modern for a low-magic campaign, as spellcasters are limited to advanced classes that can't begin until the 4th character level, and are only 10 levels in scale, so the character maxes out at 5th level spells at 13th character level and max spell slots (still with a max of 5th level spells) at 14th character level.

Between the Urban Arcana part of the MSRD and WOTC's D20 Past, you can cover all of the basic fantasy classes as advanced classes, and still have a pretty good low-magic fantasy game. For further inspiration, check out Grim Tales or the Grim Tales SRD, for more ideas on how to implement many of the fantasy class abilities in a D20 Modern talent tree structure.

Hope this helps,
Flynn