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The Mamen

April 4, 2012 /

noisms over at Monsters and Manuals posted something fun that I couldn't resist.

The idea is to roll randomly to pick 2d6 monsters from your bestiary of choice. (Fiend Folio, MM2, Monstrous Compendium from 2e, etc.) Then turn those monsters into PC races for a campaign setting.

I pulled out my Dragon Warriors Bestiary and rolled 8 creatures. Sabre-Tooth Tiger, Tapestry Wards, Caitshee, Titan, Wild Boar, Ire Goblin, Okeman, and Water Leaper. I tend to over-think things, so bear with me as some of these are more fleshed out than others.

Mamen (Tapestry Wards) - These creatures were magically brought into this world from a two-dimensional plane to serve a cruel wizard intent on using them to build an unstoppable army. The Mamen escaped the control of wizard, but not before gaining the ability to appear as three-dimensional humanoids. Three generations later, some Mamen have come out of seclusion to explore their new home. The fourth generation Mamen have adapted mostly to three-dimensional existence, but still rely on talismans made for them at birth that allows them to maintain their three-dimensional shape.

Mamen have the ability to remove their talisman and re-attach it at will. This allows them to become invisible (turn sideways) and attack while invisible (like a monofilament weapon). A strike from a two-dimensional Mamen does 1d8 damage at first level, but increases as the Mamen increases in level.

Mamen cannot be clerics, but can be any other class.

Caitshee - These humanoids have a slight feline appearance in the face due to the inverted triangle shaped nose. They are resistant to magic and can disrupt magic with a certain range per level. This includes disrupting the magic of a party's mage.

Due their magic resistance and magic disrupting abilities, there cannot become mages. Caitshee prefer to be rogues.

Ire Goblin or Bugbear - Nothing too new here except that a few smaller, orange splotched and weaker Bugbears can be psionic. Otherwise, Bugbears cannot be psionic.

Titan - When the gods defeated the Titans, the titans that survived went into exile and lived with other humanoids. The children of those Titans became the epic heroes of legend. The grand-children of those epic heroes are what other races call Titans today.

Physically, they appear human ranging from six to seven feet tall. They prefer to be clean-shaven and wear their hair short. Titan villages are fairly common near Zominakapra and Puli settlements.

Titan can be any class they wish. When a Titan character is created, a d6 is rolled. The result determines which ability score receives a +4 bonus. Depending on rolls, it is possible for a Titan to have a 22 score for an attribute, though that is quite rare.

Zominakapra (Boars of Zominthos)  - These boar-men have the torso and lower body of a man and the head of a boar. Despite their fierce appearance, Zominakarpa are quite thoughtful and intelligent. Zominakapra can communicate with pigs, but rarely do so preferring the company of others.

They can often be found exchanging ideas and philosophies. Those that practice sorcery form societies that mutually benefit all members. Research and discovered spells are eagerly shared with other members. For this reason Zominakarpa characters that choose to be sorcerers gain an additional spell per level for their spellbook.

Despite their perchant for intellectual pursuits, Zominakarpa are swift and deadly in combat. Those that choose to be fighters gain the ability to temporarily use primal rage to wreak havoc on their targets.

Okeman - The okeman vary widely in height, body type and coloration. All okeman have dense skin, can move quickly and are susceptible to fire. They can range from four to seven feet tall. They can be thin or thick. Their color can range from light grey to dark brown to any color in-between. Their multi-colored hair contains yellow, auburn, a bit of orange and traces of green.

Okeman believe that everything has an associated spirit. Stones have spirits, tree have spirits, rivers, mountains, even blades of grass are believed to have spirits. Any Okeman employ a unique form of magic that they call Galli Nir. Magic is generated by the proper alignment and invocation of specific spirits. To aid with proper alignment, Okeman mages use a vast array of pre-made charts to help with protocol when addressing the spirits. Their belief and work with spirits leads the Okeman and Puli to be very close allies.

Okeman avoid things made of wood as they believe that all wood contains the vengeful spirit of the tree that it came from. Their respect for tree spirits makes them close allies with the Puli.

Okeman are skilled in leather and stone craft. They also have great strength. All okeman have the ability to call down lightning which does 1d8 damage to all within 30 feet, including the Okeman.

Water Leaper - These albino limbless toads  are extraordinarily  adept at using teleportation magic and other spells that help makes things or people travel easier. Water leapers themselves move around on floating platforms which they call life chairs.

Water Leapers have very little physical defense and can only attack through the use of magic. Once per day, they can concentrate and strike an opponents with a magical disease that targets the bones of the body. Successful usage of this power will either turn an opponents' bones to jelly.

Puli - Despite being relatives of the Caitshee, they do not have magic resistance or magic disruption abilities. Physically, Puli are quite similar. The most striking difference is seen in the long, curved fangs of the Puli.

Puli can be any class, but they are known for their magic. Their particular form of magic relies on ghosts and spirits to access magical powers. Many times, the spirits serve as a conduit of energy, but there are a few times that they are called upon to act more directly.

Puli clerics do not turn ghosts or spirits. They seek to command them instead. A Puli cleric that successfully commands or controls ghosts or spirits are granted an additional spell to cast. The ability works once per day at lower levels, but can be performed more frequently for powerful clerics.

