Showing posts with label 3.5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3.5. Show all posts

Thursday, January 12, 2023

#CharacterCreationChallenge - Ruleset D&D 3.5 - Fel Sorcerer

One of my favorite tools is the RedBlade character generator for 3.5. This tool is amazingly simple to use. I was able to cook up a Sorcerer in just a few minutes. The output is in HTML, which makes it easy to post online.

In just a few minutes, I was able to cook up Fel the Sorcerer, a Half-Elf. The software knows exactly how a character is built, so I don't have to track skill points or feats or even languages. It is a thing of beauty. 

Fel character sheet, Redblade 3.5e
Fel    
CHARACTER NAME PLAYER CAMPAIGN
6 Sorcerer Half-Elf Neutral Evil
CLASS AND LEVEL RACE ALIGNMENT EXPERIENCE POINTS
 

ABILITY NAME

ABILITY SCORE ABILITY MODIFIER   TOTAL WOUNDS/CURRENT HP NONLETHAL DAMAGE SPEED

STR
strength

11 +0

HP
hit points

14     30ft.

DEX
dexterity

15 +2

AC
armor class

14 = 10 + 1 + 0 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 0

CON
constitution

10 +0 TOTAL BASE ARMOR BONUS SHIELD BONUS DEX MODIFIER SIZE MODIFIER NATURAL ARMOR DEFLECT MODIFIER MISC MODIFIER
DAMAGE REDUCTION

INT
intelligence

14 +2

TOUCH
armor class

13

FLAT-FOOTED
armor class

12
SKILLS
  SKILL NAME KEY ABILITY SKILL MODIFIER ABILITY MODIFIER RANKS MISC MODIFIER
  (cc)Appraise¤§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Balance¤ dex 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  Bluff¤§ cha 6 = 2 + 4 + 0
  (cc)Climb¤ str 0 = 0 + 0 + 0
  Concentration¤§ con 4 = 0 + 4 + 0
  Craft¤§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  Decipher Script§ int 4 = 2 + 2 + 0
  (cc)Diplomacy¤§ cha 6 = 2 + 4 + 0
  (cc)Disable Device§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Disguise¤§ cha 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Escape Artist¤ dex 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Forgery¤§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Gather Information¤§ cha 6 = 2 + 4 + 0
  (cc)Handle Animal§ cha 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Heal¤§ wis 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Hide¤ dex 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Intimidate¤§ cha 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Jump¤ str 0 = 0 + 0 + 0
  Knowledge (arcana)§ int 4 = 2 + 2 + 0
  (cc)Knowledge (architecture & engineering)§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Knowledge (dungeoneering)§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Knowledge (geography)§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Knowledge (history)§ int 3 = 2 + 1 + 0
  (cc)Knowledge (local)§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Knowledge (nature)§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Knowledge (nobility and royalty)§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Knowledge (religion)§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Knowledge (the planes)§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0

WIS
wisdom

14 +2         TOTAL DEX MODIFIER MISC MODIFIER

CHA
charisma

15 +2

INITIATIVE
modifier

+6 = 2 + 4
SAVING THROWS TOTAL   BASE SAVE   ABILITY MODIFIER   MAGIC MODIFIER   MISC MODIFIER   TEMP. MODIFIER

FORT
constitution

2 = 2 + 0 + 0 + 0 +

REFLEX
dexterity

4 = 2 + 2 + 0 + 0 +

WILL
wisdom

7 = 5 + 2 + 0 + 0 +
BASE ATTACK BONUS 3 SPELL RESISTANCE 0

GRAPPLE
modifier

3 = 3 + 0 + 0 + 0
TOTAL BASE ATT BONUS STRENGTH MODIFIER SIZE MODIFIER MISC MODIFIER
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
Defending Spear +1 4 1d8+1 20/x3
RANGE TYPE NOTES
20   6lb, Med, twohanded wielding,
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
       
RANGE TYPE NOTES
        (cc) crossclass skill
¤ can be used untrained § apply armor penalty
                                   
POSSESSIONS   SKILLS
ITEM PG. LB. ITEM PG. LB.
Defending Spear +1   6 Backpack (empty)   2
Bedroll   5 Bracers of armor +1   0
5 x Candle   0 2 x Case, map or scroll   0
Crowbar   5 Dart   0
2 x Flask   0 Flint and steel   0
Hammer   2 Ink (1 oz. vial)   0
Inkpen   0 7 x Parchment (sheet)   0
Pouch, belt   3 Ring of Protection +1   0
Rope, hemp (50 ft.)   10 Sealing wax   1
Silver Dagger (masterwork)   1 Tent   10
5 x Torch   5  
   
   
   
   
 
