Onlinerpg

Character Creation

Sun Mar 21 01:24:40 PST 2004

Hello Again,
Here is where I think we are so far mixed with some of the ideas I've been 
developing for the last few months:

Races
Easterner and Dragaeran (17 Sub-Races)

Each Race/Sub-Race will have:
1. Attribute modifiers
2. a list of in-class skills
3. a list of Feats which are available or unique to the Race
4. for Dragaerans: a list of available spells up to 4th level (but see 
Magic below)

When speaking of the Houses, it is important to remember that there is a 
difference between being *in* a House and being *of* a House.  Dragaerans 
are connected to their birth house by genetics and 100 years or so of 
childhood.  An Easterner could buy a title in the Jhereg (a Feat?) but 
would keep the Easterner Race "template"; he would not adopt the Jhereg 
Race "template" because he is *in* the Jhereg House, not *of* it.

Classes
Expert, Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer, Witch

This is less than half the standard classes in D&D, but I think the House 
differences make up for it.

Expert is a class that lets the character focus on his Race specific 
abilities.  It would provide substantial Skill Points and frequent Feats, 
but the in-class skills and available Feats are only those of your Race. 
Depending on your Race, Expert class level may increase spell caster level.

Prestige Classes
Prestige Classes I've thought of so far:
General (Dragon), Hero (Dzur), Archivist/Loremaster (Lyorn), Warrior 
(Lyorn), Assassin (Jhereg), Wizard (Athyra), Diplomat (Issola), 
Troubador/Minstrel/Bard (Issola or maybe Tiassa)

Note that the House identifications above do not mean that the Class is 
necessarily restricted to that House; for example Morrolan is both a 
General and a Wizard.  The linkage is to indicate a house that would tend 
toward the class and spark the creative juices in thinking of a Prestige 
Class to match up with each of the Houses so we can end up with 17.  Note: 
I don't think the Teckla will have a Prestige Class, therefore I allowed 
the Lyorn two.

Magic
After reading the "Chaos Magic" supplement by Mongoose Publishing I have 
been leaning toward a flexible magic system in place of spell lists.  Spell 
Casters must make a Skill Roll based on the difficulty of the magic effect 
desired.  Use of magic results in subdual damage (consistent with Vlad's 
exhaustion after Witchcraft rituals and his comment about mental fatigue 
when using an umbrella spell in Dragon) but a failed roll can result in 
real damage as the energies you've tapped into backfire.  Can detail this 
more later, I wanted to get the idea out to start with.

The table is open.  Debate, discuss.  I don't want to "settle" for anything 
in developing this game so if there's anything I've suggested that doesn't 
sound exciting to you, bring it up.

--Mark
"You have the right to freedom of speech, just as long as you're not dumb 
enough to actually try it."
--The Clash