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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Daybreak - Kindly tear my house-rules document to shreds :)



Kio
2019-04-08, 05:48 PM
Since I started playing D&D several years ago, I've jotted down house rules and adjustments that I wanted to make to the game. A few months ago, I started categorizing and compiling them into a document, which I have dubbed, Daybreak: The Mechanics and House Rules of Æstora.

Hardly any of the rules are of my own design, nearly all of them are borrowed from other creators, rulesets, posts, discussions, etc...


NT's 5e House Rules
KameBit (Tactical Gambits)
TrinketMaster (Why insanity in DnD sucks)
Saidoro (Sane Magic Item Prices)
Patrick O'Hagan (Strength: Additional Benefits)
Kobold Press - James J Haeck, Wolfgang Baur (Beyond Danage Dice)
Matthew Mercer (Gunslinger, alternate resurection rules)
Michael7123 (Extra Metamagic)
TheNails (Extra Metamagic)
DCC RPG - Joseph Goodman and Goodman Games (Magic System)
Matt Colville - Strongholds and Followers (Concordance, Warfare)
13th Age RPG - Rob Heinsoo, Jonathan Tweet (Escalation die)
Hankerin Ferinale - Runehammer (Timer dice, difficulty dice)
Wizards of Legend video game - (The name 'Arcana' for spells)
Dark Souls video game (The name "Miracles" for spells)
FATE RPG - Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue (Fate Points)
Monte Cook (So much... so so much)



I love the community here on GITP, so I wanted to post Daybreak here for feedback, and possibly for use in your game if you find parts of it worthy. It has not been playtested yet, so I want to put it out for critique before putting it in front of players. Please, let me know what you think!

I'm currently working on a followup book Eventide: Setting, Classes and Races of Æstora, which will go more into detail on my own campaign setting, which is a fusion between TSR's Birthright, Alderac Entertainment Group's Legend of the Five Rings, and Modiphius Entertainment's Symbaroum.

Without further ado, here's a link to the document on Google Drive! (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZcQ84QKljQtfZTUQWl8DqmhsIYhYHEX2ng03dArMbX4/edit?usp=sharing)

Kio
2019-04-08, 05:49 PM
Daybreak
Mechanics and House Rules for Æstora

Kio

Dice are cool. We all love to roll them. The following rules seek to bring the focus of the game back to the table and the fun little polyhedral ingots we toss down and interpret like shamans of old.

Traditionally every check in D&D is made with the base die of d20, along with some modifiers derived from various statistics; not so in Æstora. The new base die is the d12. Very high ability scores grant bonus dice to be rolled with the d12 (called Ability Dice), and very low scores simply reduce the base die down the dice chain. When any rule refers to a PC’s “ability modifier,” simply substitute in their ability die in stead.

The Dice Chain


d4 - d6 - d8 - d10 - d12 - d20

Ability Dice Table

Score - Ability Dice
1 - Base die reduced: (d2)
2–3 - Base die reduced: (d4)
4–5 - Base die reduced: (d6)
6–7 - Base die reduced: (d8)
8–9 - Base die reduced: (d10)
10–11 - Base die: (d12)
12–13 - +d2
14–15 - +d4
16–17 - +d6
18–19 - +d8
20–21 - +d10
22-23 - +d12

Proficiency

In Æstora, when a character gains proficiency with a skill, saving throw, weapon or tool, they may may roll a d20 as their base die even if it would be lower.
For any rule that refers to adding or doubling a proficiency bonus, simply add +1d6 to the roll.

Armor

For the purposes of determining Dex bonus to AC, simply take half of the total faces on the Dexterity ability die (d4 = 2, d6 =3, d8 = 4, etc…)



Fate Points

The Fate system presented here is borrowed and adapted from the narrative rpg of the same name. It is an extremely versatile tool intended to help add flexibility and narrative punch to gameplay. It allows players a limited pool of points with which they can bend their character’s fate in interesting and versatile ways.

Uses of Fate Points

The uses of Fate Points are extremely flexible, with few hard and fast rules governing their specific function. Fate Points are generally meant to be used to push characters beyond their limits or give them an edge in a dire situation.
Each PC has a Fate Score, which increases with levels. The PC’s Fate Score is represented here as ‘(x)’
The following are some examples of some of the uses of Fate Points. Note that this is not a comprehensive list. Players should feel free to be creative, and may propose new uses to the Dungeon Master and other players during the game for discussion:


Add (x)d6 to the result of any roll
Allow up to (x) dice in a roll to be rolled again
Give a character an additional action immediately
Give a character (x)d6 temporary hit points
Give a character a (x)d6 bonus to AC for 1 round
Etc...


Regaining Fate Points

Fate Points are acquired in three ways:

Aspects. Upon character creation (and possibly at relevant points during the course of a campaign) a character may gain Aspects. Aspects represent character traits that are unique and have the potential to generate interesting role-play. Anytime a character engages in a scene that strengthens or develops one of their Aspects, they may nominate to earn a Fate Point. All players at the table, including the DM, must agree that the scene warrants the point. If two or more characters engaged in the same nominated scene, each player earns a Fate Point. In this way, multiple characters may gain Fate Points by engaging with one another’s Aspects. Aspects can be helpful or harmful or both, but above all they should be interesting. Examples of aspects include:


Bullheaded
Raised by Wolves
Obsessed with Beetles
Voracious Gambler
‘For the Emperor!’
No Man left Behind
Prince of the Wastes
Ingenious
Paranoid
‘Hold on Tight!’
Etc…


Tavern Games. Often, characters will come across the opportunity to engage in games and challenges not directly related to the rules of Dungeons & Dragons. Common examples include card games, gambling games, board games, or tavern puzzles. Should a player or players wish to engage in such games, they may each choose to wager a single Fate Point on the game’s outcome at a return of three to one.

Fate Refresh. A character may accumulate and spend any number of Fate Points, but they always reset to ‘(x)’ after an extended rest (‘extended rest’ is a term from Matt Colville’s Strongholds and Followers ruleset, referring to a one-week timespan spent in rest and safety). Players always begin a new session of play with at least one Fate Point.




Trauma and Armor Break

In most games, Hit Points represent the physical hardiness of a character. It is similar in Æstora, but not precisely. In stead, HP is a measure of stamina and endurance. This change is mostly for flavor and mind-theater, except for two mechanical differences: Trauma and Armor Break.

Whenever you reduce any creature’s hit point total below half of their hit point maximum, you may choose what to inflict: Trauma, or Armor Break.

Trauma

If inflicted with a trauma, a creature rolls a 1d4 trauma die along with all Skill Checks, Saving Throws, and Attack Rolls; subtracting it from the total result. Physical trauma can be removed with supernatural / alchemical healing, or via a successful DC 12 Medicine check.

Armor Break

If a creature is inflicted with Armor Break, it’s opponent rolls 1d4. The creature’s Armor Class is reduced by the result of this roll until the damaged equipment is repaired. This function works only on creatures with either armor or natural armor.

Repairing Armor Break costs half of the price of the original armor. Magic armor can only be broken by Magic weapons. If inflicting Armor Break onto a creature with a magic weapon, add the weapon’s bonus to the 1d4 roll.



In Æstora, the levels of mortal power range from zero to ten, with levels above 8 reserved for Mythic Heroes and Demigods. To see this system broken down into more detail, see the ‘Classes’ chapter of Eventide: Setting, Classes and Races of Æstora.

Experience

In Æstora, experience is linked directly to treasure. Every Silver Piece the PC acquires through adventuring translates to experience points.

This is a change made for many reasons, a few of which are listed here:


De-couples Exp. gain from combat
Increases player agency
Decreases objective ambiguity


The Exp from large hoards of treasure (including rare magic items) that the party gains through adventuring will be split evenly among party members.

Leveling up

Leveling up is also treated differently in Æstora. Player Characters gain experience into their Exp. pool, then “spend” it through training, usually with a mentor. When the total experience “Spent” is equal to or greater than the price of the next level, the character levels up.

Experience Points - Level - Fate Score
0 - 0 - 1
300 - 1 - 2
900 - 2 - 2
2,700 - 3 - 2
6,500 - 4 - 3
14,000 - 5 - 3
23,000 - 6 - 3
34,000 - 7 - 4
48,000 - 8 - 4
64,000 - 9 - 4
85,000 (Total: 278,400) - 10 - 5

If a PC could reasonably achieve the next level’s abilities on their own (a consensus on this must be reached by all players at the table, including the DM), then they may train without a mentor. When training without a mentor, Exp. may be “spent” at a rate of 1d100 per day.

When training with a mentor, Exp may be “spent” at a rate of 1d100 + (y)d100 (with (y) being equal to the mentor’s level), and a character may achieve levels with abilities that could not be reasonably achieved on their own.

During training, Players should examine the abilities that they will receive upon reaching the next level. Through roleplay, PC’s can adjust slightly the abilities that they will achieve (a consensus on this must be reached by all players at the table, including the DM).



In Æstora, magic is a force which is terrible and strange. Meddling with it is dangerous, and those who devote their lives to it’s practice rarely escape it’s touch unscathed. Whether it be for the pursuit of a perfect world, unlimited power, or simply a desperate struggle for survival, each creature must judge for themselves whether or not the risk is worth the reward.

There are three forms of magic: Alchemy, Theurgy, and Sorcery. Which method of magic each PC utilizes is up to the player, but their typical practitioners are listed in their respective sections.


Alchemy is the pursuit of knowledge and power through uncovering long-forgotten rites and rituals and formulas. Sometimes this is through the aid of esoteric mystical creatures from other realms, and sometimes it is through unpredictable magical reactions which punch holes through the fragile reality of our own mortal plane. One will find that such things are terribly unconcerned for the Alchemist’s wellbeing, for good or for ill. Alchemists typically include:


Alchemists
Bards
Magus
Wizards
Warlocks


Advantages


No limit to number of Arcana known
No limit to number of Arcana prepared
High Arcana checks produce spectacular results
Arcana Checks can be augmented with Bloodburn (+1d6 per 2 Ability points burned )
Arcana can be reversed into their opposites
Arcana only lost for the day on failed casting
Lost Arcana can be recovered with Bloodburn
Arcana prepared with better materials get bonuses ( 1gp prep cost = +2 bonus )


Disadvantages


Activating Arcana requires a Catalyst
Arcana Failure chance ( Arcana Check DC 10 + Arcana Level )
Arcana Misfire chance ( On Natural 1 )
New Arcana must be copied into Grimoire before they can be prepared ( 1 day and 50 cp per Arcana Level )
New Arcana must be learned to be successfully copied into Grimoire ( Check DC 10 + Arcana Level ( +2d6 to check if performed in a wizards tower )) One can only attempt to learn an Arcana once per level
Preparing Arcana costs money ( 1cp / Arcana level ( prep is free if performed at a wizards tower ))


What is an Arcana?

When an Alchemist casts a spell, it is called an ‘Arcana.’ Arcana typically consist of three parts: The Catalyst, the Focus, and the Effect. Think of casting an Arcana like lighting a fire. The Catalyst is the spark, the Focus is the tinder, and the Effect is the flame.

The Catalyst is generally an object, but it can take the form of any spark of mystical power which has a clear and distinct ‘activation’ method. A PC must have a Catalyst in order to cast an Arcana, but generally any Catalyst will work for any Arcana. Examples of Catalysts include:


A mystical command word
An amulet that respond to an emotion
Two intricately carved gemstones that react when touched together
A magic ring that reacts when the wearer snaps their fingers
A book which sparks magical effects when it is opened
A staff which sparks magic when it is tapped on the ground
Runes on a weapon which respond to blood
Etc…


The Focus is the meat of the Arcana. It is the specific materials or circumstances through which the magic is funneled into the Effect. In 5e, these are represented by the (V)erbal, (S)omatic and (M)aterial components of a spell. An Alchemist must have the Focus for any given Arcana learned and prepared before they can cast it. Examples of Focuses include:


A chant in an ancient language
A complicated circle filled with runes drawn upon a slate or scroll
A precise mixture of different base elements
A practiced hand-motion
Etc…


The Effect is the desired outcome of the Arcana. These outcomes are as numerous and fantastical as those who created them, and they vary in effectiveness based upon the casting Alchemist’s skill and circumstances (represented by the Arcana Check). Each Arcana has a casting table with lists of its various effects (These are created and provided by the DM. For 5e, higher Arcana checks generally translate to effects as though cast with higher level spell slots)

Arcana Checks

When a PC casts an Arcana, they roll an Intelligence (Arcana) check (referred to simply as an Arcana Check). The Alchemist has disadvantage on this check if they are wearing a type of armor with which they are not proficient, or if they are in extreme circumstances such as being grappled, tossed about by bad weather, or being otherwise harried.

Compare the results of the Arcana Check to the casting table for that Arcana. In general, the Arcana succeeds if the Arcana check is equal to or higher than a base DC of 10+(Arcana level). The higher the roll, the more extraordinary the result, according to the casting table. The Arcana check is made when the Arcana is first cast, even if the casting time is more than one round.

Generally, if the Arcana check is failed, the Arcana is lost for the day.

Casting from Scrolls. A wizard who finds a scroll containing an Arcana may attempt to cast it without a Catalyst, and without having learned or prepared it, no matter it’s level. The scroll is destroyed whether the casting succeeds or fails.

Ritual Casting. Any Arcana can be cast as a ritual by adding ten minutes to the casting time along with its other regular requirements. Casting an Arcana this way adds an additional 2d6 to the Arcana check.

Criticals and Fumbles. An Arcana Check result of a natural 20 is always a success. The Alchemist receives an additional bonus to their check equal to their spellcasting modifier.

