Promethean
2019-06-02, 06:22 PM
For Backstory: DM looking to tweak a custom-campaign-world-specific set of rules for a "why the heck not?" campaign.
Rules so Far:
All Humanoid Races and all races that can only advance HD through classes get only 1 hit die. Classes provide features, saves, feats, and etc as normal but don't affect hit dice or hit points. Health is still modified by constitution and characters don't die until their negative hit points are equal to their CON. Any mechanic that Keys off HD now Keys off level(improved toghness give +20 HP at level 20, etc.)
HD added by templates is fine. LA and HD added by Templates is instead treated as Negative Levels rather than ECL. Said Negative Levels never result in level loss, but must be "Bought Off" with XP. To buy off LA/HD aquired negative levels, a character must aquire enough XP to level up as normal, but rather than advance to the next level they remove one negative level. Characters cannot gain levels until all negative levels are bought off, ECL will always be equal to their Character level, and Characters with LA are liable for bonus XP for facing challenges above their ECL
Armor mechanics are Reworked to account for Lower character health. All armors will now add their item HP to the charactr's health and a DR depending on their hardness + armor category. Light and Medium armors provide half their hardness(minimum 5) as DR, Heavy armor provides full Hardness to DR. Armor hardness counts as DR/Magic and is bypassesed by spells. Magic armors of at least +1 count hardness as DR/- and as energy resistance(all damage types) for spells[Note: spells that don't do any direct damage ignore this]
All Full Caster/Manifester/Martial Adept(any class that get 9th level spells, power, or maneuvers. Warlocks and Binders don't count) classes are no longer base classes, They are henceforth sub-classes. Sub-classes in this campaign are classes that a character can take in addition to their normal class in a gestalt-like fashion, but are leveled independently of the main class. Sub classes provide extra feats(as per 3 levels), Skill points(As per class, but without INT bonus), and class features, but Don't provide saves or health/HD. Players cannot take more than 1 base or sub-class(so no level dipping) and cannot take "Combination" prestige classes that level multiple base or sub-classes, but Can take both a base and a sub class prestige at the same time. A character's sub class cannot be higher than their base class-5 until their base class caps at level 20, at which point they may level their sub-class up to 20 as normal.
The pathfinder version a class will always be used if available.
Any published 1st party book for 3rd edition is fair game, regardless if it's setting specific or not, but 3rd party maerials will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis between sessions(no books will be banned, but certain builds may be denied). Game balance isn't really an issue, Approval and denial will mostly be based on whether the build makes sense for the character and the setting. I as the DM reserve the right to use anything a player uses in the camaign against them.
All new Mechanics will affect Monsters and NPCs as well. Monsters will be Tiered based on class training, split into Common, Trained, and Elite. Common monsters have no class levels and use the their base stats as non-elite array. Trained monsters will have a base class gestalted with their Monster HD and the non-elite array. Elite monsters with have a class that qualifies as a "Sub-class" for players and humanoids gestalted with their monster HD, in addition they will be changes to the elite array modified by their race.
All fleshed humanoid undead will be given the Cannibalize ability of the dusk giant(Heroes of Horror) along with some minor tweaks. Zombies will double their base creature's hit Points rather than hit Dice(so it doesn't mess with turning and spell effects), and this affects new hit dice gained from Cannibalize. Rather than getting the Cannibalize ability, skeletal liches and dracoliches will instead be able to immediately possess Any dead body that is within 30 feet of their phylactery the round after they are slain(this replaces their ability to generate a new body at their phylactery).
Some classes have been tweaked for the setting. All spontaneous spell-casters no longer use spell slots, but instead add up the total levels of spells they can normally cast into a single spell pool(not including cantrips). A spontaneous caster can cast any spell they know up to their highest level slot from the pool at any time, with the only exception that they can only cast their high level spells known as many times a day as they would normally be able to cast(so an 18th level sorcerer could only cast 3 9th level spells a day, but could cast their entire spell-pool in 8th or below spells). Clerics Are also changed in that they can don't all cast heal sponteneously and repel/rebuke undead. Clerics prepare spells as normal, but may cast any spell from their chosen domain spells spontaneously and alternately rebuke/repel entities based on that domain(a cleric of fire can rebuke fire elementals/fire subtyped creatures and repel water elementals/aquatic creatures. Said Fire cleric can also substitute any memorized spell for an equal domain spell such as exchanging a memorized obscuring mist for Burning Hands). Wish and Miracle have been removed from all class spell lists, so the only way to use them is through obscure magic items, genies, or unsavory deals.
All epic feats, except epic spellcasting, epic manifestation, and epic item crafting feats(save for augment alchemy) are now normal feats with an 11th level requirement rather than a 20 the level requirement.
Change Poison mechanics a bit to make them more viable. Poisons now force a saving throw for secondary damage every round after initial exposure until someone makes a Heal check against the poison's DC. To be able to make the check a character requires 1 use of a healer's kit. In addition, each time the victim passes their save against secondary damage on poison, the DC for the next save decreases by 1(Heal check remains the same). If the DC ever falls below 5, it passes through the character's system and does no further damage, but any accumulated damage from failed saves remain. If a victim is forced to save against the primary damage to a poison after passing a save against the secondary poison the last round, the DC for the first poison does not decrease. Multiple exposures to the same poison force a save against primary damage on each exposure, but the victim doesn't need to save more than once a round for secondary exposure(though the DC remains static for an extra round each time the victim is exposed). If the victim is exposed to A different poison while already making saves against secondary damage, the first poison's DC remains static an extra round and the victim must also make saves every round vs the secondary damage of the new poison as well. A character Making a heal check for a victim saving against multiple poisons makes 1 heal check, but must contest a DC equal to the Highest DC poison affecting the victim + 2 for each additional poison and consume a number of uses from their healers kit equal to the number of poisons nuetralized.
