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Admiral Squish
2013-07-29, 07:32 PM
Percy Jackson System

So, my friend’s running a Percy Jackson themed campaign., using 3.5 rules as the basis for it. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know 3.5 that well, so for a while, instead of class abilities we just had the chassis of a class and a semi-appropriate set of spell-like abilities of all different levels. So, I volunteered my services to make a set of classes for the game. In the end, I made classes for four of the five players (the fifth made his own). Now, with a little urging from friends, I’ve decided to post them up for you guys.

This thread is mostly just a place to link to all the separate classes, so you only need to bookmark the one thread. I’ll also use it to post some notes about the overall system, too.

Classes
Child of Athena (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295052)
Child of Aphrodite (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295053)
Child of Apollo (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295055)
Child of Ares (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295056)
Child of Heracles (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=295057)

Equipment
The weapons and armor listed here are the most common and traditional sorts of weapons and armors that demigods get trained with. These are all easily available in celestial bronze or imperial gold. It is possible to get other weapons and armor, but they usually must be forged specially.

Weapons
Dagger
Cestus (gauntlet, regular or spiked)
Club
Shortspear
Longspear
Spear
Sling
Shortsword
Longsword
Scimitar
Trident
Longbow
Shortbow

Armor
Leather
Chain shirt
Scale Mail
Breastplate
Buckler
Light Shield
Heavy Shield
Tower Shield

Magic Items
In this world, magic items are both uncommon and powerful. A single magical item can change the course of an entire adventure. As such, most characters have one permanent magical item, often a weapon or piece of armor, and other items may be provided by the DM on a temporary basis.

Monsters:
The following is a list of monsters that are appropriate for a percy jackson setting. The first section is a list of published monsters that work, the second section is monster that I have created.

Official
Aranea
Baccae
Catyarid Column
Centaur
Cerberi
Cerberus
Chimera
Cyclops
Dryad
Faun
Griffin
Harpy
Hippocampus
Hippogriff
Hydra
Kraken
Laystrigonian (Ogres w/ rock hurling feat(s))
Manticore
Medusa
Minotaur
Nereid
Nymph
Pegasus
Phoenix
Satyr
Scylla
Sea Serpent
Siren
Sphinx
Unicorn

Homebrewed
(under construction)

Admiral Squish
2013-07-29, 07:33 PM
(reserved for more stuff that might come later)

Stake A Vamp
2013-07-29, 07:57 PM
I'm going to go out on a limb and say no multiclassing

but that aside, i am fascinated, this looks well balanced to me and I have a desire to see more
how will you do children of the big 3?
how will you do treasure?
what will the magic items be like?
you do know Heracles wasn't a god, right? (unless there is some obsure mythology i missed.)

Razanir
2013-07-29, 08:14 PM
First opinion: Consolidate into one thread. No one will mind. :smallsmile:

Admiral Squish
2013-07-29, 08:24 PM
I'm going to go out on a limb and say no multiclassing

but that aside, i am fascinated, this looks well balanced to me and I have a desire to see more
how will you do children of the big 3?
how will you do treasure?
what will the magic items be like?
you do know Heracles wasn't a god, right? (unless there is some obsure mythology i missed.)

Yeah, no multiclassing.
I'm glad to hear you like it! I'm still not sure if I'm going to do any more classes, since I'm trying to focus on my crossroads project. If there's a lot of interest in this project, I'll be glad to make more.

I might do the big three. Maybe they're just a tier higher than the other classes, just sprinkle in a little spellcasting ability.
Treasure... well, honestly, we've just been kinda playing it loose. You get all the mundane gear you want, but you get one magic item apiece.
The items are custom, you discuss them with your DM. A tie to greek myth is nice, but not strictly required. Some examples include a shield that produces a sphere of invisibility, a bear construct, and a bow that makes arrows of energy. My items was a set of chains that were permanently stuck to me. Treated them as a chain shirt, but it could be activated to expand to cover/protect more of my body in exchange for reduced movement, and, I was promised, I could eventually root myself to the ground with it to get some serious defensive bonuses.

