Thursday, January 3, 2013

Just getting a lot of ideas down


Recalibrating Classes and Some Rules
I was wondering about re-calibrating classes in 3.5. Breaking some tradition, and making more sense.
  • Breaking down the Cleric - The cleric is broken up to Divine Warrior and Divine Theurge. 
    • Theurge (which means miracle worker) is the cleric's spellcasting capabilities with d6 HP, 1/2 HD BAB progression, Good Will saves only, and Channels divine energy of a undetermined type (removing the positive and negative dichotomy). Subcategories of Theurge is the Contemplative (Prepared, like typical cleric) and the Inspired (Spontaneous, limited spell known and more slots - follows Sorcerer progression).
    • The Divine Warrior has more of the old cleric capabilities d8 HP, 3/4 HD BAB progression, good Fort saves only, and spell casting up to 6th level. Also follows the Inspired and Contemplative subcategories. can also channel energy but severely limited. They gain Feats every 3 levels after 2nd (like psychic warrior). 
  • Arcane Warrior - drawing from the Psychic Warrior and the Cleric and Divine Warrior. These have 3/4 HD BAB, d8 HP, good Fort saves, and feats every 3 levels after 2nd. There are two subcateogries: Blooded (Spontaneous) and Disciplined (Prepared Spellcasting).
  • Experts - Feats are like skills, they are still bodies of knowledge. Its wierd that the Expert doesnt get more feats. Give it Feats every even level, and you've got quite an interesting class. Make the HP d8, and good Will saves. 
  • Aristocrat and Bonus Feats - give the Aristocrat bonus feats ever even level, and Leadership and Courtier Feat options they become very interesting and fun to play with, even as a PC. 
  • Tactical Feats - i can make a bunch of Tactical Feats. the key points I have to work with are: Positioning, Enemy Strategies, allow the Player to gain bonuses if he predicts correctly the opponent's next action, improve or provide additional advantages when coordinating (better flanking bonus and bonuses to Combat Manuvers when coordinating with allies).
    • Ex. When Enemies are Defensive, like when they withdraw or line up defenders. if the Tactician's side has a greater overall movement, the Tactician presses the advantage giving allies extra moves in order to flank
    • Ex. If Enemies are Aggressive, like when they charge and rush at the Tactician's side. The allies gain better reactive and defensive abilities. A bonus if a readied action correctly predicts the enemy's action, better AC when allies coordinate defense, etc. etc.
    • Ex. When the Tactician correctly divines the enemy's action allow readied allies to make a Full Round Action against these enemies. 
    • and more...  
  • Social Feats - Detail the Economics and i can allow significant resources. This is only good in high lethality games where Numbers can pretty much determine the odds of winning. In a numbers game, the person who can bring more to their cause and side wins... hence it is important to have Social Feats. These include Wealth, Connections, Binding Oaths of Loyalty, etc... not just schmoozing, flattery, lying etc...  
    • Its easy to transplant a sound economic system, like that in D20 modern or GURPS into DnD. Feats become a type of currency to gain these social advantages, there is much machination in the background when someone hands you power so Feats describes pretty well how "connected" and cunning the character is in amassing such. 


Psionics and the Far East
I was wondering If I could find some chinese terms that would fit Psionics and their classes. I mostly uses the english equivalent of many of the Chinese titles, ranks, and nobility because... its hella' easier than learning the chinese one.

The idea came from making psionics an art of those in the FAR EAST. I can exactly use the "magical" equivalent in Chinese like Wu or the Daoist terminology. I was wondering if I could link it with Bhuddism. The Daoist using Divine magic, the Confucians with Arcane, and the Bhuddists with Psionics.

 I tend to set my game in the 11C, and in the Far East this is around Song dynasty. Plan to make the far east made up of 3 vying spellcasting elite: the Divine, Arcane and Psionics. Making the Conquering Horde "Psionic"would be fun.

Mountain Ponies
I like ponies, and I happen to be a brony. Funny thing is that Ponies in DnD are too weak, and there is not much allowance for stronger ponies. These Ponies with powerful build (doubles the carrying capacity of the pony). Double the cost of the Ponies. Mountain Ponies are sure footed and have +2 to balance or climbing related checks. The story I made up for these are that, dwarves use these. They are of the right size for dwarven stubby legs but have thicker bones without altering their build too much.

War Rams is a Mountain Goat, the really big fantasy kind. They are very sure footed and these were bred to be mounts. They have the stats of a Mountain pony but Heavy horse HD and Strength.

Mountain Surface Area.
Mountains have a lot of surface area, but they are not very productive. We've seen humans maximise the productivity with Steps to grow rice. I was thinking Dwarves combine Step Farming with crops that don't need flat terrain: potatoes or yams. Cultivated mountain have Taters and Yam steps, those with hot spring have thick bushy wheat and rice step paddies. Dwarves still import a lot of food, because it takes more effort to cultivate for them in the mountains than everyone else in their low lands. You can have a mountain with abandoned steppes, which is a great backdrop and shows the evolution of how dwarves move to more defensible and secure upper areas.

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