Rules Update: Rangers and Two-Weapon Fighting

Some clarifications of rangers and two-weapon fighting from our last session:

Rangers and Two-Weapon Fighting:

A ranger gets the benefits of Two-Weapon Fighting AND Ambidexterity feats provided that they are wearing light armour or no armour.  They do NOT need to take these feats to get this benefit.

Drawing Weapons:

Rules for drawing weapons have already been discussed here.  If you have the two-weapon fighting proficiency (or are a ranger with light or no armour) you can draw TWO light or one-handed weapons in the time it would normally take to draw one.  Because rangers have a +1 attack bonus from lvl 1, in practice this means that 1st level rangers can draw TWO weapons as part of a move action.

Attacking with 2 weapons:

Attacking with 2 weapons counts as a 'Full attack'.  Essentially, whenever you have more than one attack per round, either with the same weapon, with two weapons or because of a feat, you can only use the extra attacks if you take a full attack: that is, you don't get ANY movement other than a five foot step, no charging, etc.

Extended Example: The ranger Pharnos is confronted by a vile goblin sentry beneath the Howling Hills.  He uses a MOVE ACTION to close with the goblin (30 ft, 6 squares), reaching behind his back with both hands to draw his longsword and hand-axe as he strides forward.  Because Pharnos's base attack bonus is +1, he can draw a weapon as PART of his movement rather than an EXTRA move, and because he has the TWO WEAPON FIGHTING ability (he is a ranger in light armour) he can draw TWO weapons at once.  After his MOVEMENT ACTION (30 ft. move + draw weapons) he still has a STANDARD ACTION to make an attack - however, because this is not a FULL ATTACK, Pharnos can only attack with his longsword (MAIN HAND WEAPON).  In the next round, if the goblin is still standing, Pharnos can use a FULL ATTACK: he swings with his MAIN WEAPON (longsword) and cuts the goblin down, then takes a FIVE FOOT STEP towards the next foe, and swings with his OFF-HAND WEAPON (handaxe).

Rules Update: Session 7

I made a few notes after the last session which we should remember in future:

Drawing/Readying Weapons and Shields:

AT FIRST it is a MOVE EQUIVALENT action to do the following:

• draw a weapon
• ready a shield
• loose a shield

HOWEVER, once you have a +1 base attack bonus (this currently applies to Tam, Gregory, and Oreth, but not Lareth), then you can take any ONE of the above three actions in CONJUNCTION with another move action, to reflect your combat aptitude.  Dropping a weapon remains a FREE ACTION.

For example:

1. Tam is covering the party's retreat before an overwhelming horde of goblins.  On his turn, he decides to (STANDARD ACTION) hurl his spear at the first oncoming goblin, then takes falls back 20 feet (MOVE ACTION), drawing his bastard sword as he does so (as part of the MOVE ACTION) in preperation for the onslaught.
2. Oreth has been hurling sling bullets into the fray but notices an opportunity to flank the bestial warrior battling Tam.  On his turn, Oreth drops his sling (FREE ACTION) and darts forwards (MOVE ACTION), drawing his scimitar (as part of the MOVE ACTION) and slicing into the foe (STANDARD ACTION) in one graceful movement.
3. Gregory sees a blasphemous cleric of a dark power and is filled with righteous fury.  Trusting in St. Cuthbert to shield him as he charges (MOVE ACTION), Gregory flings aside his shield (included in MOVE ACTION) and raises his mace above his head two handed as he brings it crashing down on his foe (STANDARD ACTION, deals one and a half times the strength bonus due to two handed fighting).

Standing Up from Prone

This has been bothering me since last session when, despite being surrounded, Belsag 'the Hunter' stood up from prone (after incredibly being tripped by Marrok!) without you guys getting any attacks of opportunity.  Now according to the letter of the 3.0 Edition Rules (see page 128), standing from prone does not provoke attacks of opportunity, BUT, given that movement THROUGH threatened squares provokes an attack of opportunity, it seems ludicrous not to allow this.  Also, I have noted that in 3.5 Edition Rules they make this change.  So while I am normally loathe to mix editions/house-rule unless there is a very compelling reason and I've checked out its other implications for the game - I say that standing from prone counts the same as moving through a threatened square in terms of attacks of opportunity.

Rules Clarifications: 2nd Level

Levelling Up (see also pages 145-146 of PHB, plus the relevant chapters for your Race, Class, Skills, Feats and Spells...)

