New game, Newer DM

[Dominicius]

IMO less the lycanthrope has in common with the animal (and with real lycanthropes), the less interesting it is. Generic abilities that can be flavored into a whole host of aesthetically different options are great for some games, but generally not D&D.

Ok then how about this.


Transformation: A lycanthrope character can now turn into his animal or hybrid form at will as an immediate action. All lycanthropes gain the following benefits while transformed into either hybrid or animal: one bite attack, two claw attacks (except in animal form unless the animal has them in its entry), low-light vision, scent, DR 5/silver and moves 10 feet faster.

The following benefits are unique to each type of lycanthrope. They only work while the lycanthrope is transformed in either hybrid or animal form unless stated otherwise. (a few sample conversions)
Werewolf - gains the Trip special attack while in a animal form. Gains +1/3 per level enhancement bonus to strength. Gains one free combat feat (once the choice of feat is made, it cannot be changed again).
Wererat - gains immunity to disease, can spread Filth Fever by attacking (save DC is equal to the damage taken from the characters bite attack) and gains unlimited darkvision (except in magical darkness). Gains +1/3 per level enhancement bonus to dexterity while in both forms. Gains one free skill feat that works off a dex based skill (once the choice of feat is made, it cannot be changed again).
Wereboar - Gains 4 natural armor while in animal form. Gains +1/3 per level enhancement bonus to constitution. Gains one free combat feat (once the choice of feat is made, it cannot be changed again).
Weretiger - Gains the Pounce, Improved Grab and Rake special attacks while in animal form. Gains a +1/3 per level enhancement bonus to dexterity.
Werebear - Gains the Improved grab special ability while in animal form. Gains +1/3 per level enhancement bonus to strength. Gains one free combat feat (once the choice of feat is made, it cannot be changed again).

[CatharzGodfoot]

Since I don't think I've been explaining myself very well, here's a reworking of lycanthropy from the top. I can't vouch for how balanced it is. It might also be too complicated. Oh well...

Lycanthropes
All lycanthropes possess the following abilities.
[*]Lycanthropy: a lycanthrope's bite carries lycanthropy.
[*]DR 4 + 1/3 level / Silver
[*]Scent
[*]Low-light vision
[*]Alternate forms: A lycanthrope gains two alternate forms, animal and hybrid. The animal form looks like a normal member of her lycanthrope type. In hybrid form a lycanthrope gains a bite attack and two claw attacks. Her features change and become bestial as appropriate to her kind. In either form, her bite and claw attacks gain a magical enhancement bonus. A lycanthrope can only enter alternate forms when taking damage (as an immediate action) or due to sleep madness.
[*]Sleep madness: An hour after a lycanthrope falls asleep, she must make a charisma check (DC 10) or immediately transform into animal or hybrid form and go on a rampage, attacking any living creatures she encounters. After an hour of rampaging or after being reduced to 0 HP, the lycanthrope will fall asleep and revert to her normal form.

---

Lycanthropy
Infection: injury. DC: 10 + 1/2 level + Con. Incubation: 1 day. Damage: 1d8 wisdom. Special: this is a supernatural disease; a creature reduced to 0 wisdom becomes a lycanthrope and is cured of the disease.

---

Wererat
Wererats usually appear in urban environments. Smaller races such as gnomes and halflings are most common, humans, orcs, dwarves, and elves are not unheard of. Goblin wererats are usually sniffed out and ostracized by their worg masters.
[*]Lycanthropy: Only small and medium humanoids can be afflicted with wererat lycanthropy, which turns afflicted creatures into wererats.
[*]Carrier: Wererats suffer no ill effects from contracting non-supernatural diseases.
[*]Rat tongue: Wererats can communicate with rodents as though they share a language.
[*]Attribute bonuses: +2 to dexterity and constitution while in animal or hybrid form.
[*]Skill bonuses: A wererat gains a competence bonus to Hide and Move Silently when in animal or hybrid form.
[*]Alternate Forms: In animal form, a wererat's size becomes small, she gains speed 40' (climb 20', swim 20'), and a bite attack. Her form is that of a dire rat, which may limit her ability to use equipment.

