Everyone has a slightly different idea of what Athas should be like, so I was wondering what everyone's little (or big) modifications are in their homeworlds.
I have a few that the players and I all really like.
1. First off: We all agreed that Tieflings should not be a playable character race in our world. The Dragornborn had a better explanation. We had a debate about Eladrin, and decided to leave them in as player characters because it seemed less of a stretch to us. That being said:
2. Eladrin are a strange tribe of elves that research the ruins of the past. They are historians and completely unlike their Elven brethren and are actually shunned by them.
3. There are many more languages in Athas than the core rulebook allowed. We had it that each city-state had their own language and there was a common trade tongue. To compensate the players for this, they each spoke the trade tongue and their home city-state language.
4. We also have non-magical weapons automatically break on a natural one for both players and monsters. This makes for much more dramatic fights.
5. Templars are not a theme that players can choose at level one. As DM, I am making it a more difficult option that perhaps they can become a Templar at a later date. It would be a major quest reward, and have serious consequences and responsibilities.
6. We also rule that if any monster or PC gets hit for their bloodied value in one strike, they immediately fall prone. (This turned out to be much more dangerous than the weapon breakage home rule- for both monsters and PCs.)
These are just a few that I can think off the top of my head. There are other minor ones, and some home-ruled skills and feats like making improvised weapons out of corpses of enemies. "Contacts" (helpful NPCs) as rewards in lieu of magical items as well as granted powers form supernatural or powerful beings in lieu of magical items as well etc etc.
The prone rule is interesting. If it's as common as you make it sound, make sure you watch for feat abuse.
As for the contacts and granted powers, have you reviewed the sections on Favors and Boons?
4. We also have non-magical weapons automatically break on a natural one for both players and monsters. This makes for much more dramatic fights.
How?
At this level, the bloodied-prone house ruling is not exactly common, but it does change the encounter quickly. I have a bunch of RPers that like the game fast and loose. None of my players are going to go home and research everyting on DnD insider to try and maximize this house ruling because they know if they exploit it, it will disappear. As long as it affects the PCs at least as much as it affects the NPCs we're going with it. a player hasn't died yet from it (but some controllers have come damn near close)
The reason the fairly brutal weapon breakage makes it more dramatic is that it happens occasionally and everyone goes "OHHHH!!!" but doesn't really screw them that badly. They all carry multilple weapons, and plus what they salvage what they can from their enemies. I had a Goliath Brawler Fighter grapple a bandit and rip the weapon from his opponents hands and then slay him with it. It was more dramatic than "I decide not to risk breaking my weapon. Next round, auto-attack with my at-will".
of course every now and then they roll through an encounter when i roll poorly. but who cares? it's still exciting because the danger was there that it could happen to them. When it does happen to them (and it's happened when multiple characters broke multiple weapons), then a pretty standard encounter in the middle of an adventure turns into a final battle! Now it's a fight to survive and not merely slay everything and collect loot.
then they end up running in the desert with the fighter wielding the psion's bone dagger, and the halfling ranger is trying to fashion a club out of a cactus. the psion is trying to meditate to contact his otherworldly elemental "contact" to lead them out of there, but he's just not picking up the phone. Welcome to Dark Sun.
2. Characters receive ONE non-combative extra feat.
3. They don't get Wild Talents (just by picking the feat which can be picked with the extra i gave)
4. Weapon Enchantments are more like boons to weapons, they have a plus equivalent to their inherent bonuses and they fade alway after 5 levels
5. Weapon/Implement Expertise (All) at lvl 5
6. Boons fade alway after 5 lvls of play
7. No experience points. When i think they should lvl up, they do.
8. Random encounters varying from Party lvl -2 < EL < Party lvl+3. (created a random encounter table)
9. Creatures attack weapons sometimes.
10. Half-Giants are large. No player chose to be a Half-Giant so i can work with the goode-olde-halfgiants
11. Tyr is under the rule of Kalak (I'll use the "Free Tyr Timeline Adventure" found in a topic somewhere here in Darksun
Defiling is REALLY, REALLY amped up in power. I (as the DM) want it to be a trump card that our warlock has in his pocket, but is absolutely TERRIFIED to use because of all the negative attention / backlash it would permanently mean. So far he has only been tempted to use it once, when it was on the verge of a TPK (2 players dead already) but he resisted the urge.
Essentially defiling in my game works like this: they get +Prime Ability Modifier to hit, and can choose one of numerous benefits: extra dmg, extra area, reliable, crit on 18-20, roll twice & choose best, etc. It also defiles land in close burst [prime ability modifier] and deals P.A.M. dmg to all non-undead creatures in burst. Yes, it would slaughter minions, but we've driven home the Badness of defiling so much that he would never use it for this purpose.
Only Dark Sun official races allowed (still trying to decide if i will allow Genasi, Revenant and/or Shadar-kai, cause these 3 races fit well the setting, imo);
Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Eladrins (i like the fluff that adapts them to Athas), Half-elves, Muls, Thri-Kreens, all unchanged (probably i will houserule that Thri-Kreens can ready an additional weapon).
