Aotrs Commander
2020-05-28, 06:24 PM
So, those of you by this point sick to death of my regular threads picking apart 3.5/PF1 over the nine or so months will be pleased to know that I Have Actually Done1, and 3.Aotrs v2.0 is officially Ready For Play for when I'm actually ABLE to do so (so I might actually shut up for a bit. Mostly.)
It has reached 1054 pages, all told, in the end, the largest single document being the spell (293 pages), which contains about 2300 spells and still frightening has more than I can easily count left in PHB1, PHB 2 and SpC (though they are the ONLY sources outside the document, all PF spells ported over, homebrew and 3.5 splats in our used list being in there.)
I CAN tell you there are about 2100 more accurately (plus or minus from the feat heading categoies in my spreadsheet used to make the feat list verses a few feats specific to some PrC included as part of that PrC's write-up). And that's after a moderate attempt to reduce the feat tax and some of the bloat from 3.5 feat types we'd never ever looked at or would ever use. (Faith feats, host feats, I can't remember some of the others...)
So I would like to thank this part of the boards for the help (and putting up with this) - even from those of you with diametrically opposite opinions from mine! - and a particular thanks to Psyren, who has inadvertently become my defacto long-suffering sound-board. (On the basis that none of my mates are actually THAT interested in rules-smithing, but on the other hand they're happy to put up with mine so...! (They will probably only balk a little bit when 3.Aotrs thumps them in the email...!)
Look, my lot will probably mostly just roll their eyes at this news a bit, I got to parp my own trumpet SOMEWHERE, so it might as well be HERE...!
I know one or two people (and it was ages ago, damned if I can remember who) expressed interest in this, so give me a nudge via PM anyone that does. (Which I'm saying as opposed to providing dropbox of something download, as this does entail a load of 3.5 stuff (PF stuff is at least on their Nethys/PFSRD), I'm not 100% comfortable slapping it up on a google drive download or something, even considering that various internet wiki et al sites have that stuff up nowadays anyway.)
1Well, for a given value of "done," not 100%, there's still some monsters to copy across to the summon bestiary, Summon Undead IV to IX to populate, finishing the domains and inquisition lists/copy-acrosses (having first checked all PF domains/subdomians and added any spells they called for!) and the final spell lists for some of the 3.5 classes from the current temporary scratch sheets; plus potentially adding some more PF Prc to the PrC document, but it's at the point I could print it out and I have sent it off to my mates. So "done," in a relative sense, in that HOPEFULLY I can't find anything more that I want to add now...! *eyeglow twitch* *eyeglow twitch*
And the physical printing, but that can wait until I'm less paranoid about printing 293 pages of spell document to find I desperately need to add Aarvark Blast or something or a catastrophic typo in Absolute Zero.
Aotrs Commander
2020-05-28, 07:26 PM
So! I've just started being a bit more active on the forums, but I'm afraid I haven't really seen any of your previous threads on this subject. I'm really curious though, could you give me a basic description of what Aotrs is all about? Is it a big collection of OGL content from 3.PF or is there more to it?
I know you said to give you a nudge via PM, but since I'm already here asking for a synopsis I guess I should mention here too that I'd love a link, hah.
Nah, I meant PM for people as daft enough to want to actualy, like, see it in full, rather than just talk about it.
(If it was all OGL, I could potentially have DONE sommat with it proper-like, I 'spose, but it isn't!)
3.Aotrs is fundementally technically a set of 3.5/PF1 hybrid house rules. But at the point (even before this version) it had gotten to mere low hundreds of pages, it kind of needed to be called something, so it got termed 3.Aotrs.
(The Aotrs or the Army Of The Red Spear (anacroym pronouced "A" as in "hay"- "oat-ers,") the thing what I take my interwebs monker from is a high-tech, high science empire of magical space liches and nothing really whatsoever to do with this set of rules1 aside from being named after me after them3...
3.Aotrs, then, at this point I think is fundementally a sort of edition all by itself at that level...!
As a sort of... taster, I guess, he's the "patch notes" i sent round to my mates alogn with the document files (bearing in mind this is already going from stuff from version 1.0 and from stuff they already knew.)
(Note because it's mentioned: Dreemaenhyll is my homebrew campaign world that I use when writing my own games for day quests, as opposed to running Adventure Paths (n Golarion) for weekly sessions. Dree was defined by me tossing aside the entire bestiary aside to re-image from mythological scratch (with my usual bend of Tolkien-esque influence), along with replacing vancian casting with manapoints, removing the magic item christmas tree for bonuses by incorperating a fixed set of level bonuses that EVERYTHING (monster/PC/NPC gets) and an entuirely seperate cosmology (which got a revamp from v1.0 3.Aotrs). Prior to 3.A v 1.0, side from in the spells, most of their Dree-specific rules were in their own documents.