An Arcana check result of a natural 1 is always a failure. A result of 1 may also result in misfire or corruption.
Saving throws against Arcana. The Difficulty class of a saving throw of an Arcana is equal to 8 + (the highest face of the Alchemist’s Intelligence ability die)

Reversing Arcana. Some Arcana can be reversed to perform the opposite function. Although Arcana reversal sounds simple and straightforward it is not. Imagine trying to un-cook a chicken pot pie by simply following it’s instructions in reverse. To reflect the difficulty of reverse casting, the following rules apply:


An Alchemist may learn an Arcana in one of it’s versions, not both.
If the Alchemist attempts to cast the reverse of one of his learned Arcana, he does so at a -1 penalty.


Bloodburn

An Alchemist may sacrifice some of their mortal selves to fuel their Arcana. Perhaps they allow a demon to steal pieces of their soul, or a hungry demi-god to greedily leech away their life essence, or perhaps they simply use themselves as material components for their own magic.

Before making an Arcana Check, an you may choose to sacrifice ability points from your Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution scores. For every 2 points sacrificed this way, you may add an additional 1d6 to the check.

Ability scores lost in this way return as the Alchemist heals. Each day they have not attempted bloodburn they recover 1 ability damage.

Automatic criticals. An Alchemist who sacrifices a full 3 ability points from each physical ability score automatically treats their next Arcana Check as a natural 20.

Regaining Arcana via bloodburn. Alchemists can re-cast lost Arcana via bloodburn by sacrificing ability points equal to the Arcana’s level. The Alchemist must expend additional bloodburn to gain a bonus to the Arcana check.

Learning and Preparing Arcana

Learning Arcana. When an Alchemist gains access to an Arcana, they may attempt to learn it by copying it into their grimoire. Each Arcana requires 1 day and 50 cp per Arcana level to copy, then an Intelligence (Arcana) check to learn. The difficulty class of this check is equal to the 10 plus the Arcana’s level. This check can only be made once per level for each Arcana the Alchemist is attempting to learn. An Alchemist gains a +2d6 bonus to this check if the work is performed within an appropriate research facility (Such as a wizard’s tower or a warlock’s fane).

Mercurial Magic. Each Alchemist casts Arcana differently. Whenever an Alchemist successfully learns an Arcana, they roll a d100 on the Mercurial Magic table, which describes how the Arcana manifests for the Alchemist. Generally, the higher this roll, the better the effects. This roll can be modified by rp regarding preparation and study, outside aid from party members, as well as whether or not the Arcana was learned inside a wizards tower or other appropriate facility.

Preparing Arcana. Each Arcana’s focuses must be carefully prepared ahead of time. These generally constitute a series of magical symbols or runes etched onto a sturdy material (such as vellum cards, wooden beats, paper scrolls, animal bones, etc…). The cost of these preparations is 1cp per the level of the Arcana being prepared. These perpetration are free if performed within a wizards tower or other appropriate facility.
Making preparations with materials costing 1gp per the level of the Arcana grants the caster a +2 bonus on the Arcana Check.

When Arcana are lost, the materials they are prepared on are destroyed and they must be re-prepared.

Optional Rule: Player Grimoire

Optionally, the DM may ask the player of an Alchemist to build their own grimoire (this can simply be a notebook or collection of pages) on which the player records each Arcana’s names, requirements, and various effects as their character discovers them. This can add a sense of mystery and verisimilitude to the game, but it takes work and should not be forced upon players. Only use this rule if the players seem excited by the idea.





Theurgy is the attunement of oneself to an entity of incomprehensible power. Such entities are too vast for most mere mortals to comprehend. Only a rare and blessed few are able to align themselves so fully with the gods they worship that they become an avatar, able to use their deity’s power as freely as if it were their own (or so the legends say). These sacred few are known as Saints (or Heroes, Dreadlords, Archdruids, etc. depending on the culture) and it is in their footsteps that the Theurge follows; they read the Saint’s teachings and tell their stories, hoping to learn what it takes to become one with their god’s power as those before them have. Perhaps, in time, they may become Saints themselves. Theurge's typically include:


Clerics
Paladins
Druids
Rangers
Monks


Advantages


No limit to number of Miracles known
No limit to number of Miracles memorized
High Miracle Checks produce spectacular Miracle results
Miracle Checks can be augmented with Fervor ( +1d6 per extra round spent reciting the Miracle up to a max of Fate Score )
Memorized Miracles are not lost on failed Miracle checks
Gain the benefits of Concordance ( Call upon one's deity using a Concordance check to possibly gain supernatural aid in battle )


Disadvantages


Miracles require recitation ( The ability to speak )
Miracle Failure chance ( Miracle Check DC 10 + Miracle Level )
Disapproval chance in natural range: Natural 1 - ( 1 + # of failed Miracle checks today )
Disapproval can mean anything from forced penance to supernatural sickness to temporary loss of Miracles
New Miracles must be memorized ( 2 days per Miracle Level (1 day per Miracle level if performed within a temple to one's deity )
New Miracles must be interpreted in order to be properly memorized ( Miracle Check DC 10 + Miracle Level ( +2d6 to check if performed inside a temple to one's deity ) and an interpretation can only be attempted once per level


What is a Miracle?
When a Theurge casts a spell, it is called a ‘Miracle.’ A Miracle is the manifestation of a Theurge's faith and conviction, directed through the recitation of a verse or proverb which is often spoken in a sacred language. This recitation reveals a tenant or truth regarding the Theurge’s faith, generally through a retelling of one of the great deeds of the Saints. The precision of the recitation, along with the passion of the caster, determines the power and scope of the Miracle. If they show enough faith, then they may channel wondrous power.

Miracle Checks

When a PC casts a Miracle, they roll one of the following: an Intelligence (Religion) check, an Intelligence (Nature) check, a Wisdom (Insight) check, or a Charisma (Performance) check (The type of check the PC uses to cast Miracles must be chosen at first level and may not be changed. This check is referred to as a Miracle Check. The PC has disadvantage on this check if they cannot speak, are in extreme circumstances such as being grappled, tossed about by bad weather, or being otherwise harried.

Compare the results of the Miracle Check to the casting table for that Miracle. In general, the Miracle succeeds if the Miracle check is equal to or higher than a base DC of 10+(Miracle level). The higher the roll, the more extraordinary the result, according to the casting table. The Miracle check is made at the end of the casting time, generally on the round that the Miracle resolves.

When the Miracle check is failed, the PC’s natural disapproval range increases by 1 for the day. The PC’s natural disapproval range resets to 1 every Long Rest.

Fervor. When casting a Miracle that has already been successfully interpreted and memorized, a Theurge may choose to use Fervor. The PC begins to recite the miracle with more precision and passion than usual, taking more time to complete it. For every round added onto the casting time of the Miracle this way (up to a max of the PC’s Fate score), they recieve an additional 1d6 to the Miracle check.

Sacrifices during casting. Sometimes making a sacrifice during casting can augment the Miracle check.
Criticals and Fumbles. A Miracle Check result of a natural 20 is always a success. The caster receives an additional bonus to their check equal to their spellcasting ability die.

A Miracle Check result within the PC’s current natural disapproval range is always a failure, and the caster must roll on their deity’s disapproval table.

Saving throws against Miracles. The Difficulty class of a saving throw of a Miracle is equal to 8 + (the highest face of the ability die related to the Miracle Check)

Interpreting and Memorizing Miracles

Interpreting Miracles. When a Theurge gains access to a Miracle, they may attempt to interpret it by spending time memorizing it in quiet contemplation. Each Miracle requires 1 day per Miracle level to memorize, then a Miracle Check to interpret. The difficulty class of this check is equal to the 10 plus the Miracle’s level. This check can only be made once per level for each Miracle the Theurge is attempting to learn. A Theurge gains an additional +2d6 bonus to this check if the work is performed within a holy space that is properly dedicated to the deity being called upon (such as a druid’s grove, or a cleric’s temple).

Concordance
(Excerpt from Matt Colville's Strongholds & Followers)

The measure of how pleased your deity is with you is called your concordance. If your deity is pleased enough to reward you, then you are “in concordance” with your deity. If they are not pleased, then you are out of concordance. Typically, there is no way to know whether you’re in or out before you petition your deity.

Your current concordance is known only to your GM, though you can keep track of your good deeds in case they need to be reminded. It’s typically a number from 1 to 100, but you can go above and below that range, even into the negatives. Of course, the GM can ask you to keep a running tally.

So when your character petitions their deity, the GM asks, “Okay, what have you done for your god since the last time you called upon them?” The GM is always free to agree or disagree and can add their own bonuses and penalties. Only the GM knows what the gods’ real attitudes are, numbers be damned.
Gaining and Losing Concordance

As you adventure, certain actions can make you gain or lose concordance. Mostly, these are known to your character. Your character knows if they convince an enemy priest to give up their life of evil and join you (very difficult, but long-lasting positive benefits) or kill an enemy cultist (pretty easy, but no lasting consequences) that you are furthering your deity’s goals and will be rewarded. Failing to act when you have the opportunity will also make you lose concordance.

The gods consider it your responsibility to know right from wrong. If you are tricked by an enemy into doing their bidding, the gods are just as angry at you as they would be if you helped the enemy willingly. They don’t pay very close attention and don’t have time to evaluate the subtleties of situational ethics.

Here are some examples of deeds that would add to or subtract from your current concordance:


Petitioning Your Deity -15
Desecrated an enemy altar +10
Thwarted an enemy priest +5
Converted a follower +5
Converted an enemy priest +15
Thwarted an enemy minion +1
Consecrated an altar +10
Left an enemy altar intact –15
Failed to uphold the tenets of the deity –5
Aided an enemy priest –10


PETITIONING YOUR DEITY

As an action, you can petition your deity for aid. The GM rolls percentile dice and adds your current concordance and your current level. If you have a temple, you gain an extra +30 to your roll.

You may receive aid, be ignored, or be punished for your repeated badgering. Unless you’ve been busting your ass (or have a temple), there’s a good chance you’ll be cursed just for being annoying.

Because the gods do not like being pestered, petitioning your deity, regardless of the outcome, gives you a penalty to your concordance. This penalty will accumulate as you petition again and again. Track your penalty from petitioning separately. Taking an extended rest at your temple, if you have one, clears any penalties you’ve accumulated from petitioning.

Concordance Chart

Roll / Result / Penalty
1-20 / Cursed! For the next minute, whenever you make an attack roll or a saving throw, you must roll a d4 and subtract the number rolled from the result of your attack roll or saving throw. / -20
21-65 / Ignored. Things could have been worse. / -15
66-75 / Blessed. For the next minute, if you make an attack roll or a saving throw, you may roll a d4 and add the number rolled to the result of your attack roll or saving throw. / -10
76-84 / Type I Servitor / -10
85-94 / Type II Servitor / -10
95-104 / Type III Servitor / -15
105-109 / Type IV Servitor / -20
110-114 / Type V Servitor / -25
115+ / Type VI Servitor / -30

The Servitors Chart

If your concordance result grants you a servitor, determine which servitor arrives by choosing one from the column you rolled.

The servitor you choose must be within your character or deity’s purview and be approved by the GM. No matter how pious your lawful good paladin is, your god will not grant you a demon, devil, or undead and probably nothing from Arcadia or Primordius.

The character who summoned the servitor is informally referred to as the “summoner” or the “petitioner” or more formally “the concordant.” The latter term is what the servitors usually use.

Source / Type I / Type II / Type III / Type IV / Type V / Type VI
Court of Arcadia (Fey) / Mantis Knight / Orchid Count / Monarchon / Oleander Dragon / Ash Marshal / Sidereal Vizier
The Celestial Host (Celestials) / Princip / Authority / Virtue / Dominion / Throne / Seraph
The Elemental Templars (Elementals) / Fire Mote / Source of Earth / Pillar of Water / Knight of Air / Storm Magistrate / High Templar of Dust
Court of All Flesh (Aberrations) / Baron Malgas / Korsoth Vastikan / The Queen of Bones / Lord Rall / Uursvok / Maldar Dictum
The Inexorables (Constructs) / Space / Death / Change / Fate / Time / Nature
Demons (Fiends) / Lesser Marilith / Vrock / Oni / Hezrou / Glabrezu / Lesser Balor
Devils (Fiends) / Barbed Devil / 2 Bearded Devils / Lesser Erinyes / Chain Devil / Bone Devil / Horned Devil
Undead (Undead) / Wraith / 2 Wights / 2 Ghasts, 3 Ghouls / 1 Ghost, 2 Ghasts / 1 Wraith, 2 Ghasts / 1 Ghost, 2 Wights

Using Your Servitor

The summoned creature is referred to as a servitor. It arrives ready to fight and die, perhaps resentfully, for the concordant. Regardless of its attitude, a servitor only remains on the same plane as the concordant for 4 rounds plus 1 round per level of your stronghold, returning to their home dimension forthwith. Servitors who are killed in the Mundane World leave their bodies behind, and their essence returns to their home plane to reform there.
Servitors often bring word from the power the concordant serves, informing them of unknown dangers or otherwise making cryptic pronouncements. Feel free to imbue the servitor with personality and give them the chance, during combat, to interact with the heroes.

Optional Rule: Player Book of Miracles

Optionally, the DM may ask the player of a Theurge to build their own book of Miracles (this can simply be a notebook or collection of pages) on which the player records each Miracle’s names, requirements, and various effects as their character discovers them. This can add a sense of mystery and verisimilitude to the game, but it takes work and should not be forced upon players. Only use this rule if the players seem excited by the idea.



