Character Creation & Rule Guide

[Shakram]

 

Game Name Heroes Journey To Becoming Paragons On the Path To Immortalality

Game System DnD 3.5e

Theme Epic Scale Survival, Continuous Dungeon Crawl, Round Robin DMing

Flavour Gaining renoun becoming epic paragons and finally attaining divine immortality

Game Information

 

The Basics Level, Gold, Attributes etc.


For this game I will be the primary DM.
Players will also take turns running encounters.
No DM experience is required, I will help should anyone need help with running thier encounter.

We will start at level 40 with 1 divine rank.
Starting Level: 40
All D&D 3.5 books and classes are allowed
Homebrew allowed within reason as well as other sources like pathfinder.
Starting Attributes 50 point buy
+LA races and savage progressions are allowed
Any alignment is ok
Hit points are maximum per level
Starting gold will be 40,000,000gp


Divine Realm Augment
Your deity realms will recieve a permenant boost gaining 5 miles for every divine rank and will continue to grow as your character grows.


Artifact Gift

 

Artifact Gift
Your artifact should be an epic weapon of your choice.
The weapon should have +20 worth of bonuses and can be an improvement on an already used weapon if you wish.
(The total value of enhancements given to the artifact should be 8,000,000 which is +20)

Intelligent Items
Artifacts are intelligent and will try to fufil the ill of the god it serves.
Attributes
Intelligent items can actually be considered creatures because they have Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores each at 25. Treat them as constructs.

Domain Powers
Each of your gods will gain an artifact which grants you a new domain which ties into your already chosen portfolio meaning it can create spells you can grant and use as a diety as long as it is in your possession.

It can cast spells using metamagic feats given to the artifact in its creation.
Each artifact has
Enhance Spell
Intensify Spell
And 3 non epic metamagic feats of your choice.

No spells with xp cost can be part of the artifact.
Metamagic spell bonuses can be equal to 30th spell slot level at maximum.
Unlike most magic items, intelligent items can activate their own domain powers without waiting for a command word from their owner. Intelligent items act during their owner’s turn in the initiative order.

Choose one domain made by you or preselected. Your artifact can use these domain spells or powers at will as a spell-like ability. Your deity can also grant those domain spells to your followers. Essentially you gain an extra domain.

An artifact and a deity can use any domain spell in its artifact as a spell-like ability at will. The deity’s effective caster level for such abilities is 10 + the deity’s divine rank+ your characters primary attribute. The saving throw DC for such abilities is 10 + the spell level + the deity’s primary attribute (if any) + the deity’s divine rank.


Foresight(Ex)
The presence of a artifact sharpens its master’s senses. While a artifactis within arm’s reach (adjacent to or in the same square as its owner), its owner gains Foresight as the spell.

Improved Superior Evasion (Ex)
If a deity is subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage while holding the artifact, the deity takes no damage if it makes a successful saving throw and half damage even if the saving throw fails. When targeted artifacts are immune to any attacks that require reflex saving throws.

Artifact Personality (Ex)
Each artifact has a distinct personality, chosen by its owner at the time of its creation from among those given on the following table. At creation its owner typically gets a feel for a artifacts personality only through occasional impulses, but as the owner increases in usage the artifacts personality becomes more pronounced. It is not uncommon for a artifact to constantly ply its owner with observations and advice, often severely slanted toward the artifacts particular worldview. The owner always sees a bit of himself in his artifact, even if magnified and therefore distorted.



Share Powers (Su)
At the deitys’s option, he can have any spell or power he manifests on himself also affect his artifact. The artifact can receive the benefit at any distance from the deity.

Sighted (Ex)
Although it has no physical sensory organs, an artifact can telepathically sense its environment as well as the deity with any senses the deity possesses such as vision and hearing. Darkness (even supernatural darkness) is irrelevant, as are areas of supernatural silence, though an artifact still can’t discern invisible or ethereal beings unless a deity can. A psicrystal’s sighted range is the same as the deitys.

Telepathic Link (Su)
The deity has a telepathic link with his artifact with an unlimited distance. The deity can see through the artifacts senses, and the two of them can communicate telepathically as if the artfact were the target of a Telepathic Bond spell however it can even function across dimentions. For instance, an artifact placed in a dungeon on distant world in another dimention could relay the activities occurring in that dungeon on that world.