1.       Choose class.  Most characters have only one class, and when such a character achieves a new level, it is a new level in that class.  If your character wants to acquire another class, however, you choose which class goes up one level.  The other class or classes stay at the previous level.

[Aside: if you would like to take another class on (now or at a future level up) contact me – it’s not that difficult so if you are keen and it makes sense in the context of your character there is no reason why you shouldn’t – imagine a wizard picking up some combat pointers from the fighter, or the fighter who is fascinated by magic asking the wizard to teach him a few cantrips.

From a game perspective, there are differing opinions on how useful taking an extra class.  In the long run a multiclass character will never have the raw power of a single class character at those particular abilities, but of course the RANGE of abilities (and combinations thereof) increases.  As always my advice is to do what you want to do for the ‘feel’ of your character rather than worrying about maximising the numbers. 

That said, if you’re going to take an additional class make sure you have the ability scores to support it!  For example rogues generally use dexterity and intelligence, so if you want some rogue levels make sure you have decent scores in those attributes.]

Assuming you choose to keep to the single character class for now…

2.       Base Attack Bonus (you find this info on the bit about your class in the PHB)

As a fighter Tam’s base attack bonus goes from +1 to +2 at level 2.

As a druid Oreth’s base attack bonus goes from + 0 to +1 at level 2. (pg 34)

As a wizard Lareth’s base attack bonus goes from + 0 to +1 at level 2. (pg 52)

3.       Base Save Bonus (you find this info in the bit about your class in the PHB)

As a level 2 fighter Tam’s Fort save goes up from +2 to +3. (pg 36).

His Reflex and Will saves remain at +0

As a level 2 druid Oreth’s Fortitude and Will saves both go up from +2 to +3. (pg 34) 

His Reflex save remains at + 0.

As a level 2 wizard Lareth’s Will save goes up from +2 to + 3. (page 52)

His Reflex and Fortitude save remains at+0

4.       Skill Points

You get extra skill points with which to either buy ranks in your current trained skills (get better at what you already do) or to buy ranks in currently untrained skills (pick up new skills).  

Your class determines how many skill points you get per level, and you get additional skill points = to your intelligence modifier, and one additional skill point/level if you are human.

Remember that your rank in a skill effectively is a bonus to that skill on top of your ability modifier.  The maximum rank you can have is your level +2 – so currently you can buy ranks to ‘max out’ skills to 5 points maximum (see page 58 and the bit on skills in your class section).  Also remember that you can buy one rank of a class skill for 1 point, HALF a rank of a cross-class skill, and you are not allowed to buy ranks in skills which are not for your class (see the chart on page 59).

Tam gets 2 extra skill points for an extra level as fighter, minus 1 skill point for his Intelligence modifier, plus 1 skill point for being a human so he has 2 more skill points to spend.

Oreth gets 4 skill points for an extra druid level, plus 1 for his intelligence modifier, giving him 5 extra points to spend.

Lareth gets 2 extra skill points for a wizard level, + 3 for his intelligence modifier, giving him 5 extra points to spend.

5.       Ability Scores

At 4^th level you get to allocate an extra point to an ability score (eg. Strength, Charisma, etc.).  Obviously you can’t do this now but I just included it for completeness.

6.       Hit Points

For going up in level, you roll a dice, add your constitution modifier and get these extra hit points.  This reflects your character’s ability to roll with blows, minimize damage, turn direct hits at vitals into glancing blows, press on through pain which would drop a lesser warrior, etc.

This is one part of levelling up you can’t do at home – just like rolling for abilities in Mordheim it just seems fair to do this in front of everyone else so DO NOT DO THIS TILL NEXT SESSION.  Also, let me pre-empt the groans by not despairing if you roll a 1 – the has you go up in level your HP will average out over successive rolls.

For a fighter level Tam will roll 1d10 + 3 for constitution (between 4 and 13 extra hp)

For a druid level Oreth will roll 1d8 + 0 for constitution (between 1 and 8, though his constitution is currently lowered by Filth Fever.)

For a wizard level Lareth will get 1d4 – 1 for Constitution (between 1 and 3 hp – even with a negative constitution you ALWAYS get at least ONE hp for going up in level.

7.       Feats

Only fighters get feats at 2^nd level (Druids and Wizards have to wait for 3^rd).

