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5 years ago ::
May 21, 2008 - 5:53PM
#11
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Date Joined:
Apr 19, 2001
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1. No humans or half-elves.
2. Alignments are LG, CG, LE, CE and TN.
3. The things called archon's in the MM are called something else, actual archons are LG robo angels.
4. Actual angels will be suitably lovecraftian horrors. and will be extensions of the gods will not mercenaries.
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5 years ago ::
May 21, 2008 - 10:42PM
#12
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Date Joined:
May 11, 2008
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Only fluff for me. I'd like to kick around the mechanics before messing with them, if at all.
My main fluff houserule for 4e is:
The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Sane
Halflings aren't half of anything, they're a distinct race. They're not even "half" in height any more.
For now, I'm using the name Kender, for lack of a better term and because that should be easy enough for traditional D&D players to remember.
Dragonborn is inaccurate in the literal sense, as they're not actually born from dragons, and even if it might refer to the fact that they're a culture that reveres and shares a bond with dragons, that word would likely be an honorific for exceptional distinguished individuals rather than the name of the whole race. We don't go around calling everyone we meet the same name as something some of us might hold sacred, or soemthing some of us believe we were created from. ("Hi, Godborn! How are the little saviors doing today?") Dragonborn just... ugh.
At the moment, I'm planning to use a name suggested by someone at ENWorld: Gendrak. (I'm more willing to take a word that obscurely translates to "dragon kin" than one that plainly says "I crawled out of a dragon's womb.")
Tiefling might have been appropriate as a name when they were a template for oddballs born from a mixed union. Medieval types would probably have a name similar to that for such people, just like they had a name for changelings or killcrops. It's a bit too 'quirky' for the name of a distinct race, though.
So, I'm going to make the assumption that the Tieflings' ancient empire, Bael Turath, literally means Empire of the Turath and make the race's name the Turatha. With the side note that the term Tiefling was used in a derogatory fashion while the race gradually transformed from the devils' curse... the ones that were still "normal" would ostracize the ones that transformed first and give them a name that sounds like a nuisance-y thing. Calling one a Tiefling translates to calling them "an annoying, foul, cursed thing." Not necessarily inaccurate in all respects, but not good diplomacy or race relations.
To eliminate confusion for older D&D players, I'm inclined to call Saving Throws "duration rolls."
And so on....
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5 years ago ::
May 22, 2008 - 12:39AM
#13
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There's quite a bit I plan to houserule into the game, depending on whether or not 4E addresses the things I am worried about. - Completely altering the core mechanic from "roll to match DC" to "roll to beat DC". It means that all things even, the person rolling has a 50/50 chance to win or lose when going against someone's defenses (unless of course they've addressed this by making all defenses and passive skills into bonuses+11 instead of +10). It also means that its easier for me to come up with DCs, since I like everything to be statistically sound... concealment 10 should be a 50% chance to miss, not concealment 11. I like it like that (and so do most of my players).
- Since I'm converting my homebrew campaign, it means I have to create quite a few races, as well as transfer over some of the special currencies from that setting in a way that matches the new style.
- I'm going to use fractional accounting for attributes. Odd-numbered attribute scores increase in value every odd level, while even-numbered attribute scores increase as normal. This means that every point is important. This does somewhat give my players an edge, since 11 at level 1 is now a +1 instead of +0, and every other odd numbered attribute gets a +1 bonus at level 1 as well... but I guess it slightly makes up for the way I changed the core mechanic. :D
- No alignment. Now that the mechanics are gone, I want players to give me a short and sweet synopsis of their character's personality instead.
- As something I've been working on for a bit for a new campaign setting, I have something unique that will somewhat limit races in a way that some might consider a throwback to 2nd and 1st Edition's racial class restrictions. I don't want to divulge too much though, just in case my players come onto these boards.
As for flavor changes... - Huge overhaul for dragonborn. No boobs, have tails. Mindset and culture more closely tied to dragons.
- Thinking of reworking Eladrin as something completely untied to elves. Might make them tied to one of my homebrew races.
- I'm adding in firearms if they aren't there.
- Not using any of the background setting from the new stuff, for the most part. Blood War still exists in a different form. Tieflings will have a similar background, but rather than a curse, it'll be corruption from severe exposure the outer planes that creates them (their ancestors delved into planeswalking and paid the ultimate price with their humanity). Half-orcs are similar to them, but created by corruption from exposure to the underdark (I'm playing up the corruption theme they hinted at in Races & Classes in a different style). May do the same for half-elves (humans corrupted by the feywild).
