It has been six years since a clan of Hylar, perhaps the only surviving clan, invaded the lands of Nidar and seized them by the skill of their warrior priestess commandos and the formidible magic they wielded on the day they came. Within months, the priestess queen Laramní erected the great Citadel of Books, a tall fortress containing a library rumored to contain all knowledge of magic of the Hylar. The royal mages cast a spell which opened a gate between the Citadel and another place of magic in a distant land to the north, through which came many thousands of elite Hylarin troops followed by over a hundred thousand Hylarin settlers. The territory to which they had laid claim was now theirs through spell and steel. Only then did it become clear why the Hylar had so suddenly, and without warning, assaulted and taken this land: their home had been besieged from a great evil in the north, and they could not hold it, and in desperation, they had taken this land to be their new home.

In the time that has passed since, the Hylar have endeavored to make peace with their new neighbors, the Kingdom of Damarin, to whom Nidar had belonged prior to the Hylarin invasion, and the neighboring lands of Eluchish, who had been Damarin's mortal enemies prior to the invasion. In the first year, Queen Laramní erected a fortified temple in South Nidar, and the elves have begun to convert the agricultural production of their new kingdom to suit their own way of life, and in time have begun to attempt trade with their former enemies as a sign of no continuing ill will. While many resent the loss of the land they have taken, few can dispute the reality that they have taken it. The Hylar themselves rebuild their society, they take council against the evil they fled, in the hopes that it will not find them here.

*

This game takes place a long time after the Jade Warrior but in the same universe, or perhaps an alternate direction of history from that universe, as envisioned by the Music. The Hylar are a tribe of elves, characterized by an adventurous, vigorous, and learned (even academic) culture.

I am including an encyclopedia of relevant information on Nidar, the Hylar, and important figures in the game.

I have a plot in mind for this game which will center around unraveling ancient mysteries and secrets. However, I plan on running it more like that one elf's Faerûn game in that I intend to leave the game's direction and the pace at which the mysteries unfold largely up to the players.



Rules for Character Creation:

Player may play any race from the Player's Handbook, plus Orc, Aasimar, Tiefling, or anything else approved by the GM. Player characters should begin at ECL 2, and use a 32-point buy (as described in the DMG). Starting wealth should be typical for that of a level 2 character.

Rules for gameplay (including character creation) should generally be assumed to follow the rules presented in the PHB, with exceptions as noted below. Information on ritual magic should be consulted in the encyclopedia.


Changes to Races:

Elves receive a -2 to Fortitude saves (which affects their HP, see changes to combat). Elves do not get -2 to Constitution.


Changes to Classes:

Note on all classes: magic-using classes now refer to paths. Paths are representations of magical knowledge and favor, analagous to but different from schools. Different nations, their respective religions, and traditions, have access to different paths. Please refer to the encyclopedia for what paths a particular nation has.

Note on skill points: All classes have at least four trained skills (+1 skill per point of Int modifier), even if they otherwise would only get two.

Bard - Bards must belong to nations with either the Air, Astral, or Nature paths.

Cleric - Instead of taking one spell per day per level from their domains and multiple spells per day per level from the general cleric spell list, clerics instead take one spell per day per level from the general cleric spell list and multiple spells per day from spell lists related to their domains. Spells related to a cleric's domains can be taken from the cleric, druid, or wizard spell lists as the cleric desires, but must be justifiably related to one or the other of said cleric's domains. Clerics can still spontaneously cast healing (or infliction) spells from spell slots taken from the general cleric spell list. Clerics can also spontaneously cast spells actually on their domain spell lists from spells they have prepared related to the domain from which they are spontaneously casting. A cleric's domains must be taken from the list of acceptable Paths available to a cleric's nation, god, and tradition (see Encyclopedia for a list of paths).

Druid - Druids must belong to religious traditions that include both Nature and at least one of the four elemental paths.

Elven Priestess - Elven Priestess is a new base class that resembles the Cleric but differs in the following aspects:
-Elven priestesses have a poor Fortitude save and a good Reflex save.
-Elven priestesses have no proficiency in either armor or shields.
-Elven priestesses get a bonus to armor class equal to their Wis bonus. While elven priestesses with proficiency are not forbidden from wearing armor, the maximum dexterity bonus allowed by an armor includes both the priestess' cannot exceed the sum of the priestess' actual dexterity bonus plus her wisdom bonus for calculating her bonus to AC.
-Elven priestesses' class skills include everything possessed by either the cleric or the druid.
-Elven priestesses wearing armor are subject to divine spell failure. This works exactly like arcane spell failure, except for elven priestesses being divine spellcasters.

