ramza

Lol, what are the Int and Wis scores of this character? Your friend is either roleplaying very well or he is indeed very dense... I don't have that much funny stories to tell but I will try my best: - I was playing a chaotic good rogue in my party (the two other players were a barbarian and a monk of evil alignment). Being the only good aligned character, I was constantly bullied by my fellow co-adventurers. For example, I once had the misfortune to fall in a pit trap and was asking them to throw me a rope so that I could climb up. Instead, they both started peeing on me. Another time, when the monk character had died and after I had resurrected him with my rod of resurrection, the barbarian guy tried to intimidate me into giving him the rod. I refused of course and he threatened to kill me. I started fleeing but he caught up with me (barbarians have fast movement after all) and I was forced to give up my rod. The whole adventure was filled with mistreatments of this nature (I was being used as a decoy, etc) and I do remember that it was quite an unpleasant experience (for me at least)... - In another campaign, me and my party were sitting in a tavern. The wizard of our team had a rather mischievous crow as a familiar. While we were busy drinking, singing and talking, the crow went to some other table, insulted another wizard who was sitting there and even spilled his glass of wine on him. The wizard got really mad and started shouting. The crow returned to its master and the wizard started threatening my party member. It is very hard to describe the chaos that followed: the two wizards were having an argument, then they started throwing spells at each other, my party then started fighting against the other wizard's party, and a tavern brawl started with all the other drunkards... At some point, someone threw a fireball and the tavern caught fire and our party's bard started singing "the roof is on fire, the roof is on fire"... - In some other campaign, me and my friend were investigating the whereabouts of some mysterious thieves' guild. We were wandering in Neverwinter's sewers and we reached some open space at some point. We were both hiding in the shadows and heard voices in the room ahead of us. We moved very carefully and noticed a group of three rogues talking to each other and playing a game of dice. I was playing a rather reckless character and I estimated that we had to attack the rogues that were in front of us. The passage was quite narrow and only one person could pass at a time. As the rogue character, who was standing in front of me, refused to move any further, I had to push him into the room in front of us. The problem was that the rogues then noticed us and we lost the surprise round we could have gotten. This action resulted in my friend's death a few rounds later since rogues are not very good in one-on-one combat... I can tell you that he was pretty pissed off... Had I not been carrying a wand of resurrection on me, he would have quit playing with me... I have posted much funnier stories in the following thread: http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?showtopic=42325&hl=

I made a quick search but didn't find anything interesting. It's the first time I hear about that class. From which edition does it come from? From what you have been describing, a wizard or a sorcerer could do the work. You could even combine it with one of the numerous prestige classes that provide some boosts to Charisma or something like that. I was thinking of the Heartwarder prestige class from Champions of Faith. On the other hand, someone new to Dnd should start playing with a really simple class: fighter or rogue.

Ok, I have thought of another variant then: Light armor provides damage resistance against slashing attacks Medium armor provides damage resistance against slashing and piercing attacks Heavy armor provides damage resistance against slashing, piercing and bludgeoning attacks My only problem now is how to allocate the numbers. How much damage should a chain mail or a chain short absorb? I have to think a bit over this. All types of armor could start at 1 point of damage resistance and gain an additional point for every point of magical enhancement they have. For example, a chain shirt +4 should grant 5 (1+4) points of slashing resistance.

I have to agree with you as well. My main complaints against paizo is that they have either overdid it (I don't like the way they have "over-overpowered" everything - look at how races are handled for example) or that they have implemented good but incomplete ideas. Renewed Vigor, as you state, needed some more thought. I also don't plan on using their new rules about polymorphing. There are just too many stat bonuses for me to keep track of. I could list dozens of such examples and that is why I am just borrowing ideas from this ruleset. Concerning armor, I have created a variant table for armor and shields. I mostly try to implement the idea of damage reduction from Unearthed arcana without hampering the AC bonuses for wearing armor. I would appreciate if you could give me your thoughts. Cheers. New_tables_for_armor_and_shields.doc

Paizo has some really nice ideas but I won't be using their new RPG for my p&p sessions. Instead, I will just borrow some of the new concepts they have created for the 3.5 E d&d rules.

