Report on tested house rules

[Daz]

I'm just wrapping up a heavily house-ruled Conan d20 campaign set in historical Europe (mostly Norway) in the 930's. We played for ten adventures so my house rules got a lot of testing. I think a lot of these would be useful in other people's campaigns so take a look:

1. Removing defensive blast and arcane spell failure for armor.
Result: was mechanically balanced with the party's sorcerers being about as powerful as the non-sorcerers. This isn't as powerful as it sounds since I also nerfed armor so it worked out well for a Viking campaign with warrior sorcerers. Maybe less applicable to other campaigns.

2. Giving shields an across the line +1 boost to DV, providing a feat that gives +1 to DV while using shields, allowing shields to apply to dodge dv and allowing shield DV to apply while flat footed. Also limiting two-handed power attacking to a 1.5 damage multiplier and nerfing the damage of many two handed weapons (the party never had a weapon that did more than 2d8 damage).
Result: The bulk of the party tended to switch back and forth between two handed and sword and board fighting as the situation warranted. The soldier and the scholar generally used shields and the barbarian and the pirate generally used two handed weapons. Giving shields a boost and two-handed fighting a nerf seemed to make the players fight more like Vikings but two-handed fighting was still used by all of the party.

3. Removing max dex for armor but giving people a -1 to dodge for every 2 points of armor check penalty for armor (not for shields) and a -1 to parry and to hit for every 3 points of armor check penalty for armor (not for shields).
I also included the following feats:
Armored Grace
Prerequisites: Str 13, Dex 13
Benefits: -2 to armor check penalties
Armored Grace, Improved
Prerequisites: Str 17, Dex 17, Armored Grace, Armor Focus BaB 5+
Benefits: An additional -2 to armor check penalties
Result: the bulk of the party chose to wear chain shirts and helmets. This worked very well to encouraged people to wear about as much armor as the vikings did. The party were able to deal with opponents in heavy armor and generally tore through lightly-armored opponents with ease.

4. Made wisdom apply to init checks and charisma apply to will saves.
Results: Many warrior types had fairly good charisma and had a lot of fun playing out the role of Viking chiefs without gimping themselves stat-wise. Highly recommend this change for all campaigns. This also gave the character that gave himself max strength some fun weaknesses to balance him out.

5. I made gelid bones cost 2 PP and last for one round/scholar level.
Result: it was a useful spell but not overwhelmingly powerful. If anything Hypnotism was the party's favorite spell by far.

6. I combined the religion and the code of honor save bonuses into a code of conduct system: the players got a +3 to will saving throws if they followed a relatively strict code of conduct of any sort.
Result: One took Viking warrior code of honor and avoided doing things that an honorable Saga Viking would not do and another had their character be a faithful Muslim. It seemed to work well in play and gave players a lot of flexibility. I highly recommend this change in other campaigns.

7. Additional spells. I made up a lot of additional Viking spells. The NPCs used them a lot but the party only took the following ones.

Aspect of the Beast (basic Hamfarir)
PP Cost: 1
Component: V
Casting Time: Full round action
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Duration: 10 minutes/scholar level

The caster takes on one element of his totem animal. This can be Low Light Vision, a +3 competence bonus to a relevant skill, or +5 feet/round to land speed. For example a caster with an eagle totem animal could use this spell to get a +3 bonus to spot but not a +3 bonus to Jump since that is not related to eagles.

Bear Shirt
PP Cost: 4 points and see below
Component: V, S
Casting Time: 1 full round
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Duration: 3 + con bonus rounds and see below
Prerequisites: Survival 7 Ranks, Aspect of the Beast

This spell gives the caster all of the effects of the Fighting-madness feat. As a free action the caster can extend the spell’s effects for an additional 3 + con bonus rounds at a cost of one power point. In addition this spell grants the caster a temporary +2 HP/level (maximum +20), a +2 bonus to saves vs. massive damage and immunity to saves vs. massive damage while he has any of the temporary hit points granted by this spell. This spell cannot be cast while wearing armor (helmets and shields are fine) and armor cannot be donned while the caster is under the effect of this spell.

Wrath of the Beast
PP Cost: 1+ points
Component: V
Casting Time: 1 free action
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Duration: Instantaneous
Prerequisites: Survival 4 Ranks, Aspect of the Beast

For every power point you spend you gain a +1 bonus on all melee attack and damage rolls for the next round. You can spend one power point per scholar level.

