d20 Rethought: Specialists

Gather round, friends, and I shall regale you with tales of this mythical system once more. Yea, and this day the tale I will tell is about how d20 Rethought addresses several problems which seemed inherent to the use of specialized roles among player characters.

How does a system do such a thing, you inquire? Well, ask those who went on create the fourth edition o' Dungeons and Dragons, and they'd have spun you a tale wherein all the classes possess equal amounts of ability in the realm of combat, whilst the use of other skills was kept to an abstract minimum. But since you've questioned me instead, the answer will come in three parts.

The first and most fundamental factor is that high levels of ability in a given area does not translate to a higher check bonus. Optimizing your bonus on relevant die rolls in d20 Rethought is a simple process, involving only a couple of feats; "step 1" on the road to becoming a master swordsman/thief/etc. After that comes the feats which grant you Tricks, those various sets of moves which expand your strategic options involving a given skill- at the price of Resolve or Vitality points, your fresh-every-encounter first line of defense against mental and physical attacks. To restate the usual metaphor, you draw power from your shields to fuel other ship systems.

In other words, a high level of ability in a given area means a wealth of gameplay options, and a low level of ability doesn't render you ineffective. Other players don't stand around and twiddle their thumbs while the specialist does his thing, and the specialist isn't getting cheated on play complexity just because he's chosen an area of expertise that isn't combat-related. The idea is to make the specialist the resident authority when the gameplay focus is in his direction, creating a "follow the leader" scenario rather than a "stay back and watch" one.

This ties in nicely with the next bit of info: Some tricks for each skill are oriented around letting unskilled characters join in without ruining the group's chances as a whole. This is a direct mechanical attempt to head off the situations in 3.5 where the group can't act as a whole because each additional member is just another skill check that could result in a failure and thus ruin the whole deal. Here, with the experienced member's guidance, everyone can participate.

To further improve the group participation, we have the third factor: a core rule change allowing Aid Another actions using different skills. If an ally is attempting to make a good impression, you can aid his Diplomacy check with your Knowledge of the local culture or a Bluff check to strategically embellish on his points.

Together, these three factors should hopefully even out most of the wrinkles produced by party specialists, while keeping the benefits- after all, it feels good to have someone on your team who's an expert at handling a given kind of challenge, and it feels especially good to *be* that person.

As always, thoughts and feedback are welcome.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Hits and the Status Track

In d20 Rethought, hits represent different conditions that have a negative effect on a character's performance. These conditions can be due to poison, fatigue, physical injury, mental trauma or some other cause. There are many different kinds of hits, with different nasty side effects and criteria for removing them; what they have in common is that every single hit a character currently has moves them down a step on the status track.

In and of itself, the status track is an unabashed rip-off of the SWRPG Saga Edition's condition track- an escalating series of penalties. You from being fine to receiving a -1 penalty on all checks, then -2, -3, -5, -10 and finally unconsciousness. Six strikes and you're out.

Hit the jump for an outline of some specific hits and what this means for the system as a whole.

Lethal Hit: You receive a lethal hit each time you lose any amount of wound points. Whenever you take a physically strenuous action, you take damage equal to the number of lethal hits you have. Lethal hits do not go away; instead, they must be treated in order to be downgraded to subdual hits.
Subdual Hits: When you lose wound points due to subdual damage, you receive a subdual hit instead of a lethal one. Subdual hits have no special drawbacks; you can heal one per day with 6 hours of rest and two per day with constant rest. Proper medical attention doubles the payoff.
Shock Hit: Mental equivalent of a lethal hit. (You receive a shock hit each time you lose any amount of trauma points. Whenever you take a mentally strenuous action, you take mental damage equal to the number of shock hits you have. Shock hits do not go away; instead, they must be treated in order to be downgraded to stress hits.)
Stress Hits: Mental equivalent of a subdual hit. (When you lose trauma points due to stress damage, you receive a stress hit instead of a lethal one. Stress hits have no special drawbacks; you can heal one per day with 6 hours of rest and two per day with constant rest. Proper therapy doubles the payoff.)
Stun Hits: Stun hits last until the end of an encounter and have no special drawbacks.

All this has several effects on how d20 Rethought plays. The single most significant aspect is that when a PC is taken down, it will usually be due to having accumulated six hits on the Status Track and fallen unconscious. Dying by running out of wound points becomes a much more unlikely scenario, akin to death by massive damage in 3.X. Players now have a motive to avoid any sort of notable injury or mental trauma, even if they have plenty of wound/trauma points remaining. This system also makes it much more feasible to swap out mental and/or physical damage tracking in favor of damage saves, depending on the focus of the game. Picture it- an investigative horror game, with occasional violent conflicts covered only briefly with the focus instead being on keeping your trauma points high lest you start to crack under the pressure. With one quick variant d20 Rethought can handle this just as well as an action-oriented gunfighting game.

Next time, I'll likely be doing a review of all that's been posted regarding d20 Rethought's combat, and how it compares and contrasts to d20 3.X.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Damage Done Different

I've talked alot about taking damage on this blog, but I really ought to also describe mention the differences in d20 Rethought regarding how damage is dealt. There have been some changes made here too, again in the name of streamlining character creation and ensuring that once an aspect of a character is optimized, it *stays* optimized.

-All damage is done through dice. In other words, to calculate damage you might roll 3d6 or 4d6+2d8 but never 3d6+1 or 3d6+5. The potential drawback with this decision is that rolling large handfuls of dice can slow down play, but this change paves the way for several other rules.
-The die caliber used depends on the source of the damage. A character might use a trick that grants him "2d sneak attack damage" or "+3d spell damage"; you inflict extra weapon damage dice on melee attacks equal to your brawn score.
-"Damage Resistance" minimizes the result of a die roll, while "Damage Vulnerability" maximizes it. A feat's tactic might give you Sneak Attack Resistance 2, a werewolf might have Total Silver Vulnerability (all dice are maximized), a red dragon might have a Fire Resistance and Cold Vulnerability of 5 each. . .of course, there are still some creatures that are flat-out immune to a certain type of damage.

And the single most vital alteration, the one that has some very far-reaching repercussions on the strategy of the game:
-The maximum number of damage dice you can inflict is equal to your attack roll minus the opponent's defense (minimum 1). Let's say I'm making an attack that deals 4d8 damage against an opponent with a defense of 15. If I roll a 15 or 16 on the attack check I inflict 1d8 damage; if I roll a 17 I inflict 2d8, if I roll an 18 I inflict 3d8 and if I get a result of 19 or higher I roll all 4d8 dice.

To help make said repercussions a little easier to understand, I'll toss in another big rule about d20 Rethought that I've only mentioned in passing until now:
-You can spend X vitality and X resolve to get a +X action bonus on your next skill check. (Action bonuses are applied after the result cap.) This can be done in or out of combat. It represents a moment of intense focus on your characters part; the sort of thing where afterwards you often slump back, take a deep breath and wipe the sweat from your brow.

Those are the big, obvious changes from a player's perspective. Read on for an exploration of these mechanic's potential and an explanation of how this business with dice ties into the underlying math of the system.

How this helps character optimization:
It lets damage scale smoothly as your character goes up in level and/or becomes more optimized in that area. Think about it- abilities that improve your damage are going to do so in one of two ways, either by granting more damage dice or improving the die caliber. Thanks to the "attack check-defense" limitation, the former improvement is only useful when your character scores a solid hit on the opponent (more on that below). The latter, meanwhile, is a permanent improvement! In this system, tricks can grant anyone sneak attack dice; a backstab-happy character just picks up more of these tricks, in combination with talents that improve the caliber of his sneak attack die to a d6 and then a d8. A straightforward melee fighter, meanwhile, might have tricks that grant him more weapon damage dice and improve his weapon die caliber via a Weapon Focus talent.

