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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ciaran00" data-source="post: 1100531" data-attributes="member: 12493">We have compiled a 300+ page rules sourcebook for our Dark Sun based campaign. I won't bore you with all the details, but here are a few highlights.* Players start with 72 points to distribute amongst stats.* No humans, no dwarves, no elves, no halflings, and essentially no race that rips J.R.R. off. He has his writing, we have our game.* All the classes are rewritten so they are equal. Turning item enchantment into feats is a terrible ploy to take power away from wizards between 2e and 3e. They are restored as class abilities, and a host of metamagic feats are available to tempt wizards to buy them.* Being a big fan of Skills and Powers, every class has a long list of interchangeable abilities (unlike S&P, specialisation is only for gladiators and fighters... not for everyone that comes by with character points).* Feats really are feats. Every feat is tempting to buy because they're all good. Balance comes from the fact that I can use them just as much as the player can. Examples:1. Mindtrap: When the character with this feat is the victim of a telepathic power through established contact, he can initiate a telepathic power against his attacker as if he were contacting him.2. Contracteur (for bards): The bard can write unbreakable contracts (this is very useful in Hell). Details of such contracts and the severity of their binding follows.3. Augmented Summoning: Various enhancements for wizards that concentrate on Conjuration/Summoning like the ability to reach into bordering planes, increase in HD summoned, and the cooperativeness of such creatures/entities.4. Artificing: Creation of magical weapons on the fly, and on the cheap. Enchantment of artefacts, etc.* Psionics is implemented as per 2nd edition, with Sciences/Devotions. This was a point of creativity that WOTC has been unable to beat. Current iteration of 3.0/3.5 psionics is just wizard magic in new form. We have almost doubled the psionics available with our own offerings and co-opting them from 3e.* Spells are 2nd edition spells for Wizards and Priests. Having compendiums for all these guys makes it hard to justify switching over. However, every likable rule and redefinition of 2e spells that is in 3e have been adopted.* ECLs inherent to certain classes because no matter how you cut it, certain classes are just more powerful than others. On Dark Sun where defiler dragons can roast a 30th level bard with ease, these class ECLs are necessary. Also, class ECL is a fundamental difference between defiler and preserver in classic Dark Sun. Though on the road to equal amounts of power, the defiler rose very very quickly in levels.* No partial actions (and 3.5e now agrees with us to rule out complicated combat).* AoA are curbed. Every person with a weapon is threatening, so a person entering your threat radius armed to the teeth is capable of smacking you when you trying an AoA on him. So we have knocked out many of these AoA rules and feats. Consequently, spell disruption is completely unavoidable if a wizard or priest is hit. This raises the tactical bar on combat.* Memorised spells are replaced with spell power (spell point system), similar to Skills & Magic. This, obviously, kills the sorceror class, which we had agreed to be useless anyway.Um, there is plenty more... I think these rules come from our inability to play in any game world but our own. The first rule is fairness, and its guided to towards making these rules possible. Actual combat and 3.5e combat are two different animals, and part of our goal is to bring as much actual combat to the table as we can (in terms of rules, not in terms of hitting each other).Anyway. Cool thread.ciaran</blockquote>

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