The Worship Points System

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No rules changes

If you must create this (admittedly intriguing) rules tweaks, put them on a website as recommended material by a published author (i.e., you). Leave them out of the main book and use the space for more divine hoo ha.
 

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Re: No rules changes

RiotGear said:
If you must create this (admittedly intriguing) rules tweaks, put them on a website as recommended material by a published author (i.e., you). Leave them out of the main book and use the space for more divine hoo ha.
I tend to disagree on that point. I would prefer to have everything in the book rather to have to go to a website to see the modifications of the rules, then have to print them and insert them in the book so that I can refer to them easily while I DM...
 


Re: Re: SUPERnatural armour?

I seem to have stirred up a hornets nest here, remember at this point I am still contemplating its introduction - which was why I asked everyones opinions...thanks for all the responses. :)

I'll reply to you all in turn.

Hi poil brun mate! :)

poilbrun said:
Sorry to hear that. I hope you're well...

Thanks! I think I am over the worst of it, no more headaches, just a runny nose.

poilbrun said:
Now, on to the subject at hand :
I can see why you would do this : it's true that a succubus' skin is not particularly tough, and I agree that it may be considered supernatural. I differ, however, about the magical aspect of it.

Logically, if the armour isn't natural (or manufactured), then it must be supernatural.

poilbrun said:
I can't see why an antimagic field would reduce an outsider AC.

Simply that Anti-Magic blocks supernatural abilities.

poilbrun said:
Furthermore, you'd need to lower the CR accordingly.

Not necessarily. Do you alter the challenge rating of a 20th-level Wizard simply because of the 'possibility' they will get caught within an anti-magic field, no, of course not.

poilbrun said:
An outsider already looses its magical abilities if it is subjected to an Antimagical Field. If it AC also drops by 13, he's only dead meat even before the beginning of combat...

Remember of course that anyone in the Anti-Magic Field will also have magical bonuses negated. In my estimation all things will still be even.

poilbrun said:
But there is something missing in your post : why would you do this? If there is a really good reason behind this, I could understand it.

In my opinion if you have natural armour; you have to look like you have natural armour! Otherwise you have supernatural armour.

For a long time now I have been searching for a clear method of determining natural armour from supernatural armour to answer a number of fundamental questions:

- Why should deities who are not naturally armoured have the same natural armour as those that are!?

eg. Should Odin have the same or better Natural Armour than Tiamat?

No, certainly not! Likely a better Armour Class, but not Natural Armour. Tiamat is a colossal dragon deity with incredibly thick scales. Her size and heavy natural armour keep her Dexterity at 10. Odin on the other hand has an incredibly high Dexterity (I anticipate in the low 80s). He can benefit from wearing armour, Tiamat cannot.

- If having high natural armour makes you look freakish as well as reduces your dexterity, it must therefore be superior to supernatural armour.

At a base level all this need represent is that natural armour functions within Anti-Magic.

However, you could also decree that Natural Armour reduces damage (in effect duplicating resilience) rather than increasing AC. Something I have advocated ever since Simon introduced (what was then Armour Value) into our own campaign years ago. Although I refrained from headlining it in the WPS; even though from what I can tell it not only makes more sense but is the rule set to be used in many forthcoming d20 variant systems. Including D20 Modern (if I'm not mistaken) according to the interview with Anthony Valterra on the EN Main News Page.

Obviously Tiamat is easy to hit, but not to hurt!

poilbrun said:
However, if it is only for flavor, I think it would be easier to keep on using the Natural Armor as it is now, knowing that it implies both a toughness of the skin and some supernatural protection.

At the moment I am leaning towards using the supernatural armour idea.

However, remember that it will be an optional rule in the WPS (albeit one which I advocate). Within deity descriptions you won't need to change a thing if you don't wish to utilise supernatural armour, since both NA and SnA will be calculated into the Armour Class.

The only modification would be if you planned to incorporate Natural Armour as Resilience.

poilbrun said:
It would also raise some other questions : what if the Balor from the example has more hit dices? Does his AC also become higher?

Technically there are 2 methods to this (depending on whether you wish to have Natural Armour increase AC or reduce Damage). I'll have the second worked out later - in fact just thought of it.

Method #1 (Natural Armour = AC increase)

As a simple rule of thumb (for Outsiders) I would always keep Supernatural Armour equal to Hit Dice.