Fighters - Profession (soldier) and Knowledge (warfare) are considered class skills for the fighter.

Monks - Monks must belong to religious traditions possessing either Astral or Nature paths.

Rangers - While not required to belong to nations possessing magical traditions of any kind, Rangers must belong to nations possessing either Earth or Nature paths if they are to cast spells.

Sorcerers - Sorcerers do not have access to spells from the wizard's spell list. Instead, a sorcerer chooses a path from the options of his nation's mythology. A sorcerer can learn any spell from the wizard, cleric, or druid spell list, provided that it is associated with that path.

Wizards - Wizards should generally be specialists (exceptions will be permitted, but such wizards will be rogue wizards and have a hard time getting access to spells). While specialist wizards are free to choose which schools they are forbidden from using, the school they specialize in must correspond to one of the schools accessible to one of the paths of the tradition to which they belong. Each path has an associated school, but apart from the association between path and school, wizards need not care about their nations' paths.

Multiclass characters - When multiclassing, you get the class abilities of each class you have (including bonus feats and spellcasting but not including hit points, base attack bonus, or saves) equal to the level you have in that class plus one half of the combined levels of all other classes you have. You cannot have class abilities exceeding twice the class level you have in any class, however, even if your other classes more than twice outnumber the levels in that class. Finally, class abilities that duplicate abilities from other classes and which normally stack (e.g. sneak attack for the rogue and assassin, or spellcasting for the loremaster and any base spellcasting class) do not multiply each-other this way, although other classes who do not have the abilities at all still add to the effective level of the stacking ability as normal.

Gaining levels - Every four levels, a character gains ability points. A character gaining ability points chooses one of the following: either (1) increase two different ability scores, both of which are below the character's racial ability score maxima, by one point each, or (2) increase a single ability score which already equals or exceeds the character's racial limits by one point.


Changes to Skills:

Characters do not gain skill points. Instead, they choose a number of trained skills equal to their former skill points per level (minimum 4 + int modifier), and make these skills trained skills. If a character gains another class later that has more trained skills than all previous classes, the character gains the difference in trained skills up to the the number required by the new class. However, while a character gets the best number of trained skills from among his classes, getting trained skills from multiple classes do not stack. A skill is assumed to be a class skill for a character if it is a class skill for any of his classes. If a skill was cross class originally, but later becomes a class skill, the bonus improves as the skill becomes a class skill. Skill ranks (and consequent boni) for a character are assumed to be the following:
For trained, in-class skills: 3 + character level
For trained, cross-class skills: half of the number of ranks an in-class skill would have.
For untrained, in-class skills: class level divided by 4
For untrained, not-in-class skills: zero

Swim, Climb, and Jump are combined into a single skill called Athletics (Str).

Balance and Tumble are combined into a single skill called Acrobatics (Dex).

Listen, Search, and Spot are combined into a single skill called Perception (Wis).

Hide and Move Silently are combined into a single skill called Stealth (Dex).

Knowledge (warfare) - This skill covers all knowledge pertaining to warfare, including weapons, tactics, military information on the nations of the world including strength, military policies and personages, as well as military history. A character with 5 ranks in Knowledge (warfare) gets a +2 synergy bonus to Spellcraft checks to identify spells primarily used in combat.


Changes to Feats:

Personality feat: Upon character creation, each character gets one personality feat. A personality feat is a feat that provides a character with an attribute dependent upon the character's bodily shape and construction, or special coordination, such as Acrobatic, Diehard, Alertness, or Agile Athlete. A character need not satisfy the prerequisites for a personality feat in order to take it. Feats that normally represent skills, such as Weapon Focus, Power Attack, etc. are not acceptable personality feats. The personality feat gained is in addition to the normal feat that first-level characters get.


Changes to combat:

Hit Points - Characters have vitality and wound points. A character's vitality points are equal to his or her rolled hit points, assuming average rolls, plus his or her Con modifier on each roll. A character's wound points are equal to his or her strength score (not modifier) plus his Fortitude save modifier.

Armor Class
Armor class = Base Armor Class + Skill Defense
Armor boni (real or natural) do not add to armor class.

Base Armor Class
Base Armor Class = 10 + Size modifier + Deflection bonus + Shield bonus + misc. modifiers.