Dragonborn/Dray cannot choose breath damage type, only heat/fire allowed (cone of heated sand). Aestethically they are like the 2ed Dray;
Tiefling are the result of inbreeding between dragon-kings and humanoids (between them you will find the children of Dregoth - the 1st generation Dray - and Nibenay) or of drastic mutations caused by the life-shaping, mostly draconic in nature (not explaining all the fluff here), abilities of the Pristine Tower. So, they are mostly mutated and twisted humanoids with some draconic blood in them.
Aesthetically they are a little different from the standard tiefling, not necessarily horned, not necessarily tailed, but with some vague reptilian features, or little bone crests, elongated faces, scales in some parts of their body; like a cross between a Dray (10-25%) and a human (75-90%).
Halflings lose the "Bold" racial feature, and gain the Goliath racial feature "Powerful Athlete". They lose the +2 to Thievery, and gain +2 to Nature;
Goliaths lose the "Powerful Athlete" racial feature, and gain the BugBear racial feature "Oversized". They lose the +2 to Nature, and gain +2 to Endurance;
CLASSES
All standard classes but any divine class allowed. No setting-specific class allowed (no swordmage, artificer, etc). Still debating on the Bard (to me, the 4th ed. version is not fitting for Athas; i see the Ardent more like the athasian version of the 4th ed. Bard) and Assassin (the Essentials version, not the other version).
Sorcerers are not defiler nor preservers, but alternative mages (like the necromancer, shadow, cerulean from 2ed). They cast only via their source of magic (see the Elemental Chaos source as the old "elemental vortex connected to living being" theme, the Tempest source as the old Cerulean Mage, and the Cosmic source as a minor form of Sun Wizard).
MAGIC
The default casting method is defiling. To preserve, the caster must spend a Minor Action before he cast the spell in his same turn. When an arcane caster uses the "Arcane Defiling" feature, the defiled area becomes Defiled Terrain, as per Dark Sun Creature Catalogue, page 34 (Rocky terrain becomes "Sickening Heat" terrain, verdant terrains become "Ash Field" terrain, desert-like terrain becomes "Black Sand" terrain). If defiling occurs a second time on a previously defiled terrain, the terrain type changes to "Dead Magic" terrain.
In addition, each ally in the defiled area (1 square for At-Wills/Encounter powers, half-spell level squares for Daily powers) must save or takes necrotic damage equal to half his or her healing surge value (still debating if they lose an healing surge instead).
If an arcane caster loses the "Arcane Defiling" feature, he can preserve without spending a Minor Action before casting the spell.
That's all for now
Halflings lose the "Bold" racial feature, and gain the Goliath racial feature "Powerful Athlete". They lose the +2 to Thievery, and gain +2 to Nature;
Goliaths lose the "Powerful Athlete" racial feature, and gain the BugBear racial feature "Oversized". They lose the +2 to Nature, and gain +2 to Endurance;
That is remarkably effective!
Weapons break on a natural 1. Magic weapons get a saving throw. Metal weapons (non-magical or not) do not break.
Defiling is REALLY, REALLY amped up in power. I (as the DM) want it to be a trump card that our warlock has in his pocket, but is absolutely TERRIFIED to use because of all the negative attention / backlash it would permanently mean. So far he has only been tempted to use it once, when it was on the verge of a TPK (2 players dead already) but he resisted the urge.
Essentially defiling in my game works like this: they get +Prime Ability Modifier to hit, and can choose one of numerous benefits: extra dmg, extra area, reliable, crit on 18-20, roll twice & choose best, etc. It also defiles land in close burst [prime ability modifier] and deals P.A.M. dmg to all non-undead creatures in burst. Yes, it would slaughter minions, but we've driven home the Badness of defiling so much that he would never use it for this purpose.
That's pretty awesome. I was wondering how I should handle defiling because I think the default way is pretty lame. I didn't have to really confront it yet because none of my current PCs are arcane casters. But I know someone who is moving down that is dying about creating an Aarakkoa Preserver Wizard. (Too bad that race doesn't exist yet; going to have to make it.)
Anyways, I like that defiling gets a significant boost as long as you have the right player group that won't exploit it.
if you run out of healing surges to spend on using healing fruits
the fruit heals half value rounded down.
my way of making up for the increased damage the monsters due
joe
Whenever the party defeats an elite or solo monster, I let them harvest the body for ritual components, alchemical components, and poisons, as well as rare components to make specific magic items. For instance, my players recently defeated an id fiend, and got about 40 gp worth of Arcana ritual components, as well as everything needed to make a skull mask. A battle with an adult silk worm and a bunch of hatchlings netted the party a few doses of poison, components to make a few spider bolts, and the raw materials for indomitable resolve vestments. This lets me put in some story elements for finding a master of the Way, or some creepy arcanist, or a fanatic guardian of nature, who can turn the bones, fluids, etc., into a working item, at least until the PCs are high enough level to enchant their own items. At that point, I can occasionally have NPCs looking to them for turning monster parts into magic items.