Sorcery is the strangeness that twists the world around creatures of great power. When a creature is so permeated with magic that if flows through the very blood in it’s veins, it is using sorcery. Angels, demons, and dragons are such creatures, but even they may not go completely untouched by their mystical meddling with the laws of nature. As such creatures bend the world to their will, reality stretches out like a rubber band. It is only a matter of time before reality tries to ‘snap’ back into place, sometimes with spectacular and unpredictable effects. Sorcerers typically include:


Sorcerers (who’d have thunk it)
Bards


Advantages


Very similar to base book 5e spellcasting.
No chance of spell failure
Increased access to Metamagic
Mana pool for casting allows greater flexibility ( Mana pool = Spell Points + Sorcery Points + Charisma score)
Mana can be recovered by taking on levels of exhaustion ( 5 points of Mana per level of exhaustion )
Disadvantages
Using spells accrues "Spell Stress" equal to the Mana cost
Spell Stress gathers until it is "Discharged" along with a spell
Spell Stress can be "Discharged" as Minor Effects (10 Spell Stress) Moderate Effects (25 Spell Stress) or Major Effects (50 Spell Stress)
If Spell Stress reaches 100 it is all Discharged immediately as a Critical Effect (Including a Major, Moderate, and Minor Effect)
See table for Spell Effects here (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Revised_Wild_Magic_Surge_Table_(5e_Variant_Rule))


Metamagic

In Æstora, Sorcerers gain access to more metamagic than normal. They gain access to two new metamagic options each level, including an expanded list of options, as well as the option to design new metamagic (with full table approval).

Mana

In Æstora, Sorcerers use the “Spell Points” optional rule, slightly adjusted. Spell points and Sorcery points are all combined into a single pool, referred to as the “Mana Pool.” Both spells and metamagic are paid for out of this Mana Pool.

Level / Mana Points
1st / 5
2nd / 11
3rd / 15
4th / 22
5th / 28
6th / 39
7th / 48
8th / 63
9th / 76
10th / 95

Spell Stress

As Sorcerers cast spells, they accumulate Spell Stress. The amount of Spell Stress accumulated while casting each spell is equal to the Mana Point cost of the spell, including metamagic. Spell Stress can be discharged along with a spell in increments of either 10, 25, or 50. Discharge of 10 or less create a Minor effect, discharge of 25 creates a Moderate effect, discharge of 50 creates a Major effect. When the discharge occurs, roll a d100 on the Spell Stress Discharge table for the result. When Spell Stress is discharged, it must be discharged at the highest possible increment.

If Spell Stress ever reaches 100, it is all automatically discharges as a Critical effect. The DM determines this effect in a seperate table. In addition, a Major, Moderate, and Minor effect occur along with the Critical Effect. If any of these effects would override the critical effect, they are ignored.

SPELL DISCHARGE TABLE (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Revised_Wild_Magic_Surge_Table_(5e_Variant_Rule))






Often in Æstora, the Dungeon Master will display a die in the play area which will modify the encounter in some way. These elegant mechanics are borrowed from the 13th Age rpg as well as ICRPG.

Escalation Die

The escalation die is used during combat and represents a bonus to attacks as the fight goes on.

At the start of the second round, the DM sets the escalation die at 1. Each PC gains a bonus to attack rolls equal to the current value on the escalation die. Each round, the escalation die advances by +1, to a maximum of +6.

Monsters and NPCs do not add the escalation die bonus to their attacks.

If the DM judges that the characters are avoiding conflict rather than bringing the fight to the bad guys, the escalation die doesn’t advance. If combat virtually ceases, the escalation die resets to 0.

Difficulty Die

The difficulty die represents the increasing difficulty of the checks in an encounter.

At the start of the second round, the DM sets the difficulty die at 1. The DC of all checks in the encounter are increased by a value equal to the current value of the difficulty die. Each round, the difficulty die is advances by +1 to a maximum of +6.

If the DM judges that the players are doing something that would reasonably negate the advancement of the difficulty, the difficulty die doesn’t advance. If the source of the difficulty is removed, the difficulty die resets to 0.

Timer Die

When the PC’s have a limited amount of time to complete or prepare for a task, the DM will roll a timer die, which represents the amount of time the PC’s have left until something terrible happens.

This die is generally a d4, and is rolled openly at the head of the table. At the beginning of each round after the initial roll, the d4 decrements by 1. If the d4 is already at 1 at the start of the round, the die is removed from the table and the terrible event occurs.


Sometimes, in Æstora, the Dungeon Master will present the party with a Skill Challenge. Skill challenges are sequences of play that rely heavily upon character skills and cooperation. They are used to represent many in-game tasks that are complicated and difficult but don’t have specific rules already laid out within the Player’s Handbook. Such events include but are not limited to:


Sailing a ship through a treacherous waters
Trying to counter a foul ritual
Chasing a criminal over moonlit rooftops
Crafting a magic item
Searching for lost ruins in the wilderness
Climbing a dangerous mountain
Persuading a court of nobles to sympathise with your cause
Etc..


Skill Challenge Rules

The rules for Skill most skill challenges are listed below. If the rules are notably different than the following, the players will be informed by the DM.


The PC’s must accumulate a number of cumulative successes on Skill Checks before they accumulate 3 total failures.
The number of successes required, as well as the Difficulty Classes of the checks is set by the DM to represent the overall difficulty of the task.
A PC must be proficient in a skill in order to attempt a check for the challenge.
A PC may attempt each type of check only once.
The DM may provide players with examples of a few skills that are allowed for the challenge, but players are encouraged to be creative. If a skill is posed to the table and all players including the DM agree, then it is allowed for the challenge.
If the PC’s accumulate the set number of successes without accumulating any failures, they get the best possible result.


Travel

Travel is generally dealt with as a Skill Challenge that is slightly modified by travel conditions and player choice.

Difficulty

The difficulty of the challenge (defined by the number of successes required before accumulating 3 failures) begins at a base of 3 and is modified by the following factors to a maximum of 9 and a minimum of 1.

Terrain


+1 Difficulty for each hex (a hex is 24 miles or 8 leagues wide) of wilderness passed through that does not a. have an established road or b. Consist mostly of the favored terrain of one of the participating PC’s.
Weather
+1 Difficulty for light weather
+2 Difficulty for bad weather
+3 Difficulty for terrible weather


Preparation


-1 Difficulty for purchasing rations equal to 1cp per person per hex passed through.
-1 Difficulty for having enough mounts for all participating PC’s.
-1 Difficulty for bringing enough shelter and bedding for all participating PC’s.


Possible Skills


Athletics: There is a faster path, but it requires more effort. Climbing, rowing, clearing away rubble, etc…
Nature: Keeping on the correct course is extremely difficult, requiring a strong understanding of landscape and direction...
Stealth: Dangerous predators pass nearby. Avoiding them is the safest and fastest way to proceed…


Consequences


No failures: The PC’s encounter something dangerous that is not aware of them. They also encounter something interesting based on their route.
1 failure: The PC’s encounter something dangerous. They also encounter something interesting based on their route.
2 failures: The PC’s are surprised by a dangerous encounter. They also encounter something interesting based on their route.
3 failures: The PC’s are surprised by a dangerous encounter and have 1 level of exhaustion. It takes 1d4 more days than expected to arrive at their destination. They might encounter something interesting based on their route.




The Fading Spirit
by Matthew Mercer

Character death can often prove to become a minor inconvenience in some campaigns once the adventuring party reaches a certain level, with spells being available to return fallen comrades from the afterlife with temporary setbacks, robbing a small element of danger, and threat to future conflicts and challenges within the story. If you wish to elevate the gravity of character death, you can introduce this optional rule.

If a character is dead, and a resurrection is attempted by a spell or spell effect with longer than a 1 action casting time, a Resurrection Challenge is initiated. Up to 3 members of the adventuring party can offer to contribute to the ritual via a Contribution Skill Check. The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.

For example, praying to the god of the devout fallen character may require an Intelligence (Religion) check at an easy to medium difficulty, where loudly demanding the soul of the fallen to return from the aether may require a Charisma (Intimidation) check at a very hard or nearly impossible difficulty. Advantage and disadvantage can apply here based on how perfect, or off base, the contribution offered is.

After all contributions are completed, the DM then rolls a single, final Resurrection success check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone (signifying the slow erosion of the soul’s connection to this world). For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 3, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1.

Upon a successful resurrection check, the player’s soul (should it be willing) will be returned to the body, and the ritual succeeded. On a failed check, the soul does not return and the character is lost.

Only the strongest of magical incantations can bypass this resurrection challenge, in the form of the True Resurrection or Wish spells. These spells can also restore a character to life who was lost due to a failed resurrection ritual.

If a spell with a casting time of 1 action is used to attempt to restore life (via the Revivify spell or similar effects), no contribution skill checks are allowed. The character casting the spell makes a Rapid Resurrection check, rolling a d20 and adding their spellcasting ability modifier. The DC is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone. On a failure, the character’s soul is not lost, but the resurrection fails and increases any future Resurrection checks’ DC by 1. No further attempts can be made to restore this character to life until a resurrection spell with a casting time higher than 1 action is attempted.


Swords

Greatsword

The mighty greatsword is defined as any blade which is taller than a medium creature (generally 6 feet or longer), and is designed to grant the wielder effectiveness at a distance. In Æstora, greatswords have a Strength requirement of 12 and have the ‘reach’ property.


Arcing Slash. When you attack with a greatsword, you may choose to target two creatures within your reach with a single attack. This attack uses the same attack roll for both targets and deals slashing damage equal to 1d6 plus your Strength modifier to each target.
Grinding Halt. Whenever you must make a Strength saving throw to avoid being moved against your will, you can dig the blade of your greatsword into the ground as a reaction. Roll 2d6 and add the number rolled to the saving throw. If the effect pushing you does not have a saving throw, you move 5 feet fewer.


Longsword


Lock Blades. When a creature attacks you with a weapon, you may use your reaction to attempt to lock blades and parry their attack. Make an attack roll with your longsword. You have advantage on this roll if you are wielding your longsword with two hands. If the result of this roll equals or exceeds their attack roll, their attack misses.
Short Draw. As an attack, you may draw a sheathed one-handed sword and make an attack roll to strike the enemy with its pommel, leaving the target gasping for breath. This attack deals no damage, but the next attack roll made against the target has advantage. You must have at least one hand free to take this action.


Rapier


Main Gauche. While wielding both a rapier and a dagger, you may use a reaction after being attacked to roll a d4 and add the result to your Armor Class until the end of the attacker’s turn.
Lock Blades. When a creature attacks you with a weapon, you may use your reaction to make an attack roll with your rapier. If the result of this roll equals or exceeds their attack roll, their attack misses.


Shortsword


Close Quarters Combat. When you successfully grapple a creature or escape a grapple, you may make a single attack with a short sword as a bonus action. Additionally, whenever a creature fails to escape a grapple with you, you may make a single attack with a short sword as a reaction.
Short Draw. As an attack, you may draw a sheathed one-handed sword and make an attack roll to strike the enemy with its pommel, leaving the target gasping for breath. This attack deals no damage, but the next attack roll made against the target has advantage. You must have at least one hand free to take this action.


Firearms

Firearms are a new and volatile technology, and as such have their own unique set of weapon properties. Some properties are followed a number, and this number signifies an element of that property.

Reload. The weapon can be fired a number of times equal to it’s Reload score before you must spend 1 attack or 1 action to reload. You must have one free hand to reload a firearm.

Misfire. Whenever you make an attack roll with a firearm, and the dice roll is equal to or lower than the weapon’s Misfire score, the weapon misfires. The attack misses, and the weapon cannot be used again until you spend an action to try and repair it. To repair your firearm, you must make a successful Tinker’s Tools check (DC equal to 8 + misfire score). If your check fails, the weapon is broken and must be repaired out of combat at half the cost of the firearm.

Scatter. An attack is made against each creature in a 30-foot cone. If an affected creature is adjacent to you, they take double damage on a hit.

Explosive. Upon a hit, everything within 5ft. Of the target must make a dexterity saving throw or suffer half damage.If the weapon misses, the ammunition fails to detonate, or bounces away harmlessly.

- by Matt Mercer

Flintlock Pistol
(Cost: 100sp) (Damage: 1d10 piercing) (Weight: 3 lbs) (Range: 100/400) (Properties: Reload 1, misfire 1)


Concealed Sidearm. Instead of making a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide yourself, you may make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check—contested by an active or passive Wisdom (Perception) check—to conceal your pistol. As an action, you may make a weapon attack with a concealed pistol against a creature that has not yet acted in combat. This attack has advantage.
Distracting Shot. As an action, make a single attack with your bow. You intentionally miss your target but give an ally the chance to attack while it is distracted. The next attack roll against the target has advantage if it is made before the beginning of the target’s next turn.
Pistol whip. As an action, make a single melee attack against an adjacent enemy with the blunt handle of the pistol. You are considered proficient, and the weapon damage if 1d6.


Musket (Cost: 500sp) (Damage: 1d12 piercing) (Weight: 10lbs) (Range: 200/800) (Properties: Two-handed, reload 1, misfire 2)


Shrapnel Shot. As an action, make a single attack with your musket against an unattended object. The attack deals double damage to the target. If the object is destroyed, it explodes into a cloud of shrapnel. Choose one of the following options:


Creatures within 5 feet of the object must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 1d6 piercing damage on a failure.
A creature adjacent to the object must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature is blinded until the beginning of your next turn.


Distracting Shot. As an action, make a single attack with your bow. You intentionally miss your target but give an ally the chance to attack while it is distracted. The next attack roll against the target has advantage if it is made before the beginning of the target’s next turn.
Patient Shot. You carefully align your musket’s sights over your target. As an action in a turn that you have not moved, you may make a single musket attack with advantage.


I'll be honest, you're going to have to look at the google drive link (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZcQ84QKljQtfZTUQWl8DqmhsIYhYHEX2ng03dArMbX4/edit?usp=sharing) for the rest of this list. It's a lot of stuff to copy, and also, it's nearly directly lifted from the Beyond Damage Dice book by Kobold Press.

