House rules: Magic item and intrinsic creation

Magic item and intrinsic creation

CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

Player characters wishing to create permanent magic items or enhance themselves with new intrinsic abilities will follow this procedure for preparing and then creating a magic item.

These rules apply to creating any kind of magic item or supernatural ability, with the exception of magic scrolls and magic potions. The standard rules for the creation of potions and scrolls still apply, including costs, time, and prerequisite feats.

Overview

1. Prerequisites:

   • you must have one of the new feats, either Craft Magic Item or Imbue Supernatural Ability.
   • When using craft Magic Item, you must be able to use the item you are trying to create.

2. Spend money preparing a raw, non-magical item. If you have the appropriate crafting feat, you may make a crafting check to reduce the overall cost. The amount you spend determines bonuses to the final check.

   • If you wish to prepare an item for a particular purpose or ability, you must include some aspect of the final product as a specific raw material.

3. Attempt to perform a binding act to imbue the object or individual with magical power. Announce what kind of magic item is being bound.

4. If the binding act is successful, determine the total bonus to the item creation roll. Bonuses are determined by amount spent in the initial creation and appropriateness of the binding act, and may be modified by whether a specific item is being attempted, whether an item which is already magical is being enhanced, and whether the enhancement is an improvement to the existing ability or is an unrelated new power.

5. Determine the value of the item created; GM and player discuss and agree on the exact stats of the item created using the value as a guideline.

Prerequisites In Depth

To create a magic item other than a scroll or a potion, the process is detailed here.

New Feats

Craft Magic Item

This feat replaces Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Rod, Craft Staff, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item, and Forge Ring. (The Brew Potion and Scribe Scroll feats remain unchanged.)

Prerequisite

Total Class Levels 6.

Benefit

This feat allows you to perform a binding act which creates a magic item from a prepared item.

The prepared item must be an item that the character can use without penalties or making a special check such as Use Magic Device. Armor or weapons for which the character does not have the requisite feat may not be created with this feat. The character does not need to have prepared the item himself.

Details about the use of this feat are discussed below.

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Imbue Supernatural Ability

Prerequisite

Craft Magic Item, total Class Levels 10.

Benefit

This feat allows you to perform a binding act which imbues the character himself with an intrinsic power. It requires that the character has prepared himself as if preparing a magic item to use Craft Magic Item.

Details about the use of this feat are discussed below.

Encounter Challenge Rating

To create a magical item or imbue oneself with a special ability, the character needs an encounter with a CR at least equal to the character's total character level. Thus a binding act to create a magic item always requires at least a CR6 encounter; a binding act to imbue oneself with a supernatural ability always requires at least a CR 10 encounter. More details about the nature of the encounter may be found below.

Preparation in Depth

Most of the following is meant to apply to both magical item creation, and the use of Imbue Supernatural Ability to give oneself an intrinsic ability.

In order to create a magic item, the character must prepare the item in advance. The first, required, step is that the character must spend a certain amount of money on materials, ceremonies and craftsmanship making the item. The amounts to spend are given below, broken down by category. There is a minimum cost, and an additional amount which may be spent to get a bonus to the final roll. See table below. On the left is the character's total character level. On the right are the amounts to spend to get a bonus to the binding roll. No amount of additional money will grant a preparation bonus greater than +5, regardless of level.

This cost in GP represents time and effort spent making the item as appropriate as possible a vessel for magical energy. For weapons and armor, it usually represents crafting a masterwork blade or suit of plate mail, out of rare and arcane materials.

When the character is attempting a binding act which will grant an intrinsic ability, this represents time and money spent preparing oneself for the binding. It may literally involve personal adornments (artificial teeth to get a magical bite attack, tattoos to bind spell-like abilities, and so on) or it may represent the time spent physically preparing oneself, visiting remote masters for guidance, and so on.

Table 1 - Binding roll bonuses by amount spent

This table displays the binding roll bonus given for preparing an item, by the amount spent on the item and the character level of the character doing the binding (not the character doing the preparing).

