So you want to be a hero. Or you find yourself stuck as one. You've certainly come to the right place ...
Whatever your background, whatever world you once called home, you now find yourself chosen - the personal respresentative of the gods themselves, their pawn in the Great Game.
Don't blame yourself - these things happen. Best thing is to keep your chin up and just grin and bear it. Works for me.
Background
Characters can come from any background - Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk ... as long as it's D&D v3.5, you can use whatever flavour of the rules you can get your hands on.
Starting level/GP
New characters start at lowest level of existing characters, with spending money per table on page 135 of the DMG.
Deities/alignments
All characters must have a patron deity (how do you think you got into this mess in the first place), though they are not necessarily devout or even on speaking terms. Deities can come from any D&D rules system, including 1st and 2nd Ed. Roman gods rub shoulders with those from Faerun, while the Melnibonean Princes of Chaos look on. Even the gods will put aside their differences sometimes, in the service of the greater good. Or bad.
Lawful Good ? Chaotic Evil ? Don't worry about it. After much 'testing to destruction' the gods now impose a geas upon the whole lot of you, preventing willful harm to your fellow questors or any innocents. Which is not to say there doesn't tend to be an awful lot of accidental harm/collateral damage ...
Base ability scores
Point buy method from the DMG:
Ability Point Ability Point
Score Cost Score Cost
9 1 14 6
10 2 15 8
11 3 16 10
12 4 17 13
13 5 18 16
Points allowed = 40
Any racial adjustments are applied after the base stats are worked out.
House Rules
Hit Points
Maximum Hit Points at 1st level, per PHB. Best of 2 dice thereafter. You'll need 'em.
eg if character is a rogue (D6 Hit Dice), then at first level they automatically get 6 hit points, adjusted for CON, and at second and later levels throw 2 x D6, taking the highest roll.
Familiars/Animal Companions
Instead of the Summon Familiar class feature gained at first level, Sorcerors or Wizards can choose to take any Feat for which they meet the prerequisites.
If at some later point, they have a burning desire for the company of a furry friend, they may pick up a Familiar in place of a Feat gained due to Character Level (ie at 3rd, 6th, 9th etc for both classes) or as a Bonus Feat (in the case of a Wizard). Note that the Familiar level will be based on the level at which it is acquired - ie the Familiar of an 8th level Sorceror who gained the familiar at 6th level would be effectively 3rd level.
Animal Companions of Druids or Rangers are treated similarily - the character may take any Feat for which they qualify, instead of selecting an animal companion when it comes available to them, then take an Animal Companion instead at later levels when they gain a feat due to Character level. So doing, however, reduces the effective class level for determining animal type/ability, as per the reduction for Familiar abilities above.
Due to this reduction in Familiar/Animal Companion level , this change will primarily be of use only to those characters who do not want a Familiar or Animal Companion, as at least they can gain some benefit in recompense.
Feel like a change ?
Character not working out ? Fed up fireballing everything in sight and prefer that personal touch that comes from being only a few feet of sharp steel away from the pointy end of things ? Or perhaps you just want to try something different ?
Worry not ... in between adventures, you can trade your character in for another at the same XP. And if you find you miss the old character, you can always swap back next time. The gods have many servants. They prefer it that way.
Legal notices
Reality is subject to change without notice. Medusae, basilisks etc in mirrored shields may be closer than they appear. Abandon hope all ye who enter here.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:06, Mon 13 July 2015.