Tam gets to choose an extra ‘Feat’ but it has to be one of the bonus combat oriented Feats mentioned on page 37.  As I recall, Gary, you were looking at the ‘Cleave’ feat which you are now eligble for because of your ‘Power Attack’ Feat.  On turns when you drop a foe, this allows you to automatically make another attack at an adjacent foe, and is a prerequisite for Great Cleave.  There are lots of other feats to choose from though – ‘Sunder’ and ‘Improved Bullrush’ also require power attack.  Drop me a line if you’d like to chat about where to go with the feats – fighters get HEAPS of them so building your combat combos is a lot of fun!

8.       Spells

As a 2^nd level Druid, Oreth can now memorize 4 0^th level spells + 3 for Wisdom = 7 0^th level spells per day and 2 st level spells + 3 for wisdom = 5 1^st level spells per day.

As a 2^nd level wizard, Lareth can now memorize 4 0^th level spells + 3 for Intelligence = 7 0^th level spells per day and 2 st level spells + 3 for Intelligence = 5 1^st level spells per day.  In addition, Lareth can write 2 new spells (TOTAL) chosen from any level you can currently cast (either 0th or 1^st level) to your spellbook, representing your continuing research and experience of magic and enhanced ability to perceive and control the arcane.

Spellcasters – remember to try to read your spells if you can, knowing their intricacies can make all the difference in terms of strategy.  Gregory’s use of light on his mace was inspired…

9.       Features

Only Oreth gets special features at level 2 – as a druid lvl 2, Oreth gains the ‘woodland stride ability’ – he may move through natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain at his normal speed and without suffering damage or other impairment.  While the early part of this campaign is dungeon-based there are in fact a range of adventure potential settings in the game (wilderness, city, etc.) so this is a pretty nifty little

Character Development: Alignment

Good and Evil, Law and Chaos are forces which define the universe in this setting, and while abstract they can have some rather concrete effects, especially as the campaign progresses.


Your character’s general moral and personal attitudes are represented by alignment.  Each alignment represents broad range of personality types or personal philosophies, so two characters of the same alignment can be quite different from each other.  In addition, few people are completely consistent: good characters can lose their tempers, neutral characters can be inspired to noble acts, etc.

Each character’s alignment is made up of his/her position on 2 dimensions: Good, vs. Evil (with neutral inbetween) and Law vs. Chaos (also with neutral inbetween).

Law vs. Chaos (Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic)

“Law” implies honour, trustworthiness, obedience to authority and reliability.  On the downside lawfulness can include close-mindedness, reactionary adherence to tradition, judgementalness and lack of adaptability.  “Chaos” implies freedom, adaptability, and flexibility.  On the downside, chaos can include recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions and irresponsibility.  People who are neutral with respect to law and chaos have a normal respect for authority and feel neither a compulsion to obey nor to disobey.  Neutrality with respect to law and chaos is usually just a middle state, but some few neutrals espouse neutrality as superior to law or chaos, regarding each as extreme with its own blindspots and drawbacks.

I am happy for your characters to pick either Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic for this dimension of alignment.

Good vs. Evil (Good, Neutral, Evil)

“Good” implies altruism, respect for life, and a concern for the dignity of sentient beings.  Good characters make personal sacrifices to help others.  Evil implies hurting, oppressing, and killing others.  Some evil characters simply have no compassion for others and kill without qualm if doing so is convenient, others actively pursue evil, killing for sport or out of duty to some evil master.  People who are neutral with respect to good and evil have compunctions against killing the innocent but lack the commitment to make personal sacrifices to help others.  Neutral people are committed to others by personal relationships: they may sacrifice themselves for family but not unrelated strangers.  Being neutral between good and evil usually represents a lack of commitment one way or the other, but for some it represents an active commitment to a balanced view (eg. Druids).  These folk maintain that a balance between the two is the proper place for people, or at least for them.

Your characters should be either Good or Neutral (Evil is not allowed for player characters).  Given that D&D adventures generally involve a certain amount of heroics, a Good alignment is often the easiest to justify taking part in many quests – a good character will have no issue claiming a reward for the rescue of the Talgen and Kerowyn Hucrele, but they might be further motivated by the opportunity to rescue Sir Braford and the ranger Karakas even though no reward has been offered. 