Total CL [*]	+0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
6	1000	1900	3000	4400	6200	7500
7	1250	2350	3750	5550	7850	10850
8	1500	2900	4700	7000	10000	14000
9	1750	3550	5850	8850	12850	17350
10	2000	4300	7300	11300	15800	21800
11	2500	5500	9500	14000	21000	30000
12	3000	7000	10500	18500	27500	37500
13	3500	8000	15000	24000	34000	48000
14	4000	11000	20000	30000	44000	61000
15	5000	14000	24000	38000	55000	76000
16	6000	16000	30000	47000	58000	83000
17	8000	22000	39000	50000	75000	105000
18	10000	27000	36000	63000	93000	128000
19	12000	33000	58000	88000	123000	163000
20	15000	40000	60000	105000	145000	190000

[*]

Note that the actual bonus may not be the same as what the character expected when doing the preparation. For example, if a level 6 character spends 7500gp on preparation, then gains 2 levels before attempting the binding act, the bonus is only +3 in accordance with the table for a level 8 character, not +5 (as it would have been at level 6).

The second, optional step gives the character the ability to prepare the item for a particular purpose. This gives a separate bonus on the final roll, but only if the encounter is thematically related to the purpose for which the character prepared (see guidelines below for binding act themes).

Preparing an item for a particular purpose grants you a +1 bonus to the binding roll, if the encounter is themed similarly to the purpose. For example, if you prepared an item by adding a rare metallic poison to its construction to get magical poison damage added to the attack, you will only receive the bonus if you fight something poisonous. If you end up binding the weapon with a non-poison-related theme, you do not receive the +1 binding roll bonus.

Binding Acts in Depth

A binding act occurs when a player announces her intent to create a magic item, and the character has already prepared an item in advance and has it on her person. Only one binding act may be attempted at a time.

Upon announcing that she is going to perform a binding act:

1. She asks to create an item with a particular theme. For example, "I want to add additional critical hit damage to my longsword", or "I want to turn this wand into a wand of lightning bolt."

2. The GM announces a trial that must be met. The trial will be in some way related to the power requested by the player. For example, must successfully score a critical hit during the next encounter, or the character must kill one creature in the encounter with a lightning bolt. The difficulty of the challenge may also depend on how difficult the encounter is.

   Challenges usually involve only a single encounter, but not necessarily. For example, to create a sword vs. orckind, the GM may create a challenge that involves slaying 50 orcs. However, if a binding act requires more than one encounter, the character must not rest between encounters. Stopping to do anything else during a binding act is an automatic failure.

   Challenges should involve the direct action of the player, but if the challenge is to defeat an enemy, with your party, the character performing the challenge only needs to be involved.

   The encounter and challenge need not be combat-related.

3. The encounter or encounters run as usual. The GM determines whether the challenge has been met.

4. If the challenge is met, the binding act is complete and a magic item is created (pending the binding roll, see below). If the challenge is not met, the item is always either destroyed or cursed. Binding acts to imbue with a supernatural ability which fail result in the character being cursed; see [1].

Themes

Encounters, and magic items, have particular themes. They may have many, in fact. For example, a fight with a huge earth elemental is earth themed. It may also be brawn-themed. Depending on the actions of the characters, other themes may come into play; for example, if the party kills it primarily with fire-based attacks, the encounter may be fire-themed. The actual themes are at the GM's discretion.

The challenge should be related to the theme of the encounter, and the encounter theme should be related to the theme of the power. Non-combat encounter themes will tend to create items that are not destructive in nature. Conversely, it is usually not possible to create a non-combat item in a combat encounter.

The equipment being created is also themed. The player decides what kind of item they are attempting to create, and is free to interpret the theme of the encounter as they do so. For example, in an encounter with a greater basilisk, they may decide to create a helm of stoneskin. They do not have to, though. If the item requested is not obviously tied to the encounter's theme, it is up to the GM to come up with a challenge that suits it.

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Challenges

Examples:

• with your party, defeat the gorgon
• in the next battle, fight the kraken, and land a hit on it that does at least 25 damage
• kill at least 20 orcs without rest
• succesfully negotiate a treaty with the warlord
• assist your party through the swinging blades trap without anyone getting injured

Drawbacks

One final way the character can enhance the item or ability is by requesting that the GM attach a drawback to it. This is some flaw, penalty, or restriction on the item which makes it either somewhat dangerous or somewhat harder to use.

If the player elects to give the item a drawback, the character will receive up to +4 on the binding roll, depending on how severe the drawback is.

For the GM, when selecting a drawback, consider that drawbacks should be fun to roleplay, but must represent a genuine challenge to the player using the item. The drawback should be suited to the theme of the item. For example, a ring of diplomacy with a drawback might, on a roll of 1 in 1d20, cause the user to speak in the wrong language when the item is being used.