Werewolf
Orcs, humans, and elves are the races most likely to become werewolves. Cases of werewolf lycanthropy most often crop up at the fringes of civilization. Goblins are a special case; many consider werewolf lycanthropy a blessing. Some royal goblin lineages jealously protect their lycanthropy, while other tribes intentionally infect all members.
[*]Lycanthropy: Only small and medium humanoids can be afflicted with werewolf lycanthropy, which turns afflicted creatures into werewolves.
[*]Howl of the wolves: Werewolves can communicate with canines as though they share a language.
[*]Track: A werewolf gains the Track feat. If she already has the track feat from another source, she can retroactively choose a different feat if possible.
[*]Skill bonus: A werewolf gains a competence bonus to Survival.
[*]Attribute bonuses: +2 to constitution and strength when in animal or hybrid form.
[*]Alternate Forms: In animal form, a werewolf's size becomes medium, she gains a speed of 50', and she gains the wolf's trip special attack. Her form is that of a wolf, which may limit her ability to use equipment.

Weretiger
Weretigers are rare, as their attacks almost always result in death rather than infection.
[*]Lycanthropy: Only medium and large humanoids can be afflicted with weretiger lycanthropy, which turns afflicted creatures into weretigers.
[*]Attribute bonuses: +2 to dexterity and strength when in animal or hybrid form.
[*]Alternate forms: In animal form a weretiger's size becomes large, she gains a speed of 40', two claw attacks, and a bite attack with which she can use improved grab. She also gains a pounce special attack and a rake special attack. Her form is that of a tiger, which may limit her ability to use equipment.

---

Then use something like your lycanthrope paragon class to remove sleep madness and add voluntary transformation, and to allow equipment melding for the animal form.

[Dominicius]

I like the per level increase in DR as well as the cleaned up lycanthropy rules.

On the other hand I'm not too fond of the idea of giving out so many benefits to character simply for contracting lycanthropy. Sleep madness can be bypassed with the character chaining himself up during his sleep or simply by having a very high charisma score (especially once the players get their hands on inheritance bonuses). And then when he needs to transform he can just cut himself.

Lycanthropy by itself should provide the character with no true changes to his power. But once he enters the PrC, it should become something worthwhile.

[ubernoob]

Just restrict the DR to while in hybrid or animal form and it's actually perfectly fine. Scent and lowlight vision are /whatever/ and the only way to enter the form is by sleeping or taking damage.

[Korwin]

As for my own tastes, I grew up reading books by Nick Perumov rather than Tolkien or Robert E. Howard so I have different views and expectations when it comes to fantasy.
I like characters in fantasy to feel fantastic either having three cases of amnesia with one life being an archmage, the other an assassin and third a prophet, or having a character who's soul has inherited the body of one of the most powerful necromancers in the world and now he must seek to live up to the title or even a character that has looked into the mind of Asmodeus himself but could barely comprehend what he saw but as time goes on and his quest continues he slowly begins to realize the meaning of true evil.

Shit, I now need to read a book from this Nick Perumov.
His native tongue is not English? Because if not, I might read his books in german.

Edit: the third line in amazon tells me he is an russian writer. So I think I try the german version...

Edit2: amazon.de has only one in german, but its co-written with an Sergej Lukianenko? How writes that one?

[Starmaker]

Shit, I now need to read a book from this Nick Perumov.
His native tongue is not English? Because if not, I might read his books in german.

Edit: the third line in amazon tells me he is an russian writer. So I think I try the german version...

Oh no not THE CAPTAIN. The dude is a hack writer who gained notoriety by getting his LotR fanfic published when the curtain fell. Said fanfic involves his Gary Stu character destroying Middle Earth and either transforming it into THE CAPTAIN's homebrew world or just the main passive onlooker cast planeshifting. A subsequent glimpse of his Space Nazis vs the Zerg book made me give up on Russian fantasy.

He desperately wants to be the Russian Tolkien and appeals to the common denominators, namely

1) machismo; he styles himself THE CAPTAIN after Tolkien's "Professor" because, you know, linguistics is for pussies. "Perumov's hobbits" are unstoppable murder machines and it gets worse from there.

2) sex; women are either bossy spinsters or smokin' hot baby factories. THE CAPTAIN preaches to everyone about the necessity of pumping as many babies as possible for the greater glory of Mother Russia.

3) nationalism.

Nationalism is the selling point, and it went from "Russia has fantasy writers too, how very awesome" to full-blown right-wing propaganda. Right-wing fantasy is BIG and batshit insane.