They seemed to work out OK.

8. What I would nerf if I ran another Conan campaign: the fient/sneak attack combo. I had a thief character along for one adventure and he focused all of his character on making that combo work as much as possible and it proved overly powerful. This is the only time that one character proved to be clearly more powerful or less powerful than the party average. This was especially the case since the vast majority of enemies in my campaign were human.

 

[Clovenhoof]

I'm just wrapping up a heavily house-ruled Conan d20 campaign set in historical Europe (mostly Norway) in the 930's.

Interesting. ^^ For such a "historical" campaign, I'd also adapt the system a bit. But let's see what you did.

1. Removing defensive blast and arcane spell failure for armor.

I don't know, I think for most setting it's best to stick with the idea of unarmoured sorcerers. Some call it cliché, others call it atmosphere.

2. Giving shields an across the line +1 boost to DV, providing a feat that gives +1 to DV while using shields, allowing shields to apply to dodge dv and allowing shield DV to apply while flat footed.

- So just to clarify, you give Bucklers +3 DV, Targes +4 and large shields +5?
- I'm not sure about the Dodge thing. You probably can rationalize anything. It would certainly help Barbarians a lot, for which shields are pretty much useless at higher levels.
- iirc there is a Shield Expert feat in some D&D splat; too lazy to look it up now, but I think it does something else. Anyway a +1 DV bonus under certain circumstances is not very much for a feat slot.
- Shield DV while flat-footed: problematic. Keep in mind that D20 does not know Facing. A shield IRL automatically provides some cover in _one_ direction, but your DV always applies in 8 directions, while being flat-footed basically prevents you from turning and actively defending.

Also limiting two-handed power attacking to a 1.5 damage multiplier and nerfing the damage of many two handed weapons (the party never had a weapon that did more than 2d8 damage).

With you there, I'm doing the same.

3. Removing max dex for armor but giving people a -1 to dodge for every 2 points of armor check penalty for armor (not for shields) and a -1 to parry and to hit for every 3 points of armor check penalty for armor (not for shields).

Urgh, encumbrance rules. One of the things I like most about the D20 system is that armour proficiencies negate encumbrance completely (except for speed penalty). BTW your rule has a similar effect to the original rules - for example if you apply +4 Dex but take -2 ACP, you have the same total DV as if your Dex was limited to +2 and the ACP was not taken into account. I prefer the original method.
(I know encumbrance rules from various other systems, like The Dark Eye or Midgard, and they sucked.)

By the way, most of my players also focus on light armour. Only one (soldier) wants to go for heavy armour as soon as he can afford it.

4. Made wisdom apply to init checks and charisma apply to will saves.

Instead of the usual Dex to init and Wis to will, or additionally to them?

5. I made gelid bones cost 2 PP and last for one round/scholar level.

Thats okay, Gelid Bones is quite a knocker for a single PP.

8. What I would nerf if I ran another Conan campaign: the fient/sneak attack combo.

We discussed that in the "Veteran's Tavern" thread, check that out for some info. To sum up:
- you can make a feint attack only once every two rounds, or once per round if you have Improved Feint. That's potentially a lot of normal attacks you are giving up! A high-level Thief may have 6 normal attacks per round (with TWF) and with Improved Feint he can only make _one_.
- a Thief is extremely vulnerable, so he risks a lot by going into melee.
- _any_ character can benefit from Feint, not just Thieves. The key is Power Attack. If a fighter successfully feints, he can trade most or all of his BAB for damage. A level 15 fighter would do, with a two-handed blow, up to 22 extra points of damage (sticking to the 1.5 multiplier), in addition to his already higher base damage and strength modifier. That may not be as high as the Thief's +8d8 at this level, but it will certainly be enough to force a Massive Damage save just as well.
- did you remember that the target may add its BAB to the Sense Motive check? A Thief usually has a hard time feinting a Fighter-type opponent. If the Fighter puts just a few points into Sense Motive, he can hardly be feinted at all.

- if you still want to nerf it, make one simple change: a target that fell for the feint is _flat footed_ against the acting attacker - which means that Uncanny Dodge or Reflexive Parry negate the benefit of feint entirely.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

Seems to me like those spells you created (which are good) could be used as feats.