One of the things I did this pass was try unify things a bit more for my own sake and walk back some of the stuff I'd done then because having twice as many spell lists to deal with everytime I changed something was getting tiresome. Notably, like re-instating a version of the Shadow Plane, which had got removed from Dree because shadow (the privative of light) was an element. Dree's revised cosmology has the functions of the D&D shadow plane as part of a region of the Plane of Ice (more properly, the pane of cold) near the border with the negative energy plane. So Illusion "Shadow" could come back and thus not be Illusion (Shadow) in one world and Evocation (Shadow) in another!)
But mostly what it means is that Dree needs to have a seperate monster bestiary, as they have little in common. But we play that infrequently enough I can deal with it on a case-by-case basis.
Stuff like the mana point rules and level-based stuff is still in the Dree rules, but things equipment lists have been unified (Dree uses basically Roman currency, rather than decimal and sesterii, not gp, so when I did the equipment lists, I just put in a second column.)
3.Aotrs 2.0 Patch notes:
As I have been doing this for nine months now, an exhaustive lists would be pointless, but here are the most notable changes (that I can remember). This is probably still going to be stupid-long.
General:
Slightly changes how starting stats are assigned to accommodate PF-style race bonuses (+2/+/2/-2); no change to existing characters.
Potions are now a Move action to drink or a Standard action to feed to someone else.
You now get one Swift and one Immediate action per round (instead of your Immediate coming at the expense of next round’s Swift; I don’t think we ever remember that in any case).
Advantage and Disadvantage (roll twice, take best/worst result) applied as terminology throughout rules.
Confusion status updated to Pathfinder, and changed to D4 (since there is literally not reason to roll a D100 for four 25% chances).
Hasted, Hobbled (the caltrop effect) and Slowed added as full conditions (and removing a lot of “as the spell” nonsense); DM’s screen updated appropriately.
Many formerly separately/documented Dreemaenhyll-specific changes are now in the main rules (indicated by grey text as before); yellow-backed text has now changed slightly in usage to be uniformly “anywhere BUT Dreemaenhyll.)
Dreemaenhyll cosmology re-written (areas unseen mostly), elements simplified.
Darkning renamed to Nether and has become functionally dark energy (from the dark matter plane) not just a privative of lightning.
Efforts made to standardise spells between Dreemaenhyll and everywhere else.
Equipment and gear lists translated. Expanded and added Dreemaenhyll currencies added in a separate column.
Damage:
Psychic damage added to all relevant effects as a damage type.
Sonic renamed to Thunder. (Been tempted to do this since it first showed up in 4E.)
Radiant (formerly Light), Nether (formerly darkning) and Shadow damage fully integrated into base rules, rather than being Dree-specific additions.
Dreemaenhyll damage elements (Steam/Magma/Heat/Ice/Corrosion/Dust/Ooze/Mist) deleted and folded back into original versions; for compound elements, the appropriate compound is now added as an “and” damage type. So previously magma damage => Fire and Earth damage.
Skills:
All skills now added to Master Rules, all with skill unlocks.
Search redefined to function closer to Investigation.
Diplomacy slightly re-worked to be how we actually use it, rather than 3.P’s terrible “attitude” system.
Associated: Trapfinding no longer required to detect traps, but instead allows them to be detected via Perception (i.e. looking) rather than Search (i.e. by prodding around); ditto for Track.
Feats:
Feat list now contains a proper contents list. (You need to grovel on this on, that took a STUPID amount of effort get sorted just by itself.)
Feats document now contains 93% of approx. the 2100 feats, with only about 160 remaining sources from the CR1, PHB2, ToB and XPH. (Yes, I DID consider you going “to hell with it,” but I actually wanted to draw a line under this and not spend another week or so on it at this point, honestly. v3.0, that will likely happen.)
Feat taxes drastically reduced.
All combat manoeuvres feats (e.g. drag/grapple/trip/overrun etc) have the starting “Improved” feat prerequisites removed. In addition, the fats had that PF “greater” versions rolled into them so they scale.
All feats that used Combat Expertise as a pre-req decoupled. CE remains as a stand-alone feat, but is no longer feat tax. (I checked each and every one to see if any of them in any way had a mechanical reason to be gated behind CE or Int 13 and to my surprise, there was not a single one nor did any have any fluff reason to be so.)
Mobility deleted and rolled into dodge.
Precise Shot partly rolled into Point-Blank Shot, and the former now grants the effect of the feat that let you ignore allies as cover.
Spring Attack wording improved; the later parts of the chain rolled into it at the appropriate level
Whirlwind Attack pre-reqs dropped so it can now be gotten at an appropriate level without feat tax.