For the sake of simplicity, I have removed the use of material components for spellcasting. Sorry...

It looks good to me so far. I am looking forward to the class table and the spell descriptions. I found a wild magic mod for BG2 btw. You may wish to pick ideas from there. http://home.tiscali.de/jo.ge/bg/shaper.htm

Mmmm, I do see your point there... However, let me remind you that a cleric's divine feats work "hand-in-hand" with a cleric's turn undead ability. Usually a divine feat's description looks like this: "you may expand one use of turn undead in order to...". So, getting both bonus feats and turn undead is a necessary combination to my eyes. I do believe that making the cleric gain one less domain (along with the other changes I suggested) should automatically balance things. In my house rules, spellcasting is, in principle, always subject to spell failure when the caster wears armor, no matter the source of the spell (divine or arcane). However, some spellcasters, through training, have learnt how to cast spells while carrying armor and shields (this specifically applies to paladins, clerics and druids, but even to bards to a lesser extent). While Paladins cast spells while wearing heavy armor, Druids can wear Hide armor (the least protective type of medium armor). For the sake of "harmonising things", I wish that both main divine spellcasters may cast their spells at best with medium armor. I will have to give a bit more thought on this. Thanks for your feedback anyway!

I suspected indeed that giving specialist wizards a +1 caster level for spells of their specialty school would unbalance the class. It's just that I wasn't sure how powerful such a bonus is. I now have a question that has nothing to do with wizards and sorcerers. I am also considering boosting a little bit the cleric class and make it more interesting by adding a new level of variety. This can eventually be done by giving them a bonus feat for every five levels (it can either be a metamagic or a divine feat - like divine might, divine shield, etc). There are a few ways to counterbalance these bonuses: -remove the heavy weapon proficiency and allow clerics to cast spells in medium armor at best -AND reduce the number of spell uses per day (they gain one less spell use for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th spell level) However, I am not sure if these are enough to balance the class. I am thus considering adding the following: -make clerics only have one domain (instead of two) What do you think of these changes?

This looks very interesting and very promising. I am actually looking forward to this. I have been thinking of creating a wild mage class (based off the wizard core class) myself but it wasn't high in my priority list. Besides, I have very little experience with the AD&D rules. The little knowledge I have about wild mages and wild surges come from the BG2 pc game. I was thus thinking of picking ideas from both the wild mage kit from BG2 and the wild mage prestige class from Complete Mage. I am now considering using your custom-made wild mage class for my core rules. Do I have to pay for a copyright fee? Keep up the good work in an case!

But you DID help. You actually pointed out the flaws of my previous variant wizard and sorcerer classes. Concerning the wizard, I have always wanted to give him more feats than what the Phb does. Firstly, I replaced the scribe scroll feat at first level with a bonus feat that can be selected at the player's discretion (among other metamagic and crafting feats). Secondly, a wizard no longer gets a bonus feat every five levels, but gets one every four levels instead. These changes are part of the slight boost I am giving to each core class in my house rules. Now, my problem is what I should do with specialist wizards. Should I give them a +1 bonus to their caster level when they are casting spells from they school? Will such a bonus make them too much powerful? If no, can I make the universal wizard gain a bonus feat every 3 levels (instead of every 4) to compensate this bonus specialist wizards get? Cheers. PS: I am looking forward to seeing your custom class. Be sure that I will help you with any balancing problems (if there are any at all).

