[Avatar d20 Project] Setting Main Hub

[String]

Um, which edition is that?

3.5

EDIT: ninja'ed

[felinoel]

3.5, Player's Handbook 2. I don't think the fourth-edition Player's Handbook 2 has been published yet.

The whole Avatar project uses 3.5.

It is something from DnD? I was positive you just made it up to replace races or something? I am the one who made the site's character sheets, should I replace race with affiliation anyway?

[String]

It is something from DnD? I was positive you just made it up to replace races or something? I am the one who made the site's character sheets, should I replace race with affiliation anyway?

Er...

In Order:

Yes, it's from DnD. WotC, even.

No, it is not a replacement for races, it's something completely different and supplementary. If you use affiliations in your game, then when you begin intereacting with an affilliation, you gain an Affiliation Score. (Which starts at zero, modified by all the criterion on the little lists.) As you gain a higher affiliation score (either by leveling up, or doing the stuff on the lists, or other things that the GM decides raises your affiliation score at their discretion) you move higher on those Tiers on the OTHER little lists. It adds a bit more depth to the game is the idea. Affiliations also have things like Capital (determines how much money and power they have), and Violence, Negotiation and Espionage modifiers (which are decided by their type), which are used when interacting with other Affiliations.


Er..I'd go into specifics, but I think the WotC lawyers might be tracking me for this right now.

[theonesin]

I have a new question regarding Affiliations(specifically Dai Li, but it might apply to others). What happens if someone is part of an Affiliation, but ends up leaving?

For example, the Dai Li, while under the control of Long Feng, were focused on keeping the peace. Late in the series for Avatar, Azula controls Long Feng and by extension the Dai Li, and they are forced to do "evil". But what would happen to an Agent who was against Azula's leadership and "left" to join the "good guys"? Would they still hold rank in that Affiliation? Would it have any affect on progressing through the Dai Li Agent PrC?

[String]

I'm not the one who wrote the Dai Li Prestige class, nor one of the guys who hands out the "A-Okays", so I dunno about that particular question (the class as written doesn't have any mention of it). Most social affiliations ( the ones I have written do not, but I'll remedy that shortly), which all the Avatar ones are, have sections in the Members heading that specify how they deal with those who want to leave the affiliation (if they deal with them at all). However, there are no crunchy repurcussions.

If you'd like MY opinion, I would just say that they lose anywhere from 10-30 points from their Affiliation score with that Affiliation, depending on how well that affiliation takes those who leave. I can't really use your particular example, because that involves a PrC I didn't write or have any input on.

May I use my own?

Gong joins the Earth Kingdom Army early in his adventuring career. At level 15, he has an Affiliation score of 18 with the Earth Kingdom Army, meaning he is an Earth Captain. However, after being ordered to kill a firebender who had saved his life just because he was a firebender, Gong refuses breaks with the Earth Kingdom army, Deserting. The DM decides that a -20 penalty is suitable, as Desertion is a serious offense. Gong's score with the EKA drops to 0, and he loses all privileges and titles.

[felinoel]

Er...

In Order:

Yes, it's from DnD. WotC, even.

No, it is not a replacement for races, it's something completely different and supplementary. If you use affiliations in your game, then when you begin intereacting with an affilliation, you gain an Affiliation Score. (Which starts at zero, modified by all the criterion on the little lists.) As you gain a higher affiliation score (either by leveling up, or doing the stuff on the lists, or other things that the GM decides raises your affiliation score at their discretion) you move higher on those Tiers on the OTHER little lists. It adds a bit more depth to the game is the idea. Affiliations also have things like Capital (determines how much money and power they have), and Violence, Negotiation and Espionage modifiers (which are decided by their type), which are used when interacting with other Affiliations.


Er..I'd go into specifics, but I think the WotC lawyers might be tracking me for this right now.

Yes but the Avatar d20 system doesn't use races, I wanted it to but no one seemed to like it...

[Eighth_Seraph]

Well, we tossed other racial possibilities around at first, but Avatar: The Last Airbender definitely only has humans as possible characters. Maybe we could have spirit characters, but I believe Mephibosheth made that a subtype or a template instead of a race.

Also, String, you rock. I like the Dai Li and how there's very clear and few levels of power. I would add one little unorthodox addition, though. Whoever has the highest Affiliation Score among the Dai Li is considered its "head", and has undisputed power over all Dai Li agents, in addition to other benefits of his affiliation score. Is that alright?

[felinoel]

Well, we tossed other racial possibilities around at first, but Avatar: The Last Airbender definitely only has humans as possible characters. Maybe we could have spirit characters, but I believe Mephibosheth made that a subtype or a template instead of a race.