Classes:
Added Shaman and Witch to base classes, bringing total base classes to 59. (Plus archetypes) (Bleakbane's note: this was an addition to me having already added a boatload of PF classes to take us to 57 when I last spoke to the lads.)
Added several additional archetypes to various classes.
Exterminator slayer archetype renamed to assassin. Assassin prestige class renamed to exterminator. (For the sake of Tim, any old person with a sword can kill someone for money (or whatever) and be an assassin, but only an Assassin can make sure they STAY dead.)
Added the never-completed priest class (nominally for Dreemaenhyll for non-spell clerics, but which I never found anything to particularly DO) as an archetype to Warpriest (trades out armour and spells for auras (ala dragon shaman/marshal), bonus feats and becoming the defacto best energy channellers (formerly turn/rebuke) class).
Took a pass through Prestige classes. Now an official 3.Aotrs document for same. Parsed through my pre-existing approved list of PrC adding/updating or removing as necessary. Some PrC have been changed into feat chains (the really crappy ones) or archetypes (notably invisible blade, now a ninja archetype). Most remaining PrC are hybrid classes. Many PrC are now 12-14 level advancement, starting at lower level as we have been but now incorporate actual class features from the PF version at the appropriate levels (e.g. mystic theurge). True Necromancer is no longer a laughing stock that is worse at necromancy than cleric, wizard or dread necromancer; Pale Master (because I had to, didn’t I?) updated and slightly improved. WiP (which is why it is v1.9), more additions to come later.
Summon Bestiary:
Significant expansion for Summon Bestiary, which will eventually comprise stats for any creature that can be summoned (etc) by any spell, power or class feature. Still a WiP.
Spells:
Cantrips now at-will (or expended after some number of uses) ala Pathfinder. Cantrips can now be loaded in higher level slots (or higher level slots expended to grant you the use of them for the day) and work as if affected by Heightened Spell automatically; further more damage-dealing ones deal extra damage equal to (spell level x 2) -1. So if you want to use a 9th level slot for Ray of Frost, it gives you D3+17 damage per shot.
All new or modified spells are marked with blue titles.
Several additional descriptors added: Emotion, Pain, Disease, Poison, Shadow.
Spells document now has approximate 2300 spells (which is not at all of them, but as before, spells not in this document are in CR1, SpC or PHBII). Maybe in v3.0.
Ruthlessly added every spell referenced by another spell to the document, to minimise (if not eliminate) having to look through two books for a spell. (This is likely not 100% completed, as I did not check through every spell in the books, but was applied to all spells in the document or added.
Ruthlessly added every spell which formerly had a name change (because I’m personally fed-up with looking for Acid Arrow and then having to look it up under “M”.) This also allowed yellow-backed text to be repurposed (formerly it existed in a spell title to just show a renamed spell) to “spell which does not exist on Dreemaenhyll”, which itself confined to “requires stats for monsters not made in Dree bestiary or which have no equivalent.”
Deleted/folded in some cantrips, so that the wizards cantrip list stayed static at 40 (mostly so it doesn’t invalidate every NPC spellbook, plus it’s a good round number).
Modified prestidigitation to incorporate 5E uses, and likewise added 5E style equivalents (thaumaturgy and druidcraft) to cleric and druid orisons.
Eliminated Bigby’s Hand spells; several reflavoured/updated, and the main line compressed into a single spell (also ala 5E) Force Construct (which lets you Green Lantern) which can be a hand if you like.
All conjuration (Healing) spells changed to Necromancy (Healing). (Where they always should stayed if 3.0 hadn’t randomly decided they shouldn’t be (inflict spells aren’t) and then proceeded to use conjuration and transmutation as the waste-basket taxon schools, leading to bloat. This at least redressed that a little bit.)
All homebrew spells have been gone over and improved and updated as necessary; most are considerably better now and actually competitive with other spells.
Domains:
All Pathfinder domains checked, appropriate spells added (or subdomains not ported over). No new spells to be added, but the complete domain list remains a WiP (but is a component that can be dealt with on a character-by-character basis and is already done for all current existing Domain-using classes).
Trekked through all domain spells in 3.5 which were unique to domains and parcelled out said spells to other class list where possible (else they might as well not exist). The primaries beneficiaries have been witch/shaman and to a lesser extent wu jen and shugenja, giving these classes some more unique spells that clr/drd/wiz don’t get.