2. All Races that get a -full- write up in the Races section, along with Thri-Kreen and Mul are allowed, all other races are banned and extinct.
3. Masterwork Weapons, Implements, Cloaks and Amulets.
3a. Implement Expertise, Versatile Expertise, Weapon Expertise are banned. Specific weapon type expertise feats from Essentials are not banned, but their bonuses do not stack with those of masterwork weapons.
4. Plus +1 to three instead of +1 to two.
4a. Paragon Defenses, Epic Defenses, Epic Will, Epic Reflexes and Epic Fortitude are banned.
5. All Essentials classes are banned, and Melee Training works the way it did before it was given the nerf hammer for the sake of the banned classes.
5a. Wizards gain Tome of Readiness for free at level 1.
Rule 1 and 2: Setting Specific Rule
Rules 3 and 4: System Patch to remove feat tax.
Rule 5: DM's preference.
Skills
Intimidate: The intimidate skill can be used to cause a bloody opponent to surrender, unless it is an Elite or Solo.
Feats
Expertise Feats and Weapon Focus: These feats are available and may be chosen as usual. However, they are also bundled for free when a PC takes certain other feats.
- You may gain one Expertise or Focus feat (your choice) when you take your first of any of these feat types:
- -> Arena Fighting (old Dragon magazine Arena feats count as well)
- -> Theme (any feat that references your theme)
- -> Weapon (any feat that grants a power related to a specific Dark Sun weapon. For example: Whip Expert feat on p.112)
- You may gain an additional Expertise or Focus feat when you take your third of any of those feat types. (You can mix and match; taking one theme feat and two weapon feats could grant you free Weapon Focus and Weapon Expertise feats!).
Theme Feats: For every two theme feats, you gain a +1 to attack with theme powers.
Choosing Theme Powers: In Chapter 3, “Character Themes” there are various theme powers you can substitute for your regular powers you would gain for a class. Some of these powers may not be very strong. If that is the case let’s discuss (a good way is to compare the power you would take from your class to the theme power and then open the discussion with those two as an example for me.
Choosing Theme Powers or Weapon Feats: For every three you choose, one of the powers becomes additional instead of a substitute. For example, you could take three theme powers and make the highest level one an additional power and still retain your class power for that level. Similarly, you could take three weapon feats that grant powers, such as Whip Novice, Whip Expert, and Whip Specialist and then choose one of the granted powers (perhaps Whip Snare) and make it an additional power you have instead of swapping out a level 3 or higher encounter attack power from your class.
Despite this obvious attempt to strengthen the coolness of weapon feats and theme options, you should still feel free not to take those if it does not fit your concept.
Conditions
Dominate: When dominated, a creature takes a single standard action as directed by their controller on the controller’s turn. They in addition can take a single action of their choice on their own turn. This keeps players from “sitting idle” when dominated.
In addition, some powerful monsters may have a form of domination where the controlled PC can take a greater range of actions on the controller’s turn!
Here are few of house rules of my own that I'll be using:
- Eladrin will be fledgling Pyreens. Changing the +2 skill bonus on Arcana to +2 on Diplomacy. Favored Classes will be changed but unsure as to what at this point.
- Tieflings are desert dwelling mutants twisted by the rays of the dying sun. Leaving their racial abilities as is. Will be changing their Favored Classes as well. Instead of all having horns and tails, player's will craft their own aesthetic mutations.
-Warlocks will only have pacts with sorcerer-kings. Each Sorcerer-King will have its own Pact which will provide different class abilities.
1. No Whining
I told my players that this campaign would push their characters to the limit (I think they got my meaning when they realised "Hey, we just got a second milestone WHILE RESTING).
Conditions
Dominate: When dominated, a creature takes a single standard action as directed by their controller on the controller’s turn. They in addition can take a single action of their choice on their own turn. This keeps players from “sitting idle” when dominated.
In addition, some powerful monsters may have a form of domination where the controlled PC can take a greater range of actions on the controller’s turn!
So you gimp PC ability to dominate and give monsters extra goodies... that's.... nice....
Conditions
Dominate: When dominated, a creature takes a single standard action as directed by their controller on the controller’s turn. They in addition can take a single action of their choice on their own turn. This keeps players from “sitting idle” when dominated.
In addition, some powerful monsters may have a form of domination where the controlled PC can take a greater range of actions on the controller’s turn!
So you gimp PC ability to dominate and give monsters extra goodies... that's.... nice....
That's me, cruel DM...
Actually, this is really a monster rule. It is designed to make combat more fun for players. I honestly had not thought about what to do with PC domination powers. I can see it both ways. On one hand, it is cool to let them shut down some foes. On the other hand, it can make showcase monsters a no-show! I see it as something to discuss with players. This is all about house rules, so we can figure it out together. The golden concept is fun.
