RP focused D/D 3.5 game. 'The Border City of Balmuria'

[Anastasia]

Goal: To have a D/D game focusing on the often neglected part of the system, role playing. To be an extended game that plays several times a week.

Playerpool: I'd like 3-4 PCs, with as many as 5 if I feel all 5 are a good fit together.

Times: Afternoons. 10 AM to 4 PM EST, with longer sessions available on certain weekends, as well as Tuesdays/Fridays as days off from work permit.

System: D and D, 3.5 core system. PHB, MM, DMG. A few good parts of the PHB 2 may be brought over (Hi, Improved Toughness!), but by and large this game is not going to be splatbook heavy. Anything outside of the core books is assumed to be banned unless houseruled. See below for more information.

Scenario: The United Baronies struggled long to escape the grasp of the old world and old regime, the Malmuth Empire. After a long war they succeeded - but five years later a border city, flush with iron exports and precious imports, becomes a hotbed of strife, struggle and possible war. The Border City of Balmuria, on the still wild frontier, with it's deep natural harbors and wilds. In a new, vital kingdom anyone can carve a roll in.

The PCs will be a group of specialised town defenders. Unique border guardsman, with equivalent ranking in the United Baronies Army. The military academy in town, while small, has been well seeded and positioned due to the strategic value of this city. This year would be the first year of graduates from the Lord Salman Academy.

Focus: This game will focus around the city of Balmuria and the United Baronies. Obviously Malmuth will play a considerable roll as well, as will other factors. This game will be very situational focused and RP driven. This isn't meant to be combat heavy - while important when it does happen, it's not the crux of the game.

Chargen: 5d6, drop lowest two, roll six times and set to taste. The starting level is 3.

Races allowed: Human. The two kingdoms are human kingdoms and thus human PCs are the most likely. I'll allow anything in the PHB as well as -possibly- Aasimar and Tieflings if you come up with a very good bio, or even something custom if it's done well. However, bear in mind the focus and scope of the game.

Starting money: 2700 GP is the default. I'm lowering this to 2400 as this is not a game that will need much money on chargen. For any purchases of magical items beyond potions, talk to me.

World: Custom. Will use Faerian gods with a cleaned up pantheon. Technology level is early-mid Renaissance. Galleons and great sailing ships are being developed, hearty crews coming out from the natural harbors of Balmuria, out past the deep green water of the Bay of Sparking Stars and to the vast ocean beyond.

Magic: Magic is a strange, powerful force in this world. From bygone eras to this day, it is the difficult, dominating force. A wizard can be a great tool to a king, yet woe unto the king that chooses one well. Equal in stature are the legendary holy men the Gods bless with magic. A rarity in the reformed pantheon, these men serve the Gods and often kingdoms as well.

Magic users of all stripes tend to be highly valued and respected, but are quite rare. The effect in game is the following:

1. I would prefer no more than 1 to 2 heavy magic using PCs, and preferably a good draw from the non magical classes. However, in return, I'm more than willing to consider good, custom content that takes advantage of this situation - a ranger that subs magic for something else, for example. If you're interested in playing a paladin, contact me since I think that'll require some special conversation.

2. As there is no EXP, (See houserules below), spells that use experience are hereby announced to be modified on a case by case basis. I'll go over the big offenders and edit as need be. I believe this is mainly item creation. This'll be gone over with a fine tooth comb in the coming days, but feel free to point out any complications you see.

3. Magical items will not be overly changed, just less common. Magical Item creation will be altered - if you're going to play a character who may be interested in these pursuits, let me know and well get together. I'm more than open to ideas here, hell, you might have a better idea than I do for a good way to work this out.

4. For practical day to day casting this won't  hobble mages. I do intend to keep an eye on spell lists, however. I don't want to cripple the classes, merely add some lost mystique to the arcane arts. Again, if you h ave an original or interesting way of compensating for this, let me know. Can you tell I want to encourage custom content that fits into the world's flavor yet? <_<

Houserules:

1. Toughness functions as Improved Toughness.  This is a change Eb showed me in his game and I approve of it 500% percent. You cannot rebuy or stack Toughness now.

