Submitted by szaijan on Fri, 04/23/2010 - 9:54am
Posted in
Currently, I plan to make the following "homebrew" changes to D&D 4th Edition:
- Eliminate PHB/DMG guidelines on the cost and availability of items. There are certainly places where magical items can be purchased, but they are not nearly so standardized as indicated in the core rulebooks, and the is no general availability of most items. Potions are an exception, in that medical "technology" and the general ease with which minor enchantments can be laid into items has made Alchemy a popular layman's business.
- Races will be limited. There will be multiple different types of humans. Half Elves are rare, but not vanishingly so. Elves and Dwarves are very rare in the Empire DM permission is required to select these races. Any other race is likely from another world and essentially alien (you'll be an "Outsider".) This is doable, but has rules implications for languages, knowledge of the setting, and any effects that impact Outsiders.
- The number of languages in the world is greatly expanded and there is no "common tongue".
- I will be enhancing the Action Point system, adding Aspects to characters that will allow them to "earn" more Action Points within the course of play, as will as restricting when they can spend them. In addition, I'll be expanding the use of AP to include: adding 2 to any roll (after it is rolled), making an enemy re-roll a roll, recovering the use of a Daily Power which missed, recovering the use of an Encounter Power, et. al. Suggestions as to how to improve on this system are welcome.
- Enhanced Ritual system. I'll be adding many options to the ritual system, including many old D&D spells, and adding rules for creating rituals as well as ad hoc rituals. Many new options for ritual components will be added, such as special locations and times that may be required or which will amplify the final effect, sacrifice, et. al. Most likely, I will add some new feats that grant access to the expanded features, without which you wouldn't be able to use them.
- Magic items will not always follow the rules about limited daily ability usage. Some items will, others may use Hit Points, Healing Surges or Action Points to power daily abilities. Other items may not have such limits at all. Many items will have draw backs not reflected in the current rules, i.e. an item which manipulates probability to give you a +x on a roll, but which will have a chance to force a -x on every future roll until the scales are balanced.
- Magical shields will normally have an AC bonus associated with them.
If anyone has further suggestions, please post in the comments here and I'll consider your input.
- Login to post comments
Griffon Concern
I have a small irritation with this. When you constrict the inventory of standard items you dramatically reduce the effectiveness of certain characters (strikers in particular but defenders all so). At certain levels you are assumed to have gathers about so much money and spent so much to developer your gear, to keep you effective and on par with the growth in monster leathalness. It can be fine if this fully calibrated for but I haven't really noticed that happening in general when the purchase inventory becomes restricted.
A richer magic system would certainly be welcome 4th addition is pretty uninteresting outside of combat for magic IMO.
MJ Follow-On
In general, characters in this game will have fewer and more powerful magic items, mostly because those items can be used more frequently. Minor items of certain types will be ubiquitous. In general, the ability to buy magic items has always been a part of the Azeryani Empire, sort of a magic IS technology long before SpellJammer or Eberron existed. However, the idea that you can find whatever you want when you want to suggests an Amazon.com like distribution system and a level of availability that will NEVER fit into one of my games.
Also, the way magical items work in 4th edition, really only implement, weapon, and armor bonuses need to be calculated into the level difficulty equation. Other items simply add tactical options and not shear power. I will certainly take this into account. Bonus weapons and armor are available for general purchase if you have enough money, many of which are not innately magical (or weren't in previous incarnations of the campaign.) Bonus implements would be created with the help of a temple or mage's guild, or on your own, but this will generally be accessible if you have enough money.
In addition, my games tend to include the ability to acquire abilities that parallel the effects of magical items, but which are innate. Such abilities are not reflected in 4th edition, nor accounted for in level balancing.
So, are there balancing concerns? Yes. Will I deal with them, yes. Will I allow unrestricted purchasing of magical items beyond the Darkwylde campaign? Never.
Michael McKay Reaction
I already mentioned my dislike of the 4.0 item costs and resale philosophy, so I'm all for some kind of change. This was a place where the (presumed) computer play balance really sucked some life out of the game.
Seems like you have some good thoughts for the Aspects system (such as the types of bonuses you could get), I look forward to trying that out. Here I'm not really that worried about balance issues, if it fulfills the promise of promoting roleplaying and storytelling. I'll think about this more, and post under that thread if my current nebulous thoughts become more solid.
The current ritual system seems pretty limited, so again I'm looking forward to trying out other alternatives. It is obvious this could unbalance things if done wrongly, but I'm usually a sucker for build-your-own magic systems. I know that rituals were supposed to be common in the last (Arcana Evolved) game, but they did not show up as often as I (and I suspect Jones) would have liked.
For clerics, I think some of the standard "bless" like spells really should be rituals. They should take a while to cast, and have some material cost associated with them, but they would be usable more than once a day. The ritual would hold for some period of time/area, until triggered. There could even be some type of feat that allows extending the hold period, etc. Ideally this could provide a bit of roleplaying time (kind of like a huddle before the hike), although there is always the danger of this settling into routine (from a role playing perspective).
Thinking more along these lines (just casual thoughts - not solid proposals) we could define prebattle rituals. The in-game advantage might be something like +1 initiative for the participants. But more than that, the players would participate in a stripped down real-world ritual. For example, each player would have their character say something about the upcoming battles - a bit of advice, something they are worried about, etc. This might even speed up decision making amongst the group. Don't know how long it would remain useful and effective (from a roleplaying standpoint), but I think it would be a good tool initially. We could mix it up a bit by having different rituals (both for ingame-advantages and the actions performed by the players before hand).
Those were my initial thoughts anyway, feel free to take these ideas and run with them