To understand it properly, you need to know that "democracy" is a swear word and refers to the current quite undemocratic rulership. As "democracy" replaced what was left of the USSR and American Republicans are opposed to Democrats, Republicans equals Communists and the Confederacy is a force of Absolute Good. "Civil rights" is a swear word. "Freedom of speech" is a swear word. Russian monarchists form a sizable faction, so the whole ideology is a crazy mix of everything wrong in the world.

Help yourself to some crazy, Google Translate does a passable job. (Not actual Perumov but works as an example.)

Edit2: amazon.de has only one in german, but its co-written with an Sergej Lukianenko? How writes that one?

Lukyanenko's most famous opus is the Night Watch series which is World of Darkness (wizards, vampires, werefolk) with Good vs Evil that are Not So Different (oh what a twist), magic breeding (strike! I hate things that feature magic breeding with a passion) and cops.

Notice how I put wizards first?

See, Russians love cops and criminals, a taste engendered by Soviet culture. Soviet good cops were agents of the benevolent state and Soviet lovable criminals were noble revolutionaries. Now, with the state and militia (the police) are regarded as corrupt the actual criminals rose in popularity and the good cops are now tragic heroes who Do Their Duty despite the bleak present and even bleaker future. Night Watch is this: the Good vs Evil conflict is neverending, the magic system is inherently unfair, the alignments don't mean dick and the heroes are brooding and drinking vodka in their spare time. Fans praise the author's skill in conveying the characters' existential boredom: if the reader is bored out of their mind, that's one design goal accomplished. (The movies are quite good, though.)

Oh, and Perumov's main series is also about magic cops.

There's also a book the moral of which is essentially "the Internet is NOT REAL!!! Be yourself!!!". i.e. the following multiplied by -1:

You have a woman who, in real life, weighs 400 pounds and has a thick, neatly-trimmed beard. But she has a heart of gold. A thousand miles away you have a guy with three eyebrows and a hairlip. In reality, he lives in a trailer with his 14 cats. In the metaverse, he lives in a stone palace with 14 magical flying cats. They marry, the woman showing herself as a beautiful princess, the man a handsome prince. What do they lose by not meeting in the flesh (or "meating" as they will call it)?
(...)
Can anyone prove that such a marriage would be less "real" than the ones we have now? Are not economic hardship and increasingly unattractive, flabby bodies the main (though often unspoken) reason couples spend more and more time badgering each other as the years wear on? Neither, in a perfect world, should be valid reasons to kill off the flower of romantic love. So doesn't the metaverse actually remove a layer of bullshit in that case? Doesn't the symbolic princess with her fair skin and spill of blonde hair more accurately represent the kindness of the aforementioned woman than the bloated body life really gave her? So, why not use it instead?

sauce

The hero is an Ubermensch, his girlfriend is smokin' hawt, she's a prostitute-but-not-really (see, it's cool and manly to bang a prostitute, but a noble Russian can't marry one, so she's really a noble researcher of the base nature of other, filthy humans) and they have magic powers in virtual reality because they go online as themselves (unlike the fugly retarded masses whose avatars don't look like themselves, thus no powarz). Oh and the Internet is exclusively made of fail the retarded masses produce and perverted porn the retarded masses fap to (the hero, by contrast, makes highly spiritual perfect virtual Love).

Note: this was 100 years ago and I don't keep track of recent proceedings because people who write such drivel are statistically unlikely to write anything worth my time.
Also, Perumov verbally attacked my awesome singer friend for not wanting to pump out children for Mother Russia despite her being biologically male.
Lukyanenko claimed Americans intentionally buy Russian children to murder them and when his fans en masse told him he was being retarded "not quite correct" he threw a hissyfit and Left Livejournal Forever.
Jerk is as jerk does.

TL;DR: Lukyanenko is the better writer of the two (except when he tried to imitate the Soviet star Bulychov and the sorry end result was some children's fantasy full of plot holes insulting the reader's intelligence), so if it's a co-written book (probably No Time for Dragons), he's not likely to make it any worse.

[CatharzGodfoot]

I like the per level increase in DR as well as the cleaned up lycanthropy rules.

On the other hand I'm not too fond of the idea of giving out so many benefits to character simply for contracting lycanthropy. Sleep madness can be bypassed with the character chaining himself up during his sleep or simply by having a very high charisma score (especially once the players get their hands on inheritance bonuses). And then when he needs to transform he can just cut himself.

