- Magic : Spell Casting
- Interruption of spell casting
- Secret and Concealed Doors
- Perception Tests
- Stoneskin
- Detect Magic
- Level Drain
- Weapon Specialization
- Non-Weapon Proficiencies
- Level advancement beyond racial limits
- X Foot Cube and X Cubic Feet
- Non-Weapon Proficiencies
In addition to the existing rules regarding magic, wizards have one additional power. During the wizards daily process of memorizing their spells for the day, they have a new option. Normally on any given morning a wizard will sit down and memorize the spells they plan to cast that day. This takes 10 minutes per spell level for each spell (e.g. memorizing 2 first level spells and 1 second level spell would take 40 minutes). The house rules are that the wizard may take some of that memorization time and instead of using it to memorize a specific spell, they can use it to charge their physical spell book for later use. Each point of charge takes them 10 minutes and is 10 minutes that they can not dedicate to memorizing specific spells. The maximum charges they can put into their spell book is the wizards current level. This charge is a magical conduit between the wizards mind and the spell book. Upon sleeping the conduit is broken and any remaining charges dissipate.
As an example, say our wizard Parathanon is a 3rd level mage. Consequently he can normally memorize 2 first level spells and 1 second level spell (See PHB Table 21) per day. He sits down one morning and spends 20 minutes memorizing the 2nd level spell "Continual Light", he then takes his remaining 20 minutes with which he may have normally memorized 2 first level spells, and instead charges his spell book with 2 charges. He finishes with "Continual Light" memorized in his mind, and 2 charges imbued into his spell book, bound to his mind through a magical conduit.
So, what can Parathanon do with these 2 charges? At any point that day, he can cast unmemorized spells from his spell book by reading them from the book. He can only do this with as many spell levels as he has charges. In our example, he could cast directly from his spell book, 2 first level spells that day or 1 second level spell. The spells available to him would be any spell he has learned and is recorded in his spell book.
What this house rule does is give the wizard greater latitude in what spells he can cast and reduces the requirement to commit to specific spells at the beginning of each day.
In addition to the existing rules regarding magic, priests have one additional power. During the priests daily process of praying to their god for their spells for the day, they have a new option. Normally on any given morning a priest will sit down and pray to their deity for the spells they plan to cast that day. This takes 10 minutes per spell level for each spell (e.g. praying for 2 first level spells and 1 second level spell would take 40 minutes). The house rules are that the priest may take some of that prayer time and instead of using it to pray for a specific spell, they can use it to commune with their deity through prayer. This prayer builds degrees of communion. For every 10 minutes spent in communion one degree of communion is established.
As an example, say our priest Raj the Temperant is a 3rd level specialty priest of Gond. Consequently he can normally pray for 2 first level spells and 1 second level spell (See PHB Table 24) per day. He sits down one morning and spends 20 minutes praying for the 2nd level spell "Hold Person", he then takes his remaining 20 minutes with which he may have normally prayed for 2 first level spells, and instead communes with his deity Gond. He finishes with "Hold Person" memorized in his mind, and 2 degrees of communion between him and his deity.
So, what can Raj do with these 2 degrees of communion? At any point that day, he can cast unmemorized spells by channeling the divine power established through these degrees of communion. He can only do this with as many spell levels as he has degrees of communion. In our example, he could cast, 2 unmemorized first level spells that day or 1 unmemorized second level spell by directly channeling this divine power. The spells available to him would be any spell of the appropriate spheres for his religion.
Priests with very high wisdom get "bonus spells" (See PHB Table 5). These bonus spells are not compatible with communion. As an example, Dinaela the Lucky, is a 5th level specialty priest of Tymora. As a result she can pray for 3 first level spells 3 second level spells and 1 third level spell.
However, Dinaela has a wisdom of 15. This grants her "bonus spells". A 15 wisdom grants her 2 first level bonus spells and 1 second level bonus spells.
| Spell Level | Base # | Wisdom Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 2 |
| 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | - |
These bonus spells must be prayed for specifically each morning and can not be used forcommunion. What this means is that though Dinaela could pray for
- 1st level spells : 3 degrees of communion
- 1st level bonus spells : Faerie Fire, Create Water
- 2nd level bonus spell : Hold Person
- 2nd level spells : Warp Wood, Slow Poison, 2 degrees of communion
- 3rd level spell : Continual Light
Dinaela could not pray for
- 1st level spells : 5 degrees of communion
- 2nd level bonus spell : Hold Person
- 2nd level spells : Warp Wood, Slow Poison, Barkskin
- 3rd level spell : Continual Light
What this house rule does is give the priest greater latitude in what spells he can cast and reduces the requirement to commit to specific spells at the beginning of each day. Keep in mind that for a priest, as it is with any spell, the ability of the priest to cast a given spell, be it prayed for or channeled through communion, is contingent on being in favor with his or her deity. If a priest seeks to cast a spell in opposition of the tenants of his religion and deity, it is likely that the deity will not grant the priest the power needed to cast the spell.
