House Rules and Optional Rules for 2e

Attacks of Opportunity

• You can make one AO per creature, max 1+1/5 lvls (warriors 3+1/5) per round.

Training

• When you level up, you automatically gain whatever you already have. If you wish to gain new abilities, such as new proficiencies, new spells, etc, you need to seek out an appropriate trainer - and pay the cost. 

Movement

• Diagonal movement costs 50%
• You can withdraw (and avoid AO's) from combat by doing nothing but moving during your turn and moving 1/3 of your movement.

Facing

• There is facing. The facing of a creature can only be determined during it's turn

Initiative

• We use the optional rule of individual initiative, including weapon speeds etc.

Hit Points

• Whenever a character gains a level (up to level 9 or 10), he rolls as usual or gets half rounded down, whichever is greater. He then adds his CON modifier. Fx: A fighter rolls a 2, but since half rounded down is 5, he gets 5 hit points + CON modifier.

Healing

• Magical Healing starts at 0 hit points
• Natural Healing starts at current hit points (can be negative).
• Natural healing is 1 die per odd level of class. 
• A 1st level fighter heals 1d10  hit points per night's
• A 5th level rogue heals 5d6 hit points. 
• A successful herbalism check adds another 2 Hit Dice worth of healing.
• If you are reduced to 0 hit points, you are unconscious
• If you are reduced to negative hit points, you lose 1 hit point per round on your turn. If you reach -10 hit points, you are dead.

Proficiencies

• If you want to take proficencies normally not available to your class, the NWP costs an additional slot.
• You can use most NWP's even if you do not have it. But your stat is halved.
• You get a number of bonus non-weapon proficiencies based on your intelligence (equal to number of languages). If you are a warrior (fighter, paladin, ranger), you may use those bonus proficiencies to acquire additional weapon proficiencies.
• It is possible for fighters to gain weapon mastery (+3/+3) with a weapon. Doing so costs 3 weapon Proficiencies and can not be acquired at level 1
• There are five weapon styles that can also be acquired by spending weapon proficencies.
• Weapon and Shield Style: Gain ability to make shield-rush, shield-punch, block and trap without losing the bonus to the shield.
• One-handed weapon style: +1 AC bonus when fighting with a one-handed weapon and no shield or offhand-weapon. Investing 2 WP's causes the bonus to rise to +2.
• Two-handed weapon style: increase speed of weapon by 3. If using a one-handed weapon in two hands, you still get the increased speed of weapon, but also a +1 damage bonus.
• Two-weapon style: Penalties go from -2/-4 to 0/-2. If an additional slot is used, you gain the ability to use two weapons of equal size. 
• Missile or thrown Weapon Style:  Ability to move up to 1/2 movement and still have full rate of fire or make full movement and half rate of fire. They also gain a bonus of -1 AC against missile fire when attacking with a ranged weapon.

Racials

• There are no racial minimums. 
• There are no racial level limits
• There are no racial limitations on class
• To balance humans with the other races, they get a +10% xp bonus, +1 hp/level

Attacks

• Critical hits = Max damage + normal damage, so if a character normal deals 1d8+6 damage, he deals 14+1d8 damage on a critical hit.
• Firing into melee: Unless the target has cover, there are no penalties. If cover, then -2 to hit.
• Called shots

Classes

• Anyone can multi-class
• There is no dualclassing
• Both specialty priests and clerics use spontaneous casting 
• It is possible to cast a known spell as ritual. The cost is 1 ritual stone per spell-level
• Thieves get backstab bonus when attacking from the rear. 

Dark Elves in Era

Stats:

• +1 int and +1 dex or +2 dex
• +2 surprise
• 120' infravision
• 1/24 hours, all dark elves can cast dancing lights, faerie fire, and darkness (last 1 round + 1r/lvl). Dark elves can only use one power at the time. They can move the effect of power at MOV 16 without any significant effort.
• +2 bonus to all magical attack saving throws—that is, both against spells that overcome their natural resistance, and against the effects of magical items wielded against them.
• +5 bonus vs poison saving throws

The areas of effect of faerie fire and darkness increase by 10 square feet, or in a globe, 2' of additional radius per level of the creating dark elf, above (not including) 4th level. The number of light sources created by the dancing lights effect also increases by one for every two levels of the creator beyond 4th: that is, one additional at 6th, another at 8th, and so on. Range and control also increase by 10'/level beyond 4th.

