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Yora
2015-06-08, 08:17 AM
Of all the versions of D&D, Basic/Expert is the one I hate the least. Aside from the attack and armor mechanic and the magic system, I actually like it quite a lot. But of all the versions I've seen out there none is exactly what I want, and since it's so easy I'm writing up my own classes, spells, and magic system. Everything else remains basically untouched, not that there is much else to that game to begin with.

The main examples I studied for ideas and options are Basic Fantasy, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Stars Without Number, and Spears of the Dawn, with a small bit from Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (an AD&D cone).

The classes here are meant to work well with my own Ancient Lands setting, but I think they are pretty generic and would work in almost any fantasy campaign. Conan shouldn't be a problem and I think it would even work well for The Witcher or The Elder Scrolls, if you don't care about crafting. :smallwink:

Ability Scores



Score
Modifier


18
+3


16-17
+2


13-15
+1


9-12
+0


6-8
-1


4-5
-2


3
-3



Nothing new here. Since modifiers greater than 1 are rare and even a really low roll is not that bad, I would go with rolling 3d6. Assigning and modifying to be done by whatever method the GM considers appropriate for the game.

Strength is added to melee attacks and damage.
Dexterity is added to ranged attacks and Armor Class.
Constitution is added to hit point.
Wisdom is added to all saving throws against magical effects.

Character Race

Race is something I wouldn't actually bother with. Elves might see in the dark, halflings are slower, but other than that it doesn't really affect a characters abilities.

Character Class

As race is not a thing, there are only four character classes. Warrior and thief are as always, adept is a mage and priest, and the warmage is based on the cleric. There is no separation between arcane and devine magic.

Hit Dice and Attack Bonus work just like in any d20 game like 3.5e and Pathfinder.
Usually Hit Dice are capped at 9, but since the classes only go up to 10th level (which is a hard limit, like in E6), they simply end at 10dX instead of 9dX+Y.

Saving Throws come in five categories: Poison (Death Ray and Poison in D&D), Item (Magic Wand), Paralysis (Petrification and Paralysis), Area (Dragon Breath), and Magic (Spells, Staffs, and Rods). Since the original names are weird and confusing, I changed them to something more easy to remember and understand. To make a saving throw you roll a d20 and have to reach or exceed the number on your character sheet. Which is why the saving throws are target numbers and not modifiers. The chance to make a save depends entirely on your class level, it is not changed in any way by the power of the creature or the spellcaster. A bit simplistic and perhaps not very "realistic", but it's quick and easy.

The magic system will be explained in a later post. (It's based on a simplefied version of the Expanded Psionic Handbook.)

All classes can use all weapons and armor without penalty, though thieves, adepts, and warmages have some limitations when wearing armor. (And idea I've seen in LotFP, which I really quite like. Why not have an adept with a two handed axe? With his attack bonus he still won't hit most of the time.)

There are no experience charts. Characters gain new levels at appropriate points in the campaign, as considered by the GM.
Thieves got better Hit Dice and attack chances as they normally gain levels much faster than other classes, and warmages get much fewer spells than adepts because normally the elf class gets new levels the slowest.

Warrior


Level
Hit Dice
Attack
Poison
Item
Paralysis
Area
Magic


1st
1d8
+1
12
13
14
15
16


2nd
2d8
+2
12
13
14
15
16


3rd
3d8
+3
12
13
14
15
16


4th
4d8
+4
10
11
12
13
14


5th
5d8
+5
10
11
12
13
14


6th
6d8
+6
10
11
12
13
14


7th
7d8
+7
8
9
10
11
12


8th
8d8
+8
8
9
10
11
12


9th
9d8
+9
8
9
10
11
12


10th
10d8
+10
6
7
8
9
10



Warriors have the best hit points and outclass all the other classes considerably in attack bonus and saving throws.