Lycanthropy by itself should provide the character with no true changes to his power. But once he enters the PrC, it should become something worthwhile.

Yeah, you're right. Getting rid of damage transformation is an option, although it kills a bit of the flavor. Turning damage transformation into a rampage would probably be too harsh, although if you make it completely optional...

For the Charisma check issue, you could just make it a coin flip. I was trying to think what sort of characters would be resistant to changing; paladins (with their willpower, dedication, etc) and sorcerers (already magical beings) seemed most appropriate.

Also, in a Tome game DR/silver is fucking hardcore. The only DR you're less likely to have a good weapon for is stone. Pretty much no vanilla NPC or monster comes equipped with silver. You could probably drop it to 2 + 1/3 level or just 1/3 level without impacting the flavor too much.

---

Please let me take this moment to rant a bit about DR. First, DR/alignment makes absolutely no sense at all and has no place in D&D, period. There's no reason that a demon should be able to shrug off attacks from other demons, but not from angels. It's a kind of neat that an angel should want a demonhide cloak for the DR/good, but that doesn't seem to be the tone that D&D really shoots for.

Also, Tome DR stacking could be a bit more clear. In fact, the ToA PDF version 7.99 uses the SRD rules, which are wrong.

[Dominicius]

Oh no not THE CAPTAIN. The dude is a hack writer who gained notoriety by getting his LotR fanfic published when the curtain fell. Said fanfic involves his Gary Stu character destroying Middle Earth and either transforming it into THE CAPTAIN's homebrew world or just the main passive onlooker cast planeshifting. A subsequent glimpse of his Space Nazis vs the Zerg book made me give up on Russian fantasy.

I don't recommend his LotR books. Like Starmaker said it features a mary sue bad guy that just doesn't die. It had a few neat ideas (like the whole resonance with the nine rights and the kings who wore them) but the books themselves are weak.

The problem with the Skull books is that they tend to get incredibly preachy on you, especially once the narrative starts talking about the fourth Reich (no he was not kidding, there are literally space nazis in these books) but I liked the intrigue and the plot twist at the end.

Nationalism is the selling point, and it went from "Russia has fantasy writers too, how very awesome" to full-blown right-wing propaganda. Right-wing fantasy is BIG and batshit insane.

At the time a lot of writers did that. A lot of writers still do that. Russia is big on anything that elates the country even when there is nothing TO elate.

I've read some pretty blatant nationalistic garbage as a kid which was even worse than Perumov but what Perumov has going for him is his ability to craft multiple, universe spanning plots that keep you at the edge of your seat until the resolution comes and the resolutions themselves are nearly always amazing. His opus, the Swordkeeper Saga is the best example of this.

Lukyanenko is the better writer of the two (except when he tried to imitate the Soviet star Bulychov and the sorry end result was some children's fantasy full of plot holes insulting the reader's intelligence), so if it's a co-written book (probably No Time for Dragons), he's not likely to make it any worse.

That book is funny in that it has a lot of parallels to the fall of the Soviet Union and how inevitable it was. A theme I've seen a few times done by authors. But, as always, the ending is damn good.


Anyway, back to the matters at hand. I like the optional Transformation/Rampage idea, it just feels good to give a character some dark, dangerous power that he can use if he chooses to in an extreme situation. Players love those sort of things.
And I'll probably move the DR to hybrid and animal forms.

[Prak]

Ok, so I'm rethinking my character, that maybe the whole Raven Knight idea needs to be shelved for now.

The problem is that this leaves me without a concept, and I'm really not in the mood to read everyone's lengthy applications to see what kind of characters might wind up in the party, so, could you guys kind of give me some kind of summary?

I think part of the reason for Ranulf's background being so grandiose is that that shit would totally fly in Runequest, which is what I've played the most for the past two years, so I'm not used to the more sane-grandiose stuff.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Apparently this game is using a program called "game table" off of Sourceforge. Has anyone else used that before? Is it reasonably useful? Accessible? Mac-compatible?

I've used some RPG play aid software in the past, but I haven't seen that program before.

[BearsAreBrown]

Dominicius did you do this psionics rewrite? I love it. If I hadn't already fallen in love with the Gadgeteer concept I'd be playing a Erudite for sure.

[Dominicius]

I think part of the reason for Ranulf's background being so grandiose is that that shit would totally fly in Runequest, which is what I've played the most for the past two years, so I'm not used to the more sane-grandiose stuff.

