Character creation challenge day 8

 Day 8

System: Goblins & Greatswords

Ability scores rolled (3d6 in order): 5, 8, 14, 18, 9, 15

Starting silver (2d6x5): 25 

Even though my fantasy heartbreaker rules are still in flux, I wanted to try out the character creation procedure. I also rolled my first natural 18 of the Character Creation Challenge so far, which is balanced by a couple low scores; all in all, they look interesting. The rules as I've written them allow for a 2-for-1 point exchange to adjust scores, but I don't feel any need to tinker with these. Also, though there are abilities that are more useful to certain classes, there are no prime requisites as such. These rolls, though, seem to be especially suitable for a mage character. Hit points for all classes except warrior types are 1d6, giving a result of 4.

A G&G mage chooses any two of four lists from which he may learn spells to cast: Mind, Matter, Nature, and Mystic. To establish this character as a down-to-earth (at least by magical standards) hedge mage, I'll go with Matter and Nature as his areas of expertise.

Thymus Mandrake, 1st level mage

Might 5 (-2 to melee damage and feats of strength)

Agility 8 (-1 to Combat Rating, -1 to movement)

Fortitude 14 (+1 to hit points recovered from healing, +1 to saves against pestilence and poison)

Wit 18 (+3 languages, +3 spells memorized, +30% to earned experience points)

Presence 9

Spirit 15 (+1 to saves vs. magical attacks, +1 to spell intensity*) 

*Spell intensity refers to any parameters of a spell which are expressed in numbers, potentially including range, duration, and damage.

Defense 9 (base 10, -1 Agility penalty)    Damage Reduction 0 (unarmored)     Hit points: 4

Combat Rating: 0 (+1, -1 penalty from low Agility)    Secondary Talent: Apothecary

Club, dagger, backpack, 4 empty glass vials, healer's kit, lantern, tinder box, 3 flasks of oil, rations, 2 water skins

Spell lists: Matter, Nature

Spells known: mist, beast speech, featherweight, liquid transmutation

Height: 5'9"        Weight: 170 lbs.     Age: 25

Thymus comes from a long line of hedge mages (and a tradition of botanical names.) Good-natured, practical, and inquisitive, he is loath to do harm to other living things, but enjoys the thrill of discovery that comes with adventuring.

Many of the stats and terms here are left undefined, but hopefully give a feel for the game system nonetheless. With a little effort and a little luck, I hope to have a basically complete rule set ready for playtesting in the next month or two.

Goblins & Greatswords: A new look for the cleric

My much-delayed fantasy heartbreaker, Goblins & Greatswords, is finally picking up some steam, and has given me a new take on a fairly controversial class that's been with us almost as long as fantasy role-playing games have been a thing.

I've opted to call this reimagined class the Devoted (after waffling between that and Dedicated.) I'm trying to avoid using the class names from that other game, and neither "priest" nor "crusader" had the broader feel and connotations I was looking for. I'm not 100% happy with it, but unless I get a better idea, Devoted they shall remain.

Rather than casting spells as clerics traditionally have in D&D-like games, the Devoted can petition the higher powers for boons thought prayer and rituals. It's a bit more limited than wizardly spellcasting, but also a bit more open-ended. The basic mechanic is essentially identical to the reaction roll to determine monster and NPC actions toward the party -- I'm using my own 2d10 reaction table, of course.

Every Devoted can gain Faith Points for dutiful service, up to a maximum of two per level of experience. These are not acquired automatically upon gaining a level, but must be earned through deeds that advance the faith. These may include assisting those in need when it would be inconvenient for the character’s own goals, heroic acts at great risk of life or limb, or defeating an enemy of the faith; the GM will decide how many points each deed is worth. Points may also be lost for acting against the tenets of the character’s faith, but otherwise, a Devoted can always restore his or her maximum Faith Points through a night of rest and a morning of prayer.

When petitioning for divine aid, the player rolls 2d10, adds the character's adjustment for Presence (i.e. Charisma) and as many Faith Points as he cares to spend (announced before the roll is made, not after.) Other bonuses and penalties may apply e.g. for holy items used, the magnitude of the boon sought, and strength of the opposition. The cleric's Turn Undead ability is folded into this system, with a penalty based on the Hit Dice of the creatures to be banished. 

Roll (2d10 + modifiers)	Result
2-3	Request denied; offended. No further requests considered until penance is done
4-8	Request ignored
9-13	Neutral
14-18	Request granted
19-20	Request granted with pleasure; half of Faith Points returned

Possible prayers include:

Banishment: The equivalent of Turn Undead.

Guidance: Similar to the AD&D spell Augury; the player frames a question and if successful, receives an answer in the form of a sign or omen.

Healing: Not the same as instant magical healing, but rather to speed recovery. E.g. instead of curing a disease, the symptoms get better over a period of days.

Warding: Sort of like Protection From Evil (or undead, or lycanthropes, or what-have-you.)

Cleansing: For purification of food and drink, but also for purging spiritual foulness such as curses.

Blessing: Bolstering the character's or an ally's chances to succeed at some feat, or at least avoid harm in the attempt.

The exact descriptions and mechanics for these powers are still in development (i.e. bouncing around in my head) but I think, at least in principle, it's a feasible way to differentiate a faith-based class from its spellcasting counterparts.

Simplified spellcasting

Despite the game's overall simplicity, the spell memorization and casting rules of classic D&D have always seemed overly complicated and cumbersome. I get the rationale behind it. Just like choosing which supplies and equipment to carry on a given expedition, it adds an element of planning and resource management to magic which you wouldn't get in a system that allows free-casting from among all the spells a character knows. I just don't think it does it very effectively. It's a lot of referring to charts and tables and lists, a lot of extra bookkeeping for the player, and in my own experience encourages players to default to load up on multiples of a few high-powered combat spells and avoid other potentially useful spells.

What I'm looking at is essentially a spell-point system, but one that utilizes minimal math and dead simple tracking that eliminates the need to refer to charts and tables, while retaining an element of resource preparation and management.

A magic-user maintains a spell book with all spells known, but can only memorize one spell level per level of experience, plus or minus the Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1 spell level in the event of Int penalties.) Thus, a 4th-level magic-user with Intelligence 14 (+1 bonus) could memorize five spell levels, in any combination the player desires. That could be five 1st level spells, two 1st and one 3rd level, one 1st and one 4th level, or any combination that adds to five.

A magic-user has two spell points per level of experience per day, which can be used to cast any memorized spell as often as desired, so long as the caster has enough spell points remaining. A full night's rest will restore all spell points, and lesser rest periods might restore them partially. Our level 4 MU from above would have eight spell points per day.