- As I've always had, orcs aren't mindless thugs in my settings.
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5 years ago ::
May 22, 2008 - 12:59AM
#14
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Date Joined:
Dec 17, 2007
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I like the idea of restricting some classes from some races, but I think it's not really justifiable yet in 4e, but I'll almost certainly be doing it later. My campaign is entirely homebrew and some stuff is going to be tricky to implement. Tieflings are going to be the same as 3.5. I'm also going to introduce my own alignment system thats more in depth than the 3.5 one. The players don't control their alignment, it's more for my reference when designin campaigns, but its going to be similar to the sliding scales of law and evil in the fiendish codex. I'm also going to get rid of the terms "good" and "evil" for alignments, it will be more centred around the specific aspect of the alignment that the character embodies, such as respect for life, or need for justice or freedom. I found the old alignment system restrictive and I couldn't really tweak it because of mechanics. Some of my most interesting and complex characters and NPCs were aligned as Neutral, which I felt was a bit insulting.
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5 years ago ::
May 22, 2008 - 7:31PM
#15
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Date Joined:
May 11, 2008
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Only fluff for me. I'd like to kick around the mechanics before messing with them, if at all.[/quote]
Okay, I lied.
This:
- No alignment. Now that the mechanics are gone, I want players to give me a short and sweet synopsis of their character's personality instead.
[/quote]
is something that was also on my list mixed in with campaign notes for the homebrew I've been working on. Except that the synopsis isn't necessary if they can reveal their character and his motivations consistently in roleplay.
Oh, and this:
Economy
Magic shops are places where one can buy bat guano, crystals, parchment, ritual materials, and on rare occasion, a few basic rituals. Some are true Rituals, others are sold to people trying to find true love, get rid of a not-so-true love, or make lots of money. Let the buyer beware. If it sounds too good to be true, have an expert check it first to make sure it's a real ritual. Want to buy or sell magical items? The value of such things is beyond the scope of most merchants, and there aren’t enough people rich enough to make up a customer base for the would-be magic item merchant, although there are a few private collectors.
Some arcane scholars and mentors will buy residuum, however, if you can find them, so that they can teach their apprentices enchanting rituals, reward pupils with special implements, or just make useful items for themselves. Although in general, adventurers would be better off rendering their old or unwanted magic items into residuum through a ritual even if there isn't such a figure around, and then making something more useful themselves.
I just wasn't thinking of them as house rules so much as setting rules and personal preferences.
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5 years ago ::
May 22, 2008 - 8:09PM
#16
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Date Joined:
Jun 25, 2001
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I don't think I'm going to play with any house rules to start, but I've got a few lined up if problems I expected to see do in fact happen.
Saving Throws: I expect to see, especially at high levels, a lot of saves. It's going to be tedious rolling this every round for each effect. So I thought of possibly a new save system. Like the normal one you roll a d20, based on the best DC you beat, you can choose something. But you get only one save per round, regardless of how many effects are on you.
DC 5- You may remove one effect to which you have a specific save boost. (for instance +5 saves vs poison).
DC 10- You may remove one effect at random, or choose one effect to which you have a specific save boost.
DC 15 - You may remove one effect of your choice, plus all effects to which you have a specific save boost.
DC 20 - You remove all effects.
Recovering dailies: It seems that 4E has heavy nova/rest potential, so I may make it such that you can only recover dailies by completing milestones, or I may just increase an extended rest to 48-72 hours instead of only 6.
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5 years ago ::
May 23, 2008 - 11:23AM
#17
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Date Joined:
Mar 22, 2008
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So, I'm going to make the assumption that the Tieflings' ancient empire, Bael Turath, literally means Empire of the Turath and make the race's name the Turatha. With the side note that the term Tiefling was used in a derogatory fashion while the race gradually transformed from the devils' curse... the ones that were still "normal" would ostracize the ones that transformed first and give them a name that sounds like a nuisance-y thing. Calling one a Tiefling translates to calling them "an annoying, foul, cursed thing." Not necessarily inaccurate in all respects, but not good diplomacy or race relations.
I really like the idea of taking half of the race names and turning them into ethnic slurs, because really, that's what they sound like. I see the name Dragonborn being more like "Eww, you people look kinda-dragony, i'm gonna call youse 'dragonborns.' "
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