Xtomjames
2011-09-11, 09:20 AM
So I've been thinking of ways to utilize Rifts and the D20 system together and I really don't like the various Rifts to D20 conversion manuals, so I thought of a way to utilize the two together. I've placed them in the spoiler with some rule changes that I think will work effectively. Tell me what you think please.
D20/Percentile Revamp rules.
Character Creation: Ability scores.
Include on top of base ability scores Appearance. Base scores 10+1d8
Skills: Percentile skills will be reverted to D20 standard. Bonus percentages will be divided by 5 to gain rank D20 bonus equivalent. For example, a 10% bonus in Espionage (from Rifts) would grant a +2 to the D20 version.
Damage: Mega damage will be converted to D20 standard damage by multiplying it by 5 or increasing damage size category. For example a vibro knife does 1d4+5 md, max 9 md points. 9*5=45. To balance this for every size category step up remove two points of multiplier. 1d8+5 no multiplier is more balanced than 1d4+5 multiplied by 5.
Damage V2: Mega Damage is taken straight across and instead masterwork armor and weapons do Mega Damage instead of normal damage. (Mega Damage standard from Rifts is 100 X standard damage. 1 mega damage point is 100 standard damage points.)
Normal weapons cannot harm a master work weapon or armor and cannot by pass their AC. Normal weapons enhanced via magic can, however, if they meet or exceed the MW bonus of the armor or weapon they attack.
Masterwork weapons will always bypass normal AC. Treat normal AC as DR rather than an AC bonus for the purposes of MW weapons versus normal AC. If the damage dealt is greater than the DR of the normal armor then half of the damage is done directly to the normal armor. If this damage exceeds the hardness rating (not hit points) of the armor, the armor is considered ruined granting a -8 to all physical abilities of its wearer and the wearer is considered slowed until such time as the armor is removed.
In the case of armor being of masterwork level but being attacked by a higher level enhanced weapon (say a +3 longsword versus a +1 Adamantine Breastplate) the DR granted by the Adamantine stacks with the AC count as DR.
These rules do not apply to range weapons.
Magic: All magic will be performed with the use of Skill checks and PP.
Knowledge: Arcane, Religion, Nature, Planes, and Time are now open to all classes. Learning one of these knowledges grants access to spells related to that knowledge. The person gains 1 pp per rank put into the knowledge and may learn up to a number of spells equal to total ranks in the skill.
PP cost is based on level;
A zero level spell doesn’t cost any PP but still requires a skill check to cast, a first level spell costs 1 pp, a second level spell 2, etc. The highest level spell a character can learn is based on the number of ranks in the skill. For every three ranks in the skill your character has, the higher the level they can learn. A character with three ranks would have access to 0-first level spells, a character with six would have access to second level, and a person with 18 ranks would have access to fifth level spells and so on. The max ranks in these skills is 30, rank limits per level are tiered. 1-5th level is a max of 7, 6-10th is 15, 11-15th level is 22, 16-20th level is 30. To cast a spell one must make a knowledge check equal to 10+(2*spell level). If the skill role fails then the spell isn’t cast and the pp for that spell is used, for the purposes of casting the spell the knowledge check is counted as part of the action, it doesn’t grant attacks of opportunity or take up any time compared to other skill checks. To cast epic level spells (10th level spells) one must take the epic level spellcasting feat and develop their own epic level spells. Epic level spells become available as per standard rules. In the case of spells that take longer than a full round action to cast (like True Resurrection) every 6 rounds (every minute in game) the character must make a successful knowledge check equal to the DC of the spell 10+(2*spell level) or fail at the spell.
Knowledge Arcane grants access to arcane spells (excluding spells related to the planes or Time, such as (but not limited to) dimension door, teleport, planes shift, blink, Summon, Time Stop, Haste etc).
Knowledge Religion grants access to general divine spells. (If a Divine Spell Caster class choose domains as per usual, if you have spontaneous casting into a domain that you otherwise normally would not have access to you, you must use the Spellcraft skill instead to determine available spells and ability to cast.)
Knowledge Nature grants access to Divine Natural spells only (see Druid spell lists).
Knowledge Planes grants access to any Planes related spell (including teleport, dimension hop, dimension door, and summoning spells etc).
