d20 Sedes core classes
As mentioned, with a lot of help and input from ostone I've got a more solid class and progression system for d20 Sedes Draconis worked out.
I've decided to stick with just three core classes:Warrior, Expert, Adept 1
All characters will start with a base of:
Hit points equal to their Constitution scores 2
skill points equal to their Intelligence score 3
Two feats
Simple Weapon Proficiency
Each of these will be further modified by their class levels (including at first level).
Warrior
Hit Points per level: 4 + Con modifier (3? needs testing)
Base Attack Bonus Progression: Good (equal to level)
Defense Bonus Progression 4: Good
Skill Points per level: 4 + Int modifier
Class Skills: (Physical Skills)
Starting Bonus 5: Light Armor Proficiency, 1 Martial Weapon Proficiency Feat 6 (or Martial Arts? 7), 1 Weapon Focus Feat
Class Progression Bonuses: 1 bonus Martial Feat 8 at first level, plus another bonus Martial Feat at every even level.
Expert
Hit Points per level: 2 + Con modifier 9
Base Attack Bonus Progression: Medium 9 (level/2)
Defense Bonus Progression 4: Medium 9
Skill Points per level: 10 + Int modifier (9? needs testing)
Class Skills: Not sure yet, but it will probably be something like: pick one table (out of 3-6 tables like Craftsman, People-person, Scholar), then pick out some number of skills from that table to be your class skills.
Starting Bonus 5: Double the skill points you receive from your Intelligence score, prior to the application of levels. (That is, an 1st level expert begins with skill points equal to Intelligence x2 plus 10 plus Int modifier). 10
Class Progression Bonuses: an as yet undefined set of things for being a better skill-user. This might included new permanent class skills, the ability to take 10 on certain skills any time, and other things. I'm open to suggestions.
Magic-User Adept (I'm open to suggestions to rename this class Oh, duh, I'm using the NPC class names here, I forgot. Adept is a good one.)
Hit Points per level: 1 + Con modifier 9
Base Attack Bonus Progression: Poor 9 (level/3)
Defense Bonus Progression 4: Poor 9
Skill Points per level: 6 + Int Modifier (7?)
Class Skills: ? (dependent on what tradition of magic?)
Starting Bonus 5: Entry-level Tradition Feat 11, One addition bonus Magic Feat 12
Class Progression Bonuses: 1 Bonus Magic Feat 12 at first level, plus another bonus Magic Feat at every even level.
^1 Classes in this system will not be ready templates for characters as they are in D&D, but paths of game mechanic progression. Like d20 modern, this system will be built around a greater expectation of multiclassing: if you want to focus on increase your combat abilities, you pick up another warrior; if you want extra skills, you pick up a level of expert; if you want to focus on magical abilities, you pick up a level of adept. Since classes do not fill the role of character templates, I will create some kind(s) of template progressions to fill that role.
^2 I want to design a system that is much lower in combat than D&D. One way this is enacted is by tilting the realism/playablitity balance of hit points a little more towards realism: I want hit points to start out relatively high and increase only slowly with levels, so that a 7th level character has nowhere near 7 times as many hit points as a 1st level character
^3 This creates an aesthetically pleasing unification of the hit point and skill systems. It also does away with the x4 skills at first level mechanic, which I feel is in someways problematic (and becomes more so when I try to fit in gnome and, especially, troll racial mechanics).
^4 I'm using level based defense bonus, à la d20 modern. In D&D, increased hit points and magic armor offset the advantage gained by the increasing BAB of opponents. In this system, hit points and AC bonus from armor will increase much slower, so the level based defense bonus is added in order to make sure combat does not become more and more fatal as level increases.
However, I have complaints about the Defense Bonus Progressions in both d20 Modern and d20 Star Wars, so I haven't figured out what the exact progressions will be yet.
^5 I introduce the explicit concept of a Starting Bonus. This is a one time bonus for character who take their first level in the class. A character never receives more than one starting bonus ever. You do not receive the starting bonus of a class you multiclass into.
This addresses a problem that in D&D can be most highlighted by looking at a 2nd level character with one level in each Fighter and Rogue.
If such a character puts their first level in Fighter, they get 8 skill points and proficiency in martial weapons and all armor and shields. They then get 2nd level and add a level of Rogue. This gives them another 8 skill points, for a total of 16.
Now say they start with 1st level in Rogue. They get 32 skill points and a small set of proficiencies. Then add a level of fighter, the character immediately gains all the proficiencies that go with being a Fighter, and 2 more skill points.
So, the Fighter/Rogue ends up with 16 skill points and all proficiencies. The Rogue/Fighter ends up with 34 skill points and all proficiencies. Problem.
This problem comes about because the Rogue gets a one-time starting bonus which can only be obtained by being a rogue at first level: the large number of skill points that the one time x4 is applied to. The Fighter has an equivalent bonus, but it is not one-time, it can be obtained by anyone who puts a single level in Fighter at any point.
Star Wars d20 dabbles in the idea of starting bonuses, for example a character who starts at first level as a Jedi Guardian gains the Force Sensitive feat for free, but a character who mutliclasses into the class must purchase that feat normally.