Actually, when he died he ascended to full godhood. In the myths I found, his mortal body was burned away on the funeral pyre until just his divine essence remained.


First opinion: Consolidate into one thread. No one will mind. :smallsmile:

I promise, I won't be taking up this much space for long. Those are the only classes I have so far.

Amnoriath
2013-07-30, 09:34 AM
In terms of overall power Child of Aphrodite reigns supreme. This can develop abilities that can passively daze or stun opponents while hindering them from even coming close at unspecified ranges and since it self-stacks its on save DC. Also a standard action geas is an out right battle changer.

Admiral Squish
2013-07-30, 11:19 AM
In terms of overall power Child of Aphrodite reigns supreme. This can develop abilities that can passively daze or stun opponents while hindering them from even coming close at unspecified ranges and since it self-stacks its on save DC. Also a standard action geas is an out right battle changer.

Well, as I mentioned at the end, I need to write up the full details of each aspect. What I posted was mostly a list of ideas, I sent it over to the DM and he edited the file on his end. There are going to be significant limiters put in place for many things. Like, durations for stun, long casting times for the geas, and such.

HereBeMonsters
2013-07-30, 01:31 PM
Looks amazing.

Debihuman
2013-07-30, 04:39 PM
I'm only sorry I neglected to mention this earlier: These are a GREAT idea.

While I would love to see more classes, I understand you want to concentrate on your crossroads project and committing to two projects at the same time would be taxing.

Then again, if people are as interested in this as I am (I would love to see the Big 3 and maybe NPC classes for satyrs and fauns too).

I recommend looking at New Argonauts (it's meant for Ancient Greece but the product is FREE! See here: http://www.seankreynolds.com/skrg/products/002TNA/tna.html (it links to Paizo and to RPGNow.com. I've had it for ages and still like it). Then again, I picked up OGL Ancients from Mongoose Publishing too.

The Gorgon Template by Cipherth3vil is worth a look: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=266937

Debby

SuperDave
2013-07-31, 08:01 AM
While I would love to see more classes, I understand you want to concentrate on your crossroads project and committing to two projects at the same time would be taxing.

Agreed. As someone who is both a contributor to Crossroads: The New World (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269334) (shameless plug) and a player in Camp Halfblood and the Tale of Thomas (http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/camp-halfblood-and-the-tale-of-thomas), it's very difficult for me to choose which one of these I'd like to see more. But ultimately, Crossroads is the one that depends on large amounts of public interest; the Tale of Thomas is mostly limited to our little group, and you'll always have all us other players around to ask questions and bounce ideas off of.


Then again, if people are as interested in this as I am (I would love to see the Big 3 and maybe NPC classes for satyrs and fauns too).

I think we assumed that satyrs and nymphs and the like would just advance by HD rather than character class. We'll probably just throw in a few extra spell-like abilities and Perform bonuses to make 'em more like they appear in the books, and better able to fill support roles in combat. Thought I suppose that if a player really wanted to be a satyr, we could make that happen. Does a character need to have class-levels in order to be playable, or could they just add HD and gain a new SLA every other level?


Thanks for letting us know about New Argonauts (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?cPath=116_174&products_id=1557&osCsid=d803cbebeba34dc2481581d18f6c31c5), Debby. I've already downloaded it for later perusal.


It might be worth mentioning here (thought I'm not entirely sure it's relevant) that someone made a scifi Hellenistic space opera RPG called Hellas: Worlds of Sun & Stone (http://www.hellasrpg.com/). Which is pretty neat.

Debihuman
2013-07-31, 02:44 PM
I also recommend looking at Sean's page since he has a very nice write of Hooboo (I mean who didn't love the mechanical owl from the original Clash of the Titans movie?) and other free stuff.

I took a look at your site. I'm not quite getting the cleaning harpy; maybe needs Profession (Maid) or something. And they need to be immune to fire since they clean the dishes with lava (or that could just a type of lava soap).