2. EXP is scrapped. Advancement will be based on clearing story goals set by the GM as you advance, obviously alterable to suit the path you end up taking. EDIT - This means you'll level up when I say so, basically.

3. I'm not fully familiar with ECL buyback. Since I'm not and it's an optional rule anyway, I'm not inclined to use it. Bear this in mind for the early/mid game if you're deadset on using an ECL race or poke me so we can talk.

4. All classes gain an additional +2 skill points per level.

5. Skill booster feats such as:

Acrobatic [General]
Benefit

You get a +2 bonus on all Jump checks and Tumble checks.

These skills also gain the following:

Acrobatic [General]
Benefit

You get a +2 bonus on all Jump checks and Tumble checks. Once per day you may choose to reroll any roll for these two feats, the second roll always taken

This is a hopeful attempt to make these feats not such so much.

6. Skill Focus changes to the following:

Skill Focus [General]

Choose a skill.

Benefit

You get a +3 bonus on all checks involving that skill. Once per day you make take 10 on any roll related to this skill, regardless of circumstances.
Special

You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new skill.

7. New Feat:

Apt Learner[General]

Benefit

Choose two cross class skills. These skills are now considered class skills.

8. Critical hits are unchanged. Critical Fails have no other effect beyond a miss.

---

World information will follow within a few days.

I would like to really encourage custom content instead of going back to the same old splatbooks, people. If you have ideas, run with them.

Feel free to post interest, questions, suggestions for house rules or whatever here. If you've already rolled(Eb has, I know that), could you post your roll results here along with any other comments? Thanks.

[Laggy]

4. Fighters gain +2 skill points per level. THis is a quick patch on one of the stupider problems plaguing 3.5, I may extend this to a few other classes if needed. Fighters are merely the worst offenders.

Uh.. why fighters, offhandedly? Plenty of classes get hit by the stickler 2 skill points/level limitation, and they're hardly the class that needs it the most. This should apply to all classes, or none at all. It's a problem with the skill system, not the class.

[Ebiris]

My rolled stats:
16, 15, 14, 14, 12, 12

Giving fighters +2 skill points is a bit much, I think. They're far from the only class that normally just gets 2 skill points per level.

If you want to help out classes that don't use magic, I think Tome of Battle might be a good idea, for all that I banned it in my game. It gives fighter variants lots of combat maneuvres that work a bit like spells in all they can do - not as versatile, obviously, but gives lots of options in combat.

[Anastasia]

Okay, I'll consider the +2 stuff further on fighters, and if to expand it or contract it entirely.

Could you toss me the Tome of Battle on IRC?

[Corwin]

I'm kinda curious how you'd replace stuff like ranger/paladin spells, I guess. Non of the variants I saw in the various books looked fun to me, so I wonder how you'd do it.

As for myself, I'm still interested in arcane trickster. Yeah, it'd be quite a while before I got there, but everyone needs a goal.  >_>

And the rolls: [21:21] <Hatbot> Corwin: 18, 17, 13, 13, 11, 9

[Anastasia]

Updated first post with starting GP comments.

[Anastasia]

4. Fighters gain +2 skill points per level. THis is a quick patch on one of the stupider problems plaguing 3.5, I may extend this to a few other classes if needed. Fighters are merely the worst offenders.

Uh.. why fighters, offhandedly? Plenty of classes get hit by the stickler 2 skill points/level limitation, and they're hardly the class that needs it the most. This should apply to all classes, or none at all. It's a problem with the skill system, not the class.

After thinking about it, I'm going to try the +2 across the board.

[Anastasia]

Recent timeline of events in the United Baronies and the Malmuth Empire. This is a good starting point to introduce some of the world scenario and situation, more specifics are coming.

- 5 years ago, 393 DK:

January 9th: The Malmuth Empire withdraws the last of it's troops and declares formal reconigtion of the United Baronies. King Sardian the 9th abdicated and flees south. His young son of 15 years, Balmuth, takes the throne. Janurary 9th becomes Secession Day, a national holiday.

