4saken1's page

Arcanum: of steamworks and magick obscura
Fallout 1 & 2

What I loved about these games was that you could replay them as a different archetype and have a vastly different playing experience.

I would like to see another isometric game like Baldur's Gate or Temple of Elemental Evil.

-Real time with turn based combat (real time optional)
-Multi-player and online available
-Open source
-An extensive list of optional rules that can be integrated at the beginning of a campaign
-Complete or near complete spell, feat, and skills lists, each having a use somewhere in the game
-'Build your own dungeon' option
-Vast world with new adventures added regularly
-Many classic AD&D modules in game

Still looking for players, we just need a couple more. Send me a message if you are interested or have any questions!

Oooohhh, so many to choose from! I guess this one: Players get to either re-roll HP that are half their die or less or choose to take 1/2 die +1 instead.

Strength as a bonus to hit never sat well with me. I've heard the arguments that it helps to penetrate armor, but how does this explain why unarmored opponents are easier to hit for those with high Strength?

I'm down in Galt and interested, how solid is the Thursday evening meeting time?

I'm pretty flexible with the day. I picked Thursday because it's the day that I'm least likely to have something else going on. If the group can come up with a better time slot that works for everybody, I'm fine with that! The biggest obstacle so far is getting people on board. There were a couple people interested that started playing in a different campaign because it was taking too long to get people together. I currently only have one other player who wants to play, but a friend of mine says he knows a couple that might be interested. As soon as I can get 4 players together, it's a go!

And if I were interested in that I would engage in real combat.

hehe.....or maybe when you encounter a group of monsters, the DM should just describe how you kicked all their butts and got a bunch of experience, to ensure that nothing bad ever happens to any of the characters. To each his own, I guess!

At that point I would just bow out of the game. Not interesting in suffering two full attacks in a row again.

It is unfortunate, but I'm sure that happens in real combat from time to time.

I hope this isn't thread hijacking by posting here, but here goes......

I'm trying to get a group a group of players (4-5) together interested in a long term campaign, spanning three super-modules: Temple of Elemental Evil, Scourge of the Slave Lords, and Queen of the Spiders. Players preferably have no experience with or specific knowledge of these epic adventures. I run a house-rule heavy version of Pathfinder, with a greater emphasis on role-playing than power-gaming. Sessions will be weekly, tentatively on Thursday evenings (depending on schedules of likely candidates) at my place (near Sac City College). Seeking adventurers who enjoy playing and can commit themselves to do so on a regular basis. PM me or post here if interested or have any questions.

I played with that rule once. By the end I was delaying until the end of the round to ensure I always got a turn between enemy turns. Getting slapped twice before you can act makes healing in combat an even worse option than it already is.

The last gaming session I DM'ed, we re-rolled initiative every round and things went pretty smoothly. I allowed players up to 1 delay in a round if they wanted it, and nobody abused it. If there was ever a situation where somebody was trying to game the system, I'd probably just eliminate the delay option altogether.

Just thought of one myself: Instead of having the Toughness Feat give an additional Hit Point/level, let the players roll for Hit Points on the next higher die. Barbarians can opt to take the standard +1 HP or use d8+d6 instead.

I like the combo option presented about half way down the page on this D&D wiki. Here are the values it gives the different armors:

Padded AC:+1 DR:none
Leather AC:+1 DR:1/-
Studded leather AC:+2 DR:1/-
Chain shirt AC:+2 DR:2/-
Hide AC:+2 DR:1/-
Scale mail AC:+2 DR:2/-
Chainmail AC:+3 DR:2/-
Breastplate AC:+3 DR:2/-
Splint mail AC:+3 DR:3/-
Banded mail AC:+3 DR:3/-
Half-plate AC:+4 DR:3/-
Full plate AC:+4 DR:4/-

Got a lot done with this character generator, so far.....still a bunch I haven't done, yet. Below are a few sample characters I generated:

NG Male Human Rogue 1

DEFENSE:
AC: 17 (+4 armor +2 dexterity +1 dodge)
Hit Points: 9
Saves: Fort: +4, Ref: +4, Will: -1

OFFENSE:
Initiative: +2
Melee: Rapier +2 (d6+2)
Ranged: Sling +2 (d4)