Debby

Admiral Squish
2013-08-02, 02:57 PM
I'm glad everyone likes what i'm layin' down. I added in a list of apropos monsters that already exist for percy jackson games, but there's a lot to be made. I'll try to dig up the empousa stats I drafted up for the DM.

Honestly, this project's gonna be secondary to crossroads, but there are certainly times when I get inspired by weird things or burned out on crossroads projects. I'm gonna continue work on this project, but it's gonna be on a back burner. So, what would you guys like to see me make first? Monsters? Classes? Items?

Debihuman
2013-08-02, 03:51 PM
Finish the classes you've already posted (Hit Die, skills) and then I vote for monsters but that's the monster junkie in me talking. :-)

Debby

Admiral Squish
2013-08-03, 01:19 PM
Finish the classes you've already posted (Hit Die, skills) and then I vote for monsters but that's the monster junkie in me talking. :-)

Debby

Oh, yeah, I do have to do that, don't I?
Monsters, huh? I'll dig up what I did for the encounter table and reformat it.

Admiral Squish
2013-08-23, 08:16 PM
So, I finally added class skills, HD, skill points, and weapon/armor proficiencies to all of the posted classes.

It occurs to me that I don't actually have a list of monsters I need to create, though.
Suggestions, anyone?

Debihuman
2013-08-24, 03:13 AM
There are so many monsters already created.... see here: http://www.worldsofimagination.co.uk has a ton of Greek campaign info. http://www.worldsofimagination.co.uk/Twenty%20Worlds%20Atlantis%20Bestiary%20republican .htm



Debby

Thomar_of_Uointer
2013-08-24, 05:46 AM
Since this would be a system based around demigods, are you considering using the Mythic rules? They're Pathfinder's equivalent to the 3e Epic rules.

Admiral Squish
2013-08-24, 10:21 PM
There are so many monsters already created.... see here: http://www.worldsofimagination.co.uk has a ton of Greek campaign info. http://www.worldsofimagination.co.uk/Twenty%20Worlds%20Atlantis%20Bestiary%20republican .htm



Debby

That there is a marvelous resource! thanks for the link!


Since this would be a system based around demigods, are you considering using the Mythic rules? They're Pathfinder's equivalent to the 3e Epic rules.

I can't find anything regarding mythic rules on the SRD. Any idea where I can find them?

Debihuman
2013-08-25, 05:18 AM
Mythic rules are Pathfinder so you'd need the PRD. http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/

They don't seem to be there yet.

Debby

Azreal
2013-08-25, 12:44 PM
I'd love to see more classes, especially for the Big Three, Hecate, Hephaestus, and the Hunters of Artemis.

Just seeing those slightly more unusual gods would be interesting. I'd imagine Hecate plays more like a Wizard, Hephaestus would be fire based and craft based.

Also roleplaying as a Hunter of Artemis would be neat cuz if you fall for a guy you lose your youth and powers.

Admiral Squish
2013-08-26, 08:04 PM
I'd love to see more classes, especially for the Big Three, Hecate, Hephaestus, and the Hunters of Artemis.

Just seeing those slightly more unusual gods would be interesting. I'd imagine Hecate plays more like a Wizard, Hephaestus would be fire based and craft based.

Also roleplaying as a Hunter of Artemis would be neat cuz if you fall for a guy you lose your youth and powers.

I believe I was working on a child of Hecate at some point. I was gonna make it more like a warlock than a wizard, since that seems to fit the general theme of the world better.

One in the group is actually playing a child of Hephaestus, but he made his own class so it seemed inappropriate for me to take credit for it. I might make my own version, though.

As for Artemis, I could certainly see a sort of 'paladin's code' kinda deal. I can't remember, do mortals get recruited into their ranks, or are all of them demigods before joining the hunters?

Winds
2013-08-26, 08:24 PM
I don't think they mention it specifically-but with the way the Mist works, most mortals wouldn't even perceive them, much less be able to work with them. In any case, their numbers fit for recruiting a select few demigods. (At least, assuming there aren't a few more minor camps around. Which there probably aren't.)