Also, String, you rock. I like the Dai Li and how there's very clear and few levels of power. I would add one little unorthodox addition, though. Whoever has the highest Affiliation Score among the Dai Li is considered its "head", and has undisputed power over all Dai Li agents, in addition to other benefits of his affiliation score. Is that alright?

No I mean Air Nomads, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and Fire Nation as races with racial mods

[String]

Well, we tossed other racial possibilities around at first, but Avatar: The Last Airbender definitely only has humans as possible characters. Maybe we could have spirit characters, but I believe Mephibosheth made that a subtype or a template instead of a race.

Also, String, you rock. I like the Dai Li and how there's very clear and few levels of power. I would add one little unorthodox addition, though. Whoever has the highest Affiliation Score among the Dai Li is considered its "head", and has undisputed power over all Dai Li agents, in addition to other benefits of his affiliation score. Is that alright?

Thats perfectly cool. As it is, the affiliation system sortof assumes this, but it fits with the flavor of the Dai Li to make it explicit. Give me two minutes and it's done.

Yes but the Avatar d20 system doesn't use races, I wanted it to but no one seemed to like it...

I'm confused as to why this pertains to my post. The avatar system makes it convention that all characters are Humans, with the accompanying feat and skill points. This has no bearing on the currently provided affiliations, as all the Avatar-verse ones are Social, not Racial.

[felinoel]

Thats perfectly cool. As it is, the affiliation system sortof assumes this, but it fits with the flavor of the Dai Li to make it explicit. Give me two minutes and it's done.



I'm confused as to why this pertains to my post. The avatar system makes it convention that all characters are Humans, with the accompanying feat and skill points. This has no bearing on the currently provided affiliations, as all the Avatar-verse ones are Social, not Racial.

I asked if I should replace the spot for "race" with "affiliation" since all characters are human

EDIT:
Or how about deity instead?

[Eighth_Seraph]

Meh. The setting doesn't seem to have any real deities, more like vaguely super-powerful spirit-beings that govern different aspects of the world. Even the moon is not truly worshipped, though she is celebrated.

We also considered giving each organization racial mods (+2 Con for Earth Kingdom, +2 Strength or Charisma for Fire Kingdom, +2 Wisdom for Air Nomads, +2 Dex for Water Tribe), but that didn't really stick. We generally decided that it's all a matter of training, so it's just decided in how you roll up your character. That, and the human bonus feat and skills are just so juicy to benders that they're hard to pass up.

[felinoel]

Meh. The setting doesn't seem to have any real deities, more like vaguely super-powerful spirit-beings that govern different aspects of the world. Even the moon is not truly worshipped, though she is celebrated.

We also considered giving each organization racial mods (+2 Con for Earth Kingdom, +2 Strength or Charisma for Fire Kingdom, +2 Wisdom for Air Nomads, +2 Dex for Water Tribe), but that didn't really stick. We generally decided that it's all a matter of training, so it's just decided in how you roll up your character. That, and the human bonus feat and skills are just so juicy to benders that they're hard to pass up.

I see, so do you think I should replace deity with affiliation then?

[Eighth_Seraph]

If you want to run a character that's truly in the Avatar setting, then replace "race" with "affiliation" and eliminate "deity" in your stat block. There's no reason you can't have your character particularly devoted to Yué or the Painted Lady, but it's difficult to have the kind of worship that our Christianized western world is accustomed to in this setting.

[felinoel]

If you want to run a character that's truly in the Avatar setting, then replace "race" with "affiliation" and eliminate "deity" in your stat block. There's no reason you can't have your character particularly devoted to Yué or the Painted Lady, but it's difficult to have the kind of worship that our Christianized western world is accustomed to in this setting.

lol I was just about to suggest deleting one and replacing affiliation with the other =b

[Paragon Badger]

There is the option of subraces, which grant a bonus in addition to the standard human one. Usually a very minor one. Zuko, afterall, said that the Earth Kingdom people as a whole are strong and adamant as long as they have hope. A +2 bonus to Will or Fort saves seems just their cup of tea.

North and South Pole Water Benders would likely get a bonus to fort saves vs. cold (+4? so it's not weaker than the earth kingdom's?) while the foggy swamp tribe might just get a +2 bonus to Survival or somesuch.

Air Nomads... Hrm... +2 bonus to Spot, because of their time in the sky? Ehhh... That's tenuous, at best.

The Fire Nation... Hmm.. +2 vs. hot weather? I mean, alot of them live in a volcano.

[Foolster41]

I like the idea of sub race bonuses. Like I said before, I'd be cool to encourage people to have non-benders that are at least a little different between the races. Otherwise I think you're going to see hardly any non-benders, but this isn't true to the world where there's plenty of non-benders.

But why does the bonus have to be so minor? Why not something like +1 to Str/Dex/Etc. in addition to the human racial abilities? Maybe in addition to the cold/hot survival, will save and... whatever is for the air nation (That's the only one I don't really like.)