Also consider that drawbacks should not render the item so dangerous or hard to use that it is effectively useless.

Binding Roll in Depth

Once the challenge is completed, the final step of binding a magic item is the binding roll. Determine bonuses to the roll according to the following chart:

Table 2 - Binding Roll Modifiers

Other modifiers to the binding roll.

Bonus to Binding Roll	Reason
Up to +5	Additional money spent in preparation
+1	Prepared for a purpose and appropriately-themed encounter
+2	Item has a moderate drawback
+4	Item has a severe drawback
Up to +2	Theme of the encounter matches theme of the item extremely well (GM's discretion)
+1	Item is already magical, and power being added aligns with theme
-5	Item is already magical, and power being added is not thematically aligned

Then roll 1d20 on the following chart. Down the left column is CR of the encounter which occurred during the binding act (GM's discretion, if the binding act actually involved several encounters in series). For example, if the party fought a huge earth elemental, that creature is CR7, so find the CR 7 row and read across.

Table 3 - Item Value

Look up the CR of the encounter along the left, and the result of the roll after applying modifiers, and consult the table to find out the value of the item created by the binding act.

CR	1 or less [†]	2-17	18-19	20-21	22-23	24-25	26-27	28-29	30+
6	Item destroyed	6000	7800	10000	12800	16400	21000	27000	35000
7	Item destroyed	7800	10000	12800	16400	21000	27000	35000	44000
8	Item destroyed	10000	12800	16400	21000	27000	35000	44000	58000
9	Item destroyed	12800	16400	21000	27000	35000	44000	58000	76000
10	Item cursed [1]	16400	21000	27000	35000	44000	58000	76000	96000
11	Item cursed [1]	21000	27000	35000	44000	58000	76000	96000	124000
12	Item cursed [1]	27000	35000	44000	58000	76000	96000	124000	158000
13	Item cursed [1]	35000	44000	58000	76000	96000	124000	158000	200000
14	Item cursed [1]	44000	58000	76000	96000	124000	158000	200000	250000
15	Item cursed [1]	58000	76000	96000	124000	158000	200000	250000	300000
16	Item cursed [1]	76000	96000	124000	158000	200000	250000	300000	350000
17	Item cursed [1]	96000	124000	158000	200000	250000	300000	350000	400000
18	Item cursed [1]	124000	158000	200000	250000	300000	350000	400000	450000
19	Item cursed [1]	158000	200000	250000	300000	350000	400000	450000	500000
20	Item cursed [1]	200000	250000	300000	350000	400000	450000	500000	550000

[†]	On a roll of natural 1, the binding is always a failure, regardless of modifiers. Nothing special happens on a natural 20.

[1]

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) Nature of the cursed item is at the GM's discretion. When an item which already had abilities is cursed, there may be additional consequences. When the character is using Imbue Supernatural Ability, the curse is on the character herself, and is permanent. It can only be removed by a limited wish, wish, or miracle.

Now the GM and the player should decide on what the actual powers the item will have, or on the nature of the intrinsic ability. Use, as a guideline, the market prices for magic items given in the magic item tables you are using for your campaign.

If the character succeeds in their binding roll but the value of the ability or item they desire is more than the value they rolled, the GM should substitute a similar but less-powerful ability or item near the value rolled.

Spell-Like Abilities

When determining the market price of a supernatural spell-like ability, use the following formula (similar to the market price for wands):

level of the spell x uses per day x total CL x 750gp

So, to get an innate fireball ability that can be used once per day, the market price of an equivalent magic item for a level 10 character would be 3 x 1 x 10 x 750 = 22500gp.

The caster level for innate spell-like ability is equal to one-half the character's CL, or the lowest level caster necessary to cast the spell, whichever is greater. For the fireball example above, the caster level for the ability will be 5 since that is the lowest level of any class that can cast fireball.

House rules: alignment change

Alignments should not be chosen lightly; they determine the effects of lots of game mechanics while simultaneously dictating a certain style of play.  Character is everything in role-playing, and sticking to your character makes the game more fun, so to the extent that alignment determines character, it should be stable.

Still, sometimes people decide that they want to play a differently aligned character (or that they have been, all along).  They should be able to do so, but not lightly.  There are two ways to change alignment in the world of the Nest of Candles: By Quest, or By Ability Drain.

