The Broken Road: Game Mechanics.
Aug. 3rd, 2011 12:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_doyleThe basic ruleset I am using for The Broken Road is D & D 3.5, because it is most familiar to me and to the players. But because the Allotment is focused so heavily on mage-lords, who are obviously spontaneous casters, the world is changed to revolve around them in any number of ways.
Classes I am encouraging aristocratic players to focus on: bard, sorceror, favored soul, shugenja, artificer, and duskblade. So far there are no commoner PCs, and I think there are unlikely to be any. Some mage-lords may have exceptionally weak magic: these would likely take non-casting classes but take a few of the feats that allow casting of cantrips or low-level spells a limited number of times per day. A wizard would be someone who has learned the ancient forbidden spellcasting techniques of Septicollum. A druid would be someone who learned their casting from the fey -- doubly forbidden!
First: all spontaneous casters get the Eschew Materials and Spell Thematics feats for free. Spellcasting is natural, it does not need props. It is also personal -- everyone's magic has its own feel. With that in mind, after first level, every time someone takes a level in a casting class, they may choose one extra spell to put on their spell list. It may come off any class list, must be a level they can cast, and I must agree that it fits with their chosen Spell Thematic.
Second, more of a guideline: to encourage creative magic usage and non-combat spells, I will always interpret the rules as broadly as possible when it comes to spells. Rules-as-written say magic missile can only target a creature: I would let it target objects as well, and in non-combat situations, possibly exert a little force, pushing objects about at range (but not with the finesse of mage hand).
Third: all casters may cast dancing lights, light, ghost sound, arcane mark, prestidigitation, and mage hand at any time, without expending any spell slots. Cantrips are trivial, every-day things in the life of a mage-lord, and the PCs should never EVER feel the need to conserve them.
Fourth: Some spells do not fit the flavor of the Allotment. All spells dealing with planar travel or summoning are removed from every list on which they appeared, as are all spells which bring the dead to life. Characters swear by the Misty Hells, or by Radiant Glory, so there are other theoretical planes out there, afterlifes, and they may well be inhabited and able to be reached -- but that kind of disciplined, ritualistic magic reeks of the jumped-up peasants of Septicollum, with their studied, prepared spellcasting, and the mage-lords of the Allotment know nothing of it. Teleportation through mirrors, shadows, and flames is likewise a Septicollian trick, though known to be possible. Raising the dead to true life is unheard of.
Fifth: Atmosphere. Like the Ravenloft campaign setting, I am using the rules that allow anyone to make a Curse Check if they are deeply wronged and feeling vengeful. I am also using Fear, Horror, and Madness saves in addition to Will saves. This latter is mostly a garnish: the saves are almost mechanically identical, but the secret is that a player is much more frightened when I tell them to make a Madness save than when I tell them to make a Will save vs. an insanity spell. It just sounds scarier.
Sixth: Heavy lifting. The big stuff. I am making a series of changes here to make casting more powerful, while making the characters feel more vulnerable. I am switching from a hit point system to a vitality/wounds system. In vit/wounds, a character rolls vitality as they would hit points -- vitality represents energy, not their physical body. They have wound points equal to their constitution score, and these do not (typically) go up with level. Critical hits do not do more damage -- they do damage directly to wounds, instead of exhausting vitality first. Among other things, this means re-working weapons so that their crit rules are changed -- crit multipliers above x2 all become increases in crit range. x3 becomes a +1 bump to range, x4 becomes a +2. So a scythe would have an 18-20 crit. Wounds heal at a rate of 1/level/day, like hit points. Vitality is regained at a rate of 1/level/hour. Nonlethal damage does not exist. Attacks that did nonlethal damage in standard D & D are now attacks that do vitality, but are incapable under any circumstances of doing wound damage.
While this sort of thing inspires fear, especially in casters with few hit points who know there are no resurrections in this game, I'm balancing it out a bit. Three additional changes to the vit/wounds system.
A) Every time a casting character takes another level, he gets +1 wound point. So death gets further away, but more slowly than in regular D & D.
B) No rolling. Everyone gets maximum possible vitality at every level. My reason for doing this will be discussed in point Seven.
C) Non-casters get a substantial power-up their casting buddies do not: When a non-casting character levels, instead of their new hit points being all vitality, half goes to vitality and half to wounds. That means a fighter with a 10 Con gets 5 vit and 5 wounds at every level, giving him substantially more ability to weather a critical hit than any caster.
Seven: Rather than using a spell-slot system to limit daily casting, the Allotment will use a power point system. Every spell costs a number of power points equal to (spell level times two) minus one. First level spells cost one point, second cost three, third level costs five, on up to seventeen power points for a ninth-level spell.
How many power points does a caster have? Simple. They use vitality as power points. This is how Star Wars handles usage of the Force, and I think it's a good system: casters do not have to fret overmuch about running out of spells, but they do have an incentive to end combat swiftly: the more spells they use, the more tired and vulnerable they become. The more they get hit, the less magic they have left. This is a huge game-changer in any number of ways, but the most immediately problematic is healing. How do you allow curing spells when cure light wounds, a first level spell costing one power point, aka one vitality point, always cures at least two points of damage?
Surprisingly easy, though a bit of a logistical headache to track. Once curing spells have been applied to wound damage, they do not restore vitality points: they grant temporary vitality points, which go away after one hour, cannot exceed a character's total hit points, and cannot be spent to power spells. This only decreases the power of healing a little, given how quickly vit regenerates on its own, and a custom character sheet can be drawn up easily in order to track such things.
Okay. Those are the basic alterations in the rules -- at least, they're all the player-relevant changes I can remember making at the moment, articulated clearly, I hope.
Any questions?
Classes I am encouraging aristocratic players to focus on: bard, sorceror, favored soul, shugenja, artificer, and duskblade. So far there are no commoner PCs, and I think there are unlikely to be any. Some mage-lords may have exceptionally weak magic: these would likely take non-casting classes but take a few of the feats that allow casting of cantrips or low-level spells a limited number of times per day. A wizard would be someone who has learned the ancient forbidden spellcasting techniques of Septicollum. A druid would be someone who learned their casting from the fey -- doubly forbidden!
First: all spontaneous casters get the Eschew Materials and Spell Thematics feats for free. Spellcasting is natural, it does not need props. It is also personal -- everyone's magic has its own feel. With that in mind, after first level, every time someone takes a level in a casting class, they may choose one extra spell to put on their spell list. It may come off any class list, must be a level they can cast, and I must agree that it fits with their chosen Spell Thematic.
Second, more of a guideline: to encourage creative magic usage and non-combat spells, I will always interpret the rules as broadly as possible when it comes to spells. Rules-as-written say magic missile can only target a creature: I would let it target objects as well, and in non-combat situations, possibly exert a little force, pushing objects about at range (but not with the finesse of mage hand).
Third: all casters may cast dancing lights, light, ghost sound, arcane mark, prestidigitation, and mage hand at any time, without expending any spell slots. Cantrips are trivial, every-day things in the life of a mage-lord, and the PCs should never EVER feel the need to conserve them.
Fourth: Some spells do not fit the flavor of the Allotment. All spells dealing with planar travel or summoning are removed from every list on which they appeared, as are all spells which bring the dead to life. Characters swear by the Misty Hells, or by Radiant Glory, so there are other theoretical planes out there, afterlifes, and they may well be inhabited and able to be reached -- but that kind of disciplined, ritualistic magic reeks of the jumped-up peasants of Septicollum, with their studied, prepared spellcasting, and the mage-lords of the Allotment know nothing of it. Teleportation through mirrors, shadows, and flames is likewise a Septicollian trick, though known to be possible. Raising the dead to true life is unheard of.
Fifth: Atmosphere. Like the Ravenloft campaign setting, I am using the rules that allow anyone to make a Curse Check if they are deeply wronged and feeling vengeful. I am also using Fear, Horror, and Madness saves in addition to Will saves. This latter is mostly a garnish: the saves are almost mechanically identical, but the secret is that a player is much more frightened when I tell them to make a Madness save than when I tell them to make a Will save vs. an insanity spell. It just sounds scarier.
Sixth: Heavy lifting. The big stuff. I am making a series of changes here to make casting more powerful, while making the characters feel more vulnerable. I am switching from a hit point system to a vitality/wounds system. In vit/wounds, a character rolls vitality as they would hit points -- vitality represents energy, not their physical body. They have wound points equal to their constitution score, and these do not (typically) go up with level. Critical hits do not do more damage -- they do damage directly to wounds, instead of exhausting vitality first. Among other things, this means re-working weapons so that their crit rules are changed -- crit multipliers above x2 all become increases in crit range. x3 becomes a +1 bump to range, x4 becomes a +2. So a scythe would have an 18-20 crit. Wounds heal at a rate of 1/level/day, like hit points. Vitality is regained at a rate of 1/level/hour. Nonlethal damage does not exist. Attacks that did nonlethal damage in standard D & D are now attacks that do vitality, but are incapable under any circumstances of doing wound damage.
While this sort of thing inspires fear, especially in casters with few hit points who know there are no resurrections in this game, I'm balancing it out a bit. Three additional changes to the vit/wounds system.
A) Every time a casting character takes another level, he gets +1 wound point. So death gets further away, but more slowly than in regular D & D.
B) No rolling. Everyone gets maximum possible vitality at every level. My reason for doing this will be discussed in point Seven.
C) Non-casters get a substantial power-up their casting buddies do not: When a non-casting character levels, instead of their new hit points being all vitality, half goes to vitality and half to wounds. That means a fighter with a 10 Con gets 5 vit and 5 wounds at every level, giving him substantially more ability to weather a critical hit than any caster.
Seven: Rather than using a spell-slot system to limit daily casting, the Allotment will use a power point system. Every spell costs a number of power points equal to (spell level times two) minus one. First level spells cost one point, second cost three, third level costs five, on up to seventeen power points for a ninth-level spell.
How many power points does a caster have? Simple. They use vitality as power points. This is how Star Wars handles usage of the Force, and I think it's a good system: casters do not have to fret overmuch about running out of spells, but they do have an incentive to end combat swiftly: the more spells they use, the more tired and vulnerable they become. The more they get hit, the less magic they have left. This is a huge game-changer in any number of ways, but the most immediately problematic is healing. How do you allow curing spells when cure light wounds, a first level spell costing one power point, aka one vitality point, always cures at least two points of damage?
Surprisingly easy, though a bit of a logistical headache to track. Once curing spells have been applied to wound damage, they do not restore vitality points: they grant temporary vitality points, which go away after one hour, cannot exceed a character's total hit points, and cannot be spent to power spells. This only decreases the power of healing a little, given how quickly vit regenerates on its own, and a custom character sheet can be drawn up easily in order to track such things.
Okay. Those are the basic alterations in the rules -- at least, they're all the player-relevant changes I can remember making at the moment, articulated clearly, I hope.
Any questions?
