The greatest heroes and villains of legend are the ones who know how to change the rules to suit their needs. By all rights, the dread god Vecna should have perished into ash countless ages ago. But that dark power knew how to manipulate the world and laws of nature. He twisted them until they fit his own needs and then forced his will upon the changes until they became apart of what is. On the flip side of the coin is the goddess Mayaheine. A paladin from a distant world, she was to have perished in the great conflagration caused to stop her world's evil and open the gateway allowing the benevolent wisdom of Pelor to guide the world's future. Instead of passing into martyrdom, the powerfu yet pious dame-knight felt that such a sacrifice would be rewarded with an elevated status within her god's dominion. Thus instead of a final peace at the road's end, Mayaheine started on the path to godhood. All because she had the desire and inner strength required to change the rules that governed her.

What follows is a small smattering of changes to the nature of the world. All were documented by at least two witnesses and it is thought that the protagonists of our stories were frequently responsible for bringing about such notable changes. But such is the nature of myth.

1. Hovering on Death's Door. Characters normally are staggered from their wounds only at exactly zero hit points. When they go negative, even a negative 1, they fall unconscious. Later, everyone dies at -10 hit points. No variation because of health or valor. You are simply dead. Under this optional system the wounded individual gets a little more leeway. The severely wounded become staggered at zero hit points and stay awake but staggered until they negative hit points go past the character's constition modifier +1 (minimum of -1). The character does not actually die until their negative hit points equal their constitution score (minimum of -10).

As an example, Salij has a constitution of 14. He becomes staggered at zero hit points and remains conscious, but still staggered, at up to -3 hit points (his +2 modifier +1). At -4 hit points Salij would fall unconscious. Another orc soon stomps across him on his way to slay a halfling. The orc deals 7 more points of damage to the unconscious wizard, sending him to -11 hit points. Salij is still not dead though. He has 2 rounds to be healed or stabilize. If he remains in his present condition he will die in 3 rounds, when he reaches -14 hit points (negative equal to his constitution).

2. New Combat Maneuvers. There are two additional combat tactics available for characters. The first is called Back-to-Back and the second is called Drive Back. These can be used as standard attack options, just like tripping, disarming, bull rushes, and sundering.

(These options were first presented in Pyramid Online, Friday Feb. 20, 2004; in the article "Guard, Turn, Dodge, Parry, Spin, Thrust! More Combat Maneuvers for d20 System" written by Justin Bacon)

Back-to-Back: On your turn you can choose to fight back-to-back with an ally as a free action. The ally must be within five feet, and must choose to fight back-to-back with you. While fighting back-to-back, you and your ally work to protect each other -- shoring up each other's defense and, literally, watching each other's back. You and your ally make attacks at a -2 penalty while fighting back-to-back, but so long as you are fighting back-to-back you cannot be flanked.
Note: You can fight back-to-back with multiple allies. However, in order to fight back-to-back with multiple allies, all your allies not only need to be within 5 feet of you, but within five feet of each other.

Drive Back: As a melee attack, you can attempt to drive back your opponent. In doing so, you are attacking in a way that should force your opponent to back away from you. When you perform the drive back maneuver, your opponent can either choose to move five feet directly away from you or remain where he is.
If he chooses to move, he suffers no adverse effects. However, you can choose to follow him (also moving five feet). If he chooses not to move, you resolve your attack against them normally.
Note: The movement taken as part of the drive back does not count against your movement or your opponent's movement for the round. Your movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity from your opponent, nor does his movement provoke an attack of opportunity from you. However, this movement may provoke attacks of opportunity from other combatants.

The Feats Improved Drive Back and Power Drive were designed to work with this option.

3. A Different Approach to Metamagic. This rule replaces the normal method of using metamagic feats. When a character chooses a metamagic feat they gain the ability to use it three times per day and multiple selections of the same feat are cumulative. Another side affect of this option there is no longer any advanced preparation required. This also means that spontaneous casters must no longer spend a full round action to cast a spell enhanced with a metamagic feat. Giving them the same level of access to it as a typical wizard. However there is still a limitation to the level of spells that a caster can apply any known metamagic feat to.

The maximum spell level a caster can apply a metamagic feat to is equal to the maximum spell level he is capable of casting minus the spell level adjustment of the metamagic feat. If the result of this calculation is less than zero, the character cannot apply the metamagic feat to any of his spells. A caster can apply multiple metamagic feats to a single spell, or even the same feat more than once (if that particular feat allows it) but the level adjustment is cumulative. If both silence and still feats are applied, then the level adjustment is two instead of just one.