Partial list (starting from the point I started tracking) of spells changed/renamed/removed:
Spell name changes/replacements
All Conjuration (Healing) Changed to Necromancy (Healing)
Animate Dead Sor/Wiz down to 3rd (no good reason for it to be 4th other than AD&D interia)
Animate Dead, Lesser Sor/Wiz down to 2nd (it was level 2 because of the above)
Bleed (Comp. champon) Deliquesce (name conflict with new cantrip cantrip)
Call Aquatic Animal I deleted (unnecessary bloat for summon bestiary)
Call Aquatic Animal II deleted (unnecessary bloat for summon bestiary)
Call Aquatic Humanoid I deleted (unnecessary bloat for summon bestiary)
Call Aquatic Monster deleted (unnecessary bloat for summon bestiary)
Call Aquatic Humanoid II deleted (unnecessary bloat for summon bestiary)
Clean folded into Prestigitation/thaumaterugy/druidcraft
Chill/warmth folded into Prestigitation/thaumaterugy/druidcraft
Enlarge Weapon deleted (replaced by Lead Blades & Gravity Bow)
Entice Gift Replaced with Demand Offering
Spark folded into Prestigitation/thaumaterugy/druidcraft
Disrupting Hand deleted (crap)
Clenched Fist folded into Force Construct
Crushing Hand folded into Force Construct
Forceful Hand folded into Force Construct
Grasping Hand folded into Force Construct
Interposing Hand folded into Force Construct
Pass the Years deleted (bestow curse greater)
Quiet Contemplation deleted (early 3rd party 3.0 spell, on examination WAAAY too strong for what it was.)
Sneeze deleted (crap)
Striking Fist folded into Battering Ram
Summon Elysian Thrush changed to Song of Rest
Summon babau demon folded into Summon Monster V
Summon bearded devil folded into Summon Monster V
Summon bralani eldarin folded into Summon Monster V
Summon elemental monolith deleted (unnecessary bloat for summon bestiary)
Summon elementite swarm deleted (unnecessary bloat for summon bestiary)
Summon greater elemental deleted (summon nature’s ally VII)
summon hound archon folded into Summon Monster IV
Tripping Hand Gravity Surge
Warding Hand Gravity Leash
Tasks to be completed/in progress:
Create the word versions of all the spell lists from the spreadsheet lists. The excel sheet provided is all the raw data to look at though; the task is merely copy the end columns into a document and do some reformatting.
Re-do spell book lists for current wizards/archivists.
Summon Bestiary: approx. 20 miscellaneous creatures plus Summon Monster lists to be added; Summon Undead (at new levels VI to IX) to be filled out and completed in due course.
Domain list/write to be completed; inquisitions (for inquisitor) pending write-up (again inquisitions are a once-per-character decision and thus can be dealt with modularly).
Final spells list for 3.5 classes Beguiler/Hexblade/Shugenja/Wu Jen (compiling the lists, as spells were added to a scrap-note list as I went along).
Addition of more PF PrC to PrC document, as well as one or two last 3.5 psionic PrC.
Future v3.0 possibilities:
Addition and application of Pathfinder 3rd party Tome of Battle stuff (Path of War). This would have required adding more base classes, more schools and pertinently, a rebalance of existing ToB manoeuvres (and a re-printing of ALL THE CARDS), which I emphatically could not be arsed to do this time (would likely add another month or two). For next insanity time. Likely they will end up treated the same way as spells/powers in terms of documentation, rather than done school by school like in ToB itself.
Remaining feats and spells added to documents.
Removal of all odd stat prerequisites (so PA would be Str 13 => Str 12); no good reason why they are odd, except as a stat tax from 3.0, but was deemed too much extra work (would have functionally required all feats to be added) this pass.
Consideration of opening it up so that everyone gets a feat every level, instead of every odd level. Would mean more time on monsters (plus working out what feats to give animals) and potentially more decision bloat at levelling. See how we get along with this first.
And for the sake of arguement to show what horrible, horrible munckins we are, here's the first page of the Master Rules, detailing some very general changes, or the sort of thing NORMAL people would consider a game's worth of house-rules...!
(The stuff marked with an asterisk is stuff that we didn't really do sort of intentional REASON, it was just how we've played it since 3.0; whrn I did 1.0, I just wrote that up and formalised it, as much for the sake of it being documented somewhere for people who came in or whatever.)
Death: Death occurs when at a negative number of hit points is reached equal to the greater (i.e. furthest below 0) of:
a) Constitution stat
b) Half maximum hit points
This value is for simplicity called the death threshold.
Hit points equal to negative maximum hit points can equal body destruction for dramatic effect if needed.
(Typically, for monsters, death occurs at –1 or less.)
Death from Massive Damage: Eliminated completely.
Hit Points: Maximum gained at each level.
(Bleakbane's Note: While most of the 3.5 D6 HD classes have gone up to D8 ala PF1, the D4 classes have stayed at D4, and not gone to PF's D6. They've had enough bonuses, and they're getting maxed anyway, so they'll have more hit points than you'd expect they would in PF anyway, between higher stats (see below) and max-dice. So they cna have their D4 and like it!