A creating dark elf who has received even rudimentary training can always create an effect of lesser size, range, and efficacy than the maximum possible (e.g. a 5'-radius sphere of darkness around a foe's head, rather than a 20'-radius sphere cloaking the foe and four companions). The darkness cast by the natural power of dark elf is globe-shaped. Its “base” size (the maximum usable by dark elves of 4th level or less) is a sphere of 20' radius.

At 5th level, dark elves also get the powers of levitate, know alignment, and detect magic.

At 6th level, dark elves with 16 or more INT can wield a natural spell-like power and a spell simultaneously (e.g. casting a spell while levitating), or employ a maximum of two natural spell-like powers simultaneously (e.g. levitating while launching darkness to enshroud the head of an opponent).

At 7th level, dark elf priests and priestesses also gain the additional spell-like powers of clairvoyance, detect lie, suggestion, and dispel magic (in addition to their spells) through divine favor.

Dark elves of noble blood gain the ability to use all of their base and mature powers more than once a day. An additional daily use is granted at the end of each 100 years of life.

As you have no doubt noticed, I have removed the magic resistance that dark elves normally have in 2nd edition. First of all, it's just way too powerful, and makes balancing encounters even more impossible than before. Not that encounter-balance is something I will strive for, but it's nice to retain some measure of control. Instead, I have let you keep all the powers that dark elves normally have, even though the dark elves of Era live above ground. They also have no penalties in sunlight. In short, they are very powerful, compared to all the other races, but no magic resistance.

The poison resistance, which normally is attributed to the Lolth-worship and their affinity for spiders and spider poison, still makes sense, as the Asmodeus-worshipping dark elves in Era really like poisonous snakes :) 

What do they look like?
Dark elves vary a lot in shape, in features, and in hair color - just as greatly as humans do. The only exception to this rule, is that they all have jet-black skin, except for the extremely rare bone-white albinos. Almost all dark elves also have snow-white hair from birth, which turns yellowish (if female) or grayish (if male) and thins with age. Some rare dark elves have naturally silver or copper-hued hair. Most dark elves have red eyes. Others have green, brown, or black. Various shades of gray, even amber and rose-hued eyes are not unknown. Yellow eyes almost always means some kind of illness, disease, poisoning, or the presence of certain detrimental magics. Blue and purple eyes are the most unusual eye colors, and usually denote human or elven blood somewhere in the dark elf's ancestry. Such children are almost always sacrificed or discarded before their third year. Dark elf females tend to be just as big and strong as the males. Both sexes tend to be slim and graceful in build, features, and movements, just as other elves appear to humans.

The dark elf way of life
Noble Houses are led by a the senior male priest. In general, his rule is absolute, enforced by the priests beneath him (usually his sons and daughters). All male offspring in order of their age follow in rank, although they wield no authority until they are trained and of finished at the Temple. Below the priests come the officers of the House: the weapons master (leader of the fighters), (chief) House wizard, and the concubine of the high priest, followed by the female offspring of the high priest, who are ranked according to age.

Below them come the “war-leaders” of the House (veteran warriors, who lead House patrols, attack squads, and guards, under the command of the weapons master), and the House mages (under the command of the House wizard). Beneath these “blood” members and officials of the House rank its common warriors, its craftspeople, its servants, and its slaves. All ranks are decreed, and can be changed at the whim of the High Priest. His position changes at death—often a violent one, excecuted by his eldest son. It is a deadly thing to slay a high priest who holds Asmodeus' favor, so high priests do tend to reign for hundreds of years, kept alive by the magic of Asmodeus and the diligent service they perform to get and keep it.