Azreal
2013-08-26, 09:35 PM
Actually it flat out says that Artemis will recruit any female, human, demigod, or even nymphs and the like.

But hey they really do work like Paladins though, immunity to age and disease. Can only be killed by combat. Strict code or they became exiled and lose their powers.

Arasiel27
2013-09-23, 02:05 PM
you do know Heracles wasn't a god, right? (unless there is some obsure mythology i missed.)

Zeus made Herakles a God after he died, much to the chagrin of several other Gods. He went on to have a bunch of demigod children who feature prominently in the Percy Jackson books (not to mention in real life, the Spartan Kings claimed to be descendants of Herakles).

Azreal
2013-09-23, 10:09 PM
**semi spoiler**

The gang meets Heracles as a God by Greece.

Debihuman
2013-09-24, 08:07 AM
To answer an earlier question by SuperDave: Nymphs are already very powerful and have LA +7 so I don't recommend them for PC characters unless there is a decent nymph monster class in Savage Species. The SRD has a satyrs as characters already See here:

Satyrs As Characters
Satyr characters possess the following racial traits.


+2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma.
Medium size.
A satyr’s base land speed is 40 feet.
Low-light vision.
Racial Hit Dice: A satyr begins with five levels of fey, which provide 5d6 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +2, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +1, Ref +4, and Will +4.
Racial Skills: A satyr’s fey levels give it skill points equal to 8 × (6 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Bluff, Hide, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, and Spot. Satyrs have a +4 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Perform, and Spot checks.
Racial Feats: A satyr’s fey levels give it two feats. A satyr receives Alertness as a bonus feat.
+4 natural armor bonus.
Natural Weapons: Head butt (1d6).
Special Attacks (see above): Pipes.
Special Qualities (see above): Damage reduction 5/cold iron.
Automatic Languages: Sylvan. Bonus Languages: Common, Elven, Gnome.
Favored Class: Bard.
Level adjustment +2.


Debby

Admiral Squish
2013-09-24, 12:30 PM
To answer an earlier question by SuperDave: Nymphs are already very powerful and have LA +7 so I don't recommend them for PC characters unless there is a decent nymph monster class in Savage Species. The SRD has a satyrs as characters already See here:

*snip*

Debby

They are TECHNICALLY playable, but they are, by no means, a reasonable choice for players. If I do end up making fauns/satyrs, they're gonna be very, very different.

Debihuman
2013-09-24, 06:37 PM
For anyone interested mythic stuff is up on the Pathfinder site. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic

Debby

Thomar_of_Uointer
2013-09-26, 09:35 PM
For anyone interested mythic stuff is up on the Pathfinder site. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic

Debby

The best part about these rules is that you can make level 1 characters mythic, which is very appropriate for the setting.

Admiral Squish
2013-09-27, 08:17 PM
For anyone interested mythic stuff is up on the Pathfinder site. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic

Debby

I do like what I see. Maybe a universal rule that all demigod characters start play at mythic tier one?

Azreal
2013-09-27, 11:11 PM
I do like what I see. Maybe a universal rule that all demigod characters start play at mythic tier one?

I agree, ups power level and we can just make certain mythic stuff specific to certain demigods.

Zolkabro
2013-10-06, 06:37 AM
Oh, wow. I LOVE the Child of Athena class. I've always thought when reading the books that that's what I'd be, and after reading tht class... it just fits Athena so perfectly!
In fact all of them really capture the fluff with the crunch so well, something that is unfortunately pretty rare. Awesome job.

Let me know if there's anyway I can help! I haven't homebrewed anything major in a while, but I've done lots of minor stuff, and seriously, any way I can contribute I'd be happy to. This is awesome.