Warmage


Level
Hit Dice
Attack
Poison
Item
Paralysis
Area
Magic
Spells
MP gained


1st
1d6
+1
11
12
14
16
15
1
1


2nd
2d6
+1
11
12
14
16
15
2
2


3rd
3d6
+2
11
12
14
16
15
3
3


4th
4d6
+2
10
11
13
15
13
4
4


5th
5d6
+3
10
11
13
15
13
5
5


6th
6d6
+3
10
11
13
15
13
6
6


7th
7d6
+4
9
10
12
14
12
7
7


8th
8d6
+4
9
10
12
14
12
8
8


9th
9d6
+5
9
10
12
14
12
9
9

10th
10d6
+5
8
9
11
12
11
10
10


Since there is no cleric class, the warmage stats are mostly based on the cleric. A warmage has only half the number of known spells as an adept and less magic power points per day. (Because of how spell selection works, he also has less access to higher level spells unless he narrowly specializes.) Saving throws are pretty good and attack bonus and hit points are medium.
Magic points are added to the total pool of magic points the character has. At each level, the character also gets an additional number of magic points equal to his Wisdom modifier. If the Wisdom modifier is a penalty, the character gets at least 1 point per level. (The pool can permanently be decreased by mastering spells, so this table only lists the amount of new points gained and not a total value of points for each class level.)

Casting spells in medium armor (AC +3 or +4) increases the magic point cost of any spell by +1 and heavy armor (AC +5/+6) by +2. Light armor (AC +1/+2) does not increase the magic point cost for warmages.

Adept


Level
Hit Dice
Attack
Poison
Item
Paralysis
Area
Magic
Spells
MP gained


1st
1d4
+1
13
14
13
16
15
2
1


2nd
2d4
+1
13
14
13
16
15
4
3


3rd
3d4
+1
13
14
13
16
15
6
5


4th
4d4
+2
12
13
12
15
14
8
7


5th
5d4
+2
12
13
12
15
14
10
9


6th
6d4
+2
12
13
12
15
14
12
11


7th
7d4
+3
11
12
11
14
13
14
13


8th
8d4
+3
11
12
11
14
13
16
15


9th
9d4
+3
11
12
11
14
13
18
17


10th
10d4
+4
10
11
10
13
12
20
19



Magic points are added to the total pool of magic points the character has. At each level, the character also gets an additional number of magic points equal to his Wisdom modifier. If the Wisdom modifier is a penalty, the character gets at least 1 point per level. (The pool can permanently be decreased by mastering spells, so this table only lists the amount of new points gained and not a total value of points for each class level.)

Casting spells in light armor (AC +1 or +2) increases the magic point cost of any spell by +1, medium armor (AC +3/+4) by +2, and heavy armor (AC +5/+6) by +3.

Thief


Level
Hit Dice
Attack
Poison
Item
Paralysis
Area
Magic
Climb
Listen
Locks
Pocket
Stealth


1st
1d6
+1
13
14
13
16
15
4 in 6
2 in 6
1 in 6
2 in 6
2 in 6


2nd
2d6
+1
13
14
13
16
15
4 in 6
2 in 6
2 in 6
2 in 6
3 in 6


3rd
3d6
+2
13
14
13
16
15
4 in 6
2 in 6
2 in 6
2 in 6
3 in 6


4th
4d6
+2
12
13
12
15
14
4 in 6
2 in 6
2 in 6
3 in 6
3 in 6


5th
5d6
+3
12
13
12
15
14
4 in 6
3 in 6
2 in 6
3 in 6
3 in 6


6th
6d6
+3
12
13
12
15
14
4 in 6
3 in 6
3 in 6
3 in 6
4 in 6


7th
7d6
+4
11
12
11
14
13
5 in 6
3 in 6
3 in 6
3 in 6
4 in 6


8th
8d6
+4
11
12
11
14
13
5 in 6
3 in 6
3 in 6
4 in 6
4 in 6


9th
9d6
+5
11
12
11
14
13
5 in 6
4 in 6
3 in 6
4 in 6
4 in 6


10th
10d6
+5
10
11
10
13
12
5 in 6
4 in 6
4 in 6
4 in 6
5 in 6



Usually in B/X, thieves have very low hit points and poor attack bonuses. But since I have a kind of Sword & Sorcery style in mind and all classes level up at the same rate, I bumped them up to d6 Hit Dice and a better attack bonus. Thieves still don't have nearly as good saves as warriors and are also probably wearing minimal armor most of the time, which still makes them considerably weaker than fighters in a battle.

