Resident Fool
2013-12-30, 04:19 PM
Didn't know whether to put this in general roleplaying or homebrew, since I'm more asking for general advice rather than putting up actual finished homebrew for critique and tweaking... This seemed like the better fit I suppose. Let me know if this should be moved.
So I've recently been thinking of trying a fairly large project, at least for me. I had an idea for a campaign that takes place after the PCs die and they are thrown into the middle of a growing war between heaven and hell, struggling as refugees of sort at first as they try to survive.
Problem was, my experiences with 3.5 and pathfinder make me feel like it would be difficult to really capture the feel that I want, and that I'd have to do a lot of tinkering or re-writing to really get it down. Since I have no real experience with homebrew, I was hoping that the playground might be able to point me in some good places to start with.
One big thing that I want to do is to be able to have each class contribute with their own unique and powerful abilities - for that, I think I'll have to read, and then borrow heavily from, book of nine swords. Also, I'd like to have combats, at all levels, feel a lot less like rocket launcher tag - possibly buffing up total HPs, and changing numbers around here or there. And less, or more limited, save or dies and the like.
Along with changing the numbers around, I'd like to make in-combat healing an actual useful thing. For an angelic themed campaign, I like the idea of someone playing an angel of mercy keeping everyone on their feet through extended boss battles. That can be done with adding more effective multi-target heals, and swift action heals, etc.
The last main focus I think would be to have a tiered leveling system - something like levels 1-10 would be spirit levels, and after that the class selection would be limited by the character's morality so far. 11-20 would be lesser angelic/demonic classes, and 21-30 would be the greater angelic/demonic classes. Each tier would have a different group of classes with a slight jump in power. Players would be free to multiclass if they so chose.
Overall I guess the feeling would lean more towards DnD 4.0, which I don't have much experience with, or kind of MMO-like (just... without numbers THAT huge). With aiming for a gameplay kind of like that, what are some possible pitfalls, or things I should emphasize when putting this together? I know DnD 4.0 had a tiered system of leveling kind of. How well did that work? And for all of these points, has anyone done homebrew that accomplished similar things that I could borrow from? Or is there a good system out there already that can accomplish what I'm going for without building all of this from scratch?
On another note, there's the plot and fluff. Basically, the game is set in modern times, and the character's personalities would have a heavy influence on their ability scores. (something like stubborn characters had more strength in spirit form, for a very vague example) Would that limit personalities too much, or would it instead assist in creating more rich characters?
As for the plot itself, Heaven is being led by the angel of Justice. After the Angel of Mercy died in conflict with hell, he started imposing a more military law on the inhabitants of Heaven. Instead of damning impure souls to hell, he has instead simply been obliterating them (less enemy soldiers to fight against). The characters all have some kind of flaw that they are about to be executed when the agents of hell manage to let loose purgatory into heaven itself. In the distraction, they manage to escape and find a resistance group hiding out away from the judging eyes. (I'm thinking heaven would be like an angelic echo of our world now) The early levels would be focused on survival, and then they would eventually be able to influence the war itself, likely by taking on the corrupt angel of justice himself as a possible end boss. At the same time, they would likely try to stop the war from spilling out onto earth itself.
With this general plot, what are some possible things I should watch out for? What, at a glance, are strong points that I could build on more? My group has some issues with being independent without obvious plot strings to follow from point A to point B (they're far too used to me being the leader, as I'm normally a player). What are some ways I can alleviate that?
As a simpler question, with a brief glance does this seem like an appealing campaign to you? Why or why not?
I know this is likely a large wall of text and I ask a lot of questions. Thank you in advance for any input, large or small, you may have.
So I've recently been thinking of trying a fairly large project, at least for me. I had an idea for a campaign that takes place after the PCs die and they are thrown into the middle of a growing war between heaven and hell, struggling as refugees of sort at first as they try to survive.
Problem was, my experiences with 3.5 and pathfinder make me feel like it would be difficult to really capture the feel that I want, and that I'd have to do a lot of tinkering or re-writing to really get it down. Since I have no real experience with homebrew, I was hoping that the playground might be able to point me in some good places to start with.
One big thing that I want to do is to be able to have each class contribute with their own unique and powerful abilities - for that, I think I'll have to read, and then borrow heavily from, book of nine swords. Also, I'd like to have combats, at all levels, feel a lot less like rocket launcher tag - possibly buffing up total HPs, and changing numbers around here or there. And less, or more limited, save or dies and the like.
Along with changing the numbers around, I'd like to make in-combat healing an actual useful thing. For an angelic themed campaign, I like the idea of someone playing an angel of mercy keeping everyone on their feet through extended boss battles. That can be done with adding more effective multi-target heals, and swift action heals, etc.
The last main focus I think would be to have a tiered leveling system - something like levels 1-10 would be spirit levels, and after that the class selection would be limited by the character's morality so far. 11-20 would be lesser angelic/demonic classes, and 21-30 would be the greater angelic/demonic classes. Each tier would have a different group of classes with a slight jump in power. Players would be free to multiclass if they so chose.
Overall I guess the feeling would lean more towards DnD 4.0, which I don't have much experience with, or kind of MMO-like (just... without numbers THAT huge). With aiming for a gameplay kind of like that, what are some possible pitfalls, or things I should emphasize when putting this together? I know DnD 4.0 had a tiered system of leveling kind of. How well did that work? And for all of these points, has anyone done homebrew that accomplished similar things that I could borrow from? Or is there a good system out there already that can accomplish what I'm going for without building all of this from scratch?
On another note, there's the plot and fluff. Basically, the game is set in modern times, and the character's personalities would have a heavy influence on their ability scores. (something like stubborn characters had more strength in spirit form, for a very vague example) Would that limit personalities too much, or would it instead assist in creating more rich characters?
As for the plot itself, Heaven is being led by the angel of Justice. After the Angel of Mercy died in conflict with hell, he started imposing a more military law on the inhabitants of Heaven. Instead of damning impure souls to hell, he has instead simply been obliterating them (less enemy soldiers to fight against). The characters all have some kind of flaw that they are about to be executed when the agents of hell manage to let loose purgatory into heaven itself. In the distraction, they manage to escape and find a resistance group hiding out away from the judging eyes. (I'm thinking heaven would be like an angelic echo of our world now) The early levels would be focused on survival, and then they would eventually be able to influence the war itself, likely by taking on the corrupt angel of justice himself as a possible end boss. At the same time, they would likely try to stop the war from spilling out onto earth itself.
With this general plot, what are some possible things I should watch out for? What, at a glance, are strong points that I could build on more? My group has some issues with being independent without obvious plot strings to follow from point A to point B (they're far too used to me being the leader, as I'm normally a player). What are some ways I can alleviate that?
As a simpler question, with a brief glance does this seem like an appealing campaign to you? Why or why not?
I know this is likely a large wall of text and I ask a lot of questions. Thank you in advance for any input, large or small, you may have.