By Quest

Changing your alignment By Quest means you arrange with the GM in advance for a solo adventure, the primary outcome of which will be to change your alignment.  If you change your alignment By Quest, the GM will design a quest which has trivial or no benefits whatsoever, other than the alignment change.  It should fall in line with the existing story and make sense in the context of both the character you have been playing and the one you want to change.

By Ability Drain

A character can change alignment at any time by agreeing to an alignment drain.  The penalty is: -2 wisdom, and -2 to ability score of the player's choice, per notch on each axis.  For example, Ferdinand the level 7 Berserker wishes to change from Chaotic Good to Chaotic Evil.  This involves no change in the Ethics axis (Chaotic->Chaotic) but two notches shifted on the Morals axis (Good->Neutral->Evil).  Ferdinand chooses to penalize Charisma, and therefore takes a -4 wisdom penalty and -4 charisma penalty.

The ability drain may not be restored by any spell; it goes away on its own the next time the character gains a level, and prior to applying any other level increase benefits.  At level 8, Ferdinand gains back his charisma and wisdom, and then gains his permanent ability score increase, as usual.

It should be noted that the guaranteed wisdom drain means that clerics will be penalized more heavily for alignment changes than other classes.  This is intentional, as clerics' dieties do not take lightly to alignment changes.  In most  cases a cleric will not need to choose a new diety (as gods of Gabbent are not explicitly aligned), but may choose to do so at the same time as they make the alignment change.

In addition the ability drain, any other penalties related to class or race or special circumstances (such as a paladin losing all class abilities) that accrue due to the alignment change still apply.  Any penalties that accrue due to changing a worshipped diety also apply.

New Class: Voudin (draft)

Vaudin are a divine caster class, based loosely on voodou practitioners. A male vaudin is called a houngan, and a female one a mambo. Vaudin gain spells from the same list as druids, but not in the same manner. Instead of praying for spells, and casting them as they need them, vaudin must either prepare potions or bind a task spirits. Both of these things are focused on the loa.

A mambo's loa is a powerful spirit that stands as an intermediary between men and God. The mambo serves the loa by bringing it offerings it likes and allowing it to ride her. The loa, in return grants some measure of power to the mambo by imbuing power into her potions and granting her some authority over its children and underlings as task spirits.

In preparing a potion, the mambo prepares a mixture of things that she feels her loa will like. This rocess takes no less than caster level time spell level, in hours. This process can only be sped up with the help of another vaudin, so creation of high level potions necesitates vaudin work together. She then must add something that contains the essence of the person for whom the potion is made. This is easiest with blood, but can also be accomplished with hair, if it is freshly pulled. The potion must then be consumed by the person for whom it was intended before the next moonphase, or it will spoil. For the purposes of this rule, a given phase takes three days to complete. Because of the greater preparation involved, a mambo's potions always have maximum effect. Potions are used for spells that will affect things with souls, such as people, many extraplanar creatures, and the higher order undead. Not that certain mage spells can seperate a person's soul from their body. In these cases, it is much more difficult for the mambo to work magic upon them.

A mambo can also bind task spirits to her. These spirits are capable of perfoming the necesary intercession with the physical and spirit world to bring about spells much faster and with less preparation than the mambo can through potions. They also can be used to hold a spell for duration that is only bounded by the casters endurance and charm. Whenever a mambo gains access to a new spell level, she has the option to seek out a new task spirit. If she finds one and makes an accomodation with him, she can task him to cast any spell of that level or below in a given day. That is the only spell he will cast that day, but he will cast it as often as the caster makes a Diplomacy check DC Spell Level + task spirit HD + number of times he has cast the spell previously today, where the task spirit is considered to have the same number of hit dice as the caster did at the time she bound him. Unlike potions, variable effects listed for spells cast via task spirits are variable, not maximized. Task spirits are for spells that affect plants, animals, and nature. They can also be useful for their knowledge of the planes.

A mambo advances in hit dice, skill points, saves, and feats like a druid. She does not receive an animal companion. She may wear any armor and weild any weapon she chooses, though she does not receive proficiencies beyond those alloted to a druid.

A vaudin receives the following powers:

4th Aspect of Loa 1/day
8th Aspect of Loa 2/day
12th Aspect of Loa 3/day
16th Aspect of Loa 4/day
20th Aspect of Loa 5/day

Aspect of Loa -- When a mambo is being ridden, she takes on the aspect of her loa, while her spirit is being occupied. Since she is not present, she cannot command her tasked spirits, and since her loa is occupied with riding her, he cannot respond to her potions. However, the loa's aspect will grant the powers of its creatures, and some of these are great indeed.

