[PR Silverthorne] Book of Templates Deluxe - Coming Soon!
- Thread starter Frilf
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NarlethDrider
First Post
Frilf said:
Sure, Narleth. Not a problem. I was hoping you would, actuallyCan't wait to see what you and Rob do with the Drider template. Yes, it's a borrowed OGC template, but Chris & I have kind of made it our own, so to speak
Still, should be good. The athatch drider would a good one to do, methinks... Very nasty critter!
Cheers!
Cant wait to see the your version of the drider template (so far I have the WoTC version{somewhere}, Green Ronin's, & MEG's)...
Hmmm an athatch drider (insert evil laugh smiley)
Knightfall
World of Kulan DM
NarlethDrider said:
Cant wait to see the your version of the drider template (so far I have the WoTC version{somewhere}, Green Ronin's, & MEG's)...
Hmmm an athatch drider (insert evil laugh smiley)
Yes, I'm quite proud of the athach drider. It just sort of came to me. (Slightly edited by the guys at Silverthorne, of course.)
Voadam said:
I'm pretty sure the ritual system is the one from Relics and Rituals. (And isn't the one used in Twin Crowns the same thing, regardless?)
Don't quote me on that, though.
Last edited:
Voadam
Legend
Knightfall1972 said:
Yes, I'm quite proud of the athach drider. It just sort of came to me. (Slightly edited by the guys at Silverthorne, of course.)
I'm pretty sure the ritual system is the one from Relics and Rituals. (And isn't the one used in Twin Crowns the same thing, regardless?)
Don't quote me on that, though.
Nope, TC and R&R use different ritual mechanics.
Khur
Sympathy for the Devil
Rituals Schmictuals (Victuals?)...
Before I answer the questions posed here, I have one thing to say: Drider athach? You people are crazy! I’m so proud to be one of you! Now, the serious stuff:
First of all, remember that this is a book of templates, not one dedicated to rituals or constructs. Therefore, the rules about both were designed to provide and avenue for template use and introduction into a game and to provide such without forcing the user to reference another work. They also had to be simple enough (and concise enough) not to take too much away from the main focus of the book. That said, here are some answers:
Ritual Magic
The ritual system is like the one from Relics & Rituals, but with many influences and my own stuff. The biggest inspirations were Relics & Rituals, Way of the Witch by Citizen Games (at least in spirit), and Plot & Poison by Green Ronin. Basically, I made a system that I’d use in my own game, which none of the above actually produced. (I've never read the Twin Crown system.)
The primary impetus behind including ritual rules were to allow the DM to explain the creation of templated creatures, even making such a ritual (or stopping one) part of an adventure. Secondarily, players can use some of the rituals too—especially appropriate being rituals that animate or create undead. Another idea was to allow lower-level spellcasters access to more powerful magic by adding expense, time, and risk to the process.
Rituals require the use of the Spellcraft skill for success, along with XP and material components. Unlike R&R, there is no "XP cost per caster", which doesn't really work if the ritual has no benefit to multiple persons. XP costs are solely based on how much the ritual is attempting to accomplish (usually based on HD of the creature(s) changed), with a nod towards game balance. Rituals that are more beneficial (or more likely to be abused) have more restrictions.
The ritual Spellcraft check allows for failure and spectacular failure, unleashing magical energies that harm the ritual participants. This may sound like the ritual system from Way of the Witch, but it’s not. Ritual failures often produce ability damage (sometimes permanent) and have unintended effects based on what the ritual was trying to accomplish, like getting a creature with the Wretched template instead of one with the Amorphous template or a true mummy with the wrong soul. (Some of you may remember the monstrosities in Raistlin's tower in the Dragonlance series of novels—there's some of the inspiration for this choice.)
Included are rules for sacrifices, interrupting rituals, buying rituals, circumstance bonuses and penalties, and rules for integrating the rituals with spells like wish. A particular DM’s desire for game balance should also be addressed by optional feats that allow a character use the ritual rules. That is, the rarer and harder you want ritual magic to be, the more feats you require to use all of the rules.
So, to answer the question succinctly, this is a new ritual system that is simple and brief, but also a system that stands on the back of works that came before it. It may sound complicated, but the rules only take about three pages.
Construct Rules
The construct rules are from an inspiration I got while reading Ian’s work (ain’t synergy great?). They basically break the basic D&D rules for constructs into a simple formula that’s manageable for constructing all of the differing constructs presented as templates. It’s definitely not as complex and Mongoose’s book—once again, this isn’t a book about construct building—the whole set of basic rules takes about a page.
The mechanics were created to allow the construct templates in the book to work together coherently, without having to write different (or the same) rules in each template. So, what you get is a very simple system (a little more complex than the core D&D method) that makes BOT – DE coherent, lets you formulate costs and time for creating a construct with the templates in the book, and allows you to create constructs with the abilities of other creatures in other source material (like the Monster Manual).
For example, the bone wyvern necromantic construct in the book has some of the wyvern’s abilities, as does the iron behir kith construct. The latter even has lightning breath, provided in a process that can be replicated and used as an example for other complex creatures. The aim of the rules was to allow this sort of thing, yet provide a way to repeat the process within the d20 rules.
Yes, an iron behir is more expensive than an iron golem. Only slightly more, though—the iron golem has almost twice the HD, deadlier abilities, and better magic immunity.
General Editing Notes
In doing the edits, I tried to make the book internally consistent and as self-referencing as feasible. Many possibilities in one template refer you to the use of another (like the aforementioned Amorphous ritual possibly resulting in a Wretched templated creature—similarly, a botched Dreadnaught Ritual might give you a Blighted Thrall).