This ends up giving low-level magic-users a little bit of a power-up, and high level ones significantly less total firepower, as you can see in the table below:

Character Level	Standard Total Spells	Standard Total Spell Levels	Revised Total Spell Levels
1	1	1	2
2	2	2	4
3	3	4	6
4	4	6	8
5	5	9	10
6	6	12	12
7	8	17	14
8	10	23	16
9	12	31	18
10	14	40	20
11	16	47	22
12	19	60	24
13	21	69	26
14	22	73	28

This might seem unfair to higher-level characters, but I think the gains in versatility compensate for the loss of total power. How many of those extra spell levels are destined to go uncast because they're tied up in spells that weren't useful for situations faced in that day's adventure? In the standard system, if a player wants to be able to cast plenty of fireball spells, it comes only at the expense of the ability to cast other spells, especially of the niche and utility variety. In the revised system, the player can choose a single instance of fireball and a few utility spells too. If the latter prove useful, the character has access to them, and if not, the power can be channeled into extra fireballs with none going to waste.

You might also notice that a caster won't necessarily be able to memorize a spell of every level he or she can cast. Again, I think the ability to use every last spell point through the versatility of limited free-casting plus the ability to memorize any combination of spells (e.g. a  high-level caster could choose all 1st and 2nd-level spells if desired, or a mid-level mage could forgo low-level spells completely in order to take a single 6th-level spell, is sufficient compensation. It's an interesting resource management choice, while limiting the sheer bulk of decisions to make when selecting spells to memorize.

Bottom line, if you know your character's level and the levels of spells, you know exactly how many spell levels he or she can memorize and cast without consulting a chart, and within those limits you have carte blanche. If you can add and subtract single-digit numbers, the on-the-fly bookkeeping is a breeze. You don't have to keep track of which specific spells you've cast; it's literally as easy as tracking hit points.

A few consequences of this system that I think could prove fun, useful, and/or interesting:

• It makes the Intelligence adjustment relevant in ways other than XP bonuses, without making an 18 Intelligence virtually mandatory. A magic-user gains (or loses) a little versatility based on Int, but not overall firepower. 
• It allows for partial restoration of spell points, such as through less than a full night's rest or magic items such as potions that restore a point or three.
• It allows for magic items that aid in casting, such as a wand that reduces the casting cost of a particular spell or category of spells (fire, charm, detection, etc.) by a point, or a hat that allows an extra spell level to be memorized.
• You could easily add a rule for casting beyond one's ability using hit points (1d4 damage/spell level, cannot be restored magically but only by rest?) after the character's spell points are expended, and/or a rule for casting non-memorized spells from a spell book at a greater spell point cost. 
• The linear warrior/quadratic wizard conundrum is somewhat mitigated. 

This is what I'm going to use for my Goblins & Greatswords fantasy heartbreaker, but it seems that it should transplant pretty well into any old school edition of D&D without too much fuss.

Goblins and Greatswords: A resolution to the thief skills conundrum?

I've been busy with lots of other things lately, but after letting ideas ferment in the back of my head for a while, it's time to take up the mantle of amateur game designer once again and look at my fantasy heartbreaker project with fresh eyes.

I've toyed with a lot of ideas, all of which have strong appeal for one reason or another, and also some drawbacks, and I've tried to pick and choose and integrate the ones that offer the lowest costs for the biggest bang.  As a playable beta version looms, the skills system is finally coming together.

My design goals here were simplicity and intuitive ease, with minimal dice rolling, but at the same time providing a relative wealth of information beyond a mere pass/fail. Scalability to higher levels is a must so improvement is meaningful, but at the same time it shouldn't make low-level characters incompetent at their professions.  The math should be minimal and easy for the average person to calculate in his or her head.

What I've settled on for the playtest version is a roll-under system using 2d12 (showing some love for the traditionally least-used polyhedron!) with target numbers rising as skills improve.  Unlike a percentile dice system, it's easy to apply standard adjustments of -3 to +3, while retaining an advantage of the roll-under format, allowing the individual dice to add meaning beyond the pass/fail binary.  The rising target numbers allow only low rolls to succeed with low skill, but increasingly large rolls to succeed with growing proficiency.

On any successful roll, the lower of the two d12s is read as the degree of success.  If, say, your healing skill is 11, and you make a healing roll with a 6 and a 4, you heal four points of damage.  Easy.  This provides more skilled characters with the possibility of getting bigger and better results than less skilled ones, as well as simply succeeding more often. If your low die was a 10, you probably rolled pretty high, and with a roll-under system, that means you blew it unless your skill level is superlative.  This is exactly what I want.

If you roll doubles, you've scored either a critical success or a critical failure, with either an enhanced outcome or a mishap resulting.  The higher a character's skill, of course, the more likely that a critical roll will be a success instead of a failure.  A roll of double 6, for instance, would be a critical failure for a character with a skill of 11, but a critical success for one with a skill of 13. Again, pretty easy.

This does entail having a table relating character levels to target numbers, rather than the simple bonus-per-level progression I had envisioned early on, but that was the easiest wish to give up, and I get a lot of functionality and flexibility in return.

Here are some examples of how this system will work with specific skills:

Healing: The degree of success die indicates how many points of damage are healed or the bonus to a fresh saving throw against disease or poison.  Critical success doubles the degree of success (both dice are "lowest" so add them together!)  Critical failure causes some amount of damage to the patient, probably also equal to the low die rolled.

Tinker: Each lock and trap has a number of Difficulty Points, similar to hit points for creatures.  The degree of success represents how many Difficulty Points are subtracted for each attempt to pick a lock or disarm a trap.  Critical success doubles the degree of success, as above.  Critical failure adds points back on, and if the number exceeds the device's original Difficulty Points, something bad happens -- lock has stymied the character, the trap has been triggered, etc.

Stealth: The degree of success is subtracted from the distance of an encounter.  Critical success doubles; critical failure makes detection automatic.  Say, a character wants to sneak.  The GM knows there are bugbears nearby, and rolls an encounter distance of 60 feet.  The player gets a degree of success of 4, which means the character can sneak within 20 feet of the bugbears without being noticed.  Of course, as GM, you don't tell the player -- let him decide how far he wants to push his luck!

Legerdemain (a.k.a. picking pockets and the like): Any success means the character got hold of what he was after, but if the target scores a higher degree of success on an Alertness check, the attempt is noticed, whether it succeeded or failed.  Critical success doubles the degree of success, and critical failure means automatic detection.

Alertness:  The degree of success determines how far away, in tens of feet, the character can discern and identify sounds or other anomalies.  Critical success doubles, as always, and critical failure indicates a misperception in direction, distance, or some other vital factor.  Alertness can be used to counter Stealth or Legerdemain.

Cipher: The degree of success times 10 represents the approximate percentage of a work that the character can understand.  Critical success doubles this, while critical failure will result in a crucial misinterpretation.

Athletics: The degree of success adds to the character's movement rate while running, swimming, or climbing, probably at the rate of x5 feet, x2 feet, and x1 feet, respectively.  Critical success doubles, and critical failure might be a stumble or a fall.

