Life versus Hit Points

I've got to admit, I didn't even realize there was a way to interpret hit points beyond 'Life' until a few months ago, when a player from our game group brought it up. I understand the D&D ever increasing hit points puts a big big kink in the physics of any campaign world, but let's face it, it's a game convention because level advancement is part of the motivation to play. You as a player want to feel like your character is getting stronger. It's common in video games. It's common in tabletop RPGs.

But for those interested, here's a link to a lively discussion on the topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/5663wv/read_robert_e_howard_if_you_want_to_understand/

I think the idea that hit points are a measure of fatigue or mental exhaustion is a stretch, and I find when it's explained as such a lot of hoops have to be jumped through. With that said, I want to avoid any confusion. Having a clear concept of what physical harm is can only add to the experience. To do this, however, I think Life has to be static.

I felt the best way of doing this was to base Life on the character's size and strength (Strength score = Life). Tiny, Small, and Medium sized creatures have 1d6, 2d6, 3d6 Strength, respectively. It's not a smooth progression, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, it leaves it open for players to create a character that begins with 1d6 Strength and 3d6 potential Strength, then gains 1 Strength until the maximum value when fully grown. Viola, you've watched your character grow up.

So next we need to look at Life in practice, in other words, combat. Characters have a set Life, so that means combat is extraordinarily dangerous. That means all the traditional damage values for weapons and criticals needs to be taken down a notch. However, I'm a big fan of realism (with a heavy lean towards grit). Weapons should still have the potential to kill a target outright. I'm walking a fine line here, so the end result will really have to be balanced.

Next, being wounded should inhibit a character's ability to fight. Enter the wound mechanic. Each time a character is hit/damaged that character accumulates a penalty to AC and attack (-1 for each time it's damaged). Wound penalties only go away after a full night's rest and Life only increases by 1 a night.

Again this needs to strike a fine balance. As such, every spellcasting class has its own version of healing, with clerics being the best at it. It also leaves open a truly gritty experience for players wanting to play the wounded warrior, fighting to the last man. To make this possible, however, I did away with negative hp, instead, a character drops to 0 Life and bleeds out. This leaves plenty of opportunities for another character to stem the bleeding, meaning once the character rests, it returns to 1 Life and is ready to fight another day (albeit at a distinct disadvantage).

BUT, we don't want to make it too easy, so last but not least, I've added an injury table for characters dropped to 0 Life because of a critical hit (it also does away with the need for a 'massive damage rule'). There's a chance to die outright, there's also a chance to lose some teeth. Either way, I think it adequately satisfies cravings for realism and risk, and though it puts characters at greater risk of losing their characters than RPGs like D&D, it leaves players the opportunity to battle through adversity. The theory goes that characters that are always at risk of death, even at full Life, will be willing to take more risks. That's the theory anyway.

Items Without Charges Part 2: Ideas

Items of Power

The following are enchanted items hidden in Rhen. Each is unique. Each has its own story. For long years they have waited for the touch of mortal hands. Tread lightly with these items and respect their power.

Weapons

Aglac- Dagger; spend power to deal extra damage; Free Realm

Anmod- Sword; gain fighter abilities; Free Realm

Scyppend- Hammer with damaging and destroying effect (ignore hardness, shape metal without heating it); Free Realm

Konok- Sword that can’t be sheathed while undead are near; Kelet

Hraezla- Sword; when turned on enemies it causes them to become shaken, fail by 5 frightened, can’t be immune; Nord Fyel

Reithi- Sword that comes alight in cold or darkness area spells and banishes them with fire; Nord Fyel

Armor

Endrthaga- Iron shield; when clanged frightens away fae; Nord Fyel

Potions

Demon’s Draught- Potion of black sludge makes you a fiend

Vial of Darkness- (sticky darkness)

Liquid Light- (doorway to Aether)

Rings

Bertalan’s Shroud- Invisible in shadows if one does not move

Valak’s Rings- Grants wearer immunity from anything with an Intuition or Dexterity resistance check.

Scrolls

Transference-A scroll that requires a spell, when cast it fills the target’s mind, which you name.

Bend Reality- Traveling spell, as you read the spell the world begins to change around you. Must roll a Concentration check to succeed finishing the spell

Havren’s Scroll- Turns you into a Havren

Staves

Oswin’s Staff-

Aliz’s Staff-

Wands

Anydros- Sphere that water won’t touch (water in 1 ft. radius). If you cast a spell with it then radius increase 1 ft. per Spell Dice result.

Tarvos- Fear effects increase one step.

Belucan- Casting dispel magic also blocks conjuration spells within the area

Hierdan- Conjured shields also block melee attacks

Adelaida’s Charm- Evocation spells affect the incorporeal

-Each time a spell is used that would activate sympathetic magic, it applies as if cast twice

-Cast all warlock powers as cantrips, but drains Will each time

-Any necromancy spell opens a portal to the Shadow Realm

-Illusion spells are more real, semisolid

-Spells cast at +1 Spell Dice (is not a cantrip, does not trigger identical dice effect; Fatigues user once ½ Power is cast, Exhausts when all Power is expended)

-Dispelling a charm or suggestion spell cast with this wand has a 50% chance of dealing d4 loss of all mental ability scores.

Objects

-A spell that makes writing indecipherable without it.

-Change the luck of items and probabilities to your desires.

-Impedes spellcasting; spells are cast at half the Power spent (maximum 2 Spell Dice).

-A puzzle; if spellcaster attempts to cast a spell on it, the spellcaster becomes trapped.

-Scepter; forces target to adhere to an oath

-Book of spells, filled with warlock spells (can be cast as sorcery spells)

-Statue that comes alive and speaks

-Mirror; when you look into it lose d4 Will. Must best your reflection to get it back. Shattering it makes it impossible to get it back.

-Instrument that bypasses spell resistance

-Ever full mug

-Key that opens any door including enchanted doors as long as there is a keyhole

-Gilded throne, those who sit on it speak with the power of suggestion

-String of Pearls that forces target to speak the truth

-Living lamp lit by a mephit

-Children’s book with rituals

-Book with imprisoned person who is the character in the book.

-Sphere that unerringly shows the desires of one who touches it.

-Fur grants wearer scent and low-light vision. The wearer becomes reluctant to take it off.

-Astrolabe moves time forwards and backward.

-Bracelets that add a mesmerizing quality to dances.

-Whetstone that makes edged weapons keen for a day.

-Spike that destroys growth. Casting a primeval spell on it increases the radius.

Enchanted Places

-Area absent of magic (antimagic field)

-Portal obelisk

-Maze-like forest

Items Without Charges Part 1

3.5e gets a lot of flack for its complexity and lack of balance. A lot of it has to do with its sheer size, but also just the immensity of choices a character has for building and playing is overwhelming too. To take care of this, my playgroup had always stayed at level 3-6. One other thing we did was come up with our own rules for items.

For Northern Realm, classes range from 1-10. This is in large part to keep a handle on balance. I also carried over our homebrewed rules for items, now the only thing left is to come up with a list of items to serve as examples for GMs and to make it more immersive for players, giving them the opportunity to take part in Rhen's history.

Here's what I have so far:


Magic items are scattered throughout the realm. Most are lost to time, stumbled upon by intrepid adventurers in the horde of a troll, or vault of a deceased old wizard, on the corpse of a knight, or long hidden beneath the underbrush, these magical items can be rings, mirrors, weapons, armor, scrolls, staves, and sometimes specific items, valued by the enchanter or simply loved or hated so much that over time the emotional connection to the object resulted in it becoming enchanted. Some magic items even develop a personality and on rare occasions develop the ability to express it.

There are 7 basic kinds of magic items; they are armor, weapons, potions, scrolls, staves, rings, and objects. Each of the basic types can be created naturally over time. These kinds of items, especially those that were initially enchanted and then left alone for hundreds of years, tend to be the most powerful. Magic items can also be crafted. Creating magic items requires extensive knowledge of spell lore and craft. Less complex items such as potions and scrolls require the Brew Potion and Scribe Scroll feat.

Armor: Armor includes suits of armor and shields. Magic armor is enchanted with special abilities that manifest in a number of ways. Special abilities are assigned equivalent enhancement values (each power is considered equal to a certain enhancement value, see below). This combined value may not exceed 5.

Objects: Objects include magic jewelry, tools, books, clothing, and more. They range from strikingly powerful to subtle. Enchanted objects tend to either affect your ability score, or produce a spell-like effect, but they are not limited to it. The following are examples of enchanted objects:

Bréost: A gem that stores a spell. A spellcaster may cast a spell into the gem and choose either a trigger that automatically sets off the spell or a trigger word that the spellcaster may speak in order to activate it.

Ealdgyd’s Spinning Wheel:This fantastic spinning wheel turns spun flax into silk.

Ealhstan’s Fantastic Moving Portraits:These portraits are the recorded scenes of the great noble families during the time of the reign of King Godric of Storgeard. The portraits play out scenes whenever light is cast upon them.

Many-Colored Cloak:The Many-Colored Cloak of the Khoro aids performers in disappearing and appearing in wild flourishes of movement. Once donning a Many-Colored Cloak, you may move at full speed while utilizing the Stealth skill without incurring a penalty.

Potions: A potion is a liquid purposefully mixed and endowed with a spell-like effect that only affects the drinker. There are some exceptions in regard to spells imprinted onto a potion, as some ingredients when combined produce a magical effect. A potion must be no less than 3 ounces and no more than 1 pint of liquid, however only one spell can be used to enchant the liquid (otherwise the potion fizzles, melts the vial, explodes, or produces a similar effect). Only spells with the touch and personal descriptor can become a potion. The entire potion must be consumed otherwise only a fraction of the effect (usually in terms of the duration of the spell) is imparted on the drinker.

Rings: Rings are powerful magic items. They are some of the rarest things in the world. Rings are a circular metal band worn on the finger with a passive spell-like power. The following is an example of an enchanted ring:

Ring of Discretion: A ring that aids you in slipping from notice. Those in the vicinity may use only ½ their skill modifier on Perception checks to notice you. Only when you are speaking (or garnering attention) is this effect suppressed. Non-alert characters automatically do not notice you.

Scrolls:  A scroll is a spell magically inscribed on parchment, so that it can be used later. The scroll may be used only once. Once the spell is cast, the words remain, but no longer contain any power. To cast the scribed spell you must be able to read it and spend a full round casting it. If the spell is not of the same magic type as your spells known you cannot cast it. If the spell is higher than your known spell level you lose 1d6 Life casting it. Conversely, creating a scroll requires knowing the spell you intend to scribe, 1 hour per spell level, and spending Power equivalent to its spell level.

Staves: A staff is an incredibly powerful magic item. It can be stored with up to 4 Power and as many sorcery spells as the Intellect modifier of its maker. If you use a staff as a weapon, treat it as a magical quarterstaff. To use a staff you must know its name and you must be able to cast sorcery spells. Spells stored within a staff are cantrips. You may only use the Power within the staff to cast the spells it holds. Once all staff is sapped of Power it regains 1 Power each day.

Wands: Wands are exceedingly rare. A wand bears no power in and of itself. Instead, magic is channeled through it. It can have any shape; a stick, shaft of wood, figurine, and so on. Wands have 3 basic types, one that adds, one that changes, and one that produces. All types of wands only activate if a spell is cast into them.

A wand that adds to a spell, adds some effect without changing what the spell does. For example, Behelen is a wand that turns any visual aspect of a spell invisible.

A wand that changes a spell will change only certain spells, and only one aspect of it. For example, Frore is a wand that changes the damage-type of a damaging spell, such as a Fireball to cold damage. Creatures reduced to 0 Life with this wand, become frozen and perish.

A wand that produces an effect is powered by expending energy equal to a certain spell level (using up a spell of that spell slot without producing its effect, like a counterspell). For example, Aelan is a wand that produces destructive white fire. When you cast a spell expending 3 or more Power, target creature or object within 30 ft. bursts into flames dealing 1d6 damage per Power. Targets reduced to 0 Life are rendered to ash. 

Weapons: Magic weapons are enchanted with special abilities that manifest in a number of ways. Special abilities are assigned equivalent enhancement values (each power is considered equal to a certain enhancement value, see below). This combined value may not exceed 5.

Incorporating Skills and Villainizing Feats

I've posed the question, what game best uses skills on multiple forums over the past couple weeks and received some great responses. From utilizing approaches to skill actions (instead of rolling) to making every aspect of a character building skill-based, there is a lot out there. One constant, however, is at least one or two offhanded statements about how D&D's skill system was 'tacked on.' This is a pretty strong theme in internet communities populated with avid RPG player, be it a complaint about feats, saves, bonuses- a large portion of long-time RPG players seem not only reject the D&D system but also scoff at its design.

I tend to think this is due to exposure to many RPG systems and more of a rejection of the norm (maybe even crave for something new) than a true condemnation of the whole system. With that said, I did pose the question for a reason. I took the system from 3.5 and simply pared down the amount of skills and ranks, and called it a day. My reasoning for keeping it was that at the time it seemed pretty damn customizable. But eventually, I came back to it (as I do with everything) and made a second adjustment (and probably the most pronounced) and changed what many of the skills were. I'm particularly happy with dropping Charisma based skills like Bluff and Intimidate in favor of Composure because it necessitates a verbal response from the character before the roll, instead of taking the Exalted path and using skills like attacks.

After this second revision, I left it only to return again, because what truly bothers me about the system is that it's cumbersome for the character creation process. You have to look through many lists to make your character; skills, feats, classes, races, spells. If I want to have classes then there's no avoiding a list of those, and having different races and spells are simply a necessity as well, but  I can get rid of one list, feats. I've always had trouble justifying their existence. How are they different from skills? It also doesn't help that old school players utterly reject them. And even though that doesn't bother me too much, It suddenly hit me, just combine skills and feats. Right now I have ranks in Spellcraft granting characters access to 0 level spells. Well, I could just take this a step further and strip away 'skill ranks' and 'skill points' and simply state, with a skill modifier of such and such choose 2 features from the spellcraft skill or martial focus skill. The only difficulty here is marrying the two ideas in such a way that I'm not left with a mess.

With that out there, it begs the question, how do players increase the character's skill modifier later in the game? My first instinct was to have the GM grant permanent skill modifier bonuses based on the player's actions. In fact, I parsed it all out until a friend said, are you really going to be doing that consistently in the game or is it just going to become this forgotten thing? So I thought, what about having the player grant his character a higher skill modifier, let's say to a maximum bonus of +3, either divided into many skills or lumped into one skill. Now, I assume the player or GM (or both) will dream up an in-game reason, like the character spent a lot of time at the arcane library trying to solve this mystery, so his Knowledge Sorcery increases by 1, but either way, with a maximum value, it's a recognizable mechanic that gives the player a choice, spend it here or here based on the story. I think it's an eloquent solution, no?

Ability Scores

The most common ability scores are strength, dexterity, constitution, charisma, intelligence, and wisdom, or some variation on them, like swapping constitution with vitality. For the Northern Realm, I began with the same ability scores but found it harder and harder to justify constitution. It seems like strength should have that covered. Could someone with a high strength really have a low constitution?

Then there's charisma. You see arguments crop up on forums about skills like bluff and diplomacy, and inevitably it becomes a shouting match between lawyers and 'What happened to role-playing!' I admit, I fall into the latter somewhat, but I'm realizing that if I want to encourage role-playing it should be built into the game. Step one, break up the mental statistics. Wisdom covered too much anyway, so I landed on intellect, intuition, and will. Second, no saves. The thought is, this will help spread out the importance of each ability score. Last, pare down the skills and associate them with players' words and actions, eg. composure.

Then there's luck. What I've noticed with alternative systems are they include things like faith, spirit, and the like. But with the underlying fairytale theme, luck felt like the natural choice, it also feels more like an inherent trait.

So next step, make all ability scores relevant for all characters- or at least useful. That means no dump stats. To make it work, the first thing to do is get rid of proficiencies. Classes already have specific abilities, they don't need to be railroaded into an archetype, right? If I want a smart fighter, why not? Next, tie each one to something important. Dexterity to attacks, initiative, and AC, strength to attacks and life, intellect to the number of spells known and important skills, including one that grants access to spells (even to non-spellcasters), intuition to cantrips, initiative, and perception, will to power and concentration, and last, luck to spell resistance and bonus dice.

It doesn't exactly make the mental stats as important for combat oriented classes, but it does make them viable. Plus, a bonus to initiative, possible spells, power for abilities, and the skills perception and engineering are still pretty damn important. And an added bonus, spellcasters are clearly the most powerful characters in all rpgs, so the very foundation of spellcasters is built on a balancing act of ability scores. All are important to them. Hopefully that means each spellcaster will come out unique without having to rely on a supermix of different classes and prestige classes.

Ultimately that's the goal, balance. The more eloquent the better. I want to avoid arbitrary rules that limit characters. Leaving it up to the players seems like the best way to do that, right?

It Begins