Thieves can sneak attack and get a +2 bonus to their attack roll and deal double damage (all dice and modifiers are doubled) when their target is not expecting an attack. (It's up to the GM to decide when that is. Usually when the target does not know the thief is there or on the thiefs first attack when the target is not anticipating a fight breaking out. If the target knows the thief is there and feels threatened, it usually won't be a surprise attack.

Skills are very simple. Unlike saving throws, this is done by rolling under. 1 in 6 means that only a 1 on a d6 means success. A 2 in 6 chance means that only a 1 and a 2 mean success, and so on. (Rolling a d6 is an idea from LotFP, while I got the specific chances from AS&SH, which uses a d12 instead.) "Locks" includes eveything related to mechanism, which includes opening locks and detecting and disabling traps. The player always have to announce "I check the object for traps" to make a roll. There is no passive detection mechanic and you can't search whole rooms. For searching floors, it's up to the GM to decide how many rolls are needed and how much time it takes.
The Climb and Listen skill are both meant for situations in which normal people would say "this can not be climbed" and "you can't hear anything". And they can't, but thieves might. If a climb check falls, the thief falls from the midpoint of the distance he wanted to cover. (If a climb is very long, the GM can break it up into multiple segments, each requiring its own roll.)

Thieves can use all weapons and armor, but suffer a -1 penalty to their skills when wearing medium armor (+3 or +4 AC) and a -2 penalty when wearing heavy armor (+5 or +6 AC).

Skills

This is almost entirely my own creation which I am making up as I write it:
When a character attempts an action that would be trivially easy or work without a flaw even if it takes three or four tries (and there is no time limit or anything like that), no roll is made.
If there is a good chance that an average person might not be able to perform the action at all or would need multiple attempts but has to hurry, the player rolls a d6 with a chance of success of 2 in 6. This chance is modified by the appropriate ability modifier, so a character with a score of 16 (+2) would have a chance of 4 in 6. If the character has a score of 5 (-2) or lower, the chance is 0 in 6 and that character can only attempt trivial tasks that fall under that ability score.
Thieves are an exception as their special thief skills always have a minimum chance based on the class level, regardless of the characters ability scores. A character with a Dexterity score of 6 (-1) would have a 1 in 6 chance to move stealthily. However, a 1st level thief has a listed Stealth chance of 2 in 6, so even with a Dexterity score of 6 or lower, his chance would still be 2 in 6. Any character with an 18 (+3) would have a 5 in 6 chance to move stealthily, if he is a thief or not.

Since in Sword & Sorcery generally everyone is a thief and sneaks around a lot, this doesn't seem like much of a problem. And when rolling 3d6 (especially when in order), getting an 18 is rather unlikely. Most characters will get only a 13 or so for a sneak chance of 3 in 6. Which is nice, but equaled by even the most clumsy 2nd level thief.
Thiefs already got bumped in hit points, hit chance, and available equipment, so they are not as much in need of exclusive skills that nobody else has. And they still have the advantage over other classes that they automatically get good in all the thief skills. Climb is based on Strength, Stealth and Picking Pockets on Dexterity, and Listen and Locks on Intelligence and there will be very few characters that have high scores in all those three abilities. I quite like it.

Equipment

Equipment I like to keep pretty simple.

Armor
Since the only mechanical value of armor is the Armor Class, there is no specific armor list. Armor can have an AC bonus of +1 to +6, whith +1 and +2 being light, +3/+4 medium, and +5/+6 heavy.
Shields are totally awesome, even though D&D never wants to believe it, and give a +2 bonus to AC.

