PDA

View Full Version : Xanth D20 Revisited, Balance Help Wanted



F.H. Zebedee
2007-09-10, 01:43 AM
Okay, well, a while ago I posted something about Xanth in the Homebrew forum, but didn't get much beyond refining my ideas a little. But anyways, I personally think Xanth would make a great setting for a campaign if one was willing to do a little tweaking and such. So, I'm asking for suggestions and such on how to make the game balanced.

I'd also like to inform you that presently, I'm running on the SRD alone, and that I'm no good with the monster/class leveling deal, so I may be a bit off base here with some ideas.

First off, in Xanth, nobody ever really became a TANK or such. There was strong warriors, but most combat talent comes from natural abilities, racial and magical. I was thinking something along the lines of making it so that each player had to take their first five levels in an NPC class, and then could progress the following way, capping out at level 10.
Aristocrat: Duelist/Paladin (No spells/Healing)
Warrior: Fighter/Barbarian
Expert: Rogue/Ranger (No spells)
Commoner: Horizon Walker/Adept

Secondly, the magical talents: How should I make them be set up? Would it be best to make it a sort of point based thing, and then allow the rest of it to be put into other perks to keep people with weak talents competitive?
I'm thinking something along the lines of normally characters eligible for magic talents get one level 0 spell, at will, once every ten rounds. Then each race gets their own ammount of points to upgrade it. I'm thinking like paying 1 point to down the cooldown by one, and 2 to upgrade it by one spell level.
Any points left over would go towards other things, namely buying bonus feats. (I'm thinking two points to one feat for nonhumans, three for humans.)

Races:
*Human: Normal, with 6 points towards talent upgrading.
*Ogre: No talent. Starts off as if a level 1 commoner, and has to train up a level before actually begining to level up as normal with the party. (It may be gimping them a little, but they're already heads and shoulders above their party)
*Centaur: 2 points towards talent. Start off with a commoner level that they have to train through to begin properly leveling, like the ogres.
*Goblin: 3 points towards their talent, otherwise normal.
*Harpy: 2 points towards their talent, have to go through the "Ogre level".
*Golems: Start off with the Homunculus stats, -Wings and the Poisonous Bite. Get a talent, and 2 points to improve it, but have an Ogre level.

At least, that's about what I'm thinking for it. I've got a campaign idea figured out and might try running it in PBP within the month if I can iron out the rules a little.

Lord Tataraus
2007-09-10, 07:43 AM
The problem with a Xanth D20 is that every character would have one and only one unique magical ability (of varying power) and don't really have class levels.

It would be fun RP-wise but would work best with a much more rules-lite system with or no class levels.

Kurald Galain
2007-09-10, 09:31 AM
I don't see D&D working all that well with Xanth, because most of the D&D classes don't have a Xanthian equivalent, and vice versa. Xanthians don't level, don't spellcast, don't fight all that much, and get astounding bonuses when using puns properly.

Instead, I'd recommend White Wolf, in particular Changeling: the Dreaming. It's reasonably close to Xanth, both conceptually and in terms of mechanics.