 

[Spectator]

DAZ, I always enjoyed reading about your Viking threads and your spell threads which came up about a year ago.

Great job, I think I like the concept of an armoured sorceror. I think the concept of armor= spell failure is something I never remember reading in REH. Granted armor was kinda rare across the boards though.

 

[Daz]

I don't know, I think for most setting it's best to stick with the idea of unarmoured sorcerers. Some call it cliché, others call it atmosphere.

Right, fluff-wise that change would be no good for most campaigns but it works mechanically and it fits the Viking atmosphere.

- So just to clarify, you give Bucklers +3 DV, Targes +4 and large shields +5?

Yes.

It would certainly help Barbarians a lot, for which shields are pretty much useless at higher levels.

Well most barbarians will like the damage of two handed weapons.

iirc there is a Shield Expert feat in some D&D splat; too lazy to look it up now, but I think it does something else.

Actually what I did was adapt the shield feats from the PHB II, that was one of them.

Shield DV while flat-footed: problematic.

Well I think that beign able to make people flat-footed is MUCH MUCH more powerful in Conan than in D&D. I wanted to make it a bit less powerful and shields more powerful. Shield DV whle flat-footed may not have been the best way to do that...

Urgh, encumbrance rules.

Well its more of an armor check penalty applied to things besides skills than encumbrance. It always seemed a little silly that having so much armor didn't make it harder for an average person to dodge around AT ALL.

BTW your rule has a similar effect to the original rules - for example if you apply +4 Dex but take -2 ACP, you have the same total DV as if your Dex was limited to +2 and the ACP was not taken into account. I prefer the original method.

Except for people who dump dex. I thought that having 10 dex and maxed out str and con and heavy armor was a bit two powerful for classes like soldier and not something I wanted to encourage in a Viking campaign where lighter armor should be favored.

Also its a bit silly that only people who are naturally very nimble are inconvenienced at all by heavier armor in combat.

By the way, most of my players also focus on light armour.

Right but virtually my entire party was meleers and I wanted to make sure that lighter armor made sense mechanically.

Instead of the usual Dex to init and Wis to will, or additionally to them?

Instead of.

- you can make a feint attack only once every two rounds, or once per round if you have Improved Feint. That's potentially a lot of normal attacks you are giving up!

Right but it can be BRUTALLY powerful at lower levels.
The resident munchkin of my group (great RPer but always has to be the center of attention so he make cheesy characters if he isn't stopped) homed right in on that. Under the RAW a 4th level Zingaran thief with a greatsword and no armor, full power attack and 18 str you can do 2d10 + 4d8 +10. That's just insane damage and can one hit kill just about ANYTHING. Throw in one level of soldier and wear heavy armor and do the same thing and you can do 2d10 + 2d8 +12 while having good defense. The second one is what that player wanted to do but he decided not to because of my armor rules and decided to play a sorcerer instead but quit the campaign because magic wasn't powerful enough. Basically my gut tells me that if anything works the way that player wants it needs to be nerfed

- if you still want to nerf it, make one simple change: a target that fell for the feint is _flat footed_ against the acting attacker - which means that Uncanny Dodge or Reflexive Parry negate the benefit of feint entirely.

Hmmmmm, actually what I might do is have being feinted cut whatever bonuses you get to DV be cut in half. That seems fair.

Seems to me like those spells you created (which are good) could be used as feats.

Well I think they'd be a bit overpowered if they didn't use PP.

DAZ, I always enjoyed reading about your Viking threads and your spell threads which came up about a year ago.

Thanks. They worked out well in my campaign, was just sad that nobody used the runes

Granted armor was kinda rare across the boards though.

Right for most of the first adventures the party was leather jerkins across the board since none of them could afford chain. They only got chain mail when one of the party did a full power attack and used a fate point for max damage and killed a king through massive damage and the party got rewarded by the usurper.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Concerning shields, note that up to now, none of my players has bothered with them. Actually, three of their characters aren't even proficient with shields. The fourth is a Barbarian and prefers TWF or THF. The fifth is the recently deceased Pit Fighter, to be replaced with a Soldier, who again focuses on THF.

