Clerical Orders: S&W FR

If I do run a Forgotten Realms swords and wizardry Whitebox game, I want clerics of different gods to be mechanically different.  Also, I plan to adjust the descriptions of different gods to match a L, N, C alignment system and my own vision for the realms.

Here are a few selected gods:

Auril - Chaotic - Goddess of Cold, known as the Frostmaiden
Weapons - as cleric
Armor - leather and hide armors of the north, shields
Clerics of Auril cannot use the Turn Undead spell,
+3 to saves vs cold attacks, +1 slot survival (tundra)
Auril is worshiped in the north, where the tribes offer up sacrifices to the frostmaiden to sooth her fickle rages that bring cold winds.  Clerics of Auril are known to consort with frost giants, go to battle with spiked maces magically shaped from ice, and at higher levels can control the weather, call up ice elementals, maybe even ice demons...

Mystra - Neutral - Goddess of Magic
Weapons - as cleric, they favor the staff
Armor - none (as wizard)
Clerics of Mystra cannot use the Turn Undead spell.
Clerics of Mystra get +2 to saves vs magic, and can use magic items normally used only by wizards, they also get 1 extra slot in a lore of their choice (typically something related to magic), and +2 slots in read magic, they also have the ability to detect magic (as magical ability) once per day by concentration.
There are very few true clerics of mystra, most of her followers are magic users.  Those clerics that follow her are usually found in libraries or as adventurers, seeking lost magical texts and artifacts.

Selune - Neutral - Goddess of the moon and stars
Weapons - as cleric
Armor - any, leather preferred
Clerics of Selune cannot turn undead, +1 slot Lore (navigation by the stars), they gain night vision (30ft).  The priesthood of Selune is as scattered as the stars in the sky.  They tend to meet in small groups out in the open or in buildings with open ceilings to allow view of the moon.  Full moons are special holy days for the priesthood.  Clerics act as seers, guides, mentors, using astrology to predict events.  They are free spirited people fighting back both chaos and order when they oppose free will - trying to bring back the balance that allows.  Folks outside of the faith are always distrustful of the order due to rumors of widespread lycanthropy in the priesthood (that are only partially true).

     
Lathander - Lawful - God of dawn, renewal, and birth, known as the Morninglord.
Weapons and Armor - as cleric
Clerics of Lathander can turn undead any number of times per day (once per round) as a special ability.  Clerics of the Morninglord tend to dress in bright colors of orange, red, and yellow and many adventuring clerics favor tinted crimson or gold platemail.  Their congregations meet for services in the morning and they tend to be short happy affairs with much singing and rejoicing.  Clerics of the faith can call forth dawnglow (a rosy type of faerie fire), and have even been able to call forth focused bursts of pure light.  Rumors have it that Lathander is only one facet of a more powerful sun god who may have other facets shown in some of the other faiths.


I have plans for even more gods, but the trend will be the same.  Each faith will have customized spells and special abilities.  Most clerics will either not be able to turn undead at all, or will have to memorize a spell to do so.  A few selected dieties will offer the turning undead ability (like Lathander).

Open Quest Magic Point Store - House Rule

Being that the first Chapter of our Open Quest PBEM game just finished and my players were eagerly ready to spend some improvement points I thought it was a good time to drop in this house rule, intended to fill in a big hole I spotted in the rules system:


A spell caster must bind themselves to a magic point store in order to use it.  

The process takes 1d20 hours to complete (and a successful skill check). Once this is complete the caster has access to the magic points in the item. PC's and NPC's can have no more than 3 bound magic point stores at any 1 time.

This rule will stop PC's (and enemy NPC's) from having endless magic point stores (granting them pretty much unlimited magic points).

This rule only applies to magic point stores that a caster can use to fuel his  own spells. If an item has the ability to cast a certain spell (wand of flame arrows) then the caster can use it until it runs out of points and it doesn't count against his 3 bound magic point stores.


Next up I'm coming back to my work on S&W house rules.  I'm working on Clerics and Wizards next.  I don't think I'm actually going to make many changes here, just new spells and different flavors that would be realms specific. 




