Taladas Unearthed
- Thread starter tsadkiel
- Start date
tsadkiel
Legend
The design philosophy post, aka "Why am I doing this?"
The simple answer is that Taladas is my favorite campaign setting, and I don't have a PHB at the moment. Plus, I'm very cheap, so I'm making do with what I have.
The longer answer is that taladas and AU appeal to the same part of my brain. One of the things about Taladas that appeals to me is the sense of cultural immersion; finding your own place in a complex society seems to be one of the setting's themes. I think that the importance of ritual and ceremony in AU reflects the same theme.
Also, many of the details of AU just seem to click for me; humans aren't necessarily the dominant force, for one thing. The Totem Warrior class immediately reminded me of the Clan elves, and the Runethane of the Recorders of Baltch. In both works, being a priest is a societal role, rather than a reliable source of magic. And so on; I'll go into a little more detail on specifics later.
In any case, here are the works I'll be using:
Arcana Unearthed
3.5 DM's Guide
3.5 Monster Manual
"Time of the Dragon" boxed set
The WotC website and assorted other free internet stuff.
The simple answer is that Taladas is my favorite campaign setting, and I don't have a PHB at the moment. Plus, I'm very cheap, so I'm making do with what I have.
The longer answer is that taladas and AU appeal to the same part of my brain. One of the things about Taladas that appeals to me is the sense of cultural immersion; finding your own place in a complex society seems to be one of the setting's themes. I think that the importance of ritual and ceremony in AU reflects the same theme.
Also, many of the details of AU just seem to click for me; humans aren't necessarily the dominant force, for one thing. The Totem Warrior class immediately reminded me of the Clan elves, and the Runethane of the Recorders of Baltch. In both works, being a priest is a societal role, rather than a reliable source of magic. And so on; I'll go into a little more detail on specifics later.
In any case, here are the works I'll be using:
Arcana Unearthed
3.5 DM's Guide
3.5 Monster Manual
"Time of the Dragon" boxed set
The WotC website and assorted other free internet stuff.
tsadkiel
Legend
Races: I don't want to have to reinvent the wheel with PC races, so I'm using the Monster Manual whenever I can, here. The Bakali, Ogre, and centaur all have Monster Manula equivalents (Bakali being Lizard Men), so I'll just use those. Krynn Minotaur and Kender stats can both be found on the WotC website.
Dwarves - there are three dwarven subraces on Taladas - the Scorned Dwarves, the Fianawar, and the dwarves of the Rainward Isles. The Rainward Isle dwarves are clearly just normal Hill Dwarves, and so will use the approriate stats. Fianawar are almost normal; the only real difference is their fear of the underground, and that's more a roleplaying hook than anything else. For the moment, I'll use hill dwarf stats, but I may reconsider swapping something for stonecunning.
As for the Scorned dwarves - Deep Dwarves fit them perfectly, especially since the Deep Dwarves from the old Complete Book of Dwarves were very clearly modelled on the Scorned. Done and done.
This leaves us with the elf question.
Dwarves - there are three dwarven subraces on Taladas - the Scorned Dwarves, the Fianawar, and the dwarves of the Rainward Isles. The Rainward Isle dwarves are clearly just normal Hill Dwarves, and so will use the approriate stats. Fianawar are almost normal; the only real difference is their fear of the underground, and that's more a roleplaying hook than anything else. For the moment, I'll use hill dwarf stats, but I may reconsider swapping something for stonecunning.
As for the Scorned dwarves - Deep Dwarves fit them perfectly, especially since the Deep Dwarves from the old Complete Book of Dwarves were very clearly modelled on the Scorned. Done and done.
This leaves us with the elf question.
tsadkiel
Legend
Watch this space. 
Once I finish yammering on about the races (elves, gnomes, and goblins still to go) I'll get into fitting in the classes and magic system.
Speaking of Dragonlancey things, part of the metaconcept is that Ansalon uses D&D and DLCS rules, while Taladas uses AU. I like having the different continents feel different.