I want defiling to hurt all creatures in range, not just the defiler's allies. Yes this creates a minion sweeper, but then again you instantly become the enemy of everybody anyway when you defile - especially if you do it to an oasis. And after looking at some of the defiling enhancements, I've gotta wonder how the sorcerer-kings managed to survive long enough to BECOME the sorcerer-kings.
I want my gnome bard to visit Athas. Too bad gnomes are extinct.
I want to create a way to un-defile land (probably Primal powered). I haven't read the Creature Catalog yet, so I may not need to create a house rule for this. I also want a ritual to Create Water (probably elemental powered). For fun and flavor, maybe it will need some Sea of Dust dust...
PS I liked the ritual to protect land from being defiled by messing up the defiler's Arcana check.
1. Absolutely no Essentials. Just not going for it.
2. Thinking about designing up Shadow Pact variant Necromancer option for the Warlock like the Shadow King pact. I find the idea more fitting than a Wizard variant.
3. Half Orcs are renamed and fluffed as Tareks
4. When failing Survival Days skill challenges each character suffers the loss of healing per the challenge rules and suffers risk of Sun Sickness...
5. Citizens of a given community recieve one half-gallon of water a day. Non-citizens, and citizens who want more than that ration must pay a gold per pint. This more of just a clarification than anything.
All I can think of at the moment.
2. Preserving on a daily requires Moderate DC arcana check- fail = endurance check or take power lvl dmg to not defile (or just defile anyway); success = you preserve. Preserving on an encounter is an easy arcana dc instead and an easy endurance check as well. At wills preserve with no problem.
3. Defiling changes terrain type to the various defiled terrains
4. Roll for Psionic talents. Highest "mental" ability score + 2 other ability mods (18 wis, 14 int, 14 chr means you have a 22% chance of free psionic talent).
5. Weapon breakage= reckless breakage rules. If your weapon is magic add it's enhancment bonus to the breakage rule (if it is a +3 weapon it only breaks on the second roll on a 4 or less). Magic and metal 5 + enhancement bonus.
I'll probably make up some kreen, half giant, and 1/2ling feats if we go more than the module.
Starting Darksun Mauraders tomorrow. Should be fun!
This gives arcane casters an advantage, but I think they're supposed to be a little more powerful in this world anyway.
Defiling severly changing terrain is a hassle, even a burst 2 or 3 change in enviornment usually takes a rounds worth of time to reshuffle your battle map, minis, draw, etc... not worth time.
Preserving skillchecks work well. Draws attention of the arcane characters. In the 11 encounters so far he has only failed arcana and endurance once to be forced into taking damage. Sounds reasonable.
ignore my breakage rules up top... I messed them up.
Defiling- I, like others, feel the original version is far too weak. I have a whole host of bonus options (and I like some of those suggestions for things like reliable and/or expanded crit), and I am planning on adding some special ones for non-dailies as well. An example is from a home-brewed healing item that is basically an artifact that works like an artificer's healing infusion feature (but only once per encounter usage). Being arcane, and an artifact, I included a defiling option that gives some extra temp HP for every creature affected by the defile.
Further, I have the defiling affect all creatures within the zone, not just the caster's allies. It honestly makes no sense that it would be friend/foe sensitive. In general, I will allow players to defile (for a benefit of my/their choice) on any power, not just dailies, because honestly the whole point was that defiling is the norm and can be stronger.
Races- Players can be most races (even extinct ones), but if the race is extinct, then they will be fluffed as another race that may share some similar qualities. This is also sort of a normal rule for me; I like to separate mechanics (like racial stats, powers, PPs, Feats) from their "predefined flavor" as often as permits, but keep the same restrictions in place (so you could be mechanically a gnome for all intents and purposes, but in the actual story, you might be a halfling because of 'Insert reason not to be a gnome in story here').
Runepriests and Invokers are Arcane. Runepriests are sort of like a branch of artificers, and Invokers are like Sorcerer King warlocks.
Changelings are a race created by the sorcerer kings to largely act as spies to seek out those who would plot against the Kings. They are frequently Rogues, Bards, and Assassins for their infiltration and bluffing/diplomacy capabilities. Players can choose them as a race, but it must fit in the campaign and be fluffed well.
Shifters are also created by the sorcerer kings to patrol the wastes and hunt down whomever they may be ordered to.
Half Orcs are also created by the sorcerer kings as brute enforcers. In general I just like having the "half breed" races be fluffed as experimental projects to created genetically tailored minions.
Inherent Bonuses are in effect, but no breakage rules (we just plain don't like them as players). Almost no magical items at all because they often may constantly defile unless built by a preserver (in my setting anyway). Servants of the sorcerer kings may have them though, and can turn them on/off at will.
Religion has little or no place in Athas (I'm enthusiatic about that), and each theme of PC's has some skill that applies to them, arcane (arcana), primal (nature), divine (religion), so I figured the psionic deserved one.