The assassination of a high priest is often a punishment for losing Asmodeus' good will, and marks either a new direction for the House, or—if it is weak, and has strong rivals—the beginning of its extinction.

If one dark elf House of a city openly wars on another, and fails to eradicate it entirely in a single attack, the survivors of the ruined House can call down the city's justice on the attacking House. When this occurs, all Houses combine forces to wipe out the offending House. Houses who send assassins and saboteurs against each other for years will be forced into an open battle by the city's ruling council, with the same results as above.

This type of no-win scenario allows the internal strife of dark elves to be strictly controlled, so that dark elf communities are not torn apart by continual, bloody warfare. Most internal combat therefore takes the form of eternal manoeuvering for small advantages. Intrigue, poisoned knives in dark alleys, vicious trade rivalries, and dirty dealings are all a part of normal dark elf life.

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Generating characters

So, there are a number of ways to generate characters by rolling dice. It's been a very long time since we have done this last, so I figured it would be nice to see, what everyone think. The following polls are merely that, we can finalize the debate on Tuesday if need be. But it should provide us with a starting point. Hell maybe we can more or less agree on something, so that we can just get on with it.

Anyway, before voting, here are a few stats:

3d6 once (Average 10,5 - 4,6% chance of a 15, 2,8% chance of a 16, 1,4% chance of a 17, 0,5% chance of a 18)
4d6, drop lowest (average 12,24 - 10,1% chance of a 15, 7,3% chance of a 16, 4,2% chance of a 17, 1,6% chance of a 18)
3d6, reroll a 1 (once) - (average 12 - 8% chance of a 15, 4,8% chance of a 16, 2,4% chance of a 17, 0,8% chance of a 18)
4d6, reroll a 1 (once), drop lowest (average 13,43 - 14,6% chance of a 15, 11,2% chance of a 16, 6,7% chance of a 17, 2,7% chance of a 18)
5d6, drop two lowest - (average 13,43 - 14,3% chance of a 15, 12% chance of a 16, 7,8% chance of a 17, 3,5% chance of a 18)

I guess it comes down to what you want - powerful characters that define and shape the world, or underdogs that might manage to defy expectations, but most likely will meet a brutal death at the hands of those better equipped by nature. Because make no mistake. While good stats won't save you from your mean DM, they will certainly help your characters survive, at least for a while ;)

poll by twiigs.com

Next, what is a hopeless character? Meaning, no matter which way we adopt, what constitutes a character so shitty, that you are allowed to reroll (for free)?

poll by twiigs.com

Last but not least, how many character do you roll from the get go?

poll by twiigs.com

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Vi starter om en uge!

Nåh drenge...

Der er en uge til vi starter. Molin overvejer noget cleric/priest, Bønne noget fighter.. Er Bedet stadig på wizard? Der kom ingen feedback whatsoever mht stats - kan ikke se de store muligheder. Enten laver vi noget a la point buy, eller så laver vi characters på tirsdag.

 Mht at vælge en fælles race. Det lyder som en fin ide. Mens hvis I spekulerer I drow/duegar, så bliver jeg lige nødt til at advare om, at det begrænser campaignen enormt meget. Eller rettere, der skal laves en helt anden campaign. Kunne være lidt cool - og meget udfordrende for mig - nu jeg tænker over det, men det kræver, at I er klar på det. Men især det sidste punkt SKAL vi snart lægge os fast på. Ellers får jeres DM grå hår på hovedet ;) Jeg har derfor oprettet 2 twiigs, så I kan stemme.

Håber det fungerer

poll by twiigs.com

poll by twiigs.com

Cleric and Priest Portfolios, Spheres and Granted Powers

Bahamut (LG)
Portfolio: God of justice and honor. Creator of dragonborn.
Spheres: All, Astral, Combat, Creation, Divination, Elemental (minor), Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning, Sun
Granted Powers: Clerics of Bahamut can use the longsword
Note: Priests of Bahamut are paladins, and thus do not follow the same rules for priests as those of the other gods.