While being ridden, a mambo has one of following:
1) Attack forms, Special attacks, BAB, and Strength of the creature
2) Movement modes and Dexterity of the creature
3) Size, hit dice, and Constitution of the creature
4) Any one category of special quality of the creature

If viewed from the astral plane, the mambo appears to be an axiomatic version of the creature. However, physically her form does not change. If the powers confered upon her would require a physical form change, the mambo behaves as though her form has changed, and the effects are the same as if it has, but without magical vision, the mambo simply appears to be behaving erratically at first blush.

The mambo does not have access to any creature that might be associated with her loa. She instead selects, at the levels she gains this ability or it improves, from the two creatures available to her at that level, or to advance a creature chosen in a previous level. The list of acceptable creatures is specific to the loa. Creatures chosen for a particular power level should have a CR less than or equal to the level at which it becomes available minus 2, although creatures should be advanced to match. Note that different creature types advance at different rates.

Should the mambo elect to a assume the Size, hit dice, and Constitution of the creatre, it is entirely possible that when the loa leaves her, she will have taken more damage than she can survive. In this case, scale the damage so that the mambo has a like proportion of hit points remaining.

Should the mambo elect to assume the attack forms of multiple creatures, she also gains the ability to make the cumulative number of attacks those creatures would get, as a full attack.

Sample Loa -- Brother Jallum

Brother Jallum is a swamp loa, associated in particular with insects, fungus, moss, and other things that grow in profusion. His people strive to make the most use out of any situation, and to have many simple plans so that the loss of any one is no great loss. He is pictured as Mannannan mac Lir, and also as a corpulent man with pale skin and many bulging pockets. Brother Jallum is called upon for healing and self-improvement, as both of these are seen as signs of adaptability, and also in trickery and crime, as he is known to turn any situation to his benifit.

Aspects of Brother Jallum
-------------------------
4th - 2 Stirges (1.5 CR), Giant Ant (2 CR) - fix this
8th - Shambling Mound (6 CR), 2 Phase Spiders (6 CR) - fix this
12th - Treant 15HD (10 CR), Hellwasp Swarm - fix this
16th - Colossal Monstrous Spider (32 HD) (11 CR)
20th - Formians (Special) (CR 18) - fix this

If the mambo assumes the aspect of Formians, she picks an uneven group of Formians that add up to CR 18. She assumes the aspect of the most powerful one, and and assigns the others to willing creatures within range of her Formian hive mind (no matter what benefits of the Formians she takes, the mambo always gains hive mind). These creatures can use their aspects just as if they were vaudin, and had taken that aspec themselves. They also gain the benefit of the hive mind, and at her discression, the mambo can elect to take her turn from the body of one of her vassals, casting spells, moving, or taking attack actions using her own modifiers, but with the body of her vassal. This happens on her initiative, and does not cost the vassal his turn.

House Rules updated

The House Rules have been updated with a new rule regarding unbalanced multi-class characters.

House Rules Updated

The house rules have been updated to note some changes to available PC races and classes.

New Sorceror-Arcanist (Draft)

1. Must carry spellbook(s) (one page per spell level, like a wizard). Other surfaces can be substituted for literal books of spells, as long as they can contain writing symbols. It is up to the DM's judgement how much of a surface is necessary to contain one spell level.
   
2. Arcanists prepare for spellcasting by studying spellbooks for 30 minutes after each rest period. This study prepares the arcanist to cast any of the spells he knows, according to the usual spells per day table, in the usual fashion of a sorcerer.
3. The details of each arcanist's spellbook are particular to that arcanist alone. Thus, finding another arcanist's spellbook is almost useless.
4. When an arcanist is studying, he must choose a mood. In order to cast any spells that day, he must remain in or regain the mood he was in during the study period, or the symbols he memorized will not work. (This means he cannot attempt to cast a spell, not that the spell fails.) At his option, the mood might be different for different spells. For example, an arcanist might study in a placid mood, and he must be able to calm himself to placidity again in the heat of combat in order to cast spells. Or he might require an angry mood to cast magic missile, and a happy mood to cast charm person.
   
