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Tag Archives: House Rules

D&D – Lunar Calander

3 Comments Posted by on July 13, 2012

This is a calendar that I came up with to keep track of the passage of time in a campaign. I have used a similar calander in a couple of campaigns now and I like its simplicity and ease of use.

The sun travels once around this world in 336 days, visiting the 12 Lairs of the Zodiac in an appointed round that never varies. The Great Moon, called Luna, waxes and wanes in fixed cycles of 28 days (Luna’s cycle governs lycanthropy).
Each lunar cycle marks the passage of one month, which is further subdivided into four weeks of seven days each.

The standad week of seven days has the following days:

Day of Suffering (Su) Work
Day of Momentum (Mo) Work
Day of Turmoil (Tu) Work
Day of Weakness (We) Work
Day of Thanksgiving (Th) Work
Day of Freedom (Fr) Rest
Day of Sacrament (Sa) Worship

Each of the 12 months is 28 days long, made up of 4 weeks of 7 days each. The first of each month is a new moon and the 15th of each month is a full moon.

Note: All dates are from the rediscovery of the Great Northern Continent (GNC).

The Current Year is 1,342 GNC

Flowers Festivals Greengrass
Spring Spring Spring
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Highsun Tournaments Leaffade
Summer Summer Summer
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Leaffall Markets Rotting
Fall Fall Fall
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Winds Ceremonies Storms
Winter Winter Winter
Su Mo Tu Ar Wa Fr Sa Su Mo Tu Ar Wa Fr Sa Su Mo Tu Ar Wa Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
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D&D – Languages

50 Comments Posted by on June 27, 2012

Language

Updated for 5th edition

Language Typical Speakers Script
Abyssal Demons, chaotic evil outsiders Infernal
Aquan Water-based creatures Elven
Auran Air-based creatures Draconic
Celestial Celestials (angels, devas) Celestial
Common Humans, halflings, half-elves, half-orcs Common
Deep Speech Mind flayers, beholders —
Draconic Kobolds, troglodytes, lizardfolk, dragons, dragonborn Draconic
Druidic Druids (only) Druidic
Dwarvish Dwarves Dwarvish
Elvish Elves Elvish
Giant Ogres, giants Dwarvish
Gnomish Gnomes Dwarvish
Goblin Goblinoids, hobgoblins, bugbears Dwarvish
Gnoll Gnolls Common
Halfling Halflings Common
Ignan Fire-based creatures Draconic
Infernal Devils, Tieflings Infernal
Orc Orcs Dwarvish
Primordial Elementals Dwarvish
Sylvan Fey creatures (dryads, brownies, leprechauns) Elvish
Terran Xorns and other earth-based creatures Dwarven
Undercommon Drow, Underdark traders Elvish

Animals, Plants, Vermin, and Oozes typically do not have languages.

Constructs, Deathless, Undead, and Elementals are usually created and understand the language of their creator.

Aberrations are just freaky, and may or may not speak any known language.

This list isn’t intended to be a list of all D&D languages. For one thing, it doesn’t include all race-specific languages. The grell language, for example, is only spoken by the grell. One source says that other creatures cannot learn the grell language. There are a few other languages that are  race-specific, such as the Slaad. I will not attempt to keep this list updated with every monster in the multiverse that has their own race-specific language.

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D&D 3.5 – Power Components

Leave a comment Posted by on June 26, 2012

The Dungeon Master’s Guide presents this optional rule as an alternative to spending XP on spells and magic items. Instead of using XP to power a spell, a spellcaster may substitute a special material component. These “power components” are rare and very valuable, and might even be a secret known only to a few spellcasters.