For example, the Arch-Mage Zale is being chased by local bandits. Knowing that he has to take out the leader quickly and discreetly, he chooses to cast a maximized (-3) and silenced (-1) magic missile to take out the lead guardsman. A moment later when the enemy cleric runs to add the fallen warrior Zale lets loose with an empowered (-2) and extended (-1) melf's acid arrow. In both instances Zale must be able to cast at least 5th level spells to succeed (5-3-1 = 1st level spell for the magic missile and 5-2-1 = 2nd level spell for melf's acid arrow).

4. The Proper Way to Fit into Your Armor. Nonmagical armor is always crafted for a specific race and must be worn by a member of that race for the armor to grant its greatest potential benefits. In the event someone of a different race but in the same size category wears it the maximum dexterity bonus is decreased by one and the skill check penalty is increased by one. This means if an orc puts on the breastplate armor of his human victim the maximum dex bonus is +2, but the skill check penalty is -4. This is why there are orcish and orc slave armorers to be found in the wilds. Note that magic armor is a special case. See the next rule.

5. The Superior Fit of Magical Armor. Magical armor is both masterwork and enchanted. As such it supernaturally adjusts to better fit its wearer. At a +1 enchantment it can be worn by any race of the same size category it was made for without the additional penalties normally incurred (see house rule #4). At +2 the max dexterity bonus is increased by an additional 1. When armor is +3 the skill check penalty is reduced by 1 (skill check penalties can never go below zero regardless of armor modifiers). At +4 the max dexterity is increased by another 1. Finally, when an armor reaches +5 enchantment it reduces the skill check by 1 again and also increases max dexterity by 1 again. Shields receive only the reduced skill check penalty.
As an example here is a chart for full plate armor showing how its statistics are modified by enchantment.

                  Full Plate Armor     Effective Armor     Armor Check        Max. Dexterity
                             Quality                        Bonus                     Penalty                       Bonus
                         Master Work                   +8                              -5                               +1
                                +1                                 +9                              -5                               +1
                                +2                               +10                              -5                              +2
                                +3                                +11                             -4                               +2
                                +4                               +12                              -4                               +3
                                +5                               +13                              -3                              +4

6. Weapon Selection and the Modern Druid. In the category of "I Don't Know Why" falls two weapons that aren't allowed to the druid; namely the scythe and great club. They are permitted to use the sickle and club but not their larger counterparts. There are many reasons I've heard and a few that even I came up with as to why the druid wasn't permitted, but in the end I figured, why not let them have two more weapons. So from this day forward those two particular weapons are considered weapons allowed to druids.

7. On Getting Rich Quick Via Wall of Iron and Wall of Stone. In the 3rd edition rules for D&D the standardization of spell definition has made a small change to two spells that was recently noticed, namely Wall of Iron and Wall of Stone; niether can be dispelled now. One of my more "resourceful" players has done a good bit of math based on figures from variious official 3rd edition sources and has discovered that his 9th level illlusionist-cohort can make half a million gold a year selling the iron made by the wall spell, not to mention the construction company potential for being able to cast permanent walls of stone. In Orignal D&D and both the first and 2nd edition of Advanced D&D the wall was always considered "permanent until dispelled" to avoid such "creative" use of the spells in question. To keep the young fellow from running off and getting quite wealthy with his iron sales behind the dutiful back of his fearless leader, I am invoking my right as Annoying Git Behind The Screen to arbitrarily change the rules. Both spells while permanent in nature are still dispellable.

8. Changing the Nature of Raising the Dead. Under the current set of rules, when a character dies and is then brought back via the 5th level spell Raise Dead or 7th level spell Resurrection, the character loses 1 level or if only first, 1 Constitution point. I don't want to do away with bringing back characters, but I also want it to hurt a little more when they die, after all death is not something to be taken lightly, even in fantasy. So here is the painful change that I have inflicted upon my players, when a character is brought back by either of the spells mentioned above they lose 2 attribute points off a single attribute of the player's choice instead of the normal level loss. As an added restriction, this penalty cannot be applied to the same attribute twice in a row. This is permanent adjustment to the character's attribute (well almost permanent, see the feat Strong Spirit and the new spell Restored Essence). The spell True Resurrection is not changed, that spell is meant to be very potent, it will remain so.