My philosophy, though, is that the DM is the final arbiter of what’s allowed in his or her campaign, and the rules don’t need to account for every form of possible abuse—in fact, they can’t do so and still be fun and usable. If you don’t want any of your PCs having the Dreadnaught template (or the True Mummy, Greater Mohrg, Half-troll, and etc.), don’t allow it (or its ritual) for PC use.
When you pick up the book, feel free to tell me how the work succeeded and, possibly more importantly, where it failed. I look forward to hearing about the book and your use of it. So, please sound out on the Silverthorne forums or here.
Before I answer the questions posed here, I have one thing to say: Drider athach? You people are crazy! I’m so proud to be one of you! Now, the serious stuff:
First of all, remember that this is a book of templates, not one dedicated to rituals or constructs. Therefore, the rules about both were designed to provide and avenue for template use and introduction into a game and to provide such without forcing the user to reference another work. They also had to be simple enough (and concise enough) not to take too much away from the main focus of the book. That said, here are some answers:
Ritual Magic
The ritual system is like the one from Relics & Rituals, but with many influences and my own stuff. The biggest inspirations were Relics & Rituals, Way of the Witch by Citizen Games (at least in spirit), and Plot & Poison by Green Ronin. Basically, I made a system that I’d use in my own game, which none of the above actually produced. (I've never read the Twin Crown system.)
The primary impetus behind including ritual rules were to allow the DM to explain the creation of templated creatures, even making such a ritual (or stopping one) part of an adventure. Secondarily, players can use some of the rituals too—especially appropriate being rituals that animate or create undead. Another idea was to allow lower-level spellcasters access to more powerful magic by adding expense, time, and risk to the process.
Rituals require the use of the Spellcraft skill for success, along with XP and material components. Unlike R&R, there is no "XP cost per caster", which doesn't really work if the ritual has no benefit to multiple persons. XP costs are solely based on how much the ritual is attempting to accomplish (usually based on HD of the creature(s) changed), with a nod towards game balance. Rituals that are more beneficial (or more likely to be abused) have more restrictions.
The ritual Spellcraft check allows for failure and spectacular failure, unleashing magical energies that harm the ritual participants. This may sound like the ritual system from Way of the Witch, but it’s not. Ritual failures often produce ability damage (sometimes permanent) and have unintended effects based on what the ritual was trying to accomplish, like getting a creature with the Wretched template instead of one with the Amorphous template or a true mummy with the wrong soul. (Some of you may remember the monstrosities in Raistlin's tower in the Dragonlance series of novels—there's some of the inspiration for this choice.)
Included are rules for sacrifices, interrupting rituals, buying rituals, circumstance bonuses and penalties, and rules for integrating the rituals with spells like wish. A particular DM’s desire for game balance should also be addressed by optional feats that allow a character use the ritual rules. That is, the rarer and harder you want ritual magic to be, the more feats you require to use all of the rules.
So, to answer the question succinctly, this is a new ritual system that is simple and brief, but also a system that stands on the back of works that came before it. It may sound complicated, but the rules only take about three pages.
Construct Rules
The construct rules are from an inspiration I got while reading Ian’s work (ain’t synergy great?). They basically break the basic D&D rules for constructs into a simple formula that’s manageable for constructing all of the differing constructs presented as templates. It’s definitely not as complex and Mongoose’s book—once again, this isn’t a book about construct building—the whole set of basic rules takes about a page.
The mechanics were created to allow the construct templates in the book to work together coherently, without having to write different (or the same) rules in each template. So, what you get is a very simple system (a little more complex than the core D&D method) that makes BOT – DE coherent, lets you formulate costs and time for creating a construct with the templates in the book, and allows you to create constructs with the abilities of other creatures in other source material (like the Monster Manual).
For example, the bone wyvern necromantic construct in the book has some of the wyvern’s abilities, as does the iron behir kith construct. The latter even has lightning breath, provided in a process that can be replicated and used as an example for other complex creatures. The aim of the rules was to allow this sort of thing, yet provide a way to repeat the process within the d20 rules.
Yes, an iron behir is more expensive than an iron golem.
Only slightly more, though—the iron golem has almost twice the HD, deadlier abilities, and better magic immunity.General Editing Notes
In doing the edits, I tried to make the book internally consistent and as self-referencing as feasible. Many possibilities in one template refer you to the use of another (like the aforementioned Amorphous ritual possibly resulting in a Wretched templated creature—similarly, a botched Dreadnaught Ritual might give you a Blighted Thrall).
My philosophy, though, is that the DM is the final arbiter of what’s allowed in his or her campaign, and the rules don’t need to account for every form of possible abuse—in fact, they can’t do so and still be fun and usable. If you don’t want any of your PCs having the Dreadnaught template (or the True Mummy, Greater Mohrg, Half-troll, and etc.), don’t allow it (or its ritual) for PC use.
When you pick up the book, feel free to tell me how the work succeeded and, possibly more importantly, where it failed. I look forward to hearing about the book and your use of it. So, please sound out on the Silverthorne forums or here.
Napftor
Explorer
Voadam said:
Don't mean to interrupt the thread here, but since Voadam just posted I'm hoping he sees this. You won a book in my contest!
Kindly email me at dmbretb@comcast.net with your name and mailing info. Thanks!Now returning you to your regularly scheduled thread...
Frilf
Explorer
And we're off...
To layout. I sent the final edited files and illustrations to Phil Reed this morning and the final layout and cover art for the BoT DE should commence soon thereafter. I spent the weekend adding in the ECLs and completing/touching up the indices, so now we're about ready to rock. Just thought you'd all like to know
Cheers!
To layout. I sent the final edited files and illustrations to Phil Reed this morning and the final layout and cover art for the BoT DE should commence soon thereafter. I spent the weekend adding in the ECLs and completing/touching up the indices, so now we're about ready to rock. Just thought you'd all like to know
Cheers!
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