  SKILL NAME KEY ABILITY SKILL MODIFIER ABILITY MODIFIER RANKS MISC MODIFIER
  (cc)Listen¤§ wis 3 = 2 + 1 + 0
  (cc)Move Silently¤ dex 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Open Lock§ dex 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Perform¤§ cha 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  Profession§ wis 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Ride¤§ dex 3 = 2 + 1 + 0
  (cc)Search¤§ int 3 = 2 + 1 + 0
  (cc)Sense Motive¤§ wis 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Sleight of Hand§ dex 3 = 2 + 1 + 0
  (cc)Speak Language§ int 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  Spellcraft§ int 4 = 2 + 2 + 0
  (cc)Spot¤§ wis 4 = 2 + 2 + 0
  (cc)Survival¤§ wis 3 = 2 + 1 + 0
  (cc)Swim¤§ str 1 = 0 + 1 + 0
  (cc)Tumble dex 2 = 2 + 0 + 0
  (cc)Use Magic Device§ cha 3 = 2 + 1 + 0
        =   +   +  
        =   +   +  
        =   +   +  
        =   +   +  
        =   +   +  
1-38lb. 39-76lb. 77-115lb. 115lb. 230lb. 575lb.   PLATINUM 134
  GOLD 5
LIGHT
LOAD
MEDIUM
LOAD
HEAVY
LOAD

LIFT OVER HEAD
EQUALS MAX LOAD

LIFT OFF GROUND
2x MAX LOAD

PUSH OR DRAG
5x MAX LOAD

SILVER 2
COPPER 4
FEATS, LANGUAGES & ABILITIES
       
Feats Sorcerer abilities    
Brew Potion Summon Familiar    
Combat-Casting      
Improved Initiative Half-Elf abilities    
Simple Weapon Proficiency Low-light vision    
  Elven Blood    
Languages Immunity to sleep spells    
Halfling +2 save vs enchantments    
Goblin      
Common      
Elven      
Sorcerer spells      
Spell Save DC LEVEL SPELLS PER DAY BONUS SPELLS      
12 0 6 0      
13 1st 6 +1      
14 2nd 5 +1      
15 3rd 3 0      
- 4th - -      
- 5th - -      
- 6th - -      
- 7th - -      
- 8th - -      
- 9th - -      
       
Acid Splash      
Arcane Mark      
Detect Magic      
Mage Hand      
Open/Close      
Prestidigitation      
Read Magic      
       
Level 1      
Identify      
Mage Armor      
Magic Weapon      
Sleep      
       
Level 2      
Daylight      
Scorching Ray      
       
Level 3      
Stinking Cloud      
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
Silver Dagger (masterwork) 4 1d4 19-20/x2
RANGE TYPE NOTES
10   1lb, Med,
 
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
       
RANGE TYPE NOTES
     
 
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
Dart 3 1d4 20/x2
RANGE TYPE NOTES
20   0lb, Med,
 
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
       
RANGE TYPE NOTES
     
 
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
       
RANGE TYPE NOTES
     
 
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
       
RANGE TYPE NOTES
     
 
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
       
RANGE TYPE NOTES
     
 
ATTACK ATTACK DAMAGE CRITICAL
       
RANGE TYPE NOTES
     
 

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Gaming the Game - Stolen Ideas

Duskruin is current Gemstone IV paid adventure

When I want to play an RPG style game but don't have players, I usually log into Gemstone IV. I've been playing it for decades. It's sort of build on Rolemaster, but went through a process to unlink itself from Iron Crown Enterprise's IP. That isn't terribly important to this post, but what is important is the ideas I've stolen from Gemstone IV and by extension, probably Rolemaster. 

One of the things I never liked about AD&D and D&D is the selection of monsters used to challenge the players. It works on the supposition of monsters are a unique challenge to the players. While that starts off being true, there comes a practical point where one or many lower level monsters are not a credible threat to the players. 

D&D 3.x fixes this with challenge ratings. It works pretty well, with the exception of creatures with special powers. They don't seem to have the appropriate CR assigned to them. 

Gemstone IV has a different method of ranking for creatures. Being a MMO, your character can literally walk up an incredibly high level creature and get turned to dust. That works for an MMO where you have the concept of "extra lives" but it doesn't really work on the tabletop. 

For more evenly matched creatures against the player, there is a sliding scale. A first level character against a 1st level creature is worth 100 experience. A second level character against a 1st level creature is only going to give the PC 90 experience. By 11th level, it's kind of pointless to fight 1st level kobolds and as a consequence, they don't give any experience any more. 

I like that. It creates a coherent world. At 10th level and beyond, fighting kobolds shouldn't be the point for AD&D and D&D characters. They are so past that. Kobolds don't stop existing, they merely cease being something the player should fear. While you can ramp up the numbers and abilities of kobolds, they still aren't intellectually challenging. A zillion of them merely represents a zillion chances to roll the dice. That stops being a story real quick. 

