[House Rules]Divine Elves Part 3: Nightblade

A recent thread on RPG.Net had an awesome premise.  What if you removed Clerics from OD&D and gave their magic to elves?

I thought the idea had merit.  The more I rolled it around in my head, the more I liked it.  Even if you left Clerics in, the spell creation and class creation rules in ACKS gave a perfect opportunity to build a ‘better elf’… or at least a different one.

So I did…see the previous post about the race build.  See the previous altered Spellblade Class.

In this post I’m going to rebuild the Nightblade class as a divine assassin.  Again, I’ve tweaked the spell list to my own tastes and vision.

[House Rules]Divine Elves Part 2: Spellblade

A recent thread on RPG.Net had an awesome premise.  What if you removed Clerics from OD&D and gave their magic to elves?

I thought the idea had merit.  The more I rolled it around in my head, the more I liked it.  Even if you left Clerics in, the spell creation and class creation rules in ACKS gave a perfect opportunity to build a ‘better elf’… or at least a different one.

So I did…see the previous post about the race build

In this post I’m going to rebuild the Spellblade class as a divine warrior champion (essentially a full on paladin).  I’ve tweaked the spell list to my own tastes and vision, but it could have easily been a straight up cleric list (or bladedancer, or shaman, or whatnot).

The Divine Elven Spellblade

[House Rules]Divine Elves Part 1

A recent thread on RPG.Net had an awesome premise.  What if you removed Clerics from OD&D and gave their magic to elves?

I thought the idea had merit.  The more I rolled it around in my head, the more I liked it.  Even if you left Clerics in, the spell creation and class creation rules in ACKS gave a perfect opportunity to build a ‘better elf’… or at least a different one.

So I did…

[House Rules-Monster]Shadow Savant

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the Dark Savants in Talislanta.    In the first edition book, there were almost no details about them making them even more mysterious.  There was very little about them except these cool pics:

Novel Rewrites

As some of you know, I finished writing a novel in 2010.  It’s an Urban Fantasy novel only without the Vampires and the Werewolves and instead focusing on different mythology.  I had a blast writing it and I somehow managed to write the entire 100+K novel in two months.

However, since I finished it, I’ve not been able to find an agent or publisher, which is disheartening but far from unusual.  For a long time I’ve been considering doing some major rewrites and edits, but man I hate that part of writing.  I can’t summon up the interest in tearing apart what I spent so long creating.

Recently though I have begun work with Jenn of Fallsintowriting under her editorial capacity from WordFalls.  It has been very eye-opening.  She’s really helped me hone my narrative and make things ‘pop’.  Every time I come away from a Skype session or she returns some meaningfully marked up chapters, I am energized.  She has given me back my enthusiasm, and I even feel excited about the rewriting process…something I never thought I would feel in a million years.

If you have a novel or short story you want some professional work on, I highly recommend her services.

New Adult?

I was told just recently by Jenn of Fallsintowriting that my most recent novel would do wall in the ‘New Adult’ category.  I’d never even heard of it before, though apparently I’m not alone.  It is a fairly new (as in 2009) category of fiction that deals with characters in the 18-25 age range.  It’s more ‘adult’ than ‘young’ and often deals with more serious real life issues.

[House Rules]Specially Unequal

One of the great things about  B/X and (by extension) ACKS, is its simplicity.  So many of the elements of the system show off this simplicity that it’s really a shining point if you are looking for a game that plays fast and quick.

But simplifying everything does, occasionally, leave some things to be desired.

One area where I personally don’t appreciate the simplicity is in grading the ‘Special’ experience bonus.  To say that a creature’s ability to Energy Drain a target is worth the same bonus experience as another creature’s ability to fly is disingenuous I believe.  In the Advanced versions of the game, this was ‘fixed’ in a variety of ways.  Based on my own experience, I’m going to incorporate a bit of that in ‘grading’ how much my monsters should be worth.  Yes, this means that pcs will get a bit more experience for defeating a monster, but when a creature has an ability that can permanently destroy a character with a lucky roll…I’m okay with that.  When you consider that this means a wight would be worth a whopping 30 xp more, versus its ability to steal a level…yeah,  no problem here.

Bonus                   Power

*                             AC of 9+ (0- in descending AC games)

*                             Blood Drain

*                             Breath Weapon that does less than 20 points max damage

**                           Breath Weapon that does more than 21 points max damage

*                             Cast level 1 or 2 spells

**                           Cast level 3+ spells

*                             Cleave

*                             Disease

***                        Level Drain (one level)

****                      Level Drain (two levels)

*                             Flight

*                             High Constitution (+1 or +2 HP per HD)

**                           High Constitution (+3 or +4 HP per HD)

*                             High Dexterity (+1 or +2 to Init and AC)

**                           High Dexterity (+3 or +4 to Init and AC)

*                             High Intelligence

*                             High Strength (+1 or +2 to hit/damage)

**                           High Strength (+3 or +4 to hit/damage)

*                             Hit only by silver/magic

**                           Hit only by +3 or greater magic

*                             Immunity to a spell

*                             Immunity or half damage from any type of weapon

*                             Invisibility

*                             Missile weapon use

**                           Multiple attacks that can cause over 30 damage

**                           Paralysis attack

***                         Petrification  attack

**                           Poison

**                           Single attack that causes more than 20 points of damage

**                           Special unlisted attack (webbing, entrapment, etc)

*                             Special Defenses such as Undead immunities

**                           Swallows targets whole

*                             Thief Abilities

*                             Using magical items against the party

**                           Weakness or fear effects

[House Rules]Everyone is Skilled Part 2-Proficiencies

Using Proficiencies with Skills

Ok, so that quick and dirty skill system kept coming up in my mind and I realized that maybe I could pick out the proficiencies that would need to be ‘fixed’ to work with the system.  Let’s see how that goes.

[House Rules]Everyone is Skilled (Thieves Still Suck)

As I previously mentioned, there are a plethora of ways to ‘fix’ thieves (beyond leaving them out of the game entirely).  This originally started as another means of ‘fixing’ thieves, and not one I came up with on my own either (see below).  However, the idea stuck with me so long that I couldn’t NOT do something with it.  I know a lot of people hate skill systems with a passion, and I get that.  Equally, I’ve played with a lot of players that feel hamstrung by characters without some crunch ‘meat’ on their bones.  Take this as you will.  Personally I could use something like this quite easily.

[House Rules]Thieves Suck-Solutions Part 3

As I previously mentioned, there are a plethora of ways to ‘fix’ thieves (beyond leaving them out of the game entirely).  So I’ll show case a few, some from other versions of the game, and others from Bloggers or my own ideas.