I wanted to use this option, because I never felt right about spending XP for anything other than their intended use in gaining levels. In a search for some recommended components, I ran across the best article ever printed regarding power components in Dragon Magazine #317 – March 2004  It was in an article called “Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog”.  Here are the suggested components for spells and magic items from that article:

Power Components For Spell XP Costs

  • Atonement (evil or neutral caster): The heart of a ghaele eladrin worth 2,500 gp.
  • Atonement (good or neutral caster): The heart of an ice devil worth 2,500 gp.
  • Awaken: The vital essence of any elder elemental worth 1,250 gp.
  • Commune (evil or neutral caster): The tail of a lillend worth 500 gp.
  • Commune (good or neutral caster): The lips of a succubus worth 500 gp.
  • Gate: The powdered brain of a horned devil worth 5,000 gp.
  • Limited wish: The rib cage of a devourer worth 1,500 gp.
  • Miracle (evil or neutral caster): All of the roots of an elder treant* worth 25,000 gp.
  • Miracle (good or neutral caster): The eyes of a black salad* worth 25,000 gp.
  • Permanency:
    • Darkvision: The eyes of a nightwalker worth 5,000 gp.
    • Detect magic: All of the wrappings of a mummy lord worth 5,000 gp.
    • Gust of wind: The tongue of an adult white dragon worth 7,500 gp
    • Magic fang, greater: The fangs of a very old black dragon worth 7,500 gp.
    • Phase door: The head blade of an anaxim* worth 17,500 gp.
    • Prismatic sphere: The powered skull of a young adult celestial prismatic dragon* worth 22,500 gp.
    • See invisible: The eyes of any mature adult dragon worth 5,000 gp.
    • Symbol of death: The skull of a winterwright worth 20,000 gp.
    • Symbol of pain: The scalp of an evil cleric (20th level or higher) worth 12,500 gp.
  • Planar ally: All of the hooves of a nightmare worth 1,250 gp.
  • Planar ally, greater: The crushed claws (all) of a death salad worth 2,500 gp.
  • Planar ally, lesser: The powered fangs of a red salad worth 500 gp.
  • Restoration, greater: The horn of a unicorn worth 2,500 gp.
  • Simulacrum: The head of a greater stone golem worth 5,000 gp.
  • Vision: The faceted eyes of an umber hulk worth 500 gp.
  • Wish: The heart of a wyrm gold dragon worth 25,000 gp.

*From the Epic Level Handbook

Power Components for Magic Item XP Costs

Armor

  • Banded mail of luck: All of the chest scales from an adult bronze dragon worth 3.780 gp.
  • Breastplate of command: The wings from a planetar angel worth 5,080 gp.
  • Demon armor: The complete hide of a 21+HD horned devil (cornugon) worth 10,450 gp.
  • Spined shield: The tail of a 16+HD fendish manticore worth 1,115 gp.
  • Winged shield: All of the flight feathers of a 14+HH trumpet archon worth 3,450 gp.

Weapons

  • Dagger of venom: The cranial spine of a barbed devil (hamatula) worth 1,660 gp.
  • Flame tongue: The tongue of an adult red dragon worth 4,145 gp.
  • Holy avenger: The spine of a solar paladin angel (1st lvl or higher) worth 24,125 gp.
  • Slaying arrow: All of the spines of a basilisk worth 455 gp.

Potions and Oils

  • Cat’s grace: The tail of a krenshar worth 60 gp.
  • Cure moderate wounds: All of the royal jelly from a giant bee hive worth 60 gp.
  • Cure serious wounds: The adrenal gland of a lion worth 150 gp.
  • Eagle’s splendor: All of the feathers from a half-celestial eagle worth 80 gp.
  • Fly: All 4 hooves from a Pegasus worth 150 gp.
  • Fox’s cunning: All of the scales from a nixie sprite worth 60 gp.
  • Haste: All of the claws from the toes of a deinonycbus (dinosaur) worth 150 gp.
  • Invisibility: The antennae from a grig sprite worth 60 gp.
  • Owl’s wisdom: All of the scales (crushed) from a pseudodragon worth 60 gp.
  • Rage: The stinger (powdered) from a giant wasp worth 150 gp.

There is a lot more information available in that article. Recommended reading for anyone considering this option.

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D&D 3.5 – TURN UNHOLY (replaces turn or rebuke undead)

Leave a comment Posted by on June 24, 2012

This is an excerpt from my D&D Lite rules. It is an alternative to the turn undead ability of clerics and paladins as presented in D&D v3.5. Rather than undead, this effects unholy. Unholy normally includes un-dead, demons, and devils. Each faith has its own definition of which creatures are unholy to that religion. They are typically identified in the holy writings of that faith.