I tend to use the formula 10 equal level encounters should equal one level. A party of 4 characters fighting 40 equal level monsters should be one level of experience for each player character. What this does is enable me, the DM the ability to pace the party. Do I want 40 monsters all at once or 10 groups of four? Probably someplace in between. 

This builds a coherent world in my mind. On day one, a nasty encounter with a kobold patrol is fine. Six sessions into the campaign, sure, my players encounter that patrol of kobolds but they are super leary of mixing it up with the players. 10 sessions later and the party may be hiring them as man-at-arms, porters, etc. The kobolds didn't disappear, their role changed because they aren't a challenge. 

I kind of like that concept and generally use it over mathematical gyrations provided in the DMG. 

As a consequence, it does break the model of gold for experience, but I never liked that anyway. Fighters don't go to fighter school to level up. As they gain experience, they gain followers who make them explore the concept of their trade as they teach others. 

Having a simple rule of thumb allows me to plan more fully. Not just what sort of monsters the players will defeat, but also what sort of resources they players will encounter. If the party plows into a patrol of monsters, chases them home and has the tribe bribe them not to attack the village, that's a win. It is total defeat for the monsters, perhaps dozens of them because they offered surrender or capituation. 

This allows me to control what resources end up in the player's hands beyond having them scoop up piles of treasure and hoping for a random roll. I know what is on the table and can use the interactions between the party and the challengers to guide the party. Gold is gold, but this method leapfrogs the concept of magic swords and other nice prizes. A tribe of kobolds might offer up a nice +1 two handed sword to escape the party's wrath because it's a six foot long weapon for 4 foot tall creatures. It's not valuable to a kobold. Plus the kobolds can hint at it's power so as not to waste the party's time trying to identify every item that comes to them. 

It's a nice feature because it establishes a history of what happened. In the above example, the kobold tribe doesn't have to be obliterated to represent victory over 40 kobolds. They can come to an agreement with the party that in exchange for the sword and a promise not to raid the town anymore, they can live in (a fragile) peace. The party know they are there and can sometimes draw resources from them. A safe place to sleep, a good gossip starter or perhaps something else. 

Stolen ideas are good. Why don't you join me in the world of Gemstone IV by clicking the link below. GSIV has a nice F2P model that will give you a taste of an expansive world of magic. 





Thursday, January 2, 2020

Star Wars: Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook

Title: Star Wars: Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Author: Andy Collins, Bill Slavicsek, JD Wiker
Rule Set: d20
Year: 2000
Pages: 319
Number of players: 2 or more
Rating: ★★★★


For many years, Star Wars was in the stable of West End Games. Over the years, I accumulated many of their books, but never had a chance to play. In 2000, with The Phantom Menace coming to screens, Wizards of the Coast produced a gamebook for the series, which included everything you needed to play, including a set of rules to convert from WEG Star Wars to d20.

The system is a pretty close skin of D&D 3.0 or 3.5, with some great differences.

The system is a standardized d20 system. Standardization from the ground up is very good. One of the great advantages is it breaks every character down into a couple of stat blocks, which makes building a quality, unique character easy. Each character is made of 7 different categories of descriptions, all of which is uniform between classes. You start with ability scores, then everything changes. You select a species which is an approximation of race in D&D terms, a class, skills, feats, character descriptors like reputation, equipment and finally spells, if any. All characters have the same 6 items, unlike D&D where some characters get spells in addition to their other "stats".

So, what about The Force? Those aren't spells, they are tied into one Feat and several Skills for Force Sensitive people. Hit points are replaced with vitality and wound points. This changes the dynamics of how characters work. Vitality is how much energy and stamina you have, while wounds are actual chunks of flesh. Hike through a hellish landscape will reduce your vitality, but a blaster to the head is a wound. Wounds stick around or are fatal, while vitality tracks how much "give" you've got. Nice system, considering how dangerous a lightsabre is. Vitality returns with rest and wounds require healing. The reputation system is a replacement for alignment, which actually has some mechanical advantages or disadvantages, unlike the alignment system.

While this is a d20 system, there are several advantages to this rule set over a typical d20 RPG. First, your players will have a general idea of what they want to be if they have seen Star Wars. To this end, there are 25 character templates so you can play right away. The rules allow you to flavor these characters, so you are a cutout character, but perhaps not made of cardboard. Additionally, if you played WEG Star Wars, there is a set of conversion rules in the back. There is a section on Starships, Droids, and a Game Master Section, with a module included. Everything you need to play is right there.

4 of 5 stars.