9. A New Race is Added t0 the List of Player Choices. The book Savage Species includes an optional new PC race, the Half-Ogre. I've let one player experiment with it and I've decided to throw it out there for the rest of the folks now. The race is very well balanced overall and any issues that might be a problem early on, it definitely evens out over time. So from this day forth a new option is available with no changes made to the class.

10. Making the rough and tough PC races a little scarier. Half-Orcs, Half-Ogres, and Dwarves all recieve charisma penalties. Whether or not you agree with the rightness of these attribute modifiers they are the way it is currently done. As a side effect though, the races are less intimidating. To make up for this accidental penalty, all three races now recieve a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate. All three races are typically thought to be stubborn and a little scary when angered. This adjustment is simply supposed to help reinforce that image.

11. The Healing Skill. This is a handy skill for anyone to take and its extremely useful just the way it is, but a little more could still be done with it though. I have decided that whenever a successful first aid check is made the patient heals 1 point of damage (2 points on a natural twenty). This can be done only once for any given wound. While my group's characters were low level, this one minor change helped them to stretch their rather limited magical healing resources.

12. A Miscellany of Spell Adjustments. oper fitting of armor.

13. Keen Weapons and the Improved Critical Feat. Under the 3.5 version of the rules these two abilities no longer stack. There are many great arguments made for why they should or should not be allowed to. I've seen it done both ways and keen weapons become less common once this is taken into consideration. As a form of compromise between the two I am going to try this new rule.
        When a character with the improved critical feat uses a keen weapon they recieve a +4 bonus on the role to confirm the critical instead of doubling the critical range again. This should, in theory, take the middle of the road approach to the argument.

 

........     .....      ........

 

   

The young monk squared off against his far more seasoned oponnent. His last blow had taken the wind out of the old fool. As the elder attempted his Tiger's Rake jump the young man threw out an open palm and, with a great roar, lashed out with a punch whose force could be felt a score of feet away. The old man's kneck let slip a harsh crack, the frail form fell to the hard dirt. Looking up with eyes that were quickly glazing over he managed to whisper his last words, "Boy you said you knew the rules. The Lightning Strike was forbidden. You cheated, you lose."

Smiling down at the whithering form the boy reached out with his talisman, feeling the life flow from the elder into himself. As the old man lay wasting away, the last words he heard were from the arrogant youth, "My master taught me a strict code to live by. Change the rules you don't like."

--End of the
Apprenticeship

The More Things Change.....

So you want to know what I've seen do you? I've been a fighter for going on twenty-five years and I've seen more than a little bit.

I started out at Castellan Keep. I was barely out of my teens and full of optimism about forging a brave new world. That's right, I was one of the heroes who chanced the Caves of Chaos. Back in those days we called the rogues thieves and the only dwarves we came across were stout warriors looking for a good fight. The elves were warrior-mages the lot of 'em; halfling were uncertain, and gnomes all but unknown to us. But time marched on and soon we began meeting the clerics of all the races, and more than a few scoundrels from among them.

That's how it went for a long time. The strange folk of my mercenary company have passed in and out of my life through the many adventures. We saved more than a few princesses, silver and otherwise, who always showed their gratitude if you know what I mean. My friends and myself sailed to the Isle of Dread, we even had a few run ins with the old Slave Lords on the Wild Coast. During those times I even journeyed with poor mystics who were masters of combat. They called themselves monks. A dangerous lot this bunch, and deadly when experienced.

Singing our praises were a new folk, aloof and full of themselves, folks called those lads Bards. Minstrels they may have been, but there was more to them than just music, of that I'm sure.

For a time I traveled with less honorable people too, greed does that to ya. Several were half-orcs and a few were even raised in the art of assassination. That was a black-hearted group if ever I met one. These types could be found everywhere for a time. Almost as if in response to such darkness I met a traveling trio, the likes of which I hadn't seen before. One was a powerful knight, he called himself a Cavalier. The second was a Wolf Nomad, that was a truly Barbaric character if ever I met one. The third was also something of a thief.......er, I mean rogue. Only that lady was more carefree. She fancied herself to be an Acrobat. With them in our group we were braver than ever, which was useful when we stumbled through the mists and into a haunted land of Barovia, but that's another tale and not part of my story at the moment.

For a time the Barbarian and Cavalier were some of the most impressive warriors I had ever seen. Then the wars came. Even before that dark time started I noticed there were no half-orcs to be found and the assassins had gone into hiding, because none were to be seen in the Flanaess. That brave Cavalier, his order vanished with none to replace him, the world mourned that passing. As for the barbarian, he returned to his people, weakened and saddened. Few were wandering the lands. Even the monks had withdrawn from their daily dealings with others. Elves were more abundant than ever and that should have been a sign, but we men are often too short sighted to see the horizon.