Any fool can attempt any action at "Untrained" level of ability, which never changes.  Characters who study a skill as part of their adventuring repertoire will improve as they level, at one of three different rates: Basic, Professional, or Elite.  A character can, and probably will, have different skills at different rates of progression, but keeping track requires no more than recording the relative ability with each skill and updating the numbers on the character sheet with each level gain.

Here's the tentative advancement table, which allows for chances ranging from 10.42% for an untrained person to 99.31% for an Elite practitioner at the pinnacle of his career.  (Double 12 is always a critical failure!)  A character with a Professional level skill would begin with a 19.44% chance of success and a maximum degree of success of 3 (unless a critical boosts it to 6 or 8, of course!)  These are subject to adjustment for relevant ability scores, but I prefer to leave it to the GM and player to decide which ability, if any, applies in a given situation.  Foiling a particular lock might hinge on Wit or Agility, while climbing a specific wall may require Might or Agility, for instance.  It's also a very simple matter to apply other bonuses or penalties if the task is deemed particularly easy or difficult.

It all looks a bit complicated in print, but I'm hopeful that it will become second nature with minimal practice.

Level	Untrained	Basic	Professional	Elite
1	6	7	8	9
2	6	7	9	10
3	6	8	9	11
4	6	8	10	12
5	6	9	11	13
6	6	9	11	14
7	6	10	12	15
8	6	10	13	16
9	6	11	13	17
10	6	11	14	18
11	6	12	15	19
12	6	12	15	20
13	6	13	16	21
14	6	13	17	22
15	6	14	17	23
16	6	14	18	24

The continuing evolution of Goblins & Greatswords

It's been a weird few months, with occasional crests of mental clarity and deep troughs of frustratingly impenetrable brain fog.  For most of that time, my fantasy heartbreaker project, a.k.a. Goblins & Greatswords, has been relegated to a back-burner position and left to simmer.  It turns out that back-burner simmering is good for gaining new perspective on things.  This is mostly a thinking-out-loud sort of post; nothing's set in stone.  Any comments or insights from other minds are welcomed and encouraged.

First off, I'm thinking of shooting one of the most sacred cows of D&D-like RPGs: The d20 combat attack roll.  Instead, I'm looking at a roll of 1d12 plus an exploding weapon die. (Whenever the maximum is rolled on the weapon die, roll again and add to the total.)  Weapons that are difficult to use or have weak armor-penetrating ability get a smaller weapon die, like a d4, while those that are easy to use and/or good at breaking through armor get larger dice, i.e. d6 or d8.  Damage would still be capped depending on the weapon type.  As before, the objective is to beat the target's AC (ascending), with one point of damage scored per point the roll exceeds the AC, up to the cap. 

The most basic system would be to simply assign d4, d6, and d8 weapon dice to light, medium, and heavy weapons, which would have damage caps of 4, 6, and 8 points respectively.  An advanced option might assign weapon dice and damage to each specific weapon type.  Thus, you could have weapons that are relatively easy for an untrained combatant to use but less damaging, and weapons that require more skill to handle but potentially deal bigger damage.  Maybe a war hammer uses a d8 weapon die, with max damage of 4, while a sword uses a d4 and max damage 8.  A good all-around weapon might be d6/6. 

Monsters would probably just use d6, with their Hit Dice accounting for most of their combat ability.

This is, in principle, quite similar to simply adding flat bonuses or penalties to attack rolls, but using an extra die instead injects a little more randomness.  It's also, I think, easier to remember than a + or - modifier to a roll, because it's an integral part of the roll, not something tacked on as an afterthought -- though maybe that's just me.  And hey, finally the d12 gets some serious love.  We're talking one of the game's most often used mechanics.

It also introduces some potentially useful and interesting quirks.  For one, characters attacking unarmed obviously wouldn't roll a weapon die with the d12, so unless they're highly skilled fighter-types, they probably won't have much success punching a guy in plate armor (AC 16.)  That seems like a good thing to me.  It also means that grappling a weapon-user is more difficult, even if the opponent is completely unarmored, since achieving a grapple requires beating the opponent's combat roll, not its AC. 

Also, with two dice in play, there are at least four different "critical" conditions.  Rolling 1s on both the d12 and weapon die makes for a critical fumble of some sort, typically resulting in loss of the next combat action.  A 1 on the d12 and max on the weapon die might mean the weapon breaks.  A 12 on the d12 is a critical hit -- damage is uncapped! If the weapon die explodes on the same roll, the target could be in a world of trouble.   


Outside of combat, I'm rethinking how thief-like skills could be handled.  A binary pass/fail roll isn't usually very exciting, and there's not much player agency involved.  Could thief skills be reworked to be more exciting and engaging?  Maybe.

Let's scrap the percentages, and instead express skills as a simple bonus, ranging from +1 at 1st level up to somewhere around +12 to +16 for level 15.  Expressing it as a bonus implies that the character is just better at things that anyone can attempt -- starting off only slightly better, but eventually completely outclassing the untrained.  That's a pretty good parallel for combat, which the rules allow anyone to do, but fighters are just better at it. 

Want to pick a lock?  Any fool can try, but a character with some skill at Tinkering has the best chance.  Roll a d6 and add Tinker bonus, if any.  What do you need to roll?  Depends on how good the lock is.  A cheap lock takes a 5, a good one a 10, and a masterful one a 15 or even 20.  Didn't make it on the first roll?  Keep trying, if you've got time to burn!  Each attempt takes a full turn, but the rolls add up.  Just don't roll a 1 -- that wipes out all your previous progress, and if you do it twice in a row, you're just stumped and can't figure out that lock.  Think you're a lock-picking ace?  Get twice the difficulty level of the lock in a single attempt, and you crack it in just one round! 

Same thing goes for disarming a trap.  If you get two 1s in a row, you accidentally set it off.  

How about stealth?  A binary result -- either you're detected or you're not -- is lame.  Instead, if there's someone who could potentially notice you, the GM rolls 2d6 and subtracts your Stealth skill bonus.  Multiply by 5, and that's how close you can get before you'll be noticed.  If the result is zero or negative, you can sneak right up under their noses!  Oh, but the GM won't tell you the number.  You'll never know for sure just how close you can get until you actually try.  Sneaking past a monster at a fair distance is relatively safe and simple.  Skulking right up behind it to take its key ring is lot more daring.

Hear noise (or, more generally, Alertness)?  The GM rolls 2d6 for you and adds your bonus, making it harder for someone to sneak up on you.  If the other guy has Stealth, his bonus is subtracted; the two abilities work against each other.  Listening down a corridor or through a door?  Roll 2d6, add  your bonus, multiply by 5 if through a door or 10 otherwise, and that's how far away you can discern something at the volume of typical speech. 

I haven't yet sorted out how to bring every thief skill into this model, but I'm liking it so far. 