One of my players was well-chuffed though, as all four of his characters got either a D6=> D8 or a D8=>D10 increase for an extra 2 hp/level...!)
Stats: Base 8, plus an number of points, point-for-point (currently 34), to a maximum of 10 per stat (18 stat), plus racial modifiers. Racial are applied after the stats are assigned.
If you have a racial penalty to a stat that reduces that stat total after racial bonuses to below 18, you can expend 4 stat points to reduce that penalty by 2 or 8 points to reduce it by 4 (to a minimum of 0 penalty in both cases). (You are effectively paying double cost for being able to have an effective stat of above 18 before racials.)
(Bleakbane's Note: Prior to 3.A v2.0, it was 36 points, max 18, plus racial. V2.0 humans don't get a +2, they just get that 36. (As I feel racial bonuses SHOULD let you be better than creatures without at that stat.) This system functionally means no-one's character's stat change from 3.5 to PF race stats, since PF's extra +2 is fundementally swallowed by the insanely high stats anyway (PF would have not expected you to be able to get anything LIKE that stat base to have two 18s to start, let alone where under my errent DMing, you are xpected to start with two! (It's doesn't make the SAD classes fundementally better, but it does help the MAD classes a lot.)
Feats: revised to 1 every odd level. (Convert existing characters and monsters by adding one feat at level 7, 13 and 19.) A character may choose to delay a level-based feat one level (e.g. 5th to 6th for Improved Two-Weapon Combat); a character doing so gains 4+Constitution modifer hit points. (These are treated as regular hit-points, but are overwritten when the character levels up. Essentially, the character is trading off their feat for an advance on some of next level’s hit points.)
(Alternatively, of course, a character could take a feat and then retrain at the appropriate level.)
Epic characters and Monsters: Standardised such that both characters and monsters over 20HD do not increase base attack bonus and saves, but get (HD-20)/2 round up bonus to attack and (HD-20)/2 round down bonus to saves.
*Critical hits: Roll the dice and multiple by the critical multiplier, not roll multiple dice. (E.g. Great Axe crit is D12x3 + mods (x3) + extra dice, not 3D12+ mods (x3) + extra dice.)
Multiclassing: Multiclass penalties are eliminated – classes are considered primarily metagame concepts. Favoured class is also completely eliminated, (aside from any (DM-enforced) flavour bias when on campaign worlds.) Class-based multiclassing restrictions are also likewise eliminated (e.g. Paladin or Monk).
Alignment: With the exception of Paladin, all alignment based class restrictions are removed. Paladin remains typed to LG. (Note that 3.Aotrs does NOT use any material from Unearthed Arcana, so there are no Paladin variants, save occasionally for world-specific classes.)
*Rounding: In general, rounding of damage calculations in stat block or for PCs is rounded up, not down.
Powers, Spells and Death: Powers and spells that are concentration-based or dismissable (D) are assumed to end when the caster dies, unless otherwise stated. Otherwise, Powers and Spells with a duration will persist until their duration expires, even if the caster is dead.
*Flanking: To flank an opponent, two allies characters or creatures must threaten the opponent on its opposite border or corner.
The threatening characters or creatures and all their allies within 30 feet (or their precision damage range if it is higher) gain a +2 flanking bonus on attacks against the flanked opponent.
When in doubt about whether two characters flank an opponent in the middle, trace an imaginary line between the two attackers’ centers. If the line passes through opposite borders of the opponent’s space (including corners of those borders), then the opponent is flanked.
Exception: If a flanker takes up more than 1 square, qualifies for flanking if any square it occupies meets the criterion.
Only a creature or character that threatens the defender can help an attacker flank the defender.
Creatures with a reach of 0 feet can’t flank an opponent.
XP costs and Crafting: All XP costs have been removed and replaced by material components equal to five times the value. All spells have this material requirement listed.
For crafting, this cost is required in appropriate materials and/or reagents (see Dreemaenhyll equipment for some guidelines on determining what is to be required.) Note that diamonds are a default universal substitute for 11th level or lower effects for the purposes of crafting and Pure Mana is a universal substitute. This reagent cost is sublimated into the 50% price crafting cost, so creating an item requires 20% of the price to be in special materials (reagents) or Pure Mana and 30% in gold). This cost in reagents cannot be bought directly; if the character does not have a suitable reagent or material collected as part of their advenurting career, it must be earned or purchased as Magic capital (i.e., it requires some time investment to purchase).
Magic capital or Pure Mana can be substituted for all or part of the gold cost for crafting magic items or material components for magic, psionics (etc etc).
