Every character has a number of wound points equal to double their constitution score plus their constitution modifier at level 1 (or at one hit die). For every subsequent hit die or level, the character gains their constitution modifier in wound points.
A creature has a wound threshold equal to its constitution score. If a characters wound points drop to or below its wound threshold it is wounded and gains the staggered condition. If a characters wound points drop below its wound threshold it must make a DC 10 Fort save with a penalty equal to the amount of wound points below its wound threshold it is currently at or fall unconscious. If a character makes a move or standard actions it loses another wound point.
Wound points are essentially Meat Points.
Vigor Points
Every player character has a number of vigor points equal to hits full hit die at level 1 (non-player entities, including animal companions, must roll all hit dice). For subsequent levels or hit die a character gains vigor points equal to its rolled hit die.
Vigor points are essentially skill, luck, and endurance points
Healing Wound and Vigor Points
Healing wound and vigor points happens differently even if the effect healing them is the same. Wound points are always harder to heal than vigor points.
Healing Spells and Effects: Spells such as Heal CLW, Cleric's Channeling, and Paladins Lay on Hands. The creature casting the spell or effect must choose if it wants to heal wound or vigor points at the time of use. If vigor points are chosen then you heal a number of vigor points equal to the number of hit points you would have gained. If wound points are chosen then you regain one wound point per die of healing or per caster level for spells such as Heal.
Rest: When resting, creatures regain vigor points equal to their character level plus con modifier. Healing wound points while resting is similar to regaining ability score points and so a creature can regain either a wound point or one ability score point. For situations such as long term care with the heal skill, you heal vigor points twice as fast for 8 hours, or fur times as fast for a full day and you heal wound points as you would heal ability score points.
Restoration and Similar Effects: Restoration can heal wound points as it would ability score damage.
Dealing Damage
You deal damage to vigor points as you would regular hit points. Once all of a creatures vigor points are gone then they begin to lose wound points as they would hit points. Some instances allow you to attack wound points directly however.
Critical Hits: A critical hit deals an amount of wound points in damage equal to its critical multiplier on top of any other damage the creature takes from the hit.
Negative Energy Damage: A creature that casts a spell or effect causing negative energy damage such a inflict light wounds or channeling negative energy, can attack wound points directly at a rate of 1 wound point per die of the effect.
Significant Damage: For every 15 hit points of damage sustained from a single attack, a creature takes 1 wound point in damage.
Other Stuff
Temporary Hit points become temporary Vigor points
Non-Lethal damage is keyed to vigor points. So if non-lethal damage exceeds total vigor points you fall unconscious.
Spell effects that have a hit point trigger such at Disintegrate trigger upon the target receiving the wounded condition. Spells like Harm function off of the wound threshold.
Combat Changes:
1. Feats such as weapon focus apply to an entire fighter weapon group to give you more flexibility.
2. Those intensively trained in the ways of martial combat are adept at exchanging precision for damage, damage for defence and other various combinations. Classes with Full BAB OR no magical abilities gain the following feats: Combat Expertise, Deadly Aim, Lunge, Power Attack, Risky Striker [No Racial Prereq], Bloody Assault, Dazing Assault, Stunning Assault.
Prerequisites for these feats must still be met.
Those who are less well trained but still martially inclined, classes with 3/4 BAB OR 6 Levels of Casting, can select one of the above feats at level 1 to use for free. This feat can be retrained to another of the available feats as per normal retraining rules.
Those with no martial abilities, classes with 1/2 BAB progression, can not select a feat.
In cases where characters are multi-classed between the above three tiers, they gain the LOWEST tiers benefits +1 feat. So a Paladin/Cleric multi-class gets to pick two feats. A cleric/wizard multi-class gets to pick one feat. If the selection of the lower tiered class happens AFTER selecting a higher tiered class, the loss of capability is easily explained by lack of practising the feats while focusing on learning new abilities.
3. Combat maneuver feats such as Improved Trip automatically gain the benefits of their Greater version when you meet the prerequisites.
