Houserules Critique

[torrasque666]

So I'm wondering at how fair/unfair, balanced/unbalanced these houserules are, as well as looking for more ideas to make my Eberron campaign a bit more of a unique experience for my players. We are heavily pulling from Troaccid's houserule list. My rules listed under the class and feats section are additions to that.

Key Houserules




Dragonmarked Races can gain the appropriate Dragonmarked feats at the level they become available as a bonus feat. The one exception to this is the Sybris Mark. If you wish to gain the Sybris Mark instead of the standard mark progression (Least, Lesser, Greater) make that known to me.

Abbarant Marks can be taken instead of a Least Mark at level 1, but they do not gain Mark advancement like the standard marks.


Dragonblooded Races gain the appropriate Draconic Heritage feat for their bloodline at level 1 as a bonus feat.
Other "distant ancestor" races (Aasimar, Tiefling, Feytouched, etc.) also gain the appropriate Heritage feat at level 1 as a bonus feat.
The Heir of Sybris PrC counts as levels in any one previous class at levels 2 and 3.


Source Rules



​No Pathfinder, No 3.0 (unless absolutely no 3.5 analogue)
​Very limited access to Dragon Magazine (I may have most of them, but no. Case by case and you need to provide the source)
​Other setting (Faerun, Krynn, etc) material on a case by case basis
​Online articles on a case by case basis

​
​Notes on Character Creation




34 point buy
​Age stat changes are not in effect
LA buyoff is slightly modified. Racial Hitdie now count towards progress for LA buyoff. Acquired LA treats the point you acquired it as level 0 for buyoff purposes (relatively sure that's how it was meant anyway)

In this case, LA buyoff occurs instantaneously with no XP cost at the earliest time possible. Say you had a race starting with an LA of 1. Once you had 3 class levels (ECL 4) your LA would automatically be removed and you'd bump up to level 4 with the rest of the party. Say you gained a +1 template at level 6 you'd then undergo buyoff at class level 9 (ECL 10) and so on and so forth.


Experience will not be used, instead I'll use a milestone stystem
​Fractional BAB is used

​
​Skills

​All skills cost only one point to increase, but class/cross-class skill caps are still in effect
​The following skills have been rolled together. This means that you roll once and add the single highest modifier you have.


​Bluff, Disguise => Deception
Climb, Jump, Swim => Athletics
Balance, Tumble => Acrobatics
Hide, Move Silently => Stealth
Knowledge (Arcana), Spellcraft => Arcana
Knowledge (Psionics), Psicraft => Psionics



​Classes


Crusaders, Swordsages, and Warblades have the following change: They may swap any one discipline that they gain access to for any other discipline. (Example, a crusader swapping Stone Dragon for Desert Wind) and any discipline shared between classes treats all classes that gain access to that school as one class (So a Crusader 4/Warblade 2 would treat any Stone Dragon manuever as if it had full Initator level (IL 6) while any Devoted Spirit or Iron Heart maneuvers would be treated as normal (5 for Devoted Spirit, 4 for Iron Heart)
Favored Souls gain Wings at 7th level, usable for level/minutes per day until the limit is removed at 17th level
​
​We are using the ​Weapon Group Feats variant​

Feats


​Education: Pick any two skills. These skills are always class skills for you. This takes place after any skill swapping is done during character creation

[Troacctid]

The main thing I'm noticing is that this pushes dragonmarked races pretty hard. Multiple bonus feats is a powerful incentive—with these rules, I would expect every character in the party to have a dragonmark, especially since you can get them on humans, who are already the most versatile and one of the most powerful races in the game. That's not a bad thing, of course, since dragonmarks are super cool and very Eberron-y, and I don't blame you for incentivizing them, but just be aware that it will push out other options.

The addition of LA buyoff makes it more likely that you'll see level adjustments. If I were in this campaign, you could bet your booty I'd be playing a dragonmarked race with a +1 LA template.

Edit: Troacctid with a "t", by the way.

[Godskook]

Dragonmarked Races can gain the appropriate Dragonmarked feats at the level they become available as a bonus feat. The one exception to this is the Sybris Mark. If you wish to gain the Sybris Mark instead of the standard mark progression (Least, Lesser, Greater) make that known to me.