Note that scrolls and potions of 250gp or less are crafted in two hours.
Swift and Immediate Actions: Each character gains one Swift and one Immediate action per round. You can use a Swift action to activate an Immediate action during your turn (this still leaves you your Immediate action which is refreshed at the beginning of your turn with all your other actions.)
Advantage and Disadvantage: Advantage and Disadvantage applies to D20 rolls (and occasionally other types of dice rolls). When you roll with Advantage or Disadvantage, you roll two D20 (etc) and select the highest result (for Advantage) or lower lowest roll (for Disadvantage.) Advantage and disadvantage canel each other out, and multiple sources of Advantage or Disadvantage don’t stack.
Planes and planets: Planes are found in cosmologies, which may though of (incorrectly, but illustratively) as akin to planets in solar systems. A cosmology is a cluster of planes “local” to one or more solar systems. Some solar systems (despite being disparate in material space) share a “local” set of planes (e.g. Caranda and Faerun), where as others (e.g. Golarion or Dreemaenhyll) have a different set of “local” planes. A given cosmology may have a different composition of planes, not unlike a planetary systems have different planets.
Despite what is popularly believed (often even by the gods themselves), most planes are not actually infinite, but merely extremely large. The “true” physical size of an “infinite” plane is usually no more than about half a light-year radius at most (often smaller, though nearly incomprehensibly still massive), before they peter out into the void. In the case of some planes (e.g. elemental planes), it is theorhetically possible to travel through the void to another “local” cluster of planes in the same way as travelling between star-systems in regular space. (I..e, if one took a starship into the Elemental Plane of Fire in Faerun’s Great Wheel cosmology, one might be able to travel via FTL methods to the Elemental Plane of Fire in Golarion’s Great Beyond.)
Note that while the Ethereal and Astral planes are truly coterminous with all points of the prime material plane (and as massively finite in size), they are still subject to the limitations of intersystem distances and thus, descriptions of “anywhere on the plane” should be treated as “anywhere on the ‘local’ plane.”
NPC Classes: Warrior: Bonus Combat Feat at 1st, 3rd and every 3 levels thereafter.
Potions: Drinking a potion or using an oil is a Move Action on yourself, or a Standard action to use on an unconscious creature.
Congratulations for finally finishing it!
Here’s hoping your group appreciates the immense amount of work you put into it.
Me too...!
Actually…it’s aardvark.
*runs away*
In all seriousness, that's EXACTLY the sort of thing I'm afraid of.
'Cos version 1.0? I finished it, printed it, went back to quest writing and IMMEDIATELY found I had missed Disjunction (and to add the not as massively-disruptive Pathfinder version thereof); like seriously, it was like the first thing I encountered as I started work on preparing Rise of the Runelord's next bit...
As a result, I started making an "addendum" at the bottom of the rules, so as I found stuff I needed to add/change I could put it there and print it out without having to redo EVERYTHING. (Spells document was 140 pages in v1.0!
...
Huh. It's "only" doubled....)
Edit: Haha, as if to prove my point, I didn't do a full pagination check on the Master Rules document (though it's not as critical) and I spotted some missing words in that stuff I just pasted then. Which just goes to show...! Master Rules already at v2.01 hot-fix...!
1Excepting for the flagrant favourisim shown towards Undead in the choice of archetypes/PrCs 2, rules tweaks and the shameless modification to the Dread Necromancer to become the much better Spirit-Bound, not phylactery-bound Lich...
2Laugh at the True Necromancer NOW that's a 16-level 3rd level entry double-progression casting PrC ending with 18/18 casting, why don't you!
3To expound the Aotrs in more detail would be both off-topic and veers easily in the tens of thousands of words in and off themselves... I do an infrequent blog-post on them over of FimFic (same name) and the first couple barely scratches the surface!)
Aotrs Commander
2020-05-30, 03:51 AM
So, now that you're (essentially) finished, any chance you'll be working on your tidally locked world with its nonhumanoid species?
Possibly, but this sort of project is something I work on over the course of, like years and decades (and usually spurred by quest-writing, which is itself usually sprurred when out and about/on holiday, the exact things the lcokdown is preventing; so while since you mentioned it last I have been giving it some more thought, anything concrete is still likely a looong way off. Earlist possibil4e of partial progress is if (and that's still an if) I decide to prepared something for the Christmas RPG.
But for the record, as things exist so far:
Partical recovered data from Aotrs classified Myst Project Data
ANDORLAINE, THE EVEN STAR
Mission Report
Ilor system (Myst Gate Location 034)
Ilor systen is a trinary star system consiting of an unusual RCB variable star and a distant binary pair. Ilor is know only through initial AMET recon, due to distance and location. The Ilor system is the opposite side of the galaxy in a direction that we believe to be in an area of unoccupied space. Normal astronomical operations had catalouged the existance of the system, but due to extreme range, no further investigation had occurred.