*Pricelessly awesome bonus quote from the website where I found the picture:


 "crystals are on the "dew line of consciousness," meaning that they are going to assist us in bringing in the New World which everybody in the New Age community knows is destined to be. That's why so many crystals that went to sleep after Atlantis was destroyed, are now waking up and reemerging, and finding their way back to their keepers. In Atlantis, crystals had a much different role than they do now. There, they functioned as these huge monoliths that powered cities. Nowadays, crystals also power our world, not as these huge monoliths, but rather as small silicon chips in our computers and our time pieces."


This quote was not from an RPG gaming website, real live people actually seem to believe in the power of these crystals and that the crystals are alive and are somehow communicating with them...  


I really can't say any more about magic point stores in Open Quest or about crystals.  This quote is so awesome, I will let it stand on it's own. 


All your stupid crystals R belong to us!!!

Fighting Men

I don't really like the combat machine rule for S&W Whitebox.  It only works against 1 HD monsters. This means the DM has to say, "these are 1 HD monsters, you can use your combat machine ability".  I think it has certain roots going back to chainmail, but for my gaming purposes it doesn't fit.  It completely pulls you out of the RP experience, and forces the GM to tell the players they are fighting 1 HD creatures.  That is ok when it is goblins, but not when the creatures are some made up thing of mine.

I think I'm going to replace it with the following two house rules for fighters:

1. Weapon Specialization - fighters can pick a certain weapon type and specialize in it.  This gives them +1 to hit and damage with this weapon type.  The fighter can switch his specialization but it takes 1 year of training to do so.  The fighter can adventure during this year of training but must use the new weapon type during his adventures (at least along with other weapons) and during that time gets no advantages for weapons specialization for any type until the year of training is over.

2. Multiple Attacks - Experienced fighters can get two melee attack attempts, the second attack is with a variable die type - never a d20 :) - you can't critical with the second die type.

1-2nd level - only 1 attack
3rd level - second attack  [d12]
5th level - second attack  [d14]
7th level - second attack  [d16]
9th level - second attack  [d24]

I recommend rolling both the d20 and the funky attack die at the same time although the fighter may choose to split the attacks between two opponents.  I've also been dreaming up fighting styles that may be purchased by fighters as skills to allow for more offense and defense options in combat.

My White Box Thief

My thief class:

Experience, to hit bonuses, hit dice, and saving throw table are as cleric.

The thief practices agility and speed in combat, +1 to saving throws against anything the DM rules can be dodged.

Thieves typically favor light one handed weapons especially those that can be concealed (knives, daggers, one handed swords, light bows and crossbows, garrotes, spiked knuckes, etc...).  They also favor light armor - anything beyond soft quiet leather armor will hinder their skills.

The thief nets 7 skill points and gains 1 extra skill at levels 2,4,6,8,10.

Most thieves are chaotic or neutral, however, this class with it's strong focus on skills can be used to create a lawful scout/ranger/bard/skald type character under the DM's approval.  Bards and skalds (even a few thieves) study languages and sometimes even magical writing and have been known to carry a few scrolls to get them out of a tight spot.

*Now for a bit of explanation about my thought process.  My house rules thief is a slightly weaker fighter who has specialized in training his skills.  He gets no special backstab bonuses - anyone can stab anyone in the back, the thief trains in stealth and therefore has a better chance to do it using his skills.  While all the other classes can sneak, climb, etc.. the thief excels at these tasks from years of training.

Using the Simple Skill System

So I've got the rules for the skill system in place and description of what the skills do.  So before I move to other subjects I wanted to show a little bit about how I'm thinking to use the skill system in my game.

I'm planning to give players slots during character creation and then more during play.  I may change this as I go but this is what I'm thinking:

Fighter/Cleric(Druid)/Wizard - 5 slots at lvl 1 - 1 extra slot at level 3, 6, and 9

Dwarf - 3 slots at level 1 - 1 extra slot at levels 3 and 6 (Dwarves also get two craft slots for free)

Elf - 4 slots at level 1 - 1 extra slot at 4 and 8

Halfling - 2 slots at level 1 - 1 extra slot at level 4 (halflings also get stealth at +3 mastery at level 1)

I'm also working on a Thief Class based around this system.  I think thieves will have:

Thief - 7 slots at level 1 - 1 extra at levels 2, 4, 6, etc..