Abbarant Marks can be taken instead of a Least Mark at level 1, but they do not gain Mark advancement like the standard marks.


Seems fine if everyone plays dragonmarked races with non-Aberrant marks. Not familiar with Aberrant marks, so I can't comment there. I do feel that you'll kinda disclude non-dragonkmarked races, provided there are any that don't fit the "heritage" group.

Oh, I can't remember, is there a Dragonmarked Race that's also in one of the below two categories?


Dragonblooded Races gain the appropriate Draconic Heritage feat for their bloodline at level 1 as a bonus feat.
Other "distant ancestor" races (Aasimar, Tiefling, Feytouched, etc.) also gain the appropriate Heritage feat at level 1 as a bonus feat.
The Heir of Sybris PrC counts as levels in any one previous class at levels 2 and 3.


Perfectly fine.


Source Rules

Nothing to complain about here.



34 point buy

I find this low, but I also know that most people go lower, so up to you. PCs with higher point-buy are more "not normal" than with lower point-buy, but other than that, high point-buy favors melees while low point-buy favors casters.


Age stat changes are not in effect

Normal among games where balance is a concern.


LA buyoff is slightly modified. Racial Hitdie now count towards progress for LA buyoff. Acquired LA treats the point you acquired it as level 0 for buyoff purposes (relatively sure that's how it was meant anyway)

"I made LA buyoff work with my XP-system" -torrasque666


Experience will not be used, instead I'll use a milestone stystem

Understandable.


​Fractional BAB is used

AND fractional saves?


All skills cost only one point to increase, but class/cross-class skill caps are still in effect

+1


​The following skills have been rolled together. This means that you roll once and add the single highest modifier you have.

What do you mean by this?


Crusaders, Swordsages, and Warblades have the following change: They may swap any one discipline that they gain access to for any other discipline. (Example, a crusader swapping Stone Dragon for Desert Wind) and any discipline shared between classes treats all classes that gain access to that school as one class (So a Crusader 4/Warblade 2 would treat any Stone Dragon manuever as if it had full Initator level (IL 6) while any Devoted Spirit or Iron Heart maneuvers would be treated as normal (5 for Devoted Spirit, 4 for Iron Heart)

FYI, this is a straight buff to an already strong tier 3 class. I like it, but y'know....for the record.


Favored Souls gain Wings at 7th level, usable for level/minutes per day until the limit is removed at 17th level
​
May I suggest that growth is level*level minutes per day? At level 7, that's still only 49 minutes. Compared to extended Fly, which is 2*CL minutes(14) and Overland Flight at CL hours 2 levels later.

[TiaC]

So I'm wondering at how fair/unfair, balanced/unbalanced these houserules are, as well as looking for more ideas to make my Eberron campaign a bit more of a unique experience for my players. We are heavily pulling from Troaccid's houserule list. My rules listed under the class and feats section are additions to that.

Key Houserules




Dragonmarked Races can gain the appropriate Dragonmarked feats at the level they become available as a bonus feat. The one exception to this is the Sybris Mark. If you wish to gain the Sybris Mark instead of the standard mark progression (Least, Lesser, Greater) make that known to me.

Abbarant Marks can be taken instead of a Least Mark at level 1, but they do not gain Mark advancement like the standard marks.


Dragonblooded Races gain the appropriate Draconic Heritage feat for their bloodline at level 1 as a bonus feat.
Other "distant ancestor" races (Aasimar, Tiefling, Feytouched, etc.) also gain the appropriate Heritage feat at level 1 as a bonus feat.
The Heir of Sybris PrC counts as levels in any one previous class at levels 2 and 3.