They aren't missing much anyway, since I have a house rule concerning shields:

Any melee attack with a slashing or bludgeoning weapon that is parried with a shield, counts as successful Sunder attack against that shield, and deals damage accordingly.
An attack counts as "parried" if the attack roll was higher than 10 but lower than the Parry DV. An attack roll below 10 is always a clear miss.

Effect: most shields do not survive one or at most two melee attacks. They are meant to defend against missiles, which they do well, but they are simply not durable enough to withstand the blow of a melee weapon.

The defender may opt to forfeit his Shield DV bonus when parrying if he doesn't want to lose his shield. This must be announced on the player's action.

Note that these rules reflect the construction method of shields during the migration period. At this time, shields were very light, made of rather thin wooden planks, glued together and covered by a layer of intestine, and with a thin iron boss in the centre. Those shields were very light (around 5 lbs for a Large Shield) and perfectly suited for missile defense, but were rarely used in melee. It can be assumed that the shields were discarded after the initial arrow exchange of a battle.
(source: Sieg und Triumpf - der Norden im Schatten des römischen Reiches, Nationalmuseet, ISBN 87-7602-008-8)

 

[Spectator]

Clovenhoof, how would your sunder rules change if someone is using a Roman Testudo shield of more durable (I presume) make?

 

[Clovenhoof]

Clovenhoof, how would your sunder rules change if someone is using a Roman Testudo shield of more durable (I presume) make?

Good question. I'd given the matter some thought, and decided not to use such shields, for reasons I will detail below.

Durability doesn't come out of nowhere, it has to be purchased with mass. Let's assume we can trust the commonly stated weight of a Scutum of 20 lbs. You'll agree with me that this is a lot of mass to lug around. This kind of weight disallows a highly mobile fighting style. For game purposes, we'd need an entirely different mechanism.
It should probably limit your movement much like heavy armour does; it might also limit your max Dex bonus (unlike normal shields, but then again, what's the difference if you're parrying?), and it might be used for Total Cover against one direction, which again would be an exception to the absence of Facing in D20.
Those are rather many exceptions on a pile, so I decided to ditch it all and go with a shield type that requires the least rule changes.

If I were to make optional rules, or decided to just use normal rules and different stats, I'd give such "reinforced shields" (including for example the Greek type with bronze coating) a DV based on their size, a Hardness of 8, and many hit points (maybe 30 or so).
That way, and considering that normal, non-hero fighters will have a Strength of 12-14, a reinforced shield should be durable enough to survive a battle. Unless, of course, a clever opponent does as the Romans do, and hurls a Pilum supposed to get stuck in the shield, making it entirely too cumbersome to keep using, and thus forces the wielder to discard his shield prematurely.

 

[Spectator]

Those Romans were prettydamned smart with their Pilum/ Pilae. That would be a nice mechanic I'd like to see in house-ruled here.

No real reason why, i'd just like to see. Obvioulsly the pilum is a one-off item, the soft steel/ iron/ whatever pretty much bent after a good toss and then the hapless german/ celt/ carthaginian/ had to ditch his shield and face a disciplined testudo and shortsword wielding roman wall.

Really brilliant combat style you really don't need to aim to hit the person just where they are standing, so if the target can't dodge the pilum he either has the choice of taking the hit to his shield or to his body.

Where are our game-mechanics on how this could be figured out into combat mechanics?

 

[Clovenhoof]

Well, I guess that's easily implemented.
First, you need a suitable throwing spear, with the long tip of soft iron that will bend easily. You can basically use the Javelin stats for the Pilum.

Now comes the trick: you make a Ranged Touch Attack versus the target. That is, you make a Ranged Attack, which the target can only Dodge, and the Shield bonus does _not_ apply.
This is because the target will usually try to deflect the missile with the shield rather than getting hit himself, and hitting the shield again is exactly what you want.

If the attack hits the shield and does any damage (i.e. damage roll exceeds Hardness), the weapon gets stuck in the shield. You can also vary this and rule that the attack needs to do 4, 6, 10, whatever damage you think makes sense. Reality-wise, the tip needs to penetrate far enough so you can't simply pluck it out anymore.

As long as the weapon is stuck in the shield, the bearer cannot apply the Shield Defense, all rolls suffer a -2 penalty and all movement is halved. (This should be enough to force the bearer to give up the shield).