Now the wars have passed. I fought Against the Giants in Geoff. We even tried to thwart the plans of the dark elves by descending into the depths. Hope we succeeded with that. By the end I had traveled to the borders of Furyondy and fought back Iuz's horde.

But the wars have left a mark on the lands, the people, and the professions they follow. Dwarven wizards, long thought a myth, came out of their deep tunnels in lockstep with the Dwarven paladins. Hin Masters, that's what the halflings call their wizards, also sprang up from the burrows they call a shire. Half-Orcs are in abundance again, that might be a good thing if their not pointed at you, dunno myself.

Assassins? Yep I seen a lot of 'em. But their Grandfather's changed the traditions. Now you have to prove yourself before you can join their order. The monks are returned to us too, their orders are as restrictive as ever. The newest group though are the sorcerers. Strange wizards who don't really memorize spells, but instead just feel for 'em. That just sounds a little peculiar to me.

I thought about settling down from time to time, though it would be harder to raise followers now than it was a scant decade ago. Doesn't feel right though. No matter what strange people I meet, or what their profession might be, I still know at its heart the job I've chosen is the same. Their are still princesses to save, still great evils to stop, and still great stories to be sung by the bards. That is what adventuring is all about. Going off to face the unknown, to save the day, and maybe to turn a small profit in the process.

As I've always said, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

--A conversation
with Falstaff,
aging warrior, hero
,and occasional
ne'er-do-well.

LoG

Scoundrel's Introduction:
A Rogue of
Unusual Size

Moonlight wrapped the darkened manor house in its sweet embrace. The master of the house and his well paid staff slept soundly, secure in the safety provided by the magical wards guarding the grounds. Had there been a proper guard or even a pack of underfed dogs running the grounds some alarm might have sounded. As it was though, none were aware of the towering form huddled over the arcane marks. With a skill honed by experience that could only be gained on the road, the magical barrier began to unravel; its protective force dispating back into the multiverse.

With the enchantment gone, the eight foot plus thief sprang over the outer gate and sprinted up to the central home. Keeping to the shadows the great thief cursed the full moon shining down from above. The dim light weakened one of the giant intruders natural advantages, and given his target he needed every edge he could get. After reaching the central home the thief studied the wards protecting the many ornate stained glass windows. When they were fully understood he set about disassembling their magics so that he might finally get down to the heart of this night's business.

It took longer than he would have liked, but this strange fellow wouldn't turn away. Too much would be lost if he surrendered to the bastard's wishes. The gnome and human didn't give up despite the brute squad that was sent to dispatch them, Even the dwarf stood her ground until her legs could no longer keep their bloody balance. Now it was his turn. He wouldn't fail. He couldn't fail. True friends were a scarce commodity for the likes of him and the list had begun to dwindle too quickly for his tastes. No, he had to press on. Istus demanded he complete this task.

Stalking through the darkened halls the half-ogre's steps were silent as a mouse. Only the sounds of snoring and dripping water would be heard by the attentive guard, had they bothered to buy one. The hall was arched with an ornate mural detailing Mayaheine's Ascendance. The impressive painting stretched the length of the grand ceiling. The big fellow paused only a moment to take in the work of art that was impossible to steal. Rare classical Flan pieces decorated the halls and Baklunish vases worth thousands of gold each were resplendent in their perfection, still none of these valuables would be touched, at least not this trip through. Ahead of him was the smallish door he had been told of There is where Nox's Key was to be found, provided the bald witch was right.

As the criminal approached the door carefully, almost fearfully. As he studied it for possible traps placed by a paranoid owner a sleepy apprentice walked into the room as he attempted to sate a midnight hunger. Even before the sleep was fully out of his eyes a dagger a full two foot long flew from the half-ogre's oversized hand. The blade flew true striking the young man dead. Only a thud on the floor marked the fool's passing. The thief confident in his abilities retrieved the dagger and body. The boy would be stashed someplace down stairs, less likely someone would interupt him that way. As the smallish door opened it revealed a tight winding staircase barely six feet tall and less than three feet wide. As the giant sized criminal wedged himself down the steps he began to wonder why he hadn't chosen to become a proper alleybasher like his old man.

With his inner thoughts for torment the big fellow descended into the darkness that waited for his arrival.

--The true and proper
beginning of a
half-ogre's
bad day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LoG