Kio
2019-04-08, 05:50 PM
My own simplified version of the weight and encumbrance rules:

Items can be classified as either ‘large’ or ‘small.’ Medium sized PC’s may carry a number of large items equal to the highest face on their Strength ability die (minimum 1). For instance, a PC with a Strength ability die of +d6 could carry 6 large items. Large PC’s may carry twice as many large items as medium PC’s. PC’s may carry as many small items as seems reasonable.

Examples of large items include:


Backpacks or traveling packs
Metal armor (worn or carried)
500 coins of any type
3 weapons (excluding pocket-sized weapons like daggers)
Barrels and furniture
Small creatures






Once per turn, when you do not already have disadvantage on an attack, you can choose to perform a gambit while performing an attack by taking disadvantage to the attack. If you had advantage on the attack the gambit counters your advantage and you roll normally.

On a successful hit, in addition to the normal damage of your attack you can apply the benefits of the gambit you chose.

Additionally, as an optional rule, you may trade extra damage dice on a successful critical hit to use a gambit, however you must decide to do so before you roll any damage dice.


Aimed shot. Range attacks only. You take the time to aim extra carefully before shooting. You can ignore up to three-quarters cover on the attack. However because of your focus you cannot take attacks of opportunity until the start of your next turn.
Arm Injury. On a successful hit you slightly injure the target's arm, or an equivalent appendage. The target has disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.
Bash Shield. On a successful hit you push aside the target's shield. The target cannot benefit from the protection of their shield until the start of its next turn.
Careful Attack. Melee attacks only. You attack very carefully. The next attack against you has disadvantage until the start of your next turn.
Dig the wound. If the target is already missing any of its hit points before your attack, you can aim for a weak point in its defenses, roll a d4 and add it to the damage.
Disorient. On a successful hit you disorient the target, and it moves 5 feet in a random direction if it can move and its speed is at least 5 feet. Roll a d4 for the direction: 1, north; 2, south; 3, east; or 4, west. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks, and if the direction rolled is blocked, the target doesn't move.
Distract. The next attack roll against the target by an attacker other than you has advantage if the attack is made before the start of the target's next turn.
Flat of the Blade. Melee attacks only. You adjust your combat style to change the damage type of your weapon. You can choose to change the damage of your attack to bludgeoning, piercing or slashing.
Hamstring On a successful hit the target begins limping. It must spend an additional foot for every foot it moves until the end of its next turn.
Head hit, or Gut punch. On a successful hit the target can't take reactions until the start of its next turn.
Reckless Lunge. Melee attacks only You increase the reach of your attack by 5 feet before the attack.
Mock, or Trick Requires Charisma 13 or higher. On a successful hit the target has disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes against you, as well as any Wisdom checks it performs before the end of its next turn.
Pin Down. After a successful hit against the target you can use a bonus action to pin the target to the ground, a wall, or another large object. A pinned creature is considered grappled by the object it is pinned to until it uses an action, or bonus action to free itself, or the end of its next turn when it automatically breaks free.
Pot shots. Range attacks only. You aim carelessly for easy shots on nearby targets. After your attack you can use your bonus action to perform a second attack on a separate target, this second attack also suffers disadvantage. Both attacks must be performed on targets within 10-feet of you.
Push. Melee attacks only. On a successful hit you can push a target, that is of your size or smaller, 5-feet back while pursuing the target 5-feet. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks, and if the direction is blocked, you and the target don't move.
Pull, or Lure. Melee attacks only. On a successful hit you can move 5-feet away from the target and pull the same target, if it is of your size or smaller, 5-feet towards you. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks, and if the direction is blocked, you and the target don't move.
Ricochet. Range attacks only. You aim for a ricochet hit in an attempt to catch the target off guard. When performing a ricochet, you need line of sight to a surface or object that has line of sight to the target. When you perform a ricochet attack you ignore half cover and any shield bonus to AC the target might have.
Tricky Pass. Melee attacks only. When performing an attack of opportunity against a moving target you can perform a pass. On a successful hit you force the target to spend it's movement to move 5-feet in any direction of your choice. This forced movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks.
Unbalance. After a successful hit against the target loses their balance. The target has disadvantage on checks, and saves to avoid being moved or forced prone until the start of it's next turn.




Charger (Feat Adjustment)

When you use your action to Dash, you can use your bonus action to take the Attack action with melee weapons, or to shove a creature.

If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line immediately before taking this bonus action, you either add two more ability dice to the damage roll (if you chose to make a melee attack; only applies to the first attack if you have the Extra Attack feature) or push the target up to 10 feet away from you (if you chose to shove and you succeeded).

Elemental Adept (Feat Adjustment)

Prerequisites: Able to cast at least one spell
When you gain this feat, choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder. Spells you cast ignore resistance to the chosen type, and whenever you roll damage for a spell that deals damage of the chosen type, you may reroll 1’s (once). You may take this feat multiple times; each time, you must select a different damage type.

Grappler (Feat Adjustment)

Prerequisites: Strength 13

You can grapple creatures 2 sizes larger than you.
You have advantage on attack rolls against creatures you are grappling.
You can use your action to try to pin a creature grappled by you. To do so, make another grapple check. If you succeed, you and the creature are both restrained until the grapple ends.


Great Weapon Master (Feat Adjustment)


On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action.
Before you make a melee attack with a heavy weapon with which you are proficient, you can choose to take a -3 penalty to the attack roll. If you do so and the attack hits, add 1d12 to the damage roll.


Martial Adept (Feat Adjustment)


You learn two maneuvers of your choice from the Battle Master archetype. If the maneuver requires a saving throw, the DC is equal to 8 + highest face of your Strength or Dexterity die (your choice).
You gain 2 superiority dice (if you don't already have superiority dice, it is a d6). These dice are used to fuel your maneuvers. They are expended when you use them, and are regained when you finish a short or long rest.


Medium Armor Mastery (Feat Adjustment)

Prerequisite: Proficient with medium armor

Wearing medium armor doesn't impose disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
When wearing medium armor, gain a +1 bonus to AC
If your medium armor is damaged by Armor Break, you can repair it over a short rest


Pistol Expert (New Feat)


Reloading pistols now only takes you a Bonus Action.
Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls with pistols.
When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you may use your bonus action to attack with a loaded pistol you are holding.


Polearm Master (Feat Adjustment)


When you take the attack action with a glaive, halberd, or quarterstaff, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the other end of the weapon. The damage die is a d4 (add attribute modifiers as normal) and deals bludgeoning damage. Otherwise, this attack functions just as if you attacked with the weapon in question.
While wielding a polearm (Glaive, pike, halberd, etc…) other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter your reach. This opportunity attack must be made with the polearm.


Savage Attacker (Feat Adjustment)


Increase your Strength or Dexterity by 1.
Once per turn when you roll damage for a melee weapon attack, you can reroll the weapon's damage dice and use either total.


Savant (New Feat)

You may not be smart, but you have your moments. You gain the following benefits:

Prerequisite: pick a skill related to an ability score in which you have a reduced base die.

Replace the ability die for just that skill with +d8.


Sharpshooter (Feat Adjustment)


Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls.
Your ranged weapons ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.
Before you make a ranged attack with a ranged weapon with which you are proficient, you can choose to take a -3 penalty to the attack roll. If you do so and the attack hits, it deals +1d12 damage.




Ability Scores
Initiative


The highest among your Dexterity, Intelligence or Wisdom modifiers applies to initiative.


Flexible bonuses


The racial bonus to an ability score can be moved to another ability score that does not have a racial bonus. This change must be posed to the table, with all players agreeing including the DM.


Flexible Spellcasting ability


Subject to DM approval, a spellcaster can use a different ability as their spellcasting ability. This allows for charismatic wood elves and for Intelligence-based warlocks. Dexterity and Strength may not be used as casting abilities.



Strength - Additional Benefits



Strength ability die applies to intimidation and some other social checks.
The Strength ability die is added to HP at each level.
+2 AC bonus applies while wearing heavy armor.


Additional Save Proficiencies


At a character's 5th level, players choose a save their characters become proficient in. They select another save to become proficient in at level 8.


Advanced Skill Bonuses

Special Rule - Group ability check:

To make a group ability check, everyone in the group makes the ability check. If successes outnumber failures the whole group succeeds. Otherwise, the whole group fails.

Athletics (Strength)

Once per session you may automatically succeed at a Strength (Athletics) check.
Add 4 to your your Strength score for the purpose of calculating jump distances.
Advantage on Escape attempts.
Add 1d4 damage for melee weapon attacks when wielding your weapon with both hands.
When your Strength ability die becomes +d8, you gain a swim and climb speed equal to half your walking speed. If you already have a swim or climb speed, this is benefit doesn't apply.
When your Strength ability die becomes +d8, all movement speeds that you have, except the swim and climb speed granted above, increase by 5'. So, if you had a walking speed of 25', this benefit will increase it to 30'.
When taking a dash action, roll your Strength ability die. You may move an additional number of squares equal to a roll of your strength ability die. On a roll of 1, you trip and fall prone at a random point along your path.


Acrobatics (Dexterity)

Once per session you may automatically succeed at a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check.
You can disengage by using up 5 feet of available movement if you succeed on a DC 15 check for each enemy you are engaged with. On failure the enemy can make an opportunity attack, if they are able to do so.
Advantage on Escape attempts.


Sleight of Hand (Dexterity)

Gain one additional item interaction every round.
Advantage on saves against traps you are attempting to disable.
Can attempt to disable traps in one action.
Can use Sleight of Hand to Escape a Grapple.
You can attempt to pick a pocket as a bonus action in combat at disadvantage.


Stealth (Dexterity)

Failure on a group check doesn’t count as a failure, but it doesn't count as a success either. Your failed check isn't counted when determining whether failures outnumber successes.
You may attempt to hide as a bonus action with disadvantage.


Arcana (Intelligence)

Once per session you may automatically succeed at an Intelligence (Arcana) check (excluding casting).
Failure on a group check doesn’t count as a failure, but it doesn't count as a success either. Your failed check isn't counted when determining whether failures outnumber successes.
When your ability die is equal to or greater than +d8, you can cast Detect Magic as a ritual.
The DM can simply give you certain clues just because you are well-studied in this skill.
If you use this skill to successfully identify a creature, you have advantage on one opposed check with that creature. This can be, for example, a social check, a grapple check, or an initiative check.


History (Intelligence)


Once per session you may automatically succeed at an Intelligence (History) check.
10 minutes of conversation with a creature proficient in an Intelligence skill gives you advantage on Charisma checks with that creature.
The DM can simply give you certain clues just because you are well-studied in this skill.
10 minutes of conversation with upper-class encounters gives you advantage with Charisma checks with those individuals.
If you use this skill to successfully identify a creature, you have advantage on one opposed check with that creature. This can be, for example, a social check, a grapple check, or an initiative check.
When your ability die is equal to or greater than +d8, you can cast Identify as a ritual during a short rest.


Investigation (Intelligence)

Once per session you may automatically succeed at an Intelligence (Investigation) check.
Failure on a group check doesn’t count as a failure, but it doesn't count as a success either. Your failed check isn't counted when determining whether failures outnumber successes.
Gives you advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track creatures.
Gives you advantage on Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks to disable traps.
Adds 1 to your passive Perception.


Nature (Intelligence)

Once per session, you may automatically succeed at an Intelligence (Nature) check.
Failure on a group check doesn’t count as a failure, but it doesn't count as a success either. Your failed check isn't counted when determining whether failures outnumber successes.
Advantage on saves to avoid the effects of poison.
The DM can simply give you certain clues just because you are well-studied in this skill.
If you use this skill to successfully identify a creature, you have advantage on one opposed check with that creature. This can be, for example, a social check, a grapple check, or an initiative check.
Gives you advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks.


Religion (Intelligence)

Once per session, you may automatically succeed at an Intelligence (Religion) check.
Failure on a group check doesn’t count as a failure, but it doesn't count as a success either. Your failed check isn't counted when determining whether failures outnumber successes.
The DM can simply give you certain clues just because you are well-studied in this skill.
If you use this skill to successfully identify a creature, you have advantage on one opposed check with that creature. This can be, for example, a social check, a grapple check, or an initiative check.
Gives you advantage on Charisma checks with creatures from planes other than the natural plane and members of religious orders.


Animal Handling (Wisdom)

Once per session, you may automatically succeed at a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check.
Grants proficiency with animal-drawn vehicles and riding horses.
You always pay the “cheap” price listing for animals.
Animals you have trained have advantage on Wisdom saves.


Insight (Wisdom)

Adds 1 to your passive Perception.
Adds 1d4 to your initiative.


Medicine (Wisdom)

Once per session, you may automatically succeed on a Wisdom (Medicine) check.
If Revivify Beast is used, you may cast it as a ritual during a short rest.
The DM can simply give you certain clues just because you are well-studied in this skill.


Perception (Wisdom)

Add 1 to your passive Perception.
Adds 1d4 to your Initiative.
Your passive perception is never penalized, not even for sleeping, unless you are unconscious due to some external cause.


Survival (Wisdom)

Once per session you may automatically succeed on a Wisdom (Survival) check.
Failure on a group check doesn’t count as a failure, but it doesn't count as a success either. Your failed check isn't counted when determining whether failures outnumber successes.
Constitution checks made to avoid exhaustion due to lack of food or water are made with advantage.


Deception (Charisma)

Failing a check doesn't make characters hostile unless the failure was by 5 or more.
Advantage on saving throws against someone trying to read your thoughts, detect your alignment, or reveal when you are lying.
Failure on a group check doesn’t count as a failure, but it doesn't count as a success either. Your failed check isn't counted when determining whether failures outnumber successes.


