Open and Answered Questions

[dalamb]

This topic is for keeping track of open questions from all the discussion threads. If a question is unanswered it's in boldface; when answered, I will un-boldface.

1. Can I run a spell-less ranger or druid or hexblade? You can run a spell-less ranger or druid, or any class that has a short undesirable spell list, simply by not paying for the spell levels, which frees up character points for other things, such as more feats.

2. Does a template with LA still need to pay the +1 character point for having a template, or is that just for templates without LA? Yes for now, but removing the +1 is under consideration.

3. Could you add Savage Species to the allowed sources? Not in its entirety; ask for specifics, with page references.

4. Shouldn’t less-useful spell lists like Ranger and Paladin cost less per level? I hadn’t thought so originally, because they also buy fewer levels, but after multiple complaints am reconsidering. However, if you want to do without the spells entirely, you get character points for other things.

5. Can I use spears and tridents interchangeably for prerequisite requirements? Under consideration, along with other kinds of prerequisites that might not make a lot of sense.

6. Can I use “Turn non-undead” class abilities, like Turn Elemental, to power devotion feats? Yes.

7. Can a wilding clasps and armors or items that work with wildshape be permitted to work on lycanthropes? Wildling clasps and armour, and Natural Spell, work with all forms of shape changing (including lycanthropy) except Baleful Polymorph, not just wild shape. I haven’t yet figured out where to put this in the house rules.

8. What starting gold do I get if I don’t buy off all my LA? You’re still ECL 5 and get the campaign starting gold.

9. Can I worship an Evil deity? The game mechanics allow you to be one step away from the alignment of your deity, but you need to beware of social consequences.

[dalamb]

As of 2024-02-24 22:43

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1. Specific requests from Savage Species under consideration: Multigrab, Greater Multigrab, Scaled Horror PrC all approved.

2. Stuff from d n d t o o l s. o r g: I am pretty sure it is a banned site because of copyright violations. In any case, I don’t want to use resources that I don’t own, except possibly a few things from legal free sources, such as some web enhancements (WotC material) that people have suggested.

3. Champions of Valor: I don’t have it, so we won’t use it.

4. Clarify the implications of there being no dragons. Anything implying recent existence of dragons, such as the half-dragon template, are not possible. Distant dragon ancestry, as in tens of thousands of years in the past, could make sense, as would Dragon Shaman. Further clarification awaits my re-scanning Races of the Dragon to see if anything doesn’t make sense if there haven’t been dragons around anytime recently.

5. Is Celestial Mount from BoED allowed? Yes

[dalamb]

As of 2024-02-27 16:59

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1. Does it cost character points to apply a template to a mount or any other pet? Do pets get +1 to all attributes at levels that are multiples of 4? See the pet rules. Yes templates have a cost, and they don't get +1 to all attributes.

2. Can I have an intelligent item? No. It adds a complication I don't have the energy to deal with at this point in reviving my old campaigns.

3. Should favoured environment just be Aquatic or should it be split up into, say, open ocean vs abyssal plain vs coast? Just one Aquatic.

4. Can I take X that requires worshipping evil deity Y? We can probably work out a refluff.

[dalamb]

From the Character Creation thread

1. Approval of Precise Swing (Eberron Campaign Setting pg 58), under consideration
2. Is Black Tentacles a WWD? Is there a complete list, or are players expected to guess? There is now a clearer definition: they have to be both area of effect and have the potential to do lethal damage.
3. Should area-of-effect spells that do not cause lethal damage be exempt from the prohibition on WWD? Yes; I'll update the rules.
4. Is there a free Stormwrack feat? Yes.

[dalamb]

From the House Rules discussion thread

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1. What are the extraordinary skills for Profession (Sailor)?
2. How do secondary natural attacks worth given that iterated attacks don't get decreasing attack bonus?
3. Can we get
   • some fighting improvement for rogues, swashbucklers? under consideration
   • reduce the CP cost for rangers and paladins spells? under consideration
   • free weapon finesse? now available at BAB +1
   • improvement for dex-based fighting, especially dex-to-damage? No.
4. Can spell casters use their casting modifier for ranged spell attacks? No, especially since some casters are already SADSingle Attribute Dependent.
5. What does it cost to research a known spell?
6. Is there a register of sunken ships near Ost?
7. Can the Repair Damage spells be used to repair a sunken ship?