Source Rules



​No Pathfinder, No 3.0 (unless absolutely no 3.5 analogue)
​Very limited access to Dragon Magazine (I may have most of them, but no. Case by case and you need to provide the source)
​Other setting (Faerun, Krynn, etc) material on a case by case basis
​Online articles on a case by case basis

​
​Notes on Character Creation




34 point buy
​Age stat changes are not in effect
LA buyoff is slightly modified. Racial Hitdie now count towards progress for LA buyoff. Acquired LA treats the point you acquired it as level 0 for buyoff purposes (relatively sure that's how it was meant anyway)

In this case, LA buyoff occurs instantaneously with no XP cost at the earliest time possible. Say you had a race starting with an LA of 1. Once you had 3 class levels (ECL 4) your LA would automatically be removed and you'd bump up to level 4 with the rest of the party. Say you gained a +1 template at level 6 you'd then undergo buyoff at class level 9 (ECL 10) and so on and so forth.


Experience will not be used, instead I'll use a milestone stystem
​Fractional BAB is used

​
​Skills

​All skills cost only one point to increase, but class/cross-class skill caps are still in effect
​The following skills have been rolled together. This means that you roll once and add the single highest modifier you have.


​Bluff, Disguise => Deception
Climb, Jump, Swim => Athletics
Balance, Tumble => Acrobatics
Hide, Move Silently => Stealth
Knowledge (Arcana), Spellcraft => Arcana
Knowledge (Psionics), Psicraft => Psionics



​Classes


Crusaders, Swordsages, and Warblades have the following change: They may swap any one discipline that they gain access to for any other discipline. (Example, a crusader swapping Stone Dragon for Desert Wind) and any discipline shared between classes treats all classes that gain access to that school as one class (So a Crusader 4/Warblade 2 would treat any Stone Dragon manuever as if it had full Initator level (IL 6) while any Devoted Spirit or Iron Heart maneuvers would be treated as normal (5 for Devoted Spirit, 4 for Iron Heart)
Favored Souls gain Wings at 7th level, usable for level/minutes per day until the limit is removed at 17th level
​
​We are using the ​Weapon Group Feats variant​

Feats


​Education: Pick any two skills. These skills are always class skills for you. This takes place after any skill swapping is done during character creation


These generally look good.

By section:
Key Houserules - Dragonmarks aren't particularly strong feats, but you're still giving humans, already a strong race, 3 bonus feats. There are some nice options opened up by Dragonmarks for less played races though. (I might open up dragonmarks to subraces like sun elves or silverbrow humans to get a bit more variety in races) Another suggestion I'd make is to give the other Eberron races bonus racial feats too.

Source Rules - The only thing that sticks out here is Online articles. I find them to be as balanced as the books.

Notes on Character Creation - Your LA buyoff makes LA really appealing, especially if starting above level one or gaining the LA piecemeal.

​Skills - Combining stealth but not perception is a little strange.

Everything else looks fine.

[torrasque666]

The main thing I'm noticing is that this pushes dragonmarked races pretty hard. Multiple bonus feats is a powerful incentive—with these rules, I would expect every character in the party to have a dragonmark, especially since you can get them on humans, who are already the most versatile and one of the most powerful races in the game. That's not a bad thing, of course, since dragonmarks are super cool and very Eberron-y, and I don't blame you for incentivizing them, but just be aware that it will push out other options


Seems fine if everyone plays dragonmarked races with non-Aberrant marks. Not familiar with Aberrant marks, so I can't comment there. I do feel that you'll kinda disclude non-dragonkmarked races, provided there are any that don't fit the "heritage" group. The general storyline I'm thinking of will heavily feature Dragonmarks, hence my incentivizing them. I'll think of some ways to encourage Warforged, Shifters, and Changelings more though. Maybe more feats?


Oh, I can't remember, is there a Dragonmarked Race that's also in one of the below two categories? I'm considering a Silverbrow Human the same as a Human, a Forestlord Elf the same as an Elf, etc.



I find this low, but I also know that most people go lower, so up to you. PCs with higher point-buy are more "not normal" than with lower point-buy, but other than that, high point-buy favors melees while low point-buy favors casters.I was considering a 38 point buy off (enough for an 18,16,14,13,10,8) but felt that was too high for some reason



"I made LA buyoff work with my XP-system" -torrasque666Good, bad, or just commenting?




Understandable.



AND fractional saves?



+1 Mostly its just a hold over from Troacctid's rules. On the fence about fractional saves though. Note sure why.




