Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hjorimir" data-source="post: 1529179" data-attributes="member: 5745">All the player characters are human and that is by my design. Most humans don't even believe in the existence of elves and dwarves (and have no concept of other typical player races). Orcs, however, are obviously a reality and a major source of concern.Magic...that's a big question. Okay, I will try and elucidate how I think of magic within my campaign. As far as spellcasters go, demographically speaking, there are far fewer than what is probably typical for a D&D world. Wizards, for example, cannot just go to a major city to track down the local wizard and purchase scrolls. Other than the spells allocated to them upon gaining a new level (two) they are pretty much forced to research each spell individually. The theory is that they will research variations of the spells within the books or (even better) create original works that help define their characters within the world. As they are still young, they haven't actually had the opportunity to start any research. But I know it is coming and it should be interesting to see what they produce. I should mention that I utilize the optional spell-point system within Unearthed Arcana for all of the spell casters (except Sorcerers which do something else).Divine casters (clerics/druids for the most part) are required to keep a prayer book that contains the litanies (read: cleric spells) and rites (read: druid spells) they have access to. When a cleric or druid obtains a new level, he may add two spells of his choice into his prayer book (much like a wizards). If it was a new spell level as well the cleric also adds his domain spells or, in the case of the druid, adds the appropriate Summon Nature’s Ally spell. Scribing costs are identical to what a wizard pays and they utilize either Knowledge: Religion or Knowledge: Nature in lieu of Spellcraft in order to determine ability to learn a new litany/rite.This was a design decision based on two factors: That divine casters are extremely powerful as presented within the rules and that I didn’t like the fact that (other than domain access) all of the divine casters had the exact same spell lists taking away any unique characteristics.Much like in Sepulchrave’s (man, that guy is awesome) Wyre campaign, the vast majority of the clergy are experts; meaning they don’t actually have any ability to channel Æhü’s (God’s) power.In the case of magic items, there isn’t one among the group. I prefer to have fewer magic items than what most games have (where players work diligently to fit all of the items onto their ‘paper-doll’ while making sure no slot is left unadorned). Instead, I create items of power that have stronger abilities, often function differently than what is presented in the DMG, and have colorful histories.This wraps into another house rule. I am of the opinion (and most of the DMs in our group agree) that traditional 3E experience advancement is too quick. Characters tend to race so fast through the levels that they have a hard time really understanding all of their own abilities. So, one way I slow the level advancement is through attunement costs.Attunement is an experience cost to connect with a magic item. Once the experience is spent, it is lost forever to the character (even if the item is later destroyed, sold, lost, etc.). A character can also sever an attunement as a way of separation. The reason they would do this is because they cannot have more attuned at any one time than what is appropriate for their character level (as presented in the DMG). This is nice because it polices itself for character balance. It also forces the players to make a conscious choice on what items they actually use. Attunement to scrolls and potions are made at time of use (so you can administer a potion of healing to a dying character who would be able to attune automatically and gain the benefits of the curative magic).Another nice benefit is that you can have powerful items without it being ‘Monty Haul.’ For example, the value of a +5 sword is 50,000 gp which is far too much for a 4th-level character to possess (5,400 to be precise). So a 4th-level character that somehow came to possess such a powerful weapon wouldn’t be able to attune it past a +1 sword (as +2 is 8,000 and far too expensive). This allows you to have items that grow with the character and take on a campaign history. Magic item creation is another beast as well. Days become weeks when determining development time (save potions and scrolls). Furthermore, recipes need to be found or researched for items they are trying to craft. Often, the recipe will require rare and exotic components that forces a character to seek them out (read: adventure hook). It should be noted that the experience spent in creating an item can be levied against any attunement costs if the character is making an item for himself.Lastly, there are materials within the world that are infused or ‘naturally magical’ that are used to craft (for the most part) arms and armor. These must still be attuned but you won’t need any of those rare spell casters to create the item (just the appropriate craftsmen).</blockquote>

Verification