Skill Defense
Skill Defense = base attack bonus + Reflex save modifier + misc. skill modifiers + square root of vitality.
Misc. skill modifiers include anything that increases armor class but which is denied to a helpless character, such as the monk's or elven priestess' wis bonus, dodge boni, etc. The square root of vitality is rounded down.

Characters who are flat-footed do not add their reflex save bonus to their skill defense, but they still get to add their base attack bonus (if applicable - see below) and the square root of their vitality. Characters who are unaware of an attack (genuinely unaware, not just flat-footed) do not get any part of their skill defense. For the purpose of determining if a character is unaware, Invisibility is assumed to expire about a second before an attack is made, which is just enough time for the target not to be considered unaware.

Characters only add their base attack bonus to their skill defense if they are carrying a weapon, shield, or other implement with which to block an incoming attack. Weapons (but not shields) are generally less effective at deflecting projectiles, so provide half the bonus if the target does not also have a shield or something else they can use for cover. If you attempt to block a melee attack with a weapon two size categories smaller than the weapon being used against you, you must roll opposed grapple checks to still use your weapon to block.


Damage:

A hit which misses your base armor class is a miss and causes no damage.

A hit which hits your base armor class but misses your actual armor class causes vitality damage. As long as your vitality remains positive, you suffer no additional ill effects. However, for every 5 points of vitality you drop below zero, you get a -1 cumulative penalty to both your attack bonus and your skill defense. While there is no theoretical limit to how negative your vitality can get, your penalty to attacks cannot be larger than your base attack bonus, and your penalty to your skill defense cannot reduce your skill defense bonus below zero.

A hit which hits your armor class causes wound damage. Any critical hit also has its first multiplier of damage going straight to wounds (the rest hits vitality, unless the initial threat roll was also hit your armor class). If you take wound damage for any reason, you must roll a Fortitude save against a DC of 5 + damage taken. In addition to your Fort save bonus, you also add your armor bonus (both armor and natural), and 1/4 of your remaining wound points (assuming you take full wound damage) to your save. If the save fails, you are dying. If the save fails by more than 10, you are dead. If you make the save by more than 10, for each point by which you made the save by more than you, you negate one point of wound damage to a minimum of zero. You cannot negate more damage than your total armor bonus with a high save, and you cannot negate any of the first multiplier of damage from a critical hit.

If you take damage from something which does not involve an attack roll that directly hit you (including automatic damage such as a Magic Missile, or anything that hits an area of effect), you roll a reflex save at a DC equal to 10 + the damage suffered, adding a bonus to the reflex save equal to the square root of your vitality if it is positive. If you make the save, the damage you take goes to your vitality. If you fail, then for each point by which you failed the save, one point of the damage you take goes to your wounds instead (all of it goes to wounds if you roll 10 or less).

Armor is generally about 50% effective against energy attacks, providing a halved bonus accordingly. There are exceptions, which should be considered using logic (e.g. metal armor won't protect you at all from electricity).

If you are dying, you roll a Fort save each round, starting at a DC of 0 and increasing by 1 each round. If you roll a natural 20, you self-stabilize. If you fail, you die. If you have the diehard feat, you both get a +4 bonus to the roll and you must fail twice in order to die.



Changes to Spells:

Ritual spells play an important role in this game. Much of the magic system of this setting was inspired by a game called Dominions, which you can find information on online if you like. Details of how rituals work or some specific rituals relevant to this setting are in the encyclopedia; however, I have not created a grimoire of ritual spells like the spell list in the back of the PHB. I do allow and encourage players to research and design ritual spells, just as I encourage them to research and design spells that use the normal D&D spellcasting mechanics.

Revival spells (Raise Dead, Reincarnation, Resurrection, etc.) are modified in the following way. If a character dies and that character has a life insured by the Music or rituals that invoke the Music, then the character can either be resurrected or replaced by invoking the ritual, artifact, or destiny that protects him. Characters who can be resurrected can be targeted by any of the revival spells, which will work without expensive material components, and no level loss. Characters not protected in any way cannot be resurrected, period. Characters with some partial insurance can be resurrected, but the material costs and side effects still apply. Some of the rituals already in place are described in the encyclopedia.

It should be noted that Queen Laramní is only a nineth-level priestess, however, and other powerful characters can similarly be expected to be surprisingly low level...

[This message has been edited by Beren V (edited 08-14-2010 @ 01:16 PM).]