STATISTICS:
Strength: 15 (+2)
Dexterity: 14 (+2)
Constitution: 15 (+2)
Intelligence: 11 (0)
Wisdom: 8 (-1)
Charisma: 10 (0)
Feats: Dodge, Great Fortitude
Skills: Appraise: +4, Bluff: +4, Craft: +4 (locks), Disable Device: +6, Disguise: +4, Escape Artist: +6, Knowledge (Geography): +1, Knowledge (Local): +4, Ride: +3, Swim: +6,

Money: 59 GP
Armor: Chain shirt

LG Male Human Sorcerer 1

DEFENSE:
AC: 11 ( +1 dexterity)
Hit Points: 8
Saves: Fort: +2, Ref: +1, Will: +2

OFFENSE:
Initiative: +1
Melee: Mace, light +1 (d6-1)
Ranged: Crossbow, light +1 (d8)

STATISTICS:
Strength: 8 (-1)
Dexterity: 13 (+1)
Constitution: 15 (+2)
Intelligence: 11 (0)
Wisdom: 11 (0)
Charisma: 16 (+3)
Feats: Endurance, Weapon Finesse
Skills: Handle Animal: +4, Knowledge (Local): +1, Profession: +4 (driver),

Money: 28 GP
Armor: Unarmored

N Male Human Sorcerer 1

DEFENSE:
AC: 12 ( +1 dexterity +1 dodge)
Hit Points: 6
Saves: Fort: +1, Ref: +1, Will: +3

OFFENSE:
Initiative: +1
Melee: Club -1 (d6-1)
Ranged: Crossbow, heavy +1 (d10)

STATISTICS:
Strength: 8 (-1)
Dexterity: 13 (+1)
Constitution: 13 (+1)
Intelligence: 11 (0)
Wisdom: 13 (+1)
Charisma: 17 (+3)
Feats: Arcane Strike, Dodge
Skills: Handle Animal: +4, Knowledge (Planes): +1, Sleight of Hand: +2, Survival: +2,

Money: 38 GP
Armor: Unarmored

LG Female Human Ranger 1

DEFENSE:
AC: 18 (+5 armor +3 dexterity)
Hit Points: 11
Saves: Fort: +3, Ref: +6, Will: +1

OFFENSE:
Initiative: +4
Melee: Longsword +1 (d8)
Ranged: Crossbow, light +5 (d8)

STATISTICS:
Strength: 11 (0)
Dexterity: 19 (+4)
Constitution: 12 (+1)
Intelligence: 8 (-1)
Wisdom: 12 (+1)
Charisma: 9 (-1)
Feats: Point-Blank Shot, Nimble Moves
Skills: Disable Device: +5, Perception: +5, Profession: +5 (architect), Ride: +8, Stealth: +8, Survival: +5, Swim: +4,

Money: 8 GP
Armor: Scale mail

LG Male Elf Ranger 1

DEFENSE:
AC: 16 (+4 armor +2 dexterity)
Hit Points: 11
Saves: Fort: +3, Ref: +4, Will: +2

OFFENSE:
Initiative: +2
Melee: Greatsword +2 (2d6+1)
Ranged: Sling +3 (d4)

STATISTICS:
Strength: 13 (+1)
Dexterity: 15 (+2)
Constitution: 12 (+1)
Intelligence: 11 (0)
Wisdom: 15 (+2)
Charisma: 8 (-1)
Feats: Endurance
Skills: Acrobatics: +3, Climb: +5, Craft: +4 (sculptures), Knowledge (Dungeoneering): +4, Knowledge (Nature): +4, Perception: +7, Spellcraft: +4, Survival: +6,

Money: 9 GP
Armor: Chain shirt

If anybody notices any obvious errors in these builds, I would greatly appreciate the input. They're all 15 point buys, with favored class splitting the skill/HP bonus at 50% likelihood for each. Hit Points are re-rolled if they amount to half of the die or less, with the greater of the two rolls being kept. Stat bonuses for Humans, Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs are applied to the primary stat of their class.

* Increase the casting time of every spell by one step: Standard becomes full-round, full-round becomes minute, minute becomes 10 minutes, etc. Easy peasy, no hassle, no fuss, no bookkeeping. This means that every basic combat spell will tale a full-round to cast, so the caster begins on his turn in round one and finishes on round 2 which makes them much easier to interrupt. Longer spells like Sleep will now take a full minute to cast, taking them out of the realm of combat functionality entirely.