Feburary 27th: Baron/General Lord Rickshaws Salman is proclaimed Archbaron and Lord Protector of the United Baronies on his 33rd birthday. This day becomes known as Foundation Day, another national holiday.

March 2nd: With the news of an official new regime in former settlements, combined with even worse returns in the old iron and metal mines of Central Malmuth, dissent raises considerably in the Empire. The new king does little to curb the situation.

June 6th: As the internal situation has slowly stabilised, the baronies look to internal affairs. Of note, Archbaron Salman turns out to be as wise a ruler as he is a general - he asks each barony for represenatives to advise him, setting his capital at the western city of Selunialuna.

August 12th: A border skirmish on the border of the United Baronies and Malmuth leaves a handful of soldiers on both sides slain. While cooler heads eventually prevail in diplomatic entreties - strengthened by King Balmuth proving to be timid and accepting blame for the affair - the still unstable border situation becomes a considerable issue. The Old City of Balmuria, already seeing new life as a trade town, is now beginning to be seen as a fortress as well on the wild frontier.

November 20th: By decree Old City Balmuria becomes Fortress and Trade City Balmuria. Archbaron Salman travels to the city to personally found a new military academy and garrison. The Lord Salman Academy and the Crimson Guard, respectively.

- 4 years ago:

March: 18th: With internal dissent over a lost war and incompetent rulership, Malmuth teerers on a severe uprising - or would if not for a coup. King Balmuth is 'exiled' (Read: Shallow grave) by his Uncle, Archduke Ferdi. He promises a return to glory, galvanising many dissidents as he goes.

March: 24th: In reaction to the royal coup, Archbaron Salman orders two army divisions to deploy to the border.

April 5th: In a message, King Ferdi pleads for peace and trade, claming his kingdom is on the verge of collapse. He asks for a non aggression agreement and a 420% increase in trade, primarily iron. After a few days of intense deliberation Lord Salman agrees.

April 30th: In an internal review of the treasury, it is noted that the cost of relocating and mobilizing much of the army cost over 25% of the national treasury. The United Baronies, while rich in resources and good land, are still poor and will be poor for years to come due to war debt and such issues. With an only marginally friendly western neighbor - The Desert Fiefdoms, worshippers of the desert pantheon - and the need to defend the capital, the Crimson Guard is expanded. While still short of being worth even a division of soldiers, they have much to do.

September 11th: Iron trade reaches full bloom. Money flows into United Baronies, iron flows out. Debts are slowly worked off.

- 3 years ago:

July 2nd: It's noted that obvious signs of dissent in Malmuth have dropped vastly. However, so has access - the nation has become more introverted, trade the main means of getting in. King Ferdi acts with a steady hand. A very quiet year.

- 1 year ago:

May 30th: A border patrol based out of Balmuria limps back to town, half of six man contingent dead and the other three wounded. They claim it was Malmuthian soldiers, tensions rise.

June 19th: The Empire denies it was them, Lord Salman accepts for now. However, attention fades from this soon, as...

June 29th: Ruins are found deep under the guidance of a priest of Gond, Leyrin. Much excitement surrounds this, but advancement is difficult indeed. It's known that old cities were here in ages past, but...it's a long path down full of dangers and promised wealth. To complicate this, many priests in the United Baronies and Malmuth have visions proclaiming it a potential holy land. For the rest of the year, much attention is on these ruins, even if little of note gets done.

Yet Malmuth stays strangely silent, even as the royal treasures empty out to pay for more and more iron. More traders, more people inside of the city...

December 1st: The Royal Salman Academy releases it's first fully trained class. A small handful of these stand out in particular.

The game begins on January 30th, 398 DK.

[Anastasia]

Racial Information beyond humans (Subject to updates and such, obviously)

Dwarves are known of but very rare. They live deep under the ground, after a struggle with a forgotten race beneath. They have almost no contact with humans, but a rare few are known to peek out and see what is in the world above. A normal human has never seen a dwarf and knows very little about them.

Elves live in a very stereotypical great forest, far away, past the barbaric wildlands that act as a buffer between humanity and elvenkind. They're not as rare as dwarves, though natural xenophobia keeps them on a short leash. Elvencraft is often valued for light arms and armor.