Because of the telepathic link between a psicrystal and its owner, the owner has the same connection to an item or place that the psicrystal does. For instance, if his psicrystal has seen a room, the owner can teleport into that room as if he has seen it too.

Deliver Touch Spells & Powers (Su)
Artiacts can deliver touch powers for gods. Deities and artifact are always considered in contact and can designate the artifact as the “toucher.” The artifact can at any tme deliver the touch power just as the owner could.

Telepathic Speech (Ex)
Artifacts can communicate telepathically with any creature that has a language and is within their sense range.

Flight (Su)
Artifacts can, as a standard action, will themselves to fly at a speed of 150 feet (perfect).

Immunity to Magic (Ex)
Artifacts have immunity to most magical and supernatural effects, except when the deity or the artifact wishes for the artifact to be effected by a spell or power to further its purposes.

Indestructable (Ex)
An artifact cannot be destroyed unless the deity is destroyed as it is the deity . If lost the deity can create the artifact as a standard action.

Sight Link (Sp)
Deitys can remote view the artifact (as if Scrying) at will.

Channel Powers & Spells (Sp)
Deities can manifest powers through their artifacts to a distance of up to any distance even across dimentions. The artifact is treated as the power’s originator, and all ranges are calculated from its location.

When channeling a spell or power through the artifact, the owner manifests the divine power as though the deity was casting it. The deity is still subject to attacks of opportunity and other hazards of manifesting a power, if applicable (for instance, he becomes visible when manifesting an offensive power if invisible, as does the artifact).

This artifact gift as well as the realm augment wll be put into character creation as permenant additions to the game and can be used by characters using character creation.

How to post information on your character

 

To be honest there are alot of abilities players can have for classes and I do not want to go pouring through books so I ask that any non SRD classes, feats, and abilities players want to use to please put the information on it in a spoiler.

Typical D&D settings are the places the adventurers will travel to:

 

From the Forgotten Realms to the Sunset Mountains the realms extend far beyond any maps. Our heroes will adventure throught the realms and even to the distant planes of the celestrials.

General Setting:

 

The focus of the adventurers will be in the Forgotten Realms setting which is on the continent of Faerûn mixed with other homebrew world influences depending on our encounter. There will be various other D&D lands for the party to traverse. The realms are shared by humans, dwarves, elves, goblins, orcs, and other peoples and creatures.

Technologically and magic mix in this world, civilization is advanced in some areas while in others it is savage and chaotic. However, the presence of magic provides an additional element of power to the societies. There are countless nation states and many independent cities, with loose alliances being formed for defense or conquest. Trade is performed by ship or horse-drawn vehicle, and manufacturing is based upon industry and magic.
The settings are many and the quests will vary from one adventure to the next.

Flavor of settings

 

Adventure and epic encounter oriented quests leading to the renoun of becoming paragons(level 20-40) and then the campaigns will take the PCs to divine immortality becoming new gods divine rank of 0-20 the PCs will continue thier adventures.

Roleplay Equals Bonus XP

 

Of course your characters get XP for encounters. However as this is play by post if you take time to write more than one liners you will get an XP bonus. Also playing to alignments and character interactions with other players and NPCs will see players awarded with XP. So those who roleplay well will be getting more XP, keep track of it as it may allow you to level faster.

Psionics-Magic Transparency

 

As a house rule any psionic item can be made for non psionic characters, and vice versa, for example a psicrown can made into a staff, or psicrystals may be used as scrolls etc. . . .
Use magic device and use psionic device will be interchangable and still be needed to use certain items just as they would normally apply.

Psionics-Magic Transparency
Combining Psionic And Magical Effects
The default rule for the interaction of psionics and magic is simple: Powers interact with spells and spells interact with powers in the same way a spell or normal spell-like ability interacts with another spell or spell-like ability. This is known as psionics-magic transparency.