Since this is Heroic Fantasy, you can allow the bearer to sunder the spear with his own Slashing weapon (much like the Spartans got rid of the arrows in their shields in the 300 movie). This counts a "attacking an immobile object", so you can hardly miss, you just need to deal enough damage to destroy the pilum completely.

 

[argo]

I kinda like the Aspect of the Beast spell. Might have to swipe that.

The rest of your rules seem prety good for emulating a Viking game. Not sure if I would adopt them outright though.

Later.

 

[SnowDog]

I don't know how this would work in game mechanics but I have watched quite a bit of documents of Romans. In one of the documents they said that pilums could pierce the shield and having a long and thin metal shaft before the wooden part it could actually reach up to the target at the other side of the shield.

So it was not used just to disarm the shield but also for injuring/killing. Besides if the metal part bended it could not be used against the Romans (during the ongoing combat at least) because in effect it could not be thrown with any effect any more

 

[Daz]

I kinda like the Aspect of the Beast spell. Might have to swipe that.

The rest of your rules seem prety good for emulating a Viking game. Not sure if I would adopt them outright though.

Later.

More custom spells where that one came from:

Curses:

Dull the blades
PP Cost: 1
Component: V
Casting Time: Standard action
Range: Evil eye, touch or magical link
Target: One bladed weapon
Duration: Unit sharpened
Saving Throw: Will of the person bearing the blade negates; if the blade is not currently being carried there is no saving throw. Heirloom-quality weapons give a +2 to the saving throw, sheathed weapons give +2 to the saving throw and primitive weapons give a -2 to the saving throw.
Prerequisites: Magic attack bonus +1, lesser ill-fortune
Magic Attack Roll: Sets DC for target’s saving throw

-4 AP penalty to a single bladed weapon. If a weapon’s AP becomes negative then there’s a -1 damage penalty for each point negative AP. As usual, strength bonuses cannot be used to increase AP if the weapon’s AP is 0 or lower.

Greater Dull the blades
PP Cost: 3
Component: V
Casting Time: Standard action
Range: Evil eye, touch or magical link
Target: One bladed weapon
Duration: Unit sharpened
Saving Throw: Will of the person bearing the blade negates; if the blade is not currently being carried there is no saving throw. Heirloom-quality weapons give a +2 to the saving throw, sheathed weapons give +2 to the saving throw and primitive weapons give a -2 to the saving throw.
Prerequisites: Magic attack bonus +3, lesser ill-fortune, dull the blades
Magic Attack Roll: Sets DC for target’s saving throw

-8 AP penalty to a single bladed weapon. If a weapon’s AP becomes negative then there’s a -1 damage penalty for each point negative AP. As usual, strength bonuses cannot be used to increase AP if the weapon’s AP is 0 or lower.

Mass Dull the Blades
PP Cost: 8
Component: V
Casting Time: Standard action
Range: All blades not currently carried by allies within a radius of 30 ft. + 5ft. per scholar level from the caster
Target: Bladed weapons
Duration: Unit sharpened
Saving Throw: Will of the person bearing the blade negates; if the blade is not currently being carried there is no saving throw. Heirloom-quality weapons give a +2 to the saving throw, sheathed weapons give +2 to the saving throw and primitive weapons give a -2 to the saving throw.
Prerequisites: Magic attack bonus +3, lesser ill-fortune, dull the blades
Magic Attack Roll: Sets DC for target’s saving throw

-4 AP penalty to a single bladed weapon. If a weapon’s AP becomes negative then there’s a -1 damage penalty for each point negative AP. As usual, strength bonuses cannot be used to increase AP if the weapon’s AP is 0 or lower.

Hamfarir/Shapshifting/Nature

Banish the Beast
PP Cost: 4 points
Component: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch or Evil Eye
Target: One human
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates
Prerequisites: Survival 15 ranks, Aspect of the Beast
Magic Attack Roll: Sets DC for target’s saving throw

If successful, this spell returns a human in animal shape to its human form. This dispels such spells as Wolf Shirt and returns casters using spirit sending spells to their bodies.

