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Dustfinger
2010-07-25, 10:16 PM
This thread is for any home-brewing ideas anyone has for an RPG set in the Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop. I haven't decided whether or not I want it to just be a 3.5 DnD and the jewels are templates and then Black widows are a class, or if I want to run a d12 System like Serenity. I don't have time tonight to put down any of my thoughts, but i should put some up by tomorrow. Thanks in advance for the help everyone, with the amazing homebrewing minds i've seen on this site I have high hopes. I'm just waiting to see if those amazing minds know this series.

Dustfinger
2010-07-26, 04:53 PM
Okay, so My idea right now is to use traditional DnD 3.5 and just add on the power of the jewels to anyone that has it. Obviously I would just get rid of the traditional magic and everyone would just have to pick and nonmagic class and hope to hell they have dark jewels and hope on having a good caste. So I want the jewels to run off a point system so each jewel has a differant amount of points that can be drawn out before the person needs to rest and recharge theyre jewels. So first of we need to figure out how many points each jewel has. I was thinking of starting with 100 at White and keep going up by 50 until they reached Opal then the darker jewels go up by 100. Something like this:

White: 100
Yellow: 150
Tiger-Eye: 200
Rose: 250
Summer-Sky: 300
Purple-Dusk: 350
Opal: 400 (for light Opal) 450 (for Dark Opal) [Since it is the dividing line between light and dark jewels]
Green: 550
Sapphire: 650
Red: 750
Gray: 850
Ebon-Gray: 950
Black: 1050

Now obviously these aren't set in stone and I hope to have feedback on it.

Another thing we need to set is how many points something is worth each time a person uses craft. Now i'll need help remembering all the differant ways Craft can be used and how many points for each action. I'll start a list and wait for others to help with a point value for each.

Levitate object: (Depends on Weight)
Pass through Wood:
Call in/Vanish Object:
Shield:
Bolt of Energy (Physical):
Bolt of Energy (Mental):
Read Mind:
Witchfire: (Depends on size of Fire)
Spear/Distaff threads:
Ride the Rind:
Phantom Hands:
Increasing Strength:

Also another thing i need to figure out is how many points a person gets before they have to go into the depths of their jewels. I was thinking basing it off Wisdom. Also, how the points work depending on how many jewels you have (Rings, Necklace, Bracelt, Circulet, Putting it on a weapon.) I dont know how many points each extra jewel should have. Okay so this is all I have time to place right now, hopefully by the next time I can come on someone will have come on and commented and left some ideas.

Partysan
2010-07-26, 06:21 PM
Well, as I said in the other thread, I'd strongly advise against using d&d for a BJ RPG, simply because it doesn't really provide any mechanism to balance jewel colours. However, if you are bent to use it, I'll try to give some ideas.

The only game mechanic of D&D that can balance jewel colour is LA. Now LA is a pretty horrible mechanic and you would go up to LA +16 or something for black jewels. Remember, Saetan annihilated a whole continent including all persons born on it, all items made on it, and all scriptures about it, just because he was mentally unstable and very very angry. A white jewel can't do more than helping a bit at housework.
Maybe you thought about a table to roll on for colour but please don't do that. Even between, lets say green and gray or yellow and purple there's a difference like a batman wizard to a monkey grip fighter. This just wouldn't be fun for anyone.

Regarding Caste: Warrior Prince is probably a template for +0 or +1 LA. Black Widow and Healer should probably be prestige classes, though being an inborn Black Widow or Healer might be a +1 LA template as well.
Social standing is something difficult here, since you can be a standard witch with a summersky jewel and still be a queen because of heritage and have the power to command over a red jewel warrior prince. Maybe you should introduce social standing as a seventh stat, assigning standings to stat values.

Using a mana point system for the jewel magic is a good plan, however you may not forget that the use of the Craft has to be learned as well, and thus might be governed by one or several skills.

Extra jewel should just be a feat, I'd say. You can take it multiple times, of course. Each extra jewel would probably give about 20-25% of the main jewel's power (in the novels they seem to be equally strong, but that's impossible to balance out).

Levitating and vanishing/calling should all depend on mass (in kilograms i guess) and for the sake of simplicity use the same values.
Passing matter through other matter might just require a skill check (you need to pay for levitate to move it anyway) or depend on the substance.
Shields can hold any point value, depending on the energy you invest into it, similar to energy bolts.
Mind reading would probably require a skill check to go unnoticed. Points would be some fixedd not too high amount, but if the victim realizes his thoughts being read he might use power to counter it, then whoever uses more points wins.
Riding the winds will use between 1 and 13 points (one point per colour) per km distance I'd say.
Phantom hands is just a very skillful use of telekinesis and probably requires a very high skill check, but almost no power.