Knowledge Time grants access to time domain spells (time stop, time hop, time shunt, haste, etc). (Spells from Rifts and other sources maybe considered so long as they can be converted to this system).
Spellcraft is a special skill, it can be used as a substitute for knowledge checks to cast a spell for Spontaneous casting. It is also used as a supplemental skill for crafting. It is also used for those classes with no limit to casting, such as the Warlock, when determining available PP. Spellcraft has one final use and it is to determine prowess between spellcasters. See counterspelling. Warlocks must use the Spellcraft skill to determine how much PP they have available to use their invocations and eldritch blast. The Warlock and other classes similar to it gain a two to one PP ratio, for every rank they have in Spellcraft the gain 2 pp. They gain an extra PP for every new invocation they learn. Invocations cost between 1 and 4 pp to use, this is based on their tier (not relative spell level).
Magic Classes: All magic classes tend to have a spells known and spell slots per day. Inherently magical classes gain bonuses to their PP and total known spells based on these slots. A sorcerer for example gains 3 first level spells per day, these spells become PP instead, at 20th level the Sorcerer would have a total of +54 pp from spells per day as listed on top of the PP granted from ranks in the respected knowledges. Spells known grant extra known spell slots as per usual on top of the spells learned from the ranks.
Spells known from a class specific feature are always considered general, unlike the ranks from the specific knowledges. The spells known from ranks per knowledge apply to their specific knowledge. A person with 1 rank in Knowledge Religion and 15 in Knowledge Arcane cannot use Knowledge Arcane known spells slots to gain more Divine spells. However, PP is always cross useable. PP gained from knowledge can be used to cast spells from another one.
Psionics: Psionic abilities will remain mostly the same except for an increase in the total of psionic power points available per level based on the skill Knowledge Psionics. The number of psionic power points available to a character is based on the ranks in the Knwl. Psionic skill, for every rank the character gets 10 psionic points to a max of 30 ranks. Unlike magic, skill checks are no needed to perform psionic powers unless the psionic power specifies otherwise.
Spell-Like Abilities, Supernatural Abilities, and Extraordinary Abilities:
Spell-Like Abilities require an output of PP but do not require a skill check. In such cases that a character has SLAs and do not have the related skill to have PP (one of the knowledges listed above) then their PP total is equal to 2*(total HD+ class level). Supernatural abilities and Extraordinary abilities do not require either.
Counterspelling: Rather than having a blanket counterspell system where if you determine what spell it is or if you have access to dispel you can counter another magic user’s spell, it becomes a game of prowess and skill. To counterspell another magic user’s spell the user counterspelling must make a Spellcraft check opposed by the opponent spellcaster’s own Spellcraft check.
If the initiator’s Spellcraft check fails by 5 or more the counterspell fails, if it bests the opponent’s check by 5 or more the counterspell succeeds. If it fails or bests the opponent’s Spellcraft check by 5 or less the spell is diverted to the initiator and a new set of Spellcraft checks are made the following round. If the spell ends after one round (except area affect spells, see below) the spell fails to hit the original target and the counterspell succeeds. If the spell lasts for more than a round the opponent spellcaster can make a concentration check to maintain the spell and try to break free of the counterspell.
Spells that are area affect spells (like fireball) the counterspell process can be more problematic. Following the rules above, for every round the spell is held in check (because of the -/+5 rule range) there is a 25% chance the spell will go off in between the initiator of the counterspell and the spell’s caster.
A spell caster can opt to fail a spellcheck to end the counterspell process. As always to counterspell one must ready an action prior to the spell being cast or have the ability to counterspell as a quick action (as per quicken spell per example).
Combat: combat will remain mostly the same with a few exceptions. A move actions can now become standard actions liken to standard actions being able to be used as a move action. Immediate actions are no longer standard actions but a swift action equivalent.
Parry versus AC: AC standard rules will apply, however a second option will be available called Parry. Parry will rely on dexterity and a parry bonus. (10+Dex mod+Parry Bonus+Deflection bonus+dodge). As an immediate action to being attacked if the Parry Feat is taken (see below) a player can block with one weapon while attacking with the other. The Parry bonus is equal to (1.5*damage dice max of the offhand weapon)+ any negatives garnered. Thus a rogue with two weapon fighting who has a short sword in his offhand has a 1d6 with a -4 from it being the off hand. 1.5*6-4=5. In this way normal armor can be treated as DR instead.