[felinoel]

I like the idea of sub race bonuses. Like I said before, I'd be cool to encourage people to have non-benders that are at least a little different between the races. Otherwise I think you're going to see hardly any non-benders, but this isn't true to the world where there's plenty of non-benders.

But why does the bonus have to be so minor? Why not something like +1 to Str/Dex/Etc. in addition to the human racial abilities? Maybe in addition to the cold/hot survival, will save and... whatever is for the air nation (That's the only one I don't really like.)

Yea and the Foggy Water Tribe doesn't even get any?

[GryffonDurime]

Avatar Variant Rule Proposal:

National Modifiers
For those DMs who wish to "play up" the cultural differences of the Avatar world, the following are a list of bonuses derived from nationality that may be applied to characters in addition to the standard human traits. It goes without saying that this necessarily creates a slightly higher standard of power, and may not be right for all games.

• Northern or Southern Water Tribe - +2 Dex or +2 Con, +2 to Surival and Fortitude rolls relating to cold weather and climates.
• Earth Kingdom - +2 Str or +2 Con, +2 to Craft rolls and +2 to Survival rolls in temperate climates.
• Air Nomad - +2 Dex or +2 Cha, +2 to Tumble, Jump, and Climb checks.
• Fire Nation - +2 Int or +2 Cha, +2 to any two Knowledge skills.
• Foggy Swamp Tribe - +2 Dex or +2 Con, +2 to Survival and Fortitude rolls in aquatic enviornments.
• Sun Warriors - +2 Dex or +2 Str, +4 to Knowledge: Bending checks regarding Firebending and +2 to all Charisma based checks when dealing with dragons.
• Sandbender Tribes - +2 Dex or +2 Con, +2 to Survival and Fortitude checks in desert enviornments.

...Something like that, I assume, is what you're looking for? There's a lot of things on it I'm not sure about; the Air Nomads we've seen so far have all seemed fairly spry and short of giving them a collective bonus to Knowledge: Religion and Philosophy, there wasn't much else I could see. The Fire Nation is something of an odd duck with strictly mental bonuses for a military nation, but they also have the only public education system we've seen for certain and by far the most advanced systems of technology, so it seemed fitting. I could even see a case for the Sandbender Tribes to have an Int bonus as an option; they're depicted as fairly clever and cunning...but I leave that open for discussion. No one gets a bonus to Wisdom, for obvious reasons of balance, though it was hard not to offer it up for the Air Nomads or the Sun Warriors.

[felinoel]

Avatar Variant Rule Proposal:

National Modifiers
For those DMs who wish to "play up" the cultural differences of the Avatar world, the following are a list of bonuses derived from nationality that may be applied to characters in addition to the standard human traits. It goes without saying that this necessarily creates a slightly higher standard of power, and may not be right for all games.

• Northern or Southern Water Tribe - +2 Dex or +2 Con, +2 to Surival and Fortitude rolls relating to cold weather and climates.
• Earth Kingdom - +2 Str or +2 Con, +2 to Craft rolls and +2 to Survival rolls in temperate climates.
• Air Nomad - +2 Dex or +2 Cha, +2 to Tumble, Jump, and Climb checks.
• Fire Nation - +2 Int or +2 Cha, +2 to any two Knowledge skills.
• Foggy Swamp Tribe - +2 Dex or +2 Con, +2 to Survival and Fortitude rolls in aquatic enviornments.
• Sun Warriors - +2 Dex or +2 Str, +4 to Knowledge: Bending checks regarding Firebending and +2 to all Charisma based checks when dealing with dragons.
• Sandbender Tribes - +2 Dex or +2 Con, +2 to Survival and Fortitude checks in desert enviornments.

...Something like that, I assume, is what you're looking for? There's a lot of things on it I'm not sure about; the Air Nomads we've seen so far have all seemed fairly spry and short of giving them a collective bonus to Knowledge: Religion and Philosophy, there wasn't much else I could see. The Fire Nation is something of an odd duck with strictly mental bonuses for a military nation, but they also have the only public education system we've seen for certain and by far the most advanced systems of technology, so it seemed fitting. I could even see a case for the Sandbender Tribes to have an Int bonus as an option; they're depicted as fairly clever and cunning...but I leave that open for discussion. No one gets a bonus to Wisdom, for obvious reasons of balance, though it was hard not to offer it up for the Air Nomads or the Sun Warriors.