Goblins & Greatswords: Armor and weapons

Figuring out the combat system for my fantasy heartbreaker turned out to be pretty easy compared to nailing down the particulars of the weapons and armor that characters will use in it.  I want different types of weapons to have meaningful differences, but I don't want huge complicated tables with lots of messy modifiers to look up or remember.  After a lot of false starts, I'm tentatively happy with what I have now.  

Armor comes in three types: Light, medium, and heavy, giving a base AC of 12, 14, or 16, respectively.  Light armor includes light, non-metallic, and relatively flexible options such as leather and padded armor.  Medium armors are made of metal or other hard material, but in flexible forms such as mail, scale, brigandine, and such.  Heavy armors are made of large rigid plates of metal or some other hard material.  The exact type of armor a character gets in any of the three classes is determined by the player and GM, and has no further game mechanical effect. 

Shields increase AC by 1, as usual.  I'm considering making a shield a requirement to use the character's Combat Rating defensively, too.

Weapons come in broad categories: Axe, Blade, Bludgeon, and Stick, and further divided into light, medium, and heavy types.

Axes are chopping weapons which are good at breaking through armor, and so receive a +1 bonus to combat rolls.  Damage is 4/6/8 for light, medium, and heavy types, respectively.   Examples include the hand axe and tomahawk (light), battle axe (medium), and polearms* (heavy.)  All axes use the wielder's Might modifier.

Blades are slashing and slicing weapons.  They are among the hardest to master, but have the highest damage potential at 6/8/10.  Examples include daggers and short swords (light), all of the various "normal" swords (medium), and great swords such as the bastard sword and two-handed sword (heavy.)  Light and medium blades use the wielder's Agility modifier.  Heavy blades use Might.

Bludgeons are blunt, smashing weapons.  They are the easiest weapons to wield, and also good at delivering impact damage through armor, and so receive +2 to combat rolls, but also have the lowest damage potential at 3/4/6.  Examples include the club/cudgel/shillelagh (light,) the mace and war hammer (medium), and the maul (heavy.)  All bludgeons use the wielder's Might modifier.

Stick weapons are long, slender weapons used mainly for thrusting maneuvers.  They gain a +2 bonus to Interpose actions.  Damage is 4/6/8.  Examples include the quarterstaff (light), the spear (medium), polearms* and lances (heavy.)  All stick weapons use the wielder's Agility modifier.

*Since polearms typically feature both heavy chopping blades and spear points or spikes, they may be used as either axes or stick weapons, whichever is most advantageous to the wielder.

Most light and medium weapons (except the quarterstaff) may be wielded with one hand, and combined with a shield if desired.  Most heavy weapons (except the lance from horseback) must be wielded two-handed.

Missile weapons are another can of worms with which I'm still grappling... 

Goblins & Greatswords: An alternate resolution mechanic for the thiefly arts and other skills

A while back, I posted my ideas on how the skills of thieves (plus a few others) would work in my fantasy heartbreaker, Goblins and Greatswords.  I chose to stick with the percentile dice model used by most old school iterations of D&D, as opposed to a simple d20 or d6 mechanic.  One reason for this is that rolling two dice allows for special results to be triggered on a roll of doubles.  Another is that the percentile dice "roll-under" format allows degrees of success to be easily determined and scale in the right direction: just take the tens digit of a successful roll, and the highest degrees of success are possible only with the highest levels of skill.

However, there are some things I don't like about it too.  It's very inelegant when applying modifiers, for one, and ability score modifiers are something I very much want to include.  The standard -3 to +3 ability score modifier is dwarfed by a 100-point range.  Sure, you can convert those to plus or minus 5, 10, or 15%, but you're still asking your players to crunch bigger numbers at the table, and either adding them to the base chance or subtracting them from the roll, which feels weird.  Then there's the problem of looking up numbers in a table every time you want to do something.  It's a lot easier to remember that you have a +5 bonus to your Stealth skill than it is to remember that you have, say, a 47% chance of success.

So, I'm considering a system using a roll of two dice, but adding them together in a roll-over format.  My first thought was 2d6, but the range just isn't big enough to accomodate both improving skill by level and modifiers.  2d10 has the range to work, but the "success" point would have to be at some wonky number like 16 in order to start with reasonable odds, and 2d8 has a similar issue. 

2d12, now...that's interesting.  (Go here and click on the "At Least" tab if you want to follow along with a visual aid.)  There's a 10.42% chance to roll 20 or higher, which means that, if you set the target number at 20 (intuitive and easy to remember!) the average schmuck who has no bonus in a skill would succeed roughly 10% of the time.  Start out with a +1 bonus, and you're up to 14.58%, which seems good enough for a dabbler in the skill.  A more serious student of a skill might start at +2, for a 19.44% chance, which maps pretty well to the beginning percentages of most thief skills in B/X. 

Add a bonus for a high ability score, and a character could start with 25%, 31.25%, or 38.19% odds - a meaningful bump, but not so much that it swamps the whole system.  There's still lots of room for improvement, which is desirable because I want leveling up to mean something, and it doesn't if you're bumping against the 100% success ceiling too soon.

Rather than using a table of percentages, increasing at different rates for Basic, Good, or Elite skill progression, I'd use a relatively simple formula:  Basic starts at +1, and gains an additional +1 at odd-numbered levels.  Good starts at +2 and gains +1 at levels divisible by 2 or 3; thus at level 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, and so on.  Elite also starts at +2, and gains +1 at every level.  One interesting feature of this is that Good and Elite are essentially the same at beginning levels -- all the way through 4th, in fact -- but Elite slowly pulls ahead at higher levels. 

Here it is in table form, so you can clearly see the relative progressions.

Level	Basic	Good	Elite
1	+1	+2	+2
2	+1	+3	+3
3	+2	+4	+4
4	+2	+5	+5
5	+3	+5	+6
6	+3	+6	+7
7	+4	+6	+8
8	+4	+7	+9
9	+5	+8	+10
10	+5	+9	+11
11	+6	+9	+12
12	+6	+10	+13
13	+7	+10	+14
14	+7	+11	+15
15	+8	+12	+16

If levels top out around 15 (and really, there's not much reason to go beyond that, is there?) then a Basic skill ends up succeeding 61.81% of the time, Good 85.42%, and Elite 97.92%, before any ability adjustments.  That sounds about right to me.  

Of course, we also still have easy access to the special-effect-on-doubles mechanic.  It's the degrees of success which get a little funky: something along the lines of subtracting half the larger die roll from 7, to generate a number between 1 and 5 (no 6 - if neither of your dice are higher than 1, you obviously didn't succeed - snake eyes is always a failure) with higher levels of success reserved to those for whom lower dice rolls can succeed.  (I could simply subtract the higher die roll from 13, but that generates a number between 1 and 11, but thats an awful lot of range.  Some skills use the degree of success for the number of questions the player gets to ask of the GM, for instance, and any more than 5 or so seems like it would bog down the pace of the game tremendously.)  Only a couple of skills, as I've written them, really make use of degrees of success, so this might not be a big issue anyway.