Weapons
Weapons are just as simple. They just have a damage rating and that's it.



Weapon
Damage


Dagger, knife
1d4


Short sword, small axe
1d6


Sword, battleaxe, short spear
1d8


Two handed sword, two handed axe
1d10


Long spear, halberd, glaive
1d10


Club
1d6


Mace, staff
1d8


Large Club
1d10


Bow
1d8


Sling
1d6



With range for bows, slings, and thrown daggers and short spears I still have to think of something, but it shouldn't be too complex.

Encumbrance will be covered later, but it will also be extremely simple and specific weights don't matter.

Something I am still very open to discuss are the specific saving throw values. B/X seems to have them assigned completely at random.

Yora
2015-06-08, 04:41 PM
Here is the first part of the magic system with about half of the spells.

This is all a draft and I am going to provide some explanation for the underlying concepts behind it tomorrow when I do the other spells, but any thoughts on possible oversights and faults are welcome.

Magic
Adepts and templars know a number of spells which they can cast at any time as a regular action at their turn in combat. Every spell has a cost in magic points which need to be spend to begin the casting and once a character runs out of magic points he can no longer cast spells for that day.
At every level adepts and templars increase their maximum number of magic points as indicated by the tables in the description of the classes. The characters Wisdom modifier is added to that number, but the character will always get at least one more magic point each level, even when a low Wisdom score reduces the number to 0 or lower.



Spell Level
Magic Point cost


1
1


2
3



3
5



4
7


5
9



Regaining magic points
Adepts and templars automatically regain all their magic points after having rested for 8 hours. They can regain magic points this way only once per day. While resting, a character can not fight, cast spells, perform any exhausting tasks, or wander around for more than a minute, but any other minor distractions are not considered as interruptions of the characters rest.
Optionally, when a character can not get proper sleep during a night, his magic points are only restored up to half his normal maximum. (But he doesn't lose any points if he already had more than half his full points remaining.)

Disciplines
All spells belong to one of ten disciplines, which each discipline consisting of five related spells. Characters can learn any spell of any level, but only if they already know all the lower level spells of that discipline. For example an adept can only learn the 3rd entropy spell after having learned the 1st and 2nd spell at previous character levels.
Templars learn one spell per level and can learn any spell they want, provided they have already learned all the lower level spells of that discipline. Adepts learn their spells a bit differently. Every adept has to chose a prime discipline, which is the discipline he currently focuses on. One of the two spells he learns each level is automatically the next highest spell of his prime discipline while the other spell can be from any of the other disciplines. If an adept has no more spells of his prime discipline left, he has to select another one as his new prime discipline. This can either be a completely new discipline or any discipline in which he already has started to learn spells.

Special Disciplines
The Blood and Sorcery discipline are special disciplines not usually known or studied by most adepts or templars. It usually requires being introduced to them by a teacher, but GMs can discard this restriction and make the spells of these disciplines freely available to all characters.

Mastering Spells
At each level an adept or templar has the option to master one of the spells he knows. By doing so, the character permanently reduces his magic point pool by a number of points equal to the cost of the spell, but from that point on he can cast the spell for free without spending any magic points. However, if a character is completely out of all magic point, he can not even cast any mastered spells anymore.
As for learning spells, mastering a spell requires that the character has already mastered all the lower level spells of that discipline.

Casting spells in battle
The casting of spells can easily be interrupted by others. When a character takes any amount of damage during a round he can not cast any more spells for the rest of that round. If the player characters win initiative and have their turn before the enemies this usually can not happen. If the player characters go second and the adept or templar gets hit, he can not cast a spell but take any other action.
Both player characters and enemies can ready an action to make an attack as soon as an adept or templar begins to cast a spell. In such a situation the attack happens before the spell is completed and any hit causes the spell to fail. In that case the character loses the spell points used to cast the spell, but the spell does not take any kind of effect.

