Random ideas. Making things different.

[RangerWickett]

Feats as creatures. Your character's 'Cleave' ability is that your pet hound actually takes down the foe, and your attack can go to a different person? Hrrmm.

Spells as creatures. Spider climb requires you hold turtles in the palms of your hand. You lick them, and they stick to the wall, because as we know, turtles are nature's suction cups. Flaming sphere is a hornets' nest that you throw at the badguys, so it shatters and pisses off the hornets.

Weapons as hit points. When you take damage, your weapon is weakened, and when you run out of hit points, it breaks from stress, forcing you to surrender.

Any other ideas of combining different parts of the rules for weird flavor?

 

[Ferret]

Skills as cohorts, when you boost lock pick it's just a theif you bought and stuck in your pocket.

 

[Breakstone]

Hey, these are really fun ideas!

Going off of the "Spells are Animals" ideas:

Spells are gadgets: You spend your "preparation/prayer" time in the morning preparing your gadgets, and only you know the correct buttons to push/cogs to turn/batteries to plug to activate them. Bull's Strength is a set of hydraulic pumps/exoskeletons that boosts your strength, Mage Hand is a little mechanical spider that can lift five pounds, Shocking Grasp is a set of big ol' metal gloves connected to a generator in your backpack, etc.




I really like the "Skills are Cohorts" idea. That would be fun to use for flavor- a druid with a ton of little animal companions (falcon to Search, mouse to Listen, dog to Sense Motive) or a gadgeteer rogue (spider-bots to Pick Locks, riding a mecha-puma to Move Silently, etc).

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Spell Thematics from Magic of Faerun can accomplish the customization of spells.

 

[Macbeth]

Levels as Gifts: Each new level is actually a gift of knowledge/power from some powerfull patron (deity or other). Makes good explanation for leveling without training. XP is just a measure of the patron's favor.

Skills and Feats as Mutations: Skills and feats represent physical changes to the character. So adding ranks to move silently is actually padded feet, and Great Fortitude is actually extra internal organs. Gives a weird kind of evolution-in-fast-forward feel. (and yes, I know evolution doesn't work exactly like this, but it makes a good comparison)

 

[Ferret]

HPs as fate, the longer you fight the more luck you use up, and the closer you are to your final breath.

 

[Breakstone]

Levels as Items: Each class a character takes means he has a new, cool item. So a 1st level fighter would have his really cool family battleaxe, while the 3rd level Rogue would have a magic evil black dagger he found. Now if that rogue took a level in Wizard, he'd have a Magic Evil Black Dagger and a Spellbook. Treasure and leveling up represents upgrades to those cool items. So instead of finding a +1 Frost Longsword, defeating the Dragon instead gives the fighter a +1 and Frost upgrade to his Really Cool Family Battleaxe. Or when he levels up to 6, his Really Cool Family Battleaxe is SO COOL that he can attack twice a round with it! Of course, the Really Cool Family Battleaxe can only be used by him!