I'm still a little bit on the fence about this, so please weigh in: If you were running a game, which one would be easier, more fluid, more intuitive to use?  Is this the respect the humble d12 deserves, or is 2d12 for one of the game's core resolution systems just too weird to stick?  Would the moderate fiddliness of calculating degrees of success with 2d12 make you not want to use that particular mechanic?  Is there something else that strikes you as broken or unworkable?  Let me know in the comments!

Goblins & Greatswords: Characters, part 1

Characters are pretty important.  The first thing you do when you're playing a new RPG, after you read the books, is make some characters.  What do characters look like in my fantasy heartbreaker?

There are only four ability scores: Might, Wit, Agility, and Presence, rolled 3d6 in order.

I mentioned in the above-linked post that Might affects rolls for hit points, but exactly how was still hazy in my mind at the time.  I'd really like to avoid both hit point inflation and abysmally low hp.  The solution I came up with is to (mostly) divorce hit points from class.  Instead of class-based Hit Dice, the default is a d6.  Might of 13 or more kicks this up to a d8, while Might 8 or lower knocks it down to a d4.

Characters gain new Hit Dice only at even-numbered levels, including level 0.  At every new level, all of the character's HD are rolled.  If the new total is greater than the previous total, the new total is used.  If the old total is greater, the character still gains +1 hp, except at 1st level.  Hit Dice top out at six, at level 10, with one more roll at level 11. Thereafter, 1 hp per level is gained.

So, a character with an average Might score, starting her adventuring career at level 1, rolls 1d6 for her 0-level hp, and then rolls again for 1st level, keeping the better roll of the two, and reducing the odds of starting with a miserable 1 or 2 hp.  Let's say she ends up with 4 hp.  At level 2, she gets another Hit Die, and rolls 2d6.  If the total is higher than her previous 4 hp, she takes that as her new hp total.  It's mathematically possible, though unlikely, that she could roll 4 or less; if so, she starts level 2 with +1 hp, for a total of 5.  At level 3, she rolls her 2d6 Hit Dice again, and once again takes the new total or her previous hp +1, whichever is greater.  At level 4, she'll roll 3d6, and so on.

Now that's out of the way, here are the human character classes.  I've changed the names to give them a little different feel from their D&D counterparts.

Warrior

Men and women who train for physical combat.  They are skilled in the use of all weapons, allowing them to deal damage most effectively, and their training and toughness allow them to survive where others would fall.

Best Combat Rating improvement rate
+1 hit point per level
+2 to maximum damage with all weapons
May divide Combat Rating between offense and defense starting at level 2

Mage

Individuals who study the mysteries and theory of magic and learn to cast spells. 

Slowest Combat Rating improvement
Learn and cast spells from any two (of four) spell lists
Read magical writings
Sense magic at will within 10'

Knave

People who are skilled in the arts of stealth, deception, and getting into and out of difficult places.  Some are proper thieves; others are simply adventurous rogues and misfits who survive by their wits.

Medium Combat Rating improvement
Skills: Stealth, Tinker, Alertness, Climb, Cipher, and Sleight-of-hand at Good proficiency
May improve any skill to Elite proficiency by reducing another to Basic, and may apply their elective skill choice to improving class skills instead of choosing a new skill, if desired

Dedicated

As in dedicated to the service of a religion, deity, or spiritual ideal.  Either by the strength of their faith or the intervention of divine beings, the dedicated gain the ability to work miracles in the form of spells while still sparing some attention for martial training.

Medium Combat Rating improvement
Learn and cast spells from either Divine or Nature list
Reduced penalty for spell-casting while armored
Sense holy/unholy creatures, objects, and enchantments within 10'


A character of any class can use any weapon and wear any armor, but activities such as stealth and spell-casting are more difficult in armor, and the benefits of weapons are limited in the hands of those not skilled in combat.  So, for instance, knaves would probably find it to their advantage not to wear metal armor, and mages to avoid armor altogether and carry light weapons, but they aren't outright prohibited from donning plate and mail and swinging halberds.

All human characters may choose one additional talent, which they may practice at Good proficiency, or two at Basic proficiency.

 Demihuman classes are similar to the human ones, but with their own special quirks.  Those will come soon in a post of their own.

Goblins & Greatswords: Grappling made simple(ish)

Grappling is one of those things that's always a nightmare in RPG combat.  It's almost invariably a fiddly mess that doesn't mesh or scale well with standard combat rules.  To an extent, grappling is a part of normal combat, as a lot of grabbing, pushing, tripping, and so on takes place even in a sword fight.  Sometimes, though, a combatant will expressly attempt to grasp and hold on to an opponent, and some grappling-specific mechanics come in handy.

What I'm going for here is something reasonably simple, without too many conditions and modifiers, which complements rather than contradicts the basic combat rules and minimizes absurd outcomes such as a high-level fighter wrestling a war horse or a giant to the ground.

For the basics of my fantasy heartbreaker combat system, see here and here.

Without further ado, here's what I've come up with for grappling.

The first phase of a grappling attack is resolved with standard combat rolls.  The combatant initiating the grapple must either have at least one hand free or use a natural attack capable of grasping, such as a crocodile's jaws.  A defender may be either unarmed or armed.  (Included in standard G&G combat, if I haven't mentioned it already, is a rule that attacking unarmed against an armed opponent incurs a -2 penalty to AC; thus grappling an opponent with deadly weaponry is more hazardous than grappling an unarmed one.)  A grappling combat roll is always modified by Agility; if the defender chooses to attack normally and try to avoid being grappled, it uses whatever modifier it normally would for its own mode of attack. 

Both combat rolls have their normal effects, inflicting damage if they exceed the opponent's AC.  If the attacker's roll is higher than the defender's (including all modifiers for both) the attacker has achieved a solid grip on the defender.  If the defender's roll is higher, it eludes the attacker's grasp and remains free.  Note that neither necessarily needs to inflict damage; the higher roll wins, even if it's otherwise dismal.  Ties always go to the defender; i.e. no change in status.

Once a grip is established, in subsequent rounds the attacker may simply hold on, or may try to overpower the opponent.  Regardless of which action is chosen, each combatant may continue to attack the other, making normal combat rolls each round and inflicting damage as appropriate. 


Holding on to an opponent means that the combatant is maintaining its grip on the opponent and avoiding the opponent's attacks.  One common tactic is to hold the opponent from behind, or in the case of a larger opponent, to climb on and cling to its back.  While holding, the grappling character's combat rolls against the opponent are made at +2, while the opponent's combat rolls against the grappler suffer -2.  Additionally, attacks by other creatures or characters against either grappler or grappled are made at +2 to the combat roll, as their ability to dodge and parry is limited.

