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Valentyne
2009-03-21, 01:49 PM
Give me your feedback. I realize the section on available creatures may not make sense without the cosmology of the world included here. And the two sections on alignment are not entirely strong with well drawn guidelines. However, given that they are designed to be roleplayed only vague guidelines can really be given.

House Rules:

These rules are intended to do two things. The first is to give the World of Shattered Gods its own unique flavor and to keep the rules consistent with its cosmology. The second is to eliminate much of the power gaming I have seen in D&D. While I want players to think outside of the box and I want the campaign to be heavily player driven, breaking the game entirely will not be tolerated.

• The Good/Evil dichotomy in the world of the Shattered Gods is relative, not objective. Morality is not cut and dry with clearly defined actions as good or evil; intent and context must be considered. Objective morality is simply too thorny, too confusing and unrealistic. Just as a quick example, devils and murder are typically considered evil. But what of devils who kill each other? While killing is typically an evil act, in a world of objective morality destroying evil is considered a good act. So what are the devils? Evil by their heritage or good by their act of destroying other evil beings?

o Thus, with no objective good/evil, spells that detect good/evil are rendered useless. The DM and player must decide on an ability to replace class abilities that mirror detect evil/good. The simplest answer that would mirror detect evil would be an insight bonus to sense motive equal to his class level. Barring that a free feat would not be out of line either.
o Many other spells that have effects based upon the alignment of the target would become near worthless. This includes such spells as unholy/holy aura, unholy/holy strike, protection from evil/good, magic circle against evil/good, blasphemy/holy word, dispel evil/good, unhallow/hallow, desecrate/consecrate, corrupt/bless weapon and align weapon. Thus, in the spell description “(X alignment) creatures” now simply reads “enemies”.
o Other abilities’ descriptions that read “(X alignment) creatures” now read “enemies”. These means two paladins on a battle field may use their smite abilities against each other.
o The good and evil descriptors on spells are rendered null (so that any character can cast any of those spells).
o Holy and unholy damage merge into the divine damage type.
o Classes that depend upon alignment must be treated differently. Since paladins are not necessarily Lawful Good, the DM & player must decide what the rules/laws/commandments are of their faith/religion. It is only in violating those that a paladin becomes a fallen paladin. The same works in regards to monks and the rules of their monastic orders.
• This also makes the law/chaos aspect of alignment largely useless except as role-playing guidelines. The DM and player must decide upon the rules/philosophy/tenets of classes that traditionally have law/chaos restrictions.

o Barbarians should follow the rules of their tribes/homelands. (The rules of such societies may be quite complex but are only considered “chaotic” by the so-called more advanced societies that have different standards. But given their complexity it is hard for me to see how it could be called anything other than “lawful”.)
o Bards should “follow their muse”. (Considering the connection between music and mathematics it has always seemed odd to me that bards must be non-lawful even if we intuitively think of artists as touchy-feely types and chaotic.)
o Druids should worry about keeping “the balance” – but a balance of ecology not necessarily rights and wrongs. How they go about keeping the balance is entirely up to them so long as it follows a philosophy that is internally cohesive. (Ecology is a science, or lawful, while others claim that “balance” is intuitive, a chaotic stance. On that note, look at kind-hearted ecology scientists, which are lawful good, and eco-terrorists, which boarder on chaotic evil.)
o Monks are bound by the tenants of their order/philosophy/school. (While most would obviously lean toward lawfulness as disciple is heavily emphasizes in martial arts, there is no reason to assume that chaos and random elements are not part of the fighting style taught.)
• Animals, aberrations, oozes, magical beast, plants and vermin all have the possibility of existing in this world. If they are not naturally occurring their existence can easily be explained as a result of the mutations that occurred as a result of opening the Rift.