How this helps gameplay:
It's the same idea as the chance to augment your critical hits- the player has a choice, to play it safe or gamble by spending a resource for the chance to hit the enemy even harder. For every 1 point of damage prevention (physical and mental) you sacrifice, you'll potentially be inflicting another die of damage- unless you roll so high that you're already using all your damage dice, or you roll so low that you still don't hit at all.

This in turn makes Defense checks (Spending a move action to roll your defense, and using that result if it's higher that the normal "taking 10" score) a hell of a lot more important when fighting powerful opponents- an average of +5 to defense doesn't just mean an additional 25% of the rolls will miss, it means that your opponent will still potentially be rolling 5 less damage dice if they do hit.

I can take the number of damage dice inflicted, add that to their attack check and compare that against the victim's relevant passive skill check for an attack's secondary effects. In other words, whenever you've got a special trick that pins someone to their wall with their clothing or gouges them so painfully they're stunned for a second or just plain knocks them on their ass. . .the better the attack roll, the better it works.

In a similar fashion, when the players are fighting mooks/minions/minor npcs, the victims can simply make damage saves (DC 10+dice inflicted+1/2 largest die size) rather than the players actually having to roll damage.

My prediction/hope- and this is something that will require heavy playtesting for me to gauge whether I've been successful- is that combat will be a tense affair that can potentially be settled in just a few blows, while still being dramatic, fun, and in practice quite survivable by the player character.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Skill Training

Today I'll be explaining how skill proficiencies work in d20 Rethought. I've mentioned before that skills work in a similar fashion to the Saga edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game (and thus to 4E as well). However, there's a little more to the story than that.

I've mentioned before that every d20 roll in the game will either be a skill check or an ability check (With one exception, but that's not relevant here). That ties into the first thing you need to know: Every type of skill check in d20 Rethought has a Proficiency Rank of one, two or three. This is roughly the equivalent of the "untrained" and "trained-only" labels in 3.X, with a middle ground:

-Proficiency Rank I applications of a skill are the "normal" skill checks, and can benefit from all relevant bonuses.

-Proficiency Rank II applications of a skill are made as ability checks, meaning they can only benefit from the character's ability score, an expenditure of Action Points (kinda-sorta, that's something else I haven't gotten into) and/or any relevant circumstance bonuses.

-Proficiency Rank III means your character is incapable of making this type of skill check.

Training can reduce a check's effective proficiency rank, making it usable. The d20 Rethought equivalent of becoming "trained" in a skill is handled entirely via three feats:

Basic Training (skillname) gives me a +2 bonus on all applications of a skill and lets me treat PR II and III checks as being one proficiency rank lower.

Specialized Training (skillname) gives me a +4 bonus on *one* application of a skill and lets me treat it as PR I.

Advanced Training (skillname), which requires one of the above feats (but not both), replaces these benefits with a +4 bonus on *all* application of a skill while letting me treat them all as PR I.

Make sense? I'll try to have an example up soon.

Read all

D&D 3.5: Statistics for Guts from Berserk

An old classic I did a year ago for the /tg/ board on 4chan: A conversion of Guts and his equipment to the D&D rules. (If you don't know who this man is, he's the protagonist of an incredible manga series called Berserk that I highly recommend. Graphic sex and violence are involved, but they have roles in the story rather than being pointless titillation.) These stats are meant to represent him immediately prior to the battle to escape Vritanis. Against a normal D&D party, I'd say his dearth of magic items makes him about CR 17.

Guts
Male Human
Alignment Chaotic Good
Fighter 12/Barbarian 7/Frenzied Berzerker 5

Str 24 (+2 prodigy, +1 4th, 8th, 16th, 20th)
Dex 16
Con 18 (+1 12th)
Int 14
Wis 13 (-1 armor)
Cha 12

Hit Points 233, Current 233
AC 23 (10+3 dex+9 armor+1 shield), Touch 13, Flat 20
Init +3
BAB +22/17/12/7, Grap +??
Speed 30 (base 40, load 0/33, medium armor)
Fort +22, Ref +10, Will +9

+34 Melee, Dragonslayer, 3d6+14, 17-20/x2
+30 Melee, Dagger, 1d6+7, 19-20/x2
+30 Melee, Prosthetic Hand, 1d6+7, 20/x2
+26 Ranged, Repeating Crossbow, 1d10, 19-20/x2, 60’ r
+26 Ranged, Darts, 1d4+7, 20/x2, 20’ r
+26 Ranged, Dagger, 1d6+7, 20/x2, 10’ r
+21 Ranged, Arm Cannon, 6d6, 20/x2, 10’r
+25 Ranged Tough, Fire Bombs, 3d6/1d6 splash, 20/x2, 10’ r

Rage:
+48 hp, AC 21, Will +11
+36 Melee, Dragonslayer, 3d6+17, 17-20/x2

Frenzy:
2 lethal damage per round, AC 22, Ref +12
+40/40/35/30/25 Melee, Dragonslayer, 3d6+23, 17-20/x2

Rage and Frenzy:
+48 hp, 2 lethal damage per round, AC 20, Ref +12, Will +11
+42/42/37/32/27 Melee, Dragonslayer, 3d6+26, 17-20/x2

Skills:
+1 Balance (0+2 synergy-4 acp)
+21 Climb (10+4 prodigy)
+6 Diplomacy (10cc)
+28 Intimidate (27)
+35 Jump (26+4 prodigy+2 synergy-4 acp)
+9 Ride (10-4 acp)
+9 Spot (16cc)
+11 Survival (10)
+13 Swim (10+4 prodigy-8 acp)
+14 Tumble (26cc+2 synergy-4 acp)

Feats:
-Weapon Focus (Greatsword) (H)
-Power Attack (F1)
-Cleave (F2)
-Destructive Rage (3) (CW)
-Weapon Specialization (F4)
-Intimidating Rage (6) (CW)
-Great Cleave (F6)
-Monkey Grip (9) (CW)
-Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Repeating Crossbow) (F8)
-Endurance (12)
-Diehard (FB 1)
-Iron Will (18)
-Indomitable Soul (21) (PHBII)
-Improved Critical (Greatsword) (F10)
-Greater Weapon Focus (24)
-Epic Weapon Focus (Greatsword) (F12) (ELH)

Human Traits
-Bonus Skill
-Bonus Feat

Barbarian Class Features
-Fast Movement
-Rage 2/day (9 rounds)
-Improved Uncanny Dodge
-Trap Sense +2
-Damage Reduction 1/-

Frenzied Berzerker Class Features (CW)
-Frenzy 3/day (7 rounds)
-Supreme Cleave
-Deathless Frenzy
-Improved Power Attack

Special Qualities:
-Prodigy (Strength): Guts gets +2 to strength and an additional +4 on all strength-based skill and ability checks. (DMG II)
-Sacrifice: Guts has been branded with the symbol of sacrifice. Evil outsiders and undead can sense his presence and general direction as long as they are within five hundred feet. Additionally, whenever an evil outsider or undead comes within a hundred feet of Guts for the first time that day, the brand gives off a sharp pain and bleeds profusely, causing him to lose one hit point for every four hit dice the creature possesses (rounding down).

Equipment:
• The Dragonslayer, Mastercraft Large Greatsword .
•• The Dragonslayer is treated as a Holy Ghost Touch weapon for the purposes of bypassing DR and determining whether an attack hits. This is an extraordinary ability.
•• The Dragonslayer’s size provides a wielder of medium size with a +2 bonus to AC when they fight defensively and cover in the direction of their choice when they take a total defense action.

• Berserker Armor, +1 Mithral Full Plate
•• While wearing the berserker armor, a wielder with the ability to enter a frenzy must make a will save to avoid doing so every round in which they engage in melee combat, even if they take no damage. In addition, they may not enter a rage unless already in a frenzy.
•• While the wielder is in a frenzy, the berserker armor is treated as a +2 Mithral Full Plate of Medium Fortification that cannot be removed by normal means. The wielder themself gains an additional +6 to strength and dexterity as a well as an immunity to fear, stun, nausea and death from massive damage. However, the damage they take every round is lethal instead of nonlethal, and the frenzy does not end normally as long as there are living or animate creatures within the vicinity. At the end of a frenzy, the wielder takes 1 permanent wisdom damage.
•• If the wielder has the deathless frenzy ability and would die at the end of a frenzy due to hit point loss, they instead heal to -9 hp and stabilize while permanently reducing their maximum number of hit points by the same amount.

