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Grunker
Acolyte
Denmark
37 Posts |
 Posted - 24 Sep 2011 : 16:21:10
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Hi there, guys!
In this thread I present to you a weighty tome called Pharaoh's Blood, which is my own fan-made rules supplement for D&D3.5. I am currently running a campaign set in Mulhorand, Faerūn (Forgotten Realms), called Past Atonement. This rules supplement has been created alongside this campaign, but it should be sufficiently generic for anyone who likes in 3.5 to find it interesting.
The tome holds new races, classes, feats, prestige classes, spells, monsters and more.
I hope some of the experts here (from rules lawyers to GMs, from gamers to munchkins) will take a glance at it, perhaps more than just a quick look if they feel so inclined.
Some of the rules in the tome is based on the house rules in my campaign (they are few, so they shouldn't be much trouble, but I recommend taking a quick look at them anyway - you can download them at the bottom of this page).
If you want to take a look, this post holds some additional information in spoiler-tags for those interested in knowing what I'd like help with/am not satisfied with. Otherwise just skip to the bottom of this post and download the lewt! General feedback is more than welcome.
Of course, my main interest in posting the volume on this site is lore - I would like comments from some of the sages here :). Bear one thing in mind though: The new deities are a result of the many years I've run D&D, so they are mostly consequences of the player's actions. As such, they may feel out of planes in the Forgotten Realms. Please disregard the deities in terms of lore unless you have some general comments. The classes, prestige classes, races and spells, however, I would like some comments on :)
Note that the tome is made for the D&D3.5 version of the realms - not post-4th edition.
Some notes on what remains:
1) Magic items need a correct PRICE and COST TO CREATE. I haven't looked into this yet, but probably will later if no one saves me from it.
2) The balancing is very hard to do. I want the stuff presented in Pharaoh's Blood to be on the level of, for example, powerful prestige classes, but I don't wan't it to end up on the level of the stuff I outlaw in my own campaign (Planar Shepherd, for example).
3) The races are of special interest here; I've tried making some races that need level adjustment and instead given them other disadvantages. Let me know how that went.
4) The most important areas to balance is, in order of importance, races, classes, prestige classes, spells.
Some notes about balance:
Some will react to this tome with a "it's broken!" attitude I'm sure! :)
Bear in mind that D&D3.5 have a long range of extremely powerful classes and prestige classes especially. I ban a minimum of these in my campaigns (examples of what I personally ban includes Savage Species, the Planar Shepherd, and so on - even stuff like mineral warrior is only borderline, not straight out banned), so my stuff needs to be on the same level as other powerful things so that it will actually be of gamist interest to my PCs.
Some notes on copy-rights:
SRD: As far as I know, I keep within the limits of the SRD, and when I don't, I don't present details on non-SRD content but refer to the sourcebook. Please let me know if this is not the case.
Pictures: It is extremely tough to browse through da intrawebs and find out what is copyrighted/what isn't. The pictures I use are mainly set as "may be used" by the artist, created by my own friends, OR I have found them on pages that state that content on there is free to use. If this is not the case, please let me know.
Without further ado, here are the download links:
The house-rules can be found here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3613210/House-rules%20for%20Past%20Atonement.pdf (don't comment on these - they're just here for reference)
The tome itself is here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3613210/PHARAOH%27S%20BLOOD%20-%202nd%20Edition.pdf
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"And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!" - Percy Shelley |
Edited by - Grunker on 25 Sep 2011 01:39:08
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Gray Richardson
Master of Realmslore
USA
1291 Posts |
Posted - 24 Sep 2011 : 21:53:41
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Great stuff! Looks really slick and imaginative. What a great foundation for a Mulhorand campaign! Your players seem very lucky to have a DM put so much thought and enthusiasm into the campaign.
There's a lot of intriguing options there in the players guide! And the flavor and style of the material seems really engaging and suited to the milieu.
I also liked your house rules. I'm even going to steal one. I love the idea about death occurring at -CON instead of -10 HP. My players often run up against that lower limit and every extra point would help them. Makes CON an even more useful attribute to have.
Our house rule for fumbles is simply that if you roll a 1 on your attack then you roll a die with a 50/50 chance of dropping your weapon, so if you drop it then you end up disarmed for a round and have to use a move action to pick it up next turn. It's a minor annoyance that adds a fun extra little twist to combat. I've been interested in maybe trying those critical fumble cards some day just for fun. But your critical fumble table looks pretty fun and I might just try that out as an experiment sometime. |
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Grunker
Acolyte
Denmark
37 Posts |
Posted - 25 Sep 2011 : 01:32:05
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Thanks a lot for the feedback and the kind words!
If you try the fumble table out, be advised that it imposes some pretty dramatic consequences (being stunned for one round because of a bad roll can be pretty tough). The reason we use it without problems is because my players min-max a bit, and the standard adventures do not pose the most extreme difficulty. So we up the difficulty here and there, the fumble table is just one of these things.
That said, I am generally pro anything that let player characters stay alive a long time, since there is a much better basis for roleplaying when you've build up a strong personality and background for your character through actually playing it. |
"And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!" - Percy Shelley |
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Bladewind
Master of Realmslore
Netherlands
1280 Posts |
Posted - 25 Sep 2011 : 20:14:06
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If only I had this resource a few years ago when I DM'ed my Old Empires campaign!
I like your races, especially the godtouched and djinn-marked.
My only concern is for the arquebus: its damage type is more likely to be piercing because its a ranged weapon wich fires small bullets not large enough to confer bludgeoning damage (like a sling stone would). |
My campaign sketches
Druidic Groves
Creature Feature: Giant Spiders |
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Grunker
Acolyte
Denmark
37 Posts |
Posted - 25 Sep 2011 : 20:28:16
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quote:
If only I had this resource a few years ago when I DM'ed my Old Empires campaign! I like your races, especially the godtouched and djinn-marked!
Thanks! I have some concerns about the balance of the godtouched as well as the style of the nega-trait of the eastern dragonkin. Will probably have to find an alternative to the latter.
quote:
My only concern is for the arquebus: its damage type is more likely to be piercing because its a ranged weapon wich fires small bullets not large enough to confer bludgeoning damage (like a sling stone would).
That much is true. Will change it. |
"And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!" - Percy Shelley |
Edited by - Grunker on 25 Sep 2011 22:05:58 |
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arry
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
317 Posts |
Posted - 26 Sep 2011 : 09:41:12
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Many thanks for this. It's going to be incredibly useful.
I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but on my download copy there are no pictures and some of the text won't display. |
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Grunker
Acolyte
Denmark
37 Posts |
Posted - 26 Sep 2011 : 11:44:55
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You're welcome! Your problem sounds odd, anyone else having this? What .pdf reader are you using? I'm just using the latest version of Acrobat Reader myself. Maybe there are some issues with old versions/other readers?
Can you post a screenshot? Maybe I can work something out :) |
"And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!" - Percy Shelley |
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arry
Learned Scribe
United Kingdom
317 Posts |
Posted - 27 Sep 2011 : 15:54:37
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The problem is solved! I right-clicked on the link and went 'save link as' and the pdf is fine. It's even better now I can see it all :)
Thanks again. |
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Grunker
Acolyte
Denmark
37 Posts |
Posted - 27 Sep 2011 : 16:40:45
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| Oh, it was just that, haha. It's common with .pdfs :) |
"And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!" - Percy Shelley |
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Pharaoh's Blood - A Mulhorandi Rules Supplement
