Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Lord_Ventnor May 16, 2015 19:39:46	Hey, folks!   So, I've had Dark Sun on my mind a lot recently. And I had some spare time, so I decided to type up those ideas. These are some rules that should allow a group to run a 5e game in Athas with little trouble. It's mainly tweaking the flavor some some classes and races and disallowing some others, though I did include what I think are fairly simple defiling rules that should be easy to implement.   Anyway, here are the aforementioned rules.
#2 Regin_Vargtass May 17, 2015 0:11:21	Nice write-up! I particularly like the psionic warlocks.
#3 mrfisk May 17, 2015 1:37:38	Thanks for this, your approach is similar to what I would do if I were to convert Darksun to 5th. I think the rules for defiling might make it a bit too good, especially the option of giving the target disadvantage.
#4 Marandahir May 17, 2015 7:32:41	This is pretty cool. I do feel a bit uncomfortable turning Warlocks from being Defilers into Psionicists. Warlock is almost the epitome of the Defiling Arcanist, and their patrons concept fits well into the Templar hierarchy. Perhaps, while Archfey and Great Old One represent Psionicists, Fiend Warlocks are actually another type of Templar alongside the Avenger Paladins – the Tome/Chains/Blade differences also give the Templars more variety. Also, your backgrounds section skips over a number of backgrounds, like Criminal, Spy, and Charlatan. I'd assume those can mostly be used as-written. Otherwise, really great effort. The main areas the conversion still needs, which may be beyond the scope of your document, are Thri-Kreen PC and various Athasian monster write-ups.
#5 Mephi1234 May 17, 2015 10:38:46	I agree that I find it strange that the Warlocks are made into psions, and sorcerers are left kind of haning there.    I would personally turn the sorcerers into the psions (with an updated spell list), and go the 4e route with Dark Sun warlocks - give them the Sorcerer-King Patrons.   That was actually pretty awesome.
#6 SirGrotius May 18, 2015 7:39:39	Very well done and an easy read.
#7 Lilika May 18, 2015 8:10:06	I actually really liked warlocks being psionics, I do feel that defiling is too strong as written.  I would probably go for just 1 lvl higher.  Also 4e did a Darksun companion that included Tieflings if I am not mistaken.
#8 arnwolf666 May 18, 2015 22:10:14	I like the rules for casting on defiled land.
#9 LuisCarlos17f May 19, 2015 9:03:12	Dark Sun needs the right videogame, something like "Baldruc Gate" or "Neverwinter Nights" for Fogorten Realms. Now the movie "Mad Max" is a blockbuster, and that could help to the return of this "hyborian-punk" settin.
#10 Lord_Ventnor May 19, 2015 15:41:06	Thanks for the feedback so far, everyone! As for some of the constructive criticism:   Defiling - I wrote defiling the way I did so that it would be as useful for many spells without being too complicated. I actually don't mind that its kind of powerful, because that feeds back into the Themes of a Dark Sun Campaign: are you will to do irreversible damage to the world for temporary power right now. That said, if GMs want to limit it to just giving a spell a 1-spell slot increase, that would also be fine. These rules aren't intended to be ironclad, but to be a jumping-off point for any groups that want to run a Dark Sun campaign right now without waiting for an official conversion.   Backgrounds - Yeah, I goofed there. I'll add them in ASAP, though it shouldn't be too much trouble to adapt the ones I missed.   Warlocks as Psions - I went this route, rather than say use Sorcerer, because the Great Old One and Archfey patrons give a lot of mental-themed benefits that I thought emulated what a typical psion would use. I also like that Warlocks and Monks (the other class I made explicitly psionic) recover most of their supernatural powers during a short rest. It gives Psionics a different feel than divine or arcane magic, which can only be fully recovered by taking a long rest. People who have mastered Psionics can recover most of their mojo with just an hour of meditation, while people who use other forms of magic need to lie down for a while once their spent.   Though I'll also say that if you want to make Sorcerers Psions or have Templars be Fiend Warlocks instead of using Oath of Vengeance Paladins, go nuts! I classified things the way I did because I saw some mechanical connections between classes that suggested certain themes to me, but my way isn't certainly the one true way to run a Dark Sun game.   Thri-Kreen PCs - Yeah, I didn't feel like trying to balance a new race against all the others that already exist. I might give it a try later, but I definitely feel more comfortable tweaking existing material rather than making my own up whole-cloth.   Dark Sun Monsters - If I get some more spare time, I might try to go through the DM rules and Monster Manual and try and suggest ways that certain monsters could be tweaked to make them more Dark Sun-friendly. I suspect a lot of it will be adding stuff like charm person spells to various plants. Because every living thing on Athas wants you to suffer.
#11 BRJN May 19, 2015 17:09:49	Lord_Ventnor wrote:
(Reply to #11) Lord_Ventnor	BRJN wrote:
#13 ChrisCarlson May 19, 2015 18:24:19	Mmmm, suffering. Stays crunchy in milk.
#14 durntaur May 19, 2015 20:43:59	I'm suffering-intolerant. I get really gassy.
#15 Lord_Ventnor May 20, 2015 17:52:00	I've refined the rules a bit based on the feedback I've gotten. For one, the backgrounds I missed are now in the document. I've also limited the Defiling Rules to increasing the effective slot used of a spell. Now that I've had some time to think about it, I agree that granting advantage could be seen as overpowering. This also means that a character cannot defile using cantrips, since they don't actually use spell slots.