• Prosthetic Arm
•• When equipped, the prosthetic arm can be used to hold metal items or help wield two-handed weapons. It also functions as a mastercraft gauntlet.
•• Arm Cannon, Exotic Medium Ranged Weapon (10’ range, 3d6 fire and 3d6 bludgeoning damage, 20/x2)
••• The arm cannon is a concealed weapon, requiring a DC 25 Spot or Search check to detect. If an opponent is not aware of the arm cannon, they are treated as flat-footed for the purpose of the wielder’s attack.
••• Reloading the arm cannon requires two full-round actions, each provoking an attack of opportunity
••• While in a grapple, the wielder may make a grapple check to attack with the arm cannon. If the attack hits, it automatically threatens a critical hit.

• Ammunition and Gunpowder for ten shots.

• 10 Fire Bombs, Splash Weapons (10’ range, 3d6 fire damage/1d6 splash, 20/x2)

• Rickert’s Repeating Crossbow
•• This crossbow functions as a mastercraft light repeating crossbow with two exceptions: The range is halved, and the magazines hold ten shots instead of five.

• 60 Bolts

• 5 Mastercraft Darts

• Mastercraft Dagger

• Flint and Steel

• 4 day’s trail rations

Read all

d20 Rethought: What is Min-Maxing?

I'm not sure whether this will strike people as staggering or just staggeringly obvious, but I'll just come out and say my thoughts on the matter:

Min-maxing is gameplay.

Just as coming up with a character's personality and background is a creative endeavor in the same sense as roleplaying, the act of character optimization is as much a part of "playing" D&D, Shadowrun, etc. as the combat is.

And when I look at the process of min-maxing in 3.X as a type of gameplay, it lets me come to a few conclusions.

-Character optimization needs to be easy. Or rather, foolproof- damn hard to do wrong. A beginning player should ideally be able to create a viable character, one that won't automatically be overshadowed by the creation of an experienced min-maxer so long as said min-maxer isn't deliberately trying to break the system (i.e. exploiting poor wordings and other "bugs" the game designers failed to catch).

-Character optimization needs to be less important. The question the game designer has to face is: How much importance do they want to lend to the act of character optimization? To what degree should character optimization be the key to victory? I would say 3.5 D&D is an example of a game that goes too far- beyond a spellcaster's ability to choose which spells to prepare and come up with creative uses for them, the *only* major key to victory is a characters underlying bonuses paired with sets of maneuvers that were planned out before the game ever began. And one thing that will be necessary to fix that:

-There need to be more significant in-game tactical decisions. It's only natural; for decisions made *prior* to the game to be less important the mechanics will have to make player decisions *during* the game.

Having had a chance to look over 4th Edition, it's interesting to see how it accomplishes these goals (I'll bet they didn't phrase them the same way I did, but it seems like they worked along similar lines). Character optimization is made easy by presenting you with a pair of probably-can't-go-wrong choices (race and class) and then having ensuing choices be based on those two initial ones. (You're a dwarven paladin? Well, here are the racial feats, here are the class feats, here are the paragon paths, and if you want some of what he's having there's a feat chain that will provide it in a way designed to not screw you over optimization-wise.)

Powers, meanwhile, are used to place an emphasis on "in-game" play via abilities whose uses are flavorful, conditional and/or otherwise limited in use- you have to pay attention and plan out when and where you're going to use them. The limited number of powers works from a gameplay perspective. . .it's just that the kind of gameplay it provides doesn't quite jive with me.

We're now dealing with two major subjects here- "in-game" gameplay and character optimization. The next two posts will delve into how these aspects of 3.5 were deconstructed while developing d20 Rethought. It'll take alot of playtesting before I can offer any definitive opinion with regards to the results of my approaches vs. those taken by the 4th Edition design team, but it's interesting to compare and contrast what's been done.

Read all

Thoughts on Chromatic

Picture may have been selected for the purpose of irony.

What's Chromatic, you ask? Why, it's d20 revision (in the same vein as my own d20 Rethought project) whose creator goes by the name of Consonant Dude. The project is currently on hiatus/in development limbo to give the creator a chance to figure out whether he wants to keep working on it; but even if he decides to toss the whole thing in the dumpster, at least this gives me a chance to compare and contrast the decisions we've made while seeking to improve the same underlying system.

I should probably start by noting how the two of us are, as near as I can figure, coming from very different places. While it'd be an oversimplification to just say that he's "old school" and I'm not, Consonant Dude's work is influenced by experiences with early D&D rulesets he played games with as a kid in the 1970s. Meanwhile, I first started playing D&D when 3.5 was already looming on the horizon. I've never had to compute a T.H.A.C.0 value, and first edition AD&D was already ancient history before I ever set foot (or diapered derriere) on the mortal plane. In other words, I suspect that there are going to be some points where I'm just not going to be able to follow his thinking and explanations all the way. But we'll see. Going from post to post:

The idea of having bonuses be calculated as set progression+ability modifier is interesting, even if in practice it's just replacing a simple act of addition with a chart- I assume the formula will also be provided, to reduce the need for lookups. There are some interesting opportunities for implementation here, allowing for instantly graspable character optimization options that will likely make more sense to a beginner. I find myself wondering if "natural" couldn't be used to pave a middle ground between untrained and familiar, rather than just being one step above the former.

Moving into a more stream of consciousness format:

• "I want to tie levels directly to how potent a character is." I understand what you're saying about NPC classes, but this strikes me as largely irrelevant- I've yet to see the idea of weaker NPC classes confuse anyone or impede gameplay. On the other hand, this might be overanalyzing but I'm interested in how you define "potency".
• Monster classes sound like a fine way to implement enemy combat roles, in fact I'd say that as a design element the class fits this niche more comfortably than it does with PC character creation.
• Competence modifiers sound more like competence levels or ranks to me. Though I suppose you're probably trying to say that your competence modifier depends on your level and your competence "rank" or whatever.
• Do you intend to have any hard mechanical bonus for a crit? Can skills roll crits in your system?
• Why do effect rolls have a name? Can something in this system alter effect rolls?
• APs could be a recharging resource pool used to pay for slots and make it possible to roll a crit.
• I suggest having high-ranking slots be per-day, mid-rank be per-encounter and low-rank be at will. Alternately, an at-will power could cost more slots.
• With regards to leveling down: I'm including a mechanic that allows people to "trade out" prior selections as they make new ones, on a 1:1 ratio. When you get a bonus feat, you may get an extra bonus feat by dropping one of your old bonus feats. Naturally, this may invalidate character options if you lose a prerequisite.

On the whole, it seems like Chromatic is shaping up to be a very basic, beginner-level system. What I'd really like to know is how classes will work

Oh, and to give some info on how d20 Rethought compares: Alot of basic priorities are the same, such as simplifying the math of min-maxing. There are some similarities in terms of progressions too; an untrained check uses your level and your ability modifier, with the only other possible mods being circumstance bonuses/penalties and the action bonus.

Read all

Souls!

A while back I was watching someone play through Devil May Cry 4, and there was an interesting bit of dialog that ocurred after a battle between the half-demon Dante and a mad scientist villain who'd come up with a way to attain massive amounts of power by turning yourself into a demon. I'm paraphrasing, but basically the lines went something like this:

Glasses McStuttery: Impossible! How can there still be such a gap between your abilities and mine?
Dante: You sacrificed your humanity. It's that simple.