As much as I like it, don't modifiers usually come with a plus and a minus? Perhaps keep both plusses and give a minus in something for each? Its usually two plusses and one minus, at least as averaged as I have seen them


EDIT:
If anyone cares, I started an article about this d20 system based not so loosely off of the website's explanation of the game, add as you see fit, please no vandalism, you will get banned
http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar:..._Airbender_d20


EDIT:
Here is a good affiliation that could possibly be made (if it is not already made and I am just blind), Order of the White Lotus
You could have different things for each rank (that we know of) or just a single thing for all ranks, just in case you don't know the known ranks are initiate, member, grand master (the grand master rank has also been called grand lotus).

[horngeek]

If this is being discussed elsewhere, please tell me, but-
spiritbending.
How are you guys going to handle that?
I mean, I don't know 3.5 rules much (I don't know D&D rules much at all) but what would you do?
I'm thinking make it an ability of the Avatar Template only acsessable when he/she has levels in all bending classes, and possibly level 20 as well.
Also, what else would it be used for besides taking away bending?

[Sir Shadow]

@ gryffondurime: I think it's right to give each of the different races different physical bonuses. Since they're all "human" it would seem best not to call one race more stupid than another. You justified the Fire Nation's int bonus pretty well tho.

[felinoel]

If this is being discussed elsewhere, please tell me, but-
spiritbending.
How are you guys going to handle that?
I mean, I don't know 3.5 rules much (I don't know D&D rules much at all) but what would you do?
I'm thinking make it an ability of the Avatar Template only acsessable when he/she has levels in all bending classes, and possibly level 20 as well.
Also, what else would it be used for besides taking away bending?

I think the official term is energybending, just check the Avatar Wikia

@ gryffondurime: I think it's right to give each of the different races different physical bonuses. Since they're all "human" it would seem best not to call one race more stupid than another. You justified the Fire Nation's int bonus pretty well tho.

To avoid confusion lets say "Nation" instead of "Race" and "National Modifier" instead of "Racial Modifier"

[horngeek]

I think the official term is energybending, just check the Avatar Wikia

Sorry, Energybending. But still, how would you handle it?

[AstralFire]

I would say "wait until the possibility of Season 4 is completely confirmed or denied."

If the show really is over, then we obviously won't see it again, time to fill in our own gaps. If it's not, then we wait and see or risk making a mechanic that's totally inaccurate and incomplete to official lore. One 11th Hour Superpower usage really isn't a lot to go on.

[GryffonDurime]

One 11th Hour Superpower usage really isn't a lot to go on.

Oh, I wish everyone would stop thinking of it like that. We've seen a likely human Energybender before in the Guru, given his capacity to do "Avatar-stuff" in locating Aang from afar. Likewise, the connection to all things experienced in the swamp may yet be Energybending.

TV Tropes needs to be burnt.

[AstralFire]

Oh, I wish everyone would stop thinking of it like that. We've seen a likely human Energybender before in the Guru, given his capacity to do "Avatar-stuff" in locating Aang from afar. Likewise, the connection to all things experienced in the swamp may yet be Energybending.

TV Tropes needs to be burnt.

But we don't know. Especially since psychic phenomena in modern fiction can come from one of a hundred thousand different places. What belongs to the element of the heart isn't so clear cut as earth, fire, air and water. go planet.

I'm all for interesting extrapolations, but on the other hand we probably want to avoid the mess that say, happened in the Star Wars Expanded Universe when Boba Fett got a backstory in the PT and Jedis were revealed to be celibate. Especially when I'm sure we'd get more explanation on Energybending if ATLA comes back for another season.

[Eighth_Seraph]

But it won't. It's pretty official; Avatar is over, and there is no Book of Air. So we'll have to deal with Energybending (ugh, terrible name) whether we like it or not. My initial reaction is "Finally! A reason for Will saves!", but we'll see how that works out. I don't think we should restrict Aang's final move against Ozai to the Avatar, though.

[/cleverly sidestepped spoiler]

[felinoel]

I would say "wait until the possibility of Season 4 is completely confirmed or denied."

If the show really is over, then we obviously won't see it again, time to fill in our own gaps. If it's not, then we wait and see or risk making a mechanic that's totally inaccurate and incomplete to official lore. One 11th Hour Superpower usage really isn't a lot to go on.

Wasn't that 100% denied a while ago?

[AstralFire]

Wasn't that 100% denied a while ago?

Was it? I make a point of avoiding fanship so I don't keep myself hyped up. My need to kick everyone off the television at 8 PM for a week was unbecoming enough as it was. =p

[Darkkwalker]

as far as energy bending goes. The lion turtle said "In the era before the Avatar we bent not the elements but the energy inside ourselves."

This implies that anyone can do it. And if it was before the Avatar then the avatar certainly isn't the only one who can do it.
I think it's more of an ability that was awakened by the lion turtle. Sort of like Zuko learning to bend from the sun and not from anger.

Also, an unbendable spirit, that seems like both will and charisma to me. But mostly will.

That's my take on it.