Parry: Your ability to react to an opponent is swift when you wield two weapons.
Prerequisites: Dodge, Mobility, Two-Weapon fighting
Benefit: When wielding two weapons you can add the max damage dice of the offhand weapon to your defenses.
Normal: You cannot parry
**The feat ambidexterity is being brought back to reduce Two Weapon fighting off hand negatives to 0.**
All characters can attack more than once in a full round action up to a maximum of 4 attacks. Except for unarmed strikes, the Base Attack Bonus is in general 5 less than the previous attack (Unless it’s a masterwork weapon). A character with a BAB of +1 could do a second attack at -4 to hit, a third at -9, and a fourth at -13.
Some weapons will give greater or weaker negatives to doing extra attacks. Simple weapons do -5, Martial Weapons -6, Exotic Weapons -7.
Oversized weapons do -10. Undersized weapons do -2.
Masterwork weapons have a smaller negative for every masterwork point or magical enhancement point it has. For example a +1 masterwork long Sword would to -5 not -6, a +5 masterwork Katana would do only -2. A +10 masterwork Rapier would do -0 to the BAB on all four attacks.
Unarmed strikes will follow the standard rules.
Mega Damage and weapons, following V2, a weapon with an enhancement bonus bypasses normal armor. It treats AC of equal bonus level as normal AC, and it cannot harm armor with an enhancement bonus above its own. The maximum enhancement bonus of +5 applies to this. A +5 weapon can damage a +10 armor as well as it can a +5 armor.
Unarmed damage, as per a Monk, is always treated as Masterwork +1 or higher for the purposes of overcoming masterwork armor. The bonus increases for every 4 levels. (Levels 1-4 it’s a +1, 5-9th level it’s a +2, 10-14th level it’s a +3, 15-19th it’s a +4 and at 20th level + it’s a +5).
Superpowers: Any person at first level may opt for a Level Adjustment +X where X= the number of superpowers gained + level of superpower. These can be randomly rolled or specifically picked from the Heroes Unlimited/Villains Unlimited/Powers Unlimited Rifts Palladium books.
Metamagic Feats: Rather than having to use spell slots, you have to spend PP equal to the spell slot suggested. If you use heighten spell for example, and bring a spell to 9th level, you’ll have to spend 9 pp extra on top of the base spell cost.
D20/Percentile Revamp rules.
Character Creation: Ability scores.
Include on top of base ability scores Appearance. Base scores 10+1d8
Skills: Percentile skills will be reverted to D20 standard. Bonus percentages will be divided by 5 to gain rank D20 bonus equivalent. For example, a 10% bonus in Espionage (from Rifts) would grant a +2 to the D20 version.
Damage: Mega damage will be converted to D20 standard damage by multiplying it by 5 or increasing damage size category. For example a vibro knife does 1d4+5 md, max 9 md points. 9*5=45. To balance this for every size category step up remove two points of multiplier. 1d8+5 no multiplier is more balanced than 1d4+5 multiplied by 5.
Damage V2: Mega Damage is taken straight across and instead masterwork armor and weapons do Mega Damage instead of normal damage. (Mega Damage standard from Rifts is 100 X standard damage. 1 mega damage point is 100 standard damage points.)
Normal weapons cannot harm a master work weapon or armor and cannot by pass their AC. Normal weapons enhanced via magic can, however, if they meet or exceed the MW bonus of the armor or weapon they attack.
Masterwork weapons will always bypass normal AC. Treat normal AC as DR rather than an AC bonus for the purposes of MW weapons versus normal AC. If the damage dealt is greater than the DR of the normal armor then half of the damage is done directly to the normal armor. If this damage exceeds the hardness rating (not hit points) of the armor, the armor is considered ruined granting a -8 to all physical abilities of its wearer and the wearer is considered slowed until such time as the armor is removed.
In the case of armor being of masterwork level but being attacked by a higher level enhanced weapon (say a +3 longsword versus a +1 Adamantine Breastplate) the DR granted by the Adamantine stacks with the AC count as DR.
These rules do not apply to range weapons.
Magic: All magic will be performed with the use of Skill checks and PP.
Knowledge: Arcane, Religion, Nature, Planes, and Time are now open to all classes. Learning one of these knowledges grants access to spells related to that knowledge. The person gains 1 pp per rank put into the knowledge and may learn up to a number of spells equal to total ranks in the skill.