Keep in mind that in the novels a higher colour almost always excludes lower colours, regardless of the energy invested. The only exception seems to be combat, as even a higher shield might possibly be broken by a very large number of weaker attacks, but I'm not sure even there.

I'll probably think of more another time. Also, why two different Opal values?

Dustfinger
2010-07-26, 08:08 PM
Well, as I said in the other thread, I'd strongly advise against using d&d for a BJ RPG, simply because it doesn't really provide any mechanism to balance jewel colours. However, if you are bent to use it, I'll try to give some ideas.

I don't really want do use DnD either, my only reasoning is that the group of people i'm playing with only know DnD3.5 and nothing else. I'll try to sway them away from using DnD but in the mean time I need to start doing this since it is probably what its going to break down to.



The only game mechanic of D&D that can balance jewel colour is LA. Now LA is a pretty horrible mechanic and you would go up to LA +16 or something for black jewels. Remember, Saetan annihilated a whole continent including all persons born on it, all items made on it, and all scriptures about it, just because he was mentally unstable and very very angry. A white jewel can't do more than helping a bit at housework.
Maybe you thought about a table to roll on for colour but please don't do that. Even between, lets say green and gray or yellow and purple there's a difference like a batman wizard to a monkey grip fighter. This just wouldn't be fun for anyone.

Level adjustment would probably work, so I'll have a higher starting level for the campaign and depending on your jewel strength you'll have less levels in whatever class they wanted to use. I was thinking about using the NPC classes with this campaign so they had to use one to balance it out since the jewels are so powerful.


Regarding Caste: Warrior Prince is probably a template for +0 or +1 LA. Black Widow and Healer should probably be prestige classes, though being an inborn Black Widow or Healer might be a +1 LA template as well.
Social standing is something difficult here, since you can be a standard witch with a summersky jewel and still be a queen because of heritage and have the power to command over a red jewel warrior prince. Maybe you should introduce social standing as a seventh stat, assigning standings to stat values.


I would give Warlord Prince a +1 LA and give Warlord and Prince no LA at all. The Warlord Prince would get a rage ability (Killing Edge) and some sort of over-channeling ability where they can use Health as Mana points or get bonus's for Con Drain.
I'd Make Black Widow at least a +2. They would get the ability to see the future (Tangled Webs), and have quite a potent poison. Actually on second thought they also have to worry about caring for the poison and slipping into the twisted kingdom, so natural black widow should be LA +1. Healers I don't think should be a level adjustment at all seeing as being a healer means that you usually don't care for yourself only others, so being able to heal is just as much a hindrance as it is a help. Also, have the prestige option for a 5 level prestige class if your'e not a natural black widow or healer is a good idea.

Also, I think social standing being a stat is a wonderful idea. And maybe instead of level adjustments Your Rank could be a stat. By rank I mean Warlord, Prince, Warlord Prince. And Witch, Healer, Priestess, Black widow and queen. This wouldn't just give you all of the abilities would give you bonus's as you leveled up. Warlord princes would start with Killing Edge, Natural black widows with Poison, and then later get tangled webs. Just throwing thoughts out there.


Using a mana point system for the jewel magic is a good plan, however you may not forget that the use of the Craft has to be learned as well, and thus might be governed by one or several skills.

Extra jewel should just be a feat, I'd say. You can take it multiple times, of course. Each extra jewel would probably give about 20-25% of the main jewel's power (in the novels they seem to be equally strong, but that's impossible to balance out).

I am planning on having there be a Craft skill but i'm not sure how many. At least one for basic Craft, one for Black widows, Most likely a Healing skill for craft, can't think of any other way I should break it up.
Having Extra Jewel be a feat is a great Idea. It would need to be a character creation feat I think, just to balance it out and so you can't randomly have jewels falling from the sky. I guess if your character has yet to make the offering to the darkness you could get the feat whenever and it just doesnt work until you make your offering. It would be a waste of a feat in the begining but in the end would pay off amazingly. And I think that 20% is a good way to keep it balanced.


Levitating and vanishing/calling should all depend on mass (in kilograms i guess) and for the sake of simplicity use the same values.
Passing matter through other matter might just require a skill check (you need to pay for levitate to move it anyway) or depend on the substance.
Shields can hold any point value, depending on the energy you invest into it, similar to energy bolts.
Mind reading would probably require a skill check to go unnoticed. Points would be some fixedd not too high amount, but if the victim realizes his thoughts being read he might use power to counter it, then whoever uses more points wins.
Riding the winds will use between 1 and 13 points (one point per colour) per km distance I'd say.
Phantom hands is just a very skillful use of telekinesis and probably requires a very high skill check, but almost no power.