Pelor (NG)
Portfolio: God of healing, sun, prosperity, summer. Creator of humans.
Spheres: All, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Elemental (minor), Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning (minor), Sun
Granted Powers: Clerics and priests of Pelor add an extra die whenever they cast a healing spell (Fx: Cure Light Wounds heals 2d8 hit points). Clerics and priests of Pelor turn undead as if they were 2 levels higher.
Note: Clerics and priests of Pelor are forbidden to initiate combat against any creature of the original races (humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, dark elves and dragonborn) that has not attacked them.

Corellon (CG)
Portfolio: God of knowledge, spring, autumn, nature. Creator of elves.
Spheres: All, Animal, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Elemental, Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Plant, Protection, Summoning, Sun, Weather
Granted Powers: Clerics and priests of Corellon receive Ancient History and Ancient Languages for free
Note: Priests of Corellon are druids, and thus do not follow the same rules for priests as those of the other gods. Also note that priests of Corellon are still required as druids to be TN.

Moradin (LN)
Portfolio: God of creation and civilization. Creator of dwarves.
Spheres: All, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Elemental (minor), Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning, Sun
Granted Powers: Clerics and priests of Moradin can use any rod, staff and wand.

Raven Queen (N)
Portfolio: Godess of death, cold and winter. Creator of humans.
Spheres: All, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Elemental (no fire related), Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning, Sun
Granted Powers: Clerics and priests of the Raven Queen can command undead as if they were 2 levels higher.

Mask (CN)
Portfolio: God of luck, thievery, exploration and adventurers. Creator of halflings.
Spheres: All, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning, Sun
Granted Powers: Clerics and priests of Mask can hide in shadows and move silently. They gain an additional 15% to distribute each level. No matter which armor they wear, they are never penalized more than as if they were wearing studded leather. Once per day, clerics and priests of Mask can cast the spell Feign Death.

Bane (LE)
Portfolio: God of War and Domination. Creator of humans.
Spheres: All, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Elemental, Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning, Sun (minor)
Granted Powers: Once per day, a cleric or priest of Bane can use the wizard spell Cloak of Fear. Clerics and priests of Bane gain a +1 to hit and damage when using a flail (priests of Bane can use flail).

Asmodeus (NE)
Portfolio: God of Betrayal, Tyranny and Magic. Creator of dark elves.
Spheres: All, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation, Divination, Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning, Sun (only reversible)
Granted Powers: Clerics and priests of Asmodeus can cast wizard spells from the illusion school. They get spellcraft for free, and can use arcane scrolls and items as if they were a wizard.

Tiamat (CE)
Portfolio: God of Destruction and Greed, creator of dragonborn.
Spheres: All, Astral, Charm, Combat, Creation (minor), Divination (minor), Elemental, Guardian, Healing, Necromantic, Protection, Summoning, Sun
Granted Powers: Clerics and priests of Tiamat can cast wizard spells from the evocation school (only fire, lightning, cold, electricity and acid spells)

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Those Quirky little things - What has been missing from D&D

As mentioned in my last dndnext playtest report, my players went exploring and stumbled over the minotaur caves, which are, as you might know, cursed so that you can not find the way out. And we had a lot of fun there.

It got me thinking. I have missed those quirky little things. It's kinda hard to put into words, but it seems to me that D&D used to be full of those. Weird spells with effects that lasted a long time, which made you do odd things (think old-school confusion, Otto's etc), items with weird and odd properties or abilities. There was just a lot of quirkiness, a lot of unexpected stuff packed in the rules. Then, with 3.x and later 4e, those things got slowly phased out. Maybe it was primarily 4e, but it seems to me that it started somewhat in 3.x already, with the standardization of the magic items. That was the first nail in the coffin, although the metaphor might be a bit harsh. But I hope that no one takes offence. While 3.x was never my favorite edition, it did fix some other issues I had at the time, and brought some remarkable new things to the game. And I am still a big fan of 4e.