Dream of the Beast
PP Cost: 1
Component: V, S
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: 100 miles/caster level
Target: One sleeping human
Duration: Concentration
Prerequisites: Survival 8 Ranks, Aspect of the Beast, Interpret Dreams
Saving throw: none

The caster appears in the form of his animal totem in the dreams of his target. The caster cannot speak or write but can use its actions in the target’s dream to attempt to send a message to the target.

Dreki Shirt
PP Cost: 8 points and see below
Component: V, S
Casting Time: 1 full round
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Duration: 3 + con bonus rounds and see below
Prerequisites: Survival 10 Ranks, Aspect of the Beast

This spell gives the caster all of the effects of the Fighting-madness feat. As a free action the caster can extend the spell’s effects for an additional 3 + con bonus rounds at a cost of one power point. In addition this spell grants the caster a temporary +4 HP/level (maximum +40), a +4 bonus to saves vs. massive damage and immunity to saves vs. massive damage while he has any of the temporary hit points granted by this spell. This spell cannot be cast while wearing armor (helmets and shields are fine) and armor cannot be donned while the caster is under the effect of this spell.

Lesser Awake the Beast
PP Cost: 4 points
Component: V, S
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Touch
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates
Prerequisites: Survival 12 ranks, Aspect of the Beast
Magic Attack Roll: Sets DC for target’s saving throw

Permanently transforms the target into his totem animal. Humans in totem animal form have the stats of a normal animal of that species (including low intelligence) or an animal ally of that species owned by a sorcerer whose scholar level is equal to character level of the transformed human (minus the “special” abilities), whichever is better. The target of this spell retains only vague memories of his life as a human.

Lesser Spirit Sending
PP Cost: 4
Component: V, S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Duration: 10 rounds/scholar level
Prerequisites: Survival 10 Ranks, Aspect of the Beast

The caster sends forth their spirit from their body in the form of his/her totem animal. His/her animal form can move as normal for that animal, can be attacked (with a 50% miss chance) and appears as a ghostly or insubstantial animal and cannot attack or effect matter in any way. The caster’s body is helpless while his/her spirit is away and can be attacked or incapacitated without the spirit being any the wiser. The caster can cancel the spell and return to his/her body as a free action.

Material component: a herbal concoction worth 20 sp.

Speech of the Beasts
PP Cost: 1
Component: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Duration: 10 minutes/scholar level
Prerequisites: Survival 4 Ranks, Aspect of the Beast

This allows the caster to speak to any animal of the same species as his totem animal.

Spirit-sending
PP Cost: 10
Component: V, S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Duration: 1 hour/scholar level
Prerequisites: Survival 12 Ranks, Aspect of the Beast

The caster sends forth their spirit from their body in the form of his/her totem animal. His/her animal form can move as normal for that animal and can be attacked as normal. The assumed form cannot be more than twice your scholar level in hit dice. You take on your own or the assumed form’s attributes, BaB, saves, etc. whichever are greater but retain your own hit points (this transformation does not heal you in any way). You can cast any spells that have solely Verbal components in your assumed form but cannot take any actions that your assumed form would not be able to do (speaking etc.). The caster’s body is helpless while his/her spirit is away and can be attacked or incapacitated without the spirit being any the wiser. The caster can cancel the spell and return to his/her body as a free action.

Material component: herbal concoction worth 100 SP

Wolf Shirt
PP Cost: 1 point and see below
Component: V, S
Casting Time: 1 full round
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Duration: 3 + con bonus rounds and see below
Prerequisites: Survival 4 Ranks, Aspect of the Beast

This spell gives the caster all of the effects of the Fighting-madness feat. As a free action the caster can extend the spell’s effects for an additional 3 + con bonus rounds at a cost of one power point. This spell cannot be cast while wearing armor (helmets and shields are fine) and armor cannot be donned while the caster is under the effect of this spell.

Runes

Luck Rune (Basic Rune)
PP Cost: 2
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: See below

The caster carves a rune and specifies who it will benefit and in what specific situation it will benefit them (for example, “luck for Bolli Bollarson in the duel against Haakon the Mad tomorrow” would be good, while “luck for Bolli Bollarson next time he gets attacked” would not be). Once the rune is triggered (for example by the duel starting) it grants +1 to all d20 rolls. The rune is then must be worn by whoever it grants luck to for it to be effective. The rune lasts for 1 day/scholar level in an inactive form, but once triggered it grants benefits for 1 minute/scholar level.