Though not explicitly called out in the spell descriptions or magic item descriptions, spells, spell-like abilities, and magic items that could potentially affect psionics do affect psionics.
When the rule about psionics-magic transparency is in effect, it has the following ramifications.
Spell resistance is effective against powers, using the same mechanics. Likewise, power resistance is effective against spells, using the same mechanics as spell resistance. If a creature has one kind of resistance, it is assumed to have the other. (The effects have similar ends despite having been brought about by different means.)
All spells that dispel magic have equal effect against powers of the same level using the same mechanics, and vice versa.
The spell detect magic detects powers, their number, and their strength and location within 3 rounds (though a Psicraft check is necessary to identify the discipline of the psionic aura).
Dead magic areas are also dead psionics areas.

Flavor & Homebrew

 

For this game I am allowing players to reflavor spell visual effects of damage within limits for example a lightning bolt can be a sword bolt and do damage as lightning.
A holy sorceror can summon deathless positive energy undead instead of negative energy undead same spell effect and the undead remain the same however they would be positive energy instead of negative energy.
A feat only for sorcerors like bloodline can be remade for another character.
As a necromancer yes if you want to make your spells visual effect be a negative energy that has no other effect than the original spell sure. However if you want to shoot negative energy and bolster your undead minions no.
As for reflavoring its just for visual effects and minor semantics it wont change the actual spells effects nor damage type.

Any reflavoring or homebrew needs approval.

Player VS Player Conflicts

 

Well as I mentioned before any and all alignments are ok, meaning there may be clashes at times between players. If this happens it happens, players can rob, kill, decieve, cheat, abandon, sabotage, waylay, and enspell each other for better or for worse. It would be nice if the characters could get along and I would prefer that however sinister actions may happen.
As a rule of thumb keep disputes in game only and out of real life. This is just a game.

Savage Progressions

 

http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/arch/sp
With the rules for template classes, we can adjust the granted abilities and total levels of the template (or level-adjusted race) to accommodate abilities the base creature already has. In effect, this process creates a custom template for each of these special transitions and converts that into a template class.

Reducing Level Adjustments

 

For this game level adjustments are allowed however I will require you to crunch the math please and have it listed on your character sheet.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/ra...djustments.htm
Level adjustment happens at multiples of "3".
Once the total of a character's class levels (not including any Hit Dice from his creature type or his level adjustment) reaches three times his level adjustment, his level adjustment is eligible to be decreased by 1.

If the level adjustment is greater than +1, this process repeats until the creature's level adjustment reaches +0. Each time, use the creature's current level adjustment to determine the point at which the level adjustment can go down by 1.

Each time a character's level adjustment is eligible to be reduced, the character may pay an XP cost to take advantage of the reduction. The character must pay an amount of XP equal to (his current ECL -1) × 1,000. This amount is immediately deducted from the character's XP total. The deduction should reduce the character's effective character level (ECL) by 1.

So, your total current Effective Character Level will be 15.

So for +1 level adjustment at level 3 you can buyoff -1 to +0
So for +2 level adjustment at level 6 you can buyoff -1 to +1, level 9 you can buyoff -1 to+0
So for +3 level adjustment at level 9-1 you can buyoff -1 to +2, level 15 you can buyoff -1 to+1, level 18 you can buyoff -1 to +0
So for +4 level adjustment at level 12 you can buyoff -1 to +3, level 21 you can buyoff -1 to +2, level 27 you can buyoff -1 to +1, Level 30you can buyoff -1 to +0

Starting XP

 

Starting XP will be that of a 40th level character
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/xp.htm

Any crafting or XP based spells characters want to cast or items characters would want to make will dip into this and could possibly result in level loss.

Cohorts

 

Starting attributes for one main cohort is 40 point buy.
Starting gold is 20,000,000gp
Any additional cohorts will be 30 point buy, and half of wealth per level, for thier level.
Also as a rule of thumb I wont be allowing any permenant cohorts or followers to have more HD than the player characters.

Spellcasters/Erudite Spells Per Level

 

Spells Gained at a New Level
Wizards perform a certain amount of spell research between adventures. Each time a character attains a new wizard level, she gains two spells of her choice to add to her spellbook. The two free spells must be of spell levels she can cast. If she has chosen to specialize in a school of magic, one of the two free spells must be from her specialty school.
In most cases, wizards charge a fee for the privilege of copying spells from their spellbooks. This fee is usually equal to the spell’s level × 50 gp.