What do you mean by this?Basically, add up all bonuses for a particular skill. Stat, Enhancement, Competence, etc. Do this for all skills that got rolled into a check. Use the higher of those sums for the modifier to the check. Athletics for instance, would use the highest total modifier of Climb, Jump, and Swim. I could make this per bonus type, but we use roll20 and that would make things too complicated.




FYI, this is a straight buff to an already strong tier 3 class. I like it, but y'know....for the record. True, but it A) encourages martial adepts to focus on a particular discipline and B) makes it so that bonus isn't limited to pretty much just Stone Dragon


​

May I suggest that growth is level*level minutes per day? At level 7, that's still only 49 minutes. Compared to extended Fly, which is 2*CL minutes(14) and Overland Flight at CL hours 2 levels later.
Hmm.... I'm being nice already by knocking these down into actually usable levels and not keying them to an even growth or stat like other forms of (Ex) flight.


Source Rules - The only thing that sticks out here is Online articles. I find them to be as balanced as the books. Just not a fan. They leave a bad taste in my mouth, but that's probably relating to the shenanigans I hear about around here.


Notes on Character Creation - Your LA buyoff makes LA really appealing, especially if starting above level one or gaining the LA piecemeal.Lets just say that I've never really been a fan of limiting templates. Besides, its still going to effectively limit them to +2 or less. Who wants to have to wait to burn off all their LA over 15+ levels? Vampire? Nope. Mummy? Nope. Half-Illithid? Nope.

[Godskook]

I'm considering a Silverbrow Human the same as a Human, a Forestlord Elf the same as an Elf, etc.

Allowing races to double-dip might be a balance problem, idk.



I was considering a 38 point buy off (enough for an 18,16,14,13,10,8) but felt that was too high for some reason

You're higher than most people, I just still consider it low.



Good, bad, or just commenting?

Just commenting. Out of curiosity, if I'm an Aasimar, what happens when my LA "buys off"? Do I gain the extra level to even-up with the party eventually? Otherwise, under milestone, losing LA is rather irrelevant.


Mostly its just a hold over from Troacctid's rules. On the fence about fractional saves though. Note sure why.

Honestly, there's no reason I can think of for allowing one but not the other, and the double-standard irks me.


Basically, add up all bonuses for a particular skill. Stat, Enhancement, Competence, etc. Do this for all skills that got rolled into a check. Use the higher of those sums for the modifier to the check. Athletics for instance, would use the highest total modifier of Climb, Jump, and Swim. I could make this per bonus type, but we use roll20 and that would make things too complicated.

I'm a tad confused...aren't you just eliminating the skills entirely? If not, why not?


True, but it A) encourages martial adepts to focus on a particular discipline and B) makes it so that bonus isn't limited to pretty much just Stone Dragon

@A, first of all, no it doesn't. It enhances their ability to co-multiclass, but it doesn't really 'encourage' focus, especially since many of the good Swordsage/Warblade disciplines are shared between them. A PC who focused on Iron Heart, Shadow Hand, Tiger Claw, and Diamond Mind would be able to multiclass gratuitiously between Warblade and Swordsage, and still be able to pick up the majority of good 'dip' maneuvers/stances from White Raven, Setting Sun and Desert Wind. How is that character FOCUSED?


Hmm.... I'm being nice already by knocking these down into actually usable levels and not keying them to an even growth or stat like other forms of (Ex) flight.

Dragonborn get better flight earlier. Raptorans get it even earlier. Part of the reason I say 'better' is the gliding rules, which lets a Dragonborn/Raptoran stay aloft for some rather absurd amount of time. Let's call it at -least- 20 minutes. Yes, they're limited to only Con-modifier rounds of true-flight at a time, but that's going to be enough most of the time to finish a combat, especially if they get a glide-round in there, or can rest on a ledge.

Also, Dragonborns upgrade to full-flight at 12HD, and Raptorans at 10HD. Dragonborns spend 2 levels with 2 minutes less "true flight" than the Favored Soul, while the Raptorans spend none.