I may allow halfling to make a thief variant and elves to make fighter focused or wizard focused character.  I'll probably limit characters to no more than +2 training at 1st level.  


Example skill selections:

Fighter (ranger type) - tracking, Natural Lore - survival mountains, Natural Lore - Herbalism, Natural Lore - Animal, riding or natural lore - weather

Fighter (soldier type) - Athletics, Riding, Tactics, Body Development, heraldry

Fighter (bandit) - Athletics, Stealth, Streetwise, Survival, Deception

Fighter (horse warrior) - Riding (2), survival (sea of grass), athletics, tracking or possibly natural lore - weather

It takes me about 2-5 minutes to pick out skills for each type of character, however, I think it gives enough options to build really customized PC's with varied abilities.


***This is a rules system being developed as house rules for my own Swords and Wizardry White Box Game, the rules set developed by Matt Finch.  You can download a free copy of the rules here, but if you like them you really should buy a copy to support Matt, he is a really cool dude.***

Skill Descriptions

Here is a quick list of how I'm planning to use the skills in my game:

Athletics - fairly straight forward, checks for swimming/climbing only in difficult situations

Riding - skilled riders can use bows from horseback, skill checks will be used for stunts while riding or riding in heavy combat etc...

Body Development - each slot in this skill gives bonuses to acts of strength or constitution, each slot in this skill nets the character 2 HP.

Stealth - used for sneaking, hiding, etc... obviously the target number will reflect armor worn, lighting conditions, ambient noise, etc...

Disguise/Deception - skilled thieves use this skill to lighten pockets, impersonate others, infiltrate garrisons, etc...

Mechanisms - this is the typical skill used to disarm mechanical traps, and pick locks.

Sailing - knowledge of sea craft and the ability to navigate them in open water

Engineering - the player should elaborate on what the character knows (building would net the ability to build siegecraft,  bridges, walls, castles and stuff like that, or a character might be able to have engineering skill to build fantastical inventions of the sort that Leonardo Da Vinci would make if he was in a fantastical world - limited by resources and time).

Healing - skill in first aid and treating wounds, illness, etc.. with setting appropriate methods.  Typically the use of this skill will accelerate healing and might allow for curing diseases.

Lores - these are too varied to go into detail.  In general modify the skill check by the difficulty of the subject and also the information available.  Access to a good or great library will make things easier than recalling something from ones past reading...  Some of these like alchemy might allow the user to craft special potions, healing draughts, poisons.  Tactics might be able to be used on the battlefield to counter flanking maneuvers etc...  Gambling might allow a character to cheat, or detect cheating, and to outplay an opponent in a game of skill/chance.

Natural Lores - see above.  In addition, the natural lores of survival will allow for the character to find important resources (water, food, shelter, etc...) in a specific setting (i.e. a desert warrior skilled in desert survival will be out of his element on a glacier or in the mountains).  Herbalism will allow for a character to identify toxic plants, find healing plants, and maybe have other effects in a fantasy setting.  Characters with weather lore might have the ability to detect and predict weather changes before others would.

Tracking, Influence, Trade - pretty self explanatory

Read Magic - this character has studied magical writings.  This skill is necessary for wizards and non-wizard characters should have a good reason why they know this (some cultures may train all their people to read magical writing or maybe nobles will train their children to read magic).  This skill can allow even non-wizard characters to read scrolls (with a chance of failure, modified by the character's skill level and the level of the spell - sometimes misreading a scroll will result in spectacular failures :).  Wizards can read scrolls with no chance of misfire.

Analyze Item - this type of character with time and proper resources to analyze a magical item and determine its properties.

