Converting D&D Paladins?!

[prophet118]

I know what you're saying. Went off D&D many many years ago, came back to try it with 3e "it's fixed. No really. Honest", and then went off it again. Maybe I'll pick up 6th edition or so in another 10 years and see what that's like :-)

Brian.

yeh.... hehe... heres the list of changes i was doing for my D&D game...
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General Changes: Minimum class skill points 4+Int, X4, 4+Int per level; Reputation Scores (start at +0, and increase according to chart below), defense bonus only adds to armor class, not reduction. Profession skills add a +2 synergy bonus to all related skills, for every 5 ranks in profession.

Vitality/wounds: Wounds is equal to your constitution score, Vitality points are what your HP used to be, roll your class die + con bonus for every level. Vitality refreshes at the rate of your level +con per hour, or twice your level +con per hour for a full nights rest.

Vitality/Wounds descriptive perspective: Vitality represents your ability to avoid actual damage, you have a pools of points that slowly reduce as you "take damage", the fewer the points you have, the more likely it is you will take wounds eventually. Vitality measures how well you can get out of the way. Wounds are actual hits, and usually are pretty severe, upon taking any wounds damage, you become fatigued (-2 to all attacks for 1 round), and must immediately make a fortitude save (DC 5+ the wounds taken in that hit)

AC: is dex plus 10, plus class defense bonus, OR Dex plus 10, plus half of armor bonus. If you wear armor you do not get your defense bonus only armor bonus.

Damage Reduction: armor class bonus applies to damage reduction (plus con). A rogues Sneak attack, does damage ignoring targets armor damage reduction.

Weapon Stats: A weapon that once had an 18-20 critical range, now has a 19-20, a weapon that had a 19-20, now has a 20, and weapons that had a 20, are still a 20. Rolling a critical does damage to wounds, so the multiplier has been changed to a plus, instead. It ignores the armor side of damage reduction, but not constitution reduction.

Equipment: there are 3 levels to masterwork, which add a+1 for each level (level 3, would be a +3 to either attack, or a skill bonus, depending on equipment), which is the extent that an item may be done, unless the character, or NPC has access to the master-craft class function, in which case 3 extra levels may be added, but only they made add bonuses to damage, these are considered non magical in all purposes, the cost of masterwork is as noted in the book, though the DC for masterwork level 2, is 15 points higher than the previous DC, and the DC for 3, is 10 higher than that. The master-craft DCs are set differently and will be added shortly.

Combat Options:
Half Swording: taking a total of –4 from your damage, though the increased accuracy of the technique, adds a +4 to your attack roll, you may choke up on the blade of a long sword (bastard sword, great sword), by doing this. This technique may only be done when crowded by a foe, or when in a situation where you may not be able to fully draw, or swing your weapon. You may not use Power Attack with this option.

Half Spearing: taking a total of –4 from your attack roll, you choke up on the neck of the spear, and then use the stats from the Short Spear entry in the PHB, though you add your strength modifier to damages 2 times, though you may not make a power attack with this option.


Charge: a charge is a full attack option, and follows the same movement restrictions as before, the changes to it are as follows: a standard +2 on the attack roll, +1 to damage for ever 10 feet traveled, and –1 to ac for every 10 feet traveled.



Spells:
Spells that add points to attack (bless, ETC) may be cast in an alternate manner, you may spend extra mana points to increase the bonus gained. 2 extra mana points on top of the normal cost, will increase this bonus to +2 you must select this to either to go attack, or to damage, you may elect to have some go to damage, and some go to attack, so long as it equals the amount you spent. Maximum increase in this manner is a +5.

No spell requires material components, except for those that require a focus, or are rare/unique components.

Healing spells in regards to wounds/vitality, healing first goes to wounds, and anything left over spills over to vitality

Clerics no longer have the ability to spontaneously cast a healing spell, since no one has to memorize/prepare spells any longer.

Recovery Spells:
These spells may be cast in place of one of your normal spells; they cost only 1 mana point, but grant you spell points back, depending on the level you decide to cast it as
1st level = 1d4+1, 2nd = 2d4+1, 3rd = 3d4+1 only, there are only 3 levels of recovery spells, though higher ones are rumored to exist (must research them)

The downfall is that a fortitude save is required, the DC is 10 + the number of points regained, if failed, you pass out from the stress and strain

Continually recovering will cause you to make more saves, at a higher difficulty, the first recovery in a chain is at base cost, and the 2nd is at a +2, the 3rd a +4, and so on.

However this recovery interrupts your bodies natural recovery, and instead of having to rest for an hour to gain your level in mana back, you will need to rest the number of times in hours past the 1st recover (IE, if you cast 4 recover spells, you will have to rest 3 hours before your mana will start refreshing)

Save DC: the save DC is 10 + Will save


Mana Points: Spell point cost per spell = (Spell Level * 2) - 1. (0 level costs are .5)

The base number of spell points a spell casting character receives is based on the spells per day chart for each class. For a given character level, convert the number of spells for each level into spell points for that spell level, then add up all the spell points. Remember to include any zero level spells, bonus spells for specialization or feats, domain spell, etc

Bonus spell points for exceptional ability scores are accounted for in a similar fashion. Suppose our fifth level wizard had an Intelligence of 18. This would give the wizard one bonus spell of each level from 1 to 4, which translates into (1 + 3 + 5 + 7) = 16 spell points. However, since a fifth level wizard can cast at most third level spells, he would only get (1 + 3 + 5) = 9 bonus spell points. When he reaches seventh level, he would then gain the bonus spell points for the bonus fourth level spell.

Meta magic feats work in a new manner, if a meta magic feat requires that a spell be cast as a higher level, then you would spend mana points as though it was that level (say a meta magic feat that raises a fireball from a 3rd level spell, to a 6th level spell, it would cost (6*2)-1=11.). The new change is that they are no longer feats, but abilities that every caster can do.

Recovery: mana points come back at the rate of level per hour of uninterrupted rest, though after 8 full hours of sleep, the spell caster is at maximum spell points.

A certain amount of meditation time it still required for all casters. Current caster level*2 equals the number of minutes that must be spent in silent meditation

[prophet118]

yeh... well i tried to do D&D, i tried to get past it being a computer RPG... or more like a MMORPG.... but i couldnt... neither could the players i was playing with...


i wanted something more, something with more substance, hence me purchasing TROS many months ago

[Anthony I]

Rattlehead,

I used to feel the same way- its the GM and players who make the game-not the system.  But after reading the "system matters" essay I had an epiphany.  The system is just as important to the game as the players.

I've spent hours and hours trying to take games that where made for a certain style of play and drifting them to meet my expectations of play.  Now, I understand that what I really want is a game mechanic/system that meets my needs as a player for a particular style of play without any drift.  

Saying that you can run D&D as anything other than a hackfest is certainly true, but the game itself was designed to play a certain way and regardless of how you drift it from the original intentions D&D is a game about killing stuff, taking the loot, leveling up and kewl powers (ala feats). The whole "story" aspect is and always has been secondary to what D&D was designed for.  And again, there is nothing wrong with that.

I dislike d20, not because I think its a bad system or doesn't play well, but because it doesn't play well for what I want to do while gaming and because there are better systems (read that as more focused, designed with a particular goal in mind) for playing what I want, without drift.