(Also, Dragonborn Warforged get true-flight at 6HD, but that's a tad shenanigany)

[TiaC]

The general storyline I'm thinking of will heavily feature Dragonmarks, hence my incentivizing them. I'll think of some ways to encourage Warforged, Shifters, and Changelings more though. Maybe more feats?

They all have racial feats in Races of Eberron and a few other books. The warforged would likely be fine with one, the shifter feats are weaker, so I recommend that they get a few over their levels, and Changelings and Kalashtar have very few options. (You could just give the Kalashtar a bonus psionic feat at first level to fix that.)


Mostly its just a hold over from Troacctid's rules. On the fence about fractional saves though. Note sure why.

They really help avoid 12th level melee characters with a base will save of +1.

[ericgrau]

That's a lot of free feats, but not enough to be excessively unbalancing.

I think with the LA buyoff rules I'd always pick a LA 1 or greater race to start with, assuming starting level is 4 or later.

By combining only some of the skills you make the combined skills stronger than the uncombined skills which will surely see less use. I have a system in my sig if you want to take it. Follow "With Consolidated Skill System", open Consolidated Skill System.doc", ignore the rest. It nearly matches what you have, but with more combinations. I assumed arcana-psionics transparency, but you could add on the Psionics skill instead.

Fewer people are going to play rogues, scouts, etc. this way too, unless you double the cost of ranks like I did. Why bother when others fight better and can grab enough skills to do almost as well skill-wise? Which is fine unless one of your players loves those classes.

Overall it's unbalancing, but not excessively. If your goal is to make the campaign more unique it should be 100% fine. I mean you can be sure player choices will change based on the houserules, but it's perfectly playable.

[Coidzor]

Oh, I can't remember, is there a Dragonmarked Race that's also in one of the below two categories?

Silverbrow Humans and the like, but those probably don't exist on Eberron. In another setting that has dragonmarks or a variant of Eberron where dragons don't have such a strong taboo on breeding with humanoids, though...

At least, IIRC it was a dragon breeding with a humanoid that made Vol's family gfet wiped out, though if it was just dragonmarks on individuals with dragon blood, then dragonblooded humanoids shipping dragonmarked humanoids and combining the two would certainly be frowned upon when it came to their attention.

Fluffwise might be a thing that would (be believed to) lead to aberrant marks, too, not sure though.


The general storyline I'm thinking of will heavily feature Dragonmarks, hence my incentivizing them. I'll think of some ways to encourage Warforged, Shifters, and Changelings more though. Maybe more feats?

There are shifter and warforged feats, after all.

Not nearly as many changeling feats, though

[MisterKaws]

Changelings are Human-descended, so they can get Human Dragonmarks with no problem, though you'll have to give bonus racials to Shifters, Warforged and Kalashtar; you can also give Human Dragonmarks to Shifters, if you think that'd be best.

[torrasque666]

Silverbrow Humans and the like, but those probably don't exist on Eberron. In another setting that has dragonmarks or a variant of Eberron where dragons don't have such a strong taboo on breeding with humanoids, though...

At least, IIRC it was a dragon breeding with a humanoid that made Vol's family gfet wiped out, though if it was just dragonmarks on individuals with dragon blood, then dragonblooded humanoids shipping dragonmarked humanoids and combining the two would certainly be frowned upon when it came to their attention.

Fluffwise might be a thing that would (be believed to) lead to aberrant marks, too, not sure though.
I was justifying it with the fact that not all Dragonblooded races are descendants. Fireblood Dwarves came about through their Red Dragon masters imbuing them with magic so they could work in the volcanoes better. Sunscorched Hobgoblins are also of a magical origin. I figure that this justification can be extended to the rest of the Dragonblooded races. Hell, Frostblood Orcs got their draconic nature through repeated imbibing of White Dragon blood​.


Changelings are Human-descended, so they can get Human Dragonmarks with no problem, though you'll have to give bonus racials to Shifters, Warforged and Kalashtar; you can also give Human Dragonmarks to Shifters, if you think that'd be best. I'm not extending the same availability towards true breeding races. Half Elves can't get Elf or Human marks after all. I'm willing to extend marks to variant races, but not true breeding races.

As for Kalashtar.... they get their own benefits...