4. You may gain advantage when Charging, Attacking from Higher Ground, or Flanking in addition to their regular numerical bonuses. Attacking from horse back vs a creature on the ground counts as higher ground.
5. You only need to have a spell of the same school prepared and not the same spell to counter spell. The Improved Counter Spell feat is changed to allow any spell of the same level or higher to be used to counter spell.
Advantage: When you roll with advantage you roll 2 dice at take the better of the two. If either of the rolls threaten a critical hit you only roll a single die to confirm the critical hit.
Perception and Stealth Changes:
The stealth penalty for sniping is reduced to -15 from -20
Perception uses the doubling distance method for penalties instead of the +1/10 ft rule.
0 to 5 foot range penalty is 0
5 to 10 foot range penalty is -1
10 to 20 foot range penalty is -2
20 to 40 foot range penalty is -3
40 to 80 foot range penalty is -4
80 to 160 foot range penalty is -5
160 to 320 foot range penalty is -6
etc...
Languages:
Taldan is the 'Common' trade tongue, pretty much everyone uses it, therefore we use English.
Azlanti ==> Latin
Varisian ==> Spanish
Chelaxian ==> Italian
Garundi ==> Hebrew
Keleshite ==> Arabic
Hallit ==> Russian
Mwangi (Polyglot, I guess?) ==> Sesotho
Mwangi-related ==> Igbo
Shoanti ==> German
Ulfen ==> Norwegian
Vudrani ==> Punjabi
Osiriani ==> Amharic
Skald ==> Icelandic
Tien (Tian-Shu, Lung Wa)==> Chinese Traditional
Dan (Tian-Dan, Xa Hoi) ==> Myanmar
Dtang (Tian-Dtang, Dtang Ma) ==> Vietnamese
Hon-La (Tian-La, Hongal) ==> Mongolian
Hwan (Tian-Hwan, Hwanggot) ==> Korean
Minatan (Tian-Sing, Minata) ==> Indonesian
Minkaian (Tian-Min, Minkai) ==> Japanese
Sylvan ==> Gujarati
First Speech ==> Persian
Terran ==> Maori
Ignan ==> Nepali
Auran ==> Uzbek
Aquan ==> Lao
Aklo ==> Basque
Orvian ==> Malagasy
Undercommon ==> Zulu
Celestial ==> Scots Gaelic
Abyssal ==> Yoruba
Daemonic ==> Marathi
Infernal ==> Javanese
Protean ==> Esperanto
Combat Expediting Rules:
To speed the game up, I will be expediting combats according to the following guidelines:
1 - This only applies to NPCs, I'd never narrate out a PC defeat
2 - The probability of NPCs dealing any more damage to PC would be very low, either due to the NPCs inability to hit or the PCs ability to kill it before its turn
3 - The NPC will always end up killed during the narration
4 - If anyone wants to suspend a potential narrative end they need only say so. Once its cancelled though it can't be brought back for that fight.
5 - I will not expedite major comabts
Posting Etiquette:
I realized I had posted in the recruitment thread that posting expectations are once per day. I will amend that to once per day, except weekends. Since I generally have a lot going on during the weekends anyway I won't expect you to post at all since I might not be able to.
Also, if we are in combat I will bot you after a day without a post (excepting weekends as per above). Your action will be the least resource intensive action available while still contributing. Examples of this would be having a caster shoot a crossbow, melee character making a normal full attack vs an adjacent target (no Power Attack or Arcane Strike,etc), ranged characters attacking without moving, etc. The target of a botted action will always be the nearest enemy that is a valid target regardless of if they are the best option of who to attack. I will also not move a character more than 10 feet, drop a weapon, use consumables, or commit actions that will provoke attacks of opportunity (including moving).
I will also generally not attack botted characters with any creatures that aren't adjacent, unless they have a grudge (damage dealt, dislike your race, etc), or you made yourself an obvious High Value Target in previous rounds (casters I'm looking at you!).
This should help keep the game moving without taking away to much player agency or resources, while keeping everything fair. To give people some leeway I won't start this until Wednesday to make sure everyone has a reasonable chance to see it.