Rules so Far:
All Humanoid Races and all races that can only advance HD through classes get only 1 hit die. Classes provide features, saves, feats, and etc as normal but don't affect hit dice or hit points. Health is still modified by constitution and characters don't die until their negative hit points are equal to their CON. Any mechanic that Keys off HD now Keys off level(improved toghness give +20 HP at level 20, etc.)
HD added by templates is fine. LA and HD added by Templates is instead treated as Negative Levels rather than ECL. Said Negative Levels never result in level loss, but must be "Bought Off" with XP. To buy off LA/HD aquired negative levels, a character must aquire enough XP to level up as normal, but rather than advance to the next level they remove one negative level. Characters cannot gain levels until all negative levels are bought off, ECL will always be equal to their Character level, and Characters with LA are liable for bonus XP for facing challenges above their ECL
Armor mechanics are Reworked to account for Lower character health. All armors will now add their item HP to the charactr's health and a DR depending on their hardness + armor category. Light and Medium armors provide half their hardness(minimum 5) as DR, Heavy armor provides full Hardness to DR. Armor hardness counts as DR/Magic and is bypassesed by spells. Magic armors of at least +1 count hardness as DR/- and as energy resistance(all damage types) for spells[Note: spells that don't do any direct damage ignore this]
All Full Caster/Manifester/Martial Adept(any class that get 9th level spells, power, or maneuvers. Warlocks and Binders don't count) classes are no longer base classes, They are henceforth sub-classes. Sub-classes in this campaign are classes that a character can take in addition to their normal class in a gestalt-like fashion, but are leveled independently of the main class. Sub classes provide extra feats(as per 3 levels), Skill points(As per class, but without INT bonus), and class features, but Don't provide saves or health/HD. Players cannot take more than 1 base or sub-class(so no level dipping) and cannot take "Combination" prestige classes that level multiple base or sub-classes, but Can take both a base and a sub class prestige at the same time. A character's sub class cannot be higher than their base class-5 until their base class caps at level 20, at which point they may level their sub-class up to 20 as normal.
The pathfinder version a class will always be used if available.
Any published 1st party book for 3rd edition is fair game, regardless if it's setting specific or not, but 3rd party maerials will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis between sessions(no books will be banned, but certain builds may be denied). Game balance isn't really an issue, Approval and denial will mostly be based on whether the build makes sense for the character and the setting. I as the DM reserve the right to use anything a player uses in the camaign against them.
All new Mechanics will affect Monsters and NPCs as well. Monsters will be Tiered based on class training, split into Common, Trained, and Elite. Common monsters have no class levels and use the their base stats as non-elite array. Trained monsters will have a base class gestalted with their Monster HD and the non-elite array. Elite monsters with have a class that qualifies as a "Sub-class" for players and humanoids gestalted with their monster HD, in addition they will be changes to the elite array modified by their race.
All fleshed humanoid undead will be given the Cannibalize ability of the dusk giant(Heroes of Horror) along with some minor tweaks. Zombies will double their base creature's hit Points rather than hit Dice(so it doesn't mess with turning and spell effects), and this affects new hit dice gained from Cannibalize. Rather than getting the Cannibalize ability, skeletal liches and dracoliches will instead be able to immediately possess Any dead body that is within 30 feet of their phylactery the round after they are slain(this replaces their ability to generate a new body at their phylactery).
Some classes have been tweaked for the setting. All spontaneous spell-casters no longer use spell slots, but instead add up the total levels of spells they can normally cast into a single spell pool(not including cantrips). A spontaneous caster can cast any spell they know up to their highest level slot from the pool at any time, with the only exception that they can only cast their high level spells known as many times a day as they would normally be able to cast(so an 18th level sorcerer could only cast 3 9th level spells a day, but could cast their entire spell-pool in 8th or below spells). Clerics Are also changed in that they can don't all cast heal sponteneously and repel/rebuke undead. Clerics prepare spells as normal, but may cast any spell from their chosen domain spells spontaneously and alternately rebuke/repel entities based on that domain(a cleric of fire can rebuke fire elementals/fire subtyped creatures and repel water elementals/aquatic creatures. Said Fire cleric can also substitute any memorized spell for an equal domain spell such as exchanging a memorized obscuring mist for Burning Hands). Wish and Miracle have been removed from all class spell lists, so the only way to use them is through obscure magic items, genies, or unsavory deals.
All epic feats, except epic spellcasting, epic manifestation, and epic item crafting feats(save for augment alchemy) are now normal feats with an 11th level requirement rather than a 20 the level requirement.
Change Poison mechanics a bit to make them more viable. Poisons now force a saving throw for secondary damage every round after initial exposure until someone makes a Heal check against the poison's DC. To be able to make the check a character requires 1 use of a healer's kit. In addition, each time the victim passes their save against secondary damage on poison, the DC for the next save decreases by 1(Heal check remains the same). If the DC ever falls below 5, it passes through the character's system and does no further damage, but any accumulated damage from failed saves remain. If a victim is forced to save against the primary damage to a poison after passing a save against the secondary poison the last round, the DC for the first poison does not decrease. Multiple exposures to the same poison force a save against primary damage on each exposure, but the victim doesn't need to save more than once a round for secondary exposure(though the DC remains static for an extra round each time the victim is exposed). If the victim is exposed to A different poison while already making saves against secondary damage, the first poison's DC remains static an extra round and the victim must also make saves every round vs the secondary damage of the new poison as well. A character Making a heal check for a victim saving against multiple poisons makes 1 heal check, but must contest a DC equal to the Highest DC poison affecting the victim + 2 for each additional poison and consume a number of uses from their healers kit equal to the number of poisons nuetralized.