So a total of 30 spells for free, any more must be purchased as scrolls or learned by paying to copy from a spell book.

Magical items Size And Shape

 

Magical items for this campaign shape to the size of the wielder of the item after 8 hours of attunement. For example a giant who found a magic ring on a dead halfling could wear the ring, and after 8 hours the rings abilities could be discovered and used by the giant. Magical items will shift size immediatly however they dont function for the new user until 8 hours of attunement is done. Cursed items items will work immediatly and there is no 8 hour attunement time.

Traits And Flaws

 

Sure you can take traits but not flaws. The reason is at the levels we will be playing at the flaws can be overcome with items and spells help from party members etc. . .

So they wouldnt really be flaws, but instead gaining 2 free feats for something that wont have an effect on gameplay.

All are welcome so join in just say hello and post your interested on our OCC thread and get ready to have some fun playing dungeons and dragons!

[Shakram]

]

I would like the xp players made to mean something, so older players will always be higher level than new players. I think the gap should be a few levels. I am open to suggestions on this if you guys think I should just raise the entry level we have a gap to represent experience.
But we have a system so you can catch up quickly.

What I am going to be doing is adding the rewards by 50% per level down they are.

So if current players were level 28 and starting xp was for a level 21 the lower level player would get +50% the xp per level down that you are down instead of the normal amount. Drastically increaasing yur level so you can catch up rather quickly.

Once a new level is attained the mechanic continues if players are still lower level until they achieve the current level of most powerful players.

So in the above exaple a level 15 trying to catch up with a level 18 would get +150% the xp until level 16 then they would get +100% the xp, once they get to 17 they get +50% the xp and when they reach 18 they get equal xp.
.

[Shakram]

Originally Posted by Dana00753

Can we use the starting gold to buy any items we wish or is there a limit to what is available?

No limits to whats available, please also consider the magic item compendium rules for combining magic items when buying your magic items.

The Magic Item Compendium describes the cost of adding a 2nd magic property to a magic item (MIC 233) :
"In most cases, if the item is one that occupies a body slot, the cost of adding any additional ability to that item is 1-1/2 times the value of the added power (or the value of the added power plus 1/2 the value of the existing item, if the added power normally costs more than the existing item). "

To bestow a 2nd power you add the new ability cost plus 1/2 the price of the cheaper of the two magic abilities.


I believe the math continues the same for each new item added.

[Shakram]

The Nightstick (Libris Mortis, costs 7.5K, adds
4 turn undead attempts) seems to have added a new dimension to metamagic
which looks to me overpowered.

For the cost of two nightsticks (15K), a cleric with the right feats
(3 of them), can make any spell he likes permanent (ok - using up one
spell slot too). At higher levels this turns into a complete bargain
(15K for permanent Stone Body, for example, is ridiculously cheap)

One nightstick may used per day and no more than that.

[Shakram]

Due to balance issues I am making a new rule . . . .

Any Player VS Player fighting must be one on one.

Mind controlled players are not subject to this rule.

Summons and cohorts are also not subject to this rule.

In the event a secondary battle must be fought a patron god will renew any lost health and resources to whomever has to fight a second time. For example a bard has jus had a fight and he is wounded as another player comes to take his life. His health bardic abilities and spells will be reset to what they were before the first fight began. If the player was injured before the first fight the injuries will remain.

[Shakram]

Cohort strting gold will be half of your gold.

When we level up and upgrade new items can be of your choice and are considered gifts from your patron diety.

Also if you want to spend any of your gold you can deduct it from your savings and have the item you wanted added to your inventory as a divine gift to your character. However your player has no knowledge of this interaction.

Items can be upgraded at market value prices.
Items can also be sold at half market value.

Any new items or levels will be automatically added to your players with no need for rest, as though they have had a mighty divine epiphany.