I remember back in 1st and 2nd Edition D&D, spells had casting times, in segments. For the most part, the casting time was equal to the level of the spell (with a few exceptions). One could easily adapt that in any campaign. If a character's initiative starts on a 16, and they want to cast a 4th level spell, the spell is finished being cast at initiative 12. Quicken Spell would work like so: Every level higher spell slot you use reduces the casting time by 1. Spells that have a 0 casting time become standard actions. Those that are less than 0 become Quick Actions.

I'm not a professional programmer or anything, but I've been working on writing up a Random Character Generator on a program I downloaded a loooooong time ago, which will enable me to generate a completely random character (or group of characters) without a bunch of input on my part. I basically just want to click the mouse and have a random 1st level character.

At any rate - for purposes of this experiment, I was curious if there was any canon material out there on the racial demographics of adventurers, and the breakdown of the likelihood of Class choices for each race. I realize that each campaign will probably have a different racial makeup depending on what races are prevalent in any given area, but I was hoping to find just a general 'average', if you will.

Here's what I've come up with so far (most of these numbers, I just pulled out of my butt....):

Race:

Dwarf 5%
Elf 10%
Gnome 8%
Half-Elf 3%
Half-Orc 3%
Halfling 6%
Human 65%

Class:

Dwarf
1-5,Barbarian
6,Bard
7-9,Cleric
10,Druid
11-17,Fighter
18,Monk
19,Paladin
20,Ranger
21-23,Rogue
24,Sorcerer
25,Wizard

Elf
1,Barbarian
2,Bard
3-5,Cleric
6-8,Druid
9-11,Fighter
12,Monk
13,Paladin
14-20,Ranger
21-23,Rogue
24-26,Sorcerer
27-33,Wizard

Gnome
1,Barbarian
2-6,Bard
7-9,Cleric
10,Druid
11-13,Fighter
14,Monk
15,Paladin
16,Ranger
17-19,Rogue
20-24,Sorcerer
25,Wizard

Half-Elf
1,Barbarian
2-4,Bard
5-7,Cleric
8-10,Druid
11-13,Fighter
14,Monk
15-17,Paladin
18-20,Ranger
21-23,Rogue
24-26,Sorcerer
27-29,Wizard

Half-Orc
1-5,Barbarian
6,Bard
7-9,Cleric
10,Druid
11-13,Fighter
14,Monk
15,Paladin
16,Ranger
17-19,Rogue
20,Sorcerer
21,Wizard

Halfling
1,Barbarian
2,Bard
3-5,Cleric
6-8,Druid
9-11,Fighter
12,Monk
13,Paladin
14,Ranger
15-21,Rogue
22,Sorcerer
23,Wizard

Human
1,Barbarian
2,Bard
3-5,Cleric
6,Druid
7-9,Fighter
10-11,Monk
12,Paladin
13,Ranger
14-15,Rogue
16-17,Sorcerer
18-20,Wizard

Thanks in advance for any relevant links or input on the subject!

That's a pretty good suggestion, nosig. Like Andreas Forster implied, though, the roll is often as much about how what's been said is inferred by the recipient of the message as it is about what is actually said. The same speech given to one individual can have vastly different results when given to another.

1) Assign 28 dice to the six attributes. Every attribute has to have at least two dice.

2) Roll the dice for each attribute. Add the top three results.
2a) There is a hard floor (before racial adjustments) of 6 in an attribute. If you roll 3d6 and end up with {1, 1, 2} that's a 6.
2b) If you assigned only two dice to an attribute, roll them, and add 2 to the total.
2b) If you roll a lot of dice, and several of them turn out as '6', count each '6' above the first 3 as +1.

As an alternative we liked, here's a method we stole from Obsidian Portal:
1) Roll 4d6, take the best 3. Do that nine times, and put those scores into a 3-x-3 grid.
2) Label the columns "Strength", "Dexterity" and "Constitution". Label the rows "Intelligence", "Wisdom" and "Charisma.
3) Pick numbers from each row or column for the designated attribute. Once you pick a score, cross it off; you can only use each number once.

So the question arises: what does the GM do when one character's scores are much better than another's? Our answer: total the scores as if they were point buys. The highest score is the "thresh-hold". For each 3 points a character's score is below the thresh-hold, the character gets an extra trait.

Those are both very cool methods, Chris!

One I like is having players roll 3d6 for each stat, in order. This is the base for each ability, which cannot be decreased to spend more points elsewhere. From there, each player determines how many points that set of abilities would cost in a point buy and then distribute whatever remaining points as they like.