By boldly presenting his holy symbol and uttering holy words, clerics (and paladins at -3 levels) can turn away the enemies of his faith. A cleric can attempt to turn away un-dead, demons, and devils. Some clerics of particular faiths may be able to turn away other kinds of creatures, depending on what powers their deities award them.

A turning check is a level check to which the character also adds his Charisma modifier. (Use the character’s effective turning level, which is equal to class level for a cleric or class level -3 for a paladin.) The DC is 10 + the creature’s Hit Dice + its turn resistance (if any).

You can turn unholy a number of times a day equal to 3 + your Cha modifier.

You can affect a number of Hit Dice of creatures equal to three × your effective cleric level on any one turning attempt. For example, a 4th-level cleric (or 7th-level paladin) can affect up to 12 HD worth of creatures, which could mean two creatures with 6 HD each, four creatures with 3 HD each, or any other combination that adds up to 12 HD.

You make one turning check for the entire group of unholy creatures. You affect the closest unholy first. You can affect unholy within 60 ft and in the line of effect.

Turned unholy flee for 10 rounds (1 minute). If they cannot flee, they cower (giving any attack rolls against them a +2 bonus). If you approach within 10 feet of them, however, they overcome being turned and act normally. You can attack them with ranged attacks (from at least 10 feet away), and others can attack them in any fashion, without breaking the turning effect.

Demons, devils, and unholy clerics are always allowed a WILL saving throw to avoid being affected. Deities and their Avatars cannot be turned.

SUCCESS: If your cleric level is 4 or more points higher than the unholy’s HD it is destroyed. If the unholy’s HD is 4 or more points higher than your cleric level it is unaffected. All others are turned.

FAILURE: If your cleric level is 4 or more points higher than the unholy’s HD it is turned even if you fail your turning check. All others are unaffected.

CRITICAL SUCCESS: If you roll an unmodified 20 on your turning check, all creatures that would have normally been turned on a successful check are destroyed instead. All others are turned with the exception of unholy creatures with a HD 4 or more points higher than your cleric level. They stay but are “frightened” by your holy symbol for the duration of the encounter. Creatures that are frightened by your holy symbol won’t approach close enough for you to touch them with it and they won’t allow you to touch them with it. They will only attack you directly if they think that it is the only way that they can prevent you from touching them. A touch from your holy symbol will do only 1d4 points of damage, but it burns and hurts very badly. Touching a creature with your holy symbol does no damage to a creature that isn’t frightened of it

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D&D 3.5 – Starting Equipment

6 Comments Posted by on June 21, 2012

If you ever need to quickly equip a character, here is what I use in my D&D Lite house rules.

For first level characters, you can use the starting package listed below

Clothing:

Your character has one outfit of normal clothes. Your can ignore the weight of your clothing when calculating the weight you are carrying.  This will typically include sturdy  boots,  leather breeches  or  a  skirt,  a  belt,  a  shirt  (perhaps  with  a  vest  or  jacket), gloves,  and  a  cloak. The clothes have plenty of pockets (especially the cloak).  The outfit can also include any extra items you might need, such as a scarf or a wide-brimmed hat.

Equipment:

Your character has this equipment: backpack, waterskin, one day’s trail rations, bedroll, sack, flint and steel, and three torches. Add to this the equipment and money listed below for your character’s class.

Barbarian: Studded leather armor, greataxe, shortbow, quiver with 20 arrows and 8 gp.

Bard: Studded leather armor, longsword, light crossbow, case with 10 crossbow bolts, lute (common), spell component pouch and 8 gp.

Cleric: Scale mail armor, heavy wooden shield, heavy mace, light crossbow, case with 10 crossbow bolts, wooden holy symbol and 4 gp.

Druid: Hide armor, heavy wooden shield, scimitar, club, sling, pouch with 10 sling bullets, holly and mistletoe and 6 gp.

Fighter: Scale mail armor, greatsword, shortbow, quiver with twenty arrows and 8 gp.

Monk: Quarterstaff, sling, pouch with 10 sling stones and 8 gp. (no armor)

Paladin: Scale mail armor, heavy wooden shield, longsword, shortbow, hooded lantern, three pints of oil, quiver with 20 arrows, wooden holy symbol and 24 gp.

