Drudwyn
2007-05-14, 10:01 AM
I'm starting up a homebrew world based on the "Songs of Ice and Fire" series. Thanks to a previous post, someone here alerted me to a d20 game already based on the series, but after looking at it, I'd rather apply some mods to the basic D&D ruleset to keep things simple for me (though there are some very cool things about house alignment and regional skills/feats that I'll keep). After looking through some suggestions on Wizards and elsewhere, here is what I'm planning (can you tell me how it looks?):
1) Loot: I'm only going to award 1/2 treasure per encounter and no magic items generally. Magic items will be rare and never for sale. The PCs probably won't encounter any for several levels.
2) MW arms and armor: To make up for the above, Masterwork weapons and armor with enhancements greater than +1 will be available, for half the price of their magical counterparts (does this make sense?).
2) Encounters: I'm going to adjust the CR +1 for magic monsters, and they won't encounter any for the first several levels.
3) Races: I'm only allowing humans, half elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings (all have to able to pass themselves off as funny-looking people because of the rarity of their races, who are largely withdrawn/in hiding). Later in the campaign (and once they've encountered them) I will allow characters to come back as elves or half-orcs if they wish.
4) Classes (the hard part): Core classes only, with mods as follows
For sorcerors and wizards, I'm going to ask that players first take three levels of "Scholar" first, basically a skill-heavy class *Edit* (per suggesions below, I'm thinking 10+int skills per level and a couple of bonus feats but class skills focused on less combat-oriented skills like Knowledges, perhaps Use Magic Item, too) with light weapon proficiency. At fourth level, when they take a magic level, I'm going to automatically award them the "Practiced Spellcaster" feat, to give them a CL of 4 but spell access, etc. unchanged.
For Druids, I'm going to require that they take three levels of Ranger first.
Clerics -- will only have access to healing and turn undead until fourth level. At fourth level, they return to their normal capabilities.
Palladins : I'm thinking no pallys for this campaign, but I might change my mind. Any thoughts how they would fit into a low magic/more realistic campaign?
Monks, Fighters, and Barbarians: unchanged.
5) Spells and feats: players will have to find one of the rare resource libraries to learn new spells or unusual feats and I'll be carefully selecting them (any advice which ones to watch out for?).
6) Story progression: Basically, magic will be the stuff of legend early in the campaign, and the healing powers of the clerics will be ascribed to powerful leechcraft. At fourth level, something changes in the world (beyond their knowledge) and magic starts to infuse the land. The characters will start to access it, and they'll begin to encounter other magic wielders and eventually, supernatural monsters.
How do these rules look? Would you want to play in a campaign set up like this? I'll be DMing for the first time, and I'll have a mix of newbies and some RPG afficionadoes who lean more toward d20 modern and Cthulu-style games (don't like straight fantasy as much) so I'm trying to make it gritty as well as straightforward for me to operate. Any and all tips very welcome.
1) Loot: I'm only going to award 1/2 treasure per encounter and no magic items generally. Magic items will be rare and never for sale. The PCs probably won't encounter any for several levels.
2) MW arms and armor: To make up for the above, Masterwork weapons and armor with enhancements greater than +1 will be available, for half the price of their magical counterparts (does this make sense?).
2) Encounters: I'm going to adjust the CR +1 for magic monsters, and they won't encounter any for the first several levels.
3) Races: I'm only allowing humans, half elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings (all have to able to pass themselves off as funny-looking people because of the rarity of their races, who are largely withdrawn/in hiding). Later in the campaign (and once they've encountered them) I will allow characters to come back as elves or half-orcs if they wish.
4) Classes (the hard part): Core classes only, with mods as follows
For sorcerors and wizards, I'm going to ask that players first take three levels of "Scholar" first, basically a skill-heavy class *Edit* (per suggesions below, I'm thinking 10+int skills per level and a couple of bonus feats but class skills focused on less combat-oriented skills like Knowledges, perhaps Use Magic Item, too) with light weapon proficiency. At fourth level, when they take a magic level, I'm going to automatically award them the "Practiced Spellcaster" feat, to give them a CL of 4 but spell access, etc. unchanged.
For Druids, I'm going to require that they take three levels of Ranger first.
Clerics -- will only have access to healing and turn undead until fourth level. At fourth level, they return to their normal capabilities.
Palladins : I'm thinking no pallys for this campaign, but I might change my mind. Any thoughts how they would fit into a low magic/more realistic campaign?
Monks, Fighters, and Barbarians: unchanged.
5) Spells and feats: players will have to find one of the rare resource libraries to learn new spells or unusual feats and I'll be carefully selecting them (any advice which ones to watch out for?).
6) Story progression: Basically, magic will be the stuff of legend early in the campaign, and the healing powers of the clerics will be ascribed to powerful leechcraft. At fourth level, something changes in the world (beyond their knowledge) and magic starts to infuse the land. The characters will start to access it, and they'll begin to encounter other magic wielders and eventually, supernatural monsters.
How do these rules look? Would you want to play in a campaign set up like this? I'll be DMing for the first time, and I'll have a mix of newbies and some RPG afficionadoes who lean more toward d20 modern and Cthulu-style games (don't like straight fantasy as much) so I'm trying to make it gritty as well as straightforward for me to operate. Any and all tips very welcome.