39HD Balor
Supernatural Armour = +39
Natural Armour +10 (original 7 + 3 for size increase), +5 of which is determined by size, leaving a remaining +5; meaning a Balor has skin like chainmail.
Dexterity becomes 10.

66HD Solar
Supernatural Armour = +66
Natural Armour +5 (original 2 + 3 for size increase)
Dexterity becomes 17.

However, deities won't gain this automatically, but rather must manifest the power by expending worship points.

Method #2 (Natural Armour = Reduced Damage)

Same principle as before (SnA = Outsider HD) except that any Natural Armour subtracts from Supernatural Armour.

13HD Balor
Supernatural Armour = +13
Natural Armour +7
Supernatural Armour Reduced to +6. (13 - 7)
Dexterity becomes 10.

66HD Demogorgon
Supernatural Armour = +66
Natural Armour +15
Supernatural Armour Reduced to +51. (66 - 15)
Dexterity reduced by 15 (probably to about 20).

So Demogorgons Ac would be about 64* and you would need to deliver in excess of 15 damage to hurt him.

49HD Tiamat
Supernatural Armour = +49
Natural Armour +48
Supernatural Armour Reduced to +1. (49 - 48)
Dexterity reduced by 48 (obviously to 10).

So Tiamats AC would actually be 3* but you would need to deal over 48 hit points damage in a single attack to hurt her! :)

*Not counting Magic Items.

Technically you could also presume that the NA increase from size didn't detract from SnA - but I will have to have a think on this point. ;)

poilbrun said:
Do spells like Mage Armor stack with this supernatural protection or not?

In my estimation supernatural armour is like a sort of innate mage armour. Personally I wouldn't allow them to stack, simply chose the highest figure.

poilbrun said:
I don't think this change is necessary, but if you could expand a bit over it, maybe the reasons why I'm not sure about this change would become meaningless.

Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt mate! :)
 

Re: Hrmmm

RingXero said:
hey there UK,

Hi Ring Xero. :)

Nice Avatar by the way! :D

RingXero said:
Been following your posts for some time,

Thanks! I appreciate the interest! :)

RingXero said:
and do like the changes your are planning.

The previous changes are fairly minor: Challenge Ratings above 20 must be revised, of that there can be no argument; equally the vorpal ability. Resilience for golems (equal to their hardness) is subjective on my part but necessary at higher levels (trust me).

RingXero said:
I'm going to have to question this change abit.

By all means!

RingXero said:
While it does seem nice, and I kinda like it, I dont' see the necessity of adding this one, it seems like too much work for too little pay-off.

Okay, well I have revised it since last night (see my previous post) and by tomorrow it will either be perfected or the idea will be dropped.

RingXero said:
Lets say I purchase your book, already I have to change...

Okay lets address each point in turn.

RingXero said:
...a bunch of CRs,

Challenge Ratings above 20 must be addended! Otherwise they make no sense!

Simply put; a 50th-level character is not CR50, in that it is not the equivalent of 32,768 20th-level characters.

I have already freely posted what I think is the most simple and effective solution (I will do so again if asked?).

RingXero said:
modify some golems,

This point is optional. All I advocate is that Golems gain Resilience equal to their material hardness.

eg. An Iron Golem would have Resilience 10, DR 40/+3 instead of DR 50/+3. Meaning that you need to deliver more than 10 points of damage to injure it regardless of weapon '+'.

My reasoning (other than being logical) is to compensate for a golems lack of hit points (due in effect to them having no Con bonus) at high levels. Damage Reduction is so black and white to be next to irrelevant in most cases, notably so the higher it ascends.

RingXero said:
incorporate your feats/skills/etc...

I don't see how you would have to 'incorporate' my Feats more than any others.

RingXero said:
Now adding three more changes to the monster manual? hrmmm....

Three more!?

I advocate Natural Armour and Supernatural Armour should be seperated thats all.

Actually I perceive this as being a relatively simple addendum.

RingXero said:
Again, I could see me doing this, but I don't think the gaming populous at large would be too happy.

Exactly what I thought when I remember Simon introduced the idea of Armour Value (armour reducing damage rather than the chance of being hit) into our campaign. An idea I grew to love though!

So trust me, I know what I'm doing! ;)

RingXero said:
The simpler to implement the better. At most I could see it as an "optional" sidebar rules addendum.