Also, players can gain "favors" with factions, which correlate basically to the smallest increment of a challenge, combat or non-combat. They count as a minion, an automatic win on a skill check, 1/4 of a parcel. For instance, accruing favors with merchant houses can be traded for goods, while favors with ex-slaves can be cashed for assisting a skill challenge. I'm also playing with the idea that boons can be "purchased" only with favors. It gives tons of flavor be bring out machanics to the factions while replacing the scarce gold and items.
Also, one thing I started in this campaign (though it is not specific to Dark Sun) is each session is a mini-sandbox session: I tell them they have 8 possible quests to do in one (12 hour) day, but they only have time for 6. This creates a choice system, where the players might choose a quest that rewards favors over one that rewards copper, all while managing their time (each quest takes a certain number of hours). Certain skill challenges can be easier done, b/c if the quest is to find a spy, failure can simply mean it takes 3 hours instead of 2, which cuts into how many quests they can do. So far, my players love it and one of them has adopted it as his new DM style.
Players can choose a Power Source for any of their classes, The only mechanical change.. the knowledge skills for that change to reflect your choice.
Original Power Source: Loose training in one skill
New Power Source: Gain training in one skill
Divine - Religion
Arcane - Arcana
Psionic - Arcana
Primal - Nature
Martial - Any
Shadow - Arcana
Any Feat/Paragon Path/etc with a power Source requirement is Ignored.
Player MUST reflavor the class(s) to fit the new power source. And it MUST fit the campaign.
Example.. Primal Fighter = Elemental Forces empower your blows.
Divine ... = Not in Dark Sun
Arcane - Necrotic - At Will - Minor - Implement
You tap the lifeforce of the area (and any unfortunate enough to be in it) for your short term benefit.
Trigger: You use an Encounter Arcane power, or at At-Will power with an Action Point.
Effect: You gain Primary Ability Modifier + Implement Modifier worth of temporary hitpoints. All allies and enemies in close burst 20 take the same amount of necrotic damage, or may choose to be dazed until the end of their next turn. (Their choice)
---
Arcane Defiling
Arcane - Necrotic -Triggered (Daily Power) - Free Action
Trigger: You use a Daily Arcane power.
Effect: As in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, but it effects all allies and enemies. They may choose to be stunned until the end of their next turn instead of taking the necrotic damage.
Edit: I tried this out once, and it got the deadly feel that I wanted. I changed it to encounter powers, or powers spent with an action point, so it couldn't be spammed constantly. I did make the dazed condition less powerful, and made the Daily version more consistent.
Base DefilingArcane - Necrotic - At Will - Minor - Implement
You tap the lifeforce of the area (and any unfortunate enough to be in it) for your short term benefit.
Trigger: You use an At-Will or Encounter Arcane power.
Effect: You gain Primary Ability Modifier + Implement Modifier worth of temporary hitpoints. All allies and enemies in close burst 20 take the same amount of necrotic damage, or be dazed until the end of your next turn. (Their choice)
---
I'm going to try this out and see how it works. I may just restrict to the Encounter powers, or anything you spend an action point on, and decrease the radius of effect.
I think I like that. However, it is then strange that the Daily defiling does not do anything to enemies.
On the downside, story-wise it is a big change to get temp HPs for defiling. Defiling makes me think of doing more damage, acting faster, creating an aura, etc. Not really anything to do with temps/healing/protection.
Damaging enemies with defiling is tempting to me as well for a house rule. However, I use minions, and I like them as a game element. I am really not sure how I would handle defiling and minions with a rule like that in place, especially if you could really defile with all powers.
They can take daze instead of damage in what aumshantih posted.
My group all agreed upon the house rule since we really couldn't find a hard rule in 4e dealing with identifying items.
With a few sessions in the Dark Sun realm we also added a cleave action with a multiplyer on a natural role of 20 on a d20 (no feat required), so far it has added welcome element where only the strong survive.
I'm not planning on running a DS campaign (yet). But I AM tempted...
I want defiling to hurt all creatures in range, not just the defiler's allies. Yes this creates a minion sweeper, but then again you instantly become the enemy of everybody anyway when you defile - especially if you do it to an oasis. And after looking at some of the defiling enhancements, I've gotta wonder how the sorcerer-kings managed to survive long enough to BECOME the sorcerer-kings.
I want my gnome bard to visit Athas. Too bad gnomes are extinct.
I want to create a way to un-defile land (probably Primal powered). I haven't read the Creature Catalog yet, so I may not need to create a house rule for this. I also want a ritual to Create Water (probably elemental powered). For fun and flavor, maybe it will need some Sea of Dust dust...
PS I liked the ritual to protect land from being defiled by messing up the defiler's Arcana check.
Well just because a race isn't seen does not mean they are extinct. I like to keep an open mind when it come to races in the Dark Sun setting. Part of an adventure for my players could be the discovery or re-discovery of a forgotten race. Maybe that goes against what the Dark Sun rule books say but what te hell its a small group and your only limited by imagination or lack there of.
Well just because a race isn't seen does not mean they are extinct.