I agree with basically everything here and don't really have too much to say about this section. So basically, I'll just need Skill DC's for all of these different things, which shouldn't be too hard.


Keep in mind that in the novels a higher colour almost always excludes lower colours, regardless of the energy invested. The only exception seems to be combat, as even a higher shield might possibly be broken by a very large number of weaker attacks, but I'm not sure even there.

I was thinking that would be a little too broken and things shouldn't be useless unless it is at least colors lower. I seem to remember them saying something about that somewhere, although I could be going crazy.


I'll probably think of more another time. Also, why two different Opal values?

They talk about Opal being the Dividing line of the jewel colors. They say It can either be a light or a dark jewel depending on the person. So I feel a dark Opal should be able to beat a Light Opal, thats the only reasoning there.


Feat Ideas:
Extra Jewel
Over Channeling
Killing Edge (In case you're just a warlord and not a warlord prince)
Tangled Webs (a prereq to the Black widow prestige)
Virulent Poison (Increases a black widows poison dc)

Thanks for the input I look forward to seeing your next post.

Partysan
2010-07-27, 07:13 AM
Level adjustment would probably work, so I'll have a higher starting level for the campaign and depending on your jewel strength you'll have less levels in whatever class they wanted to use. I was thinking about using the NPC classes with this campaign so they had to use one to balance it out since the jewels are so powerful.

Well, NPC classes are ok, but you'd need to make a rogue-like NPC class, since there isn't one. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, though.


I would give Warlord Prince a +1 LA and give Warlord and Prince no LA at all. The Warlord Prince would get a rage ability (Killing Edge) and some sort of over-channeling ability where they can use Health as Mana points or get bonus's for Con Drain.
Oh, the term is Warlord (Prince)? My bad, I read the books in German and translated on the fly.
The rage/overchannel is exactly what I was thinking of. Don't forget however, that a Warlord Prince does have less control over himself than a normal Warlord and is even more dependant on his queen, so that might balance it out a bit. The Warlord Prince is only stronger than a standard Witch or Warlord of his colour, he is still less powerful than anyone of higher colour than him.


I'd Make Black Widow at least a +2. They would get the ability to see the future (Tangled Webs), and have quite a potent poison. Actually on second thought they also have to worry about caring for the poison and slipping into the twisted kingdom, so natural black widow should be LA +1. Healers I don't think should be a level adjustment at all seeing as being a healer means that you usually don't care for yourself only others, so being able to heal is just as much a hindrance as it is a help. Also, have the prestige option for a 5 level prestige class if your'e not a natural black widow or healer is a good idea.
Black Widows are no doubt extremely powerful, but besides the poison their abilities have to be learned, even if they are a natural born. Also, learned Böack Widows have to care more for the poison, since they can't produce it themselves and have to mix and intake it. Still, at least LA +1 for a natural BW, that's clear. A natural Healer doesn't have any disadvantages but gets extra powers, so there should be an LA too. Since it's a lot less powerful than BW, I'd say +1 for Healers and +2 for BWs.
I'd say the healing or the webs of the BWs are a skill only they can take ranks in, similar to autohypnosis which can only be used by psionic creatures. You can get it either with the prestige class or being born a BW, but I guess even the born ones would take the class sometimes to further their capabilities in spinning the webs. A Black Widow can use Illusions and such skills, besides healing the mind and seeing the future, so it's really more or less the only true caster in the BJ universe.


Also, I think social standing being a stat is a wonderful idea. And maybe instead of level adjustments Your Rank could be a stat. By rank I mean Warlord, Prince, Warlord Prince. And Witch, Healer, Priestess, Black widow and queen. This wouldn't just give you all of the abilities would give you bonus's as you leveled up. Warlord princes would start with Killing Edge, Natural black widows with Poison, and then later get tangled webs. Just throwing thoughts out there.
I don't know. At first sight I really like the idea, but there's an unfortunate implication. You see, when you are using point buy and social standing is a stat, it means that if your standing is high, the other stats are lower. This does make sense, since persons of high standings will have a lot of stuff done for them and do not exercise and learn much themselves. However people of higher caste, being Warlord Princes or Black Widows are normally exceptionally gifted and as such have higher stats, not lower. Thus, I'd advise against caste being a stat as well.