Some ideas:

PrCs: As base classes seem to be like racial classes, maybe have PrCs for things that a normal class would be for - different skills learnt ontop of your divine blood
Races: kinda hard to work this one out, because everybody would be human. Probably only NPCs would be things like satyrs, cyclopses, and dryads, partly because of power, and partly because of fluff. So how do you vary races in a setting like this? If you can find a way to make races work, it would really add to the setting. But I think satyrs etc should stay NPC.
For the Big 3, it's easy. Either don't make then super powerful, keep that as fluff; or just give them a Level Adjustment. But if there's anything that the second series has shown, is that's it's pretty easy to be OP without being Big 3. So I say just make them classes like all the others, they won't actually be more powerful.
I know this has been said before, but I'm desperate to see more classes. :smallbiggrin:

Azreal
2013-10-06, 04:29 PM
For the Big 3, it's easy. Either don't make then super powerful, keep that as fluff; or just give them a Level Adjustment. But if there's anything that the second series has shown, is that's it's pretty easy to be OP without being Big 3. So I say just make them classes like all the others, they won't actually be more powerful.


I can see that with some of the Cabins but we also watch Percy duel a God with little training, so I'm going to say that Big 3 differently have more raw power behind in that control over Sky, Sea, and Earth/Underworld is extremely more potent then Healing/Archery/Poetry or Inventive as ****. The way I see it is you can balance the Big 3 by basically just toning down what normal Big 3 can do. Not everyone is as strong as Percy or Jason or Nico. Look at Bianca for example or Thalia.

Zolkabro
2013-10-06, 04:36 PM
I can see that with some of the Cabins but we also watch Percy duel a God with little training, so I'm going to say that Big 3 differently have more raw power behind in that control over Sky, Sea, and Earth/Underworld is extremely more potent then Healing/Archery/Poetry or Inventive as ****. The way I see it is you can balance the Big 3 by basically just toning down what normal Big 3 can do. Not everyone is as strong as Percy or Jason or Nico. Look at Bianca for example or Thalia.

But look at Leo: basically has Burning Hands at-will. Or Frank, who can shapechange. Clarisse soloed a Draken almost unarmed, Hunters of Artemis split bullets in mid-air with arrows, Pip can make anybody into her willing slave, I could go on. Demigods can be very, very powerful, it just depends how inventive you are when creating their characters. Percy, Jason, etc, are just more powerful because they're main characters, and main characters always kick ass. When non-Big 3 characters became main, they became just as powerful.

Azreal
2013-10-06, 04:47 PM
But look at Leo: basically has Burning Hands at-will. Or Frank, who can shapechange. Clarisse soloed a Draken almost unarmed, Hunters of Artemis split bullets in mid-air with arrows, Pip can make anybody into her willing slave, I could go on. Demigods can be very, very powerful, it just depends how inventive you are when creating their characters. Percy, Jason, etc, are just more powerful because they're main characters, and main characters always kick ass. When non-Big 3 characters became main, they became just as powerful.

Leo is a special once in several lifetimes case for abilities.
Clarisse is a daughter of Ares and head of her cabin
Pip is also unique in how strong her char speak is
Frank is extra special but his life is also tied to a small piece of wood.

Percy and Jason created a ****ing hurricane together. They are well above the others in terms of sheer power.

Zolkabro
2013-10-06, 04:50 PM
Leo is a special once in several lifetimes case for abilities.
Clarisse is a daughter of Ares and head of her cabin
Pip is also unique in how strong her char speak is
Frank is extra special but his life is also tied to a small piece of wood.

Percy and Jason created a ****ing hurricane together. They are well above the others in terms of sheer power.

Well judging by the Aphrodite class already released, unusual once in a lifetime abilites are being used here, and that is how it should be - that's what PC classes are for, its NPCs who get the normal stuff.

Admiral Squish
2013-10-07, 02:44 PM
My plan to handle the big 3 was just to build them like the other classes, but add in some spellcasting. Probably just 1st-4th like a ranger or paladin, with divine spells and spell lists to match their respective domains. Air, Earth and Water.

Sardonik
2014-01-10, 01:57 PM
I think this would be a very appropriate thing to run in E6 (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?206323-E6-The-Game-Inside-D-amp-D) with mythic paths.

You could create custom mythic paths for the various blood-lines.

Just my 2 sp