There are no problems with having a grandiose background for a fantasy game. Such stories usually have high fantasy written all over them and thats fine.

The problems arise when you try to make a grandiose background for a character in a setting you know nothing about, the three things I have pointed out were the direct cause of this. If you want to make a character in such a situation, start small, give the DM a story that he would likely have no problem inserting into the setting.


I'll probably do an application master list some time in the future.

Has anyone else used that before? Is it reasonably useful? Accessible? Mac-compatible?

They have to answer that. Definitely. I think so. Sadly no.

Dominicius did you do this psionics rewrite? I love it. If I hadn't already fallen in love with the Gadgeteer concept I'd be playing a Erudite for sure.

Nah. That was done by Mr.Swan aka Lycanthropomancer. I make it a habit to give credit to people who's stuff I take.

I just did a lot of editing on that thing.

P.S: Erudite is not kosher.

[Prak]

I think part of the reason for Ranulf's background being so grandiose is that that shit would totally fly in Runequest, which is what I've played the most for the past two years, so I'm not used to the more sane-grandiose stuff.

There are no problems with having a grandiose background for a fantasy game. Such stories usually have high fantasy written all over them and thats fine.

The problems arise when you try to make a grandiose background for a character in a setting you know nothing about, the three things I have pointed out were the direct cause of this. If you want to make a character in such a situation, start small, give the DM a story that he would likely have no problem inserting into the setting.

Well, and like I said, I'm fine with fixing the "In Eberron" thing, or starting smaller, maybe making the "bring back the sun" think allegorical, or just really small scale. Actually, I could see it being allegorical of him cure a primitive tribe of a blindness curse, so maybe I'll work that up and swap out. At the moment.... I need to hit the sack, so I'll work something up a bit later.

[RelentlessImp]

Apparently this game is using a program called "game table" off of Sourceforge. Has anyone else used that before? Is it reasonably useful? Accessible? Mac-compatible?

I've used some RPG play aid software in the past, but I haven't seen that program before.

I've used GameTable. It's a fairly decent program, it just requires a lot of work to have a continuous campaign going on it, as you've got to work up your own maps and find compatible tilesets. However, using it for combat is fairly easy, as you can add notes to your tokens to keep track of your relevant stats as the combat goes on, etc.

Unfortunately, I don't know if it's Mac-compatible. I do know it can work on a Windows platform, and a Linux platform, but not Mac.

[Roy]

I refuse to have anything further to do with MW, and I also don't play Tome games. System analysis is free though.

It's really not too bad as long as you stay away from Gaming Discussion. That place is terrible.

I think it was various types of retardation there, and Micheal's powertripping response to the same that ultimately made me give up on all aspects of the place. Even the parts I liked. Too unreliable to be useful. Can't stay in a game when some douchebag mod randomly bans you because someone got butthurt you told them that Fighters fail at life.

[BearsAreBrown]

P.S: Erudite is not kosher.

Why is that? Spell to Power? Why not just make that ACF not kosher?

P.S: I'm sticking with the Gadgeteer application either way, just curious.

[Username17]

At the time a lot of writers did that. A lot of writers still do that. Russia is big on anything that elates the country even when there is nothing TO elate.

Sure.



-Username17

[ubernoob]

P.S: Erudite is not kosher.

Why is that? Spell to Power? Why not just make that ACF not kosher?

P.S: I'm sticking with the Gadgeteer application either way, just curious.

Erudite just fucking sucks even with spell to power.

[Kaelik]

P.S: Erudite is not kosher.

Why is that? Spell to Power? Why not just make that ACF not kosher?

P.S: I'm sticking with the Gadgeteer application either way, just curious.

Not because of Spell to Power, just because it's ass.

Either you can get all the good Psionic discipline powers from friendly Psions (Which costs XP, stuff we don't want to have to deal with) and you are like a Psion only better, or you can't get any of the Discipline powers and you are a fucking chump, go home and die.

In either case, your character idea sucks.

[BearsAreBrown]

The Erudite or the Gadgeteer? If it's the Erudite whatever because its hardly an idea. If it's the Gadgeteer please tell me more because it's still a work in progress.

[Kaelik]

The Erudite or the Gadgeteer? If it's the Erudite whatever because its hardly an idea. If it's the Gadgeteer please tell me more because it's still a work in progress.

Anyone who wants to play the Erudite class.