Saturday, December 28, 2019

3.5 Review - Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook

Title: Player's Handbook (3.5)
Code: N/A PHB 3.5, unofficially
Design Team: Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, Skip Williams
Rule Set: Dungeons and Dragons 3.5
Year: 2003
Pages: 320
Levels: Any
Rating: ★★★★

D&D 3.5 came out in June of 2003. It wasn't until 2007 that I even looked at it. I wasn't mentally prepared to make the huge jump from AD&D and Basic D&D to 3.5, but it turns out I was. This is "These Old Games", I'm not going to review a new game...

The difference between AD&D and 3.5 is huge. Where AD&D hosted all of your character's powers and abilities under the class description, D&D 3.5 gives a cursory example of powers under class then allows you to pick from a menu of abilities.

The system is a standardized d20 system. Standardization from the ground up is very good. One of the great advantages of 3.5 is it breaks every character down into a couple of stat blocks, which makes building a quality, unique character ease. Each character is made of 8 different categories of descriptions, all of which is uniform between classes. As per any type of D&D, you start with ability scores, then everything changes. You select a race, a class, skills, feats, character descriptors like alignment and religion, equipment and finally spells, if any. All characters have the first 7 items, while only spell casters have spells, obviously.

Races stayed basically the name, but the variety of non-human sub-races were put away, presumably so DM could style their own. Gone were most racial limitations, welcoming in an age of official Elven Paladins. Races have a preferred class rather than classes they cannot perform in.

The number of classes and their relationships have changed greatly. AD&D has 11, 12, or 15 character classes, 3.5 streamlined that down to 11. Magic user and thief were renamed to Wizard and Rogue. Bard are a real class which is welcome change. Assassin, Illusionist, Cavalier and Thief-acrobat were all gone, but not really. Also, multi-classing is normal and with few restrictions, while duo-classing is utterly gone. Few very class abilities appear in under character class, they are regulated to feats.

Every character has a set of skills based on their intelligence and class. Each skill is linked to an ability, so no more nerfed Charisma.

Feats are an incredible departure from AD&D. They are special abilities that are so varied that each class can be used to create a completely unique feel. They are wholly based on class and level, so you continue to grow after creation. You can use feats to bring back those lost classes: Assassin, Illusionist, Cavalier and Thief-acrobat.

One downside to the feats system is that it is unbalanced. Magic using players are going to want the ability to make magic items, so they will lose combative feats. Rogues will want observational powers, which in no way equates to magical or combat abilities. While some of the feats are chained together with prerequisite feats, sometimes you can get two things that pair in a very unbalanced way. Usually this comes into play when you get a bonus to initiative plus some other combat effective ability, so that character always goes first with a big hit.

Your character descriptors are pretty self-explanatory, what is your outlook, demeanor, etc. But 3.5 cranks up the effect of religion on your character. You are no longer a psuedo-Catholic priest, but a follower of something out of our world. Spontaneous casting should also falls under this category, but it is described with the classes. Basically, your character can cast whatever they feel like if they have this ability. Additionally, clerics can always cast healing spells if the need arises.

Equipment has been regulated to an abstract system, almost like a tool kit for the class. It reminds of Star Frontiers' Standard Equipment Pack. I find it odd and basically ignore it. Equipment lives in the half-world of wonderfully standardized rules vs. massively extensible character variety. The designers probably realized this and went with it to allow players to access equipment that is otherwise too expensive by the charts at first level. It's not that much of a problem, really because back in the days of AD&D, I, the DM, was forking out cool equipment on character generation day.

Spells have been completely revamped and tied back to the mechanical systems of the game. Additionally, they have been realigned with the various schools and those schools are often dedicated to specific classes. A 3rd level Wizard spell might be a 7th level Sorcerer spell. Also, being in tune with the mechanics of play, there are no oddball spells that work like nothing else in the game.

Back to the standardized rules. ALL information combat information appears in the Player's Handbook. Back in the 70s and 80s, you'd make a character then wonder what you were getting into. With this book, you know. There are a few things relegated to the DM Guide, but they aren't enough to slow you down. THAC0 and decending AC are gone. Your opponent's AC is your attack roll target number, which is reduced by your attack bonus. Combat is speedier, attacks come more often than AD&D. The rounds seem to take longer, but a heck of a lot can happen in a given round without reducing combat to "high roll wins all".

Saves have also been revamped to fortitude, reflex and willpower. It's a nice, easy system. I think it's far better than charts, even though I lament the loss of the marketing statement: "Includes 31 illustrations, maps and charts".

While I still prefer to play my mashup of Basic, Expert and Advance D&D, the benefits of 3.5 outweigh any negatives. If I were doing a one shot or something and didn't have anything in specific in mind, this would be my rule set.

4 of 5 stars.

You can grab a digital copy from DriveThruRPG for less than 10 bucks.