Now, the scene goes on to basically imply that "humanity"=having a heart, caring about people, fighting for Twoo Wuv, etc. and that it'll always win out in the end. But Dante's blunt reprimand had already sent me off on my own mental tangent. See, it's always bugged me that the soul had so little meaning in Dungeons and Dragons- it could be a huge part of the fluff, but crunch-wise it's no more than an explanation for things like Level Drain. The only time it really comes up is when you're trying to rule about whether someone can be raised and so on. And it's not just D&D- selling your soul is a classic concept at the core of western supernatural fiction. So why is it always left so vague? Here's how I would approach it. . .

In this. . ."cosmology" seems the best word. In this cosmology your soul is the source of your humanity and mortality- when you grow as a person, develop in a way that goes beyond memorizing trivia or lifting weights to bulk up, your soul is the key. Your experiences are the paint, your soul is an infinite canvas and you are the picture.

The forces of heaven and hell, demons and angels- these beings are not created with souls. They are immortal, and many attain incredible power, but most do not "train" or "learn" even though they are completely sentient. The only way for such a being to develop on their own is to get their hands on a mortal soul, and that is something one can only relinquish willingly. This is why the forces of hell are so willing to bestow untold pleasures upon someone who would sell their soul, particularly a heroic character who has proved their soul's strength- to them the forces of hell will gladly give power. Think of it from a player-character's perspective; snap your fingers and bam, you've got the half fiend template, no further obligations or mandatory alignment change. The forces of hell will give you even more power- more ability score increases and supernatural abilities- as payment for additional services, but that's only if you're interested. Tempting, no?

To speak plainly: Without a soul, you stop gaining experience points. Simple as that. You usually don't feel any different at first- you're just as strong and smart as you would be otherwise. But your skills, personality, maturity, alignment- those things will now remain unchanging, like a blooming flower that you pluck and press. You no longer age, though you can still be killed or die of disease- and that's the end of the story. There is no "what happens after you die", because in every sense that matters there is no "you"- just a brain and a body, going through the motions.

And of course, the forces of evil aren't the only ones who can use souls. An angel can make the exact same bargain. In several good-aligned religions this is seen as an ultimate act of devotion; not something that all should aspire too, but rather an act that goes even further (Some would say too far). Several times, different factions and good-aligned deities have clashed over when (if ever) it is right to accept such a gift and whether they have the right to ask it of their mortal devotees.

So a demon or celestial who gets a soul can now gain class levels. Just another sort of power to give their side an edge in the eternal war, right? Most outsiders think so- now they can acquire new skills mortals can- but its not quite so simple. See, as soon as they acquire a soul, their fundamental nature is no longer static. The "Always" preceding their alignment disappears, and they even begin to age (albeit slowly). Fallen angels and redeemed devils- normally such a deed is done artificially, by warping their nature with magic. Such methods won't work on an outsider with a soul, which quickly reverts to its true nature; but these outsiders are now fully capable of 'deserting' on their own. A soul is a dangerous thing; a wise outsider never takes such things lightly.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Balancing Magic

Magic in d20 rethought is already dependent on multiple ability scores and faces limitations parallel to those mundane combatants must deal with. The topic of this post is the raw number-crunching needed to make sure a system of skill-based magic is balanced. I've got not surefire approach in mind, so this will be done in a more stream-of-consciousness manner. (Note: this is a snapshot/transcript of the process, it doesn't really get into the numbers I eventually settle on. If those are what you're after then you'll want to wait a few more posts.

I'll start by theorizing that the three levels of a talent chain give a character to cast spells of that type at the same level as a D&D class's low, medium, or high spellcasting progression. Or, to put it differently: Take Healing Magic I and I can cast cure spells on par with a paladin of my level. Healing Magic II puts me on par with a bard and III on par with a Druid. Still confused? Here's the level at which each level of spell (from 1 up) can be cast by the three spellcasting progressions:

Low: 4/8/11/14/-
Medium: 2/4/7/10/13/16/-
High: 1/3/5/7/9/11/13/15/17

Note that this is giving us varying rates of progression, something that wound up being a problem with D&D 3.X. Let's keep this potential dilemma in mind while we go back and approach this from a more directly mathematical angle. For reference, all variables hailing from the start of the alphabet correspond to d20 results/modifiers/etc while variables hailing from the end of the alphabet will refer to non-d20 roll numbers like spell level. So:

A is the check result needed to cast a spell of level X. B is the amount A goes up by when X increases by one. C is the amount the second and third talent increases your check modifier by (assuming we keep the straight increase model). Using these variables, I can ask myself a few important questions.
-When a character can take 10 to cast a certain level of spell, how much higher level should he be *able* to cast? (Answer=10/B=Y, barring extraordinary circumstances involving crit successes and/or action points. I'd be fine with a Y between 1.5 and 4, therefore I want a B between 2.5 and about 7.
-At what level should a beginner (level 6, only the first talent, +1 mod for relevant ability) be able to cast? (Level 2 spells shouldn't be too far past the 50% mark, highest level possible barring crits/APs should be a max of 5. That means B can't be less than 3 and should probably be more like 4 or 5.

Now, this is giving us a problem. Because if we're going to make magic a skill like any others, then B's got be lower than 4 or 5. In fact, it might be ideal for it to be more like 1, since that means you can cast a new level of spell every two levels like in D&D. But with a d20's probability range that means he who can cast burning hands 50% of the time can cast Meteor Storm 5% of the time, and that's not acceptable.

Since magic's working differently already, we can make it something other than a skill and thus have it increase at a different rate- say ability+your full character level (instead of half). Combining that with a B of 3 and an A of 11 when X=1 means the low-level caster (Talent I, ability mod +1) has a 50% chance of casting an 8th-level spell and a 35% chance of casting a 9th-level one at 20th level. That's much too high-level for me, so let's adjust B to 5. Now that same level 20 character's got a 55% chance of casting a 5th-level spell and a 5% chance of casting a 7th-level one. The range is about right but the spell level isn't. Let's bump A up by 9- a level 1 spell's DC 20, level 2 is DC 25, etc. That means our level 20 character with a small knack for magic that he never really pursued is now capable of casting 5th-level spells with a 10% success rate and succeeds with level 2 spells 85% of the time. Range still strikes me as being too extensive- but then, this is the benefit of just a single talent. On the other hand, what if higher talents reduce B by one each but gave little or no extra bonus? The same level 20 character, with no changes except the other two talents (in other words, he'd still have invested three talents and nothing else- applied to other areas like lying or grappling, this would let him be as good as a focused mid-level character or a broken low-level one) would now cast a level 5 spell with a 50% success rate and level 8 at 5%. Meanwhile, they'd be casting 2nd-level spells at 95%. Throwing in a decent ability score (+4 instead of +1) and a feat (+3?) and you repeat all the previous statements while moving the spell levels up two notches. If the character's really invested in this area- supportive class features, some other ability that manages to stack- then you should be able to double that increase, at which point you're casting 6th-level spells with ease and have a 50% chance of pulling of a level 9. Considering we're talking one and only one school of magic (plus high-level spells will still cost you about 20% of your resolve points in a single go), that sounds about right to me.

So, now we've got a passable spread at high levels by saying that B=5-1 for each of the second two talents, while A=15+5X. How does it look at low levels, though? Will further tweaks be needed?

Well, let's say we've got a broken character meant to be as good with a particular talent chain as possible. He puts an 18 into the relevant score and gets another +2 bonus from his race. He selects a Skill Focus-type feat at 1st level that gives him another +3. And he plays a talent-oriented caster class that gives him the 3 relevant talents at 1st, 3rd and 5th level. At level 1 we're looking at a caster check modifier of 1 level +5 ability+3 feat, or +8 total. Whichever entry talent he selects, he can cast the fundamentals of magic from that school at a 45% success rate for level 1 spells and 20% for level 2. Flash forwards four levels and he'll have both the talents (meaning that the major difference between him at this level and at 20th level will just be the level bonus on caster checks). At this point, our level 5 character's +12 bonus on checks will let him cast 1st level spells with a 75% success rate and has a 15% chance of pulling off a 5th-level spell. Again, this seems pretty close to what I'm after.