The Ilor system has several planets, but the most notable one is an Earth-like world approximately 105 AU from the primary, where the Myst Gate opening was located. Initial recon suggested that this world was called “Andorlaine” by at least one group of inhabitants. This planet is unusually, for the distance, tide-locked to the primary.
Ilor A
G0 RCB Variable
Mass: 1.59084×1030 (0.8 Sol)
Mean Radius: 66941875 km (96.25 Sol)
Density: 0.00127 kg/m³
Temperature: 6700K
Luminosity: 18818 Sol
Absolute Magnitude: -5.85
Ilor A, the primary is G0 yellow supergiant of the RCB Variable type. RCB stars are very rare and the phenomina and cause is still poorly understood. An RCB variable star undergoes a period during which the magnitude of the visible light drastically decreases (about eight magnitudes in the case of Ilor A) for a period and then returns to its former brightness. This is due to the star's periodic explusion of clouds of dust, due to a high-carbon content of the star's composition. The exact cause for this phenomina are still uncertain, as is the method in which RCB stars form. Despite the star's size, the average density is extremely low, due to the large, nebulous corona around the star's core.
What makes Ilor A even more unusual is that it is far older than a typical yellow supergiant or RCB star. These typically only last few some ten thousands of years, but Ilor A is old enough for planets to form and complex life to evolve, which places the star’s age at billions of years. In addition, the periods of dimming appear to be at a much greater interval and duration that normal. A “typical” RCB variable star has a dimming period that lasts months, usually months to years apart. Ilor A has a dimming period that lasts centuries and appears to be centuries or millenia apart. There is currently no explanation for this phenomina – speculation is there is some exotic material in the star's composition that causes it to burn “slower” than a typical yellow supergiant.
There is a theory that the exposed dust clouds are sheparded by the existance of the binary pair's orbit where they eventually become trapped in Ilor A's gravity and recycled, but without further investigatation – extremely unlikely, given the distance of the system – this is little more than speculation.
Ilor B
[DATA MISSING]
Mass: 2.1874×1030 (1.1 Sol)
Mean Radius: 853378 km (1.227 Sol)
Density: 840.26 kg/m³
Temperature: 5790K
Luminosity: 1.56 Sol
Absolute Magnitude: 4.378
Ilor C
[DATA MISSING]
Mass: 1.8036 ×1030 (1.1 Sol)
Mean Radius: 601607 km (1.227 Sol)
Density: 1977.50 kg/m³
Temperature: 5790K
Luminosity: 0.51 Sol
Absolute Magnitude: 5.554
The binary pair of Ilor B and C are approximately 23 AU apart, with an orbital period of 77.92 years. No planets were detected during the survey, but due to the distance and the contentration of efforts on Ilor A, it is possible that some low-mass planets exist. Ilor B and C orbit approximately 3000 AU from the primary, and thus have an orbital period of 98145 years.
Andorlaine
Mass: 6.3734×1024
Mean Radius: 6523 km
Density: 840.26 kg/m³
Orbital Period: 1197.15 years
Rotational period: 1197.15 years (tide-locked)
Surface Gravity: 1.018G (9.99657m/s²)
Equilibrium Temperature: 291.79K
Ilor 9876A (from planet)
Apparent Diameter: 29.408
Apparent Magnitude: -26.78, dropping to -18.78 during dimming period.
Stellar Flux: 2351.465 W/m²
The world of Andorlaine has a mean radius of 6523 km and is thus 7.3% larger than Earth HPE baseline. Surface gravity is 1.018G, ( suggesting the density of the planet is very slightly less than Earth HPE baseline (about 99.4%). Andorlaine is tide-locked to the primary, suggesting that for that to occur such a distance, the planet's initial rotational inertia must have been unusually low. Close analysis suggests the planet is not quite tide-locked, but that its day length is longer than the year-length and may be two to four thousand years.
Due to the tidelocking, the sunward side is characterised by a continual hurricane centred around the substellar point. The high stellar flux creates a significant albedo to the planet due to intense cloud-cover. The upper atmosphere super-rotates, meaning that areas outside of the hurricane towards the terminator have more sporadic cloud-cover and that from the planet, high-level clouds move significantly faster than on a terrestial planet. It is also theorised that Andorlaine has a higher water-vapour content than Earth, further aiding the cloud-cover. The lower atmosphere blows colder air from the night side across to the day side, forming a continuous breeze of an estimated mean wind strength of [DATA MISSING].