...
I am going to put a 1 week cap on not posting. If you do not post for 1 consecutive week, or if you only post sparingly over the course of many weeks I will remove you from the game and find some one more able to meet the 1/day posting expectations.
Exceptions to this are if you warn me before hand, either in the discussion thread or via PM. If you warn me via PM to give me more details than you are comfortable giving in the Discussion section, I will make a post giving everyone a heads up about the situation. The extension to your no-post grace period will not be infinite, and if it happens so frequently as to be disruptive to the game I will talk with you about it via PM to see if a solution can be found.
Given that this is going into effect today I will only start counting days since last post starting today.
...
On another note, I will also only move the party forward if there is a definitive post of action. Post along the lines of "lets do X", "We should do Y", and "I will do Z" will not move the game forward. They are all sentences about something you intend to do in the future. I need posts like "I do X", "We go to Y", etc. This has not been a problem here thus far, but I have had problems with it elsewhere and I just want to get it out of the way now.
...
If you do not move your icon or ask for it to be moved, you remain stationary even if you say you move in character. Also, if you do not call out a target I will select the closest target regardless of if that is a good idea for you or not.
Food and Shelter:
Food
The basic rules for starvation and thirst can be found on pages 444–445 of the Core Rulebook. The resources the PCs and their followers need to survive are abstracted throughout this adventure as Provision Points. One Provision Point sustains a person for 1 day and consists of a half-gallon of fluid (clean water, or ale, broth, cider, goat’s milk, or sheep’s milk) and 3 to 5 pounds of stable food (apples, berries, bread, dried boar, dried venison, hard cheese, mushrooms, nuts, pickled vegetables, and smoked trout). The PCs’ followers carry their resources in a hodgepodge of bottles, jars, and satchels stuffed into improvised backpacks. Each Provision Point of resources weighs about 10 pounds. Together one trail ration and a waterskin also translate to 1 Provision Point, but weigh only 5 pounds.
Consuming only half a Provision Point per day sustains a character, but leaves that person distracted and irritable. A character who eats only a half portion takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, damage rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws until she consumes a full portion. If a person eats half provisions more than 3 days a week, she doesn’t have enough body fat to endure starvation for long, and must begin making Constitution checks each day to avoid taking nonlethal damage.
If a person eats no provisions in a day, she takes the –2 penalty on all attack rolls, damage rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and saving throws listed above. Typically, a character can go without water for 1 day, or food for 3 days before making Constitution checks to avoid taking nonlethal damage. Remember that a character who takes any nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst also becomes fatigued, imposing additional penalties.
I will not be using provision points. You will need a 1/2 gallon of water a day (1 waterskins worth) and an amount of food determined by your accommodations. 6 lbs for unsheltered, 5 lbs for poor shelter, and 4 lbs for good shelter. A trail ration covers any food requirement.
Shelter
Perhaps more important than even food is basic protection from the elements. Rules for inclement weather can be found on pages 437–440 of the Core Rulebook. The Fangwood Forest and Nirmathas in general are temperate, with frequent light rains. Shelter can be as simple as an abandoned home, a cave, a lean-to, a ruin, a tent. If a shelter option isn’t immediately available, a character can construct a temporary shelter sufficient for one Medium-sized creature with a successful DC 15 Survival check and 1 hour’s work; for every 2 points by which this result exceeds 15, the shelter can accommodate one additional Medium creature.
Sleeping without a shelter is cold and often wet, exposing a character to the elements and leaving her fatigued the next day. If she sleeps without shelter a second day, she awakes exhausted, which persists until she can find shelter to rest in for a night. For several weeks in the summer, nights in the Fangwood are warm and clear enough that characters don’t require a shelter to sleep comfortably unless there is an unusual cold snap or precipitation (GM’s discretion). Creatures under the effects of an endure elements spell are not fatigued by sleeping without shelter.
NPC Actions:
Each day, an NPC can be assigned to perform one task around camp or generally employ skills on the PCs’ behalf. The most useful such projects include the following.