I found an amalgamated D&D 3.5 rule that I like, in which armor provides both AC and DR on this page:

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Armor_As_Damage_Reduction_(3.5e_Variant_Rule)

I'm thinking about adapting this rule next time I start a campaign (assuming it's OK with the players), with one small change - piercing weapons effectively halve any DR provided by armor.

I'd like to get this before the offer ends.

Thanks in advance!

Sounds interesting. Is there any benefit if a player makes a given stat a 9? Are there bonuses for having stats less than 8?

What if we used Armor Class bonuses as damage reduction, which is bypassed with critical hits

I've contemplated implementing something similar to DR for armor, except if the damage exceeds the armor value, the defender takes full damage from the attack.

I currently am running a low level campaign using confirmed Critical Fumbles. It seems like monsters fumble a lot more than players, currently. For the most part, Fumbles tend to be slight inconveniences that add flavor to the game and everybody seems to enjoy them.

I can definitely see the downside of this at higher levels, though, and am thinking about a slight variation that might address it somewhat: 1) Any Natural '1' effectively ends a Full attack. 2) Only the first swing in a Full attack is subject to Critical Miss rules, and must be confirmed.

4) Clerics do not spontaneously cast cure or harm spells. They spontaneously cast domain spells.

It instantly makes clerics of different gods unique. You want to heal? Take the healing domain or memorize healing spells.

I really like this one! The Healing Domain seems pretty useless in the current incarnation of the rules.

Aaaaahhh, OK I'll go!

To start off, all attacks use Dexterity as a modifier 'to hit'. Weapon Finesse is a null Feat.

Players (and monsters) add their Constitution score (as opposed to the bonus) to their first Hit Die. I think I heard somewhere that this is the way it is in the new edition of D&D and liked the idea.

Any Strength based attack that makes a successful 'touch attack' does 1-(STR Mod) in damage. ie., if your Strength is 16, any attack that would be a successful touch attack does 1-3 damage. A successful strike on the opponents AC does full damage.

I like the randomness of rolling stats, but it can create substantial inequities between characters. One thing I'm considering next time I start a campaign is this: Players roll 3d6, in order, for each stat. This is the minimum value of each stat. From there, based on these numbers, I would figure out how many points they have remaining to spend on their stats as they see fit.

What I'm considering is a 100 point buy system. For each player, take the stats they rolled, figure out how many points it equals (based on the number before the slash in the chart below), and subtract it from 100. This is the remaining points they have to spend on their character (using the number after the slash).

3-11 = 3-11 points, respectively/1 point each
12 = 13 points/2 points
13 = 15 points/2 points
14 = 18 points/3 points
15 = 21 points/3 points
16 = 25 points/4 points
17 = 29 points/4 points
18 = 34 points/5 points

One of the things I liked about 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D was that rather than most spells having a casting time of 1 standard action, they usually had a casting time in segments equal to the level of the spell. When casting a 4th level spell, for example, if someone started casting on their initiative of 9, the spell would be cast when initiative reached 5. Any foes that had a chance to act between those two points could potentially disrupt the spell. This would probably complicate a few things, but would also help to level the playing field with regards to higher level spell-casters.

The 1st Edition DMG breaks it down into 2 factors.

The first is by population density. In relatively densely populated areas, the chance of encounter is 1 in 20. Moderate to sparse/patrolled areas, it's 1 in 12. Uninhabited/wilderness is 1 in 10.

The second factor is how frequently you check for encounters. Without getting too detailed regarding the times of day they have listed, here's a breakdown of the different terrains: Mountains - twice/day. Desert, hills, or plains - 3 times/day. Scrub - 4 times/day. Forest or marsh - 6 times/day.

In my current campaign, I also use a 'Critical Miss' Table that I created myself. I do agree, however, that higher level characters shouldn't be overburdened with fumbles due to an increased number of attacks. There are a couple of measures I have in place to help combat this: 1) Just as a Critical Hit must be confirmed, so must a Critical Miss. After rolling a Natural '1', players and monsters alike must roll again and miss before rolling to determine the type of critical. 2) Many of the Critical Misses on my chart have saves that allow for the effects to be reduced or negated, further decreasing the chance that more experienced characters will suffer ill effects.

I do like the idea that a Natural '1' stops the turn of the combatant, though!

Say a spellcaster moves or performs a movement action before casting a spell, provoking an attack of opportunity - Do they still need to make a Concentration Check if they are hit before they even end their movement and begin casting?