I am planning on having there be a Craft skill but i'm not sure how many. At least one for basic Craft, one for Black widows, Most likely a Healing skill for craft, can't think of any other way I should break it up.
Having Extra Jewel be a feat is a great Idea. It would need to be a character creation feat I think, just to balance it out and so you can't randomly have jewels falling from the sky. I guess if your character has yet to make the offering to the darkness you could get the feat whenever and it just doesnt work until you make your offering. It would be a waste of a feat in the begining but in the end would pay off amazingly. And I think that 20% is a good way to keep it balanced.
Between one and three for BWs, one basic, one healing and perhaps one for combat, though that could also work like psionic powers instead of skill and just default to BAB for attack rolls, so rather no combat craft skill. You have a power point system anyways.
About the extra jewels, well, you can of course have multiple birth jewels as well, so you might take it for creation and take it again for the offering. Actually, it seems to be a quite frequent ability, as most of the characters have at least two jewels, an amulet and a ring.

You also need to do the races, since some kind of humans don't age and there are those guys with wings, both of which probably warrant an LA as well. Of lesser importance there are some kind of elves and those awakened animals. And the dead people.

Dustfinger
2010-07-27, 09:28 AM
Well, NPC classes are ok, but you'd need to make a rogue-like NPC class, since there isn't one. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, though.

Making a rogue like NPC class is the least of my worry's. But isn't there one npc class that can use hide and move silently and such.


Oh, the term is Warlord (Prince)? My bad, I read the books in German and translated on the fly.
The rage/overchannel is exactly what I was thinking of. Don't forget however, that a Warlord Prince does have less control over himself than a normal Warlord and is even more dependant on his queen, so that might balance it out a bit. The Warlord Prince is only stronger than a standard Witch or Warlord of his colour, he is still less powerful than anyone of higher colour than him.

The translation is no problem, anyone who's ead the series would know what you're talking about. I really dont see any way to do this except that women that he is close to to +2 to to a diplomacy when asking him for help. Unless it's his queen then its +5 maybe even higher.


Black Widows are no doubt extremely powerful, but besides the poison their abilities have to be learned, even if they are a natural born. Also, learned Böack Widows have to care more for the poison, since they can't produce it themselves and have to mix and intake it. Still, at least LA +1 for a natural BW, that's clear. A natural Healer doesn't have any disadvantages but gets extra powers, so there should be an LA too. Since it's a lot less powerful than BW, I'd say +1 for Healers and +2 for BWs.
I'd say the healing or the webs of the BWs are a skill only they can take ranks in, similar to autohypnosis which can only be used by psionic creatures. You can get it either with the prestige class or being born a BW, but I guess even the born ones would take the class sometimes to further their capabilities in spinning the webs. A Black Widow can use Illusions and such skills, besides healing the mind and seeing the future, so it's really more or less the only true caster in the BJ universe.

Okay After seeing this I think they should both be +1 or Natural born black widow would just be a character creation feat giving them poison and making Tangled Webs (or whatever we call the skill) A class skill no matter what class they are. Also, they would be able to enter the prestige class earlier than others.


I don't know. At first sight I really like the idea, but there's an unfortunate implication. You see, when you are using point buy and social standing is a stat, it means that if your standing is high, the other stats are lower. This does make sense, since persons of high standings will have a lot of stuff done for them and do not exercise and learn much themselves. However people of higher caste, being Warlord Princes or Black Widows are normally exceptionally gifted and as such have higher stats, not lower. Thus, I'd advise against caste being a stat as well.

Well I personally don't use point buy. I've never used it as a player and refuse to use it as a DM. Theres just something about it I feel is tainted. Part of the fun about DnD is making characters, and the chance that your character may have one or two flaws that inhibit it, is what it's all about. So as long as you dont use point buy then you could do this. Or even if you did want to use point buy, you should just roll for Caste. maybe like d20 +Cha Mod.


Between one and three for BWs, one basic, one healing and perhaps one for combat, though that could also work like psionic powers instead of skill and just default to BAB for attack rolls, so rather no combat craft skill. You have a power point system anyways.
About the extra jewels, well, you can of course have multiple birth jewels as well, so you might take it for creation and take it again for the offering. Actually, it seems to be a quite frequent ability, as most of the characters have at least two jewels, an amulet and a ring.

So how about if you take extra jewel as a character creation you get maybe a roll to see how many jewels you get. Maybe like 1d2


You also need to do the races, since some kind of humans don't age and there are those guys with wings, both of which probably warrant an LA as well. Of lesser importance there are some kind of elves and those awakened animals. And the dead people.