For the record, this is not how I normally operate- extensive documentation like this has never been my thing, this would have likely been a half-page of scribbled tables and data sets with testing possibly being handled by an excel spreadsheet. Also, the math of the matter has since been altered (and improved) by my intention to include a max Result Cap on checks that can be temporarily increased but rarely bypassed. Either way, I hope this has been interesting and/or informative- and as always I'd love to hear your thoughts. Would you have approached this differently? Do you disagree with my judgment of the current system's odds as being balanced? Did I screw up my math? I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Magic

I know I've been doing alot on d20 Rethought recently, and that this isn't the best thing for alot of you since it's not providing much in the way of immediate content you can use. But this is the last one for a bit, I swear. This is the post I've been wanting to get to, the reason I forged ahead through the business about classes.

The latest 4th Edition reports indicate that the non-spellcasting classes will increasingly resemble spellcasting classes through the use of martial powers. d20 rethough, meanwhile, achieves the same thing by working in the opposite direction. To be brief: d20 Rethought uses skill-based magic, where you must make a check to successfully cast a spell against a difficulty that increases based on the spell's level. I'm dead certain I'm not the first to come up with this idea; but since d20 Rethought's being revised from the ground up I can incorporate this variant much more elegantly. Or to get more concrete: in d20 Rethought Evocation and Necromancy are skills just like Athletics and Bluff. No special rules about having to be a wizard before you can take them (though the normal cross-class hassle might still apply). Of course, doing this while still presenting spellcasters with appropriately complex choices in combat and keeping them balanced- that is where the hard details of the implementation come in. . .

First, let me just refresh your memory about one of the basic elements of d20 Rethought: Vitality and Resolve points. Vitality points are like hit points except you only recieve d4, d6 or d8 per level and they replenish fully between encounters (plus the really critical hits go straight to your wound points, which represent serious physical injury and, potentially, death). Resolve points are exactly the same except that they reflect mental well-being. Advanced martial maneuvers cost vp; and I haven't mentioned this before, but you can invest "extra effort" and spend X vp and X rp (up to a limit of half your level, rounding up) to get a bonus of X on a d20 roll you're about to make (so even muscleheads have a use for their rp in a non-combat situation). And while I'm at it, I'll restate a key point from the last post: abilities granted by Talents represent subconscious learning- passive bonuses that represent natural improvement at a task. Feats, meanwhile, usually represent conscious learning and study.

So: When you want to cast a spell, you first choose the basic effect. (Merrick the Sorceror wants to shoot fire from his hands, that's a level 1 effect.) Then make a check using the appropriate type of magic (In this case, evocation), and make a check. If your check beats the DC to cast a spell at the level of your chosen effect, you can successfully cast the spell. If your check is high to cast the spell at a higher level, you may do so. This means increasing one or more numeric variables (Merrick rolls high enough to cast a level 5 spell, so he increases the damage from 1d6 to 4d6 (+3 levels) and the size of the cone from 5 feet to 10 (+1 level)). A spell's level can range from 1 to 20 and beyond, generally creating an effect equal to a D&D spell of half that level. To succesfully cast a spell, you must also spend the spell's level in resolve points- even a failed casting will cost you a single resolve point.

That resolve point cost is one balancing factor, but there's another, more important one: The DCs to cast spells are really, really high. As in "DC 20 for a level 1 spell and it goes way uphill from there". If you're trained in the skill and have a decent relevant ability score, that's still only enough to cast some basic spells- nothing with the dependability or potency to make it effective in an average combat situation, though your skills would still increase over time to the point that your spellcasting ability would remain a nice bit of help in non-crisis situations. With the aid of Extra Effort and/or an action point you'd still be able to pull off something bigger in a crisis situation.

But if you want to cast some serious spells, you'll have to invest more- namely, a talent chain that improves your skill checks considerably. Like all talent chains, this is just three talents long- hardly all-consuming, but then again you're only improving your ability to cast spells from one of nine or so schools. Now, once you've taken the three talents for that particular school of magic you're set- or are you? See, while your check result is about as optimized as it can be (there's still Skill Focus, but that's about it) by default you can only manage to use the more simplistic effects. (Merrick can shoot searing flame from his hands and push a man through a closed door with raw telekinetic force, but he can't create a wall of fire or sieze his enemy in a glowing, transparent fist.) To gain access to more complex effects (which are usually higher in level) you need the related feat chains. There are several (Two seems like a good figure to start with) three-feat chains for each school of magic, and each feat in a chain grants a set of increasingly high-level effects that can be used with the associated skill.

In this system a specialist caster can take about 5 levels in a class, acquire everything he needs to cast spells in a single discipline, and then start taking levels in, say, Barbarian instead. He'll be a few levels behind a full-fledged barbarian and won't have quite the proficiency of a full-fledged caster in his chosen school of magic- but for that single school he can still cast very well.

Meanwhile, the difference between the wizard and the sorceror is simple: the wizard gets a large amount of feats while the sorceror gets a large amount of talents. So the wizard can quickly learn how to pull of all these impressive tricks that the sorceror wouldn't have the first idea how to pull off- but when it comes to raw power that same wizard is clearly outclassed by the sorceror. Both have their merits and can easily avoid overlap when adventuring together.

So. How does that all sound?

Read all

d20 Rethought: Class Structure

This post isn’t about, say, the exciting class features to be had if you take levels in the d20 Rethought version of the Barbarian (which is not to say that there won’t be such a post in the future!). No, for this post I’ll be focusing on the nitty-gritty of what a class in d20 Rethought is, starting from a crunch perspective.

Not counting the unique package of bonus skills at first level (I'm still not 100% sure how skill selection's going to work), your choice of class in d20 rethought determines:
-Whether you receive d4, d6 or d8 vitality points at each level.
-Same for resolve points.
-Your class features. Which are what this post is really about.

See, your class features are divided into three separate categories: Talents, Feats, and Unique Class Features. This is the real focus of this post, so have another list explaining how these work:

-Talents: From a crunch perspective, talents come in chains (Quick Study I is the only prerequisite for Quick Study II is the only prerequisite for Quick Study III. . .) and tend to grant passive bonuses. Their general aim is to make your character damn good at something- lying, absorbing physical punishment, swinging a huge sword, etc. The class features that in D&D are possessed by multiple classes and can't be acquired through feats (evasion and uncanny dodge are the common examples) will generally be available as talents.

From a fluff perspective, talents are the natural abilities that we improve through use. If I'm always snarky and keep a constant watch for the chance to deliver a well-placed jibe, my witty banter's going to become top-notch as I become a full-fledged adventurer (okay, there might not be an actual talent for that but you get the idea).

-Feats: Talents tend to be more simple and passive; feats range towards the other end of the spectrum, being complex and active. To clarify, this doesn't mean a single gives you a 3/day ability with a two-paragraph crunch writeup; instead, it means alot more "tactical" feats like the ones introduced in the Complete series of supplements, giving you simple, specialized tricks and the like. (Book of Nine Swords-style tricks and stances are a big part of d20 Rethought combat, as mentioned before, and Feats are how you get them). At the moment, I'm thinking the arrangement will be like this: You get feats both from your class and just for leveling up, but talents (as mentioned before) only come from your class. There will be a feat that gives you any level one ("I") talent and lets you select further talents in that chain as though they were on the list of available class talents.

From a fluff perspective, Feats are separated from talents by being things you learn consciously- the tricks and maneuvers you pick up through education and deliberate practice. They can be taught, whereas talents are the sort of thing an instructor can only help you learn for yourself through personal experience.

-Unique Class Features will hopefully be just that: unique (to that class). Feats give you cool small-scale abilities and talents make you damn good at something, but with class features (which henceforth is the term for everything other than talents and bonus feats) you can go way out there and/or overlap in structure. Letting character pick from a list is fine (as long as they're all unusual), giving them supernatural powers is fine, and so on and so on. The important thing is for unique class features to be defining, distinctive and interesting- they should make you want to take levels in that class. Fluff-wise, there are no special restrictions here; your class features can come from training, inborn talents, or the latent effects of exposure to a radioactive meteorite.