Intimidation (Charisma)

If it is positive, add your Strength ability die twice to Charisma (Intimidation) rolls.
You may take an action to roll a contested check against Wisdom (Insight) to make a creature or small group of creatures Frightened of you for 1d4 rounds. You get advantage on this roll if you have beaten a more potent ally of the target(s).


Performance (Charisma)

Once per session, you may automatically succeed at a Charisma (Performance) check.
The DM can simply give you certain clues just because you are well-studied in this skill.
After spending a some time (determined on a case-by-case basis) socializing, you are acquainted with or have an in with many of the local movers and shakers, including aristocrats, military leaders, important guild members or tradesmen.
If you cast spells that are emotion or language based, the DC of the saving throw the imposed is increased by 1.


Persuasion (Charisma)

You always pay the “cheap” price listing for mundane equipment at shops.
Failure on a group check doesn’t count as a failure, but it doesn't count as a success either. Your failed check isn't counted when determining whether failures outnumber successes.

PairO'Dice Lost
2019-04-08, 07:26 PM
Traditionally every check in D&D is made with the base die of d20, along with some modifiers derived from various statistics; not so in Æstora. The new base die is the d12. Very high ability scores grant bonus dice to be rolled with the d12 (called Ability Dice), and very low scores simply reduce the base die down the dice chain. When any rule refers to a PC’s “ability modifier,” simply substitute in their ability die in stead.

The Dice Chain


d4 - d6 - d8 - d10 - d12 - d20

Ability Dice Table

Score - Ability Dice
1 - Base die reduced: (d2)
2–3 - Base die reduced: (d4)
4–5 - Base die reduced: (d6)
6–7 - Base die reduced: (d8)
8–9 - Base die reduced: (d10)
10–11 - Base die: (d12)
12–13 - +d2
14–15 - +d4
16–17 - +d6
18–19 - +d8
20–21 - +d10
22-23 - +d12

How are you planning to adjust DCs to account for the much lower range of results this setup produces? Is the intention to make tasks more difficult to accomplish overall, or do you want similar difficulty but with more variance in results?


Proficiency

In Æstora, when a character gains proficiency with a skill, saving throw, weapon or tool, they may permanently substitute their base die for any relevant check with a d20 (even if their ability score would usually reduce the base die).
For any rule that refers to adding or doubling a proficiency bonus, simply add +1d6 to the roll.

Firstly, instead of "their base die even if it's not their base die" I'd just say "they can always roll d12 as their base die even if it would be lower" or similar.

Secondly, this is again an issue of lowered competence. 5e characters already have a reliability issue, in that the d20 roll heavily outweighs any modifiers they have so success is based more on chance than skill, and removing proficiency bonuses just exacerbates that problem. Unless you're trying to lower character competence across the board for whatever reason, proficiency bonuses should probably be handled basically like ability modifiers, replacing the +2 to +6 range with a d4 to d12 range. That keeps things roughly in sync with base expectations (in standard 5e, a 1st-level character with a great stat is similar to a high-level character with a poor stat, and ability modifiers and proficiency contribute roughly equally to rolls in aggregate), and helps address the lower modifiers issue (3d12 has min 3, max 36, and average 19.5 compared to 1d20+11 having min 12, max 31, and average 21.5, for instance, so while the curves are vastly different at least the numbers are vaguely in the same ballpark).


*snip Fate Point stuff*

Reasonable. Fate mixes nicely with pretty much everything.


*snip Trauma and Armor Break stuff*

Also reasonable. You might want to add some detail, like how long Trauma takes to heal naturally, inflicting more T/AB on a crit, and so forth, but it's a nice lightweight addition.


In Æstora, experience is linked directly to treasure. Every Silver Piece the PC acquires through adventuring translates to experience points.

Ah, an AD&D fan, I see. :smallamused:

Do keep in mind that strictly tying XP to treasure limits the kinds of games you can run. Intrigue campaigns where you're not getting paid much or doing much looting, wilderness exploration campaigns where it's more about the journey than the destination, campaigns against evil cultists who don't carry much gear, and so forth require some contortions to make this setup work--and treasure = XP can lead to even more infighting over who gets the cool magic sword, if you group is already prone to that.

I would tweak this somewhat: instead of being based on sp acquired by the PC in particular, I would split the sp the party acquires evenly among everyone present. That way it doesn't matter whether the Fighter or the Ranger gets the fancy magic sword, they both get the XP and don't need to argue over it.


If a PC could reasonably achieve the next level’s abilities on their own (a consensus on this must be reached by all players at the table, including the DM), then they may train without a mentor. When training without a mentor, Exp. may be “spent” at a rate of 1d100 per day.

When training with a mentor, Exp may be “spent” at a rate of 1d100 + (y)d100 (with (y) being equal to the mentor’s level), and a character may achieve levels with abilities that could not be reasonably achieved on their own.

Regarding training with or without a mentor, this should really only apply for a few levels when they're still in "apprentice" or "newbie" mode; most characters in fiction are portrayed as being competent enough to be self-starters once they get a bit of experience under their belts. At the very least anyone described as "mythic hero" or "demigod" shouldn't require any sort of mentor (Disney's version of Hercules aside :smallwink:), and probably anyone above level 4 would be fine on their own as well.

Regarding variable training rates, that looks like it'll just be a recipe for delays and annoyances at the table, honestly. If you need to spend 14K XP to get to level 5, first there's an issue of that taking at least 140 d% rolls, whether 1 per day for 140 days or a bunch rolled together (carefully, so you don't mix up all the tens and ones dice) and totaled up. Anything that basically requires 20 minutes and a dice roller and/or calculator isn't going to be particularly fun.

On top of that, if Joe Fighter and Bob Wizard both want to train to hit level 3 (needing 2,700 XP), and Joe spends 5 days of downtime and rolls 12, 37, 14, 7, and 12 for his d% results while Bob spends the same time training and rolls 65, 87, 85, 46, and 85 for his results, Bob has made around 4x Joe's progress, and if the pattern continues you could have characters waiting around for a long time in-game twiddling their thumbs until their partymates are done--and considering that even rolling perfect 100s every time with a 10th-level trainer a 9th-level character requires 58 in-game days to level, that's a significant amount of wasted time both in- and out-of-character.


What's the overall goal for this training time mechanic? Is it an attempt to introduce verisimilitude, via mechanical clunkiness and barriers between levels? Is is something that you thought would be cool and just threw some numbers and dice at because rolling dice is cool? In the former case, you can keep the long training times, but the d% rolls should really go; put things in terms of days (optionally with a few dice rolls--emphasis on few--to speed things up a bit) and leave it at that. In the latter case, a d%-per-day system works when training time is measured in single-digit days, but otherwise it gets far too clunky to deal with.

And I'd suggest not making mentors required for any character. Not every player likes to feel like their character is dependent on a more competent NPC for advancement, or wants to have to have that sort of roleplayed relationship with a particular NPC, and on the DM side of the screen you have to come up with all sorts of mentor characters for different classes, different skills, and so forth, and conservation of detail and prep time is a good thing. Instead, I'd increase the training progress (whatever it ends up looking like) to trainer levels but allow trainers to reduce the time by some fraction; that way, having a mentor for something is more significant in game, it encourages PCs to form those sorts of relationships without you and the players feeling obligated because they need them to level, and the whole setup is simplified.


*snip Arcana basics*

Frankly, I find the "ooh, magic is dark and scary and dangerous, despite the fact that (A) 2/3 of the classes are spellcasters and the rest have spellcasting subclasses, (B) tons of creatures have innate magic, from dragons to undead, and they're not dying of cancer or insanity or anything, and (C) there's as much Good-aligned magic as Evil-aligned magic and as much Nature-derived magic as unnatural magic, if not more so" to be incredibly boring and cliché flavor, and requiring checks to use magic (at which the character is likely to have fairly low success chances due to the swinginess of 5e) on top of an existing resource management system to be an incredibly boring and cliché mechanic, so I'm not going to comment on those parts.


An Alchemist may learn an Arcana in one of it’s versions, not both.

Any particular reason for this? This sort of rule makes some sense for divine casters, where reversing spells is generally a matter of healing vs. harming and you want "peaceful healer" and "spooky necromancer" to be different archetypes, but for arcanists most reversible effects would be things like transmute rock to mud vs. transmute mud to rock, polymorph vs. baleful polymorph, and the like, stuff with the same general effect that would seem to be plenty compatible.


Automatic criticals. An Alchemist who sacrifices a full 20 ability points in one fell swoop automatically treats their next Arcana Check as a natural 20.

Did you intend for casters to be scoring natural 20s on a d12 to make the sacrifice tempting, or did you mean "maximum natural result" or the like?

Also, I don't think 20 points is a good threshold for this. Yes, "casting so hard they put themselves into a coma" is nicely iconic, but considering that you heal 1 ability point per day and that's a swing of 10 points in every single die roll until you're fully healed, that's not really worth it for a single spell in the vast majority of cases, and something so corner-case-y doesn't need to be a general mechanic.

I'd say taking 10 damage, or 3 damage to each of the 3 scores, would probably be more than enough to justify that sort of bonus. Something that you might actually see players considering, without being something they could pull out on a whim.


Items can be classified as either ‘large’ or ‘small.’ Medium sized PC’s may carry a number of large items equal to the highest face on their Strength ability die (minimum 1). For instance, a PC with a Strength ability die of +d6 could carry 6 large items. Large PC’s may carry twice as many large items as medium PC’s. PC’s may carry as many small items as seems reasonable.

This is probably a bit too simplified. Under this setup, a chain shirt or shortbow+shortsword+handaxe combo are as unwieldy to carry as a suit of full plate or 3 greatswords, a sofa is as bulky as a knapsack, and 1 and 499 coins weigh the same. At the very least I'd break things down into Small, Medium, and Large, since a lot of things come in threes already (light/medium/heavy armor, light/normal/heavy weapons, etc.) and it gives a reason to not just go for the heaviest gear you can afford.


EDIT: Looks like you edited in everything after Magic in the first post and Equipment in the second while I was posting. There's a lot to go through there so I'll probably look over it later and comment in another chunk.

Kio
2019-04-09, 03:10 PM
How are you planning to adjust DCs to account for the much lower range of results this setup produces? Is the intention to make tasks more difficult to accomplish overall, or do you want similar difficulty but with more variance in results?

First of all, thank you for taking the time to read through this and comment, I appreciate all of your feedback! :smallsmile:

As far as the DC's, It always bugged me that it was basically pointless to assign a DC that was less than 10. It always felt like if I was assigning a DC of 10 or less it was just basically saying "okay you can have this one, you basically don't even have to roll." So my plan is to adjust the DC's of most checks down by three or four ticks, which would mean: "Very Easy = 2, Easy = 7, Medium = 12, Hard = 17, very hard = 22, Impossible = 27."
Now, I'm not certain it would work perfectly because it hasnt been playtested, but the goal would be to reward proficiencies rather than punish rolls overall, while still keeping all the numbers within the 1-25 range. DC's below 12 would be things that are possible for normal people, and DC's above 12 will be nearly impossible for anyone without training, so if I give them a DC of anything above a 15, it's going to be extremely difficult.


Firstly, instead of "their base die even if it's not their base die" I'd just say "they can always roll d12 as their base die even if it would be lower" or similar.

*Fixed :smallsmile:


Secondly, this is again an issue of lowered competence. 5e characters already have a reliability issue, in that the d20 roll heavily outweighs any modifiers they have so success is based more on chance than skill, and removing proficiency bonuses just exacerbates that problem. Unless you're trying to lower character competence across the board for whatever reason, proficiency bonuses should probably be handled basically like ability modifiers, replacing the +2 to +6 range with a d4 to d12 range. That keeps things roughly in sync with base expectations (in standard 5e, a 1st-level character with a great stat is similar to a high-level character with a poor stat, and ability modifiers and proficiency contribute roughly equally to rolls in aggregate), and helps address the lower modifiers issue (3d12 has min 3, max 36, and average 19.5 compared to 1d20+11 having min 12, max 31, and average 21.5, for instance, so while the curves are vastly different at least the numbers are vaguely in the same ballpark).
This is a great point, and it was my original plan to implement something like this, however I ran into the issue that you described of the huge variance in the probability curves, as well as the potential for gigantic numbers, which was the opposite of my intent. Plus, while I wanted to get more dice on the table, I didn't want the amount of dice to become cumbersome.
So, I came to the conclusion that DC's would be lowered by an average of 3 overall, and then recieving a d20 for the base die with proficiency would give a character a statistical boost without adding more dice to the roll.
Does that make sense? Any thoughts?


Reasonable. Fate mixes nicely with pretty much everything.

Yay! Glad you think so, this is one of the things I'm most excited about.


Also reasonable. You might want to add some detail, like how long Trauma takes to heal naturally, inflicting more T/AB on a crit, and so forth, but it's a nice lightweight addition.

These are great points, I've added them in! Thank you.


Ah, an AD&D fan, I see. :smallamused:

Do keep in mind that strictly tying XP to treasure limits the kinds of games you can run. Intrigue campaigns where you're not getting paid much or doing much looting, wilderness exploration campaigns where it's more about the journey than the destination, campaigns against evil cultists who don't carry much gear, and so forth require some contortions to make this setup work--and treasure = XP can lead to even more infighting over who gets the cool magic sword, if you group is already prone to that.

I would tweak this somewhat: instead of being based on sp acquired by the PC in particular, I would split the sp the party acquires evenly among everyone present. That way it doesn't matter whether the Fighter or the Ranger gets the fancy magic sword, they both get the XP and don't need to argue over it.

Ah, this is a good point, and something I didn't think about. It is a bit limiting, in that if a Player sees an adventure hook and doesn't see the promise of a lot of treasure at the end, they may see it as a waste of time. I've added a note about splitting up exp, but that warrants more thought.


