Star's Setting Idea

[starshinemonarch]

I had a idea for a homebrew primitive wilderness campaign setting, so I figure I'd use this board (That is what it's here for). I figure since it's still in the developing stages, we could all contribute.

My first idea, seeing as how some of Unearthed Arcana is in the SRD, I looked at the wilderness variant classes, particularly the Totem barbarians, Savage Bard and Druidic Avenger. So I'm thinking of prohibiting some classes (like Wizard, Psion and other classes that require a lot of training and resources unavailable in a primitive setting, sort of like Sokar's Kjeldor campaign) , and changing a few others.

For example:

Having Complete Warrior, I was thinking of changing the Savage Bard a little, so that he would more resemble the Warchanter Prestige Class, mainly by increasing the HD to d8, dropping the good Will save, so he has only a good Fort save and replacing Bardic Knowlege and some Bardic Music abilities with some select Warchanter Music abilities.

The floor is now open to any suggestion concerining this campaign setting. No flaming. If you want to make fun of me/my ideas, at least have a good reason for doing so.

[Giades]

Sounds cool. What about some sort of tribal initiation test thing for prcs? Like for example: slay some terrible beast, survive the harsh climate of a location for 4 months, stuff like that.

[starshinemonarch]

giades said:

Sounds cool. What about some sort of tribal initiation test thing for prcs? Like for example: slay some terrible beast, survive the harsh climate of a location for 4 months, stuff like that.

That'd probably take up a lot of downtime, unless I use it as an excuse to make an adventure. I'm thinking the setting will be in a general Warm Forest environment, so expect to see those sort of creatures.


How about some more rules that people can coment on:

Normally metal weapons are now generally made of bone, stone (like flint or even obsidian) or copper (possibly gold for some magic weapons). Bone and Stone weapons do not violate a Druid's oath and do not interfere with his spellcasting.

Shortbows, Composite Shortows and Blowpipes are now simple weapons. Greater Blowpipes and all Longbows are Martial Weapons. Crossbows, virtually unknown, are exotic weapons.

Longbows are usually too large to use effectively in dense jungles, so they are not reccomended. When moving through a densely forested area with a longbow or composite longbow, it has a 10% chance per 10 feet of movement of catching on a branch or something and becoming tangled, breaking on a roll of a natural 1%. Bows that do not break require 2d4 rounds to get it free and working again. Shortbows can be carried easier and are less likely to catch on something, suffering no such penalty. (suggestions and alternative of this sort of rule are especially welcome, as I'm not sure how this would really work)

Poison is not illegal and tiny Spider and Centipede venoms (doing 1d2 Str (initial and secondary) and 1 Dex (initial and secondary) respectively) are especially common, going for only 50 GP worth of goods for a single dose in many medicine shops. Any class proficient in all martial weapons may apply a dose of poison to a piercing or slashing weapon without risk of poisoning himself.

New feats:
Poison Use [General]
Requirements: Base Attack Bonus +1, Dex 13
Benefit: You may apply Poison to a piercing or slashing weapon without risk of poisoning yourself.
Special: Rogues, Wilderness Rogues, Scouts, Druids and Druidic Avengers gain this feat at first level even if they do not meet the requirements. They need not select it.

Harvest Poison [General]
Requirements: Knowledge: Nature 4 ranks, Survival 4 ranks, Dex 13, Poison Use
Benefit: You may harvest the natural venom of monsters to use on your weapons. Monsters with natural poisons can be identified with a DC 15 Knowlege: Nature check. Harvesting venom from a monster requires the monster to be willing or unconcious and it takes 5 minutes to harvest one dose of poison. Harvesting poison requires special equipment which can be bought with 50 gp. The save DC of the harvested poison can usually be found under the monster entry in the Monster Manual or SRD.

Rangers' combat style is replaced by Fighter Bonus Feats, gaining a new bonus feat every time his combat style would improve. This should help to make Rangers more versatile in combat. Unlike his combat style, however, the Ranger does need to meet the requirements for the feats he selects.

[cork]

sweet Ideas... so when can we see more development... I'll get right on making you a board for it if you would like...

[Giades]

Nice. Sounds like a fun game. Maybe some restrictions on the 'speak language' skill? Wouldn't be as easy to learn languages.

[starshinemonarch]

cork said:

sweet Ideas... so when can we see more development... I'll get right on making you a board for it if you would like...

I don't need a board yet, what I need is a competent DM....

Methinks buying Complete Adventurer and Races of the Wild would also be in order for this sort of campaign.


Tiny Viper poison does 1d6 CON (initial and secondary) and goes for about 150 gp per dose. Poison can also be harvested from a Tiny Fiper familiar once per session, but only the master may harvest the poison (since it will generally count as willing towards the master). After harvesting poison from a creature, the attack that would normally deliver poison does not for the rest of the day.