I would first like to thank you for the interest you have showed for my work. It's sometimes hard to get people to post replies in my threads. Yet, here you are trying to understand my motivations. Well to answer your questions: 1) I don't have much experience as a DM because my gaming group and I live in different cities. I usually meet my friends during holidays. Moreover, I was pretty busy with uni which prevented me from playing with my friends even when I was on holidays (you know, I had to revise for my exams). I have been done with uni since last year, so I have had some free time to think about the changes I wanted to bring to the d&d rules. Whenever I came up with an idea, I would immediately take a pencil and a notebook and write it down. When my ideas didn't look balanced, I would post them here and listen to the pros and cons. Most of my experience in dnd comes from the video games that use this system (mainly NWN). I have tried some online P&P website, the people playing there were very nice and helpful but the software’s interface they were using wasn’t very good. I see that you are new here, so I guess you haven't read any of my early posts where I suggested some new base classes. One of them was the mime, an adventurer who could magically learn and mimic other creatures' or other NPCs' special abilities (these included sneak attack, barbarian rage, dragon breath, etc). He could also cast arcane and divine spells up to the 6th spell level (a bit like the bard). I have playtested that class and it worked pretty well. I have not implemented yet any of the suggestions I have posted in these boards. These were mostly thoughts I was having about how to change the rules. Just for your information, I am mostly using the SRD and bring my changes directly from there. Most of the changes I have brought are only minor. Some classes have partly or completely been revised like the Bard, the Ranger, the Paladin and the Barbarian. So, it's not that I hate any of the Phb classes. It’s just that some of them are lacking and "unattractive" if I may use that word. They need some more flavour and should allow for more customization. In other words, I am merely trying to change or improve the following chapters of the Phb: races, classes and skills. I am not trying to do anything big except for trying to make the game more interesting. Most of my players keep playing over and over the same classes (fighter and wizard). That is why I try to make the other classes a bit more interesting. Fortunately, I am quite imaginative, so I don’t have problems coming up with stories. That is why I focus all my efforts on changing parts of the 3.5 rules. 2) Concerning my motivations, you got two wrong assumptions (one of them is only partially wrong though): - PvP combat is not a top priority to me. I did mention in one of my other threads that I was concerned about balancing the Bard class so that it may do better on one-on-one combat. I didn’t mention though why I was concerned about this. I had in mind the case where I would be DMing only a single player. I was thinking of putting him in situations where he would have to battle with a character of an equivalent level but of another class (wizard vs sorcerer, bard vs druid, etc.). My problem is that if he chose to be a bard, he wouldn’t be able to do very well in one-on-one combat because a bard is more of a support character and a skill-powerhouse. - I do try, in a sense, to conform my house rules with my personal vision of what dnd should be, but this is to a very small extent. My top priority is to allow more variety while keeping the game balanced at the same time. Besides, I never try to impose anything to my players. If they wish to use the Phb races and classes, they may do so. I am still at an experimental stage anyway. Concerning races, I have changed my mind over a few things I had posted here in the past. Dwarves don’t have to be ugly, etc. I am now trying to make as many subraces as possible so as to add variety to the game. Each subrace now has a +2 boost to 2 different abilities and a -2 penalty to 2 different abilities as well. Depending on the subrace, these boosts and penalties may differ, thus adding some flexibility for the players. Want a dwarf without a charisma penalty? Take a gold dwarf and so on for other races. Usually, subraces have a common denominator: in other words, they usually have a boost and a penalty to at least one identical ability (most dwarf subraces have a +2 to CON and a -2 to CHA, most elf races have a +2 to DEX and a -2 to CON, etc). I am still not done with these house rules, that is why I haven’t posted anything yet. Same goes for my vision of the cleric class and about how HPs should be handled. I had a very precise vision of what a cleric should be but people here pointed out the flaws of my reasoning. Thus, I am finally just doing minor changes to the Phb cleric class and I gave up on changing the rules about HPs since that would require an overhaul of the whole system. I hope I have managed to shed some light over my motivations and the changes I wish to make. Thank you again for your interest. To return to the thread’s topic, I have decided to keep the wizard class as it is in the Phb, and I have decided to do the following things for the sorcerer class: - give him heritage special abilities (see the Pathfinder RPG) - remove the summon familiar class ability - use the spell progression table of the wizard - raise the number of spells known by 1 for each spell level Any thoughts? Cheers.

First of all, thank you for your apology. It was not really necessary. I thought you were in a bad mood when you were typing your post or that you made it look so unintentionally. In any case, I have been posting here since the creation of these boards and have often faced some harsh criticism. It's just not worth worrying about that. I love theory crafting and I try to improve the basic 3.5 rules in the most optimized way. The concepts of some base class seems completely flawed to my eyes (the ranger, the paladin, the bard and the cleric mainly come to my mind). This is a very hard and time-consuming task but I just enjoy playing with numbers and tables. Unfortunately, I don't have that much of experience as a DM and that is why I am asking all kinds of questions on these boards. Thanks for submitting your ideas and suggestions. Unfortunately, I have banned psionics from my gaming sessions because it is too tough for me to keep track of all the rules concerning the use of psionic powers (power points, feats, skills, etc). For the same reasons, I have banned classes like the Warlock, the Artificer and the Truenamer since this involves "learning" new "spell" (invocations, infusions, etc) descriptions. I want to keep my p&p sessions as simple as possible without referring to multiple source books. Have you ever looked at the Pathfinder Sorcerer class? I like the legacy features paizo has added to this core class. A sorcerer may have draconic, elemental, angelic or fiendish blood in his veins. Depending on his ancestry, a sorcerer gains special abilities related to his legacy. I have been considering adding some of these features: it mainly concerns the special abilities related to this legacy (I will exclude, on the other hand, all the bonus spell and bonus feats paizo suggests). So, a sorcerer with draconic blood will be receiving some of the class features of the dragon disciple prestige class (immunities, wings, etc) for example. Since the addition of these features will unbalance the sorcerer class as a core class, I have thought of giving him the spell progression of a wizard (4 spells per spell level at level 20). As a counterpart, he may learn an additional spell per spell level depending on his CHA modifier (alternatively, I could just slightly change the table of spells known). Cheers.

Thanks for your reply! I was merely giving food for thought. I have not yet implemented any of the changes I have posted on these boards. I am mainly trying to improve the rules of the Phb by adding or removing features from some of the base classes. I use many sources of inspiration: the Pathfinder RPG, class variants from the Unearthed Arcana and Arcana Unearthed books and class variants from other players. I had never thought of changing the wizard and sorcerer classes until I saw some posts in these message boards where some people underlined the serious flaws of these classes. In the end, I may never change anything to these classes. However, I still wanted to suggest some alternatives. If they are not balanced or viable, I will drop my ideas of course. Let me ask you a question concerning my variant sorcerer: Is it THAT much unbalanced to have him receive less spells per day but, on the other hand, let him learn more spells per spell level? I get your point though: being able to spontaneously cast more or less 90 spells (when your sorcerer reaches level 20) will probably break the game's balance. An alternative to the system I suggested would be to remove the bonus known spells for every 5 ranks spent in Spellcraft, but raise the number of known spells in the Known Spells Table by either 1 or 2. In any case, I really have to take a look again the variant sorcerer class from Monte Cook.

Thank you all for your feedback. You do raise interest points and I have to admit that I must reconsider the system I made up. My main objective is to ensure the sorcerer's spontaneous spellcasting along with the wizard's flexibility (ability to know many spells). I could always keep two distinct wizard and sorcerer classes and simply change the way they operate. For example, a sorcerer may have the spell progression of a wizard but may keep the table of spells known of the Phb. Moreover, since the number of spells known is very low, we may add a rule upon which a sorcerer may learn an additional spell per spell level for every 5 ranks spent in the Spellcraft skill. Concerning wizards, we could apply a slightly different spellcasting system. A wizard keeps the same spell progression table. However, for every 5 ranks in the Spellcraft skill, he may, once per day, use any of his spell slots in order to spontaneously cast any of the spells copied in his spellbook (of the same spell level of course). That way, he is not totally limited to the spells he chose to memorize AND he is incited to invest points in a specific skill.

Int effects # of spells you can put into the book, but doesn't cap the highest level of which you are capable? So if you had, say, a 16 intelligence you could scribe 6 per level but couldn't learn any 7th(like 3e)? The lower tiered spells, 1st & 2nd, are full of variety and usefulness, and I'd not want to be limited to just a handful in my book. INT (for wizards) effects BOTH the number of spells that can be learned and the highest level of which you are capable. So, in order to be able to cast 9th level spells, you need to have at least 19 of INT (preferably 20, in order to get +1 to your modifiers). With an INT of 20, you may learn up to 10 spells per spell level. Amongst those 10 spells, you have to select those you are going to cast (the number is equal to your INT modifier - in other words, you get to choose 5 spells if you have an INT of 20). The advantage of this system is that it gives you both the flexibility of the wizard and that of the sorcerer: you have a scrollbook from which you pick some spells and you may cast those spontaneously as a sorcerer (there won't be memorized spell slots anymore). Of course, you can always change this selection of spells just before resting. There are 2 main reason I created this alternate spellcasting system. First, I always found that the spell memorization system lacked of flexibility. You could have like 18 spells per spell level but could only cast those that you had specifically memorized (you couldn't even switch between your memorized spells). In that sense, the sorcerer's spontaneous casting seemed more appealing. However (and this is the second reason), while sorcerers could spontaneously cast any of their selected spells (as long as they still had spell uses), they didn't have that much choice/variety in the spells they could cast (5 spells known per spell level is really not enough). So, I came up with this alternate rule. You may learn more spells, but (in order to balance things) you may not cast spontaneously all of them. You pick a selected number and if you don't like them, pick other spells before resting. With this rule, I also incite players to invest in their stat linked to their spellcasting ability, and and to go all the way up to level 20 with the same class (I am not a fan of multiclassing, so I try to make the core classes more interesting and attractive).

I have made up my own spellcasting system which is a mixture between the system used for Wizards and the one used for Sorcerers. I also wanted to motivate players to keep their stats tied to their spellcasting ability high enough. This is done by rewarding them for investing points in those stats. Removal of spell memorization system : all spellcasters have the same progression tables (max of 4 spells per spell level except for specialist wizards who get one additional spell per spell level). All spellcasters have spellbooks in which they copy scrolls (Spellcraft check is required). Spellcasters can copy on their spellbooks a maximum number spells equal to the number value of their primary stat that is above 10 (ie: if a wizard has 18 INT, he can learn 8 spells per spell level - I got inspired from 2E rules for this one). Spellcasters can however erase a known spell to make room for another one. Among those spells, they select a more restricted number of which will be available for casting. These spells are cast spontaneously and alternatively (in other words, if a wizard can select 5 spells to cast, he will be able to use any of these spells at any given time provided he still has spell uses left - just like a Sorcerer used to do). The number of spells available to cast is tied to the caster's primary stat modifier. Of course, a spellcaster may choose a different set of spells to cast the next day every time he is about to rest (this is directly inspired from the spell memorization system). I hope it is clear enough. Don't hesitate to ask me questions. Cheers. PS: In case you are wondering what will happen to the Sorcerer class, I can tell you that I have mostly copied the core class from the Pathfinder RPG (with all these Bloodline powers). I believe these powers make up for the loss of those extra spell uses.

What about my alternate spellcasting system???

I have had this game for a long time but never had the real opportunity to play it, so I decided to give it a go. I am thinking of creating an optimised party: Fighter/Rogue (6/4), Fighter/Barb (6/2), Wizard, Cleric and Bard. My greatest concern is how to build my fighter/rogue and fighter/barbarian combos. Both will be humans and will have a total of 9 and 10 feats respectively at level 10. Just note that I am taking 2 barbarian levels with my second build just to get the rage and uncanny dodge abilities. I have had trouble deciding if it is worth dual-wielding weapons in ToEE. If yes, who of my two fighters should be the one holding two weapons? I want my fighter rogue to be efficient in both melee and ranged combat, but his BAB won't be high enough to compensate the -2 penalty to rolls from the two-weapon fighting. Thus, I believe I should have my fighter/barbarian dual-wield instead. My fighter/rogue combo will, consequently, get the following feats: rapid shot, precise shot, manyshot, point blank shot, weapon focus (rapier), weapon specialisation (rapier), dodge (or maybe improved critical?), weapon finesse and quick draw. Now, things get more complicated with my fighter/barbarian combo. I know for sure that he will get the following feats: T-W Fighting and T-W Defence. I am undecided whether he should pick Combat reflexes, Improved trip, Power attack and Cleave since I don't know the extent of the usefulness of those abilities in the game. I am also undecided on the issue of which weapons he should pick. I have been thinking of giving him the weapon focus, weapon specialisation and improved critical for at least one of the 2 weapons he will use. But is it worth making him wield short swords for example just to get the same bonuses on both weapons? If not, is it worth making him specialise in two different types of weapons? Do you agree with my builds? Just note that I haven't named the feats in the order I am going to take them. Thanks in advance for your advice.

If the number of known spells is too low for you, I have thought of allowing players to learn one additional spell per spell level for every 5 ranks spent in the Spellcraft skill. Is that better? I know that all these calculations look complicated, but they aren't really.

INT (for wizards) effects BOTH the number of spells that can be learned and the highest level of which you are capable. So, in order to be able to cast 9th level spells, you need to have at least 19 of INT (preferably 20, in order to get +1 to your modifiers). With an INT of 20, you may learn up to 10 spells per spell level. Amongst those 10 spells, you have to select those you are going to cast (the number is equal to your INT modifier - in other words, you get to choose 5 spells if you have an INT of 20). The advantage of this system is that it gives you both the flexibility of the wizard and that of the sorcerer: you have a scrollbook from which you pick some spells and you may cast those spontaneously as a sorcerer (there won't be memorized spell slots anymore). Of course, you can always change this selection of spells just before resting. There are 2 main reason I created this alternate spellcasting system. First, I always found that the spell memorization system lacked of flexibility. You could have like 18 spells per spell level but could only cast those that you had specifically memorized (you couldn't even switch between your memorized spells). In that sense, the sorcerer's spontaneous casting seemed more appealing. However (and this is the second reason), while sorcerers could spontaneously cast any of their selected spells (as long as they still had spell uses), they didn't have that much choice/variety in the spells they could cast (5 spells known per spell level is really not enough). So, I came up with this alternate rule. You may learn more spells, but (in order to balance things) you may not cast spontaneously all of them. You pick a selected number and if you don't like them, pick other spells before resting. With this rule, I also incite players to invest in their stat linked to their spellcasting ability, and and to go all the way up to level 20 with the same class (I am not a fan of multiclassing, so I try to make the core classes more interesting and attractive).

No comments on my alternative spellcasting system?

Haha, thanks for your feedback!!! The thing is that this thread is like 2 years old already. I have changed my mind over most of the things I suggested here. Still, any opinions and comments are welcome.

I have made up my own spellcasting system which is a mixture between the system used for Wizards and the one used for Sorcerers. I also wanted to motivate players to keep their stats tied to their spellcasting ability high enough. This is done by rewarding them for investing points in those stats. Removal of spell memorization system : all spellcasters have the same progression tables (max of 4 spells per spell level except for specialist wizards who get one additional spell per spell level). All spellcasters have spellbooks in which they copy scrolls (Spellcraft check is required). Spellcasters can copy on their spellbooks a maximum number spells equal to the number value of their primary stat that is above 10 (ie: if a wizard has 18 INT, he can learn 8 spells per spell level - I got inspired from 2E rules for this one). Spellcasters can however erase a known spell to make room for another one. Among those spells, they select a more restricted number of which will be available for casting. These spells are cast spontaneously and alternatively (in other words, if a wizard can select 5 spells to cast, he will be able to use any of these spells at any given time provided he still has spell uses left - just like a Sorcerer used to do). The number of spells available to cast is tied to the caster's primary stat modifier. Of course, a spellcaster may choose a different set of spells to cast the next day every time he is about to rest (this is directly inspired from the spell memorization system). I hope it is clear enough. Don't hesitate to ask me questions. Cheers. PS: In case you are wondering what will happen to the Sorcerer class, I can tell you that I have mostly copied the core class from the Pathfinder RPG (with all these Bloodline powers). I believe these powers make up for the loss of those extra spell uses.

What kind of movie is that??? I really have to watch this one!!! What's its title?