Though Rangers, Paladins and Bards all have spellcasting abilities, because these classes are not focussed on spellcasting, they don't have the benefits listed above that true Wizards and Priests do. Rangers and Paladins can not establish communion with their god when praying for spells each morning and Bards can not charge their spell books when memorizing spells each morning.
As a magic user increases in level, the percentage of their daily memorizable/prayable spells that can be allocated to charges/communion decreases such that the benefit becomes less valuable over time.
| Magic User Level | Charges/Communions | Total Priest Spell Level Points | Percentage of Priest Spell Level Points Usable as Charges/Communions | Total Wizard Spell Level Points | Percentage of Wizard Spell Level Points Usable as Charges/Communions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 100% | 1 | 100% |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 100% | 2 | 100% |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | 75% | 4 | 75% |
| 4 | 4 | 7 | 57% | 7 | 57% |
| 5 | 5 | 12 | 42% | 11 | 45% |
| 6 | 6 | 15 | 40% | 14 | 43% |
| 7 | 7 | 19 | 37% | 20 | 35% |
| 8 | 8 | 26 | 31% | 27 | 30% |
| 9 | 9 | 34 | 26% | 32 | 28% |
| 10 | 10 | 43 | 23% | 39 | 26% |
| 11 | 11 | 53 | 21% | 51 | 22% |
| 12 | 12 | 65 | 18% | 66 | 18% |
| 13 | 13 | 72 | 18% | 78 | 17% |
- Magic users (Wizards and Priests) need 8 hours of uninterupted sleep to be able to memorize/pray for new spells in their next waking period
- When a magic user wakes (either after 8 hours of sleep or less) they have access to all spells that they had memorized from the previous day.
- Players Handbook page 81
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Spells remain memorized until they are cast or wiped from the character's mind by a spell or magical item. A wizard cannot choose to forget a memorized spell to replace it with another one.
The Players Handbook states in Chapter 7 under "Casting Spells" : "Furthermore, if the spellcaster is struck by a weapon or fails to make a saving throw before the spell is cast, the caster's concentration is disrupted. The spell is lost in a fizzle of useless energy and is wiped clean from the memory of the caster until it can be rememorized."
The house rule is that if the spell caster is attacked before his initiative role, unmodified by the spells casting time, then spell casting hasn't begun yet and the spell is not wasted. If the spell caster is attacked on an initiative number on or after his initiative roll unmodified by casting time and before his initiative roll modified by casting time, then the spell fizzles. For example Elidyr the mage plans to cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability which has a casting time of 4. She rolls her 1d10 initiative die and gets 7. She will cast her spell on 7 + 4 = 11. At initiative 5, an enemy archer fires at Elidyr hitting her. As she hasn't begun casting the spell yet (which starts at initiative 7) she is prevented from casting but does not waste the spell. If instead the archer had fired on initiative 9, Elidyr would have been interrupted, the spell would have failed and the spell would be lost from her mind.
As stated in the PHB and DMG
- An elf passing within 10 ft. concealed door has a 1/6 chance to notice it
- An elf actively searching for a concealed door has a 1/2 chance
- An elf actively searching for a secret door has a 1/3 chance
- A 20 foot section of wall takes 10 minutes to search
The house rules carry over from AD&D 1st Edition (DMG pg 97)
- A non-elf actively searching for a secret or concealed door has a 1/6 chance
We'll use a new meta-stat called "Perception" for checks to see if a character notices something. This meta-stat is (Int + Wis) / 2 (rounded down).
The 4th level Wizard spell Stoneskin has a material component described as
The material components of the spell are granite and diamond dust sprinkled on the recipient's skin.
A diamond is a 5000gp gem.
One diamon, when crushed, produces enough diamond dust for 5 uses of Stoneskin.
When a wizard casts detect magic, if the magic being detected is priestly in nature, the GM will lookup the wizard school equivalent for the priet spell (or priest spell closest to the magical effect) and reveal this. This is possible because every priest spell indicates the mapped wizard school in parentheses next to the name of the spell.