Gnomes do not exist but in legend. Tiny bringers of trouble, serving Hill God Daa-vid. The stories of children are full of them, but it's nothing but bardic lore, right?

Half Elves are rare but exist. They're usually full of angst, rejected by both societies and all that good stuff. In theory, though honestly a majority of this very small race are well enough adjusted. They're just incredibly rare.

Half Orcs aren't known of by most, but anyone that cares to investigate can find that a equavalent exists in the barbaric lands. Related to goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, bugbears and all those humanoid pests?

Halflings do not exist in any known sense in this world.

Aasimar and Tieflings are known of, at least in theory. They're usually respect or feared, respectively.

[Dracos]

Good luck you guys. =)

Dracos

[Anastasia]

Scrolls:

There is no change to the creation method beyond no EXP cost. However:

To use any scroll a caster must make a spellcraft check. The DC is 10.  On a natural 1, the scroll backfires, possibly failing or having an unanticipated side effect.

OOC note - Don't be silly and try to carry around 50 trillion scrolls. I don't wanna have to slap someone down. I dont like to play with realistic encumberance since it's unbelievably retarded, so don't make me. As a rule of thumb, a dozen scrolls shouldn't be any problem for a normal equipped adventurer to carry. Of course, this could become moot with the right magical items.

[Anastasia]

Houserule!

Only one Wand of Cure Light Wounds is allowed total in chargen. This applies to all PCs. Note that Eb's PC already has one, so.

[Anastasia]

Arcane Heirophant does not advance wild shape levels.

[Anastasia]

CHARACTER BACKGROUND AND SITUATION

For the last four years, a small group of gifted, promising students have trained at Lord Salman's Academy. An electic mix of strange souls, gloryhounds, noble soldiers, new born patriots, the poor looking to advance, outsiders looking to blend in and more all have worked hard. Many did not make it under the strict teachings of Sir Hellman Oberuth, a noted war commander.

Known as the Yellow Bear, a famous warrior and wilderness ranger, he is the headmaster of the Academy and leader of the Fortress City's defenses and functions. A virile man in his 30s, he is fair and lawful. He possess 'Grand Striker', a magical blade said to bring death to even the hardiest goblin or other such humanoid from the east.

Regardless a small group has made it and graduated. One group of a few in particular is in the Crimson Guard, working under Sir Hellman directly.

THE CRIMSON GUARD INFORMATION

Rank: The members here and starting PCs are roughly the rank of a starting officer, a cadet. They can command around guardsman and the like if they need to, though it's not really encouraged for wet behind the ears rookies to command old war veterans unless there is a good reason.

Pay: 15 GP per month, as well as room and board. Any PC can have a small room in the barracks and basic, if not particularly tasty, meals provided. Individual lodgings and food can be procured if a PC wishes to have an independent place to rest, talk to me about monetary details. Basic equipment is also provided if needed - little things like rope, daggers, torches, ect as long as it's for job matters.

Uniform: In town it's expected to wear a red emblem of rank when on official business. This does not extend past the city gates for reasons of stealth.

Duties: Oh, here's where the fun stuff starts?

The members of this part of the Crimson Guard. Within the past few months, the PCs have done the following:

Mundane: Filled in with city guard when several members were hurt in training accident. Helped with gate duty. In other words, occasionally you're still low ranked enough to be used as fill in for emergencies. This isn't something that's common, and you can hope it'll end soon. It's also a sad situation on the manpower needs of the city.

Notable: Escorting traders to the border, doing basic scounting sweeps, scaring off adventuresome humanoids. Nothing too dangerous has happened on these, yet.

Unusual: None, but you do serve at Lord Hellman's discretion! With all the noise about the ruins, the visitors, the traders, and all these things and more, it's likely that you'll have stories to put here soon!

Time Commitment: Realistically, it's 4-5 days a week. It'll vary due to situations/GM's fiat for adventuring. Time off will be procurable if need be, of course.