A DM can do anything, and done well this could work. Just keep in mind that the races were killed by incredibly strong creatures at a time when they had more resources. They likely could devine whether a race was extinct or not. Having a race present that was thought extinct should be a huge issue, not just something randomly explaining why Susan gets to play a gnome. (In my opinion of course - whatever works for the group!)
My group all agreed upon the house rule since we really couldn't find a hard rule in 4e dealing with identifying items.
It is automatic during a short rest. Per the latest in the Rules Compendium, "An adventurer can identiy one magic item per short rest." It does say rarer items might require a hard arcana check or even a quest to identify. This is essentially (no pun intended) what the PH says under Identifying Magic Items (p. 223).
In my campaign, defiling can be used on encounters and dailies, all the benefits of defiling are received, but damage to allies does not occur. The only drawback is a purely role-playing one. This essentially puts the power in the hands of the PCs and makes it a much more tempting option, since they don't have to worry about what the rest of the party will say about taking damage.
Player identifying magic items.
Possibly worth mentioning that Essentials/The Rules Compendium added a rule for this where characters can identify one magic item per short rest automatically. Rarer or more complex items may require skill checks, quests etc.
Player identifying magic items.
Possibly worth mentioning that Essentials/The Rules Compendium added a rule for this where characters can identify one magic item per short rest automatically. Rarer or more complex items may require skill checks, quests etc.
Also, I just want to ask this.
What is the benefit of not being able to identify magic items without spending money or time?
I can understand plot reasons for powerful items like artifacts or the upcoming "rare" items.
However, if I find a pair of boots that seem really nice, and I suspect they are magical, why should I not find out they are boots of striding and springing by putting them on and trying them out? (given that the boots are not artifacts or "rare").
To me, special rules for identifying all items are just making you jump through hoops for no good reason. The time spent on that could be used on something that is actually interesting.
1) I combined the two critical-miss rules as follows:
- If you roll a one, your weapon gains a "tombstone" - similar to the ones that a player gains by failing death saves. If your weapon sustains 3 "tombstones" it breaks, beyond repair.
- You can choose to recklessly break your weapon, as described in the DSCG.
2) Repairing. Weapons can be repaired by those with the Martial Practice, "Master Artisan". This can reduce or, in some cases, completely remove "tombstones". If on the road, "Quick Fix" can be used to temporarily remove 1 tombstone.
3) I've included some alternatives for magical weapons, based around this. For example:
Giant Bone Long Bow
This is a long bow crafted from a Giant's rib-bone. This bow is strong in attack, and resilient to damage.
Qualities: Brutal 2, Do not gain tombstones on a critical miss. If recklessly broken, gains 1 tombstone instead (of a possible 5).
4) Non-magical armor critical rule. If a player is critically hit, they lose 1 point of AC. This can be repaired using the above methods at (2).
5) Modified rituals to give them a Defiling "feel". Essentially, I'll allow the expenditure of healing surges (willing or otherwise) to take the place of some of the component cost. I also created new Rituals to reflect Athasian magic. For example, I created a new Ritual "Extract Water" which allows for the production of litres of water (in return for Healing Surges) and modified the Ritual "Lower Water" to "Lower Silt".
6) Apart from Half-Orcs (see below), only the original DS races are in. I personally don't dig the Arabian-esque feel of the new Eladrin, them feeling to me as something imported from Al-Qadim. The Eladrin don't exist in my world. Ditto for the Genasi, Tieflings (urk!), and so on. The Dray are in, however, but as an NPC race. The dominant race is Human. There is an enormous amount of racism directed towards the other races.
7) I completely jettisoned the background involving Rajaat and the psychic-dolphin riding halflings. I'd rather that the backstory of my campaigns isn't something that players can get through web-browsing. (A similar thing happened when "The Truth" for Nightfall Games' SLA Industries was leaked to the Team 8 forums, with disastrous results.) As some of my players are readers of this forum, I can't go into detail about what I replaced the backstory with, but if you want to know, send me a message. That said, the pogroms still happened in my backstory (but for a different reason).
8) I recast the Half-Orcs as a mongrel slave race called "The Impure". Effectively they're the result of a breeding program with the aim of creating the perfect warrior.
9) I don't use the term "Sorcerer-King", instead the rulers are referred to as "God-Kings". Sorcery is illegal, and, as such, isn't an epithet that the ruler would take, no matter how arrogant they are. All arcane classes count as "Wizards" for the purpose of prejudice in my Athas. (An exception to this, of course, are Arcane-class Templars...but even they hide their Arcane power source through Bluff.)
10) The God-Kings city-states have differences, but not the huge cultural differences that seem to have hung-over from 2e. The whole "Egypt-style" (Raam), "Chinese" (Nibenay) is a bit corny to my mind. The cities have differences, but are all Mesopotamian/Babylonian in feel.
I've made other changes which I may post up later.
I let them harvest the body for ritual components, alchemical components, and poisons, as well as rare components to make specific magic items.