When a priest casts detect magic, if the magic being detected is wizardly in nature, the priest cannot determine the wizard school of the magic.
In summary, the wizard detect magic spell will detect the type of magic in a broader set of cases than the priest's detect magic spell.
As a side note, two other ways in which the wizard detect magic and priest detect magic differ are
- The wizard detect magic has a duration of 2 rds./level whereas the priest detect magic has a duration of 1 turn
- The wizard detect magic only scans out 60 feet whereas the priest detect magic scans out 90 feet
The normal AD&D 2nd Edition rules regarding level drain say that level drain is permanent unless a level 14 or higher priest casts the 7th level priest spell Restoration on you within L days wher L is the level of the casting priest (so minimum 14 days). Characters can be level drained by wights, wraiths, vampires and level drain spells.
Our house rules are
- Level drain immediately causes the following aspects of a character to be reduced to the value appropriate for the newly drained level
- Level
- THAC0
- current and max HP
- Memorizable spells. GM decides which spells are purged from the spell caster's mind to reach the new number of memorizable spells
- Saving Throws
- Level drain does not affect
- Thief skills
- Non-weapon proficiencies
- Weapon proficiencies
- XP
This means that as the character continues to gain XP, once it has enough XP to reach the next level, the character immediately skips to the new level and all reduced attributes increase appropriately. At this point it is as if the character was never level drained.
For example if a Level 8 Cleric with 200,000 XP is drained to Level 6 (by say a Vampire hit or two wight hits), that character immediately loses the ability to cast 4th level priest spells among other things. Later when the character reaches 225,000 XP the character immedieatly jumps from Level 6 to Level 9 and gains all the priveleges that come along with Level 9
The PHB, and varying printings of the Complete Fighters handbook contradict each other in regards to weapon specialization.
The PHB says that a fighter may specialize in only one weapon
Weapon specialization is an optional rule that enables a fighter (only) to choose a single weapon and specialize in it.... Specialization is normally announced ... when the character is created... The specialization requires a single-minded dedication and training. Thus multi-class characters cannot use weapon specialization; it is available only to single-class fighters.
Older printings (1st through at least 3rd) of the Complete Fighters handbook
- treat weapons specialization like weapon proficiencies and you can have multiple specializations
- allow fighters, rangers and paladins to specialize
Only single-class warriors (fighters, paladins, and rangers) can take weapon specialties. Such a character can only take one when he is first created, but may specialize in more weapons as he gains new slots.
Newer printings (at late as 9th printing, maybe earlier) of the Complete Fighters handbook
- treat weapons specialization like weapon proficiencies and you can have multiple specializations
- allow fighters to specialize and bar rangers and paladins from doing so, just like the PHB
Only Fighters (but not paladins or rangers) can take weapon specialties. Such a character can only take one when he is first created, but may specialize in more weapons as he gains new slots.
My synthesis of this is
- The Complete Fighters handbook is meant to change the rules from the PHB so that instead of allowing fighters to specialize in a single weapon, they can specialize in multiple weapons
- The Complete Fighters handbook had a misprint in early editions saying that Rangers and Palandins could specialize, but since it was corrected in later editions, it was meant to match the PHB in saying that only fighters can specialize, not Rangers and Paladins.
The house rules follow the early edition Complete Fighters Handbook because it wasn't until it was too late that I discovered that there were multiple editions of the Complete Fighters Handbook with different text. So our house rules
- allow specializing in multiple weapons
- allow Fighters, Rangers and Palandins to specialize
- Armen needs 1,000,000 XP to get to 12th level
- To get to 13th level instead of 1,250,000 Armen needs 1,500,000 (2x)
- To get to 14th level instead of 1,500,000 Armen needs 2,000,000 (2x)
- To get to 15th level instead of 1,750,000 Armen needs 2,750,000 (3x)
- To get to 16th level instead of 2,000,000 Armen needs 3,500,000 (3x)
- Taier needs 1,875,000 XP to get to 15th level
- To get to 16th level instead of 2,250,000 Taier needs 2,625,000 (2x)
This is a clarification of the rules
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A "20' cube" or "20 foot cube" is a cube with dimensions 20' x 20' x 20'
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"20 cu. ft." or "20 cubic feet" is a cube with dimensions 2.7' x 2.7' x 2.7'
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If the word foot comes first then no math need be done
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If the word cubic comes first then you have to take the cube root to determine the dimensions of a cube