Neutral alignments can often work with a bit of thought, however.  Most neutrals would rather see good prevail than evil, and often rewards (see above) can stimulate their more altruistic sides.  Because evil is more likely to despoil nature than good, neutral druids may well ally with good adventurers.  While a Lawful Neutral cleric of St. Cuthbert may not have the compassion of a good aligned character their uncompromising battle against evil is likely to ally them with good heroes also.

The Nine Alignments (in brief, see page 89 of PHB for Detail.).

Lawful Good: combines honour with compassion.  Eg. All paladins, most dwarves.

Neutral Good: does what is right without bias towards or against order.

Chaotic Good: combines a good heart with a free spirit.  Eg. Most elves

Lawful Neutral: reliable and honourable without being swayed by demands of those in need or temptations of evil.

Neutral: Either a lack or conviction or bias or an active commitment to a balanced approach.

Chaotic neutral:  freedom from both society’s restrictions and the do-gooder’s zeal.

Lawful evil: represents domineering, intentional and hierarchical evil.

Neutral evil: evil without honour and without variation.

Chaotic evil: destruction not just of beauty and life bit of the order on which beauty and life depend.

Where We are At:

As a human fighter, Tam can choose any non-evil alignment. (None currently chosen)

As an elven wizard, Lareth can choose any non-evil alignment. (You have currently chosen Chaotic Good, which makes sense given elves are generally Chaotic Good and the chief Elven deity, Correlon the good of art, war, and magic, is chaotic good.)

As an elven druid Oreth can be either Neutral, Neutral Good, Chaotic Neutral or Lawful Neutral.  (Currently chosen Chaotic Neutral.  Elves are generally Chaotic Good).

As a human cleric of St. Cuthbert, Gregory can be either Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good.  (Currently chosen Lawful Neutral, which matches the alignment of St. Cuthbert himself)

Rules Clarifications: Spells

Memorizing/Praying for Spells (see pages 154-156 of PHB)

Wizards require 8 hours of rest in order to memorize their spells, even if they are elves (you otherwise only need 4 hours of ‘trance’ or ‘reverie’ in order to physically recover.  They then spend between 15 minutes (minimum – for a portion of their spells) to an hour (for ALL of their spells) studying their spellbook – in effect they are casting the spell up to a point shortly before completion such that, when under pressure, they only have to complete the final aspects of the ritual to unlock the spell.

Clerics and Druids are similar but do not study their spellbooks and instead spend a particular time of each day (usually morning or noon for good or neutral deities) in prayer.  Divine spellcasters do not have the stringent requirement of a period of rest to memorize their spells, so an elven Druid or Cleric only need ‘trance’ or ‘reverie’ for 4 hours so long as they pray at the proper time.

Casting Time: (found in each spell description)

Spells with a casting time of 1 action count as a standard action, just like an attack, which means you still have a move action remaining.  Eg. Lareth can cast magic missile and still move.

Spells with a casting time of 1 round (6 seconds) obviously don’t allow you a move action.

Other durations are worked out accordingly: eg. a spell which has a casting time of 1 minute takes 10 rounds to cast (remember, 1 round is six seconds).

See also 'Casting Time' on page 148 of PHB.

Range: (found in each spell description).

The maximum distance a spell’s effect can occur.

• Personal (only effects self)
• Touch
• Close (25 ft and 5 ft for every 2 levels)
• Medium (100 ft and 10 ft per level)
• Long (400 ft and 40 ft per level 

See also 'Range' on page 148.

Spell Components:

Each spell has a combination Verbal (V – magic incantations - abracadabra?), Somatic (S – this means gestures) and Material (M – eye of newt kind of thing) which are required in order to cast the spell. 

If you are silenced you cannot use (V) spells, if you do not have a hand free you cannot use (S) spells and if you cannot access your material components you cannot use (M) spells.  You are assumed to have the required material components for a spell in your component pouch UNLESS a price is listed in the spell description, in which  case you have to buy the component before you can cast the spell.

More is at 'Components' on page 151 of the PHB.

Rules Clarifications: Session 2

Changing Weapons in Combat:

• Drop an item: a free action, does NOT provoke an attack of opportunity.
• Sheathe a weapon: a move equivalent action, provokes an attack of opportunity
• Draw a weapon: a move equivalent action, does NOT provoke an attack of opportunity, HOWEVER, if you have a base attack bonus of +1 (currently only Tam does but you all will eventually) you can draw a weapon at AND move as part of a move action
• Ready a shield: a move equivalent action, does NOT provoke an attack of opportunity.
• Loose a shield (and presumably then drop it as a free action): a move equivalent action, does NOT provoke an attack of opportunity. 

