RolePlay Wiki

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Basic Campaign Assumptions / Houserules:

• Hit Point damage doesn't usually injure your character.

  HP damage only represents noticeable injury in three circumstances:
  
  1. The damage reduces the target's total HP to or below half.
     
The character takes physical damage, albeit minor, and starts to show signs of battle fatigue.
     
     
  2. The damage reduces the target's current HP to zero.
     See On Death and 'Death Saves' below.
     
     
  3. The attack deals poison damage or effect.
     
Poison only takes a scratch to affect the target. That's what makes it so dangerous. 

  
  At all other times, HP damage represents the target heroically avoiding getting skewered or brained or chopped in half or whatever.
  
  
• You don't have to heal lost Hit Points--you just recover them.
  After any combat, if you have time for a short rest, you automatically regain HP up to one-half your Maximum Hit Points without spending healing magic or hit dice. You can spend hit dice or use magical spells or potions to regain further hit points, as normal. 

  If your hit points are below zero, you do not recover hit points in this manner.
  
  e.g. - George's Maximum Hit Points are 24. He had a good fight. Now he has 2 Hit Points. After the fight, he takes a Short Rest and recovers 10 hp so he's at 1/2 his maximum. A healer can cast a spell or he can spend Hit Dice to improve his current Hit Points further.
  
  
• Roll the dice when you're under pressure. Otherwise, don't.
  You don't have to roll d20 to use a proficiency in which you're trained unless you have to use it while people are shooting at you or while you're under serious time pressure or if you only get one chance to do it right. If you have time to work and aren't in the throes of an adrenaline rush, you don't have to roll unless the task should be too hard for you to accomplish.
  
  
• Failing a check usually doesn't mean your character does something stupid or even looks stupid.
  If your character fails a dice check while he or she is attempting to do something that's obviously above his level, then he probably did something stupid. At all other times, failing a dice check means that something outside the character's control conspired against him that prevented him from succeeding in a task he rightfully should have looked awesome doing. I mean, come on. Your character is obviously a badass--otherwise, why the heck are you playing him, and why are we following him? Badasses don't look stupid when they fail onscreen; they still look awesome. Maybe the other guy looked awesomer this time. Maybe the deck was stacked against him. Either way, we're going to avoid making characters look dumb just because we rolled crappy dice for them.
  Choices make characters look stupid. Dice rolls do not make characters look stupid.
  
  
• Failing a check doesn't necessarily mean your character doesn't succeed--it just means your character doesn't succeed in quite the way he or she would have liked...
  Success with a cost is often an option. Sometimes the DM will offer a trade: success, but you do it loudly; or success, but you take longer than you'd expected; or something similar. Alternately, on a simple failure the player can offer one (1) trade along the same lines (so make it a fair one), which the DM can accept, refuse, or counter. These are options, and the player can always opt for failure instead. Natural 1s, on the other hand, are still fumbles, and never qualify for success at a cost.
  
  
• Magic-users can cast rituals for any spell they know, not just certain spells.
  Spells per Day represents a caster's ability to throw powerful magic under pressure, but it's only a small part of the caster's magical ability. Outside of combat, any spellcaster can use a ritual to cast spells using ambient magical energies instead of hir own reserves. It's just that attack spells aren't particularly useful outside of combat.
  
  
• Divine casters' spells are inspired, not formulaic.
  Since channelers gain their spells directly from a cosmic entity instead of through practice and rote, the spells they cast are more apt to molding than are those of the arcanist. What this means is that a cleric can alter the basic parameters of a spell within certain limits by communing with their higher power during spellcasting.
  The cleric takes an extra turn (a 'round,' in AD&D parlance) to cast the spell. Narrate casting in order to give the enemies a chance to interrupt you; component use is ongoing throughout spellcasting. Wisdom save to hold concentration if you take damage. On the second turn of spellcasting, choose one of the following effects to improve the spell:
  
  1. Increase the spell's range: touch to 30', 30' to 100', 100' to 300', 300' to 1000', for example.
     
  2. Double the number of targets affected by the spell OR double the spell's area of effect.
     
  3. Increase the HP effect of the spell by +1d. 1d8 becomes 2d8, 2d8 is now 3d8, whatnot.
     
  4. Increase the bonus or penalty conferred by the spell by +/-1. This includes spells where you roll a bonus, like Guidance and Resistance.
  
  You cannot stack effects by extending spellcasting further.
  
  
• Anybody that can read the language can cast a spell scroll, but it's harder for untrained users. If the spell is above your caster level (i.e. and/or off your spell lists) you have to make a casting check at DC (10 + spell level). If you fail, you lose the scroll and the spell doesn't go off. If you fail by 5 or more, you have to roll d% on the appropriate misfire table for:
  
  Divine Spells - Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger spell lists
  Arcane Spells - Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard spell lists
  
  
  
• Gain Inspiration no more than once per non-combat encounter when you roleplay your character’s Personality Traits, Ideal, Bond, or Flaw.
  A non-combat encounter may be social, exploring, or adventuring. Downtime doesn’t usually count.
  
  
• A Short Rest only takes 15 minutes.
  Also, if you take time to eat an interesting snack while resting, you gain Inspiration. If you share the snack, everyone gains Inspiration.
  
  
• You can gain Inspiration more than once.
  It does stack, but you can’t use it more than once in a single turn. Bad rolls happen, but they don’t have to get you killed.

Metamagic Components
Spellcasters casting a spell from a spell slot can use certain exotic material components to enhance the effects of their spells. They must actually have and expend the component in question; it cannot be substituted with a spell component pouch.
This rule will be based on the Metamagic Components rule from 3rd Edition Unearthed Arcana.
However, we're not gonna bother with long tables of component lists. If a component is conceptually appropriate to the spell and meta magic effect, it's enough. The component has to be either of masterwork quality or worth 100 gp. (A dwarfish masterwork dinner fork may make a perfectly appropriate component for an expanded Heroes' Feast spell, but it doesn't have to cost 100 gp.)
If anybody has an issue with a chosen metamagic component, ze can raise it (politely) in OOC chat and we can discuss.

Ritual Caster Feat
For this campaign, we've updated the Ritual Caster feat to allow owners to learn rituals from any spell list, not just their chosen spell lists; however, they have to find someone skilled in the ritual to teach them. Priests and priestesses at temples often offer this service on Level 1 cleric spells for a nominal "donation," for example.

Ritual Caster
You have learned a number of spells that you can cast as rituals. These spells are written in a ritual book, which you must have in hand while casting one of them.

When you choose this feat, you acquire a ritual book holding two 1st-level wizard ritual spells of your choice (the first two spells you choose must have the ritual tag). If you come across a spell in written form (e.g. - magical spell scroll, wizard’s spellbook, a ritual formula, etc.), you might be able to add it to your ritual book. In order to scribe the spell into your ritual book, the spell’s level can be no higher than half your level (rounded up).

Copying a spell into your ritual book takes 2 hours per level of the spell and costs 50 gp per level. The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it.
A trained spellcaster can teach you to cast a spell from their list as a ritual, even if it's not on spell lists available to you. However, you cannot learn a ritual from other spell lists from a scroll or spell book--it must be taught. Priests and priestesses at temples often instruct students in Level 1 cleric spells for a nominal "contribution," for example.

Links
Creating a Character in this campaign
On Fighting and Dispatching Minor NPCs
On Death and 'Death Saves'
Partially or Temporarily Attuning a Magic Item
On Gaining Hit Points at a New Level
On Using Scrolls and Magic Items
Making Maneuvers in Combat