[dalamb]

From a thorough review of the Character Creation Discussion thread, as of 2024-03-02 10:51 Eastern

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Including things answered a while ago. I should have done this from the start; sorry.

1. How does the Swift Vengeance stack up against other ships? Other badass privateers aren’t rare but aren’t common.

2. Are any other creatures besides dragons missing? You can freely choose monsters listed in the allowed sources that have entries on ow to play them as characters, but I won't be deciding which monsters you will encounter until I design each encounter. Dragons are the only iconic monsters that are thought to be missing.

3. What happens (with character points) with monster characters with innate spellcasting, such as lammasu? Banned for now because figuring out appropriate character point costs is taking too long.

4. What happens if an automatic feat progression grants a free feat that at higher levels is free for some class, like improved trip for monks? See the revised monk class.

5. For feats that have a prerequisite of 'Ability to Cast X level spells', would we still qualify for that if we took a class that would ordinarily have this, without investing the points to actually be able to cast spells? You have to be able to actually cast the spell, so have to pay the points, unless we figure out that in RAW the restriction should be waived anyway.

6. Can a creature with an unusual background, like a sorcerer bloodline, use languages related to the bloodline even if they are restricted? Yes.

7. How does unarmed strike damage relate to natural attacks? You get the better of the natural attack damage and the unarmed strike damage, if the natural attack is made with a limb. I still have to grok the official web enhancement TheFred listed, but that is not going to happen in this campaign.

8. What deities are worshipped? Those listed in Complete Divine, including the ones it lists that were in the original source material.

9. Are races with tentacles immune to Evard’s Black Tentacles? No.

10. Can I use Superior Unarmed Strike and Snap kick from Tome of Battle? Yes (pages 32-33)

11. Can I use Travel Cloak from MoF p.166? No.

12. Can you add psionics (XPH, Complete Psionics) to the allowed sources? No.

13. Must a character be a new recruit? No; we can work out background in your application thread. If you’re not accepted your character is one who is moving on to a new ship, with Garth.

14. Must a character be an officer? Yes. It’s built into the historical division of treasure for privateers, and I’m reluctant to have a character who earns less treasure than everyone else. But what constitutes an “officer” can be negotiated; see Sea Singer, for example.

15. Are there any houserules for the Generic classes? There were going to be some additional "bonus feats" (class features from post-UA supplements that look comparable to the ones listed), but I am running out of time that must be spent on more urgent questions.

16. Can we use Sandstorm? Yes, but there are no deserts in the regions near Andaron and Iverina, but there are, far to the west, beyond the mountains of the Continent, some within the borders of Rodana.

17. How do various cultures react to sentient monsters?

18. Can I refuff a pixie as a magically mutated halfling? Refluffs are always negotiable. If I discuss this with a couple of people who want to do it, I can post some guidelines aftewards on what is acceptable and what isn’t.

19. Can I use a Weapon of Legacy? Individual weapons are negotiable.

20. Can we use Heritage Feats from the Planar Handbook? I will somewhat uneasily add Planer Handbook to the allowed sources, reserving the right to ban something that turns out to cause problems. I don’t remember it as well as other sourcebooks.

21. Can we have partially charged wands? Yes; partly-used equpment makes perfect sense with someone having 9 levels of backstory.

22. Can we use Leap Attack (CAdv 110) on every iterated attack? No.

23. Is Raise from the Deep (SpC) allowed? It’s in Spell Compendium, so, yes.

24. Can you add the Humanoid Shape invocation (Dragonfire Adept)? After considerable thought about opening the floodgates to similar requests, in a campaign allowing all kinds of monsters that might get negative reactions, this is an exception worth allowing.