Ale Rune
PP Cost: 2
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: Instantaneous
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 4 Ranks, Luck Rune

You carve a rune into a drinking vessel (or cut your hand and write a rune on it with your blood). If the drink contains poison the drinking vessel will shatter.

Beast Rune
PP Cost: 2
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 minute/scholar level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 6 Ranks, Luck Rune

The caster carves a rune which allows him to speak to one specific animal for the duration of the spell.

Catch Rune
PP Cost: 4
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 hour/scholar level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 6 Ranks, Luck Rune

The caster places a rune upon a glove and whoever wears the glove benefits from this spell for its duration. You must have the hand wearing the glove that his spell is cast on free (holding nothing) to benefit from this spell. Once per round when you would normally be hit with a ranged weapon, you may catch it so that you take no damage from it. Thrown weapons can immediately be thrown back at the original attacker (even though it isn’t your turn) or kept for later use. You must be aware of the attack and not flatfooted.
Attempting to catch a ranged weapon doesn’t count as an action. Unusually massive ranged weapons and ranged attacks generated by spell effects can’t be caught.

Greater Iron Can’t Bite Rune
PP Cost: 9
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 hours/caster level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 16 Ranks, Luck Rune

This spell is cast on an object that grants the wearer complete immunity against slashing and piercing iron weapons which cannot be finessed around. This does not function is the wearer wears armor of any kind (helmets and shields are OK).

Greater Luck Rune
PP Cost: 8
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: See below
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 12 Ranks, Luck Rune

The caster carves a rune and specifies who it will benefit and in what specific situation it will benefit them (for example, “luck for Bolli Bollarson in the duel against Haakon the Mad tomorrow” would be good, while “luck for Bolli Bollarson next time he gets attacked” would not be). Once the rune is triggered (for example by the duel starting) it grants +4 to all d20 rolls. The rune is then must be worn by whoever it grants luck to for it to be effective. The rune lasts for 1 day/scholar level in an inactive form, but once triggered it grants benefits for 1 minute/scholar level.

Health Rune
PP Cost: 2
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 day/caster level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 8 Ranks, Luck Rune

This spell is cast on a small piece of wood. If this piece of wood is placed under the mattress of a bed whoever sleeps in the bed regains one point of ability damage lost to disease for each night they sleep in that bed. Once all ability score damage has been recovered the disease is healed.

Iron Can’t Bite Rune
PP Cost: 3
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 hours/caster level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 8 Ranks, Luck Rune

This spell is cast on an object that grants the wearer +4 DR against slashing and piercing iron weapons which cannot be finessed around. This stacks with barbarian DR and helmets but not with armor of any kind.

Improved Iron Can’t Bite Rune
PP Cost: 6
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 hours/caster level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 12 Ranks, Luck Rune

This spell is cast on an object that grants the wearer +8 DR against slashing and piercing iron weapons which cannot be finessed around. This stacks with barbarian DR and helmets but not with armor of any kind.

Improved Love Rune
PP Cost: 6 points
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 day/scholar level and see below
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 15 Ranks, Luck Rune
Saving throw: Will negates and see below
Magic Attack Roll: Sets DC for target’s saving throw

The caster carves a rune (that only works for one target) and places it under the target’s mattress. The target must be attracted to the caster’s gender or the spell does not work. Every night that the target sleeps in the bed that has the rune under the mattress they must make a will saving throw or become completely devoted to the caster. One the target fails his saving throw the effect is permanent unless the rune is broken. The caster can then order the target to do most anything that he wants (except for impossible orders such as “forget everything that has happened today”). If the target is ordered to do something against his nature or witnesses the caster do something that he find repugnant (such as the caster murdering a member of the target’s family), the target gets a new saving throw (with a +1 or +2 bonus if the order is suicidal or otherwise extremely against the target’s nature) for each such order. If the target passes any such will save the spell is broken.

Improved Luck Rune
PP Cost: 4
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: See below
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 6 Ranks, Luck Rune

The caster carves a rune and specifies who it will benefit and in what specific situation it will benefit them (for example, “luck for Bolli Bollarson in the duel against Haakon the Mad tomorrow” would be good, while “luck for Bolli Bollarson next time he gets attacked” would not be). Once the rune is triggered (for example by the duel starting) it grants +2 to all d20 rolls. The rune is then must be worn by whoever it grants luck to for it to be effective. The rune lasts for 1 day/scholar level in an inactive form, but once triggered it grants benefits for 1 minute/scholar level.