The opponent chooses the direction of movement, if any, possibly at a reduced movement rate if the grappler is heavy enough to encumber it. 

Each round, new combat rolls are made, and if the opponent wins a combat roll against the grappler, it may either throw him off or establish a grapple of its own, which leads to an overpowering contest.

Only small, medium, or natural weapons may be used while in this stage.

At the GM's option, holding onto certain opponents may render some attack forms impossible and others more likely to succeed.  For instance, a grappled medusa may be unable to turn and use her gaze attack on the grappler, but the grappler would be extremely vulnerable to the bites of the writhing snakes on her head.

Overpowering occurs when one combatant tries to restrain, subdue, or move the other.  When two combatants are both grappling each other, it automatically becomes a contest of overpowering.  Overpowering requires a contested roll of 1d6, with each combatant adding its Combat Rating and Might adjustment.  For monsters without a Might score, use the creature's unadjusted Hit Dice.  Characters not using both hands to grapple (holding a weapon or other item in one hand) are penalized by -1. 

The one with the higher total is in control, and may do one of the following:

Automatically inflict 1 point of damage per point of difference in the rolls
Reduce damage done by the opponent by 1 point per point of difference in the rolls
Drag/carry the opponent 5 feet per point of difference. 
Break free, if its combat roll also exceeds that of the opponent. 

Ties result in a stalemate, with no movement possible. 

A new overpowering roll is made each round that the grapple continues, until one or the other combatant escapes or is subdued.  A combatant reduced to 0 hp in a grappling contest is considered subdued and unable to resist further.  A subdued opponent may be automatically slain if desired.

Only small or natural weapons may be used while involved in an overpowering contest.

Example 1

Gort the fighter wishes to grapple and subdue an outlaw without killing him in order to bring the miscreant to justice.  He has a Combat Rating of 4 and a Might adjustment of +2, and an Armor Class of 14.  The outlaw has a CR of 3 and Might +1, and AC 14 also.  Gort is unarmed, and so suffers a -2 penalty to his AC against the outlaw's dagger.

Gort scores a total of 17 on his first try, beating the outlaw's AC by 3 points, doing the maximum unarmed damage of 2 points.  The outlaw, however, gets an 18, tagging Gort for 4 points of damage and preventing him from getting a good grip.

Next round, however, Gort gets a 12.  This isn't enough to deal any damage, but it beats the outlaw's roll of 8, and Gort grabs hold of the cad.  He immediately tries to overpower his foe, aiming to subdue him.  Gort rolls 1d6 and adds 5 for his combat skill and strength, achieving a total of 10!  The outlaw rolls and adds his total bonus of +4, with a -1 penalty because he's not letting go of his dagger; he only scores a 6.  Gort could inflict an automatic 4 points of damage, or he could reduce the damage done by the outlaw by 4 points, or he could drag the bastard up to 20 feet.  Since the outlaw failed to do any damage with his combat roll, the second option is moot.  Gort chooses to wear him down with a punishing choke hold, doing 4 points of damage.

In the third round, the outlaw's combat roll is a resounding 18, but Gort outdoes him with a 21.  Gort does 2 points of damage with his (unarmed) combat roll, but will take 4 points from the outlaw's dagger.  Since Gort has maintained his grasp on his opponent, another overpowering check is made, which he again wins, 9 to 7.  Gort could choose to reduce the damage the outlaw inflicts on him by 2 points, to increase his own damage against his foe by 2 points, or to move him 10 feet.  He chooses to keep the pressure on his choke hold rather than fend off the outlaw's weapon hand, so he takes the full 4 points of damage but inflicts 4 points of his own.

So we leave their struggle, and move on to...

Example 2

Sera the thief gets caught picking the pocket of a burly fighter.  With no easy escape, she decides her best bet is to grab and hold on so he can't skewer her with his sword.  Sera's CR is 1, her Agility bonus is +1, and her AC is 13.  The fighter has an AC of 14, +1 Might, and CR of 3.  Sera has one free hand and her club in the other, so she suffers no penalty to AC.

Her adjusted combat roll is a 10 - not enough to hurt her opponent, but the fighter rolls only a 7, and she seizes him by his sword belt and jumps on his back. 

Next round she rolls a 15 and the fighter gets a 16, but since she has him grappled, she gets +2 to her roll, and his roll is penalized by -2.  Their adjusted totals are 17 and 14.  Sera wins, holding her relatively safe position on the fighter's back.  He does 1 point of damage to her, and she does 3 points to him.  If she hadn't successfully grappled him, she would have taken 3 points and done only 1 to him. 

If the fighter should beat Sera's combat roll next round, he could choose either to throw her off, or to attempt to overpower her.  As the thief hangs on for dear life, we move on to...

Example 3

Dorn the Overly Inquisitive prods a crocodile with a stick and gets the result any person with basic common sense would expect.  The croc attacks and scores a total roll of 13, not good enough to pierce Dorn's plate armor (AC 16) but enough to beat his pitiful flailing roll of 7.

The croc naturally tries to overpower him.  It rolls a 4 on 1d6, plus its Combat Rating of 3, plus its unadjusted Hit Dice (also 3) for a total of 10.  Dorn rolls a 5, plus his CR of 2 and Might adjustment of +1, coming up short with an 8.  The croc chooses to drag him 10', into the water.

The next round the croc wins again with a combat roll of 8 over Dorn's 5, neither scoring any damage, and wins the overpowering roll 11 to 6.  Now the croc goes into its "death roll" and deals 5 points of damage to Dorn, who is in serious trouble...

Optional Rules

Multiple attackers: If more than one combatant tries to grapple the same target, any that is not counterattacked succeeds as long as its combat roll is not a natural 1.  For example, four goblins try to grapple a fighter wielding a mace, with which he can sweep up to three opponents.  The first three goblins succeed only if they beat the fighter's combat rolls against them.  The fourth succeeds unless it rolls a 1; the fighter doesn't have enough actions to oppose it.

When multiple attackers attempt to overpower a grappled opponent, only one 1d6 roll is made for the entire side.  Add the most powerful member's CR and Might or HD adjustments and +1 for each additional member.

Multiple defenders: An attacker with more than one available grasping appendage may attempt to grapple more than one target.  This is treated as a sweep, with combat rolls modified accordingly.  Overpowering rolls are made, dividing the attacker's bonus from CR and Might or HD evenly among the opponents held, rounding down.  For example, a fighter with CR 4 and Might adjustment +2 who grapples two goblins rolls 1d6+3 for each of his overpowering rolls. The goblins roll without penalty.

Holding onto a grappled opponent while attacking or fending off others is likewise considered a sweep and combat rolls should be adjusted accordingly.

Mutual grappling: If two combatants both wish to grapple, both are automatically successful.  Combat rolls determine only whether any damage is scored.  A mutual grapple is always a contest of overpowering; proceed to the overpowering roll.