All changes to core rules are detailed in (white type) black bars to clearly seperate it from the rest. As such they are all optional, if advised addendums.

The exception to this would be the seperation of Natural and Supernatural Armour within AC listings. However, this requires no actual revisions unless you wish to apply the Natural Armour to Resilience instead of AC.

eg. Demogorgon

AC: 79 (-2 size; +5 Dex; +15 Natural; +51 Supernatural)

For those who still wish to retain how Natural Armour/Armour works in the Core Rules the AC won't need to be changed.

For those who do wish to change it, simply subtract Natural Armour and apply it to Resilience. Simplicity itself.

I'll provide in an addendum any minor details to enable current creatures to be converted to this optional rule.
 
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Re: No rules changes

Hi RiotGear mate! :)

RiotGear said:
If you must create this (admittedly intriguing) rules tweaks, put them on a website as recommended material by a published author (i.e., you). Leave them out of the main book and use the space for more divine hoo ha.

It should be relatively straightforward to incorporate these core rule addendums/options into the WPS without disturbing things.

Don't worry there will be plenty of 'divine hoo ha' in there I can assure you! :D
 

Re: Re: No rules changes

Hey guys! :)

poilbrun said:
I tend to disagree on that point. I would prefer to have everything in the book rather to have to go to a website to see the modifications of the rules, then have to print them and insert them in the book so that I can refer to them easily while I DM...

Impeesa said:
I'd make it another appendix or something, "Suggested houserules".

The explanation of Supernatural Armour and the optional revision for Natural Armour (and how to convert current monsters/characters to this optional rule) will be within an appendix; but within deity/monster AC descriptions I will likely divide Natural Armour to incorporate the Supernatural Armour idea - since that won't interfere with AC if you don't want it to.

Incidently I am leaning towards Method #2 as described in an above post.
 



Supernatural Armour made easy!?

Hey all :)

(actually tried posting this a few hours ago with no luck)

I think I have an easy method of determining Supernatural Armour.

I think I was putting the cart before the horse. Natural Armour should be determined before Supernatural Armour. Let me know what you all think!? Remember this is an optional rule to be included in an appendix!

Step One: Determine Skin Type

- Normal Skin (Unarmoured), NA +/-0, eg. Succubus, Graz'zt
- Thick/Leathery Skinned (Lightly Armoured), NA +2, eg. Vrock, Orcus
- Scaly Skinned (Armoured), NA +5, eg. Balor, Demogorgon
- Armour Plated/Carapace (Heavily Armoured), NA +8, Glabrezu, Lolth, Tiamat

Step Two: Determine Size

- Large, NA x1.5 +2
- Huge, NA x2 +5
- Gargantuan, NA x3 +9
- Colossal, NA x4 +14

Step Three: Determine Natural Armour

eg.
- Succubus: NA = 0
- Graz'zt: NA = +2 (Large)
- Vrock: NA = +5 (Leathery Skinned and Large)
- Orcus: NA = +5 (Leathery Skinned and Large)
- Balor: NA = +9 (Scaly Skinned and Large)
- Demogorgon: NA = +15 (Scaly Skinned and Huge)
- Glabrezu: NA = +21 (Armour plated and Huge)
- Lolth (Spider Form): NA = +14 (Armour plated and Large)

Step Four: Determine Supernatural Armour (Subtract Natural Armour from Hit Dice)

eg.
- Succubus (6HD): SnA = +6
- Graz'zt (62HD): SnA = +60 (62 - 2)
- Vrock (8HD): SnA = +3 (8 - 5)
- Orcus (44HD*): SnA = +39 (44 - 5)
- Balor (13HD): SnA = +4 (13 - 9)
- Demogorgon (66HD): = +51 (66 - 15)
- Glabrezu (10HD): = +0 (10 - 21)
- Lolth (Spider Form) (60HD): +46 (60 - 14)

*Current WotC version.

Step Five: Reduce Dexterity (subtract Natural Armour from Dexterity), Minimum 10.

eg.
- Succubus: no change
- Graz'zt: -2 Dex
- Vrock: -5 Dex
- Orcus: -5 Dex
- Balor: -9 Dex
- Demogorgon: -15 Dex
- Glabrezu: -21 Dex
- Lolth (Spider Form): -14 Dex

Any comments!?
 

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