5. The arcanist learns new "known" spells according to the following schedule.
   
   • At Arcanist level 1 the arcanist knows 6 L0 spells, and 3 L1 spells.
   • No new known spells are gained at Arcanist L2.
   • Each level thereafter, the arcanist learns new spells at a rate of one spell level per arcanist level, plus the arcanist's charisma bonus. These may be used to purchase spells at whatever level the arcanist desires. L0 spells may be purchased at a rate of 0.5 spell levels each.
   For example, an arcanist with 15 CHA (+2) will gain 3+2=5 spell levels of known spells at Arcanist L3, and 4+2=6 spell levels at L4.
6. The new known spells acquired by an arcanist are limited by the same spell level progression as the sorcerer. At class level 4, the arcanist may take his first 2nd-level spell; at class level 6 the arcanist may take his first 3rd-level spell, and so on.
   
7. Unlike the standard sorcerer, the arcanist may not swap spells.
8. Arcanists can research new, undiscovered spells just like wizards, but to do so they must reserve some of the spell levels they gain upon reaching a new level, an amount equal to the spell level of the spell to be researched. These will be used when the spell research completes successfully.
9. Arcanists who are ability damaged may find that some of the pages in their spellbooks no longer function, according to how many CHA points were lost. For example, a L5 arcanist with 14 CHA who is ability damaged to 11 CHA goes from +2 to +0, and so loses the use of 2*5=10 spell levels worth of spells. If the damage is temporary, the pages will work again when the effect ends.
10. Arcanists who gain CHA points get additional pages according to their new bonus, but these new pages can only be written when an arcanist gains a level. For example, a L4 Arcanist who goes from 13 CHA to 16 CHA (+1 to +3) gains 2*4=8 new pages when he gains his next level, but only if the CHA bonus is still in effect. Temporary CHA bonuses can also increase known spells if they are in effect when the arcanist gains a level. But if the temporary bonus ends, the spells gained from it will no longer function.

Impact

The arcanist gets more spells known than the sorcerer, which makes him more flexible in the field. The new class also has two new drawbacks over the sorcerer. First, they must carry and protect spellbooks, but don't get the associated advantages of spellbooks (the ability to copy another caster's spells). Second, the character must be able to maintain control over their moods, which provides the player with some roleplaying challenges.

History/Background

Sorcery is accomplished through befriending and collaborating with ethereal entities known as arcane crafters. Nobody knows what the arcane crafters are. Many think they are agents of divine or diabolic power. Another theory is that they are spirits of the dead, come to assist their descendents. Some whisper that the crafters are a part of the arcanist's own madness (for, do they not pursue the arcanist everywhere he goes?).

Whatever they are, arcane crafters are beings that respond to the spellcasting of arcanists. They seem to be intelligent and aware. They respond to blandishment, friendly overtures and personalities of a compatible nature. And each and every one of them has a name, which must be learned before they will obey the arcanist.

The arcanist succeeds in casting a spell by knowing the right name of the crafter. The entity he will bring out will be different each time he casts a spell, so the names must be learned and memorized each time the arcanist wishes to prepare his spells for the day. This requires 30 minutes after each rest period to prepare, but the arcanist need not choose particular spells to cast in advance, just figure out the names of the arcane crafters that will help him each time he needs one. When casting, the arcanist need not speak any names, merely recall the right one clearly, in addition to executing the other components (somatic, verbal, material) that the spell normally requires.

When the arcanist begins casting a spell, he will become aware of personalities approaching him. They seem to float toward him from the void of other, and when they arrive they whisper and coax and encourage, but they are not visible or audible to anyone else but the arcanist. They come in great masses. Any single spellcasting will bring at least a dozen of them, capering and gibbering in the arcanist's ears and in his mind. Most spells will bring even more of them, hundreds or even thousands, washing over the arcanist's awareness as if every one of the ocean's creatures had a voice that was trapped in a bubble of foam on a wave. Only by concentration can an arcanist stay focused on the task at hand in the face of this benign riot.

Finally, with the summoned entity's name held in his mind, the arcanist cajoles and befriends the entity with his high charisma, and through their collaboration the spell is cast. In game terms, this works exactly like the
usual method of spellcasting for standard sorcerers.