[Troacctid]

There are shifter and warforged feats, after all.

Not nearly as many changeling feats, though

Still a decent number of racial feats in Races of Eberron. You could use those.

[MisterKaws]

As for Kalashtar.... they get their own benefits...


You should specify what they get then; or are you saying you won't give bonuses to other races? 'cause that is likely a bad option, since it'd be like saying: "hey, you get all of this stuff by using these races, but if you want, well, you can get those too, you just won't get anything useful."

[torrasque666]

You should specify what they get then; or are you saying you won't give bonuses to other races? 'cause that is likely a bad option, since it'd be like saying: "hey, you get all of this stuff by using these races, but if you want, well, you can get those too, you just won't get anything useful."
I figure giving a bonus Host feat at about the same time as a dragonmark would be fair. But then again, the story would favor some races over others. After all, if one isn't a dragonmarked race, why should they particularly care if something is going awry with the marks?

[torrasque666]

Update to houserules: Adding the Mark of Creation to Warforged (has precedent, Mark of Finding) due to events caused in campaign setting by last campaign, plus... I mean modern Warforged were created by House Canith.

Bonus "Body" feat at 1st level for Warforged. Can pay to change the [Body' if necessary.
[Warforged] feats that are physical changes to the warforged can be bought (essentially a slotless magic item that grants the effect of the feat, but not the actual feat)

Due to an increase in Shifter bloodline mixing, shifters gain an additional shifter trait. Can also use the Saurian Shifter traits from Dragon whatever.

Kalashtar gain a bonus [Host] feat at first level. No idea for anything else to add to them. Maybe boost [Telepath] powers DC by 1?

No idea for things to add to Changelings.

[Troacctid]

Changelings could get their choice of Able Learner, Racial Emulation, Quick Change, Persona Immersion, Disturbing Visage, or Mutable Body as a bonus feat. And probably additional bonus feats as they level up, since it's competing against humans with free dragonmarks.

Are you doing anything for Daelkyr Half-Bloods?

[torrasque666]

Changelings could get their choice of Able Learner, Racial Emulation, Quick Change, Persona Immersion, Disturbing Visage, or Mutable Body as a bonus feat. And probably additional bonus feats as they level up, since it's competing against humans with free dragonmarks.

Are you doing anything for Daelkyr Half-Bloods?

I'm.... hesitant to give out additional feats for just because as they level up, though I do see the point in allowing the racial feats for changelings (barring Able Learner. It has no point when everything costs 1 point anyway). Marks are their powers growing with them, and the Warforged ones are limited to the ones that would be physical upgrades. Hell, I'm going to allow the Daelkyr Half-Bloods to attract an additional symbiont at 5, 10, and 15th level due to reasons I'm not willing to divulge. I just can't come up a good reason to give more feats to Changelings. I mean, they're mutable, but so are humans and the humans aren't really getting a choice in their feat other than something they wrote in their backstory.

[Wacky89]

where can i find Troacctid's original house rules? I would like to see the list :P

[torrasque666]

where can i find Troacctid's original house rules? I would like to see the list :P
Their signature...

[The Viscount]

For Favored Soul's wings, is that a total of class level minutes per day, split up as you like, or single activation, on for class level minutes?

For races and bonus feats: It's not that changelings and kalashtars need a bonus feat to represent a growth in power, but if the dragonmarked races get 3 feats for completely free, mechanically they should also get some benefit that follows or scales, to maintain balance. You could just keep them in their choice of racial feats, or trim the list a bit if you think anything's particularly objectionable.

For the change to Initiators:
First: Does the adding all my levels for a shared school count if I swapped for that school? For example, say I'm Crusader 4/Warblade 2 and I selected for warblade to swap stone dragon for devoted spirit. Is my IL for Devoted Spirit 6?

Second: The swap system seems to benefit and encourage variety in a bit of an odd way. Swordsage has 6 schools to choose from, and it's pretty easy to find one they don't want to invest in, so you're likely to find them swapping different things for different players. Crusaders only have 3, and 2 of those schools are quite good, so most every crusader will be swapping Stone Dragon. In general I think you'll find all the classes are most likely to dump Stone Dragon (because it's arguably the weakest) in exchange for a good school.