Regarding training with or without a mentor, this should really only apply for a few levels when they're still in "apprentice" or "newbie" mode; most characters in fiction are portrayed as being competent enough to be self-starters once they get a bit of experience under their belts. At the very least anyone described as "mythic hero" or "demigod" shouldn't require any sort of mentor (Disney's version of Hercules aside :smallwink:), and probably anyone above level 4 would be fine on their own as well.

Regarding variable training rates, that looks like it'll just be a recipe for delays and annoyances at the table, honestly...
...What's the overall goal for this training time mechanic? Is it an attempt to introduce verisimilitude, via mechanical clunkiness and barriers between levels? Is is something that you thought would be cool and just threw some numbers and dice at because rolling dice is cool? In the former case, you can keep the long training times, but the d% rolls should really go; put things in terms of days (optionally with a few dice rolls--emphasis on few--to speed things up a bit) and leave it at that. In the latter case, a d%-per-day system works when training time is measured in single-digit days, but otherwise it gets far too clunky to deal with.
And I'd suggest not making mentors required for any character. Not every player likes to feel like their character is dependent on a more competent NPC for advancement, or wants to have to have that sort of roleplayed relationship with a particular NPC, and on the DM side of the screen you have to come up with all sorts of mentor characters for different classes, different skills, and so forth, and conservation of detail and prep time is a good thing. Instead, I'd increase the training progress (whatever it ends up looking like) to trainer levels but allow trainers to reduce the time by some fraction; that way, having a mentor for something is more significant in game, it encourages PCs to form those sorts of relationships without you and the players feeling obligated because they need them to level, and the whole setup is simplified.

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Yeah, this is a great point actually. The original intention was to avoid the "you suddenly have three more spells for seemingly no reason," or the "we've gone from level 1 to level 6 in two weeks" issues.
What about a system where a character can spend an amount of exp per day equal to 100 x their level, and then outside factors (such as a knowledge-filled library, or an instructor, or other such things) can speed it up? That way it's not so mechanically cumbersome, but it does, as you say, put some weight on leveling up?
I do think it's important to keep the rules simple and lightweight *begins to sweat and glances at magic rules.*


Frankly, I find the "ooh, magic is dark and scary and dangerous, despite the fact that (A) 2/3 of the classes are spellcasters and the rest have spellcasting subclasses, (B) tons of creatures have innate magic, from dragons to undead, and they're not dying of cancer or insanity or anything, and (C) there's as much Good-aligned magic as Evil-aligned magic and as much Nature-derived magic as unnatural magic, if not more so" to be incredibly boring and cliché flavor, and requiring checks to use magic (at which the character is likely to have fairly low success chances due to the swinginess of 5e) on top of an existing resource management system to be an incredibly boring and cliché mechanic, so I'm not going to comment on those parts.

I can respect this.


Any particular reason for this? This sort of rule makes some sense for divine casters, where reversing spells is generally a matter of healing vs. harming and you want "peaceful healer" and "spooky necromancer" to be different archetypes, but for arcanists most reversible effects would be things like transmute rock to mud vs. transmute mud to rock, polymorph vs. baleful polymorph, and the like, stuff with the same general effect that would seem to be plenty compatible.
It's just a carryover from DCC, fairly arbitrary.


Did you intend for casters to be scoring natural 20s on a d12 to make the sacrifice tempting, or did you mean "maximum natural result" or the like?
Well, the assumption would be that a caster would have proficiency with the check and therefore be rolling on a d20, and a non-caster wouldn't be able to use bloodburn at all.

Also, I don't think 20 points is a good threshold for this. Yes, "casting so hard they put themselves into a coma" is nicely iconic, but considering that you heal 1 ability point per day and that's a swing of 10 points in every single die roll until you're fully healed, that's not really worth it for a single spell in the vast majority of cases, and something so corner-case-y doesn't need to be a general mechanic.

I'd say taking 10 damage, or 3 damage to each of the 3 scores, would probably be more than enough to justify that sort of bonus. Something that you might actually see players considering, without being something they could pull out on a whim.

This makes a lot of sense actually. It's punishing, but not TOO punishing. *Fixed*


This is probably a bit too simplified. Under this setup, a chain shirt or shortbow+shortsword+handaxe combo are as unwieldy to carry as a suit of full plate or 3 greatswords, a sofa is as bulky as a knapsack, and 1 and 499 coins weigh the same. At the very least I'd break things down into Small, Medium, and Large, since a lot of things come in threes already (light/medium/heavy armor, light/normal/heavy weapons, etc.) and it gives a reason to not just go for the heaviest gear you can afford.
Yeah, I can see the merit of this. A small clause of something like "carrying 2 medium items = 1 large item," with medium armor and normals swords equating to medium items maybe?

Once again, thank you for all of your input, it's extremely valuable to me, and I know it's a lot to look over. I (and my players) really appreciate it!

Kio
2019-04-09, 07:52 PM
Frankly, I find the "ooh, magic is dark and scary and dangerous, despite the fact that (A) 2/3 of the classes are spellcasters and the rest have spellcasting subclasses, (B) tons of creatures have innate magic, from dragons to undead, and they're not dying of cancer or insanity or anything, and (C) there's as much Good-aligned magic as Evil-aligned magic and as much Nature-derived magic as unnatural magic, if not more so" to be incredibly boring and cliché flavor, and requiring checks to use magic (at which the character is likely to have fairly low success chances due to the swinginess of 5e) on top of an existing resource management system to be an incredibly boring and cliché mechanic, so I'm not going to comment on those parts.


Okay fair enough, you've got me thinking, so kick this idea around with me for a moment, because I really want to build something in that brings just a little bit of wonder into the magic system.

So say we throw out the whole Arcana, Thurgy, Sorcery thing posed in Daybreak and try this in stead:

Every time anybody casts a spell, they also roll a d6. On a 1, the spell has an unpredictable effect, and on a 6, it has an 'overclocked' effect. A player can "force" an overclocked effect by sacrificing some arbitrary number of hit points, like 2x the spell level or something.

Thoughts?

I just really like the idea of being able to push the magic to do more, at some sort of cost, and it just doesn't seem to be represented by spell slots.

PairO'Dice Lost
2019-04-09, 09:35 PM
As far as the DC's, It always bugged me that it was basically pointless to assign a DC that was less than 10. It always felt like if I was assigning a DC of 10 or less it was just basically saying "okay you can have this one, you basically don't even have to roll." So my plan is to adjust the DC's of most checks down by three or four ticks, which would mean: "Very Easy = 2, Easy = 7, Medium = 12, Hard = 17, very hard = 22, Impossible = 27."
Now, I'm not certain it would work perfectly because it hasnt been playtested, but the goal would be to reward proficiencies rather than punish rolls overall, while still keeping all the numbers within the 1-25 range. DC's below 12 would be things that are possible for normal people, and DC's above 12 will be nearly impossible for anyone without training, so if I give them a DC of anything above a 15, it's going to be extremely difficult.

Lowering DCs to go with the lower dice ranges is definitely good. If the "standard" roll (10 ability score, no proficiency) is going to be just 1d12, going by increments of 6 (Easy = 3, Medium = 9, Hard = 15, Very Hard = 21, and Impossible = 27, with anything you would count as Very Easy not requiring a roll at all) would probably be a better pattern than increments of 5. That gives you nice even 75% and 25% success chances for Easy and Medium, requires an ability bonus to hit Hard at all, and requires a high roll with a high ability bonus to hit Very Hard.


This is a great point, and it was my original plan to implement something like this, however I ran into the issue that you described of the huge variance in the probability curves, as well as the potential for gigantic numbers, which was the opposite of my intent. Plus, while I wanted to get more dice on the table, I didn't want the amount of dice to become cumbersome.
So, I came to the conclusion that DC's would be lowered by an average of 3 overall, and then recieving a d20 for the base die with proficiency would give a character a statistical boost without adding more dice to the roll.
Does that make sense? Any thoughts?

I actually misread proficiency originally as just letting you ignore ability penalties instead of changing it to a d20, which is why I suggested changing the wording, so that's my bad.

Having said that, I don't think increasing the d12 to a d20 is a good idea; sticking with the "proficiency means +1d6" part of the rule would probably be best, since the way you have ability dice set up gives you a nice smooth progression (d4 -> d6 -> d8 -> d10 -> d12 -> d12+d2 -> ... increases the average by +1 with every step) and then the jump to d20 makes a difference of 4 points on average, which is a big boost at low levels and has the problematic high variance--especially when it comes to advantage and disadvantage, 'cause better of 2d12 averages ~9 with a standard deviation of ~3, while better of 2d20 averages ~14 with a standard deviation of ~5.

Using 1d12+1d6 instead of 1d20 has basically the same average (10 vs. 10.5) but a lower maximum (18 vs. 20), and it's more consistent if proficiency bonuses add dice like ability bonuses do, proficiency is +1d6 and Expertise is +2d6, and so forth.


Ah, this is a good point, and something I didn't think about. It is a bit limiting, in that if a Player sees an adventure hook and doesn't see the promise of a lot of treasure at the end, they may see it as a waste of time. I've added a note about splitting up exp, but that warrants more thought.

Yeah, there's not a good way to both have gp-as-XP and also have non-loot-focused adventures. AD&D dealt with it via entirely-ad-hoc XP awards for non-treasure rewards, 3e dealt with it by classifying all encounters (combat, roleplaying, exploration, etc.) under the same CR system, and neither of those achieve your goal of a non-combat-focused but still objective reward system.



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Yeah, this is a great point actually. The original intention was to avoid the "you suddenly have three more spells for seemingly no reason," or the "we've gone from level 1 to level 6 in two weeks" issues.
What about a system where a character can spend an amount of exp per day equal to 100 x their level, and then outside factors (such as a knowledge-filled library, or an instructor, or other such things) can speed it up? That way it's not so mechanically cumbersome, but it does, as you say, put some weight on leveling up?

One of my current campaign requires downtime training to level up (in addition to other uses for downtime). There, leveling just requires 3 days of training per level and having a trainer or mentor gives an overall reduction to 2/3 normal time. Taking a flat 18 days for everyone to level with no fiddly accounting involved lets you turn the downtime into a training montage, basically, and focus on the flavor rather than a bunch of rolls. (I do allow characters to make ability checks during downtime to reduce training time for leveling and other tasks, so it's actually a logarithmic increase as the +3 days per level starts to be outweighed by the reduction from the check results, but if leveling is the only kind of downtime training you have that's not really worth the extra complexity.)


I do think it's important to keep the rules simple and lightweight *begins to sweat and glances at magic rules.*

It's relatively okay if rules for magic and other resource management subsystems start to get complex, because every character only needs to deal with the rules that the character interacts with. Having a complex skill system, complex leveling system, complex encumbrance system, and so forth is entirely additive when it comes to overwhelming players with complexity, but the wizard doesn't care how complex the divine casting rules and vice versa for the cleric and arcane casting so if the complexity is confined to those areas you're probably fine.


Yeah, I can see the merit of this. A small clause of something like "carrying 2 medium items = 1 large item," with medium armor and normals swords equating to medium items maybe?

That should do it, yeah.


Once again, thank you for all of your input, it's extremely valuable to me, and I know it's a lot to look over. I (and my players) really appreciate it!

No problem, I like going through and critiquing broad system revisions.

------

And now, for the stuff added after my last post:


Theurgy is the attunement of oneself to an entity of incomprehensible power. Such entities are too vast for most mere mortals to comprehend. Only a rare and blessed few are able to align themselves so fully with the gods they worship that they become an avatar, able to use their deity’s power as freely as if it were their own (or so the legends say). These sacred few are known as Saints (or Heroes, Dreadlords, Archdruids, etc. depending on the culture) and it is in their footsteps that the Theurge follows
[...]
When a PC casts a Miracle, they roll one of the following: an Intelligence (Religion) check, an Intelligence (Nature) check, a Wisdom (Insight) check, or a Charisma (Performance) check

It's interesting that Warlocks are considered Alchemists instead of Theurges when "beings beyond mortal comprehension" sounds more like a Warlock's patron than the traditional view of patron deities, and interesting that Performance is an option for miracle checks when that really only fits Bards, who are again Alchemists rather than Theurges. You might consider swapping Warlocks and Bards to being Theurges, or perhaps letting Bards be Theurges in addition to Alchemists and Sorcerers so they have access to all three types as befits their jack-of-all-trades nature.

In exchange, Monks would probably make more sense as Alchemists than Theurges, because they traditionally don't draw power from an external source and not being able to wear heavy armor, using mystical tattoos as a magical focus, having to prepare their spells in a wizards' laboratory monk's monastery to avoid spending money on expensive foci, and similar fits them better than making sacrifices, having an extraplanar minion, and so forth (which is totally the Warlock's wheelhouse).


You may receive aid, be ignored, or be punished for your repeated badgering. Unless you’ve been busting your ass (or have a temple), there’s a good chance you’ll be cursed just for being annoying.

Because the gods do not like being pestered, petitioning your deity, regardless of the outcome, gives you a penalty to your concordance. This penalty will accumulate as you petition again and again. Track your penalty from petitioning separately. Taking an extended rest at your temple, if you have one, clears any penalties you’ve accumulated from petitioning.

I do think concordance system looks fun in general (I'm familiar with Strongholds & Followers, but haven't actually used it in game), but unless you're ditching alignment and the existing pantheon(s), the "gods view their most devoted mortal servants as annoying pests" perspective doesn't quite fit the standard D&D milieu. In general, Good gods are plenty willing to help their followers but are spread very thin since Evil is more active and more numerous, while Evil gods are willing to grant a lot of power but only to those who prove themselves worthy; in both cases, they value their most loyal and powerful followers very highly.

