Even more than categories, posts in a series are related to a single recurring topic.
Geography These plains are located fairly centrally to the nearby countries. The red, moist soil does not support very much plant life, in most places. The Charnel Plains have been the site of many battles over the centuries. So much blood has been shed here that the ground itself now …
Geography Storm Mountain is a high peak with unusually severe weather (blizzards in winter, thunderstorms in summer, storms and hurricanes almost any time). Almost no one lives here. Mountains aren’t generally all that hospitable anyway, and where you’ve got lots of storms they’re even less so. However, here is a …
A few months ago I read Justin’s article, “D&D: Calibrating Your Expectations“. I agree with a fair amount of what it says about how character level expectations are often unreasonable (‘Einstein need only have been fifth level’… Justin shows how this could be so, and it makes sense). That in …
In an Alternative epic level system thread in rec.games.frp.dnd, I had cause to examine the spell slots available to the various classes. I was able to come up with a reasonably close approximation to the spell slots available to all of the base classes. Examination of the various spell lists …
I’ve been writing up about the Arcane Academy of Ter Liatri. This is a big wizard guild in my campaign — Ter Liatri used to be the capital of the Empire before it collapsed, and the guild survived it. More or less. I have in mind a couple of prestige …
Items that draw their power from their user, rather than their creator.
I originally got the idea for my karma rules from David Harper’s Kismet rules. They are not available online, unfortunately. I have adapted them for use with d20 rules. Karma is a point-based measure of accumulated luck, divine favor, and other such concepts. Karma points are also sometimes referred to …
Advanced classes provide some additional ability, sometimes at the cost of constraining character options. Each class has prerequisites such that a character has to work toward becoming a member of the class. To become a Wizard you must have some spell casting ability, a cleric must be able to channel …
Basic classes are very flexible, but not particularly powerful when compared to Advanced Classes and Prestige Classes. They may be considered as something of an apprenticeship and preparation for later, more constrained ‘careers’. Some sample basic classes are described below. I give them somewhat descriptive names to help identify them, …
Over the years I’ve looked at how character classes are designed. It seems that most of the common class abilities could be reasonably modeled as feats. Using just the Revised System Resource Document, the classes tend to be fairly cohesive and have clearly-defined class abilities — and stepping on the …