I suggest with my players that they do the same. Everything in Athas needs to be used. The first encounter of my campaign was against scorpions. I suggested they harvest the poison to sell (after all a days survival is 5gp - you need as much money as you can get if you go out into the wastes) and also scorpion meat to eat.
What I use is the halfling & Goliath change mentioned earlier (that is AWESOME!)
32 POINT BUY
Hey, it's a bold & dangerous world
WEAPON BREAKAGE
I also use 2 sun tokens that work like RPGA reroll cards, they can be used on At-will or Encounter powers and if a player uses one the weapon breaks. No tracking skulls, natural 1's etc. We find it fast an easy to remember.
DEFILING (Modified from core book and 3.5 darksun @athas.org)
When casting Daily spell powers Defilers leave behind an ashen circle when casting spells. The radius is 10 ft. x spell level (2 squares x power level). All creatures except the defiler caught within the defiling radius at casting time experience pain and suffer a -1 penalty x the power level to attack, defense, skill checks and saves, lasting until the end of the next round.
Defiler's ash is black and totally devoid of life-giving properties. It is the telltale sign of wizardry. Nothing grows in a defiled area for years. Even if the defiler's ash moves with the wind, the ground remains a lifeless scar.
Then I also use the Arcane Defiling re-roll core rulebook, except;
EFFECT: The radius is 20 squares. All non-minion creatures except the defiler caught within the defiling radius at casting time experience pain and take necrotic damage (that can not be reduced in anyway) equal to half their healing surge value and are Dazed until the end of their next turn. Minion creatures are Dazed (save ends).
PRESERVING
A character may try and preserve his daily powers with an Arcane check DC20 + the level of the power. If the character fails he loses 1 healing surge.
NEW FEAT
Master Preserver: +5 to all skill checks to preserve Daily Powers
First of all my objections to the current system:
1) The choice is made after an attempt. Surely it's at the point of summoning the energy to make the attempt that the decision needs to be made?
2) It drains creatures, and only allies at that. As it was in the original versions basic arcane defiling only drained plants. To drain creatures you needed either a magic item for that purpose or Dragon magic, a fusion of arcane and psionic power focused through obsidian.
3) There's nothing in the rules to stop someone defiling the same area repeatedly, when I would have thought once or twice would destroy all the plants and drain the energy.
With these objections in mind, and not wanting anything that requires too much long term bookkeeping, I've been discussing the following option with my prospective players, codifying it into the bonus to be gained and the price to pay:
Bonus - Gain +4 to an attack roll with a daily arcane power, chosen before making the roll.
Price - A zone of defiled terrain is created in a close burst 5 around the character, turning the plant life to ash. Until at least the end of the encounter (and it should be longer) no arcane powers can be used whilst within this zone.
I was going to allow it for encounter powers as well, but one of my players suggested that the daily powers are the really big ones that would drain a lot of power. You could probably cast Magic Missile over and over again before any real damage was done to the surrounding plant life. I'm not sure about this, but I think we're going to stick with daily powers only for now and see how it goes.
One possible argument against it I foresee is that it can effectively shut down an enemy using arcane powers as well, but I'm not sure there are too many of those in the setting besides Veiled Alliance members or agents of the Sorcerer-Kings and if you defile a large space in front of them you're going to have a lot of problems in store for you anyway.
A practical argument I've seen against this method is that tracking zones can be awkward in encounters, but we use a mat with wet-erase markers and simply draw out any appropriate zones in a selection of colours. It's easy to track, doesn't slow things down much and doesn't get in the way.
Anyone have any thoughts they can share with me on this?
As for the weapon breakage rules, I again didn't like either option in the rulebook too much but not as drastically.
My house rule is simply that on a natural 1 on an attack roll with a non-metal weapon you automatically miss and the weapon must make a saving throw to avoid being broken. I would then allow skill challenges after an encounter to allow players to try to fix broken weapons or scavenge for replacements, with difficulty dependent on the location, available materials and so forth.
I'm also considering imposing a -1 penalty to attack and damage for repaired weapons until they can be properly checked by a trained weaponsmith. I'm not too sure how to mesh this with degrees of success from the skill challenge though so I might abandon this for simplicity's sake.
I also planned to have a house rule saying that players do not get Wild Talents by default, but could give up a non-mandatory skill challenge to acquire one. Most of the players have gone ahead and created characters already though, so I'm probably going to abandon this one as it doesn't look like it'll have much impact anyway.
With regards to restrictions on races, the tone of the original novels is that there are so many mutations and "New Races" around that practically anything can be justified (though I'm not sure about Warforged or Revenants) with a little reflavouring. I did wonder about some minor changes along the lines others have mentioned, altering the skill bonuses some races get (e.g. Halflings getting +2 Nature instead of +2 Thievery) and so on. Thus far all of my players have gone for fairly straightforward options anyway though so I've not worried about it much.
