NichG
2020-07-23, 07:41 AM
This basically started as theory-craft about alternative ways of doing prestige classes, but I sort of ended up building an entire system around the thing. Mythclad rewrites most of D&D 3.5's systems, to make a broad game which is about sky pirates or delving into Lovecraftian horrors or rebuilding the cosmos in your characters' image or ascending to become a new generation of gods (and possibly a couple other things besides). Pillars of Eternity was a significant mechanical inspiration for some elements of this.
The main premise is that characters are avatars of existing Myths (Mythclad) - the setting equivalent to deities - who can take those myths in new directions as a mechanism by which the Myths change and grow. These Mythclad are all over the place, but many will have stories that get cut short or not go anywhere, while those who build legends around themselves can influence the direction that their patron Myth evolves or even supplant them entirely.
Here's the link (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Jb-bbEfNNvFsKCroV1ONaJ4umTOTTQ_/view?usp=sharing), before I get too far into descriptions.
The system is intended to produce highly versatile characters, giving multiple ways for any character to obtain that versatility. The Mythic powers are quite open-ended and invoke dramatic editing effects, and can be combined arbitrarily with what the character gets from class levels from 9 base classes (3 martial types, 3 spellcasting types, 3 gadgeteering types, all of which have extensive ability lists), as well as a sort of socketable alternative to prestige classes which are explicitly based on organizational membership, and grant extra abilties at particular character levels when that membership is being socketed. So basically everyone is intended to be Tier 1 regardless of character archetype, and max level characters should be doing things like redefining the nature of reality not just fighting wars. The spell/maneuver/etc lists have been redone from scratch, so some broad things (like Wish) aren't there, but other sometimes broader things have replaced it.
Probably the thing I'm most concerned about in terms of being a big design risk is that I've replaced the standard/move/swift/immediate action framework with an action-point framework designed to be used as an alternative to full attacks and to make for more interesting combo-based gameplay for martials. This means that everyone's action economy has a bit of flex to it - just as you might make multiple strikes in a round, someone else might cast multiple spells, etc. It also means that an exploit to get very high Dexterity for example would do a lot more than in d20. I think I have a rough idea of where the numbers go (expect e.g. 1k damage per round potential from optimized Lv20 characters in the absence of mitigation), and I might tweak that a bit, but if it turns out to be 10 or 100x what I'm expecting I'd rather know before I start running this than after. Monsters definitely need to be written from the ground up for this system, or at least all CRs above 8 or so are going to need to be dropped by a lot.
I'll probably do a campaign in this system with my group starting either late this year or early next year, so I guess I'll see how it runs then.
The main premise is that characters are avatars of existing Myths (Mythclad) - the setting equivalent to deities - who can take those myths in new directions as a mechanism by which the Myths change and grow. These Mythclad are all over the place, but many will have stories that get cut short or not go anywhere, while those who build legends around themselves can influence the direction that their patron Myth evolves or even supplant them entirely.
Here's the link (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Jb-bbEfNNvFsKCroV1ONaJ4umTOTTQ_/view?usp=sharing), before I get too far into descriptions.
The system is intended to produce highly versatile characters, giving multiple ways for any character to obtain that versatility. The Mythic powers are quite open-ended and invoke dramatic editing effects, and can be combined arbitrarily with what the character gets from class levels from 9 base classes (3 martial types, 3 spellcasting types, 3 gadgeteering types, all of which have extensive ability lists), as well as a sort of socketable alternative to prestige classes which are explicitly based on organizational membership, and grant extra abilties at particular character levels when that membership is being socketed. So basically everyone is intended to be Tier 1 regardless of character archetype, and max level characters should be doing things like redefining the nature of reality not just fighting wars. The spell/maneuver/etc lists have been redone from scratch, so some broad things (like Wish) aren't there, but other sometimes broader things have replaced it.
Probably the thing I'm most concerned about in terms of being a big design risk is that I've replaced the standard/move/swift/immediate action framework with an action-point framework designed to be used as an alternative to full attacks and to make for more interesting combo-based gameplay for martials. This means that everyone's action economy has a bit of flex to it - just as you might make multiple strikes in a round, someone else might cast multiple spells, etc. It also means that an exploit to get very high Dexterity for example would do a lot more than in d20. I think I have a rough idea of where the numbers go (expect e.g. 1k damage per round potential from optimized Lv20 characters in the absence of mitigation), and I might tweak that a bit, but if it turns out to be 10 or 100x what I'm expecting I'd rather know before I start running this than after. Monsters definitely need to be written from the ground up for this system, or at least all CRs above 8 or so are going to need to be dropped by a lot.
I'll probably do a campaign in this system with my group starting either late this year or early next year, so I guess I'll see how it runs then.