Okay, now let's take a moment to talk about Class Structure. See, there are a total of four ways your class can hand out the goodies. It can either take a balanced approach (This means Level 1 Class Feature, Level 2 choose a Talent, Level 3 choose a Bonus Feat, repeat this structure for rest of class) or favor one of these three types of abilities by granting it every other level while the other two types are onyl received every fourth level. But! See, this actually interesting because of the aforementioned fluff aspects of each type of ability. A talent-centric class (Class Feature, Talent, Feat, Talent, repeat) is going to be the most simplistic option to play since everything's passive. If it's a warrior-type class then this is the sort of combatant who just trusts their instincts and charges in to cut down his enemies until none are left. By contrast, a feat-centric class (Class Feature, Feat, Talent, Feat) acquires a large number of options and and maneuvers that he can bring to bear while playing the game, and thus is naturally going to appeal to the tactically-minded player who likes to have a full arsenal of tricks up his sleeve and come up with complex plans of attack. In-game these are the sorts of characters that have often trained and had advanced levels of instruction. And lastly, the class feature-centric character gives you the chance for a more distinct type of class, one whose unique powers are a major portion of their total ability.

Now, these basic lessons will tie heavily into the ideas I've had for d20 rethought's magic system. Since I'd rather these posts stand better on their own, I'll just say this now: Sorcerors are the classic example of a talent-focused class, while Wizards are the classic example of a feat-focused one.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Classless approach?

I've been working on the previously mentioned (I think) set of generic base classes for d20 rethought, using a talent-feat-talent-feat model similar to d20 Modern for the class features. But I've run up against an obstacle. Without any fixed class features *or* the easily-grasped (but needlessly complicating) fundamentals of base bonus progressions, I'm beginning to feel that these classes are simply too vague to be sufficiently interesting for the player. The goal of base classes that retain the core d20 conventions while still being for any setting has resulted in a compromise that is inferior to either side's preference- that is, setting-unique base classes vs. a completely classless system.

And as I realize this, I also realize that I've already laid the groundwork for a version of the d20 system that would indeed throw class choices out the window completely. It's really quite simple-all characters would receive the following as their level went up:
-Every level characters receive a new feat, 1d6 vitality points and 1d6 resolve points.
-Every two levels, a new talent and a +1 increase to all base bonuses.
-Every three levels, a new ability increase.
-Every four levels, a new skill.
At first level characters also select a two-part background in a similar style to spycraft, with one part representing their past experience and the other representing their general demeanor. In addition to unique bonuses like feats, talents, or other abilities each of these two parts would grant several starting bonuses:
-Demeanor would determine bonus vitality and resolve points as well as the character's starting base will and reflex bonuses.
-Background (Blue Collar Worker, Soldier) would provide starting skill number and selection options plus the character's starting base combat and fortitude bonuses.

Talents would provide all the 'class features' of the game- evasion, contacts, berzerker rage and so on- while feats would continue to function in roughly the same capacity. Characters are free to mix and match as they see fit- for example, a ranger-type character could be created by investing your feats into archery and wilderness survival while your talents go into improving your mobility during combat and granting you some basic healing magic. In this case, however, there's nothing stopping you from investing that last group of talents into flame-throwing magic instead, or mind-reading magic, or becoming a natural liar. If I want to start with a fluff concept like "Brave, charismatic young woman with a passion for wilderness exploration and no small amount of skill with the crossbow" (see above picture) and then start writing the character up, I can do so without shooting myself in the foot from a tactical perspective. (By the way, the workings of the magic system will be covered in another post. I'm quite excited about what I've come up with there) Character creation without being limited to a certain package- how does that sound?

If your answer is "very cool," then I guess I owe you an apology because I've managed to get you excited about the option I won't be pursuing (at least not at this point). My premise for d20 Rethought is that it's what I would do if singlehandedly tasked with coming up with 4E's mechanics. That means adhering to some of the basic components of the system, including classes and ability scores- even if I'll be tweaking what those options are and what roles those parts of the system play in the creation of the character. And more to the point, I now have got a good idea of how I'm going to make setting-specific classes be flavorful without becoming too restrictive for my tastes.

So. Next d20 Rethought-related post will be about my new approach to base class structure, and the one following that can be about the new magic system; as eager as I am to skip ahead, the latter piece will include a few examples that rely partlypon information provided in the former.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Combat Fundamentals Part 2

All right, now we're getting to the fun part. I'll just start with an example of strategy: You've got a first-level character with a 12 in all ability scores and no particular special abilities beyond being trained in basic combat skills. Let's call him Jim. Jim is going to fight using a longsword and large shield. During your typical combat round, he can take a simple, effective approach: Spend a standard action to attack with his sword, a move action to make a block check with his shield and a swift action to threaten the area around him or take a five-foot step. Alternately, he could give up that guard check and make a full attack with his sword, which at first level means he'll score a second hit if his attack beats the opponent's AC by five.

Now, what if Jim was using a greatsword instead? Well, it would mean more damage, in the same fashion as 3.5 D&D. When making a full attack, he'd have to beat his opponent's AC by six rather than five to get that second hit in- hardly a deal-killer. No, the real drawback is when Jim wants to take that "guard and attack" approach he was using before- using the same weapon to attack and block in the same round gives him a -2 penalty on both checks.

Of course, there's still another option left to Jim besides defending with that greatsword: armor. For a starting character, a chain shirt is just as good for blocking as a light shield, with the added bonus of DR 2.

The Guard skill is the single biggest change to how combat plays out. Level, class and equipment all affect both your Reflex defense and your Guard skill in the same fashion, but guard gets an additional +5 bonus if it's a trained skill. Combine that with the fact that your guard skill doesn't decrease your defense on a bad enough roll, and characters are looking at an average of a +6 increase to defense if they take that move action. So even at first level, you've still got a set of meaningful choices: Guard and Attack to go for the middle ground, Full Attack for a chance to seriously increase the damage dealt if you exceed the opponent's defense enough, or Full Guard to make two Guard checks (against two opponents or a single opponent, taking the better result) in order to better defend yourself against an opponent. If Fighter A favors full attacks, Fighter B might take a full guard one round to better defend himself, then do a full attack the next round after Fighter A's full attack left him open. I'm considering letting characters make guard checks as immediate actions so long as they give up the appropriate action at the start of their action in the next round, which could disrupt a swift action-dependent special attack or other action.

So even at first level, characters have some simple, meaningful choices they can make before combat (two-handed weapon vs. one-handed and dagger/shield vs. other weapon setup that tends to be more specialized until you take the feats/abilities to properly support it) and during it (How much you should guard vs. how much you should attack). At higher levels the complexity increases as players gain new maneuvers and options from feats chains and, to a lesser degree, talents; tricks and stances that avoid universal increases and instead can be selected to personalize your fighting style as a whole.

To summarize: Mundane Combat in d20 rethought, compared D&D 3.5, should:
-Require less rolling. Though damage dice rolling potentially remains about the same, there are a maximum of two d20 rolls being made by each character each round
-Offer more fighting styles. The full attack with a greatsword is a viable melee combat option but not always the ideal one, even before artificial class restrictions and special bonuses are applied.
-Offer choices with uncertain outcomes on a round-by-round basis. Maybe you'll get lucky on that full atttack and inflict hordes of damage, while your opponent won't roll well enough to hit you even though you didn't guard. Or you could guard yourself, which on a 20 would make you nigh-impossible to hit and on a 1 would be no help at all. Score a critical success? Well, you can either take a quick, handy benefit or give it up for a shot at ending this combat much quicker.
-Offer increasing options over time. An accomplished high level fighter will have many more options at his disposal- the sword-and board warrior can force his shield up into the opponent's face and obscure their view as he hacks at a leg, or easily guard against multiple adjacent opponents while still being able to strike, and in a pinch can easily use only his shield to bash his enemy's face in.