PP cost is based on level;
A zero level spell doesn’t cost any PP but still requires a skill check to cast, a first level spell costs 1 pp, a second level spell 2, etc. The highest level spell a character can learn is based on the number of ranks in the skill. For every three ranks in the skill your character has, the higher the level they can learn. A character with three ranks would have access to 0-first level spells, a character with six would have access to second level, and a person with 18 ranks would have access to fifth level spells and so on. The max ranks in these skills is 30, rank limits per level are tiered. 1-5th level is a max of 7, 6-10th is 15, 11-15th level is 22, 16-20th level is 30. To cast a spell one must make a knowledge check equal to 10+(2*spell level). If the skill role fails then the spell isn’t cast and the pp for that spell is used, for the purposes of casting the spell the knowledge check is counted as part of the action, it doesn’t grant attacks of opportunity or take up any time compared to other skill checks. To cast epic level spells (10th level spells) one must take the epic level spellcasting feat and develop their own epic level spells. Epic level spells become available as per standard rules. In the case of spells that take longer than a full round action to cast (like True Resurrection) every 6 rounds (every minute in game) the character must make a successful knowledge check equal to the DC of the spell 10+(2*spell level) or fail at the spell.
Knowledge Arcane grants access to arcane spells (excluding spells related to the planes or Time, such as (but not limited to) dimension door, teleport, planes shift, blink, Summon, Time Stop, Haste etc).
Knowledge Religion grants access to general divine spells. (If a Divine Spell Caster class choose domains as per usual, if you have spontaneous casting into a domain that you otherwise normally would not have access to you, you must use the Spellcraft skill instead to determine available spells and ability to cast.)
Knowledge Nature grants access to Divine Natural spells only (see Druid spell lists).
Knowledge Planes grants access to any Planes related spell (including teleport, dimension hop, dimension door, and summoning spells etc).
Knowledge Time grants access to time domain spells (time stop, time hop, time shunt, haste, etc). (Spells from Rifts and other sources maybe considered so long as they can be converted to this system).
Spellcraft is a special skill, it can be used as a substitute for knowledge checks to cast a spell for Spontaneous casting. It is also used as a supplemental skill for crafting. It is also used for those classes with no limit to casting, such as the Warlock, when determining available PP. Spellcraft has one final use and it is to determine prowess between spellcasters. See counterspelling. Warlocks must use the Spellcraft skill to determine how much PP they have available to use their invocations and eldritch blast. The Warlock and other classes similar to it gain a two to one PP ratio, for every rank they have in Spellcraft the gain 2 pp. They gain an extra PP for every new invocation they learn. Invocations cost between 1 and 4 pp to use, this is based on their tier (not relative spell level).
Magic Classes: All magic classes tend to have a spells known and spell slots per day. Inherently magical classes gain bonuses to their PP and total known spells based on these slots. A sorcerer for example gains 3 first level spells per day, these spells become PP instead, at 20th level the Sorcerer would have a total of +54 pp from spells per day as listed on top of the PP granted from ranks in the respected knowledges. Spells known grant extra known spell slots as per usual on top of the spells learned from the ranks.
Spells known from a class specific feature are always considered general, unlike the ranks from the specific knowledges. The spells known from ranks per knowledge apply to their specific knowledge. A person with 1 rank in Knowledge Religion and 15 in Knowledge Arcane cannot use Knowledge Arcane known spells slots to gain more Divine spells. However, PP is always cross useable. PP gained from knowledge can be used to cast spells from another one.
Psionics: Psionic abilities will remain mostly the same except for an increase in the total of psionic power points available per level based on the skill Knowledge Psionics. The number of psionic power points available to a character is based on the ranks in the Knwl. Psionic skill, for every rank the character gets 10 psionic points to a max of 30 ranks. Unlike magic, skill checks are no needed to perform psionic powers unless the psionic power specifies otherwise.
Spell-Like Abilities, Supernatural Abilities, and Extraordinary Abilities:
Spell-Like Abilities require an output of PP but do not require a skill check. In such cases that a character has SLAs and do not have the related skill to have PP (one of the knowledges listed above) then their PP total is equal to 2*(total HD+ class level). Supernatural abilities and Extraordinary abilities do not require either.
