Hello everyone, I am thinking of starting a game of Arcana Evolved.
The Campaign
Although the campaign will be less structured than a Paizo Adventure Path, it will be somewhat story based. We will begin play in De-Shamod, the City of the Diamond Throne and capital of the Lands of the Diamond Throne (heavily ruled by giants).
Character Creation
All Arcana Evolved races and classes allowed, including the Totem Speaker, and classes from Iron Heroes (except the Arcanist) on an individual basis. Spellcasters with the Priest feat get access to a domain of spells and a special ability.
Use the following Array for your character abilities: 18, 16, 16, 14, 12, 10. Place them in any order.
Since there is no alignment in Arcana Evolved, please come up with character goals and motivations in addition to backstory and description.
Skills
I will be running skills very differently from traditional 3rd edition. I miss the days of 2nd edition when people mainly used their ability scores to determine what they could do. That being said, I know some people will prefer to use skills, so I've come up with something I think will work well. At 1st level, you'll receive skillpoints equal to your Intelligence bonus to put in any skills you would like, each skillpoint providing a +1 bonus to that skill. At each additional level, you may rearrange a number of skillpoints equal to your Intelligence bonus. A character will receive a +3 bonus on all skills regarded as class skills for their character class.
Fate Points and Hit Points
Another mechanic I will introduce to make hitpoints and skillpoints interesting to run, is the use of Fate Points. Each level, all characters receive 1d6 hitpoints +8 fate points. A fate point may either be used as a hit point or a skill point. So, for example, a character that wants to focus on being a warrior may not want to deal with skills at all, and just take the full 8 fate points as hit points. A character that wants to focus on skills can take the 1d6 hitpoints and all 8 fate points (or fewer if he wants more hitpoints) as skill points.
just dotting for interest
More about Fate Points
I should mention that the maximum number of Fate Points that can be applied to a single skill each level is 2. So a character who chooses to take 8 fate points as skillpoints cannot place all 8 in one skill. They could place 1 skill point in 8 skills, or 2 skill points in 4 skills, or any combination so long as the most skill points placed in a single skill is 2.
More about Skills and Special Attacks
The following special attacks will instead be treated as skills, which are class skills for warrior classes: Disarm, Grapple, Sunder, and the other special attacks regarded as Combat Maneuvers in Pathfinder. I'll provide a complete list in Campaign Info.
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doublegold again.
If this does take off, I'll be using this character, though he will be edited quite a bit, since this was a 20 buy point that didn't get in and what you have there is similar to over 30 buy points. I assume the stat distributions are before racial modifier. Are we allowed any race?
Don't suppose there's any chance of talking you out of the house rules on skills? I realize there probably isn't...and I respect the whole GM fiat thing.
Going on the assumption that you like your rules your way, I have questions...
Say I make a first level Akashic (cuz without breaking my books out I think I can remember their important bits for this example).
Normally speaking I'd have 6+con mod hit points, and 8+int mod x4 skill points.
Under your rules I would have 6+con mod +1d6 hit points, or 1d6+con mod hit points, or something else? And for skills I have just my int mod? Then a pool of 8 points I can add to either hit points or skill points?
In either case, I'm super excited someone is proposing running Arcana Evolved. I picked up Unearthed when it came out, fell absolutely in love with it, got a friend to run it for a couple months (his own setting) and thought it was amazing. I picked up Evolved when it came out, but by then the group had fallen apart and I just never could get another group to get into it. I have Iron Heroes too, though I've never had a chance to play it at all.
Will the IH character classes be limited regarding magic items, to make up for their abilities? Also, first level I assume?
For the campaign itself, would it be possible to get an idea of what to expect? Dungeon crawly, political, urban...that sort of thing.
Been a while since I looked at those books, so I'm going to have to go through them again before I know for sure what I'd like to play...but most likely a magister, or caster of some sort.
First level akashic would receive 6+con mod + 8 points to use as either hit points or skill points. Each additional level would be 1d6 +con modifier +8 points to use as either hit points or skill points.