When an arcanist gains a level, he gains new pages of names in his spellbooks. He seeks the council of the arcane crafters, who will automatically come to him and dictate new pages. Arcanists with greater charisma attract more crafters or crafters who are more forthcoming, and more spells will be added. The arcanist listens to the murmur of the arcane crafters and, in a trance-like state, copies their words onto the pages of the spellbook. Arcane crafters are loyal to a particular arcanist alone, so the names cannot be read from another arcanist's spellbook and used.

It is rumored that there are other ways for an arcanist to harness and use more arcane crafters than his Charisma permits, by gaining their allegiance in dark, coercive rites.

More on Spellbooks

Spellbooks are typically leather-bound paper or parchment books, what one traditionally thinks of as a book. However, this need not be the case. Any surface that can contain writing symbols can be a page in a spellbook. Use your imagination. Bangles worn by the character, stone tablets, even tattoos on the visible areas of the character's body might be spell pages. Some of these will be able to contain more spells than others. For the purposes of this discussion, we will think of spellbooks as literal books, and call pages pages.

Spellbooks are not merely lists of names, one to a page. Every page is covered with symbols arranged in arcane patterns and read according to rules that the arcanist memorizes during training. The symbols combine to form the names of arcane crafters. Reading them usually means years of scholarly training, but other cultures might devise different ways of reading the symbols that don't require as much rote learning. For example, the character might carry a mnemonic device such as a piece of jewelery or necklace, and the marks on this device help the arcanist determine what symbols combine to represent useful crafter names.

The form taken by the symbols on page therefore may differ greatly depending on the teaching method used to train the fledgling arcanist. Still there will be many, sometimes dozens and dozens of rules for how to read each page. Some rules pertain to the time of day, to the weather, to astrology, to recent important events. Some pertain to the arcanist himself, his actions, his gender, his height and weight, the garments he's wearing, and his attitude toward law and morality (alignment). His mood also affects which symbols will be effective.

House Rules

1. Official SRD rules say that each round a character is Dying, they get a 10% chance to stabilize. This rule is amended: to stabilize, a character must make a DC 19 Fort save.
   
   Justification: Makes characters with stronger constitutions more likely to survive grievous wounds; at high levels it makes stabilizing easier to do, but then, at high levels it's far more likely that a powerful attack will kill the character outright anyway.
   
2. Leveling up requires 2 days spent "in town", reviewing the skills of their new class level with another skilled adventurer's assistance. This person does not need to be a member of the class, they are merely helping the character concentrate. The buddy can also be training at the same time, it is not a fulltime job; therefore, both buddies can level up simultaneously if they both have enough XP. If a "mentor" can be found to act as buddy, the time is reduced to 1 day. A mentor is a character at least 2 class levels greater than the character leveling up in the same class.
   
   Justification: Makes a more realistic transition for the PC, and puts a higher premium on keeping an escape route open to town. It's short because the PC has really been training for the next level the entire time they've been adventuring, and the training session merely represents an effort to concentrate on what was learned.
3. Alternate unbalanced multi-class penalty. There is no 20% XP penalty for class levels that are not within 2 levels of the primary class. Instead, the penalty is that the "leveling up" period, described above, is doubled to 4 days for classes 2 or more levels apart from the primary class. Even with a mentor, an unbalanced class takes 4 days to level up, not 2.
   
   Justification: Simpler rule. The 20% XP penalty means it is impossible to "work backwards" and figure out a character's class levels from his XP, which is one of the best things about the new XP system. The amended rule means it will always be possible to work backwards.
   
4. Official SRD rules say that drawing or sheathing a weapon is a move action, unless you have a BAB of +1, in which case it is a free action when done simultaneously with a regular move. This rule is amended: Drawing or sheathing is still a move action, but it may be done as a free action during a regular move, by anyone. This also applies to readying or loosing a shield.
   
   Also, a clarification: this rule also applies to swapping one weapon or shield for another. It does not take two move actions to swap a bow for a sword, for example, only one. Swapping a bow for a sword and a shield is still two move actions.
   
   Justification: This is much easier to adjudicate by the DM. There's no reason why BAB would affect this.
   
5. The following PC races and classes are not found in the Nest of Candles world: Gnome, Halfling, Wizard (and specialists), Sorceror. An adapted version of the sorceror called Arcanist is available. Gnomes and Halflings simply do not exist in the world of Gabbent. Wizard becomes an NPC-only class, and is simply a scholar with some of the abilities of the arcanist. New variants of PC races and a new prestige class will be available to play further into the campaign. (More details on this to come.)