Once I finish yammering on about the races (elves, gnomes, and goblins still to go) I'll get into fitting in the classes and magic system.Speaking of Dragonlancey things, part of the metaconcept is that Ansalon uses D&D and DLCS rules, while Taladas uses AU. I like having the different continents feel different.
widderslainte
Explorer
I [heart] Taladas. Keep talking.
tsadkiel
Legend
Let's talk elves, for a minute. There are at least six elven subcultures on taladas - in addition to the Silvanaes, Clan elves, Cha'asii, and Hulderfolk, there are the urban elves from the League of Minotaurs and vaguely Polynesian elves from the vicinity of Syldar. for most of these, High Elves work just fine. I intend to use wild elf stats for the Cha'asii 9since they're pretty different, being shorter and green and all) and I'm looking for a fae-ish elf variant or template to apply to the Hulderfolk, since the kit write-up had them vulnerable to cold iron, as well as other things.
Goblins. MM stats, just forgot to mention them in the last post.
Gnomes - Krynn's gnomes are very different from their counterparts on other worlds. Still, I'm a big believer in the "good enough" school of game design. I'll use Rock Gnome stats for now, if the situation comes up - none of my players is that interested in gnomes, so I have time.
Coming next - fitting the AU magic system into Taladas, as well as the cleric question.
Goblins. MM stats, just forgot to mention them in the last post.
Gnomes - Krynn's gnomes are very different from their counterparts on other worlds. Still, I'm a big believer in the "good enough" school of game design. I'll use Rock Gnome stats for now, if the situation comes up - none of my players is that interested in gnomes, so I have time.
Coming next - fitting the AU magic system into Taladas, as well as the cleric question.
garyh
First Post
I'm very interested in following your progress, tsadkiel! I'm contemplating taking AU, WarCraft, and Core D&D and tossing the parts I like in a bucket, then mixing thoroughly for a homebrew setting, so your approach to integrating campaign-specificly tweaked core races and AU mechanics will be helpful to watch.
Oh, and I like the "different continent, different feel" idea. Now, to find a way to steal that for my own nefarious purposes!
Oh, and I like the "different continent, different feel" idea. Now, to find a way to steal that for my own nefarious purposes!
tsadkiel
Legend
Magic. Here's what we know, from a story-based rather than rule-based perspective, about magic on Taladas:
Nearly every society has access to some sort of magical tradition, but the role mages play varies from culture to culture. Magic seems to be learned rather than innate, even in non-literate societies.* Different magical societies are better at different things; the Cha'asii specialize in Nature magic, for instance.
Centuries ago, the gods granted power to every member of their clergy, but they don't any more. In most cases, being a priest is a societal role, rather than a means of gaining magical powers. However, especially faithful individuals are beginning to gain divine power, the most notable example being Bishop Trandamere in Thenol. Additionally, the mystery cult of Mislaxa was formed 20 years after the Cataclysm by spellcasting priests; Mislaxan priests are known for being able to heal.
*This lead to a very clever but subtle touch in the kits provided in the boxed set. Wizards from literate societies got Read/Write proficiency, as expected; "barbaric" wizards all had Singing proficiency. The implication was that instead of keeping written spellbooks, the societies in question encoded spell formulae in song, leading to the rather cool image of the party mage singing for an hour a day to memorize his spells.
Nearly every society has access to some sort of magical tradition, but the role mages play varies from culture to culture. Magic seems to be learned rather than innate, even in non-literate societies.* Different magical societies are better at different things; the Cha'asii specialize in Nature magic, for instance.
Centuries ago, the gods granted power to every member of their clergy, but they don't any more. In most cases, being a priest is a societal role, rather than a means of gaining magical powers. However, especially faithful individuals are beginning to gain divine power, the most notable example being Bishop Trandamere in Thenol. Additionally, the mystery cult of Mislaxa was formed 20 years after the Cataclysm by spellcasting priests; Mislaxan priests are known for being able to heal.