25. Can there be rules for alcohol and drunkenness, like maybe the Pathfinder Polypurpose Panace spell, or what’s in the Arms and Equipment guide? Under consideration but it’s a low priority for which there is little harm in letting it wait until later in the application period.

26. Can you change the Cragtop Archer PrC so the 4^th level long distance sniping becomes possible in this campaign? No.

27. Practiced Spellcaster feat. Can this theoretically be used increase Eldritch Blast if a Warlock were to multiclass, since Eldritch Blast by RAW is said to be “equivalent to a first-level spell”? Yes.

28. Can we have wand chambers from Dungeonscape? No

29. Why isn’t sneak attack allowed on every iteration in your house rules, like it is in RAW? It is, now.

30. Can we have Resounding Voice from Heroes of Battle? No.

31. Can we have Precise Swing (Eberron Campaign Setting pg 58)? Yes

32. What are the extraordinary skills from other sources, particularly Spell Compendium? I will include Sundust’s list. And will consider others when I have time or when people suggest them.

33. How much does it cost in this game to research a spell if you don't have a source (scroll, another wizard, etc) to copy it off?

34. Which Spot rules are we using? Relevant to DND_Jedi’s proposed long-distance sniper.

[dalamb]

This is a summary of all the open and answered questions from the house rules discussion that aren’t already listed above, as of 2024-03-02 12:55 Eastern.

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1. For the progression feat chains (free when you meet additional prerequisites, once you take the base of the chain), do you get one of them or all of them? All.

2. Several questions about revisions to the feat chains. I won't be doing any of these.

3. Do TWF bonus attacks have the declining attack bonus they used to, or are they at full BAB like iterated attacks? They get full BAB but also the normal RAW penalties for fighting with two weapons.

4. Deep underwater, is the extradimensional space from Rope Trick under normal pressure? If so, can you get the bends from entering it? Normal pressure, no bends.

5. How many CP do warlock invocation levels cost? Two for each “category” of warlock invocation: least, lesser, greater, dark

6. Can there be height modifiers to ranged attacks? Just the normal +1 for height advantage.

7. Can casters use their casting stat instead of Dex/Str for their ranged/touch attacks? No.

[dalamb]

2024-03-04 16:08 from House Rules discussion

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1. Can dodge be a straight +1 to AC rather than having to pick a single opponent? Or is it already good enough with free Mobility? Yes, and it scales with BAB now.

2. Can we add Expeditious Dodge into the free feat chain? Not Expeditious Dodge itself, but there could be plenty of other non-SRD feats to consider.

3. Shouldn’t power attack be free if you’re making things like Weapon Finesse free? Power Attack is now free at BAB +1 like Weapon Finesse.

4. What about Stormwrack’s Unarmed Strike progression with Clever Wrestling and Toothed Blow? No, but you do get a free Stormwrack feat.

5. Should progressive feats require you to choose a few rather than getting all of them? Also suggestions here. No.

6. Archery hasn’t been boosted by progressive feats as much as things like TWF; can this be improved? Or be left alone?

   Point Blank Shot now gives Precise Shot and Improved Precise Shot when you meet the prerequisites. I will consider other changes if folks make more suggestions.

[dalamb]

2024-03-04 16:39 from Character Creation

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1. How do the new Knowledge rules interact with the Knowledge devotion? They stack.

2. Can we take some liberty with alignments, such as mixing Druid with Paladin to have a lawful good Druid? No. To be consistent I’d have to rethink the whole matter of why there are alignment restrictions in the first place, rather than just this specific question. I don't want to spend the time to do that at this point.

3. May we combine class variants that replace different things? Example: Cloistered Cleric + Spontaneous Divine Casters. No. To my way of thinking this is just a special case of allowing homebrew classes, and that is a whole can of worms I don’t want to open right now. Maybe in some future campaign.

[dalamb]

2024-03-09 17:36

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1. Suggested Cleave chain.

2. Heavy Armour feat chain. Maybe, but fighters already do get Pathfinder armour training.

3. Can we use the Pathfinder rules for recording new spells instead? 1 hour to study a spell and 1 hour/spell level to record it?