Atmospheric composition appears to be close to terrestrial, with 18.78% oxygen, [DATA MISSING]% nitrogen, [DATA MISSING]% carbon dioxide and [DATA MISSING]% trace gases. The atmosphere has resisted distructruction from stellar wing due t[DATA MISSING]
Andorlaine receives significantly more energy from the star than Earth, but due to the greater amount of albedo due to the cloud cover and the heat lost on the night side is only a mean of 4ºC warmer than Earth. The dust clouds emitted during the primary do not significantly block infrared emissions, so despite the dimming periods, it is believed that the global temperature would not drop catastrophically. Further, it is believed that the periods of change are slow enough that flora and fauna must adapt to the change the same sort of way as to seasonal changes.
Andorlaine has one moon, a small body approximately 1220km in diameter, believed to be a captured satelite. The moon orbits once in fractionally over six days, and rotates on its own axis in half that time. The moon's surface has a very high albedo of 0.4, due to a combination of a high silver concentration on the surfcae and magnesium oxide desposits on the surface. These are believed to be left behind by the photonic dissociation of surface water ice as the moon's surface temperature rose as it got closer to the sun. This will render the moon especially bright when observed from the planet, especially from the night side.
Despite higher tidal forces on the moon than comparable to Luna, Andorlaine's moon is in a stable orbit and it is likely to be billions of years before the inhabitants need to worry about it striking the surface. In addition, the acceleration on the planet from the moon's orbit is lower than the deceleration of Luna upon Earth and has not made a significant impact on the planet.
The moon's other notable feature is a dark spot near the equator, believed to be an impact crater. Because of the rotation of the moon, this feature would be visible only from the day-side of the planet. The visiual effect has been likened to the opening and closing of any eye as the impact crater rotates into and out of sight.
Andorlaine shows the presence of considerable plant-life. From the distance, little can be determined about the specifics of the flora. Most of the life is concentrated around the terminator, but it is believed that extremeophile lifeforms exist towards the substellar point, though likely these would be small if not microscopic ecosystems. The presense of dark surface cover on the night side suggests some form of extremeophile flora exists there to, though exactly how such could exist with the relatively minimal amount of moonlight reflected from the moon is unknown.
Flora towards the substellar point is a pale-yellow green, darkening towards black at the terminator where the lesser amount of light would require the use of additional photosynthetic pigments.
Andorlaine is in a 2:3 resonance with its closest neighbour, a gas-giant about 80 AU from the primary. This impacts some tectonic activity to the planet, though initial estimates suggest that the amount present cannot be entirely explaned by the resonance that there is some other unidentified causal factor.
Most interestingly, Andorlaine shows the signs of civilisation – the survey located several areas which appeared to be cities, though whether these were still occupied at the current time is unknown. No power emissions or transmissions were detected in the system from the scans, nor were any orbital platforms observed, so if civilisation does still exist on the surface, it is likely pre-spaceflight.
Final Note:
As the AMET’s team’s Fallen Soul was conducting an orbital survey, they detected what appeared to be a body in orbit around Ilor A, at or near or possibly below the surface of the star's corona. The body may have been an usually dense cluster of dust-cloud or a sunspot, but the shape and shear density of the dark spot suggested that it might be a dwarf planet. It is unclear how such a planetoid could exist at or around a star's corona, and the possibilty of it being an artifically created body was raised. If so, the purpose of such a body – save perhaps as a contibutuing factor to Ilor A’s “slow burn” is as much a mystery as who could have created it.
Life Form Classification Data:
Domain: “EM insubstanitals”
Kingdom: [DATA MISSING]
Phylum: [DATA MISSING]
Subphylum: [DATA MISSING]
Class: [DATA MISSING]
Order: [DATA MISSING]
Family: [DATA MISSING]
Genus: [DATA MISSING]
Species: “shadow creatures”
Domain: [DATA MISSING]
Unranked: “fungi-equivilents”
Kingdom: “primative plants/algae”
Unranked: “dark side surface psuedo-algae”
Kingdom: “plants”
Kingdom: “Animals”
Phylum: [DATA MISSING]
Subphylum: “vertebrate comb jellies”
Class: “marine forms[DATA MISSING]”
Class: “magic floating forms”
Order: [DATA MISSING]
Family: [DATA MISSING]
Genus: [DATA MISSING]
Species: “demon brains”
Order: [DATA MISSING]
Family: [DATA MISSING]
Genus: [DATA MISSING]
Species: “ghost jellies”
Order: “shelled flyers”
Phylum: [DATA MISSING]
Subphylum: “vertebrates[DATA MISSING]”
Class: [DATA MISSING]
Order: [DATA MISSING]
Family: [DATA MISSING]
Genus: [DATA MISSING]
Species: “plateau city near-humanoids”
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