I hope this all sounds like a viable way to improve the combat system.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Combat Fundamentals, Part 1

Yeah, no way I'll finish writing this up before midnight. This post repeats some previously mentioned material in an attempt to lay out all the various relevant ideas I have; part 2 will discuss how all these individual changes interact with one another to fundamentally alter how the combat works, at least in theory. The hoped-for end result is that the revisions will simplify (and thus speed up) combat while simultaneously making it less abstract. In other words, I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too.

DEFENSE:
-Saga Edition-style reflex defense. I've discarded the "Guard Defense" mentioned in the "Base Bonus" entry (and will edit that bit out soon); characters will use their reflex defense both to avoid explosions and to dodge the attacks of their enemies.
-Vitality and wounds. As in other d20 products, but cut vitality points in half and have them fully regenerate in between encounters. Plus Wounds are dependent on Brawn, which as a whole is the closest thing d20 Rethought has to Strength. And then there's Resolve and Trauma points, but while those are certainly a factor in combat they're a post unto themselves and would really confuse things here.
-Guard skill. Guard has two applications: Block and parry checks. Like attack types, these two checks function the same except that different equipment and feats interact with them in a different fashion. With a move action, characters can make a block, parry, or reflex check against a single opponent; until the beginning of the next round, the result can be used in place of their reflex defense against any attack that opponent makes.
-Armor as DR. Armor provides damage reduction, which protects against damage regardless of whether it'll reduce your vitality points or wound points. Armor can also be used to make block checks, with heavier types providing a large bonus on the check. On the other hand, one's reflex defense will likely be subject to a character's armor check penalty.

EQUIPMENT:
-Weapon Group skills. As mentioned in the "Combat Skills", proficiency in a weapon comes from having the relevant Weapon Group skill. So a fighter-type might find themselves weighing Heal against Weapon Group (Heavy Blades). In term of classification, d20 rethought's attack roll is a Weapon Group skill check.
-Multiple attack types. Just as there are multiple types of damage (piercing, slashing, etc), there are multiple types of attacks- swing (axe), thrust (rapier), bash (armor spikes), hurl (dart), and launch (bow). There are no special rules applying to any of these attack types, though a bash is normally a close-ranged improvised attack (such as with an elbow or sword hilt). Many weapons have more than one attack; as a hypothetical example, a longsword might say "Swing, 1d8, Slashing, 20" followed by "Thrust, 1d6, 19-20, Piercing". But small stat block differences aside, the real reason a character would want to, say, swing instead of thrust is because of situational rules- maybe your opponent is wielding a weapon meant for parrying and your Cleave feat only applies to Swing attacks.

OFFENSE:
-Two degrees of crit. Roll in the crit range of your weapon, and you have a choice. You can automatically maximize your damage dealt, or you can spend an action point and make a second attack check in an attempt to score a dramatic success. Against an opponent with Vitality Points remaining, this means you can deal damage straight to wounds. If you're dealing damage to wounds already, a dramatic success is a called shot; you accept a penalty on your confirmation roll and strike the body part of your choice if you succeed. Characters who can spend two or more action points in a single round (through class abilities, feats, or being at least 5th level) can try to score a double dramatic success if the first confirmation roll is also a crit (though maximum damage straight to wounds is often lethal enough).
-Single-roll full attacks. You score additional hits for every X by which you exceed the target's defense, up to a certain maximum. (It may help if you start by thinking of it as rolling once and using that result for all of your attacks.) X is 4 when using a light weapon, 5 with a one-handed weapon and 6 with a heavy one. Most Flurry of Blows-type abilities improve the maximum number of hits you can score, though a few (such as attacking with two weapons) can reduce X by one or (at higher levels) even two. None of these reduction stack with one another, though.
-Full incorporation of the swift action. Like in Saga edition, the swift action is an integral part of the system; many special attacks and other actions require the expenditure of one or more consecutive swift actions before they can be used. Said expenditure can happen partly at the end of one turn and partly at the beginning of the next; also keep in mind that you can trade a move action in for another swift action. The 5-foot step is a swift action, and characters will also have to expend a swift action to threaten the area around them for the purpose of making attacks of opportunity.
-Tricks and Stances.
Taking another page from spycraft and similar faire like the book of nine swords: Stances grant you passive combat bonuses and abilities. You can only benefit from one at a time, and can assume a new stance as a swift action. You can also only use one trick at a time, even though some adjust how a normal attack works and others are attacks unto themselves. Both come from feats, and possibly class features.

Read all

Vagabond: Trevata

This race, first conceived over two years ago, is still one of my personal favorites; I took some pages from the case-building caddisfly larvae common in the streams of the Pacific Northwest's more rural areas.

The trevata are a race of frail, humanoid insects. Though they posses indoskeletons, their predecessors also constructed exoskeletons, bonding surrounding materials (bark, rocks, etc.) to their skin by secreting a transparent paste. These shells served both as protection and camoflauge. As their civilized culture began to develop, they started to carefully construct their outfits and wear masks to establish their identity. Their progress was equivalent to 6th-century earth when interstellar contact was made. Now the majority of the Trevata spend much of their lives in customised suits of armor.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, trevata have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• A trevata's base land speed is 30 feet.
• Easy Breathing (Ex): A trevata requires much less oxygen to breathe than a human does, and can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to 10 x (Its constitution modifier) without having to make constitution checks. If exposed to a dangerous inhaled effect, a trevata gains a +5 species bonus on any required saving throw.
• Carapace: The trevata construct shells covering virtually all of their bodies by bonding materials to their hide with a transparent paste. Bonding or unbonding to a suit of armor or other shell takes 2d4 hours.
-- While not bonded to a suitable shell, a trevata suffers a -2 penalty to strength; they rely on their exoskeletons in order to fully exert themselves. Also, they suffer a -2 natural armor penalty to their defense and their massive damage threshold decreases by 3.
-- The Trevata can bond to any armor that they’re wearing, usually supplementing lighter armors with other articles of clothing. Once the bonding is complete, the armor gains the following bonuses: The maximum dexterity increases by 2, the armor class penalty decreases by 2 and the armor is treated one category lighter than normal for purposes of movement, proficiency and other limitations. Light armor doesn’t count as armor except in terms of available equipment slots; thus a trevata with no proficency in armor could bond to a light undercover vest and get the full bonus to defense. These bonuses last for as long as the armor remains bonded to its wearer.
-- The Trevata can also combine available materials (garbage, rocks, bark, thick clothing) to form a makeshift shell that grants a +1 armor bonus to AC. At the DM’s option, the materils used may serve as camoflauge, granting up to a +4 bonus on hide checks.
-- The same paste that bonds the armor to the trevata can repair damage by filling craks and holes, then hardening. Trevata who have seen much battle often have scars covering their armor that eerily resemble those found on living flesh. Damage to a bonded suit of armor is repaired at the rate of one point per character level per day.
• The trevata have unusually fast response times. They gain a +2 racial bonus to initiative checks and reflex saves.
• +2 racial bonus to survival checks: The trevata maintain a strong instinctual connection to the “outdoors,” even those who have dwelt in cities all their lives.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Base Bonuses

Late again, guess I've got to keep working on my typing speed. Anyways. . .like Saga Edition's "saves", d20 rethought's four base bonuses (Combat, Will, Fortitude and Reflex) each equal half your character level plus a class bonus that ranges from 0 to +2 (multiclassing means taking the higher class bonus in each case). Each of these bonuses is added to a corresponding defense, which starts at 10. More on the applications of each bonus after the link.

-Your base combat defense uses your Grace score and protects you from attack checks.
-Your base will defense uses your Intellect score and protects you from mental influence and trauma.
-Your base fortitude defense uses your Stamina score and protects you from physical afflictions of all types.
-Your base reflex defense uses your Wits score and protects you from hazards where your only option is to get the hell out of the way.

-Your base reflex bonus also is used for initiative checks, again with Wits.

