d20 Archives - Page 2 of 6 - Neitherworld Stories

January 28, 2008

Smash!

This is part one of a follow-up to my last post. I’ve been thinking more about size and its effect upon combat in d20. I’ve come to a couple of preliminary conclusions. Primary among these is that the scaling of everything relative to “Medium” size and the 5′ square is a source of many problems. Here’s a simple fix that...

January 1, 2008

Dashing Swordsman

Over on EN World, some people were trying to come up with a (made-up, as far as anyone knows) prestige class that was mentioned in The Order of the Stick. Here’s my version: Dashing Swordsman (V 1.2) Hit Died8. RequirementsTo qualify to become a dashing swordsman, a character must fulfill all the following criteria. Base Attack Bonus+6. SkillsPerform 8 ranks,...

December 13, 2007

I don’t know precisely what D&D 4th edition will look like…

…but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of it looking like the Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords in terms of structure. Ignore the wuxia feel of the book for a moment. What’s the structure of the classes in it? Well, there are different schools of martial maneuvers maneuvers (let’s genericize these a...

November 17, 2007

Spell Synergies

I had a neat (and probably unworkable) idea yesterday about the d20 spell system that would likely require too much work for me to actually write up fully, but I thought I’d share it. Here’s the idea. You cast a primary spell and (assuming you know a spell that has synergy with it) you can cast the secondary spell at...

October 22, 2007

Rules Compendium

Yesterday I bought a present for Angela and I: a copy of the Rules Compendium. The book compiles rules from various sources into an easy to read format that is alphabetized by topic. Intermixed are essays on rules-design and anecdotes about how rules resolved into their current form. I think it will be good for both of us, but in...

August 27, 2007

Dynamic combat

I was reading this thread on EN World. It is about how movement might be encouraged/more important in combat in D&D 4e. I’m not going to speculate here on 4e mechanics, but this idea did get me to start thinking about how to encourage dynamic combat. Part of the goal is to get people to use their environment to their...

August 16, 2007

Well, then.

Last night was the first session of Jeff’s Rebel Scum game. It was a whole pile of fun. Heavy on the action, light on the rules. It felt like Star Wars. That was good. I finished the night with two hit points – mostly because I kept forgetting things like Force Points and the Second Wind rules… Then I got...

July 27, 2007

Random leveling thought and away message

First, I should apologize for not updating lately. I’m in the middle of moving and will be headed to New Orleans next week. It will probably be two weeks before I begin updating regularly… unless I figure out how to do so from my new Treo. Anyway, I was reading a thread on a forum (probably EN World – I...

July 19, 2007

Star Wars Saga Edition Review (Episode II)

Feats: Feats are very similar to basic d20. The “+2 bonus to two skills” feats have been removed. Skill focus gives you a +5 bonus. Bull Rush has been renamed Bantha Rush. Also, you get a lot of feats. Every other level in a base class gives you a bonus feat. Every third character level gives you a feat.The Good:...

July 18, 2007

Star Wars Saga Edition Review (Episode I)

We interrupt Silly Template Week to bring you actual content: Thoughts on the Star Wars Saga Edition. For those of you who don’t know, this is the new Star Wars rpg that is based off of streamlined d20 rules. Back in the late eighties, I played a bit of the West End Games d6 version of Star Wars. The books...

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