As to how the gameplay evolves, that depends almost entirely on the backstory and motivations the characters have. (That's one of the reasons I don't like skills, since skill ranks are locked, you pretty much have a character that is only good at doing certain kinds of things.) With the flexible skill system I have here you could create a magister that would be good at political intrigue, for example, and on the next level move a number of skill points for a different playing style.
Though with the ability scores, you will not be below average on any skill attempt unless you have a racial penalty.
I plan to incorporate the characters' backstories and motivations in the events that take place, with some random elements. I can tell you that the dangers of warfare are looming closer. The Dragons and the Giants have come to an uneasy understanding that seems to permeate De-Shamod's living style. There is no front to speak of, but whispers of warfare and violence seem to be everywhere. Publicly, "everything is fine". The government of the Protector quietly acknowledges the Dragons may be a threat, but still regards itself as the appointed protectors and rulers of the land until informed otherwise by their wisest and most intelligent advisers.
Are we allowed any race?
Any Arcana Evolved race: Human, Giant, Faen, Sibeccai, Verrik, Litorian, Mojh, Dracha. And play begins at 1st level.
Will the IH character classes be limited regarding magic items?
In a way, yes. These character classes are part of the Mysterious West, where the Dragons have been for the past few thousand years. While they are not necessarily themselves magical, the way magic items works for them due to the rites and rituals these classes have been affected by proximity to Dragons, activated dragonstones, Tenebrian Seeds, and any number of strange devices only found in the Mysterious West. Without the presence of a Tenebrian evolution, activated dragonstone, Akashic Node, or Witchery Site, pool token abilities require double the normal number of tokens.
Magical devices also will sometimes fail to work (50% chance) for Iron Hero characters, unless it just offers a simple enhancement bonus. An IH character can use his or her own blood to get around this arcane failure at a cost of 1d4+caster level hitpoints per activation. The only exception of this is potions of battle healing which will function all the time but only grants half its normal healing amount.
Also it should be noted that none of the other Iron Heroes mechanics will be incorporated into the game other than the Classes, so if you choose to play an Iron Heroes character, you will suffer some disadvantages. But I feel like they are fitting for dracha, humans, and faen in the few Dragon Cities, where a more feral or savage outlook on life is far more acceptable than in the Lands of the Diamond Throne.
Of course, that's how I see it in my mind, but if you have other ideas, let me know and we'll come up with something fun. I love working with the players individually to come up with a character that fits their ideals.
Iron Heroes was another alternative Player's Handbook from Malhavoc Press (Monte Cook's publishing company).
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okay, it is just that in reponse to Fraust's question, you mentioned something about dracha, human and fean, which are races, which I'm confused about. Would we suffer a penalty from being one of those races?
Because I don't plan on being an Iron hero, but I do plan on being dracha or human.
also difference between energy's and elements? Because I'll probably be going for energy or elemental resistance. Fire, cold, acid, is what?
The magic system of Arcana Evolved is far more complex (and interesting) than traditional d20 magic. That's one of the game's strengths.
Dracha, Humans, and Faen that originate in the Mysterious West (which may or may not apply to your character), have not been under the gentle civilization or government of the Giants. They are likely to be more savage, and thus more like Iron Heroes characters. There is no need to play an Iron Hero as it will certainly complicate things a little, which is why I limited it to approval of Iron Heroes on an individual basis.
As to the Arcana Evolved class which allows the most feats, the fighting classes gain access to 2 additional combat feats before 6th level. The Ritual Warrior gains these before 5th level. But for the most part, with the exception of the Ritual Warrior, must classes are relatively balanced before 4th level.
There is both elemental and energy damage: Acid, Air, Cold, Earth, Electricity, Fire (both element and energy), Sonic, Water. While these are the most common types of damage, there are spells that deal negative, positive, force, or untyped damage as well.
Going to drop as well. I love AE but honestly the house rules kill it for me. Best of luck with the game.
Mmm-kay