At the very least, having "asking a god for help once" be worth -15 is ridiculous, if "disobeying the god's teachings" is only worth -5. Reducing that -15 to -1 or maybe -2 would make a lot more sense, and then if you still want to discourage repeated petitions you can get rid of the part where a character loses the petitioning penalty when they long rest at a temple; it could definitely use a lot more tweaking (like, y'know, not having gods of goodness and light straight-up curse mortals who dare to ask them for anything), but that's a good start.


*snip Escalation/Difficulty/Timer dice stuff*

Porting the Escalation die over from 13th Age as-is has some problems, because what counts as an "attack" and similar things are very different, and using the Difficulty die in the same system is a thematic complication: 13th Age is all about fights getting more intense as time goes on, but having both an Escalation and a Difficulty die in the same system means that some encounters get arbitrarily harder while others get arbitrarily easier as time goes on...and then you add an arbitrary timer on top of that, which can't be influenced in any way.

I think it would be more elegant to unify these into a single mechanic called Momentum. Momentum is tracked by a d6 still, but it can go either in the PCs' favor (in which case PCs add the die face to all of their attacks/saves/checks and to their DCs for enemy attacks/saves/checks) or against them (in which case enemies add it to their rolls and DCs). If one side surprises the other, Momentum starts the encounter at +1 in their favor, otherwise it starts at 0. Every round in which one side removes an enemy, scores a critical hit, does something tactically impressive, or otherwise noticeably changes the state of the battle, the die moves 1 point in their favor, or against them if they roll a critical fumble, make a tactical blunder, more enemies appear, or the like. If neither side does something to change the state of battle, or both sides do, it stays the same.

Momentum can be used as a timer, then, not as a fixed countdown but as a fluid one where the PCs can extend the timer if they attempt things that could give them more time--or, conversely, might tick down faster if they screw something up.


* A PC must be proficient in a skill in order to attempt a check for the challenge.
* A PC may attempt each type of check only once.

Assuming the point of skill challenges here is to get every PC involved in a scenario, I wouldn't discourage participation like this. Particularly when your list of skills that apply to a travel encounter without having to vote on it only includes 3 skills and it's unlikely that any given PC would be proficient in more than one of those; if you have 4 PCs, a difficulty 7 challenge because the party was caught in a sudden thunderstorm on the way back from the dungeon with no way to have prepared, and only 1 proficient skill apiece, you're going to have a lot of trouble finding skills that apply.

Instead, I'd suggest that you allow each type of check to be attempted twice if the character is proficient, the second time with disadvantage, and nonproficient skills to be used but only once. The additional skill usage and potential successes are balanced out by the higher chance of failures with disadvantaged proficient checks and nonproficient checks, and allowing at least some degree of "Whoops, that didn't work, let me try again" provides more verisimilitude.


*snip Resurrection stuff*

Nice and fluffy, no objections here. Given the tone you're going for with magic you might want to add a "came back wrong" option if you fail by less than 5 or thereabouts (a demon's soul comes back instead of the fallen's, the character is resurrected but has a permanent injury or curse like a withered limb or glowing green eyes, etc.).


*snip Weapons and Gambits*

More options are always good. Some suggestions for additional gambits would be Feint (has no additional effect, but lets you attempt a gambit on your next attack without taking disadvantage), Covering Fire (ranged only, choose a small area [like a 10-foot radius or so] and you can take ranged attacks of opportunity against enemies who move through or out of it), and Throat Punch (target can't speak, including making Verbal components for spells, for 1 round).


* Strength ability die applies to intimidation and some other social checks.
* The Strength ability die is added to HP at each level.

Are these intended to be in addition to Cha and Con, respectively, or in place of them if Str is higher? Either way, you should clarify.


*snip skill usage stuff*

Are these benefits things that all apply if you're proficient, or automatic benefits, or do you pick one for being proficient, or...? Again, clarification needed. The benefits all look fine, though for the second Acrobatics usage it'll probably be quicker at the table if you say something like "DC 15, +2 per additional enemy engaging you" rather than requiring multiple separate checks.


Okay fair enough, you've got me thinking, so kick this idea around with me for a moment, because I really want to build something in that brings just a little bit of wonder into the magic system.

So say we throw out the whole Arcana, Thurgy, Sorcery thing posed in Daybreak and try this in stead:

Every time anybody casts a spell, they also roll a d6. On a 1, the spell has an unpredictable effect, and on a 6, it has an 'overclocked' effect. A player can "force" an overclocked effect by sacrificing some arbitrary number of hit points, like 2x the spell level or something.

Thoughts?

I just really like the idea of being able to push the magic to do more, at some sort of cost, and it just doesn't seem to be represented by spell slots.

I don't think you need to throw out any of it; changing Arcane and Divine magic to Alchemy/Sorcery and Theurgy definitely gives the magic a unique feel, and the functionality of those mechanics is independent of the levels of wonder and/or grimdark in the fluff.

And honestly, "your spells are better or worse on a random roll, lol" doesn't really make magic seem more wondrous. There's been Wild Magic, Wild Mages, Wild Sorcerers, and the like in every edition of D&D, and I doubt anyone's ever said "Gosh, rolling a d% and turning my fireball into a burst of flaming butterflies really makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside." :smallwink:

If making magic more flavorful is your goal, something like Spell Thematics (http://dnd.arkalseif.info/feats/magic-of-faerun--20/spell-thematics--2713/index.html) would work well. Making every caster choose a theme for their magic (possibly influenced by their arcane philosophy, patron being, etc.) and then having them describe their spells appropriately gets you most of the way there. And rather than relying on randomness or HP costs, you have a ready-made mechanic for "pushing" your magic: Fate points! PCs spending a fate point to add an extra effect to their magic helps with player agency, makes it rare enough that every usage is impactful in the fiction, doesn't screw over players who roll badly in a given session, and so forth.

Kio
2019-04-10, 07:10 PM
Lowering DCs to go with the lower dice ranges is definitely good. If the "standard" roll (10 ability score, no proficiency) is going to be just 1d12, going by increments of 6 (Easy = 3, Medium = 9, Hard = 15, Very Hard = 21, and Impossible = 27, with anything you would count as Very Easy not requiring a roll at all) would probably be a better pattern than increments of 5. That gives you nice even 75% and 25% success chances for Easy and Medium, requires an ability bonus to hit Hard at all, and requires a high roll with a high ability bonus to hit Very Hard.

This is a great point, I like how the math works out better that way.


I actually misread proficiency originally as just letting you ignore ability penalties instead of changing it to a d20, which is why I suggested changing the wording, so that's my bad.

Having said that, I don't think increasing the d12 to a d20 is a good idea; sticking with the "proficiency means +1d6" part of the rule would probably be best, since the way you have ability dice set up gives you a nice smooth progression (d4 -> d6 -> d8 -> d10 -> d12 -> d12+d2 -> ... increases the average by +1 with every step) and then the jump to d20 makes a difference of 4 points on average, which is a big boost at low levels and has the problematic high variance--especially when it comes to advantage and disadvantage, 'cause better of 2d12 averages ~9 with a standard deviation of ~3, while better of 2d20 averages ~14 with a standard deviation of ~5.

Using 1d12+1d6 instead of 1d20 has basically the same average (10 vs. 10.5) but a lower maximum (18 vs. 20), and it's more consistent if proficiency bonuses add dice like ability bonuses do, proficiency is +1d6 and Expertise is +2d6, and so forth.


I totally agree with you on the math of this, but I've got two reservations:

I want you to know that I just spent three full hours on "Anydice.com" and filled several sticky-notes with percentage chance calculations trying to prove to myself that my way was better, and I simply couldn't. The swing in the d20 is just too ridiculous. Adding more dice together makes a nice bell curve, and building up dice rolls works much better that way.

So you're right, but I'm still mad about it :smallbiggrin:

Here's an interesting question though, should the Proficiency bonus increase with levels like it does in normal 5e, or should it remain the same as a d6 for simplicity?



One of my current campaign requires downtime training to level up (in addition to other uses for downtime). There, leveling just requires 3 days of training per level and having a trainer or mentor gives an overall reduction to 2/3 normal time. Taking a flat 18 days for everyone to level with no fiddly accounting involved lets you turn the downtime into a training montage, basically, and focus on the flavor rather than a bunch of rolls. (I do allow characters to make ability checks during downtime to reduce training time for leveling and other tasks, so it's actually a logarithmic increase as the +3 days per level starts to be outweighed by the reduction from the check results, but if leveling is the only kind of downtime training you have that's not really worth the extra complexity.)


Yeah, I can see the light on this one. Better, probably, to simply have rough guidelines for how long it takes to train for the next level as you say, and then allow that to flavor downtime activities. Maybe every now and then I'll toss something in just for a fun adventure hook, like "If the wizard wants to reach level 10, he NEEDS the info hidden in the Tome of Infinite Knowledge," or something like that.



It's relatively okay if rules for magic and other resource management subsystems start to get complex, because every character only needs to deal with the rules that the character interacts with. Having a complex skill system, complex leveling system, complex encumbrance system, and so forth is entirely additive when it comes to overwhelming players with complexity, but the wizard doesn't care how complex the divine casting rules and vice versa for the cleric and arcane casting so if the complexity is confined to those areas you're probably fine.


Fair enough! I think this will just come down to playtesting and what the players are interested in. I know that some people who play DCC absolutely adore it, and some people think it's 'meh,' so i guess we'll see...



That should do it, yeah.


*Fixed*



It's interesting that Warlocks are considered Alchemists instead of Theurges when "beings beyond mortal comprehension" sounds more like a Warlock's patron than the traditional view of patron deities, and interesting that Performance is an option for miracle checks when that really only fits Bards, who are again Alchemists rather than Theurges. You might consider swapping Warlocks and Bards to being Theurges, or perhaps letting Bards be Theurges in addition to Alchemists and Sorcerers so they have access to all three types as befits their jack-of-all-trades nature.

In exchange, Monks would probably make more sense as Alchemists than Theurges, because they traditionally don't draw power from an external source and not being able to wear heavy armor, using mystical tattoos as a magical focus, having to prepare their spells in a wizards' laboratory monk's monastery to avoid spending money on expensive foci, and similar fits them better than making sacrifices, having an extraplanar minion, and so forth (which is totally the Warlock's wheelhouse).

I dig this. I think I'm going to leave it totally flux which classes can practice which forms of magic based on how they want it to work, and where they want to draw their power from, since it's so up for interpretation.

In my mind, the Warlock isn't trying to be more like the creature she gets her power from, she has struck some sort of terrible deal with the patron, so they're running on borrowed knowledge and power. But you're right, it works just as well within the framework of Theurgy.

Same with the skill that the check is linked to, in my mind the miracle is cast via reciting the words of the verse or proverb, and being able to "perform" the verse well enough grants good effects. But if that isn't the flavor the player is going for, the can change it to a different ability.

So I should add a little clause that mentions that all the classes may be able to fit under different forms of magic, depending on the flavor, and the ruleset they favor.



I do think concordance system looks fun in general (I'm familiar with Strongholds & Followers, but haven't actually used it in game), but unless you're ditching alignment and the existing pantheon(s), the "gods view their most devoted mortal servants as annoying pests" perspective doesn't quite fit the standard D&D milieu. In general, Good gods are plenty willing to help their followers but are spread very thin since Evil is more active and more numerous, while Evil gods are willing to grant a lot of power but only to those who prove themselves worthy; in both cases, they value their most loyal and powerful followers very highly.

At the very least, having "asking a god for help once" be worth -15 is ridiculous, if "disobeying the god's teachings" is only worth -5. Reducing that -15 to -1 or maybe -2 would make a lot more sense, and then if you still want to discourage repeated petitions you can get rid of the part where a character loses the petitioning penalty when they long rest at a temple; it could definitely use a lot more tweaking (like, y'know, not having gods of goodness and light straight-up curse mortals who dare to ask them for anything), but that's a good start.

I can see your point here, for sure. It comes back to the same issue as the swing in a d20 making trained characters feel lame. I think Matt put it in because he was posturing that anyone could petition their deity at ANY time, not just clerics, so there's no reasonable reason for a cleric to get below a 20 on the roll unless they've 1. just petitioned the deity a few minutes ago or 2. done something really bad in the deity's eyes. The only change I would make is that if you are a cleric of the deity (and the deity is benevolent), you cannot be cursed, no matter the result of your roll, the worst that will happen is being ignored.




Porting the Escalation die over from 13th Age as-is has some problems, because what counts as an "attack" and similar things are very different, and using the Difficulty die in the same system is a thematic complication: 13th Age is all about fights getting more intense as time goes on, but having both an Escalation and a Difficulty die in the same system means that some encounters get arbitrarily harder while others get arbitrarily easier as time goes on...and then you add an arbitrary timer on top of that, which can't be influenced in any way.

I think it would be more elegant to unify these into a single mechanic called Momentum. Momentum is tracked by a d6 still, but it can go either in the PCs' favor (in which case PCs add the die face to all of their attacks/saves/checks and to their DCs for enemy attacks/saves/checks) or against them (in which case enemies add it to their rolls and DCs). If one side surprises the other, Momentum starts the encounter at +1 in their favor, otherwise it starts at 0. Every round in which one side removes an enemy, scores a critical hit, does something tactically impressive, or otherwise noticeably changes the state of the battle, the die moves 1 point in their favor, or against them if they roll a critical fumble, make a tactical blunder, more enemies appear, or the like. If neither side does something to change the state of battle, or both sides do, it stays the same.

Momentum can be used as a timer, then, not as a fixed countdown but as a fluid one where the PCs can extend the timer if they attempt things that could give them more time--or, conversely, might tick down faster if they screw something up.


I like your idea for the momentum die, but I'm worried that it would create a "slippery slope" effect, where once the players start losing, they're more likely to keep losing, which is already the case with 5e's "if you're outnumbered you're at a disadvantage" thing.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I was hoping for more of a "As long as you stay in the fight long enough, you will gain an advantage" feel, so that combat encounters could feel dire at first, but slowly tilt in the favor of the players.