Races should be no problem. There are races i thought of at first when I started thinking of doing this. Raptoran could be used as a stepping stool to makea good flying race. The Kindred (Awakened animals) probably shouldn't even be a playable race, but if it will be all you need to do is take an animal, cut its stat bonus's in half and give it jewels and and make it so you have to take a feat in order to talk to human's bam you have a non-broken Kindred.
The peopel who don't age should get a charisma bonus, but i'm not sure how long they should live. They do say sataen is about 50,000 years old, but he's a guardian and basically undead. Daemon is almost 2,000 I believe, and he's like in his prime, and if thats not prime i'm scared to see what is. And the Demon-Dead could just be a redone vampire since theyre undead and have vulnerability to sunlight. Maybe just an immortal half vampire, they wont be a playable race so thats no problem. For the Short lived races I feel Humans and elves would work just fine, just make it so elves have short life span.

Okay so i have to run to work i'll post when I get off if theres anythign to say.

Feat Ideas:
Extra Jewel
Over Channeling
Killing Edge (In case you're just a warlord and not a warlord prince)
Tangled Webs (a prereq to the Black widow prestige)
Virulent Poison (Increases a black widows poison dc)
Kindred Speaking (Makes man able to speak to kindred or vice-versa)
Craft training (I feel there should be differant sets of craft skills that can be learned. Like being able to walk on air and the warlord princes attack that is basically just a burst in front of him.)

Partysan
2010-07-27, 12:19 PM
Well I personally don't use point buy. I've never used it as a player and refuse to use it as a DM. Theres just something about it I feel is tainted. Part of the fun about DnD is making characters, and the chance that your character may have one or two flaws that inhibit it, is what it's all about. So as long as you dont use point buy then you could do this. Or even if you did want to use point buy, you should just roll for Caste. maybe like d20 +Cha Mod.
Well, I personally dislike rolling for stats, simply because it's inherently unfair. Surely, some points there or there won't be that much of a difference, but there's alway someone who gets the shaft and always someone who is a lot better than anyone else. Sure, any well-played character has flaws, but they should be chosen by the player as well. Rolling essentially takes the creation of the character out of the player's hands, and im my book that doesn't help either fun nor roleplaying. But it's your game.
Still, I'd say that templates fit the caste better than an additional stat does.

I'll just start brewing, I guess.

Jewel Magic
To use the Craft a member of the Blood must expend jewel power. The number of power points expended relates to the way the craft is used and how much power is invested into the effect.
A member of the Blood cannot use more points on a single power than 10 times his jewel rank. This limitation does not effect fueling a lasting power but the inital casting of it.
The power point reserve of a person equals the points of her birthright jewel and the jewel of her offering. Any extra jewel of one colour adds 20% of that colours point to the reserve. A peron can only use a jewels power if he/she wears the jewel.
If a jewels power is reduced below zero it breaks and can never be used again.


Standing

A person's standing is the social rank in the world. It can rank from 1 to 18.
1-3: A more or less valuable slave
4-6: A peasant
7-9: A person of wealth or military rank
10-12: A person of the lower nobitily
13-15: A person of high nobility and power or wealth or a very low Queen
16-18: A Queen or ruler of a great territory (e.g. Hell)


Caste
Any person is member of a caste which may be inborn or, in some cases, acquired.
The caste may have an impact of the social standing and abilities of a person.

Warlord
Any standart male member of the Blood is a Warlord. Warlords usually serve a higher ranking woman and are warriors or craftsmen of some kind. Warlords can be told from Princes and Warlord Princes by their Aura.
A Warlord recieves a bonus feat at character creation.

Prince
A Prince is a male member of the Blood who has a higher ranking than a Warlord, though he is not technically stronger than him. Princes can be told from Warlords and Warlord Princes by their aura.
A Prince recieves +1 on his standing score, being higher than Warlords or Witches.

Warlord Prince (Template)
This male creature is more aggressive than others of its kind. It will share an extremely powerful bond with its Queen and devote its entire life to it. Until it finds its own Queen, it may serve other queens as well. Warlord Princes seldom serve women of lower rank.
Special Abilities: Warlord Princes have the following special abilities:
Aggressive Aura: A Warlord Prince has a recognizable aura which identifies him as Warlord Prince. This aura also gives a +3 bonus on intimidate checks.
Jewel Rage: Warlord Princes can evoke a terrifying rage which strengthens their jewel's power above the normal limits of their colour. Jewel Rage is a condition that can be entered as a free action and that lasts for one encounter, after which the Warlord Prince is left fatigued.
While in Jewel Rage the Warlord Prince's Jewel Magic always counts as being 5 points stronger than he did invest. During the Rage the Warlord Prince attacks any nearby enemy or person who attempts to stop him, if he doesn't succeed on a Will save (DC 10+his jewel rank) to end the condition.
If a Warlord Prince is provoked by other males coming near his Queen or the Queen being theatened or attacked he must succeed on a Will save (DC 10+his jewel rank) or immediately enter Jewel Rage.
The Rut: Once in a certain period of time, the Warlord Prince enters a phase of sexual aggressivity. He will know that the rut begins one week before. During the rut the Warlord Prince will mate with any woman he can get a hold of, often passionately or even violently. He will lose himself entirely during the next 24 hours and fall asleep for another 12 hours directly after, not remembering anything that happened during the rut.
During the rut and the week before the aura or the Warlord Prince shows even higher aggressivity. His bonus to intimidate checks goes up to +5, however the will save DC to end or prevent Jewel Rage also raises for 5 points.
The Queen's Bond: A Warlord Prince serving "his" Queen has an especially strong bond to her. She will recieve a +4 bonus on any attempt to use diplomacy on him or on the Will DC of mind affecting effects she uses on him. Furthermore, if the Warlord Prince knowingly acts against his Queen, he will recieve a -1 penalty on ALL throws he makes until the situation is resolved or he reverts to his Queen's side.
Ability Score Adjustments:
The Warlord Prince recieves +2 on his standing score, being above Warlords and Princes or Witches.
Level Adjustment: A Warlord Prince has a level adjustment of +1

Partysan
2010-07-27, 05:08 PM
Witch
Any standard female member of the Blood is a Witch. Witches may serve any person of higher rank. As women, their rank is slightly higher than that of men of the same caste, rank and standing. A Witch can become a Black Widow or Healer by learning their Craft.
Witches start the game with 5 additional skill points.

Healer
Some persons have the powers of a Healer from birth, making them especially adept at this type of using the Craft.
Healers start the game with Craft: Healing as a class skill. Craft: Healing is always a class skill for Healers, regardless of the class levels they actually take.
Healers get +1 on their standing stat score, being higher than Witches or Warlords.

Black Widow (Template)
Some persons have the powers of a Black Widow from birth, making them especially adept at this type of using the craft.
Special Abilities:
Tangled Webs: Black Widows have Craft: Webs as a class skill. Craft: Webs is always a class skill for Black Widows, regardless of the class levels they actually take.
Mind Magic: Black Widows have Craft: Mind as a class skill. Craft: Mind is always a class skill for Black Widows, regardless of the class levels they actually take.
Poison Sting: Black Widows have a poisonous sting inside one Finger. They can make an unarmed attack with it to deliver a deadly poison which also causes tremendous pain to the target. The target dies in a number of rounds equal to its Con bonus (minimum 1) if it doesn't succeed on a fortitude save (DC: 10+jewel rank of the Black Widow). If they succeed they don't die, but are still nauseated by the poison.
The poison must be milked out every few months if it is not used, otherwise it will cause pain and fever.
Ability Score Adjustments: A Black Widow gets +2 on her standing score, being higher than Warlords or Witches.
Level Adjustment: A Black Widow has an LA of +2

Standart Human stays as is.
Dea al Mon get +2 Dexterity and Elven Proficiencies, as well as immortality.
Immortal Humans get immortality and +2 Charisma.
Eyriens get +2 Strength and flight speed with good maneuverability. Probably martial proficiency as well. I'm not sure if they are immortal too, if yes, they'd warrant an LA +1.
As you can see I made the races a bit more powerful. The human bonus feat and the skillpoints without drawbacks are powerful, so -2 Con for the elves seems unreasonable. Since immortality is not that powerful in a game, I didn't give the immortal ones an LA, losing the human feat and skills is enough.

Dustfinger
2010-07-27, 11:23 PM
This is great, everythign I hoped for. My only comments are that the Black widow needs something like

Crystalized Poison: If the Black widow does not release their poison every two weeks than the poison begins to crystalize in their body and must by physically drawn out. If it is not drawn out they become fatigued and lose one point of Constitution every day and get -1 on all checks for each passing day.

Also, the "Immortal" races do max out at about 7-10 thousand years unless they become guardians. Eyrians are one of the long lived races as well, so they should get the +1 LA.

Thank you so much, this is so much more than I hoped for so soon.

Dustfinger
2010-08-02, 10:58 AM
I edited what you put out a bit and here it is.


Races
Standard Human: As in Players Handbook
Dea al Mon:
Abilities- +2 Dexterity
Proficient in Daggers, Rapiers and the Long Bow
LA- +0
Haelians:
Abilities- +2 Charisma
+2 On Diplomacy and Bluff Checks
LA- +0
Eyriens:
Abilities- +2 Strength and
Flight speed with good maneuverability.
Martial Proficiency with Ashendari, Long bow, Bolas and one Martial/Exotic weapon of their choice.
LA- +1

Standing
A person's standing is the social rank in the world. It can rank from 1 to 18. (1d4+Jewel Rank)
1-3: A more or less valuable slave
4-6: A peasant
7-9: A person of wealth or military rank
10-12: A person of the lower nobility
13-16: A person of high nobility and power or wealth or a very low Queen
16+: A Queen or ruler of a great territory (e.g. Hale)

Caste
Any person is member of a caste which may be inborn or, in some cases, acquired.
The caste may have an impact of the social standing and abilities of a person. A player must pick their castes when creating a character. The Normal Castes are; Healer, Prince Warlord and Witch. The Template Castes are; Black Widow and Warlord Prince. The only Castes that can be learned and gained later on are the Healer and Black Widow.

Warlord {Male only}
Any standard male member of the Blood is a Warlord. Warlords usually serve a higher ranking woman and are warriors or craftsmen of some kind. Warlords can be told from Princes and Warlord Princes by their Aura.
A Warlord receives a bonus feat at character creation.

Prince {Male only}
A Prince is a male member of the Blood who has a higher ranking than a Warlord, though he is not technically stronger than him. Princes can be told from Warlords and Warlord Princes by their aura.
A Prince receives +1 on his standing score.

Warlord Prince {Male only} (Template)
This male creature is more aggressive than others of its kind. It will share an extremely powerful bond with its Queen and devote its entire life to it. Until it finds its own Queen, it may serve other queens as well. Warlord Princes seldom serve women of lower rank.
Special Abilities: Warlord Princes have the following special abilities:
Aggressive Aura: A Warlord Prince has a recognizable aura which identifies him as Warlord Prince. This aura also gives a +5 bonus on intimidate checks.
The Killing Edge: Warlord Princes can evoke a terrifying rage which strengthens their jewel's power above the normal limits of their color. The Killing Edge is a condition that can be entered as a free action and that lasts for one encounter, after which the Warlord Prince is left fatigued.
While at The Killing Edge the Warlord Prince's Jewel Magic always counts as being 5 points stronger than he did invest. During this time the Warlord Prince attacks any nearby enemy or person who attempts to stop him, if he doesn't succeed on a Will save (DC 10+his jewel rank+1 per round at Edge) to end the condition.
If a Warlord Prince is provoked by his Queen being threatened or attacked he must succeed on a Will save (DC 10+his jewel rank) or immediately reach The Killing Edge.
The Queen's Bond: A Warlord Prince serving "his" Queen has an especially strong bond to her. She will receive a +4 bonus on any attempt to use diplomacy on him or on the Will DC of mind affecting effects she uses on him. Furthermore, if the Warlord Prince knowingly acts against his Queen, he will receive a -1 penalty on ALL throws he makes until the situation is resolved or he reverts to his Queen's side.
Standing Adjustments:
The Warlord Prince receives +2 on his standing score, being above Warlords and Princes or Witches.
Level Adjustment: A Warlord Prince has a level adjustment of +1

Witch {Female only}
any standard female member of the Blood is a Witch. Witches may serve any person of higher rank. As women, their rank is slightly higher than that of men of the same caste, rank and standing. A Witch can become a Black Widow or Healer by learning their Craft.
Witches start the game with 5 additional skill points.

Healer {Female only}
Some persons have the powers of a Healer from birth, making them especially adept at this type of using the Craft.
Healers start the game with Craft: Healing as a class skill. Craft: Healing is always a class skill for Healers, regardless of the class levels they actually take.
Healers get +1 on their standing stat score, being higher than Witches or Warlords.

Black Widow {Mostly Female. Very Rarely Male} (Template)
Some persons have the powers of a Black Widow from birth, making them especially adept at this type of using the craft.
Special Abilities:
Tangled Webs: Black Widows have Craft: Webs as a class skill. Craft: Webs is always a class skill for Black Widows, regardless of the class levels they actually take.
Mind Magic: Black Widows have Craft: Mind as a class skill. Craft: Mind is always a class skill for Black Widows, regardless of the class levels they actually take.
Poison Sting: Black Widows have a poisonous sting inside one Finger. Once a week they can make an unarmed attack with it to deliver a deadly poison which also causes tremendous pain to the target. If the target fails their fortitude save (DC: 10+jewel rank of the Black Widow), they goe into a comatose sleep in a number of rounds equal to its Constitution bonus + Jewel Rank. This slumber lasts for a number of days equal to the (Black Widows Jewel Rank – Targets Jewel Rank +5) and if not cured within that time it dies. If they succeed they are still nauseated by the poison for 10 rounds.
Crystallized Poison: If the Black widow does not release their poison every two weeks than the poison begins to crystallize in their body and must by physically drawn out. If it is not drawn out they become fatigued and lose one point of Constitution every day and get -1 on all checks for each passing day.
Standing Adjustment: A Black Widow gets +2 on her standing score, being higher than Warlords or Witches.
Level Adjustment: A Black Widow has an LA of +2

Jewel Magic
To use the Craft a member of the Blood must expend jewel power. The number of power points expended relates to the way the craft is used and how much power is invested into the effect.
A member of the Blood cannot use more points on a single power than 10 times his jewel rank. This limitation does not affect fueling a lasting power but the initial casting of it.
The power point reserve of a person equals the points of her birthright jewel and the jewel of her Offering to the Darkness.
If a jewels power is reduced below zero it breaks and can never be used again.

Jewel Colors
(Rank 1)White: 100 points
(Rank 2)Yellow: 150 points
(Rank 3)Tiger-Eye: 200 points
(Rank 4)Rose: 250 points
(Rank 5)Summer-Sky: 300 points
(Rank 6)Purple-Dusk: 350 points
(Rank 7)Opal: 400/450 points [Opal is the line dividing line between light & dark jewels]
(Rank 8)Green: 550 points
(Rank 9)Sapphire: 650 points
(Rank 10)Red: 750 points
(Rank 11)Gray: 850 points
(Rank 12)Ebon-Gray: 950 points
(Rank 13)Black: 1050 points

Basic Craft
Levitate object: 1 point per 3 pounds
Pass through Wood: 1 point per inch of wood. (Different substances may cost more to pass through)
Call in/Vanish Object: 1 point per 1 pound of object.
Shield: For each point spent absorbs 5 damage. Can be edited to cover large area instead of body for more points.
Sight Shield: number of points equal to twice your jewel rank. Only makes you invisible to people of lower rank.
Bolt of Energy (Physical): 1 point per 3 damage
Bolt of Energy (Mental): 1 point per 1 damage
Read Mind: 1 point for surface emotions, 3 for surface thoughts 5 for deep thought 7 for hidden memories. (If not a Black Widow you can only read surface emotions)
Witchfire: (Depends on size) 1 Point for candle light, 10 for campfire, 30 for bonfire 100 for house fire.
Spear/Distaff threads: 1 point per 100 feet
Ride the Rind: Jewel rank per Mile (May ride lower jewel rank but with less speed)
Increasing Strength: 5 points per +1 Strength
Color Lock: 1 point per Jewel rank of lock

New Skills: (Craft skill DC’s are equal to amount of points spent)
Basic Craft- The ability to use basic craft abilities.
Craft: Healing Webs- The ability to use healing Craft. (Non Healers can have 1 Rank. You cannot make a healing chack unless you have at least one rank in this skill.)
Craft: Mind- The Black Widows ability to read thoughts, create illusions, snare minds. (Non Black Widows may not take ranks in this craft.)
Craft: Tangled Webs- The Black Widows ability to see the future (Non Black Widows may not take ranks in this craft.)

Feats:
Extra Jewel- You are gifted with another jewel of your rank. This jewel provides you with 20% more Power Points per day
Over Channeling-You may use health in combination with power points in order to use craft in times of need. Each 5 hp you spend you spend acts as 15 power points. When you use this your maximum points spent on one craft use increases by 50%.
Killing Edge- As Warlord Prince Special Ability
Tangled Webs- Gives you access to the Craft: Tangled Webs skill. (Must be trained by a Black Widow)
Healing Webs- Gives you access to the Craft: Healing Webs skill. (Must be trained by a healer)
Kindred Speaking Makes man able to speak to and understand Kindred
Advanced Craft Training- Your training of the craft has expanded. There is no limit to what you can do with your craft, the only barrier is your mind. (Now have to ability to make new Craft Abilities)

Dustfinger
2010-08-08, 10:55 AM
Okay so I'm pretty set with the Crunch for this and I was wondering if anyone knew the setting well enough to make a map of the realms. I've been searching for weeks and havn't found anythign at all.