Disarm: If a combatant wins two overpowering rolls in a row and chooses the "reduce damage" option (whether or not the opponent would actually score any damage), the opponent is disarmed if desired (and applicable.)

Tackle: Charging or leaping onto an opponent adds +2 to the initial grappling attempt.  For example, a panther leaping from a tree branch to grapple a target on the ground would get this bonus.


Adapting to standard D&D

Use Dexterity adjustment instead of Agility, and Strength instead of Might.  Use (20-THAC0) instead of Combat Rating.  When Combat Rating is increased or penalized due to grappling positions, increase or reduce any damage caused by rolling twice and taking the higher or lower roll, respectively.


If I've made any mathematical or logic errors, or if you find a serious (or even not-so-serious) rules expoit that could result in an unbalanced advantage or an absurd result, please point them out!

Goblins & Greatswords: Abilities

As this fantasy heartbreaker project continues to evolve, I find myself re-evaluating the traditional ability scores of D&D-like games and their functions.  In the process, I've mashed a few together and pared down the list to just four: Strength and Constitution combine to form Might.  (It always seemed a little weird to me that physical strength and fitness should be wholly independent of durability and endurance.)  Intelligence and Wisdom merge to become Wit.  Dexterity and Charisma remain more or less the same, but I renamed them, because the new names fit the feel of the whole mess better.

Might is a measure of a character's muscle power, fitness, and fortitude.  It modifies combat rolls with impact weapons such as axes, clubs, and pole arms, feats of strength such as opening stuck doors, and the amount of weight a character can carry.  It also adjusts rolls for hit points to a lesser degree.

Wit represents the faculties of the character's mind, including memory, intuition, will power, reason, and understanding. It modifies the number of spells a spell-caster can memorize at once, the maximum number of languages a character may learn, and saving throws vs magic.

Agility is the character's coordination, quickness, and ease of movement. It modifies combat rolls with precise weapons such as daggers, swords, and bows, and the character's Armor Class.

Presence is a character's personal bearing, charm, and magnetism. It affects the reactions of monsters and NPCs, the maximum number of retainers and henchmen a character may employ, and their morale.  For spell-casters, it also negatively modifies a target's saving throws vs. spells.

Interlude: Disarming the combat magic-user

A frequent commenter has asked why I would want to take away spells which cause direct damage.  It's a good question, and one about which others might be curious too, so I thought I'd blog my thoughts on that subject.

So, why do I want to take away the magic-user's potency in deadly combat?

1) I want something that better matches the wizardly archetype in literature and folklore.  Outside of D&D, how many wizards are incinerating foes in battle?  Barring the obvious example of Tim the enchanter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I can't think of many.  Merlin's magic is extremely subtle.  He doesn't blast Arthur's enemies with lightning, but he is nonetheless an important figure in those tales.  Gandalf knows spells for light and opening and sealing doors, and he's been seen to set pine cones aflame and hurl them at goblins and wolves.  Most of his magic is much less flashy.  Even in the wizarding world of the Harry Potter books, where wizards throw around spells with no discernible limits to how many or how often they can cast, stunning, paralyzing, and disarming spells are used a lot more often than spells that cause bodily harm.

The wizards, witches, and sorcerers of literature and lore aren't nearly so direct as a fireball in your face.  They're subtle, guileful, mystical, and uncanny.  They influence and manipulate, enlighten and deceive.  Make them angry, and they might turn you into a toad or give you the evil eye.  They don't blow stuff up.

2) D&D is about a lot more than fighting, and fighting is about more than just inflicting points of damage.  I think the impulse to ensure that every class is effective at dealing damage is misguided.  There is already a class that specializes in dealing damage: the fighter.  Other classes can do it too, but are less capable, just as the fighter is relatively less capable at sneaking, healing, gathering information, and so on.  Every class can contribute to almost every situation, but not every class has to be equally useful in every situation.  If a character wants to contribute to a situation that isn't his specialty, he can do so through creative use of abilities, whether we're talking about the fighter helping out in negotiations by being intimidating or the mage flinging utility spells to give the party an edge on the battlefield.

There's a lot that a spell caster can do.  Besides their usefulness in non-combat situations such as exploration, information gathering, and negotiation, there are many ways for a spell caster to contribute to success in battle without directly dealing damage.  Without an arsenal of magic missiles and lightning bolts, what's a wizard to do?  Quite a lot, actually:  Terrify and confuse the enemy with illusions.  Beguile it with charms.  Rescue the fighter in trouble by casting invisibility on him from a distance.  Protect your allies with defensive and misdirecting magic.  Polymorph the black knight's sword into a bratwurst.  Hex foes with bad luck.  Turn them against each other with a spell of confusion.  With a little imagination and a decent selection of spells, the possibilities are vast -- so much so that to me, spells which simply do points of damage seem a bit lazy.

3) Some spells can potentially deal damage when used cleverly in the right circumstances - for instance, a spell to manipulate fire.  What's the difference between that and just allowing fireball spells?  A fireball does one thing, it does it automatically regardless of almost any other circumstances, and the only real limitation on it is that you don't want to catch you friends in the area of effect.  Other than that consideration, you just say, "I cast fireball!" and boom, 1d6 damage per caster level in a 20' radius, any time, anywhere.

Contrast this with a manipulate fire spell.  Let's say that this spell allows the mage to cause fire to spread by x amount per round in whatever direction the caster desires, provided that there is fuel for it to burn, and also to make it explode, throwing burning embers over all within the radius of the burst.  How much damage and how big the burst is depends on how big the source flame is. 

You can't just break down the door and incinerate the orcs at will, unless they're gathered around a sizeable fire.  However, if they have a torch, or you have an ally with a lit flask of oil ready to throw, you might be able to pull it off.  You might also have to take a few rounds to spread a small fire into a bigger fire to make a bigger burst.  Either way, this spell is going to be a lot more effective in a room full of straw than in a bare stone chamber.

At once, you have a spell that is more versatile -- it could conceivably be used for non-combat purposes -- and requires certain circumstances and time to be optimally useful in combat.  In a way, it's like the thief's backstab ability - only situationally useful, but still quite worthwhile in those situations.  It encourages the player of a magic-user not merely to throw the biggest damage spell at the enemy, but to think creatively within the parameters of immediate circumstances and resource management.  It doesn't just give you what you want; you have to figure out how to get the result you want from it.  Not simply, "Boom!  Fireball!" but, "How can I most effectively weaponize my manipulate fire spell?"

I'm not trying to tell anyone that they're having fun wrong if they love their magic missiles and fireballs.  Games with magic-users as heavy artillery can be a lot of fun, but I think a game in which magic is less about shredding bodies and more about guile and subtlety would be a lot of fun too, and in no way would a magic-user in such a game be useless or helpless simply because he can't nuke opponents for 1d6 damage per level.