More Alternate Cleric Stuff

April 1, 2012 /

One of things about using clerics without Spell Lists is that it fits well with Scott Ludwig's Basic D&D Custom Class Template. Since the ACKS custom system is really similar, once I get the Player's Companion, I can make comparisons.

The system uses thirds and halves, so custom classes are easy. 1/3 Cleric gets two categories, 2/3 Cleric gets four, 150% gets 8 categories.

For the Human Template, anyone choosing 200% for Divine gets all 11. I would like to have 12, but even one of my five additional categories is a bit of a stretch.

Looking at the sample Paladin at the link: d6 Hit Dice,  three categories, melee weapons as "Monster" and missile weapons as a Magic-User. I like the idea that not all Paladins are the same.

Will a 1/2 Cleric get a category at half strength? That's up to you. It complicates the formulas used to determine success. Since it's a custom class, though, you can just make a table for success.

If you go the full strength route like me, I simply changed the XP values for Divine. Basically, it matches the Arcane table. This breaks the system for calculating a regular Cleric, but since I allow a spell at 1st level, I use a different chart for Clerics anyway.

One other route could be to have a Piety score. By default it could be Level/3 for non-Clerics and set a Hit Dice limit on using the categories. This means a Paladin with Healing is not healing 2d6 hit points until 6th level and reaches a ceiling of 5d6 at 15th level. The other advantage of going this route is that you don't have to say "no spells at 1st level", the only category that can be used at 1/3 power is healing and that only equates to 1 or 2 hit points.

Still some details to work out. The Paladin still feels too powerful even with my change to the XP Table. (Which is 2125 XP to advance to 2nd level on my adjusted charts instead of 1750 xp on the standard chart.) Also, changing the Divine chart has consequences for non-human clerics.

Postscript

Here is the conversion of the Turning Formula for ACKS:

1d20 + ( 3 * (level of cleric - hit dice of undead) )
Hit dice of undead is increased by one for every special ability (asterisk next to HD number)

Success is adjusted roll of 10 or better

For example, 1st level cleric turning skeletons:

1d20 + (3 * (1 - 1) ) or roll 1d20 with a 10 or better.

As Keith Davies mentioned in the original G+ post, there's a better way to state it:

d20 + 3*level >= 10 + 3* (undead HD + special)

Alternatives to Spell Lists

March 31, 2012 /

Talysman over at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms wrote about Clerics without Spells almost a year ago. As is his talent, he can produce a simple mechanic that sounds intriguing and fun to play. It's fascinating the almost complete lack of bookkeeping required. Roll 2d6 + (2 * (Cleric Level - HD effect)) >= 9.

Read the post to get the details of the categories as well as the follow-up post with some clarifying details. Really good stuff.

Being a 2e fan, I began to mull how this could work with the idea of Priests of Specific Mythoi. For example, some Clerics do not turn undead, but incite battle rage (God of War). Some Clerics get a Druid-like shape-changing ability.

Under my proposed system, a cleric would choose any six categories. The original categories are: Command, Defense, Disease, Dispelling, Healing, Warning. My additional categories are:

  • Resistance:  Cleric is granted an automatic saving throw against certain types of attacks, energy or a specific class of spells for a number of turns equal to the Cleric's level. Resistance to Posion is a 2 Hit Dice Effect. Resistance to Fire, Cold, Lightning, Acid, and Sonic energy is a 3 Hit Dice effect. Resistance to Psionics is a 4 Hit Dice effect. Resistance to a class of Magic is a 5 Hit Dice effect.
  • Shapechange: Cleric can change into any non-magical, non-planar creature up to the Cleric's level divided by 2 in Hit Dice. For example, at 1st level, a Cleric could change into a fox on a successful roll while a 14th level Cleric could change into any type of bear on a successful roll.
  • Passage: Cleric can travel at normal rate regardless of terrain or physical condition. Examples include, underbrush, forest, sand, ice, snow, wind and more. Forest, hills, deserts, snow and rocky/broken areas are a 2 Hit Dice effect. Wind, mountains, jungles, swamps are a 3 Hit Dice effect. Ice is a 4 Hit Dice effect.
  • Communication: On a successful roll, the Cleric can communicate with any creature or plant. This can only be attempted on an individual creature or plane once. If the attempt fails, it will never succeed, regardless of level advancement and/or number of attempts. The effect lasts for a number of hours equal to the Cleric's level.
  • Favor: The Cleric can grant bonuses to saving throws, Armor Class or attacks to an individual. The Hit Dice effect is twice the bonus. For example, a +1 to Saves is a 2 Hit Dice effect. A +3 is a 6 Hit Dice effect. The effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the Cleric's level.

The rationale for Resistance to certain categories of spells deals with a bias against mages in my campaign world. The reason for the psionics separation is again a campaign world thing. Psionics are the only form of magic available to those that want to use magic. Mages are like d20 sorcerers in that they were born with the ability.

For a couple of the categories, I had to make a table and I'm looking for a way around that. The other option, of course, is to rework the entire system to use the basic mechanic in ACKS. Hmmm.

For weapon choices, I would allow a few weapons that do d4 and two weapons that do d6. A missile weapon can never do more that d4 damage.

It also occurs to me that I could do the same thing with mages using spell types as categories. But if that happens, it will be another post.

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