Spells

Healing
Heal Wounds (Healing 1, 1 mp): The target heals 1d6 points of damage. (Range: touch)
Heal Disease (Healing 2, 3 mp): A single disease is removed from the target. (Range: touch)
Stop Poison (Healing 3, 5 mp): Any poison that affects the target is neutralized. Any damage caused by the poison is not reversed. (Range: touch)
Strength (Healing 4, 7 mp): The target of the spell gains a +2 bonus to all attack rolls, damage rolls, and Strength checks for 10 minutes. (Range: touch)
Regenerate (Healing 5, 9 mp): This spell takes 1 minute to cast without interruption (6 rounds). The spell restores one body part back to its normal function, such as restoring sight in one eye, hearing in one ear, or feeling and control in one limb.

Entropy
Cause Wounds (Entropy 1, 1 mp): The target takes 1d6 points of damage. (Range: medium)
Sleep (Entropy 2, 3 mp): Creatures with a total of 1 Hit Die per character level fall asleep for 10 minutes per character level. A sleeping person can be roused in one round as a standard action and will wake up when injured, but not react to any noise nearby. (Range: medium)
Weakness (Entropy 3, 5 mp): The target of the spell suffers a -2 penalty to all attack rolls, damage rolls, and Strength checks for 10 minutes. (Range: medium)
Paralysis (Entropy 4, 7 mp): The target becomes unable to move and is held frozen in place by magic energies. It can not cast spells or take any other action, but can be allowed to talk by the caster of the spell. The spell can be held up with no time limit, but automatically ends if the caster casts another spell or moves out of medium range from the target. (Range: medium)
Cripple (Entropy 5, 9 mp): This spell permanently cripples or disables a single body part or sense of the target. Characters with a crippled leg can not stand or walk, characters with a crippled arm can not use it to fight, and characters who are made blind can only fight by brawling and not cast spells at specific targets they are not touching. Only a regenerate spell can reverse the effects of this spell. (Range: medium)

Mind
Sense Minds (Mind 1, 1 mp): The caster of this spell senses the presence of every thinking mind within 10 feet per caster level. The spell can only discern very strong emotions and lasts for only a few seconds.
Charm (Mind 2, 3 mp): The target of the spell is compelled to trust the caster and consider him a close friend and ally for one hour per caster level. (Range: close)
Invisibility (Mind 3, 5 mp): While this spell is in effect, everyone who sees the caster and any other creatures within arms length of him will completely ignore their presence. They can still see the caster but do not acknowledge his presence or feel any kind of alarm by anything he does. People who are actively guarding something, trying to ensure they are not being watched, or in a place where they are certain to be completely alone can make a saving throw to resist the spells effect and notice the caster. The effect of the spell lasts until the caster cast any other spell or does anything that would be considered an action during combat.
Read Thoughts (Mind 4, 7 mp): The caster can read the current thought of the target unless it makes a saving throw to resist. The spell lasts until the caster stops to concentrate on it, either by being distracted, talking to anyone but the target of the spell, or casting a spell. (Range: close)
Domination (Mind 5, 9 mp): The target of the spell obeys a single command given by the caster. If the task takes a long time, the spell automatically ends after one day per level of the caster. If the command goes completely against the will of the target it gets another saving throw just before carrying it out. (Range: close)

Spirit
Second Sight (Spirit 1, 1 mp): By casting this spell the character senses all magic auras of any magic creature, magic item, or active spell within close range. The spell ends when the caster does anything that counts as an action during combat or gets attacked in any way.
Banish Magic: (Spirit 2, 3 mp): This spell needs to be cast at a single creature, object, or location currently under the effect of a spell. If something is currently keeping the spell active it can make a saving throw but otherwise all magic effects are removed from the target. (Range: medium)
Spirit Ward (Spirit 3, 5 mp): The caster creates a ward that prevents all spirits and demons from entering the area or casting spells into it while the spell is in effect. The range of the spell is 10 feet per caster level around the caster and it lasts for 10 minutes per level. Spirits and demons get no saving throw to ignore the effects of the spell and can not make any attacks or cast any spell if caught in it during its creation. Usually they will attempt to flee from the area as fast as possible.
??? (Spirit 4, 7 mp)
Summon Spirit (Spirit 5, 9 mp)

The other four disciplines are the elements Air (pushing stuff and flying), Earth (crushing stuff and making walls), Fire (fire, fire, fire, wall of fire fire, fire), and Water (drenching and pushing stuff, freezing stuff, holding stuff) and the two special dark arts of Sorcery (still unclear) and Blood Magic (drain blood to regain magic points and contol other peoples bodies).

