Wraithlord's page

About the combat Xp:

I think splitting the Xp based on damage dealt may be an unwise decision because not all partymembers may be equally capable of dealing out damage.

- If your fighter acts early in combat he may be able to take down a foe before the others can react (claiming all Xp for himself).

- If the cleric heals the fighter or the bard provides a magical boost while the fighter deals damage, should they not be equally rewarded? The combat part of your system will not encourage the party to act as a team, in my opinion.

- If the wizard casts "hold person" on an opponent and the rogue finishes it off, should the rogue gain all the Xp?

- Many attacks, high attack bonus, and high strength will give fighters and barbarians a lot of Xp (especially at low levels).

- Since a monster's power is not weakened by loss of hp (it still hits as hard as before and can use its abilities etc.), the defeat of a monster may mean more to a battle than just the loss of the last 2 hp. Especially if the party at that time have several people dying, few resources, etc. In other words, should the aditional damage dealt be counted, or only the number of hp left?

I suggest that instead of counting damage, you should count the number of meaningful actions done by each partymember. "Meaningful actions" are of course open to interpretation, but a meaningful action should contribute to the defeat of a monster in a significant way.

That's why you've got Creature Catalogue:

www.enworld.org/cc/converted/elemental/mudman.htm

I could not find what you were talking about. If you remember the specific name, please let me know.

Aleax, p. 158. Even though it is from the Book of Exalted Deeds, I think it can be used by any (demi)god.

The Book of Exalted Deeds have a monster that has the purpose you describe: hunting down and killing those that anger a god. They are basically a clone of a specific character with some additional powers, and can only be hurt by the character they copy.

Excluding mosters, you have the Bounty Hunter from DMG2 as said. It is not a PrC, though, but an "advanced npc". I believe it is a ranger/rogue/assassin.

The Book of Vile Darkness gives you the Mortal Hunter PrC; a fiend specializing in slaying mortals.

Quoting Marc Chin: "Important note about the XP charts in the DMG that you may not have been aware of:

- The charts are written under the assumtion that there are FOUR characters in the party; if there are more people in the party, the XP amounts need to be adjusted by referencing a different CR column."

I don't think that would be necessary. A CR 13 creature is CR 13 wther it fights against one level 1 character or 10 level 20 characters. It's not the CR itself that determines the Xp reward, but the difference between the creature's CR and the character's level. Also, since you divide the Xp gained from a creature between all participants, it means that the more PCs participate in a fight, the less their share of the cake will be.

According to the rules, it should take 13.33 encounters of a level equal to the party to level up. I calculated how many encounters were needed if all your encounters are 2 above party level, and believe it came to 6-7.

In any case, I think there is a sidebar in DMG saying that if you would like to slow down (or speed up) experience gained, you can simply multiply the normal Xp gained by 0.5 (or 1.5).

DMG also discusses mission goals and story awards (non-combat Xp) and says (I believe) that you should split combat Xp (standard awards) in half if you use story awards in your games. You should not simply add them together.

Whether I like a PrC or not is more based on flavor than power. I liked the Fatespinner (Tome & Blood, Complete Arcane) when I first saw it. Same with the Master of Shrouds (Defenders of the Faith, Libris Mortis). The Mindspy (Complete Warrior) is another favorite.

I've been considering running a more grim'n gritty game myself for some time. I'll be using the Midnight setting and the Darkness & Dread book from Fantasy Flight Games as a base.

Some changes I'm considering doing:

1. I'll be using the bell curve variant from UA, since that brings the result of the rolls from chance towards skill, which I find good.

2. I'll be using the damage conversion rules from UA, maybe in conjunction with the armor as damage reduction rules.

3. I will most likely restrict all classes to 10 levels (although I'll start on low levels, so that may not become a real problem). Multiclassing will not give you a penalty to Xp in this case. I'm considering giving out some higher than 10th level class abilities in the form of feats which requires 10 levels in the class that grants the ability as well as a character level equal to the level when it is usually granted.

4. I'll be using Midnight's spell system (basically the same as psionics/spellpoint system from UA). Also, in Midnight spells are not tied to a class, but to certain feats. A character capable of spellcasting can not cast spells of a level higher than half his character level.

5. I'll try to limit the spell levels to 5th at most, any other spells that may be used will be converted to incantations as per the UA rules. Also, I may decide reduce the effectiveness of scalable damaging spells to 1d6/2 levels (or equal to the level of the spell if it gives a set damage).

6. Hps are calculated according to a variant rule from Darkness and Dread (somewhat modified) so that you start with Hp equal to your Con score x a size modifier and gain 1 hp per level. Some creatures (like undead) will gain 2 hp per level instead.

7. I'm not sure how do do things with prestige classes which gives +1 spell level yet, but may decide to simply give them their own spell progression (unless I decide to leave them out).

I would just have the player remove a number of hit points equal to the mean (rounded down) for each HD lost plus Con. A wizard would lose 2 hp + Con while a fighter would lose 5 hp + Con. Feats like toughness, improved toughness and similar may come into play as well, of course.

Likewise, I would have the player remove a number of skill points equal to the number gained from the level lost. He would only be able to remove one skill point from a given skill, though (unless he removes points from all his skills and still have some to spare. If so, he starts over with what's left).

Whenever he gains a new level, he picks his new level the way any other character would do. The lost level is gone.

I realize that this may change the character somewhat from what he was before to what he will become after, especially if he loses and regains levels often, but I doubt it would be possible to abuse this in a deliberate way.

I'd like one too!

jhb79@start.no

The EL of an encounter increases by 2 with each doubling of the number of monsters present (and thus decreases by 2 for each halving of the number of monsters). Increasing/decreasing the number by 50% warrants a +1/-1 to the EL of the encounter.

A party of 2 level 10 characters should thus be able to handle an EL 8 encounter (or a CR 8 individual). Likewise, a party of 6 level 10 characters should be able to handle an EL 11 encounter (or a CR 11 individual).

It should be mentioned that the Beastmaster PrC don't require you to be a druid or ranger, as it doesn't require you to have an animal companion. It does require 8 ranks in the handle animal skill, though.

Also, I believe the leadership feat may grant you an alternative to an animal companion if you take an unusual cohort.

Dungeon #100 (The Lich Queen's Beloved) has some information on the Githyanki in the Polyedron part of the magazine, IIRC.

I'd reccomend www.rpol.net

Check this thread:

http://www.paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dungeon/adventurePath/adventurePat h2ComingSoon

I don't know if this may be of interest, but the wizards has a mini-adventure on their site: A Harvest of Evil. It details a plot including a vampire in a small town.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20011130a