Local 3.5 Rules

Building on the 3.5 rules, below are some ideas. Also, the Pathfinder 3.5 rules look very promising. I will research these further.

• New ability “sense smell”
• The listen skill can also “sense vibrations”
• Herbalism feet - See chapter 5 “Herbalism Catalog”: alchemy_n_herbalists.pdf

• All XP should be tracked on a piece of lined paper. Each character will track their own XP and report when ready to level.
• Leveling can only occur where you are in your element. Examples:
  • After a large battle for fighters
  • After spending time in a city or a heavily trapped dungeon for rogues
  • After spending time in a library for wizards
  • After visiting a temple or in deep meditation for clerics
  • After spending time in the wilderness for rangers
  • After spending time with a higher leveled similarly classed PC or NPC
• Prestige classes will be worked into the storyline. PCs will need to state their intentions well in advance.

Crossbows:

• A loaded crossbow that is ready to shoot can give an extra attack at -2 to hit.
• The heavy crossbow considers armor hardness to be reduced by 4 points at range of 10ft or less.
• The war hammer's spike considers armor hardness to be reduced by 5 points.
• Polearms have 10ft reach. A successful hit will prevent an opponent from closing within 5ft. Opponents can attempt a sunder weapon to get close the distance.

Optional Tweaks

• One or more of your attacks per round can be used to block an attack with your shield. You need to roll equal or higher then their attack roll, plus your shield bonus, to block the attack. This assumes you have initiative.
• The improved shield bash feat gives you two handed weapon fighting with shields.
• The shield proficiency feet can be taken more then once, each time adding your shield bonus to blocking an attack.

• Intentional concealment can double a shield's concealment rating, but leave the user without line of sight vision.

Optional Tweaks

The intent here is that I'd like to be able to realistically explain hits and damage during combat. The standard 3.5 rules are drastically over simplify things. Armor does not make you harder to hit, just harder to hurt (ie damage reduction). We can play this by ear and see how it goes.

• Worn and well made armor will have different hardness and hit points.
• Armor made of exotic materials such as platinum and mitheral will have interesting hardness and hit points.

Notes:

• For bludgeoning attacks, soft armors have 1/4 points of hardness (round up), but take no damage.
• Rule of thumb for armor hit points: Armor bonus x 5.
• Extra HP above the x5 rule don't loose AC bonuses when damaged.
• Metal armor will block certain types of area attacks (such as fireball), but the armor will heat up. Maybe 1/2 dmg for 2 rounds makes sense.
• Damage dealt to armor must exceed its hardness before the armor takes damage.
• Damaged armor will absorb damage up to its AC bonus, at which point the damage carries over to the character.
• Piercing armor damage is always 1. The remaining damage carries over.
• For every 1/(AC bonus) in damage, the armor looses a point of AC.
• Magic items will add +1 to hardness per level of magic.
• At every point of AC loss do to damage, the armor has a 5% cumulative chance of loosing it's magic.
• The DM will tell you the hardness and HP of items you find. Exquisite items will be higher scores.
• Magically armor does not make you harder to hit. It only makes you harder to damage.

Below is just a method to describe armor class that seems to explain things very well:

Armor class bonuses breakdown in order:

Examples:

• Most player's handbook spells are permitted. Spells from supplement books must be approved.
• Wizards must acquire all spells in game.
• Sorcerers and cleric types should discuss their spell selections in advance.
• Clerics seems a little too powerful with strait 3.5 rules. I'm not sure about those domain spells.
• Spell book size limits will be enforced.
• All spell components are required.
• Level zero spells can be cast at will up to 4/hr.

Alternate Magic Points System (optional)

• Each spell slot counts as one point. Level two spells count as two points, etc..
• Level 1 spells require 1 point each to cast. Level two spells require two points to cast, etc..
• Points return at the rate of 1 point / hr of hard resting (sleep) + your prime bonus.
• Specialist cannot add their extra spell slot to the general poll.

Critical damage is rolled plus the following special roll is used:

• You are unconscious when your hit points are at zero or below.
• You at dead only at your negative con value or lower.
• While unconscious you bleed at 1 hp per round with a fortitude save 20 to stop bleeding.