Now, I obviously know that the fault might lie with me. The DM. After all, I could just have hacked 4e and introduced those quirky things, but still, fault, if one can speak of fault, still lies with the system. You see, in my opinion, when you make a game, or in this case, an edition of a game, you set the tone, the parameters for said game. Sure, some enterprising DM's will manage to twist and turn it into exactly what they want, creating their own version of the game, but to be honest, I think that the rest of us, most of us, tend to be very influenced by said parameters. So if WotC makes a game such as 4e, that relies on a very strict balance, where everything can be explained with some specific keywords, where all spells do not last longer than (save ends) or the end of the encounter (yes, I know about druid spells), where every item follows a fairly strict format and built.. Well, most of us will keep the game within those boundaries. At least at first. Of course, as an edition gets older, people start to experiment some more, but I want an edition of dnd that caters to that particular aspect from the get go.

I guess this is just my way of saying that I am happy about the way dndnext is heading. If the many blogs and L&L are anything to go by, as well as small things in the Caves of Chaos playtest, dndnext is refinding it's roots in the quirky old editions of yore. I mean, as mentioned in previous blog posts, I am now a big fan of (at least the occasional) save or die. Medusa petrifying should not end the next round or after 5 minutes. Wights should drain something permanently, not just cause necrotic damage and the player to lose a surge, something that he probably won't even need that day. There should be odd-ball curses, which can't be explained, which can't be dispelled, which can't be fitted into some frame. The minotaur curse was barely explained, there was no real framework for it, yet, it gave us (okay, maybe me more than my players, but..) a lot of fun, a lot more fun than anyone carefully constructed trap or hazard had in 4e for the last 4 years and thousands of hours.

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How dndnext caused us to ditch 4e

Last Tuesday, we had our final run at the dndnext playtest. We had leveled the characters to level 3, and with the cleric being on holiday in France, we decided that the guy running the fighter could easily accomodate another character.

Off they went, back to the caves. I had hinted that they should probably seek towards the deeper caverns, if they wanted to fight something else besides orcs and goblins. So they did just that. At first, they scoped out the ogre cave, but the foul smell turned them off, and they headed up, towards another cave.

Cupid, the intrepid thief, went in. Now, as some might have guessed, this is the minotaur cave. So once he was in, he was trapped, he couldn't find his way out. He grew increasingly frustrated (in the good way) and tried to make maps and such, but couldn't understand why he couldn't find his way back.

After waiting a while, the others grew impatient. The wizard sent in his familiar, who couldn't find the thief either. Then, when he tried to get it to come back out, it couldn't find the way either. This alerted him that something was up, and with a few successful lore checks, he figured it was a minotaur maze and that a curse prohibited people from getting out, as long as the minotaur was alive.

Figuring they better go help the poor halfling, the rest of the party went in, and found him. They then tracked down the minotaur and gave him a good spanking. The cleric-bot cast shield of faith on the fighter, and the wizard spam-immobilized the minotaur next to the fighter. Result, one dead minotaur and a barely hurt party, except for the cleric who had taken the inital charge from the bull-man and nearly died.

After the fight, we took a smoke-break, and got talking about all the good things about dndnext. Which led me to ask: Which edition did you guys really enjoy the most? You see, most of the time, I feel it has been me who has been pushing through edition changes. And while most of them seem happy to do so, I was never really sure, if it was just to make the DM happy, or something else. Well, the odd thing was, that everyone at the table thought that 2e had been the most fun. While no one thought it was a perfect edition, the campaigns we ran back then just seemed more fun, more engaging.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we decided to stop playing our 4e campaign, and to return playing 2e, at least until dndnext is released. Assuming we don't find out our 2e love was just nostalgia or dndnext turns into something we do not like.

So, this blog will convert to a 2e campaign preparation, not a dndnext campaign. My hope is that once dndnext is out, the campaign word will be easily convertable to dndnext. I am fairly sure I will keep making musings about dndnext, it is not like my interest has dimished, quite the contrary.

Right now I am on vacation, but come July 17th, the new campaign should start. And we are probably starting out with a bang, an all-evil campaign.

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