Yora
2015-06-09, 05:41 AM
Spells (continued)

Air
Air Blast (Air 1, 1 mp): The target of the spell is pushed back 10 feet. If it hits a wall, it takes 1d6 points of damage. (Range: medium)
Mist (Air 2, 3 mp): This spell creates one area of 10x10 feet filled with heavy fog for per level of the caster. The mist remains for 10 minutes or until strong wind or fire disperses it. (Range: close)
Wind Step (Air 3, 5 mp): This spell lets the target of the spell make a huge leap or land after a fall without taking damage. The spell lasts only until the end of the round and the target can make a leap of a distance 10 feet per caster level long, or 5 feet per caster level high. If the caster sees someone in danger of falling, he can stay ready and cast the spell before the target hits the ground.
Wind Shield (Air 4, 7 mp): Strong wind forms a shield around the caster at a range of 15 feet that deflects all ranged weapons, fire, and gases into the ground. The caster can keep this spell up until he casts another spell, makes an attack, takes damage, or is otherwise interrupted. (Range: medium)
Fly (Air 5, 9 mp): This spell lets the caster fly through the air with a speed of 60 for 1 minute per level.

Fire
Fire Bolt (Fire 1, 1 mp): The caster throws a small bolt of fire that deals 1d6 points of fire damage. If the target makes a saving throw against the spell, the bolt misses and deals no damage.
Fire Blast (Fire 2, 3 mp): This spell creates a blast of fire 15 feet long and 10 feet wide that deals 2d6 points of fire damage against everything in the area. Targets that make a saving throw take only half damage.
Fireball (Fire 3, 5 mp): The caster throws a fireball at any space within medium range where it explodes and deals 3d6 points of fire damage against everything within 15 feet. Targets that make a saving throw take only half damage.
Wall of Fire (Fire 4, 7 mp): The caster creates a wall of fire 10 feet per level long and 15 feet high. The wall can be shaped in any way the caster wishes but must run along the ground and no part of it may be farther away than medium range. Anything that stands within or passes through the fire takes 4d6 points of fire damage, but takes only half damage on a successful saving throw. The fire keeps burning for as long as the caster stays within medium range and does not cast any other spell, make an attack, or takes any damage. If the ground is flamable, the wall will burn by itself for 1d6 rounds after the spell was cast, even if the caster does not keep it up.
Inferno (Fire 5, 9 mp): The caster aims at a point within medium range and everything within 20 feet of it becomes engulfed by flames and takes 5d6 points of damage. If the caster maintains the spell by not taking any other action or taking any damage, the spell will continue to deal 4d6 points of damage in the second round, and 1d6 less damage every round until it deals 1d6 points of damage in the fifth round and then ends. Any target in the area that makes a saving throw takes only half damage that round.

Yora
2015-06-09, 11:41 AM
Encumbrance

Encumbrance works very simple. All items have a weight of either 1, or 2, or none. A character can carry a number of items equal to his Strength score with no penalty. He can carry a number of items equal to twice his Strength score while being lightly encumbred, and up to three times his Strength score while being heavily encumbred.
A character who is lightly encumbred has his movement speed reduced by one category and has all the penalties from wearing medium armor. (Penalty to physical ability checks and magic point cost for casting spells.)
A character who is heavily encumbred has his movement speed reduced by two categories and has all the penalties from wearing heavy armor.