^6 I intend to break up Martial Weapon Proficiency in to about 4-5 separate Feats covering different sets of Martial Weapons.
^7 The only problem I see with giving a Martial Weapon Proficiency as a bonus feat to Warriors is to the player wishing to play a pure unarmed martial artist. This would force them to squander part of their starting bonus (but not the Weapon Focus part, which can be taken as Weapon Focus: Unarmed). Allowing the choice between a Martial Weapon Proficiency and the entry level Martial Arts feat (i haven't finalized a feat tree for this yet) lets a character make this choice.
But does a character need to be able to make this choice? I can think of two realism reasons why they maybe don't. First, most martial arts schools do train with weapons as well as unarmed. Second, you can reasonably argue that to do lethal damage with an unarmed attack requires more training than to use a martial weapon (I don't make this argument at this time, but it seems a reasonable argument that may or may not be correct).
^8 Martial Feat means from a specific list, equivalent to the list of Fighter bonus feats in D&D.
^9 The system I walked away from the meeting with ostone calls for Adepts to have poor combat abilities and Experts to have medium combat abilities. But I'm not totally comfortable with that. It doesn't seem like being a scholar or a gem-cutter should give you more combat skills than being the local hedgewitch. Not sure what to do about that.
^10 This gives a starting Expert with an Intelligence of 13 a starting number of skill points equal to (13x2) + 10+2 = 38. Compare this to a 1st level Rogue in D&D with the same Intelligence who receives (8+2) x4 = 40 skill points. At second level they will have the same number of skill points, and the Expert will pass up the Rogue after that.
For additional comparison, a Warrior with an Intelligence of 10 starts with 10+4+0 = 14 skill points, where a Fighter in D&D receives (2+0)x4 = 8 skill points (but more starting Proficiencies).
^11 The magic system will be feat-based. Every adept belongs to a single12 tradition of magic. Each tradition will have a specific feat which must be taken before any other Feats in that tradition; this feat will be similar to Force Adept in d20 Star Wars, it will convey a set of small, miscellaneous benefits fitting to the tradition, but be a slightly underpowered feat. The true magic feats that build on it will be slightly overpowered feats, in this conception. The Feat trees for magic traditions will be relatively vertical, that is, advanced magic feats will build on many prerequisites.
As a side note, magical healing will be common to many different trees. This will be true for game play reasons (healing is good for games), and world-building reasons (healing the sick is one of the primary objectives of real-world mystics).
^12 Magic Feats will comprise a list, like Martial feats (note 8).
I've decided to stick with just three core classes:Warrior, Expert, Adept 1
All characters will start with a base of:
Hit points equal to their Constitution scores 2
skill points equal to their Intelligence score 3
Two feats
Simple Weapon Proficiency
Each of these will be further modified by their class levels (including at first level).
Warrior
Hit Points per level: 4 + Con modifier (3? needs testing)
Base Attack Bonus Progression: Good (equal to level)
Defense Bonus Progression 4: Good
Skill Points per level: 4 + Int modifier
Class Skills: (Physical Skills)
Starting Bonus 5: Light Armor Proficiency, 1 Martial Weapon Proficiency Feat 6 (or Martial Arts? 7), 1 Weapon Focus Feat
Class Progression Bonuses: 1 bonus Martial Feat 8 at first level, plus another bonus Martial Feat at every even level.
Expert
Hit Points per level: 2 + Con modifier 9
Base Attack Bonus Progression: Medium 9 (level/2)
Defense Bonus Progression 4: Medium 9
Skill Points per level: 10 + Int modifier (9? needs testing)
Class Skills: Not sure yet, but it will probably be something like: pick one table (out of 3-6 tables like Craftsman, People-person, Scholar), then pick out some number of skills from that table to be your class skills.
Starting Bonus 5: Double the skill points you receive from your Intelligence score, prior to the application of levels. (That is, an 1st level expert begins with skill points equal to Intelligence x2 plus 10 plus Int modifier). 10
Class Progression Bonuses: an as yet undefined set of things for being a better skill-user. This might included new permanent class skills, the ability to take 10 on certain skills any time, and other things. I'm open to suggestions.
Magic-User Adept (I'm open to suggestions to rename this class Oh, duh, I'm using the NPC class names here, I forgot. Adept is a good one.)
Hit Points per level: 1 + Con modifier 9
Base Attack Bonus Progression: Poor 9 (level/3)
Defense Bonus Progression 4: Poor 9
Skill Points per level: 6 + Int Modifier (7?)
Class Skills: ? (dependent on what tradition of magic?)
Starting Bonus 5: Entry-level Tradition Feat 11, One addition bonus Magic Feat 12
Class Progression Bonuses: 1 Bonus Magic Feat 12 at first level, plus another bonus Magic Feat at every even level.