Assist: NPCs can assist a PC or NPC with any skill they’re trained in, automatically granting a +2 aid another bonus.
Build Shelter: Creating a shelter for one Medium-sized creature requires a successful DC 15 Craft or Survival check. For every 2 points by which the result exceeds 15, the shelter can accommodate one additional Medium-sized creature. These shelters are simple and cold, but enough to prevent a character from being fatigued from lack of shelter.
Craft: With access to the necessary tools, NPCs can craft finished goods for the PCs upon request, using the normal Craft skill rules (Core Rulebook 91).
Forage or Hunt: Characters who spend a full day hunting or gathering and succeed at a DC 10 Survival check gain 1 Provision Point. Characters gain 1 additional Provision Point for every 2 by which the result exceeds 10.
Herd: Phaendar’s sheep and goat herds were scattered in the attack, and many were lost in the Fangwood. NPCs can recover a single goat or sheep with a successful DC 16 Handle Animal check. Captive animals can be maintained with a single successful Handle Animal check (DC = 10 + the number of animals) per day. Neglecting to maintain the herd or failing this check indicates one or more animals have wandered off. A captive animal generates 1 Provision Point every 3 days in the form of milk (and eventually cheese or butter), or can be butchered to immediately provide 2 Provision Points.
Scout: NPCs trained in Survival or Stealth can scout the area or keep an eye on Phaendar for the PCs. With a successful DC 10 Survival check, an NPC can either discover one point of interest in the area (such as an encounter location) or reduce the chances for a random encounter by 5%. An NPC who succeeds at this skill check by 5 or more can identify one danger in the area of the encounter (if any exist).
Stand Watch: An NPC can stand watch, attempting Perception checks and even confronting danger while the PCs rest uninterrupted.
Support: One or more NPCs can follow the PCs to assist them, carrying equipment, standing watch at temporary camps (see below), and providing skills the PCs may lack. NPCs hold back from combat, but should the PCs lose a fight, the NPCs attempt to drag their unconscious leaders to safety.
Use Skill: NPCs can use any of their listed skills on the PCs’ behalf, such as using Handle Animal to train captured animals, Heal to provide long-term care, or Knowledge to answer questions for the PCs.
Respect and Leading Teams:
Respect:
High respect means others will more willingly follow them and work better under the highly respected leader. Respect is earned by levelling (PCs will eventually be able to bestow levels to NPCs, +10 respect), carrying out the job as leader of a group successfully (No roll failures for a month, +1 respect), fighting alongside the PCs during a major action (this assumes the PCs are well regarded, +5 respect). Once an NPCs respect hits 50 all bonuses are halved. One they hit 100 all bonuses are quartered. There is no maximum respect. NPCs can lose respect by simply not doing anything at the rate of -5 per month.
PCs gain and lose respect in similar ways.
The benefit of respect is that for every 10 respect a leader has they generate one extra of whatever they are creating per 3 people helping. So if Aubrin had 15 respect and was leading 6 followers she could create 2 more shelters, provision points, etc than if she did stuff of her own. If the activity the leader is doing does not provide a specific benefit they gain a +1 on their check.
Leading Teams:
An NPC may not lead a team of people larger than 1/2 their Charisma score +1 per 5 respect.
A PC may not lead a team of people larger than their Charisma score + 1 per 5 respect.
Any person can both lead a team and be apart of another team if the team they are apart of is made up of only other team leaders. This basically lets a hierarchy form.
Party Size Expectations:
Part of my goal for the game is to keep the players as 1/3 new to PbP until level 3 begins. Unfortunately, Sander was one of the new to PbP submissions so I am going to fill the spot.
If it were not a new to PbP slot I would have left it to a vote by all of you.
Since the topic is being brought up, I plan on keeping the party at at least 6 people until level 5 with no reserved slots for new players after level 3 begins. After level 5 if anyone leaves I'll leave it up to a player vote on recruiting a new party member.
If anyone objects, has questions/concerns etc. about the above let me know and we can talk about it.