If an object is so large and heavy that it would take both hands to hold and carry, it counts as two normal items and has a weight of 2. Objects lighter than a dagger are not counted towards encumbrance. It's left to the GM to decide when a larger number of smaller objects counts as one item. A pound or half a kilo of stuff probably is a good limit.
As they are likely to come up often, a quiver with 12 arrows, food for one day, and water for one day should all be treated as having a weight of 1 each, regardless of how they are stored.

To track encumbrance, a good idea is to have an inventory list in which all the rows are numbered. You can then mark at which row the limits for light encumbrance, heavy encumbrance, and maximal load are reached, based on your characters Strength. For items with weights greater than 1, simply cross out the line below it. When you get over any of those limits, you simply see it immediately as the list passes over the marked lines.

Treasure

The money system, like everything else, is very simple. This game doesn't bother with counting coins and prices for specific items.

The standard unit of wealth is "1 treasure". A treasure could be many things, but generaly has a weight and a value of 1. A small bag of silver coins being the standard example. But it could also be jewelry, gemstones, golden cups, or whatever. For special occasions you can also have special treasures which weigh nothing or have a value greater than 1. The huge diamond from the crown of the heigh priest may easily have a value of 5 or 10, while a gold ring with a saphire might have a weight of none. But these are not usually found lying around in ruins or in the pockets of bandits.

There are no price lists. As long as you have at least one treasure with you, you can get whatever weapons, shields, food, rooms, and other small expanses you want. If you have no treasure with you, you're broke and have to either get some valuables somewhere or get creative in acquiring equipment and supplies. Greater expanses usually cost 1 treasure. It could be a horse, a lavish feast, a cart, or other mundane by expensive things. Armor is more expensive and costs 1 treasure per point of Armor Class bonus (an AC +5 armor would cost 5 treasure).
Magic potions also generally cost 1 treasure each and are probably one of the most common expenses. More powerful magic items don't come with a fixed price. They are almost always given as rewards, taken from defeated enemies, or stolen from treasure vaults.

nonsi
2015-06-09, 02:12 PM
Why not Fort-Ref-Will?
Why make things contradictory (e.g. a spell that deals area damage) and needlessly complicated?

Yora
2015-06-09, 04:55 PM
Because that's how B/X does it.

However, that's about the only thing left that works as in B/X, so there is indeed not much incentive to keep it. Stars Without Number and Spears of the Dawn have the categories "physical effect", "mental effect", "evasion", "tech/magic", and "luck". The first three are essentially Fort, Will, and Ref, with "magic" being any other magical effects and "luck" anything that wouldn't fall in any other category.
d20 Will saves are often used for things like resisting being magically scanned or to ignore magical barriers. Under this system, these would fall under Magic Save, as they are not really about someone manipulating your mind. Not sure when Luck might ever come up, but it seems handy to have around just in case.

The nice thing about OSR games is that saving throws (and attack bonus) are not listed in the monster stat blocks and are simply a result of the Hit Dice, so you can easily play around with them in the game rules without losing compatibility with other monster books.

Thrudd
2015-06-10, 11:22 AM
I like this, like it a lot. Your magic system is nice, sufficiently simple and flexible. The saving throw categories might use some adjusting.

The only question I have is about leveling. Are you sure that it should be entirely the GM discretion? I feel like giving players some control over their advancement is a big motivating factor. A game that doesn't use advancement as a motivator might work better without a level system, more power up front and smaller chunks of character improvement after each session, award XP at the end of the session that can be used to purchase small improvements.

Yora
2015-06-10, 11:39 AM
Sure, one could track advancement in various ways. For example one level for every 10 xp and the GM awards xp depending on how much he thinks the PCs accomplishments should be worth.

nonsi
2015-06-11, 12:52 AM
Sure, one could track advancement in various ways. For example one level for every 10 xp and the GM awards xp depending on how much he thinks the PCs accomplishments should be worth.

... Unless your DM is stingy, which could be problematic.

Yora
2015-06-11, 03:56 AM
Not really. It just means the campaign has a slower advancement.