For more info (and an excellent list of actions in combat) see PHB page 128.

Repeating Failed Skills Checks:

I remembered this wrong: in general you MAY retry a skill check if you fail, though in some circumstances and skill types (should mention in the description) when this will not help you.  Also it will not help you to succeed BETTER if you have already succeeded at a skill check.

Outside of combat the repeated use of skills is streamlined with the following:

• Taking 10: If you are not in a rush, the task is fairly routine and not being threatened you may choose to take 10 – effectively instead of rolling a D20 you just assume you rolled a 10, add your skill modifier and then compare it with the DC (difficulty check).  This is particularly useful to avoid drawn out rolling for routine, tedious tasks - and therefore streamlines the game to the good bits.
• Taking 20: If there are no penalties for failure and no time constraints you can ‘take 20’ – effectively you multiply the time taken to perform an activity by taking 20 times as long as a check normally takes (in effect you keep on rolling until a 20 comes up).  Thus a skill which is normally a full round action (1 round or 6 seconds) would take 20 x 6 = 120 seconds (2 minutes) to complete with taking 20.  This is useful if you feel a skill check is crucial to your goals but 'in game world' time is not at a premium.

See 'Retries', 'Taking 10' and Taking 20' on pages 60 and 61 of the PHB.

Assisting others' skill checks

You can (depending on the skill and context, as always) assist another on a skill check.  For example, Oreth and Tam are lowering Oreth's wolf into the ravine by a rope.  Tam is the stronger of the two so he is the driver - success and failure is based on his skill check.  Oreth makes a skill check against difficulty 10 - if he passes he can add a +2 bonus to Tam's check, and therefore help him to better lower his wolf safely to the ravine floor.

See page 62.

Searching

Probably the most commonly used skill, searching is not quite the same as looking.  

For example, having discovered the black stone altar, decorated with evil looking draconic bones, skulls and teeth, and holding a whistle, a candle and a candle with a green burning flame you do not need to make a search check to ask me what shape the whistle is (a dragon, curling snail like) or whether the candle sits on a candalabra (yes, a serpentine, twisting dragon) - you can ask me these questions as reasonable clarifications of my description of a room (since I am not a virtual reality machine, I might not use the words you need and you should feel free to ask about details I miss out, whether they be sight, touch, smell, sound, etc.)

On the other hand something which is (often, but not always intentionally) hidden requires a search check to find.  This represents focussing beyond the immediate/apparent sensory representation of a scene or object.  For example the hidden compartment in the skeletal dragon altar (above) or the draconic ruins hidden behind a goblin corpse skewered by a spear.

• You can either search particular objects (altars, corpses, sarcophagi, ruined cages) or areas designated by 5 foot squares.  
• Searching takes 1 full round per 5 feet square/5 foot volume searched.

Eg. Lareth searches the dragon altar and finds a secret compartment containing a small chest, which takes him 1 round (6 seconds) - probably helped by his high intelligence and keen elven eyes (heaps of search bonuses).

Oreth searches the five sarcophagi from which horrific skeletal figures have just emerged.  5 sarcophagi x 5 rounds = 30 seconds (probably double that given movement between, but one needn't be pedantic) and he finds nothing.  Oreth is also pretty confident about his searching ability but wants to be sure he hasn't missed anything so he declares he is searching VERY thoroughly (perhaps picking through the bones littering the floor) - ie. he is taking 20.  This now takes 5 x 6 seconds x 20 = 600 seconds (20 minutes!) but he is quite sure he hasn't missed any vital clues when he is done.

Search is covered for players on page 73 of the PHB.

Rest and Recovery

Elves do not need to sleep but sit or recline in ‘reverie’ a sort of trance-dreamlike state in which they relive their long-years.  They do this for a period of four hours in which time they have the benefits of 8 hours rest.  

The rules of HP recovery for 3.0 are a bit muddled but after a bit of internet searching and adapting the 3.5 edition modification this is what I have decided: 

Uninterrupted rest for 8hrs: restores 1 hp / lvl

Full day's (24 hr) bed rest: restores 2 hp / level