[torrasque666]

For Favored Soul's wings, is that a total of class level minutes per day, split up as you like, or single activation, on for class level minutes? minutes per day, minimum of 1 minute per activation.


For races and bonus feats: It's not that changelings and kalashtars need a bonus feat to represent a growth in power, but if the dragonmarked races get 3 feats for completely free, mechanically they should also get some benefit that follows or scales, to maintain balance. You could just keep them in their choice of racial feats, or trim the list a bit if you think anything's particularly objectionable.

See, but I don't see a story reason to improve them. Dragonmarkeds get three (weak) feats for free, but that's because the story revolves around dragonmarks and something happening to them.



For the change to Initiators:
First: Does the adding all my levels for a shared school count if I swapped for that school? For example, say I'm Crusader 4/Warblade 2 and I selected for warblade to swap stone dragon for devoted spirit. Is my IL for Devoted Spirit 6? yes. that was the general idea, that one would swap a school for a school that they had in common with another class.

[fishyfishyfishy]

I recommend adding more skill changes that I personally use. Spot, Listen, and possibly Sense Motive combined into Perception. Disable Device and Open Lock combined into Disable Device, or alternatively Disable Device, Open Lock, Sleight of Hand, and Use Rope combined into Larceny.

I also like to give all the base classes more skill points, especially the non-full casters. Fighter, Barbarian,and Paladin are given 6+int while Sorcerer gets 4+int for example.

[weckar]

Without experience, how exactly will you be handling experience costs to spells and item crafting?

[ericgrau]

Dunno how he handles it, but I would just ignore experience costs for most crafting. It's usually a very small amount required to craft. 95% of the time that works. If the player wants to do extreme crafting, and I mean extreme because it is difficult to get the downtime and to pool the party gold to craft this much, then you put him a level behind and every level you give him level * 250 xp to craft with. Or half that amount and only put him behind every other level, etc. This matches the accelerated xp gain rules for being behind, "xp is a river" and all that jazz.

Not simply ignoring xp costs is more likely to come up if a player spams wish or some such though.

[Morcleon]

What's the reasoning behind limiting setting specific material? Can't you just refluff it to fit Eberron, or remove the fluff behind it entirely?

[fishyfishyfishy]

What's the reasoning behind limiting setting specific material? Can't you just refluff it to fit Eberron, or remove the fluff behind it entirely?

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong OP, but it seems to me that his intention is to do exactly that. He did say "case by case basis" which to me means that he's not just shutting down players desires and is evaluating their choices to make sure it fits within the theme of the game. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

[Morcleon]

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong OP, but it seems to me that his intention is to do exactly that. He did say "case by case basis" which to me means that he's bit just shutting down players desires and is evaluating their choices to make sure it fits within the theme of the game. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Ah. I think I mentally transposed the "very limited" from Dragon Magazines into the setting specific material. :smalltongue:

[torrasque666]

Without experience, how exactly will you be handling experience costs to spells and item crafting?


Dunno how he handles it, but I would just ignore experience costs for most crafting. It's usually a very small amount required to craft. 95% of the time that works. If the player wants to do extreme crafting, and I mean extreme because it is difficult to get the downtime and to pool the party gold to craft this much, then you put him a level behind and every level you give him level * 250 xp to craft with. Or half that amount and only put him behind every other level, etc. This matches the accelerated xp gain rules for being behind, "xp is a river" and all that jazz.

Not simply ignoring xp costs is more likely to come up if a player spams wish or some such though.

We've done very well with a "1 XP=5GP" method.


Feel free to correct me if I am wrong OP, but it seems to me that his intention is to do exactly that. He did say "case by case basis" which to me means that he's bit just shutting down players desires and is evaluating their choices to make sure it fits within the theme of the game. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. You are exactly right. I don't want them to go hogwild and bring in a ton of other stuff from different settings that don't fit, but I also want to make sure that I can adjust things to fit right. For example, there's a fair amount of stuff from Krynn dealing with dragons either in fluff or mechanics. That's not going to work well in a setting where dragons are basically just below gods in respect and authority.