-Your class combat bonus is added to all Grapple, Guard, Overpower, Trip, and Weapon Group checks.
-Your class will bonus is added to all Presence checks.
-Your class fortitude bonus is added to all Endurance checks.
-Your class reflex bonus is added to all Acrobatics checks.

Neither Brawn nor Spirit are used for any defense- on the other hand, these scores do determine your Wound and Trauma points, respectively. As such, low scores in these areas mean a critical hit is more likely to put you out of the action. I'm deliberately trying to avoid statistics that are easily min-maxed; whatever you put that 8 in, it's going to give you a weakness.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Combat Skills

I should begin by explaining that d20 Rethought basically uses the skills system from the Saga edition of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Your base skill bonus equals half your character level, +5 if you've selected it as one of your "trained" skills. Also, taking a page from the Spycraft rpg, all skills have critical success and error ranges, the exact results of which vary from skill to skill.

Now keeping that in mind: As a part of this overhaul, all combat-related rolls are skill checks. Grapple is a skill, trip is a skill. . .attack checks are made using the appropriate (Weapon Group) skill, meaning that proficiency in a weapon is gained by taking the relevant skill. Hit the link for a full list of combat-related skills and their applications.

Deflect
-Block (Brawn): A move action lets you use the result of your block check in favor of your Guard defense against a single opponent.
-Parry (Grace): Similar to block, but better when using a weapon to guard against grace-based attack checks (which is the default for this system).
Grapple
-Disarm (Brawn): Used on grappled opponents to take an item away.
-Pin (Brawn): Used in a grapple to immobilize and/or silence the opponent.
-Seize (Grace): .Used to initiate a grapple.
Overpower
-Bull Rush (Brawn): As in 3.5.
-Overrun (Brawn): As in 3.5.
-Stagger (Brawn): Standard action. A staggered opponent takes a -4 penalty on combat skill checks and falls prone if they would become staggered again.
Trip
-Sweep (Strength): As in 3.5 with trip attempts.
-Throw (Strength): Like above, but used in close quarters (opponent's square) and can move an opponent.
Weapon Group []
-Attack (Grace): This is d20 rethought's attack roll.

And just to fill in a couple gaps, here are a few things feats will let you do:
-Disarm an opponent using your weapon.
-Use brawn instead of grace on attack checks with two-handed weapons and light mass weapons (an inverse Weapon Finesse since the default attack stat is ).
-Make a Stagger check as a move action.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Damage and Health, part 2

Continuing on from the previous post, here's the more "revolutionary" part. In addition to vitality and wounds there is a parallel set of statistics that reflect your ability to handle mental damage/trauma- how easily your character loses their nerve. It's going to take some careful thought, but my hope is to have these stats be just as important as the ones reflecting physical well-being; if I want to do a roleplay system that isn't fundamentally built around physical combat, I'll have to put the same emphasis on other aspects of the system that combat receives. The idea is that every character will have a sort of social "mind games" attack the same way that they have a physical attack. When you face five men, and cut down the first to move at you with a single brutal strike, causing the other four hesitate and draw back- *that* is what I want this system to handle, smoothly and abstractly.

To nail down the basics, just as your Brawn score gives you wound points representing your ability to handle serious physical injury, your Spirit score gives you trauma points representing your ability to handle serious mental damage. And as your class and Endurance scores provide vitality points to negate physical attacks, so does your class and Wits score provide you with the ability to cope with and shrug off things that would leave a weaker-willed man broken and crying.

You also have a mental defense score along with your physical one, which in this system are referred to as your Will Defense (Intellect) and Guard Defense (grace) respectively. It's like a will save with broader applications.

As for the effects of losing your nerve- this means losing all your acuity points, and perhaps becoming shaken. I suspect much of this will still be a function of intimidate and other social skills, but it's still all theoretical. I'd like to hear what thoughts you have with regards to expanded social mechanics- stuff that works within the framework of the d20 system and isn't too complex while still being intuitive and useful.

And no, this isn't the sanity system- losing trauma points isn't normally going to make someone a gibbering maniac. It's just an expansion on mechanics like frightful presence, intimidation, and so on. And it works well within the existing system- a DM can plan to include an in-game scare tactic in the same way he include a pit trap, counting a traumatizing scene as a challenge with a corresponding CR.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Damage and Health, part 1

This section ends up including one of the most radical of the changes, so I'll begin on more familiar ground: In this "d20 Rethought" system, hit points are replaced by what amounts to the Vitality/Wounds variant from d20 Star Wars/Urban Arcana, taken a step further and merging critical rules from 4th edition and Spycraft.

All characters have vitality points (dependent on Stamina) and wound points (dependent on Brawn). The latter represents their ability to withstand physical harm, while the former represents their ability to parry, roll with or otherwise negate an injury that they would normally be unable to avoid. When a character takes damage, they lose that many vitality points; when damage would reduce their vitality points below zero, they lose that many wound points instead. When your wound points go negative you're now helpless (still conscious though), 1/10 chance to stabilize each round, -10 equals death, yadda yadda you know how it goes and I'm not writing a rulebook quite yet. Here's the meat of the matter:

-This isn't going to be a system for high-powered magic; healing won't be a big factor.

-Your starting wound points equal your Brawn Score plus your character level.

-Wound points recover slowly, probably at the same rate as D&D's natural healing.

-Your vitality points come from your class, same as hit points except that you get double the max die result at 1st level and the dice range is d4, d6 or d8.

-Under normal circumstances, you start with full vitality points at the beginning of each encounter.

-Your vitality points are tied to fatigue, in that losing them wears you down (exact mechanics are still a tad uncertain, I'm not sure how similar I want fatigue to be to D&D). You can also spend vitality to invest extra effort in an action, generally through a feat or class ability.

-Certain effects can temporarily decrease (through disease and injury) your maximum vitality score. These are the sort of things that reflect a general weakened state on a character's part.

-Critical Hits: Normally crits follow 4th edition rules; there's no confirmation roll and no multiplying damage, a crit happens as soon as you roll that 20 and the result is that your damage dice are maxed. HOWEVER. d20 Rethought features action points, and without going into much detail here both GMs and players have a supply. Whenever you get that critical and the opponent has vitality points remaining, you can spend an action point to give up the maxed damage and attempt to deal damage straight to their wounds instead. GMs can also do this; so, there's always a chance for that lucky shot to head, but a dramatic limitation is in place that prevents this from happening on a regular basis.

As for the mechanics: you make a confirmation roll to hit and reroll damage. If the confirmation roll succeeds the damage goes straight to wounds (and confirmation rolls can crit as well). But if said roll fails you're dealing that rerolled damage to the target's vitality first, as if the crit never happened; there's a bit of a gamble here.

Read all

d20 Rethought: Ability Scores

This is the first in a series of theoretical alterations that would bring the existing d20 system more in line with my personal tastes. Think of it as "If I was singlehandedly tasked with creating 4th edition's mechanics."

Two extra pieces of background. First, the separation between physical and mental stats is a *tad* blurrier than in normal d20. For example, reflex saves and initiative checks are dependent on a mental stat.
Second, the next part of this series ties tightly into this one; I'll be going into that in the next post.
Without further ado, here are the 6 tweaked stats:

-Physical coordination
-Balance
-The ability to move
Grace (Dexterity minus most of the "speed aspect")

-Aerobic Exercise
-Ability to withstand physical pain and fatigue
Stamina (Constitution, virtually unmodified)

-Anaerobic Exercise, raw muscle
-Ability to withstand serious physical injury.
Brawn (Strength with a touch of Con and Dex)

-Capabilities in terms of conscious thought
-Self control and discipline
-Ability to learn and reason
Intellect

-Mental agility and awareness
-How quickly you think and act
-Ability to cope when face with stressful, difficult situations
Wits

-Personal motivation and drive
-Ability to withstand and recover from serious mental trauma
Spirit

More will be forthcoming on the rest of the system (and how these altered stats fit into it) over the course of the next few posts.

Read all