This allows players to save bigger attacks and spells for later into the fight, when they know they will be most effective, and focus on tactical defense in the beginning of battles.

The difficulty die is an edge case thing that would only be brought up in scenarios such as "You walk into a room coated in ice. The DC of checks to do things in this room (solve puzzles, lift stuff, whatever) starts at 3, and will tick up to 9 every round that is spent here."

And the countdown timer... Well, that's just something for when the players are getting too comfy and the GM needs to freak them out a little bit :smallbiggrin: It's borrowed from this video: Key Mechanics: Timers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcfieLbrQAc), which I totally recommend. The style he is going for is very frantic and fast-paced, so it's certainly not for everyone.




Assuming the point of skill challenges here is to get every PC involved in a scenario, I wouldn't discourage participation like this. Particularly when your list of skills that apply to a travel encounter without having to vote on it only includes 3 skills and it's unlikely that any given PC would be proficient in more than one of those; if you have 4 PCs, a difficulty 7 challenge because the party was caught in a sudden thunderstorm on the way back from the dungeon with no way to have prepared, and only 1 proficient skill apiece, you're going to have a lot of trouble finding skills that apply.

Instead, I'd suggest that you allow each type of check to be attempted twice if the character is proficient, the second time with disadvantage, and nonproficient skills to be used but only once. The additional skill usage and potential successes are balanced out by the higher chance of failures with disadvantaged proficient checks and nonproficient checks, and allowing at least some degree of "Whoops, that didn't work, let me try again" provides more verisimilitude.


I can see what you're saying here, but I want the push to be for the players to figure out how their other skills can be leveraged into successes. Like maybe the Bard character thinks to himself "Is there any possible way I can use Charisma (performance) for this?" and maybe he eventually comes up with something like "can I give one of those Football-coach-at-halftime pep talks while we're camped one night to help us keep morale?" Then the table talks about it and thinks that it's fun and reasonable so it's allowed.

But you've got a point, especially if there are only a few PC's in the party. I've added a bit into the rules allowing for re-rolling with disadvantage, if the side of the party doesn't support the challenge.




More options are always good. Some suggestions for additional gambits would be Feint (has no additional effect, but lets you attempt a gambit on your next attack without taking disadvantage), Covering Fire (ranged only, choose a small area [like a 10-foot radius or so] and you can take ranged attacks of opportunity against enemies who move through or out of it), and Throat Punch (target can't speak, including making Verbal components for spells, for 1 round).


These are wicked :smallcool:. They've been added to the list!




Are these intended to be in addition to Cha and Con, respectively, or in place of them if Str is higher? Either way, you should clarify.



They are to be in addition *fixed!*

So characters in this ruleset won't lose hp for having low CON, and they will get extra HP from strength. This is to help compensate for the level 1-10 limit.



Are these benefits things that all apply if you're proficient, or automatic benefits, or do you pick one for being proficient, or...? Again, clarification needed. The benefits all look fine, though for the second Acrobatics usage it'll probably be quicker at the table if you say something like "DC 15, +2 per additional enemy engaging you" rather than requiring multiple separate checks.


These are benefits of having the proficiency. Good point on the wording *both fixed!*



I don't think you need to throw out any of it; changing Arcane and Divine magic to Alchemy/Sorcery and Theurgy definitely gives the magic a unique feel, and the functionality of those mechanics is independent of the levels of wonder and/or grimdark in the fluff.


Fair enough! Fingers crossed that they survive play testing!



And honestly, "your spells are better or worse on a random roll, lol" doesn't really make magic seem more wondrous. There's been Wild Magic, Wild Mages, Wild Sorcerers, and the like in every edition of D&D, and I doubt anyone's ever said "Gosh, rolling a d% and turning my fireball into a burst of flaming butterflies really makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside." :smallwink:

If making magic more flavorful is your goal, something like Spell Thematics (http://dnd.arkalseif.info/feats/magic-of-faerun--20/spell-thematics--2713/index.html) would work well. Making every caster choose a theme for their magic (possibly influenced by their arcane philosophy, patron being, etc.) and then having them describe their spells appropriately gets you most of the way there. And rather than relying on randomness or HP costs, you have a ready-made mechanic for "pushing" your magic: Fate points! PCs spending a fate point to add an extra effect to their magic helps with player agency, makes it rare enough that every usage is impactful in the fiction, doesn't screw over players who roll badly in a given session, and so forth.


Has anyone ever told you you are an evil genius? You're totally right, Fate works perfectly for that! Also, I really like the "spell thematics," it's a really neat way to non-mechanically make things more interesting.

For now, I've made most of the changes just in the google doc. I'll come back and fix them in the original post when I get some more time.

Again, thanks for helping me brainstorm all this stuff :smallsmile:

PairO'Dice Lost
2019-04-10, 09:19 PM
I want you to know that I just spent three full hours on "Anydice.com" and filled several sticky-notes with percentage chance calculations trying to prove to myself that my way was better, and I simply couldn't. The swing in the d20 is just too ridiculous. Adding more dice together makes a nice bell curve, and building up dice rolls works much better that way.

So you're right, but I'm still mad about it :smallbiggrin:

To paraphrase Vizzini, "Never go against a Sicilian when math is on the line!" :smallamused:


Here's an interesting question though, should the Proficiency bonus increase with levels like it does in normal 5e, or should it remain the same as a d6 for simplicity?

Staying the same is probably fine, since you're trying to keep modifiers down; your campaign is only going up to level 10, and a d6 averages higher than the standard proficiency bonus until level 9, so no increase is really needed.


Yeah, I can see the light on this one. Better, probably, to simply have rough guidelines for how long it takes to train for the next level as you say, and then allow that to flavor downtime activities. Maybe every now and then I'll toss something in just for a fun adventure hook, like "If the wizard wants to reach level 10, he NEEDS the info hidden in the Tome of Infinite Knowledge," or something like that.

That would certainly work. I like the idea of an Enchanter being able to train with any ol' alchemist to reach level 3, but then need to track down a wizard, an Enchanter, a specific famous Enchanter, the ancient and crumbling Scrolls of the Serpent's Tongue, and so forth to advance each additional level.


I can see your point here, for sure. It comes back to the same issue as the swing in a d20 making trained characters feel lame. I think Matt put it in because he was posturing that anyone could petition their deity at ANY time, not just clerics, so there's no reasonable reason for a cleric to get below a 20 on the roll unless they've 1. just petitioned the deity a few minutes ago or 2. done something really bad in the deity's eyes. The only change I would make is that if you are a cleric of the deity (and the deity is benevolent), you cannot be cursed, no matter the result of your roll, the worst that will happen is being ignored.

You might also want to change the effects of the curse based on the god in question. It's totally out of line for Good gods to curse someone for asking them for help, for instance, but "Oh, for Myself's sake, I'm not going to bestow any miracles on you unless you donate a few gold to the local orphanage the next time you're in town" or a similar minor quest is very much in character for them. You could even customize the effect based on the specific god, which should be manageable since you'd only have to come up with effects for the PCs' gods.


I like your idea for the momentum die, but I'm worried that it would create a "slippery slope" effect, where once the players start losing, they're more likely to keep losing, which is already the case with 5e's "if you're outnumbered you're at a disadvantage" thing.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I was hoping for more of a "As long as you stay in the fight long enough, you will gain an advantage" feel, so that combat encounters could feel dire at first, but slowly tilt in the favor of the players.

This allows players to save bigger attacks and spells for later into the fight, when they know they will be most effective, and focus on tactical defense in the beginning of battles.

The difficulty die is an edge case thing that would only be brought up in scenarios such as "You walk into a room coated in ice. The DC of checks to do things in this room (solve puzzles, lift stuff, whatever) starts at 3, and will tick up to 9 every round that is spent here."

If you only intend to use the Difficulty die sparingly, that's a lot better, but it still feels fairly arbitrary if fighting people in an ice-coated room slowly gets easier and most non-combat encounters in an ice-coated room stay the same but occasionally a puzzle in an ice-coated room would slowly get harder for no discernible reason. At least if every encounter works the same way it's still harder but it's fair that it's harder, you know?

Perhaps using different die sizes would work, since you're already doing that for modifiers. Run into a random encounter with kobolds? Momentum can go up to d6 in favor of the PCs but only up to d2 against, 'cause they're kobolds. Ice-coated puzzle room? It can go up to d4 for or against the PCs, since it's not really active opposition but it's still tricky. Boss battle against the evil cultists? Up to d4 in favor of the PCs and d10 against, 'cause holy crap there's a lot of magical energy in that ritual diagram.


I can see what you're saying here, but I want the push to be for the players to figure out how their other skills can be leveraged into successes. Like maybe the Bard character thinks to himself "Is there any possible way I can use Charisma (performance) for this?" and maybe he eventually comes up with something like "can I give one of those Football-coach-at-halftime pep talks while we're camped one night to help us keep morale?" Then the table talks about it and thinks that it's fun and reasonable so it's allowed.

Wanting PCs to come up with off-the-wall ideas and requiring the whole table to vote to approve off-the-wall ideas kind of work at cross-purposes. Only being able to use each skill once is fine if you don't have the DM say "Here are 3-5 things you can do to help, otherwise you'll have to convince us," because the implication of an additional barrier (even if you, as the DM, are prepared to say "Sure, sounds cool" to anything any player suggests) will tend to limit lateral thinking like that, so you may just want to remove the voting and list of approved skills entirely.


Has anyone ever told you you are an evil genius?

Not nearly often enough. :smallcool:

Kio
2019-04-12, 11:12 AM
You might also want to change the effects of the curse based on the god in question. It's totally out of line for Good gods to curse someone for asking them for help, for instance, but "Oh, for Myself's sake, I'm not going to bestow any miracles on you unless you donate a few gold to the local orphanage the next time you're in town" or a similar minor quest is very much in character for them. You could even customize the effect based on the specific god, which should be manageable since you'd only have to come up with effects for the PCs' gods.


I think this is cool, it's an interesting way to give deity's their own personality in a way.



If you only intend to use the Difficulty die sparingly, that's a lot better, but it still feels fairly arbitrary if fighting people in an ice-coated room slowly gets easier and most non-combat encounters in an ice-coated room stay the same but occasionally a puzzle in an ice-coated room would slowly get harder for no discernible reason. At least if every encounter works the same way it's still harder but it's fair that it's harder, you know?


I suppose this comes down to taste. I can see your point, but I still feel inclined to leave it how it is, simply because I personally don't feel like I would be a great judge of which end of a combat is being more tactically optimal in a certain situation, so I would run the risk of arguing with the players about what constitutes incrementing or decrementing the die.

Though, I do lke he idea that the players should be able to "fight" the difficulty die. Say for instance, the room is getting colder and colder , which is making the difficulty go up, but one of the players lights a big fire or casts "sunlight" or releases a lava flow or something, then the difficulty die would decrement to reflect them changig the situation for the better.



Perhaps using different die sizes would work, since you're already doing that for modifiers. Run into a random encounter with kobolds? Momentum can go up to d6 in favor of the PCs but only up to d2 against, 'cause they're kobolds. Ice-coated puzzle room? It can go up to d4 for or against the PCs, since it's not really active opposition but it's still tricky. Boss battle against the evil cultists? Up to d4 in favor of the PCs and d10 against, 'cause holy crap there's a lot of magical energy in that ritual diagram.

I've added in the following section. Let me know if you'd like any of the wording changed:

Variant Rule: Momentum Die (proposed by PairO’Dice Lost)

Momentum works similarly to the Escalation Die and Difficulty Die, unifying then into a single mechanic. It assumes that the Momentum Die begins at 0 favoring neither side of an encounter, and that actions can tilt the Die in either direction, based on their impact on the combat. Actions that cause the Die to increment in the players favor encompass anything that changes the battle for their benefit and may include:


Tactical maneuvering
Surprising the enemy
Scoring critical hits
Environmental effects
Etc


This mechanic allows the development of encounters to be dynamic, and encourages players to always be searching for ways to shift things into their favor.



Wanting PCs to come up with off-the-wall ideas and requiring the whole table to vote to approve off-the-wall ideas kind of work at cross-purposes. Only being able to use each skill once is fine if you don't have the DM say "Here are 3-5 things you can do to help, otherwise you'll have to convince us," because the implication of an additional barrier (even if you, as the DM, are prepared to say "Sure, sounds cool" to anything any player suggests) will tend to limit lateral thinking like that, so you may just want to remove the voting and list of approved skills entirely.


Yeah, this is perfectly fair. *wording adjusted!*

PairO'Dice Lost
2019-04-12, 01:05 PM
Though, I do lke he idea that the players should be able to "fight" the difficulty die. Say for instance, the room is getting colder and colder , which is making the difficulty go up, but one of the players lights a big fire or casts "sunlight" or releases a lava flow or something, then the difficulty die would decrement to reflect them changig the situation for the better.

That addresses my main concern, yeah. Arbitrary increasing difficulties that the players can't do anything about generally shuts down any sort of creative problem solving (since you need to use whatever you're focused on to have the best chance of success against increased DCs), so ensuring that players retain agency in that situation is important.


I've added in the following section. Let me know if you'd like any of the wording changed:

Looks good to me.

Kio
2019-04-12, 11:30 PM
That addresses my main concern, yeah. Arbitrary increasing difficulties that the players can't do anything about generally shuts down any sort of creative problem solving (since you need to use whatever you're focused on to have the best chance of success against increased DCs), so ensuring that players retain agency in that situation is important.

Awesome! Again, thanks for all your feedback, it's all much appreciated :smallsmile:

I made a bunch of edits to the google doc, but now I'm going to do my best to update the text of the original post.

[EDIT] Proving to be more difficult than I thought because of character limits :smallbiggrin: