New OOTS products from CafePress
New OOTS t-shirts, ornaments, mugs, bags, and more
Page 1 of 5 12345 LastLast
Results 1 to 30 of 128
  1. - Top - End - #1
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Introduction
    Gaols and Giants is a systematic attempt to fix the basic 3.5 rules we know and love and hate. We intend to do what Pathfinder claimed to be doing: fixing the flaws without re-inventing the wheels. We'll touch up the paint, shore up sagging ceilings, patch the holes in the walls, drive out the vermin, and maybe remodel a bathroom or two, but the house will still be the same.

    This thread will serve as both a compilation and an index-- many things will have their own threads, but overviews will be posted here, as will general discussion.

    Design Goals
    • Simplicity. D&D isn't by any stretch of the imagination a simple or rules-light system, and never will be, but there's room for improvement. Those rules that you always have to stop and look up? The things that trip up newbies every time? We'll take 'em apart.
    • Tolerable nerfs for magic. Magic is too strong in 3.5, we can all agree-- it offers too many options, too many "I win" buttons, and too many spells that render other classes entirely obsolete. All that needs to be fixed, without doing so in a manner that renders casters unfun to play.
    • Enhanced mundane combat. That means increased power and options for classes like the Fighter and Barbarian, but also improvements to general combat options, to make all forms of combat-- TWF, THF, sword-and-board, reach weapons, combat maneuvers, what have you-- viable options.
    • Enhanced skills. One reason mundanes fall behind casters is that spells rapidly and totally outstrip skills. We'd like to do something about that.
    • Eliminate the Christmas Tree. 3.5's math more-or-less requires the full WBL and cartloads of magic items, especially boring stat-boosting ones. I'd really, really, really like to get away from this, so that characters don't need magic items, acquire them fairly rarely, and can use them for their entire careers. (Expendables aside)


    An important note: until and unless otherwise specified, assume that things are as in 3.5
    Last edited by Grod_The_Giant; 2013-01-16 at 04:32 PM.
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Basics, Races, and Description

    The Basic Mechanic

    Unless said otherwise, the same mechanic is used to resolve all actions in Gaols and Giants:

    The active party rolls 1d20, adds all bonuses and subtracts all penalties. Then, the result is compared to either a static difficulty (DC) for actions that are not made against a creature, an appropriate statistic, such as armor class of a creature targeted, or another 1d20 plus bonuses and minus penalties against a creature actively opposed to the roll. If the active party rolls higher or equal to the DC or the opponent's roll, the action succeeds.

    1d20+bonus-penalty vs. DC or opposed roll.

    (In other words, the same as 3.5)

    Modifiers

    Modifiers are anything, either bonus or penalty, that can be added to a roll. Every modifier comes with a type. Bonuses or penalties with the same name do not stack, meaning that if a creature has two bonuses or penalties with the same name, only the higher one applies. If a creature has both a penalty and a bonus of the same type, they will both apply, but partially cancel each other out, as one is positive and the other negative.

    Table 1: A list of modifier types, what they can apply to, and a short description of what they represent.

    Spoiler
    Show
    {table=head]Name|Ability|AC|Initiative|Save|Attack|Damage|Skills|Description
    Arcane|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Spells and magic items
    Armour|No|Yes|No|No|No|No|No|Pieces of Armour worn for protection
    Circumstance|No*|Yes*|No*|Yes*|Yes*|Yes*|Yes*|A transient, "untyped" bonus, generally awarded on a case-by-case basis.
    Competence|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Training gained from class feature
    Divine|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Divine power granted by the gods
    Inherent|Yes|Yes|No|No|No|No|Yes|Inborn or racial abilities
    Luck|No|Yes|No|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Pure luck
    Morale|Yes|No|No|Will|Yes|Yes|Yes|Sheer determination, gained from motivating events
    Shield|No|Yes|No|No|No|No|No|Deflecting attacks
    Size|No|Yes|No|No|Yes|No|No|Being more difficult or easier to hit thanks to a difference in size.
    [/table]


    Attributes
    • Strength, which determines physical power, how much weight someone can carry, attempts at breaking or pushing objects and brute force in combat.
    • Dexterity, which determines reflexes, how nimble someone's fingers are, how quickly someone can dodge attacks and quick attacks with light weapons.
    • Constitution, which determines a character's stamina, how much damage they can take before dying, and how well they can resist poisons and diseases.
    • Intelligence, which determines a character's intellectual capacity, how well they learn and understand new things and how good they are at prepared arcane magic.
    • Wisdom, which determines a character's insight, perception, memory, common sense and how good they are at prepared divine magic.
    • Charisma, which determines how attractive a character is, as well as how good at getting others to do what they want. It also determines willpower and the inborn capacity for magic.


    Attributes are normally set at a level of 0, which is the level of the average human adult. Most individuals, especially the extraordinary ones such as great heroes, as well as certain species of creature, will be different from the mathematical average in some of their attributes.

    An attribute can not normally be below a level of -5, which is already a crippling weakness. If any attribute ever reaches -6, through damage or penalties, there are dire effects: strength or dexterity, when reduced to 0, leave a creature paralyzed, while constitution leaves it dead. All three mental attributes leave a creature comatose when reduced to -6.

    Just as there are low attributes, there are high ones. Human attributes rarely reach above +4, and those that have attributes of +5 or even higher are the most exceptional individuals there can be.

    Progressions
    Many characteristics, such as base attack bonus, armor class, skill points and saves in Gaols and Giants advance based on the character's level, based on one of the three progressions (high, medium, low), in the table below.

    Table 2: Value progression by level
    Spoiler
    Show
    {table=head]Level|Low|Medium|High
    1|+2|+3|+4
    2|+3|+4|+5
    3|+3|+5|+6
    4|+4|+6|+7
    5|+4|+6|+8
    6|+5|+7|+9
    7|+5|+8|+10
    8|+6|+9|+11
    9|+6|+9|+12
    10|+7|+10|+13
    11|+7|+11|+14
    12|+8|+12|+15
    13|+8|+13|+16
    14|+9|+13|+17
    15|+9|+14|+18
    16|+10|+15|+19
    17|+10|+15|+20
    18|+11|+16|+21
    19|+11|+17|+22
    20|+12|+18|+23
    [/table]

    Good progression: Starts at +4, grows by 1 per level, ends at +23. Is equivalent to current good bab progression +3.

    Moderate progression: Starts at +3, grows by 3 points every 4 levels, ends at +18. Is equivalent to current moderate bab progression +3.

    Poor progression: Starts at +2, grows by 1 point every even level, ends at +12. Is equivalent to current poor progression +2.

    No progression: Starts at 0. Stays there. You don't use this stuff outside of low level if you can avoid it.


    tl;dr: Abilities and modifiers have been collapsed into one-- modifiers vs abilities are one of the most unnecessarily confusing things for new players. New, unified progressions for all things-- BAB, skills, saves, and so on, where players start a bit more competently than in 3.5. Fewer modifier types.
    Last edited by Grod_The_Giant; 2013-01-16 at 04:26 PM.
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Classes
    • Barbarian
    • Bard
    • Cleric
    • Druid
    • Fighter Knight?
    • Favored Soul
    • Monk
    • Paladin
    • Ranger
    • Rogue
    • Sorcerer
    • Wizard


    a later step


    • Acrobatics (Dexterity): This represents a character's ability to tumble past his enemies, fit into small spaces and perform other, similar feats of dextrous movement.
    • Animals (Wisdom): This represents a character's ability to gain an animal's trust or train them, as well as his ability to care for them and ride them.
    • Athletics (Strength): A character's ability to climb, run, swim, jump and perform other extraordinary physical feats.
    • Concentration (Wisdom): A character's ability to ignore pain and distracting events around him.
    • Deception (Charisma): A character's ability to deceive others by lying, feinting or disguising their mannerisms.
    • Devices (Dexterity): A character's ability to manipulate, repair or jam delicate machinery or pick locks.
    • Expertise (Intelligence): A character's knowledge about street culture, current events and politics, noteworthy locals and other such applies knowledge.
    • Heal (Wisdom): A character's ability to care for the wounds and ailments of others.
    • Insight (Wisdom): A character's ability to prevent being deceived, as well as recognizing the mental state of others.
    • Intimidation (Charisma): A character's ability to bend others to their will.
    • Investigation (Intelligence): A character's ability to find tiny clues and find necessary information.
    • Linguistics (Intelligence): A character's ability in forging documents and finding forgeries, knowledge about ancient manuscript and obscure languages, learning new languages.
    • Lore (Intelligence): Knowledge of religious customs, dogma and hierarchies, history, nobility and other ancient and current events.
    • Occult (Intelligence): Knowledge about distant planes, rare creatures and magical occurrences and rituals.
    • Perception (Wisdom): The ability to notice small details, detect hidden enemies and react to them quickly.
    • Persuasion (Charisma): The ability to convince others of one's viewpoint through words and to make deals.
    • Rapport (Charisma): The ability to befriend others, gather information, and make conversation.
    • Sleight of Hand (Dexterity): The ability to pick pockets, perform small tricks of legerdemain, and move small objects around without being noticed.
    • Stealth (Dexterity): A character's ability to move silently and covertly without being noticed.
    • Survival (Wisdom): Practical knowledge about navigation, foraging in the wilderness, tracking, finding shelter and other such wilderness abilities.


    Characters gain skill points from their class, which may be spent on any skill on a 1-1 ratio, to a maximum number of ranks equal to the medium progression (2/3 level +3). Skill points may also be spent to purchase skill tricks.

    Specializations: Specializations are a special type of skill trick. Characters gain a +1 bonus, +1 for every 5 additional class levels, to a specific subset of a skill-- Stealth (Move Silently), Occult (The Planes), and so on.

    Feats

    overview here, lists/descriptions in its thread
    Last edited by Grod_The_Giant; 2013-01-16 at 12:18 PM.
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Combat

    Offense

    Attack Roll
    An attack roll represents your attempt to strike your opponent on your turn in a round. When you make an attack roll, you roll a d20 and add your attack bonus. (Other modifiers may also apply to this roll.) If your result equals or beats the target’s Armor Class, you hit and deal damage.

    Your attack roll with a melee weapon is your Base Attack Bonus + Strength. Your attack roll with a ranged weapon is you Base Attack Bonus + Dexterity.

    Automatic Misses and Hits
    As in 3.5

    Damage
    When your attack succeeds, you deal damage. The type of weapon used determines the amount of damage you deal. Effects that modify weapon damage apply to unarmed strikes and the natural physical attack forms of creatures.

    Damage reduces a target’s current hit points.

    Minimum Damage
    If penalties reduce the damage result to less than 1, a hit still deals 1 point of damage.

    Strength Bonus
    When you hit with a melee or thrown weapon, including a sling, add your Strength score to the damage result.

    Dexterity Bonus
    When you hit with a non-thrown ranged weapon, such as a bow or crossbow, add your Dexterity score to the damage result. You may also chose to add your Dexterity score to the damage result in place of your Strength when wielding a light melee weapon.

    Special Weapon Rules

    Light Weapons
    When wielding a light weapon, you may use your Dexterity in place of Strength when calculating your attack bonus and damage results.

    Wielding a Weapon Two-Handed
    When you deal damage with a weapon that you are wielding two-handed, instead add one and a half times your Strength to damage. However, you don’t get this higher Strength bonus when using a light weapon with two hands.

    Reach Weapons
    A reach weapon is a melee weapon that allows its wielder to strike at targets that aren’t adjacent to him or her. Most reach weapons double the wielder’s natural reach, meaning that a typical Small or Medium wielder of such a weapon can attack a creature 10 feet away, but not a creature in an adjacent square. A typical Large character wielding a reach weapon of the appropriate size can attack a creature 15 or 20 feet away, but not adjacent creatures or creatures up to 10 feet away.

    Two-Weapon Fighting
    When wielding two light weapons, or a one-handed weapon in one hand and a light weapon in the other, you may take a -2 penalty to attack with both your primary and secondary weapons as a standard action. When using the full attack option, you may make one additional attack for every ten points of BAB. You may chose whether each attack uses your main hand or off-hand, if there are differences.

    Shield Bashes
    You may bash an opponent with a shield, using it as a weapon. You always use your Strength score when calculating attack and damage during a shield bash. If you only attack with your shield, you may retain your shield bonus to armor class. Alternately, you may choose to use your shield as an off-hand weapon when two-weapon fighting. If you do so, you gain the usual benefits of two-weapon fighting, but you lose your shield bonus to armor class on any turn where you do so.

    Defenses

    Armor Class
    Your Armor Class (AC) represents how hard it is for opponents to land a solid, damaging blow on you. It’s the attack roll result that an opponent needs to achieve to hit you. Your AC is equal to the following:

    5 + Base Attack Bonus* + Armor Bonus + Shield Bonus + Dexterity + Size modifier.

    Armor Bonus + Max Dexterity will cap out at 8. Shields will cap out at 4.

    *When adding your base attack bonus to your AC, use the next lowest progression. So a fighter would treat his BAB as medium when adding it to AC, a rogue would treat her BAB as poor, and so on.

    Note that armor limits your Dexterity bonus, so if you’re wearing armor, you might not be able to apply your whole Dexterity bonus to your AC. Sometimes you can’t use your Dexterity score (if you have one). If you can’t react to a blow, you can’t add your Dexterity to AC.

    Touch Attacks
    Some attacks disregard armor, including natural armor. In these cases, the attacker makes a touch attack roll (either ranged or melee). When you are the target of a touch attack, your AC doesn’t include any armor bonus or natural armor bonus. All other modifiers, such as your shield modifier, size modifier, Dexterity, and deflection bonus (if any) apply normally.

    Hit Points
    When your hit point total reaches 0, you’re disabled. When it reaches -1, you’re dying. When it gets to -(level+Constitution score), you’re dead.

    Speed
    Your speed tells you how far you can move in a round and still do something, such as attack or cast a spell. Your speed depends mostly on your race and what armor you’re wearing.

    If you use two move actions in a round (sometimes called a "double move" action), you can move up to double your speed. If you spend the entire round to run all out, you can move up to quadruple your speed (or triple if you are in heavy armor).

    Saving Throws
    Generally, when you are subject to an unusual or magical attack, you get a saving throw to avoid or reduce the effect. Like an attack roll, a saving throw is a d20 roll plus a bonus based on your class, level, and an ability score. Your saving throw modifier is:

    Base save bonus + ability

    Base Save Bonus
    A saving throw modifier derived from character class and level. Base save bonuses increase at different rates for different character classes. Base save bonuses gained from different classes, such as when a character is a multiclass character, stack.

    Saving Throw Types
    The three different kinds of saving throws are Fortitude, Reflex, and Will:

    Fortitude
    These saves measure your ability to stand up to physical punishment or attacks against your vitality and health. Apply your Constitution score to your Fortitude saving throws.

    Reflex
    These saves test your ability to dodge area attacks. Apply your Dexterity score to your Reflex saving throws.

    Will
    These saves reflect your resistance to mental influence as well as many magical effects. Apply your Wisdom to your Will saving throws.

    Saving Throw Difficulty Class
    The DC for a save is determined by the attack itself.

    Automatic Failures and Successes
    A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on a saving throw is always a failure. A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a success.

    Initiative
    At the start of a battle, each combatant makes an initiative check. Characters act in order, counting down from highest result to lowest. In every round that follows, the characters act in the same order (unless a character takes an action that results in his or her initiative changing; see Special Initiative Actions).

    If two or more combatants have the same initiative check result, the combatants who are tied act in order of total initiative modifier (highest first). If there is still a tie, the tied characters should roll again to determine which one of them goes before the other.

    The modifier to an initiative check is equal to 1/2 your Base Attack Bonus + Wisdom + Dexterity.

    Attacks of Opportunity
    Rules unchanged from 3.5

    Actions in Combat: Summary
    {table]Free Actions|
    |Drop an Item
    |Speak
    Swift Actions|
    |Drop Prone
    |Draw or Sheathe a Weapon
    |Five-Foot Step
    |Ready or Loose a Shield
    |Stand Up
    Move Actions|
    |Aim
    |Manipulate an Item
    |Mount/Dismount a Steed
    |Move
    |Stand Up
    Standard Actions|
    |Attack
    |Bull Rush
    |Charge
    |Defend
    |Dirty Trick
    |Disarm
    |Feint
    |Grapple
    |Interrupt
    |Snatch
    |Sunder
    |Trip
    Full-Round Actions|
    |Covering Fire
    |Full Attack
    |Run
    |Overrun
    |Withdraw[/table]


    Note: this is still pretty controversial, and I'm not married to it

    Condition Tracks: Whenever a creature is affected by a spell or ability that inflicts a condition, he rolls a saving throw, as normal. If he makes the save, he is unaffected. If he fails, however, he is affected by the appropriate first degree condition. If he fails the save by 5 or more, he is instead affected by a second degree condition, and if he fails by 10 or more, he is affected by a third degree condition.

    If a creature is already affected by a condition, and is affected by another ability inflicting the same condition, it takes a penalty to the saving throw: -2 if suffering from a first degree condition, and -5 if suffering from a second degree condition.

    Spells and abilities are limited in how many degrees of conditions they may inflict. A 1st or 2nd level spell may only inflict first degree conditions, no matter how much the . A 3rd of 4th level spell may only inflict first or second degree conditions, and only a 5th or higher level spell may inflict a third degree condition. These guidelines hold true even when stacking conditions-- if a creature is already Shaken, it does not become Frightened if it fails a save against a scare spell (2nd level), no matter how badly it fails it saving throw.

    {table=head]|First Degree|Second Degree|Third Degree
    |Save failed|Save failed by 5 or more|Save failed by 10 or more.
    |1-2 level spells|3-4 level spells|5+ level spells
    Blinding|Dazzled: All foes have 10% concealment; -2 to Search, Spot, and AC.|Partially Blinded: All foes have 20% concealment; -5 to Search, Spot, and AC.|Blind: You cannot see-- all checks and activities that rely on vision automatically fail. All foes have total concealment; -5 AC, and no Dexterity bonus to AC.
    Madness: |Unsteady: 10%: Attack caster, 70%: Act normally, 20%: Flee|Confused: 10%: Attack caster, 50%: Act normally, 20%: Flee, 20%: Attack nearest creature|Insane: 10%: Attack caster, 10%: Act normally, 30%: Babble incoherently, 20%: Flee, 30%: Attack nearest creature
    Fatigue|Fatigued: -2 to Strength, Dexterity, Caster level, and spell save DCs|Exhausted: -5 to Strength, Dexterity, Caster level, and spell save DCs; speed halved, can't run or charge|Unconscious
    Fear|Shaken: -2 to attack rolls, mental skill checks, and Will saves|Frightened: -5 to attack rolls, mental skill checks, and Will saves, attempt to retreat|Panicked: -5 to attack rolls, mental skill checks, and Will saves, cannot do anything but flee. If you can't flee, you cower and take no actions.
    Impairing|Impaired: -2 to all rolls|Inhibited: -5 to all rolls|Disabled: Cannot take actions.
    Mind Control|Trusting: Improve the target's attitude one step (as the 3.5 Diplomacy skill), to a maximum of Friendly.|Charmed: Improve the target's attitude two steps, to a maximum of Helpful|Dominated: Improve the target's attitude 3 steps, to a maximum of Fanatic.
    Slowing|Hindered: Speed halved, can't run or charge, -2 attack and AC|Immobile: No movement, -5 to attack and AC, lose Dexterity bonus to AC|Paralyzed: Cannot take physical actions.
    Stunning|Stymied: No swift or full-round actions.|Dazed: One standard action per turn.|Stunned: Cannot take actions.
    Sudden Death|Weakened: -2 to all ability scores|Drained: -5 to all ability scores|Dying: Reduced to -1 hit point, see below.
    [/table]

    Recovery
    First-degree conditions can be cured with an hour's rest, or 15 minutes of rest and a successful Heal check (DC equal to that of the effect that inflicted the condition.

    Second-degree conditions can be reduced to first degree with an hour's rest and a successful Heal check (DC equal to that of the effect that inflicted the condition.

    Third-degree conditions cannot be cured or reduced without magic. You may only make one Heal check per character's condition track per day, although you may treat multiple subjects suffering from the same conditions.

    Lesser restoration cures first degree conditions and improves second-degree conditions by one step. Restoration and Heal cure first and second-degree conditions,and improve third degree conditions to second degree. Greater restoration removes all conditions.

    Conditions also might reverse themselves if the effect inflicting them has a limited duration which expires.

    Condition-to-track conversion list
    {table]Ability Damage|Normal
    Ability Drain|Normal
    Blind|Blinding Track
    Confused|Madness Track
    Cowering|Fear track
    Dazed|Stunning track
    Dazzled|Blinding Track
    Deafened|Normal
    Dead|Dying track
    Disabled|Dying track
    Dying|Dying track
    Energy Drained|Normal
    Entangled|Slowing track
    Exhausted|Fatigue track
    Fascinated|Normal
    Fatigued|Fatigue track
    Flat-footed|Normal
    Frightened|Fear track
    Grappling|normal
    Helpless|Normal
    Nauseated|Impairing track
    Panicked|Fear track
    Paralyzed|Slowing + Impairing tracks
    Petrified|Slowing + Impairing tracks
    Prone|normal
    Shaken|Fear track
    Sickened|Impairing track
    Stunned|Stunning track
    Unconscious|Fatigue or Stunning track[/table]

    Things that follow a similar format

    Damage
    {table=head]Condition|Circumstance|Effect|Recovery
    Bloodied|Two-thirds or less total health remaining.|-1 to all rolls.|Magical healing to raise your current hit points above two-thirds of the maximum, or a Heal check (DC equal to damage taken) to eliminate the penalty.
    Injured|One-third or less total health remaining.|-2 to all rolls, and half speed.|Magical healing to raise your current hit points above one-third of the maximum, or a Heal check (DC equal to damage taken) to eliminate the penalty.
    Maimed|Zero hit points, or negative hit points and stable.|You may only take a single standard or move action per turn, and doing so inflicts one damage (reducing you to Dying)|Magical healing to raise your current hit points above zero, or a successful Fortitude save or Heal check (DC 10 + the absolute value of your negative hit points)
    Dying|-1 to –(level + Constitution) hit points.|You may not take any actions except make Fortitude saves to recover (a full-round action. Each turn, you take one damage.|Magical healing to raise your current hit points above zero. Alternately, a successful Fortitude save or Heal check (DC 10 + the absolute value of your negative hit points) will improve your condition to Maimed.
    Dead|Less than –(level + Constitution) hit points.|Game over, man, game over!|Resurrection magic.[/table]

    Attitude
    {table=head]Hostile|Unfriendly|Indifferent|Friendly|Helpful
    Will take risks to hurt you|Wishes you ill|Doesn’t much care|Wishes you well|Will take risks to help you[/table]

    Wind
    {table=head]Strong Winds|Severe Winds|Catastrophic Winds
    Checked: Forward movement halted/prevented; flying creatures pushed back 1d6x5 feet|Knocked Down: Knocked prone; flying creatures pushed back 1d6x10 feet|Blown Away: Creatures on the ground are knocked prone and rolled 1d4×10 feet, taking 1d4 points of nonlethal damage per 10 feet. Flying creatures are blown back 2d6×10 feet and take 2d6 points of nonlethal damage due to battering and buffeting. [/table]

    Magic Overview

    Abilities(1)

    All casters are dependent on two different ability scores, as determined by their class. Their base casting ability affects magical stamina they have-- how much magic their bodies can store, and how how fast they regain magic. Their advanced casting ability affects magical skill-- how complex a spell they can cast, and how hard their spells are to resist.

    Casting Spells

    Casting a spell is a standard action which provokes attacks of opportunity. To cast a spell, you must have an advanced casting score equal to the spell level -2. Unless a spell description specifically mentions otherwise, you may only cast one spell per round.


    Concentration
    (as 3.5?)

    Counterspelling
    (As 3.5, except that the skill roll to identify your opponent's spell is an Occult roll, and you may use any spell of the same or higher level with the same descriptors as a counterspell-- so, for example, you could use a call lightning spell to counterspell a lightning bolt spell.

    Casting Defensively
    Is impossible. Barring feats or class features, you always provoke attacks of opportunity for casting spells.

    Spell Points


    All casters have a certain number of spell points, as determined by their class(2). Casting a spell requires the expenditure of a number of spell points equal to the level of the spell being cast. Zero-level spells, also known as cantrips (for arcane magic) or orisons (for divine magic) cost no spell points, and may be cast at-will.

    If a character has multiple spellcasting classes, add together all spell points gained from arcane classes into a single arcane pool, and all spell points gained from divine classes into a single divine pool. A character with multiple arcane casting classes can use spell points received from any arcane casting class to cast spells gained from any arcane casting class, although class level still limits how high level a spell he can cast. Multiple divine casting classes work the same way. However, you may not use spell points from arcane casting classes to cast divine spells, and vice-versa.

    Characters gain bonus spell points for having a high base casting ability. Your bonus spell points are equal to one-half your base casting ability multiplied by the highest level spell you can cast. You may only gain these bonus spell points once for each pool, arcane and divine.

    Spell points regenerate over time. A character regenerates a number of spell points per hour equal to his base casting ability. While sleeping, they instead recover a number of points per hour equal to their caster level plus their base casting ability.

    Resisting Magic

    The saving throw DC against a spell or spell-like ability is 10 + twice the spell's level + the caster's advanced casting ability.(3)

    Some creatures have spell resistance-- a natural or unnatural resistance to magic. Creatures with spell resistance gain a bonus on saving throws and opposed checks against spells and spell-like abilities equal to their spell resistance(4).

    Metamagic

    In the absence of specific feats or class features, no more than one metamagic feat may be applied to a given casting of a spell.

    ------------------

    (1)- In G&G, modifiers and ability scores have been merged. A 3.5 score of 14, say, translates to a G&G score of 2.
    (2)- As a general rule for conversions, add up the total number of spell levels a character receives per day. Thus, a 3rd level wizard gets 4 spell points (disregarding bonus spell points)- 2 from his 2 first-level spells, and 2 from his 1 second-level spell.
    (3)- Saving throws will have the same good/average/poor progression as base attack bonus and skills, so a 3rd level rogue's reflex save might be +6, as opposed to +3 in 3.5.
    (4)- As a rough conversion, G&G SR = 3.5 SR divided by 4
    Last edited by Grod_The_Giant; 2013-01-17 at 12:42 PM.
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Monsters


    to come

    Miscellaneous Rules


    to come
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Reserved just in case.

    Feel free to start posting here; I'll work on filling stuff back in.
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Sgt. Cookie's Avatar

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    I don't know what you did with Humans, but an idea I've been toying with was that Humans still get their 1st level bonus feat, in exchange for loosing their 3rd level feat.

    Just my 2p.
    Open the lid and snatch a homebrewed treat from Cookie's Jar

    Ponytar by Dirtytabs

    Quote Originally Posted by DudeWhyAreAllTheNamesTaken(Imgur)
    Chaotic neutral. Might rob you blind. Might save your life. Might do both.

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    For races, I was thinking that all would get 1 stat boost, 1-2 skill boosts/specializations, and one signature ability comparable to a feat.
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  9. - Top - End - #9
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Eldan's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Switzerland
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Can I just say that we should really think about that class list? Because I still maintain that "fighter" is not really a class that is necessary in third edition. Because I can't really think of any examples of one in fiction as it is presented in the player's handbook. They are all barbarians, knights, paladins, rangers or rogues of some kind. No one has "I fight things and have no skills other than swinging weapons" as their background. And once you move away from that, you get into specialized classes.

    Also, I would have gone with G&G 2: Electric Revisaloo.


    Also, everyone getting two stat boost? Come on, it was already silly when Pathfinder did it, even partially. It's pointless. If everyone just gets bonuses, the only thing you do is meaninglessly raise averages. It would be easier to just say "36 point buy is the standard", instead of the 25-28 the DMG recommends.


    Also 3, son of the also:
    Kneel before Grod!

    All hail King Grod!
    Last edited by Eldan; 2013-01-16 at 12:46 PM.
    Resident Vancian Apologist

  10. - Top - End - #10
    Firbolg in the Playground
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    I like the goal and am working on something similar as well.

    Give Ranged Dex to Damage. It'd go along way towards making ranged viable beyond the first three levels or specialized niche builds.

    May I suggest a revision to Pointbuy.

    8 to 12 1 point
    13 to 14 2 points
    15 to 16 3 points
    17 to 18 4 points

    Basically increasing the cost of increasing abilities beyond 12 by one. Also, leave the normal points offered the same. This will help drag stats down a bit which in turns help make CR a fraction more meaningful and penalizes SAD classes more. This also makes racial bonuses more meaningful.

    Stat inflation has gone along way to worsening balance.


    Here is also my suggestion on Skills

    Eliminate cross class penalty, but keep max ranks the same.

    Make every five ranks beyond the first five cost an additional point. And an additional point for each rank beyond 10. So getting that 11th skill rank costs 3 skill points. This will push towards broadening ones skill selection and make over specialization more difficult.

    Also give all classes except Wizard at least 4 Skill points per level.

    Those are just a few ideas I've been working with.

  11. - Top - End - #11
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Eldan's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Switzerland
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    In the last thread, we agreed to nix class skills entirely, actually. There's just not much point to them. If I want to play a barbarian who studied magical theory, why the hell not?
    Resident Vancian Apologist

  12. - Top - End - #12
    Titan in the Playground
     
    PairO'Dice Lost's Avatar

    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Malsheem, Nessus
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    Can I just say that we should really think about that class list? Because I still maintain that "fighter" is not really a class that is necessary in third edition. Because I can't really think of any examples of one in fiction as it is presented in the player's handbook. They are all barbarians, knights, paladins, rangers or rogues of some kind. No one has "I fight things and have no skills other than swinging weapons" as their background. And once you move away from that, you get into specialized classes.
    Well, "Fighter" doesn't have to mean "fights things and is useless outside combat," that's just what it has happened to mean for the past few editions; keeping the name and enhancing the class would work for people who are attached to having Fighter on their character sheet.

    Rather than making the Fighter a Knight-themed class, as suggested by the strikethrough in the classes post, I'd go with a Soldier theme. "Soldier" encompasses your basic heavy-armored fighter-type, as well as a more lightly-armored Spartan or mercenary type and a commanding marshal or knight type, which makes him a lot more well-rounded and gives him obvious hooks for out-of-combat stuff.

    Also regarding classes, do you really need a sorcerer and favored soul? The classes as presented are basically a spontaneous wizard and cleric with a few random class features sprinkled in, so I could see making both classes merely ACFs for their "parent" classes.
    Better to DM in Baator than play in Celestia
    You can just call me Dice; that's how I roll.


    Spoiler: Sig of Holding
    Show

    Quote Originally Posted by abadguy View Post
    Darn you PoDL for making me care about a bunch of NPC Commoners!
    Quote Originally Posted by Chambers View Post
    I'm pretty sure turning Waterdeep into a sheet of glass wasn't the best win condition for that fight. We lived though!
    Quote Originally Posted by MaxiDuRaritry View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'DiceLost View Post
    <Snip>
    Where are my Like, Love, and Want to Have Your Manchildren (Totally Homo) buttons for this post?
    Won a cookie for this, won everything for this

  13. - Top - End - #13
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Eldan's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Switzerland
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Yes, I can see that. However, what I mean is: for all those archetypes, there are already specialized classes. The lightly armoured mobile fighter is a scout or rogue or ranger. The heavy armour guy is a knight. The marshal is, well, a marshal (just because the class sucks doesn't mean it isn't true). The town guard is surely a ranger, for the skill points.

    Why, exactly, do we need a class that tries to marry so many different combat archetypes? We got right of the generic spellcaster class long ago.
    Resident Vancian Apologist

  14. - Top - End - #14
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    Also, everyone getting two stat boost? Come on, it was already silly when Pathfinder did it, even partially. It's pointless. If everyone just gets bonuses, the only thing you do is meaninglessly raise averages. It would be easier to just say "36 point buy is the standard", instead of the 25-28 the DMG recommends.
    It was an idle thought. It might also be a +1/-1, with some (humans, say) getting nothing.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zman View Post
    I like the goal and am working on something similar as well.

    Give Ranged Dex to Damage. It'd go along way towards making ranged viable beyond the first three levels or specialized niche builds.
    It's in there, along with Dex for light weapons

    Here is also my suggestion on Skills

    Eliminate cross class penalty, but keep max ranks the same.
    We've ditched class skills. Max ranks are lower, since the skills are broader, but you can buy a bonus to a sub-area (such as Occult: Spellcraft) to bring it back up to the original max.

    Make every five ranks beyond the first five cost an additional point. And an additional point for each rank beyond 10. So getting that 11th skill rank costs 3 skill points. This will push towards broadening ones skill selection and make over specialization more difficult.
    Hmm. An interesting idea, if getting into the complex terrain.

    Also give all classes except Wizard at least 4 Skill points per level.
    Well, yeah. Thanks for the thoughts!

    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'Dice Lost View Post
    Well, "Fighter" doesn't have to mean "fights things and is useless outside combat," that's just what it has happened to mean for the past few editions; keeping the name and enhancing the class would work for people who are attached to having Fighter on their character sheet.

    Rather than making the Fighter a Knight-themed class, as suggested by the strikethrough in the classes post, I'd go with a Soldier theme. "Soldier" encompasses your basic heavy-armored fighter-type, as well as a more lightly-armored Spartan or mercenary type and a commanding marshal or knight type, which makes him a lot more well-rounded and gives him obvious hooks for out-of-combat stuff.
    I don't know. Personally, I like the fighter as the smart warrior, the one who might or might not use heavy armor, but relies on discipline and extreme skill, as opposed to the barbarian's brute strength and toughness. That seems like enough of a niche to do useful things with.

    Also regarding classes, do you really need a sorcerer and favored soul? The classes as presented are basically a spontaneous wizard and cleric with a few random class features sprinkled in, so I could see making both classes merely ACFs for their "parent" classes.
    Well, that's something that needs to be changed, isn't it? A goal of mine, at least, is to make all the classes distinct mechanically, at least to some degree. Check out my Wizard and Sorcerer revisions; the sorcerer gets powers related to his heritage, along with self-damage-to-boost-spells, while the wizard gets the ability to modify spells on the fly and cast rituals. For Cleric/Favored Soul, the cleric can be the armored servant of the god, like 3.5, while the Favored Soul gets to be the higher-powered caster.



    Oh, and I think that's most of the material we had written posted, apart from the details of combat actions (see the link), the beginnings of the skill tricks (link), and my hasty attempts at spell rewrites.
    Last edited by Grod_The_Giant; 2013-01-16 at 04:43 PM.
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  15. - Top - End - #15
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Eldan's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Switzerland
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Eh, well. I don't see barbarians as wearing heavy armour either. Or the rogue, or the ranger. They are all light or perhaps rarely medium armour people. That would only leave the paladin for the heavy armour, and that's quite a specialized project.
    Resident Vancian Apologist

  16. - Top - End - #16
    Troll in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jan 2012

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Classes
    • Barbarian
    • Bard
    • Cleric
    • Druid
    • Fighter Knight?
    • Favored Soul
    • Monk
    • Paladin
    • Ranger
    • Rogue
    • Sorcerer
    • Wizard
    You really shouldnt start with classes with any named biases before them.

    Basically, decide how to fill these characters/subarchetypes:

    Knight in Shining Armor
    Noble Savage
    Warrior Monk
    Holy Warrior
    War Mage/Battle Priest
    Shapeshifter
    The Cunning Thief
    The 4 Rites of spellcaster (Learned, Devout, Natural, and Bargained)
    The Bard

    Notes: Holy warriors use mystic defeneses to supplement their offense, Battle Priests use mundane defense to supplement their offense.
    Last edited by toapat; 2013-01-16 at 05:24 PM.
    My Homebrew: found here.
    When you Absolutely, Positively, Gotta Drop some Huge rocks, Accept NO Substitutes

    PM Me if you would like a table from my homebrew reconstructed.

    Drow avatar @ myself

  17. - Top - End - #17
    Firbolg in the Playground
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post

    It's in there, along with Dex for light weapons

    Great.

    We've ditched class skills. Max ranks are lower, since the skills are broader, but you can buy a bonus to a sub-area (such as Occult: Spellcraft) to bring it back up to the original max.

    Sounds good.

    Hmm. An interesting idea, if getting into the complex terrain.

    Not particularly.

    Ranks 1-5: 1 Skill Point
    Ranks 6-10: 2 Skill Points
    Ranks 11+: 3 Skill Points


    Well, yeah. Thanks for the thoughts!

    No problem, wish I would have seen the first work earlier.
    See Blue text.

  18. - Top - End - #18
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    Eh, well. I don't see barbarians as wearing heavy armour either. Or the rogue, or the ranger. They are all light or perhaps rarely medium armour people. That would only leave the paladin for the heavy armour, and that's quite a specialized project.
    Who said barbarians were going to be wearing heavy armor?

    Anyway, the big objectives at the moment:

    • Confirm combat, magic, and skill revisions
    • Write skill tricks
    • Decide what to do about conditions
    • Spell-by-spell rewrites ()
    • Write/assemble feat lists
    • Write/modify base classes
    • Monsters?
    • Playtesting
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  19. - Top - End - #19
    Titan in the Playground
     
    PairO'Dice Lost's Avatar

    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Malsheem, Nessus
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    Yes, I can see that. However, what I mean is: for all those archetypes, there are already specialized classes. The lightly armoured mobile fighter is a scout or rogue or ranger. The heavy armour guy is a knight. The marshal is, well, a marshal (just because the class sucks doesn't mean it isn't true). The town guard is surely a ranger, for the skill points.

    Why, exactly, do we need a class that tries to marry so many different combat archetypes? We got right of the generic spellcaster class long ago.
    It's not really many different archetypes, just two or three, the same way ranger covers the "archer" and "woodsman" and "monster hunter" archetypes. I basically agree with this:

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    I don't know. Personally, I like the fighter as the smart warrior, the one who might or might not use heavy armor, but relies on discipline and extreme skill, as opposed to the barbarian's brute strength and toughness. That seems like enough of a niche to do useful things with.
    The fighter-as-professional-soldier and fighter-as-tactician routes are both "smart warrior" archetypes, so all I'm saying is that the knight and marshal classes could easily be combined to form the fighter (and as a side effect allow for a medium armored warrior to fill in the space between heavy Knight or Paladin and light Scout or Rogue) instead of having the knight replace the fighter and leaving the knight as a separate class.

    Well, that's something that needs to be changed, isn't it? A goal of mine, at least, is to make all the classes distinct mechanically, at least to some degree. Check out my Wizard and Sorcerer revisions; the sorcerer gets powers related to his heritage, along with self-damage-to-boost-spells, while the wizard gets the ability to modify spells on the fly and cast rituals. For Cleric/Favored Soul, the cleric can be the armored servant of the god, like 3.5, while the Favored Soul gets to be the higher-powered caster.
    I thought someone had complained last time around about the sorcerer being pigeonholed into the bloodline caster and didn't want to see that in G&G; that might have been another thread. If you're actually going to split up the cleric and give the sorcerer a reason to exist, though, by all means keep them around.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    [*]Decide what to do about conditions
    I believe it was fairly settled that you were going with condition tracks, barring Just to Browse's complaining about their complexity. By "decide what to do about conditions" are you referring to just nailing down which tracks to have and how they work, or are you thinking of scrapping them in favor of something else?
    Better to DM in Baator than play in Celestia
    You can just call me Dice; that's how I roll.


    Spoiler: Sig of Holding
    Show

    Quote Originally Posted by abadguy View Post
    Darn you PoDL for making me care about a bunch of NPC Commoners!
    Quote Originally Posted by Chambers View Post
    I'm pretty sure turning Waterdeep into a sheet of glass wasn't the best win condition for that fight. We lived though!
    Quote Originally Posted by MaxiDuRaritry View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'DiceLost View Post
    <Snip>
    Where are my Like, Love, and Want to Have Your Manchildren (Totally Homo) buttons for this post?
    Won a cookie for this, won everything for this

  20. - Top - End - #20
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'Dice Lost View Post
    I believe it was fairly settled that you were going with condition tracks, barring Just to Browse's complaining about their complexity. By "decide what to do about conditions" are you referring to just nailing down which tracks to have and how they work, or are you thinking of scrapping them in favor of something else?
    Did we? It's been a while and I can't read through that thread without driving my blood pressure up. But looking back, I guess we did address a lot of the more glaring issues, apart from complexity. So... it's mostly a "confirm and if necessary tweak" thing, I guess.

    Another option is to fold condition tracks into individual spell descriptions, which might or might not improve simplicity.
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  21. - Top - End - #21
    Titan in the Playground
     
    PairO'Dice Lost's Avatar

    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Malsheem, Nessus
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Did we? It's been a while and I can't read through that thread without driving my blood pressure up. But looking back, I guess we did address a lot of the more glaring issues, apart from complexity. So... it's mostly a "confirm and if necessary tweak" thing, I guess.

    Another option is to fold condition tracks into individual spell descriptions, which might or might not improve simplicity.
    Mmm...I can certainly see a few spell descriptions having something like "If you fail the save, X happens; if you fail by 5, Y happens; if you fail by 10, Z happens" if they don't fit into the normal condition mold, but it would probably be good to have established tracks of relation conditions like the fear and mobility conditions in 3e for consistency and ease of reference.
    Better to DM in Baator than play in Celestia
    You can just call me Dice; that's how I roll.


    Spoiler: Sig of Holding
    Show

    Quote Originally Posted by abadguy View Post
    Darn you PoDL for making me care about a bunch of NPC Commoners!
    Quote Originally Posted by Chambers View Post
    I'm pretty sure turning Waterdeep into a sheet of glass wasn't the best win condition for that fight. We lived though!
    Quote Originally Posted by MaxiDuRaritry View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'DiceLost View Post
    <Snip>
    Where are my Like, Love, and Want to Have Your Manchildren (Totally Homo) buttons for this post?
    Won a cookie for this, won everything for this

  22. - Top - End - #22
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Grod_The_Giant's Avatar

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'Dice Lost View Post
    Mmm...I can certainly see a few spell descriptions having something like "If you fail the save, X happens; if you fail by 5, Y happens; if you fail by 10, Z happens" if they don't fit into the normal condition mold, but it would probably be good to have established tracks of relation conditions like the fear and mobility conditions in 3e for consistency and ease of reference.
    Could always do both, so we still have the table, but also have descriptions like:

    Hold Person
    Enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind-Affecting]
    Level: Brd 2, Clr 2, Sor/Wiz 3
    Components: V, S, F/DF
    Casting Time: 1 standard action
    Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
    Target: One humanoid creature
    Duration: 1 round/level (D); see text
    Saving Throw: Will negates; see text
    Spell Resistance: Yes

    If the subject fails his saving throw, he becomes Hindered. If he fails by 5 or more, he is instead Immobile. If he is already Hindered, he takes a -2 penalty on this save.

    Arcane Focus: A small, straight piece of iron.
    Hill Giant Games
    I make indie gaming books for you!
    Spoiler
    Show

    STaRS: A non-narrativeist, generic rules-light system.
    Grod's Guide to Greatness, 2e: A big book of player options for 5e.
    Grod's Grimoire of the Grotesque: An even bigger book of variant and expanded rules for 5e.
    Giants and Graveyards: My collected 3.5 class fixes and more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant View Post
    Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

  23. - Top - End - #23
    Orc in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Not too hot, not too cold
    Gender
    Male

    Default

    Didn't read the old thread, so I apologize if these things have been argued to death.

    First, are you really sticking with AC instead of making armor DR based?

    Second, if you want to make combat more flexible between Str and Dex I'd do something like this:

    You have to choose Strength or Dexterity based fighting style.
    However, some things have to use Strength, and some have to use Dexterity.

    Code:
                     |  Strength Based | Dexterity Based |
    Weapon Type      |   Hit  | Damage |  Hit  | Damage  |
    —————————————————|————————|————————|———————|—————————|
    Light Weapons    |  ½Str  |  ½Str  |  Dex  |   Dex   |
    Light Thrown     |   Dex  |  ½Str  |  Dex  |  ½Dex   |
    Balanced Swords  |   Str  |   Str  | ½Dex  |   Dex   |
    1-Hand Weapons   |   Str  |   Str  |  Str  |   Str   |
    2-Hand Weapons   |   Str  | 1½Str  |  Str  |   Str   |
    Hand Missiles*   |   Dex  |  ½Str  |  Dex  |   Dex   |
    Melee Thrown**   |  ½Dex  |  ½Str  | ½Dex  |  ½Dex   |
    Polearms         | 1½Str  | 1½Str  |  Str  |  ½Dex   |
    
    *Javelin, spear, daneaxe, and others well suited to throwing
    **Swords and melee weapons not well suited to throwing,
       including some light weapons
    Last edited by Straybow; 2013-01-17 at 12:41 PM.
    (\__/) Save a bunny, eat more Smurf!
    (='.'=) Sponsored by the National Smurfmeat Council
    (")_(") Smurf, the original blue meat! © 1999, pat. pending, ® and ™ (except that "Smurf" bit)

  24. - Top - End - #24
    Orc in the Playground
     
    AssassinGuy

    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    @Straybow: I think both the AC instead of DR and the Str/Dex dichotomy is to reduce complexity. That little chart there looks very complex for something that does not really need to be that complex.

    @All: I think the condition tracks are actually really good, because you have a codified system for causing conditions, instead of random this-thing and that-thing and individual spell descriptions. Speaking of which, condition tracks also make it easier to write spells. Class features and skills (think Intimidation, Marshal Auras, etc) can also reference the condition tracks without needing a lot of writing.

    @toapat: I think that those concepts you listed have a lot of overlap (Holy Warrior and Knight in Shining Armor in particular are thiiiis far apart). I agree that titles can bring connotations, but if that is the case, we need to decide what kind of class system we want. For one thing, we need to know how to approach it.

    These are the two ways I see:

    Flavorful Method: Determine a number of concepts that appear in Roleplaying Games, construct classes based on those. I think D&D Next is doing this currently. Basically, you choose powers that fit into the class and make it balanced, tuning it to fit with the others as you go.

    Balance/Mathematical Method: Determine what kind of gameplay niches each class fills (Spontaneous Arcane caster, Prepared Divine caster, Battlefield Control Fighter, or what have you), and build the class around those cores, allowing for customization into the concepts, such as Holy Warrior or what-not.

    I personally would approach from the latter way, because that allows us to create classes that can fit multiple archetypes, such as the "Soldier" mentioned, which can be a flexible class, instead of say Barbarian, which is actually a really narrow focus on a role.
    "Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day" --Charles Dickens

  25. - Top - End - #25
    Orc in the Playground
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Not too hot, not too cold
    Gender
    Male

    Default

    Well, the Strength based is standard with minor changes, and it is expected that will be the default choice. Specific changes:
    • All thrown weapons get only half Str bonus to damage.
    • Only actual missile weapons get full Dex bonus to hit, throwing other things gets only half Dex bonus.
    • Only polearms get 1½Str to hit, other 2-handed weapons stay at std Str bonus to hit.

    Finesse style is only effective for light weapons, balanced swords, and missiles. The ability to shift the grip on polearms allows some effectiveness for finesse style. This could be further ameliorated by allowing spear and staff to count as a balanced weapon.

    I understand wanting to reduce complexity, but few things in the D&D legacy system suck as much as AC...
    (\__/) Save a bunny, eat more Smurf!
    (='.'=) Sponsored by the National Smurfmeat Council
    (")_(") Smurf, the original blue meat! © 1999, pat. pending, ® and ™ (except that "Smurf" bit)

  26. - Top - End - #26
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Morty's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Poland
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    I think that instead of asking yourself whether or not the Fighter class is necessary, you should ask the opposite question - what do other classes bring to the table that can't be done with a reasonably flexible Fighter class? Can't the Barbarian be just an angry, lightly armored Fighter, for instance?
    My FFRP characters. Avatar by Ashen Lilies. Sigatars by Ashen Lilies, Gullara and Purple Eagle.
    Interested in the Nexus FFRP setting? See our Discord server.

  27. - Top - End - #27
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Dec 2008

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Straybow View Post
    Well, the Strength based is standard with minor changes, and it is expected that will be the default choice. Specific changes:
    • All thrown weapons get only half Str bonus to damage.
    • Only actual missile weapons get full Dex bonus to hit, throwing other things gets only half Dex bonus.
    • Only polearms get 1½Str to hit, other 2-handed weapons stay at std Str bonus to hit.

    Finesse style is only effective for light weapons, balanced swords, and missiles. The ability to shift the grip on polearms allows some effectiveness for finesse style. This could be further ameliorated by allowing spear and staff to count as a balanced weapon.
    Honestly I think it would just be easier if finesse was a weapon quality that didn't require a feat spread over a lot more items. Also you really don't want to make different weapons only get half of a stat to damage, it needlessly nerfs them come high levels.

    I understand wanting to reduce complexity, but few things in the D&D legacy system suck as much as AC...
    The thing about AC vs DR is that DR really doesn't add up right as the characters level up and start tossing around a hundred damage, while AC can be placed in step with attack bonus relatively easily.

  28. - Top - End - #28
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Djinn_in_Tonic's Avatar

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Stuck in a bottle.
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Morty View Post
    I think that instead of asking yourself whether or not the Fighter class is necessary, you should ask the opposite question - what do other classes bring to the table that can't be done with a reasonably flexible Fighter class? Can't the Barbarian be just an angry, lightly armored Fighter, for instance?
    Because the Fighter is a generic class, which holds him back from getting unique class features. That's fine, but only if the OTHER classes are ALSO generic classes built for customization. They aren't. The Fighter is a generic class model sitting in a specific class system, which is the big problem. If feats were intended to replace class features, all classes could be reduced to feat options. That's fine...but, again, only if it applies to all classes.

    The Fighter's lack of a real identity is what makes fixing the Fighter almost impossible: even the Warblade, one of the broadest Fighter "fixes" imaginable (in that it can work for almost every sort of non-ranged archetype), is lampooned by many for being non-generic enough. It's easier to just ditch the generic option and give more flavorful, more specific options.

    Ingredients

    2oz Djinn
    5oz Water
    1 Lime Wedge


    Instructions

    Pour Djinn and tonic water into a glass filled with ice cubes. Stir well. Garnish with lime wedge. Serve.

  29. - Top - End - #29
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Morty's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Poland
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Djinn_in_Tonic View Post
    Because the Fighter is a generic class, which holds him back from getting unique class features. That's fine, but only if the OTHER classes are ALSO generic classes built for customization. They aren't. The Fighter is a generic class model sitting in a specific class system, which is the big problem. If feats were intended to replace class features, all classes could be reduced to feat options. That's fine...but, again, only if it applies to all classes.

    The Fighter's lack of a real identity is what makes fixing the Fighter almost impossible: even the Warblade, one of the broadest Fighter "fixes" imaginable (in that it can work for almost every sort of non-ranged archetype), is lampooned by many for being non-generic enough. It's easier to just ditch the generic option and give more flavorful, more specific options.
    I know that. I'm not saying that Fighter should be generic, flavorless and bland among classes that aren't. My point is that it's better to have fewer, broader classes than a whole lot of narrow ones. Unique classes should be reserved for the warrior archetypes that cannot be folded into the Fighter class without making it too generic to work. Having a class for each archetype risks falling into what is 3e's greatest flaws - too few character concepts being supported.
    Last edited by Morty; 2013-01-17 at 01:47 PM.
    My FFRP characters. Avatar by Ashen Lilies. Sigatars by Ashen Lilies, Gullara and Purple Eagle.
    Interested in the Nexus FFRP setting? See our Discord server.

  30. - Top - End - #30
    Titan in the Playground
     
    PairO'Dice Lost's Avatar

    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Malsheem, Nessus
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Gaols and Giants 2: Revise Harder

    Quote Originally Posted by Djinn_in_Tonic View Post
    Because the Fighter is a generic class, which holds him back from getting unique class features. That's fine, but only if the OTHER classes are ALSO generic classes built for customization. They aren't. The Fighter is a generic class model sitting in a specific class system, which is the big problem. If feats were intended to replace class features, all classes could be reduced to feat options. That's fine...but, again, only if it applies to all classes.

    The Fighter's lack of a real identity is what makes fixing the Fighter almost impossible: even the Warblade, one of the broadest Fighter "fixes" imaginable (in that it can work for almost every sort of non-ranged archetype), is lampooned by many for being non-generic enough. It's easier to just ditch the generic option and give more flavorful, more specific options.
    Comparing the fighter to the wizard, both are fairly generic classes with few actual class features who can be specialized into various thematic niches. The difference is that the wizard (A) actually has useful, scaling class features in the form of spells, (B) can take many more of said class features than the fighter can, and (C) has specialties that are broad, flavorful niches on their own rather than being one-trick ponies.

    The fighter as a more general class that can be turned into a barbarian, swashbuckler, etc. can be made to work if (A) it gets non-feat class features and its feats are made to not suck, (B) it isn't limited to just 11 of them, and (C) it gets wide specialties like "barbarian" and "swashbuckler" rather than the narrow "tripper" or "charger." Whether it's worth pursuing that route is another matter, but if you're already revising feats to make them not suck and have plenty of fighter fixes to draw upon for inspiration, you might as well consider it.

    Some classes like the swashbuckler and knight are narrow enough (as implemented in 3e, not conceptually) that they could be bolted on as fighter specialties fairly easily, and there are other sets of class features (monk's unarmed damage, barbarian's rage) that could be made available to the fighter; if barbarian is just going to stay as "a fighter who gets angry" then it might as well be folded into the fighter, and if it's going to be expanded beyond that there's no harm in giving both the fighter and the barbarian a "battle trance" ability the same way different casters have overlap in their spell lists.
    Better to DM in Baator than play in Celestia
    You can just call me Dice; that's how I roll.


    Spoiler: Sig of Holding
    Show

    Quote Originally Posted by abadguy View Post
    Darn you PoDL for making me care about a bunch of NPC Commoners!
    Quote Originally Posted by Chambers View Post
    I'm pretty sure turning Waterdeep into a sheet of glass wasn't the best win condition for that fight. We lived though!
    Quote Originally Posted by MaxiDuRaritry View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'DiceLost View Post
    <Snip>
    Where are my Like, Love, and Want to Have Your Manchildren (Totally Homo) buttons for this post?
    Won a cookie for this, won everything for this

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •