What is Darksun?
Darksun was a campaign setting released by TSR in 1991. It is set on a desert planet known as Athas.
What Makes it Unique?
Darksun is very brutal by D&D standards. It can be played as a survival game. Water is scarce, metal is very rare. There are no gods and clerics draw their power form the elements. The world has been ruined by sorcery as magic draws its power form plant life. There are two types of wizards known as defilers and preservers. Preservers draw their power slowly from the plants and leave no long lasting effects. Defilers are greedy and draw to much arcane energy from the ground and leave behind lifeless circles of ash. Psionics is standard and more commen than arcane magic. Slavery is commen and the first adventure in the original boxed set had the PCs as escaped slaves. Wizards if caught in the cities face death as a penalty for being a wizard while wizards in the wastes can provoke a reaction from a vengeful Druid.
What Races Are There?
The standard races in the first boxed set are. Dwarves, Half Giants, Halflings, Half Elf, Human, Mul (half human/half dwarven) and Thri Kreen (insect men). The races of Darksun are very different from a normal D&D world. Elves are nomadic raiders/merchants, halflings are feral jungle dwellers that eat sentient prey.
What Classes Are there?
Most of the D&D classes exist but most are tweaked in some way. Psionics were included and the Templar and Gladiator were new classes. The Gladiator is a fighter varient, and the Templar is a servent of a Sorcerer King which is kinda like an archfiend ruling a city. They can grant spells to their templars via stolen elemental energy. Druids draw their power from the spirits of the land and try and reverse the destruction of the world.
Monsters.
Unlike a normal D&D world there are no Goblins, Orcs, Ogres, or Gnomes. Those races were wiped out and made extinct in ancient wars. There are no classic Dragons. There is The Dragon which is a unique being who in 2nd ed could cast spells and use powers as a level 30/30, Psion/Defiler. Other Dragons do exist but they are created by very powerful Defiler/Psions using rituals to power their transformation.
the rules really attracted the munchkins of the gaming world
Odd. In 31 years of gaming, I never had folks coming over uninvited when I started a new campaign.
Not to bash everyone who played it, I thought it was a good idea for an alternate setting, but the rules really attracted the munchkins of the gaming world. Which for me, ended up ruining it as you couldn't get a Darksun game going without these guys crawling out of the woodwork.
Actually, I find it a bit unfriendly to munchkins. The setting is very RP-heavy. Using magic at the wrong place at the wrong time can usually result in a noontime execution. Moreover, your actions anywhere can have consequences ranging from running out of food/water out in the middle of the desert all the way to being sold into slavery. Combine that with all sorts of issues like inferior weaponry, and you have a setting that's a skosh unfriendly to those who are "in it for the pluses".
Like the Gladiator in Dragon magazine or spellscarred in FR there could be a Defiler multiclass option and defiler based feats you can take.
When making a Wizard Defiler, instead of Implement Mastery, you would get some sort of Defiling ability that has a similar effect. Perhaps you sacrifice a specific number of hit points (either from yourself, enemies via a special at-will power or from surrounding vegetation) to use the Defiling ability.
By making it a power source, you could make a few unique Dark Sun classes. The Dark Sun Bard might be a Defiled Leader type, for example. I'd really like to see some sort of Defiled Defender - perhaps something like a cross between a Gladiator and a Death Knight.
And, you might also be able to make Preserver into power source as well as a mutation of Primal.
Its easier to design it this way than design a new power source and classes related to that power source. I really don't have that much time although I do like your idea but its impractical to me ATM.
Dragon and Avangion would be epic destinies. Dragon of Tyr would be a specific epic level monster in MM format ala Orcus, Tiamat etc. IMHO of course.
Its easier to design it this way than design a new power source and classes related to that power source. I really don't have that much time although I do like your idea but its impractical to me ATM.
Actually, I don't think it would be much work; more like an "alternate class feature" for Wizard, something along the lines of:
Defiler: This ability replaces Arcane Implement Mastery. Your power source becomes Defiler and all Wizard Powers are assumed to have the Defiler power source keyword instead of Arcane.
In addition you can utilize the following abilities. You may use only one of the listed abilities in a single encounter. To activate the ability, you must sacrifice a number of hit points equal to the level of the power you are augmenting. You may sacrifice your own hit points, the hit points of enemies you damaged within the last round (up to the amount of hit point damage you dealt to the enemy) or hit points from surrounding vegetation from the Defiler's Touch at-will power.
Defiling Power
Imposition: As a free action, as orb of imposition.
Defense: As staff of defense
Accuracy: As wand of accuracy
Status: As a free action, you can add a status effect to the power you use. The added status effect lasts until the end of your next round. The status effect you can add depends on the amount of hit points you choose to sacrifice and your level, as shown below. You can only add one status effect.
6 hp (min level 1) - slowed
8 hp (min level 3) - weakened
10 hp (min level 6) - immobilized
12 hp (min level 11) - dazed
16 hp (min level 16) - restrained
24 hp (min level 21) - stunned
You receive the following at-will power
Defiling Touch
As you speak the words of magic, the foilage around you withers, turns black and crumbles to dust
At-Will * Defiled, Necrotic
Minor Action | Close Burst 3 / Increase to Close Burst 5 at 15th level and Close Burst 10 at 21st level
Target: Vegetation in area
Attack: Intelligence vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1 point of Necrotic damage
Effect: You may use the damage dealt to fuel your Defiling Power encounter ability.
Side Note: Ideas for how much damage it takes to kill vegetation completely in a single square.
Desert - 0 hp
Scrubland - 1-3 hp
Grassland/Farm land - 5-8 hp
Verdent/Overgrowth - 10-15 hp
-------------------------
From there, you could design all sorts of additional feats, special defiling powers, prestige classes and the like. I imagine you could, for example, create special defiling feats that grant a power like the various channel divinity powers.
Or play a game set in one
Actually, I find it a bit unfriendly to munchkins. The setting is very RP-heavy.
I can't see why. It's a very detailed setting which makes it a haven for RP lovers, but the whole concept of the setting just screams "mega-heroes". That's why the munchkins tend to crawl to it more than anything else. But the original 2e rules for the setting made it the most munchkin friendly of all the settings. It had the most available and easily maximized characters in that ruleset & campaign.
Edit: And nothing drew munchkins more than a starting score of 22 in D&D2e when the normal range was 3-19.
Alot of 2nd ed Darksun mechanics were unbalenced (Gladiator, Half Giants, Muls, Kreen(, messy (Dragon Kings) or downright contradictions (to many to give example). The setting was great though:D
That would be the biggest chore for the transition... trying to balance the mechanics of various things. We'd have to come up with a balanced half-giant, a balanced defiler class or wizard class feature, and have to balance out other game concepts that used to be unbalanced in original Dark Sun.
A base wizard class as per the PHB would be a preserver but you could do some defiler feats to improve the class. I'm leaing towards turning it intoa a controller with tertiary striker powers (kinda like Paladin = defender with tertiary leader).
In may be better in some ways, but not drastically better like 2nd ed defilers that went up alot quicker in level than standard wizards.
This is also more of a introduce DS to the 4th ed general forums than lets design 4th ed DS which would require the thread to be moved. Heres my defiling thread in the DS forums.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1137113
Not to bash everyone who played it, I thought it was a good idea for an alternate setting, but the rules really attracted the munchkins of the gaming world. Which for me, ended up ruining it as you couldn't get a Darksun game going without these guys crawling out of the woodwork.
Never had that experiance myself.
My gaming group loved it absolutely, and we have recently been revisiting it in 3.5. No munchkins here :p
I think my first group in 2nd had...
Mul Gladiator
Human Psionicist
Human Preserver
Half Elf Ranger
Currently DM'ing 3.5 over fantasy grounds with a 1:1 campaign with a good friend who plays a Half Elf Druid raised by a dwarven community
Everything about Darksun i just love, its one of the very few settings that is really unique and offers a lot of great roleplay opportunity
Darksun at it's best is awesome. We found a forest hidden in a small rock formation deep in the Sea of Silt. The Defiler in the party stopped and waited outside because though he was a bastard he was LE and honored the Druids that had saved us from Sea itself. We set him up his own encampment in the barren rocks surrounding the place. The GM was awesome and said the Druids appreciated the gesture the Defiler made and brought him food that night. The world is harsh and makes strange bedfellows. Not everyone who you'd think is 'evil' really is. And not everyone who's law abiding and virtious is someone you'd really like to meet. Especially if their Templars.