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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 3001792" data-attributes="member: 3051">Done it.  I've mentioned our homebrew a few times on these boards before.  We had originally developed it as a magic system for d20Modern, but later changed it to a more D&D-like setting.  Works both ways.(And as others have pointed out, it's also been done by some more "official" people as well.)What we did was this:> The six Basic classes are mostly unchanged, except for a few things:  1: Weapon proficiencies are done differently in our campaign.  Every weapon goes into one of eight or nine large categories (Bladed, Projectile, Polearm (inc. Spears), Hafted (Axe/Hammer), Thrown, Natural, etc.).  Each character gets one proficiency at character level 1, regardless of class, and every character gets Natural (which includes all touch-attack spells as well).  Classes give "Novice Weapon Proficiency" at level 1-2 for the "fighter" classes and 4-5 for the non-fighters, and then each gives Martial Weapon proficiencies at later levels.  (NWP gives proficiency in one category, except you can only ever get it once, so a Strong 1/Fast 1/Tough 1 doesn't get three).Feats like Weapon Focus are for a single category and a single size (so WF(Medium Bladed) includes Longswords, Scimitars, etc.)  Exotic weapons were each also reworked to require both a Martial proficiency and at least one Exotic category (Double Weapon, Heavy Weapon (bastard sword, dwarven waraxe, etc.), Entangling Weapon, Exotic Ranged, Mercurial Weapon, etc.).  If you have the Martial and not the Exotic, the penalty varies depending on the exotic category; for instance, the Heavy Weapon EWP allows you to wield the weapon as if it were a size smaller, and not having the EWP simply means you don't get to do this.  In other cases, the penalty might be different; if you don't have the Exotic Ranged EWP, a Hand Crossbow takes much longer to reload, but you can still fire it just fine.  2: We don't use Action Points, so a little rebalancing was needed.  But if you like APs, this isn't an issue.  3: No D&D-like multiclassing penalty of any kind.> We then added three Advanced classes: Mutant, Channeler, and Wizard.  Basically, we felt any attempt to translate the core D&D mage classes directly would be doomed to failure, so we took a page from the D20modern classes and made three very generic, flexible caster classes.Each of these classes requires only a single Feat to enter: Affinity (Innate), Affinity (Freeform), or Affinity (Ritual), respectively.  These Feats give cantrip-level magic of the appropriate type.Because of the Feat, you can't take an Advanced class at level 1.  So, the class skill list of each is actually the class skill list as your original Basic class, plus a few extra magic-related skills; likewise, if these Advanced classes give bonus Feats or Talents, you can choose from your earlier class' list or from any new ones.  (Example: Mutants get bonus Feats every four levels.  A Strong Hero who becomes a Mutant can select either Mutant Feats (which are the [Psionic] Feats plus a couple extra) or the Strong ones.)Mutant was basically a takeoff of 4CTF's "Hero" class; at each level, the Mutant gets a pool of points he can spend raising stats, saves, BAB, skills, Feats, etc. (which he needs since the Mutant class itself only gives Wizard-like BAB, all bad saves, etc.)  Or, he can buy innate abilities: DR, natural attacks, darkvision, wings, fast healing, even spell-like abilities.  CHA is the primary stat, technically, but only the spell-like abilities really depend on it, so most Mutants end up being pseudo-Fighters.Channeler is a HP-burning freeform INT-based caster, loosely based on the Psion.  Every time he casts a spell he makes a pseudo-skill check, and that determines how much the spell drains him.  So, assuming he heals up between fights, a Channeler isn't limited in number of spells per day.On the upside, he doesn't learn individual spells; at each level, he gets a few points that can be used to raise caster level in individual elements/schools or magic.  (At low level, you can only keep 1-2 elements maxxed, at high level it's more like 5-6, and most people end up keeping a few partially raised instead.)On the downside, he's mostly limited to "pure" magic; i.e., nothing horribly complex, just throwing raw elements/forces around, unless wants to make the skill check more difficult.Wizard is actually more like the 3E Cleric in how it casts; WIS-based, spell slots, plus some swapping for "domain" spells, using a focus item for all non-cantrip spells.All three use a more skill-based casting system, so they multiclass with each other well.  I, for instance, had a Fast 1/Mutant 4/Channeler 12.> You can also add Prestige Classes, but we never really bothered since the classes were so flexible.> We reworked the cosmology.  Each of the 10 elements comes from its own plane, and there's no other planes, period.  The lowest rung is the six basic elements (Life, Death, Fire, Earth, Water, Air) in three opposed pairs; we live on the Plain of Life.  The next level has three fundamental forces (Light, Force, Nexus; think balance/law/chaos), and then the top level is Time.> We also use a somewhat different set of races, but there's no absolute need for that; mainly, we wanted each plane to have only 1-2 native races, with cross-plane traffic much more common.  (A very limmited self-only plane shift is available at spell level 2)  So, for playable races we've got Humans and Tabiranths (tigers) from Life, Nymphs (elves, mostly) from Water, Dwarves from Earth, Salamanders (desert-dwelling lizardmen) and Dragons (they fly, but they're more like Half-Ogre size) from Fire, Faeries/Sylphs (halflings/gnomes with wings) from Air, and Gargoyles (half-orcs with wings, a la the cartoon) from Death.  There are also quite a few non-playables: the Shades (incorporeal vampires) from Death are ultra-xenophobes, Fins (dolphins) from Life and Kraelphs (sharks) from Water can't really live outside of water, the Gom-Tuu are living airships from Air, and there are four races native to "higher" planes (Djinn, Vortices, Wisps, and Travellers) that basically used to act as gods before people figured out the truth.  Almost every race has an LA of at least +1, but casting classes aren't penalized by this as much as they would be in D&D.  The upshot is that many races are given one Affinity Feat for free.  Dragons and Salamanders get Freeform, Nymphs get Ritual, etc.  This effectively skews them towards one magic class.At some point I should post this whole thing on the board, but it's definitely NOT short.</blockquote>

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