Love Rune
PP Cost: 2 points
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 day/scholar level and see below
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 8 Ranks, Luck Rune
Saving throw: Will negates and see below
Magic Attack Roll: Sets DC for target’s saving throw

The caster carves a rune (that only works for one target) and places it under the target’s mattress. The target must be attracted to the caster’s gender or the spell does not work. Every night that the target sleeps in the bed that has the rune under the mattress they must make a will saving throw or view the caster favorably. This does not make the target willing to do anything obviously stupid or suicidal, just be positively-inclined towards the caster. One the target fails his saving throw the effect is permanent unless the rune is broken. Of course if the caster does something offensive to the target (like kill a family member) the target will no longer view the caster favorably.

Also if the first magical attack roll made by the caster is less than 10 (modified) then the rune functions as a Sickness Rune instead of a Love Rune.

Nith Rune
PP Cost: 4
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: See below
Target: One creature
Duration: One year/caster level
Saving Throw: Will negates
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 4 Ranks, Luck Rune
Magic Attack Roll: Sets DC for target’s saving throw

The caster carves a pole with various images (usually the target in sexually compromising positions) and attaches an animal skull to the top of the poll and drives it into land on the property of the target. As long as the pole remains in place and the target fails his will save, the target takes a -2 penalty on all d20 rolls. Does not stack with curses of any sort.

Sea Rune
PP Cost: 8 points
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Personal
Target: One boat
Duration: 1 month/caster level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 8 Ranks, Luck Rune

The caster carves runes into the hull of a boat that grants the crew +2 to all Profession (sailor) checks while on the boat.

Sickness Rune
PP Cost: 4 points
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 week/scholar level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 8 Ranks, Luck Rune
Saving throw: Fort negates
Magic Attack Roll: Sets DC for target’s saving throw

The caster carves a rune into an object that only works on one target. This rune is then placed under the mattress of the target’s bed. While sleeping in that bed, the target does not heal any ability score damage and must make a saving throw every night or suffer one point of constitution damage.

Shield Rune
PP Cost: 2 points
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One shield
Duration: 1 week/scholar level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 6 Ranks, Luck Rune

The caster carves runes into a shield that makes it as hard as iron, which ups the shield’s hardness to 10.

Shout Rune
PP Cost: 2 points
Component: S, M, V
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: Instantaneous
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 6 Ranks, Luck Rune

The caster carves a rune into an object then shouts; this breaks ropes, chains, doors, walls, etc. The caster makes a strength check of +8 normal or five times their scholar level +8 whichever is greater to break the object.

Strength Rune
PP Cost: 3 points+
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One pole
Duration: one hour/scholar level
Prerequisites: Knowledge Arcana 6 Ranks, Luck Rune

The caster carves runes on a pole and drives it into the ground. The next person who touches the pole gains a bonus to strength of 2 and two more for every additional 3 power points expended. The caster can give the recipient a maximum bonus of 2 or the caster’s scholar level, whichever is greater.

Seithr/Witchcraft/Hypnotism

Aegishjalmr
PP Cost: 2 points
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 hour/scholar level
Prerequisites: Magic Attack Bonus +2, Seithr Eyes

The caster casts a spell on a strip of goatskin and if this strip of skin is wrapped around a person’s head. That person gains a +4 bonus to intimidation checks as long as the wearer is not wearing a helmet. This does not stack with other spells that grant a bonus to intimidation such as Aspect of the Beast/Witch.

Hulithshjalmr
PP Cost: 2 points
Component: S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal
Target: One object
Duration: 1 hour/scholar level
Prerequisites: Magic Attack Bonus +2, Seithr Eyes

The caster casts a spell on a strip of goatskin and if this strip of skin is wrapped around a person’s head. That person gains a +4 bonus to hide checks as long as the wearer is not wearing a helmet. This does not stack with other spells that grant a bonus to intimidation such as Aspect of the Beast/Witch.

 

[Spectator]

Bump.

One of the best regional flavors ever given to sorcery styles.
Man, we had some great contributors back in the day.