Besides that I'm just going with obvious stuff. No Divine power sources, I plan on being extremely miserly with magical items, and I'll be using the Inherent Enhancement rules. I hope to play up the scarce resources and the brutality of the setting, and to throw in some twists early on to show them that the usual fantasy tropes don't necessarily apply.
For those who say it doesn't make sense that defiling would only hurt allies, I found a pretty cool RP reason someone had come up with for this. It was that creatures have an innate psychic defense against it, especially in combat situations, and the reason why your allies are affected by it is that they don't see you as a threat, so their defenses are open to you. This also makes RP sense for feats and other abilities at higher levels that allow you to hurt enemies with defiling because you've become powerful enough to get past their defenses.
Any drawbacks to a higher point buy start? I could see an extra 4 points, but a 32 point buy is crazy high.
I like to keep an open mind when it come to races in the Dark Sun setting. Part of an adventure for my players could be the discovery or re-discovery of a forgotten race. Maybe that goes against what the Dark Sun rule books say but what te hell its a small group and your only limited by imagination or lack there of.
I still play classic Dark Sun but with 4th edition rules of course,Not wanting to exclude the cool new races because I'm a dark sun purist/fan boi; I did a campaign were I introduced the Tiefling as the first new threat, after that war, I plan on introducing the dragon born into the world. That way they aren't just retconned into the story.
The Dark sun creature Catalog mentioned adding core creatures witha dark sun twist, like a horse with bone plates instead of fur and so on.
1.) All PC's get their action point back in between every fight.
2.) Even if the PC's do not have time to take a five minute rest I still let them regain their encounter powers/second wind. Only between battles though...
This one needs some work...
3.) Allow a PC to use their second wind as a minor action with a Endurance check...difficulty depending on if they're bloody or how many fights they have had that day. If they fail they take a -2 to attk until the end of their next turn.
I thought I saw a thread somewhere with more DS arena house rules but I can not find it.
Only been in the Arena twice though, so I don't think you would use that as a regular rule.
Does anyone have any specific rules in regards to Dark Sun arena combat? Personally I have a couple.
1.) All PC's get their action point back in between every fight.
2.) Even if the PC's do not have time to take a five minute rest I still let them regain their encounter powers/second wind. Only between battles though...
This one needs some work...
3.) Allow a PC to use their second wind as a minor action with a Endurance check...difficulty depending on if they're bloody or how many fights they have had that day. If they fail they take a -2 to attk until the end of their next turn.
I thought I saw a thread somewhere with more DS arena house rules but I can not find it.
Check out what Rob Schwalb wrote about sectors and what SRM wrote about it too. I pondered the subject here. Also, come to Comicpalooza in Houston end of May or Origins in June and play Ashes of Athas 1-3. It uses some alternative encounter concepts. (The adventure will also be released for home play in June).
What I like about these concepts is that they really free you up to design combats (arena or otherwise) that have different victory conditions and that can come in waves... all while keeping a fast pace. I ran an arena fight in the Forest of Spears (Gulg) two nights ago and I really should have used that concept. If I had it would have been more fun. I ended up keeping a foe dormant and not using him because the fight went longer than I expected. If I had used a wave approach with modified short rests I could have run all of the pieces I had planned as surprise waves the arena threw at them and it would have been more thrilling. Live and learn.
So, yeah. I absolutely encourage toying with the mechanics. Even if you don't get it quite right, the results will help you further develop the ideas. I always plan a contingency or two. If it is too hard, maybe the arena manager throws potion fruits out onto the field. If it is too easy, new foes enter the fray.
For those who say it doesn't make sense that defiling would only hurt allies, I found a pretty cool RP reason someone had come up with for this. It was that creatures have an innate psychic defense against it, especially in combat situations, and the reason why your allies are affected by it is that they don't see you as a threat, so their defenses are open to you. This also makes RP sense for feats and other abilities at higher levels that allow you to hurt enemies with defiling because you've become powerful enough to get past their defenses.
We are looking at a concept of having defiling cost surges; kind of using the idea that a surge is life-force energy, in this case, enemies rarely use surges tangible in combat where PC's do. Everyone feels the lifeforce drain, flavor wise, but mechanically (most of the time) only the PC's feel it.
Still toying with this concept.
The Suprior Weapon attack powers use the old multi-class scheme. I bet almost nobody would spend four feats on a single weapon just to get attack powers that they can only use with that weapon.
They really should have changed these when they changed multi-classing.
Hope that's not to rambling.
Changed the number of healing surges usable during a short rest to 2+Con modifier.
Changed the number of healing surges regained during an extended rest to 2+ Con modifier.
Each time the PC's reach a milestone they get an action point, a Daily power, regain 2 healing surges and gain 10 temp HP.
Just trying to get rid of the "we are out of surges, lets stop in the middle of the adventure and sleep" syndrom. While at the same time making healing and resting a little grittier? Not sure if it'll work out or not.
Also thinking of adding the One Foot in the Grave rule.
Each time a PC fails a death saving thow it is gone for good. They do not reset to the three death saving throws after an extended rest, or ever.