Counterspelling: Rather than having a blanket counterspell system where if you determine what spell it is or if you have access to dispel you can counter another magic user’s spell, it becomes a game of prowess and skill. To counterspell another magic user’s spell the user counterspelling must make a Spellcraft check opposed by the opponent spellcaster’s own Spellcraft check.
If the initiator’s Spellcraft check fails by 5 or more the counterspell fails, if it bests the opponent’s check by 5 or more the counterspell succeeds. If it fails or bests the opponent’s Spellcraft check by 5 or less the spell is diverted to the initiator and a new set of Spellcraft checks are made the following round. If the spell ends after one round (except area affect spells, see below) the spell fails to hit the original target and the counterspell succeeds. If the spell lasts for more than a round the opponent spellcaster can make a concentration check to maintain the spell and try to break free of the counterspell.
Spells that are area affect spells (like fireball) the counterspell process can be more problematic. Following the rules above, for every round the spell is held in check (because of the -/+5 rule range) there is a 25% chance the spell will go off in between the initiator of the counterspell and the spell’s caster.
A spell caster can opt to fail a spellcheck to end the counterspell process. As always to counterspell one must ready an action prior to the spell being cast or have the ability to counterspell as a quick action (as per quicken spell per example).
Combat: combat will remain mostly the same with a few exceptions. A move actions can now become standard actions liken to standard actions being able to be used as a move action. Immediate actions are no longer standard actions but a swift action equivalent.
Parry versus AC: AC standard rules will apply, however a second option will be available called Parry. Parry will rely on dexterity and a parry bonus. (10+Dex mod+Parry Bonus+Deflection bonus+dodge). As an immediate action to being attacked if the Parry Feat is taken (see below) a player can block with one weapon while attacking with the other. The Parry bonus is equal to (1.5*damage dice max of the offhand weapon)+ any negatives garnered. Thus a rogue with two weapon fighting who has a short sword in his offhand has a 1d6 with a -4 from it being the off hand. 1.5*6-4=5. In this way normal armor can be treated as DR instead.
Parry: Your ability to react to an opponent is swift when you wield two weapons.
Prerequisites: Dodge, Mobility, Two-Weapon fighting
Benefit: When wielding two weapons you can add the max damage dice of the offhand weapon to your defenses.
Normal: You cannot parry
**The feat ambidexterity is being brought back to reduce Two Weapon fighting off hand negatives to 0.**
All characters can attack more than once in a full round action up to a maximum of 4 attacks. Except for unarmed strikes, the Base Attack Bonus is in general 5 less than the previous attack (Unless it’s a masterwork weapon). A character with a BAB of +1 could do a second attack at -4 to hit, a third at -9, and a fourth at -13.
Some weapons will give greater or weaker negatives to doing extra attacks. Simple weapons do -5, Martial Weapons -6, Exotic Weapons -7.
Oversized weapons do -10. Undersized weapons do -2.
Masterwork weapons have a smaller negative for every masterwork point or magical enhancement point it has. For example a +1 masterwork long Sword would to -5 not -6, a +5 masterwork Katana would do only -2. A +10 masterwork Rapier would do -0 to the BAB on all four attacks.
Unarmed strikes will follow the standard rules.
Mega Damage and weapons, following V2, a weapon with an enhancement bonus bypasses normal armor. It treats AC of equal bonus level as normal AC, and it cannot harm armor with an enhancement bonus above its own. The maximum enhancement bonus of +5 applies to this. A +5 weapon can damage a +10 armor as well as it can a +5 armor.
Unarmed damage, as per a Monk, is always treated as Masterwork +1 or higher for the purposes of overcoming masterwork armor. The bonus increases for every 4 levels. (Levels 1-4 it’s a +1, 5-9th level it’s a +2, 10-14th level it’s a +3, 15-19th it’s a +4 and at 20th level + it’s a +5).
Superpowers: Any person at first level may opt for a Level Adjustment +X where X= the number of superpowers gained + level of superpower. These can be randomly rolled or specifically picked from the Heroes Unlimited/Villains Unlimited/Powers Unlimited Rifts Palladium books.
Metamagic Feats: Rather than having to use spell slots, you have to spend PP equal to the spell slot suggested. If you use heighten spell for example, and bring a spell to 9th level, you’ll have to spend 9 pp extra on top of the base spell cost.