o If Dragons and Giants ever existed they were a result of the opening of the Rift. However, given there is no proof of their existence other than wild rumors, it is likely they were killed off in the ages before the Gods appeared. If any currently exist they would have some from of shapeshifting ability to blend into the masses of humanity.
o Most Outsiders simply don’t exist in the World of Shattered Gods. There are no alternative planes for them to be summoned from – no heavens or hells. This is also true for creatures that would be native to the Plane of Shadows.
o The spirit world gives rise to nature spirits (i.e. elementals). It would be entirely appropriate for these spirits to also manifest themselves as fey and a few select outsiders (who are given the fey subtype in place of the outsider subtype).
o Constructs and non-intelligent are simply animated through magic and there is nothing barring their existence in the World of Shattered Gods. Intelligent undead are typically self-animated or somehow sustained through the use of magic. Undead spawning abilities are limited and only function once per week. The ability only functions on victims of the undead’s choice (i.e. not merely the first victim each week).
o Creatures from the Far Realms (and some aberrations) could serve as aliens (the threat from the stars), or as the residents of a plane far removed from the prime material plane.
• It has generally been agreed that in the 3.5 edition magic is overpowered. I tend to agree with this assessment. To emphasis the idea that magic is work and takes a tremendous amount of effort I feel there needs to be additional penalties to using magic. Thus, each time a spell is cast the caster takes 2 x spell level of the spell cast in nonlethal damage. This damage can be halved with a successful Fort save (DC = 10 + 2 x spell level).
• Some types of magic are more limited in the World of Shattered Gods. Any spell or power which teleports or instantaneously moves a creature from one location to another has its spell or power level increased by two (i.e. teleport and dimension door but not levitate, fly or summon monster I-IX). Instantaneous movement is easy to abuse and often derails campaigns.
• To avoid much of the cheesiness of certain class combinations, characters are limited to two base classes and two prestige classes. In addition, once a class is chosen it must be leveled to 5th level before selecting a new class. However, previous classes may be leveled while the newest class remains below 5th level. As an example, a character with five levels as a druid who, when she levels up, gains one level in ranger, cannot gain any more classes until her ranger level is at least five. Until that time she may only level her druid or ranger classes.

o I may relent on this rule in regards to the first base class chosen if a compelling reason can be given in the character’s background.
o I really want to see more of the prestige classes that are underutilized. I know they are half-broken (or completely broken) but they have the possibility of added so much flavor to the character.
• The material in Tomb of Battle will not be used.
• A character must wield a nightstick to use its ability. In addition, a character can only gain the benefit of one nightstick per day.
• All psionic character receives the psicrytsal affinity feat for free at first level. Wizards and sorcerers gain a familiar for free, why shouldn’t psionic characters get their equivalent for free as well?

MeklorIlavator
2009-03-21, 02:36 PM
First of all, why no ToB? Do you feel it's overpowered? That it doesn't fit in with the setting?

Secondly, I dislike rules against multiclassing, if only because so few of them really disallow the "cheese" that they say they're to prevent, but do prevent other combinations. For example, Wizards, Clerics, Druids, and other full casters aren't effected by this rule at all, and they're by far the most powerful classes. But what's even worse is the leveling scheme. It pretty much kills any chance of theruge classes, plus it's ridiculously artificial. What do you mean my Rouge can't try to become a better tracker and combatant yet?

Thirdly, while your rule does preclude high volume spell-slinging, it doesn't prevent what is likely the most powerful Wizard tactic, which at it's best is only using one or 2 spells per encounter. It does pretty much end all hope of blasting, as unless they're using highly optimized builds(Tippy-level) then they'll just knock themselves out.

I do like your rules on the alignment system, though.

Baron Corm
2009-03-21, 02:45 PM
Wizard uses celerity. Takes a few damage. Wizard casts no-save-and-die spell. Takes a few damage. Problem not solved.

Damage has no effect until it kills you. If you really wanted to limit them, make it 2 Intelligence damage, save for half. If you wanted to limit them in a fair way, just change the problematic spells.

I think your multiclassing rule is just too specific. If someone is a X/X/X/X/X/X/X and you don't like it, just say "no". Don't limit a perfectly legitimate rogue 5/ranger 11/fighter 4 or something. It's a very situational thing.

With the nightstick thing I'm assuming you're trying to limit Divine Metamagic Persist. A better way would be to restrict it to metamagics that raise spell level by no more than 4. Or whatever number you want. Because clerics get plenty of useless turn attempts without nightsticks. My favorite option is to just delete the Turn Undead class feature, because it's just so useless, or overpowered when used for DMM.