^1 Classes in this system will not be ready templates for characters as they are in D&D, but paths of game mechanic progression. Like d20 modern, this system will be built around a greater expectation of multiclassing: if you want to focus on increase your combat abilities, you pick up another warrior; if you want extra skills, you pick up a level of expert; if you want to focus on magical abilities, you pick up a level of adept. Since classes do not fill the role of character templates, I will create some kind(s) of template progressions to fill that role.
^2 I want to design a system that is much lower in combat than D&D. One way this is enacted is by tilting the realism/playablitity balance of hit points a little more towards realism: I want hit points to start out relatively high and increase only slowly with levels, so that a 7th level character has nowhere near 7 times as many hit points as a 1st level character
^3 This creates an aesthetically pleasing unification of the hit point and skill systems. It also does away with the x4 skills at first level mechanic, which I feel is in someways problematic (and becomes more so when I try to fit in gnome and, especially, troll racial mechanics).
^4 I'm using level based defense bonus, à la d20 modern. In D&D, increased hit points and magic armor offset the advantage gained by the increasing BAB of opponents. In this system, hit points and AC bonus from armor will increase much slower, so the level based defense bonus is added in order to make sure combat does not become more and more fatal as level increases.
However, I have complaints about the Defense Bonus Progressions in both d20 Modern and d20 Star Wars, so I haven't figured out what the exact progressions will be yet.
^5 I introduce the explicit concept of a Starting Bonus. This is a one time bonus for character who take their first level in the class. A character never receives more than one starting bonus ever. You do not receive the starting bonus of a class you multiclass into.
This addresses a problem that in D&D can be most highlighted by looking at a 2nd level character with one level in each Fighter and Rogue.
If such a character puts their first level in Fighter, they get 8 skill points and proficiency in martial weapons and all armor and shields. They then get 2nd level and add a level of Rogue. This gives them another 8 skill points, for a total of 16.
Now say they start with 1st level in Rogue. They get 32 skill points and a small set of proficiencies. Then add a level of fighter, the character immediately gains all the proficiencies that go with being a Fighter, and 2 more skill points.
So, the Fighter/Rogue ends up with 16 skill points and all proficiencies. The Rogue/Fighter ends up with 34 skill points and all proficiencies. Problem.
This problem comes about because the Rogue gets a one-time starting bonus which can only be obtained by being a rogue at first level: the large number of skill points that the one time x4 is applied to. The Fighter has an equivalent bonus, but it is not one-time, it can be obtained by anyone who puts a single level in Fighter at any point.
Star Wars d20 dabbles in the idea of starting bonuses, for example a character who starts at first level as a Jedi Guardian gains the Force Sensitive feat for free, but a character who mutliclasses into the class must purchase that feat normally.
^6 I intend to break up Martial Weapon Proficiency in to about 4-5 separate Feats covering different sets of Martial Weapons.
^7 The only problem I see with giving a Martial Weapon Proficiency as a bonus feat to Warriors is to the player wishing to play a pure unarmed martial artist. This would force them to squander part of their starting bonus (but not the Weapon Focus part, which can be taken as Weapon Focus: Unarmed). Allowing the choice between a Martial Weapon Proficiency and the entry level Martial Arts feat (i haven't finalized a feat tree for this yet) lets a character make this choice.
But does a character need to be able to make this choice? I can think of two realism reasons why they maybe don't. First, most martial arts schools do train with weapons as well as unarmed. Second, you can reasonably argue that to do lethal damage with an unarmed attack requires more training than to use a martial weapon (I don't make this argument at this time, but it seems a reasonable argument that may or may not be correct).
^8 Martial Feat means from a specific list, equivalent to the list of Fighter bonus feats in D&D.
^9 The system I walked away from the meeting with ostone calls for Adepts to have poor combat abilities and Experts to have medium combat abilities. But I'm not totally comfortable with that. It doesn't seem like being a scholar or a gem-cutter should give you more combat skills than being the local hedgewitch. Not sure what to do about that.
^10 This gives a starting Expert with an Intelligence of 13 a starting number of skill points equal to (13x2) + 10+2 = 38. Compare this to a 1st level Rogue in D&D with the same Intelligence who receives (8+2) x4 = 40 skill points. At second level they will have the same number of skill points, and the Expert will pass up the Rogue after that.
For additional comparison, a Warrior with an Intelligence of 10 starts with 10+4+0 = 14 skill points, where a Fighter in D&D receives (2+0)x4 = 8 skill points (but more starting Proficiencies).
^11 The magic system will be feat-based. Every adept belongs to a single12 tradition of magic. Each tradition will have a specific feat which must be taken before any other Feats in that tradition; this feat will be similar to Force Adept in d20 Star Wars, it will convey a set of small, miscellaneous benefits fitting to the tradition, but be a slightly underpowered feat. The true magic feats that build on it will be slightly overpowered feats, in this conception. The Feat trees for magic traditions will be relatively vertical, that is, advanced magic feats will build on many prerequisites.
As a side note, magical healing will be common to many different trees. This will be true for game play reasons (healing is good for games), and world-building reasons (healing the sick is one of the primary objectives of real-world mystics).
^12 Magic Feats will comprise a list, like Martial feats (note 8).