*This lead to a very clever but subtle touch in the kits provided in the boxed set. Wizards from literate societies got Read/Write proficiency, as expected; "barbaric" wizards all had Singing proficiency. The implication was that instead of keeping written spellbooks, the societies in question encoded spell formulae in song, leading to the rather cool image of the party mage singing for an hour a day to memorize his spells.
tsadkiel
Legend
Based on the above, the AU magic system can be dropped in nearly wholesale, and will represent the various "wizard" traditions of taladas quite well. (Better than the 2E magic system the world was designed to use, in my opinion.) Of course, since one of the premises of the campaign is that Culture Matters, the classes won't be evenly distributed; different societies will produce different spellcasters. But I'll get into that when I get to classes.
Clerics are a problem, though. Certainly, the setting material implies D&D Clerics. So there are two real options. The first is to just drop clerics intoi the setting; while that sort of defeats the point of using AU, they'll be rare enough not to worry about too much.
The other option is to adapt. For this to work, the DM has to accept certain premises.
Premise #1. The gods don't necessarily empower all their servants in the same way. While Ansalon has clerics, Taladas may or may not have different divinely empowered folks.
Premise #2. Priests being super-healers is primarily a Mislaxan thing. This can be argued both from the setting material (as it's only in reference to the mystery cult of Mislaxa that clerics as healers is mentioned) and from a rules standpoint, since many of the other gods in the Time of the Dragon boxed set had only limited healing capability, if any.
Premise #3. Healing hit point damage isn't that big a deal, unless you're part of an adventuring party. For an adventurer, it's vital to have someone handy who can patch you up, but on a societal level, that kind of wound tends to take care of itself, one way or another. (Either you heal, or you die.) If you have a secret society of wandering healers, you really need them to take care of lingering ailments, diseases and the like, instead of hoping there's one nearby when you happen to get thwacked with a sword.
The hit point healing spells in AU tend to be simple, while the spells that treat disease and the like tend to be complex or exotic. To me, that means that the fact that the local witch can cast lesser battle healing doesn't reduce the specialness of the wandering Mislaxan priest, since the priest can cure the plague and the witch can't.
Therefore, here's what I'm thinking about clerics. The average deity's empowered servant is a Champion, with a cause tailored toward the particular deity. Empowered members of the mystery cult of Mislaxa (I should really start abbreviating that) use the Greenbond class.
Still, I'm not settled on this, and am open to suggestions.
Clerics are a problem, though. Certainly, the setting material implies D&D Clerics. So there are two real options. The first is to just drop clerics intoi the setting; while that sort of defeats the point of using AU, they'll be rare enough not to worry about too much.
The other option is to adapt. For this to work, the DM has to accept certain premises.
Premise #1. The gods don't necessarily empower all their servants in the same way. While Ansalon has clerics, Taladas may or may not have different divinely empowered folks.
Premise #2. Priests being super-healers is primarily a Mislaxan thing. This can be argued both from the setting material (as it's only in reference to the mystery cult of Mislaxa that clerics as healers is mentioned) and from a rules standpoint, since many of the other gods in the Time of the Dragon boxed set had only limited healing capability, if any.
Premise #3. Healing hit point damage isn't that big a deal, unless you're part of an adventuring party. For an adventurer, it's vital to have someone handy who can patch you up, but on a societal level, that kind of wound tends to take care of itself, one way or another. (Either you heal, or you die.) If you have a secret society of wandering healers, you really need them to take care of lingering ailments, diseases and the like, instead of hoping there's one nearby when you happen to get thwacked with a sword.
The hit point healing spells in AU tend to be simple, while the spells that treat disease and the like tend to be complex or exotic. To me, that means that the fact that the local witch can cast lesser battle healing doesn't reduce the specialness of the wandering Mislaxan priest, since the priest can cure the plague and the witch can't.
Therefore, here's what I'm thinking about clerics. The average deity's empowered servant is a Champion, with a cause tailored toward the particular deity. Empowered members of the mystery cult of Mislaxa (I should really start abbreviating that) use the Greenbond class.
Still, I'm not settled on this, and am open to suggestions.
Similar Threads