Some feats with the Wild descriptor from Complete Divine are now class features available to some totem barbarians. In place of Damage Reduction, Totem barbarians gain a Wild feat based on their totem animal. The barbarian may use this feat once/day at 7th level (does not gain DR) and an additional time per day whenever his DR would normally improve. An Eagle or Dragon Totem barbarian can gain the use of the Eagle's Wings feat (gaining a fly speed of 60 ft (average) for 1 hour per use (eagle totems get feathered wings, dragon totems get draconic wings)), while a Jaguar or Lion totem could gain the Lion's Pounce feat (allowing a full attack after a charge that many times per day). Boar totems get Boar's Ferocity, allowing them to fight without penalty even if at negative hit ponts (even below -10) for one minute per use, Serpent totems get Serpent's Venom and Bear totems get Grizzly's claws. Ape totems get an ability that allows them to triple the damage done by their Power Attack feat for one round per use. A totem barbarian may still choose DR over this ability if it pleases him. These abilities do not count as having wild shape for meeting the reqirements of feats or PrCs.

[starshinemonarch]

You know brainstorming isn't a one person job. I'd like some more input than 'Sounds cool'.

[starshinemonarch]

OK New Savage Bard is complete.

The Savage Bard cares less for Knowledge, but has a better connection the the wild world as well as a better grasp on inspiring the emotions of mortals.

Savage bards now...
Lose the following class features/Class Skills:

Bardic Knowledge
Fascinate
Suggestion
Inspire Greatness
Song of Freedom
Mass Suggestion
Appraise
Diplomacy
Gather Information
Knowlege: All but Arcana and Nature
-1 to all savage bard spells known


And gain the following class features:

Wild Empathy (LV 1)
Nature Sense (LV 1)
Animal Companion (Treat effective druid level as 1/2 Savage Bard's level.) (LV 2)
Resist Nature's Lure (LV 5)
Inspire Toughness (LV 6)
Inspire Recklessness (Needs 11 Perform ranks) (LV 8)
Inspire Awe (LV 12)
Inspire Legion (Needs 19 Perform ranks) (LV 16) (In addition to normal benefits, all affected allies get a +2 competence bonus on attack rolls as well and flanking bonuses are doubled when both flankers are affected by this ability)

[starshinemonarch]

giades said:

Nice. Sounds like a fun game. Maybe some restrictions on the 'speak language' skill? Wouldn't be as easy to learn languages.

Unless specified, all characters can speak and read Common and their racial languages. Initial bonus languages are spoken only, unless you pay skill points to counter illiteracy (see barbarian entry. Gaining levels in other classes no longer counters illiteracy.) or sacrifice another bonus language. (ex: The human sorcerer, Texakico, has an INT of 14 and an INT mod of +2. He can speak and read Common. Normally he gains 2 initial bonus languages, but he will only be able to speak them. However he uses both his bonus languages so he can speak AND read one other, Draconic. Texakico now only knows Common and Draconic, but he is fully literate in both.)

Speak Language and Read/Write Language are seperate skills, like in d20 Modern. However, neither of them are considered class skills for any class, meaning you have to spend 2 skill points to get one rank (language) in Speak or Read/Write Language.

[starshinemonarch]

A friend of mine found this primitive wizard variant in an issue of Dragon magazine. Any ideas on how to make it better?

The Anagakok
Hit dice: d4
Alignment: any
Class skills: same as wizard plus Survival
Spellbooks: (Same as wizard)
School specialisation: Anagakok specialises in its own school of magic which give it access to the spells below. Its forbiden schools are always illusion and necromancy.

Spells: As wizard plus
0: create water, know direction, purify food and drink
1: calm animal, charm animal, detect snares and pits, longstrider, pass without trace
2: animal trance, hold animal, reduce animal, wood shape
3: diminish plants, dominate animal, neutralise poison, quench, snare
4: antiplant shell, command plants, repel vermin, rusting grasp
5: awaken, commune with nature, control winds, tree stride
6: find the path, repel wood, stone tell, transport via plants
7: animat plants, transmute metal to wood, windwalk
8: animal shapes, control plants, repel metal or stone
9: elemental swarm, regenerate, shambler

Class abilities:

Illiteracy: (As barbarian)
Spontaneous casting: Can loose any prepared spell of 1st level or higher to cast endure elements
Nature Sense: +2 to Knowledge(nature) and Survival checks
Good Fortune 2 points: The Anagakok get a certain number of points each day he/she can use (as an imideate action) to gain a luck bonus on any roll. These can also be given to allies but a readied action must be declared first. The points increase to 4 at level 5, 6 at level 10, 8 at level 15 and 10 at level 20.

That's about it, everything else about the class is just like the wizard.

I think Scribe Scroll and the Wizard's other bonus feats are replaced by the fortune points, but I'm not sure.

[Random person]

Question... how does it use a spellbook if it's illiterate?