Languages - characters can take skill ranks in languages (beyond what they normally get for their INT).  This may allow a character to learn a weird or ancient language (draconic, or demon languages, or maybe some lost culture).

Craft - this skill has many variants (smiths will be able to craft horseshoes, weapons, repair armor, make nails, etc..) BoyerFletchers can repair and make bows and arrows, brewers can brew up beer and spirits, there are lots of other good crafts (carpentry, shipbuilding, etc...).  GM's must rule what resources are needed to repair or create goods.

Simple Skill System

To start with I'm expanding on the idea I had back in 2010.  Back then, I wasn't planning to have specific skills - instead I imagined having players describe their background and then roll against that description using a simple d6 system modified by stat bonuses.

My new concept allows for way more customization of a character.  I'm designing this system with Swords and Wizardry White Box in mind; however, I think you could drop this into any game that is lacking a skill system.

Each character class gets a certain number of skill points during character creation.  Most classes will get 3-5 points (the thief class I'm thinking of will get way more points than the rest). I haven't decided the exact number of skill points to give out per class just yet.  I'll be covering this in another post.

Big Old Skill List:

Str - Athletics (covers climbing, jumping, etc..), riding, body development

Dex - Stealth, Disguise/Deception (Dex/Chr, covers pickpocketing), * Mechanisms(Dex/Int), *Sailing(Dex/Wis)

Int - *Engineering, *Healing, *Lores (pick one - Alchemy, Art, Astronomy, gambling, heraldry, tactics, poisons, etc..),  *Craft (pick one - Smith, armorer, boyer/Fletcher, brewer, butcher, mining, etc...)

Wis - Tracking, Natural Lore (Animal, Herbalism/Plant, Mineral, Survival, Weather)

Chr - Influence, Trade, Streetwise

Int - *Read Magic, *Analyze Item - both of these require a good explanation of why you would know them if you aren't a wizard!

Any skills with * mean that you can't attempt using this skill (defaulting to the stat bonus only) unless you have trained 1 slot in it.  Feel free to add additional skills or let players make up their own.


Competency and Modifiers:

All skill attempts use a single d6 die roll, modified by the stat bonus and the training bonus.  If the skill has two stats listed, take the average bonus and round to the next largest absolute value integer (round 0.5 to 1 and -0.5 to -1)

Each slot = +1 bonus

No slots = Untrained
1 slot = "skilled"
2 slots = "expert"
3 slots = "mastery"

For Swords and Wizardry, I'd cap skills to 3 slots until 10th level.  Beyond that I'd let my players go to legendary skill prowess.  For other game systems, the GM should judge how many slots are used.   You could also vary the die used, want more variation, substitute a d8 (or d7) instead of a d6!

With this skill system, never give players bonuses due to environmental circumstances.  Deal with bonuses and penalties in the target value, covered below.


Difficulty/Target Number:

The DM sets the difficultly of a task, including all environmental factors.  Most DM's are familiar with this type of roll against target number system and include any applicable factors.

2-3  = easy (I wouldn't normally ask a player to roll)
4-5  = moderate
6-7  = hard
8-9  = very difficult task
10   = near impossible
11+ = more or less impossible

Sometimes you may set the difficulty of fully completing the task so high a player can't ever succeed, but if they roll well (maybe a 5-6 on the d6) you could give them a partial success?

Also, if the difficulty is moderate ( 4-5) and a player with a +4 bonus, rolls a 1 or 2 on the d6, you may want to rule that they succeed but with a complication?

Keep in mind this skill system is supposed to be quick and dirty, let them roll, use your judgement and let them know what happens.  When letting players roll some skills, don't tell them what them what they are aiming for (just tell them "it looks pretty easy, you should be able to do this (difficulty 4)"  or "wow, this might be the hardest challenge you've ever faced (difficulty 10)".

Or don't tell them anything, give them the evil GM smile and say, "just roll the die"...



***This is a rules system being developed as house rules for my own Swords and Wizardry White Box Game, the rules set developed by Matt Finch.  You can download a free copy of the rules here, but if you like them you really should buy a copy to support Matt, he is a really cool dude.***