Goblins & Greatswords: 1st Order Spells of Mind

One of the parts of my fantasy heartbreaker that I'm most excited about is the selection of spells for magic-user and cleric characters.  As stated before, I'm creating lists for four different types of spells: Mind, Matter, Divine, and Nature.  One of my design goals is to make these spells interesting and useful while abolishing, or at least vastly reducing, the role of magic as combat damage dealer.

These spells should be easily transplantable into B/X or another old school D&D or retroclone game, either as replacements for the by-the-book spell lists or as supplemental material.

Naturally, some spells are nearly identical to long-familiar ones.  Most have been tweaked at least a little, and some are heavily altered or entirely new.  Without further ado, here are the list and descriptions for the Spells of Mind of the first order.

1. Charm Person
   
2. Decipher*
   
3. Endure
   
4. Figment
   
5. Glamour
   
6. Minor Transposition
   
7. Sleep*
   
8. Thought Projection
   
9. Unseen Servant
   
10. Vocal Projection
    

Charm Person

Range: 60'       Duration: Special

This spell causes the target to view the caster as its best friend if a saving throw vs. spells is failed. A charmed creature will seek to protect the caster from harm and will obey most commands if they are given in a language it can understand. It will resist commands to do things which are against its nature. For instance, a very peaceful person or creature won't be eager to harm others even if its “friend” tells it to, and may argue with the caster, though it would fight to protect the caster from imminent harm. A creature will also generally resist harming any of its real friends and allies. Just because the caster is its new best friend doesn't mean it immediately forgets its previous loyalties. Forcing a charmed creature to act against its nature or conscience grants it another saving throw to escape the effect.

Remember also that charmed creatures don't change their personalities. A charmed ogre is still an uncouth brute and a charmed evil priest is still cruel and devoted to his evil god. They also will not necessarily like the caster's other companions, though they will grudgingly coexist and cooperate with them if the caster so orders.


Decipher*

Range: Caster only      Duration: 2 turns

This spell enables the caster to read unfamiliar languages, codes, and ciphers.  Each turn, the caster may read about 10 pages or skim as many as 30.

The reversed spell, Encrypt, makes a single written work appear to be unintelligible gibberish for a duration of 1 day.


Endure

Range: Caster only      Duration: 6 turns

With this spell, the caster becomes resistant to pain and discomfort. Damage from all attacks is reduced by 1 point. Ongoing effects, such as being exposed to open flames, are reduced by 1 point per round. The caster is still aware of sensations which would otherwise be painful, but is not distracted by them. While under the effect, the caster's spells may not be disrupted by attacks.

Figment

Range: 60'      Duration: Concentration

This spell creates an illusion affecting one of the five primary senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch. The illusion must fit within a 20' x 20' x 20' cube entirely within the spell's range. The spell cannot cause illusory harm or damage.


Glamour

Range: Touch      Duration: 6 turns

The caster may change his or her own appearance or that of a creature touched, including all equipment carried. The new appearance must be of the same general shape, but up to 50% larger or smaller. The appearance of a specific individual may not be taken. Thus, a human could appear to be a dwarf or an orc, a horse may appear to be a bear or a deer, an unarmored mage could look like a warrior in plate or vice versa. Note that actual size and shape do not change, only the perceptions of observers, and that the target's voice, scent, and other non-visual details are not altered. An unwilling target is not affected.


Minor Transposition

Range: 60'      Duration: Instantaneous

With this spell, an item in the caster's possession instantly trades places with a chosen item within range. The items to be affected must be approximately the same weight, up to a maximum of 10 pounds. If the item to be swapped is held or worn by another person or creature, a saving throw vs. spells is allowed to resist the effect.


Sleep*

Range: 120'     Duration: 2 turns

When this spell is cast, 2d8 Hit Dice of creatures with 4 HD or less in a 20' square area are put to sleep. Only base Hit Dice are counted; pluses or minuses are not. The spell affects creatures with the lowest Hit Dice first. Sleeping creatures may only be awakened by physical force, such as a slap or kick; loud noises or cold water will not wake them. A sleeping creature may be automatically slain by a blow from any weapon.

If the spell is cast on creatures in combat or otherwise highly alert, a saving throw vs. spells may be made to resist. Otherwise, no save is allowed.

The reversed spell, Awaken, causes any and all sleeping creatures within the 20' square area of effect to wake in 1 round from natural or magical sleep.


Thought Projection

Range: 120'      Duration: 1 turn

With this spell, the caster may project thoughts directly into the mind of another creature within range. The creature will hear the thoughts in the caster's voice, even if it has never heard him or her speak before, but always in a language the creature understands. This communication is one-way only; the creature may not send responses. The spell does not compel the creature to act in any way; it simply conveys messages.

The recipient of the message must be a living creature able to understand verbal communication. Constructs, the undead, and most plants and animals are unaffected.


Unseen Servant

Range: 30'       Duration: 6 turns

This spell creates a weak telekinetic force within the spell's range which may be used to manipulate small objects weighing no more than 10 pounds. The caster may consciously direct the force, or may set it to perform a simple repetitive action such as stirring or sweeping. Very rapid actions such as fighting with a weapon, and those requiring delicate touch such as writing with a quill or picking a lock with thieves' tools, are beyond the capability of the spell, even if the caster possesses the expertise to perform them with his or her own hands.


Vocal Projection

Range: 120'      Duration: 2 turns

By means of this spell, the caster may cause his or her voice to emanate from any point within range. Any sound which the caster could normally make with his or her mouth and vocal cords may be projected, including speech, singing, whistles, humming, growling, grunting, whispers, shouts, etc. 

Notes on Illusions

Some spells of Mind create illusions which affect one or more senses. Most illusions have a visual component, but some may be entirely of sound, smell, or touch (including sensations of heat or cold.)

Illusions may not be disbelieved simply because a player says so or expresses skepticism. Instead, the character must interact with the illusion as if he or she disbelieves it, and bear the consequences if he or she is mistaken. For instance, a character who disbelieves the illusion of an angry dragon might walk up and touch it. One who disbelieves an illusion of a bottomless pit may step into it. Clever players may ask questions of the GM about an illusion to discover evidence of its unreality. Often an illusion will lack one or more of the basic senses, such as sound, smell, or touch. A suspicious player might ask, for example, if there is any smell accompanying an illusionary monster. It is always up to the player to decide how to act on that information, however.

Some illusions simulate creatures, traps, or other things which would cause injury or death. If an illusionary monster is created, it has an Armor Class of 10, and makes combat rolls as if it had a Combat Rating equal to the caster's level and inflicts illusionary damage with the same limit as a real creature of the same type. A character “attacked” by such an illusion may make a save vs. spells to realize that it is not real. If the save is failed, the character will believe that he or she has been hurt or killed, but the effects disappear in 1d4 turns.