[Shakram]

From the arms and equipment guide page 128 I know its a 3.0 source however I think its ok for 3.5 as there are no real guidelines for feats in D&D 3.5

Here are a few houserules
1. For this game I will say the cost to put feats in items is 10,000 gp, plus another 10,000 gp per prerequisite
2. Also feats given by items do not aid in qualification for prestiege classes or other item feats.
3. One item feat may not aid in qualification of another item feat. For example you cant have one item that extends spell and a secondary item that persists spells. They need to be embedded within the same item to gain the benifit.
4. No arcane spells, psionic powers, divine spels, extraordinary, supernatural, or spellike abilities may be granted by item feats.

Magic Items that Grant Feats
Pricing feats for magic items is a very fuzzy area. If a feat is purely mechanical, such as Great Fortitude, default to the rules in the DUNGEON MASTER’S Guide with an adjustment for the fact that the bonus has no type. For instance, the belt of endurance grants Great Fortitude, which adds a +2 bonus on all Fortitude saves. A +2 resistance bonus on all saves would cost 4,000 gp. It shouldn’t be more or as economical to buy bonuses to all saves separately, so a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves alone should cost 2,000 gp. If the bonus has no type assigned to it, you could double or even triple that. Metamagic feats should adjust the level of the spells to which they apply, and thus
change the price. While this is still a matter of judgment, consider increasing all the spell levels by +1 if the item affects spells of 0–3rd level, by +2 if the item affects spells of 0–6th level, and by +4 if the item affects spells of any level. A general guideline for other kinds of feats is that they cost 10,000 gp, plus another 5,000 gp to10,000 gp per prerequisite.

[Shakram]

When the players do a level up or have a break they can buy sell or transform items as a kind of divine gift thing which is how we have been doing things so far anyways.

This will also cover things that take a considerable amount of time like crafting items or casting spells that are supposed to take a considerable amount of time.

So during our breaks the party can do this stuff.

When I say divine gift I mean the time and all procedures to craft or make something are done instantly.

Items or spells crafted still take the same amount of XP and gold cost.

Any items or spells fashioned in this way appear instantly within bags or are found by the players by uncanny luck.

[Shakram]

Roleplay Bonus XP
All players who post during down time recieve another +50xp per post you make during our rest breaks. This xp is a bonus on top of the xp you get for interacting with other players by making friendships and joining the fellowship.

Any xp is applied or subtracted immediately upon confirmation of the specific action.
You keep up with your own roleplaying and battle xp in the background thread.





+50 xp for trying to develop a friendship with a player wether you succede or fail it doesnt matter, its the intent that will count. This is added onto the xp if you create a friendship and is per player character. This xp is given based on who tries, not saying sure I will be your friend, but putting forth effort to try and create a friendship or connection through player interaction. You may get this xp once for player you try to convince to be your ally.


+100xp per player you develop a friendship with through interaction.
You can only get friendship xp for an attempt and confirmation once per party member.
You do not get xp every time your friendly and a friendship confirmation is a 1 time thing.
Being friendly doesnt count as a friendship confirmation but its certainly friendly behavior.
Friendships must be a mutual agreement and clearly confirmed with roleplaying.
You declare in your own post when your attempting or confirming a friendship.


-100xp per player you develop a bad relationship with through interaction.



+0xp for not interacting with anyone in particular and decide you will do your own thing.[/B]



+5000 xp for just lending your services to the group and agreeing to help everyone and the groups cause in any manner you see fit. This means stating that your character is ok with everyone in the group and you are willing to form an alliance even overlook unpleasing characteristcs for a greater good.
This group will be a fellowship and will be seen as such by each of the members in the group. The specifics of the fellowship will be decided by the group in roleplay if it is to be formed and left to the players to decide on. (group name/contracts/vows/ a leader/expences etc) The fellowship must have more than half the group to function as a group.
The fellowship has to be worked out by players in roleplay as some type of actual fellowship with promises and pledges lots of cheesy stuff.

[Shakram]

CRITICAL MISSES (FUMBLES)

Critical misses are only on hit rolls and saves, meaning you roll a natural 1.

You do not have critical misses for skill rolls

Also if you roll a natural 20 on any type of ability check save or hit roll I will count it as a hit.

[Shakram]

Originally Posted by Shakram

When the players do a level up or have a break they can buy sell or transform items as a kind of divine gift thing which is how we have been doing things so far anyways.

This will also cover things that take a considerable amount of time like crafting items or casting spells that are supposed to take a considerable amount of time.