Ranger: Studded leather armor, longsword, short sword, longbow, quiver with 20 arrows and 8 gp.

Rogue: Leather armor, short sword, light crossbow, dagger, thieves’ tools, hooded lantern and three pints of oil, case with 10 crossbow bolts and 16 gp.

Sorcerer: Shortspear, light crossbow, hooded lantern, 5 pints of oil, spell component pouch, case with 10 crossbow bolts and 12 gp. (no armor)

Wizard: Quarterstaff, light crossbow, ten candles, map case, three pages of parchment, ink, inkpen, spell component pouch, spellbook, case with 10 crossbow bolts and 18 gp. (no armor)

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D&D 3.5 – Dungeons and Dragons – Lite

5 Comments Posted by on June 8, 2012
D&D Lite Cover

Cover page for D&D Lite

The following is a document of House Rules. In this document are alternatives to the normal Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 d20 rules.

I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons since it came out in the late 1970’s. I eagerly awaited each new release of the game and embraced all of the new rules. With each new release it got better. When 3.0 was released I saw it as a re-visioning of the original game with more logical and consistent rules. It was soon followed by 3.5 which corrected some of 3.0s failings. I had great expectations for the 4.0 release, but I was greatly disappointed. Instead of streamlining and simplifying the rules, it was a whole new game. I’m not saying that it is a bad game, it simply isn’t one that I choose to play. Others felt the way that I do and other companies have tried to “fix” D&D v3.5. The Pathfinder RPG is an attempt to improve on 3.5. While Pathfinder is an improvement over 3.5 they didn’t go far enough, in my opinion, to simplify the 3.5 rules. There are also some rules-light game systems based on the d20 SRD v3.5 such as Basic Fantasy and others but after reviewing them  I found most of them to be too light on the rules for my taste.  So, instead of throwing it all out and starting over, I decided to simply make the changes that I felt v3.5 needed to make it easier and faster to play.

Overview

This is a set of “House Rules” designed to meet the following criteria:

1. Character creation and promotion should be simple, fast and easy.

2. The rule set should be fully compatible with other v3.5 stuff (adventures, sourcebooks, etc).

3. Complicated rules should be simplified to the point where you can play 90% of the time without having to look up a rule.

The intention is to simplify and speed up play, bringing back a lot the feel of the original D&D game while preserving most of the enhancements that the d20 game provides.

To accomplish this we will use the Players Handbook v3.5 (abbreviated here as PHB), with some modifications. The major changes are:

No Multiclass characters. You will be playing iconic D&D characters. These are the 11 core classes, without regard to race or sex, with each class being the “typical” stereotype character for that class.

No Feats. Each character class has its own set of special abilities; additional abilities are added as the character advances in level.

No selection and distribution of Skill Points. You get a set of core skills by class. These increase as you increase in level.

No Proficiencies. You can use the weapons and armor you start with and can quickly learn to use others in-campaign.

No Alignment. Or, more accurately, there are no alignment related game rules and effects. Character alignment is optional.  We will substitute “Unholy” for “Evil” in most Clerical spells and effects.

No separate rules for Bull rush, Disarm, Overrun, Sunder or Trip. These are replaced with one simple “heroic actions” mechanic.

No Attacks of Opportunity. Characters are required to make an ability check (a “heroic action”) to attempt to pass through a threatened square, or perform non-attack actions within a threatened square. This eliminates the need for Attacks of Opportunity.

Rules for Grapple, Turn Undead, nonlethal damage and Counterspells have all been simplified.

This document is not intended to replace the PHB, but to supplement it. Many of the rules from the PHB have been repeated here for convince. Wherever something is mentioned for which I haven’t provided adequate information (Darkvision for instance) refer to the PHB.

You can download a free copy of this PDF file here: Dungeon-n-Dragon-Lite

The above file contains a Character Record Sheet, but here it is as a seperate PDF file: Character Sheet

Here are some Fast-Play Character Sheets.

Hare is an Animal Companion / Familiar Character Sheet.

Corrections and changes are  posted in this addendum.

As always, I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions.

House Rules, Optional rules , , , ,

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