---

So basically, work this into your background. Each PC should have a working relationship with each other and at least passing familiarity with each other. I'll leave it to you guys there. NPC information will be largely introduced in game.

[Anastasia]

Religious and clerical notes:

The pantheon is from Forgotten Realms. This is imported from the book 'Faiths and Pantheons for 3.5.

The following Gods do not exist, assume the others do:

Eilistrae (Does not fit in to world)
Lolth (Does not fit in)

Past this, assume that all the relevant demi human pantheons exist, though most humans will not even know the names there so this will be largely moot in game, at least for now.  Otherwise, assume all the information in that book is accurate if it doesn not reference Toril only events. (Time of Troubles, ect.) Past that, more details will be flushed out in time.

Temples in Balmuria follwed by the name of the temple:

Waukeen, near the city's trading heart. Has a functioning cleric, who makes good money selling basic healing supplies and the like. It's said he'll give you really good deals! Promenade's Rest.

Tempus, a small temple in the garrisons. Has a cleric attached, but young Al-Lamar barely has battle scars on him body yet!  Iron Vision.

Helm, a large temple. The diligent watchmen fit in very well to this border town. Has a few clerics, well manned. Vigilance.

The lack of clerics in this world and the effects on magic.

If one gets deep enough in their cups to listen to the bardic songs, they will hear of a time only existing in legend. A time when the Gods were freer with their magic, a time when many were blessed with the sacred gift of white magic. The dead were risen regularly and the world lived in ample gifts. Why did this change?

There are a thousand tales of why. Blasphemy, anger of the gods, humankinds failures, scorn of the race, decay. No one knows for certain, and the Gods never answer that question. They seem to only choose the best to be clerics, those that are shining exemplars of the faith. While most clerical magic is unchanged, one type is known to be restricted.

While it is possible to revive a slain person, only a few magics can. The spell Resurrection, one of the higher circles of priestly magic, can do so. Yet the gods are selective, the spell will only be granted when they choose so. Otherwise, only the powerful or foul arcane arts can stave off death, or the rarest artifacts...

The Gods are not without mercy. Clerics are instructed to be freer with healing magic, so that lives are not needlessly lost. Many good aligned gods dictate that healing comes before payment or worries of such. Just don't try that with Waukeen. Bitch.

--

In game terms? Resurrection is the only spell that revives on the clerical tree. I'll post the revised version at the bottom. Otherwise, only rare artifacts or a wish can bring back the dead. Doing so with a wish is dangerous business, as only the greatest wizards can cast that epic magic. Some even feel that it infringes on the will of the Gods themselves, and risks their wrath supreme!

When revived, regardless of source, there is no penalty to the revived person. They regain all functionality and recover at full HP within a few minutes. The pickiness is strange - beloved kings stricken early by tragedy will lie forsaken, yet a mere peasant will be blessed, a cleric dispatched with a divine mission.

---

Resurrection
Conjuration (Healing)
Level:    Clr 6
Casting Time:    10 minutes

This spell raises the dead. This spell can even bring back creatures whose bodies have been destroyed, provided that you unambiguously identify the deceased in some fashion (reciting the deceased's time and place of birth or death is the most common method).

Upon completion of the spell, the creature is immediately restored to full hit points, vigor, and health, with no loss of level (or Constitution points) or prepared spells.

You can revive someone killed by a death effect or someone who has been turned into an undead creature and then destroyed. This spell can also resurrect elementals or outsiders, but it can't resurrect constructs or undead creatures.

This spell cannot be selected freely. A cleric can request it if they wish, but only their patron can decide if it should be allowed. At other times, a suitable cleric will find themselves granted with this spell, often with a stark vision of what is to be done with it.

In rare cases a variant of this spell is granted, True Resurrection. It is to be cast only on one that died of old age, restoring them to middle age. This often comes with a divine geas or other such imperitive and has not happened for over 200 years.

Material Component

A droplet of fresh blood from the caster, to symbolize the rebirth given from the Gods.

--

Eb, since I know you're going to have access to reincarnate, I'd like to change around the table for that a bit, to better reflect the campaign. This can wait until you actually get the spell, however.