Great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.25e Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster

House Rules for Alair 3.25e

Some house rules that vary from the 3.5e books, including some throwbacks to 3.0e - hence the description "3.25e"

Version Wars

• I don't like the 3.5e Experience calculations, so I am continuing to do it per the 3.0 rules; average party level vs Challenge Rating, divided evenly, NPCs get half a share.
• There will be Story Awards, to the whole party, for certain significant steps in the arc.
• I will not be using 3.5e Weapon Sizes. All weapons do damage as per Size M, 3.0 style
• See below under Magic for the spell Identify, nerfed from 3.0 to 3.5.

Hit Points, Levels , Life and Death

• When characters level up, hit points to be rolled on Roll20 or Discord, your choice, best roll of 2. Characters with exclusively d4 hit dice (ie career wizards) get 4 per level until level 5
• PCs whose players are absent from the session are bubbled; they earn no XP, are not susceptible to any harm short of an apocalyptic TPK, and take no part; however, if something crops up that requires an action, spell, item etc that only that character can provide, puts them in no danger and would in the DM's opinion have done so, that can be allowed.
• All races receive "any" as their "favoured class". Put simply, there are no experience penalties at all for multiclassing. There is still the limit of 5 classes, however.
• I will be using the Official Disabled-Dying-Dead track for this campaign. 0 hp is Disabled; Move actions OK, anything else costs 1 hp. -1 to -9, dying, unconscious, -1 hp/rd, 10% each subsequent round to stabilize, Heal DC 15 to stabilize. -10 is dead.
• Unlike previous Alair campaigns, the Raise Dead and Resurrection spells are available. Some deities are not entirely happy about granting them, however.
• Replacement characters joining the game later on may be created at 2 levels below party average

Character Creation, Feats, skills, etc

• Characters for this start with an array 18,17,16,16,15,14. 2 points may be moved from one stat to another, but may not take it over 18 before racial adjustment
• Characters may be created with one Flaw to earn an extra Feat. This will be played hard for comedy!
• Skill Tricks are acceptable
• Elves and half-elves can take the Weapon Finesse feat with a longsword as well as a rapier.
• Any Feat or Spell that the character was created with and that has never been used in play, may be swapped out for a different choice between sessions with the DM’s approval.
• The Supersonic Cleave feat is out. O.U.T. out. No. Nada. Never again! :)

Combat

• A natural 20 that successfully hits, followed by another, followed by a validated critical threat check, is an automatic kill.
• Arrows that have been shot break 1 in 6. Magical arrows that have been shot become ordinary arrows once shot, and are treated the same.
• When shooting into combat, a natural 1 triggers a re-roll of the attack (at the same bonus including -4 for shooting into melee unless archer has Precise Shot) on a random combatant in that melee.

Magic

• Previously I had been giving spell casting XP; this time I'm not, but will focus more on spot awards for Good Stuff for everyone. Promise!
• Binding outsiders (eg demons) into objects with the Binding spell a la Stormbringer is possible. However, the target creature must be restrained (either physically or in a pentagram) and the appropriate Craft Item feat must be available to complete the item. If the outsider has more than 20 HD, the Epic version of the feat will be needed.
• The caster of the spell Zone of Truth knows whether targets have failed or made their saving throws (because they don’t get ‘true’ or ‘lie’ results when they speak!)
• I always kinda liked cantrips; they made wizards feel more magical without unbalancing anything. Any arcane caster character may have 5 cantrips plus double his 1st level spell bonus, so for a normal character that's around 7 cantrips.
• Soul Burn; a spellcaster completely out of casts/slots can perform a ‘last desperate cast’ at the cost of 1 permanent Con per spell level – no saving throw. The character passes out immediately afterwards.
• Magical Darkness; any creature intrinsically capable of creating Darkness can see through it. There would be no reason, none, ever, to evolve or be granted such an ability by a deity if it makes the "lucky" recipient utterly helpless. Casters who learn the spell are, however, unable to see through it without other aids.
• The Spell Identify will process one item per cast per caster level. I don't have a problem with players knowing what they have found, although there will always be some details Identify doesn't pick up on significant items.
• All magical Potions are labelled. No creature carrying Potions would be such an idiot as to not label them, clearly, for quick use in a crisis situation. Whether the finder can read their language is a variable thing.
• A Ring of Invisibility is treated "as the spell" but is a non-use-limited spell completion item. Like the spell, the effect is lost if the wearer makes an attack or hostile action; however, it can be immediately re-activated with a Standard action (which means the next round)