So during our breaks the party can do this stuff.

When I say divine gift I mean the time and all procedures to craft or make something are done instantly.

Items or spells crafted still take the same amount of XP and gold cost.

Any items or spells fashioned in this way appear instantly within bags or are found by the players by uncanny luck.

Feat Clarification:

Each prerequisite feat increases the feat cost by 10,000gp
For example:

Spring Attack [General]
Prerequisites
Dex 13, Dodge, Mobility, base attack bonus +4.


Total cost for spring attack is 30,000 (Dodge+ 10,000), (Mobility+ 10,000)

Dodge total cost is 10,000

Mobility total cost is 20,000(Dodge+ 10,000)+ (Mobility+ 10,000)

Total cost is for an item with spring attack is 50,000

You may not have a feat without also paying for its prerequisite feats as well.

Meaning all the feats must be part of the item.

[Shakram]

I think its appropriate to mention here that players who are playing any races or templates do not recieve BAB skills and saves from the racial stat block unless they take a level in the race.

For example Mahima has deathless listed as a race he changed into after aquiring the template.

The skills, saves and BAB are not given to the character every level, instead he should get the skills saves and BAB of the classes he has chosen. It is good to show what the race is and list the abilities of the race should one decide to take racial HD.

I am posting this because I do not want players to be confused thinking that they somehow get saves BAB and skills every level which are listed for the race rather than their class levels.

If there is a template that gives these things it will say it does, as far as I know most templates do not do this. I have yet to see any template that gives Base attack bonus saves and skills for every level without taking racial HD.

[Shakram]

Due to looking over many of the epic feats they seem to be very powerful. Which is good! However in this game we allow players to purchace feats in items. I will say that epic feats cannot be placed into items.

Meaning you cannot buy epic feats.

Also I would like a limit on the total number of feats bought to equal half your character level.

For example if your level 21 you can buy up to 10 feats,

[Shakram]

TABLE 1–2: EXPERIENCE AND LEVEL-DEPENDENT BENEFITS
Character Class Level XP Ranks, Skill Ranks, Feats Increases
20th 190,000 Skill Max 23
21st 210,000 Skill Max 24 Gain Feat
22nd 231,000 Skill Max 25
23rd 253,000 Skill Max 26
24th 276,000 Skill Max 27 Gain Feat
25th 300,000 Skill Max 28
26th 325,000 Skill Max 29
27th 351,000 Skill Max 30 Gain Feat
28th 378,000 Skill Max 31
29th 406,000 Skill Max 32
30th 435,000 Skill Max 33 Gain Feat
Each level beyond the chart add +1,000 to the amount needed to attain a new level
feats +1* per 3 levels Abilities Increase +1 per 4 levels


Custom Item And Epic Spell Limits Tiers System

Tiers:
Tiers increase the base amount you could augment an item beyond base level.

You may add +10% per level over 20 for non attribute boosting items following the same formulas used for the base epic item.

You may add 20% per level over 20 to equal how powerful you could augment an item beyond max listed level for attribute boosting items following the same formulas used for the base epic item.

So at level 27 +70%(Spell resistance 68 max)

As for attribute bonuses which normally max out at +12 using the same tier system
+20% per level at level 27 would be +140% 28 max to attributes

Attriutes are +20% per level over 20 to equal how powerful you could augment an item beyond max listed level.
Any other stat boosting item +10 per level over 20 to equal how powerful you could augment an item beyond max listed level.

This way the players could have some progress on stat boosting items beyond what is listed for epic items and keep the same formula that the epic items are currently using.

[Shakram]

The house rule stated some time ago was that all XP costs must be paid by characters.

For example if you use an Efreets wish ability your characters still have to pay the XP cost of the normal spell as though it were cast by your characters.

I cant seem to find my old quote about cutting xp costs so I will be updating the character creation thread so people dont need to look through the OOC to find where we initially said this.

The main point is any XP spells must be paid by players even if its a cohort or summoning. Also in the event that a spellike or supernatural ability uses doesnt use xp but would normally have an xp cost the character would still need to pay the xp costs for it as though it was casting the spell themseves as a normal spell with an xp cost.