helsmuth

Monster Slayer In a society where vampires, werewolves and other creatures of the night subsist parasitically on the blood of innocents, hunting such creatures can be a lucrative career. When citizens are faced with a threat far beyond the capability of their local militia to handle, they would willingly pay a hefty ransom to have it taken care of. That is where the professional slayer steps in: an individual familiar with a wide variety of monsters and trained in the effective means of killing them. Hit Die:  D8 Requirements: Alignment:   Any non-evil Base Attack Bonus:   +4 Skill:  8 ranks in Profession (slayer) Psionics:   Must have a power point reserve of at least 1 power point. Special:   Must have the Collector of Stories skill trick Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int),...

Poison Elves (originally posted at the RPG Stack Exchange ) A new player character race for D&D 3.5, modeled after the Poison Elves of Drew Hayes ' comic book series. The diametrical opposite of the Grugach, Poison Elves are the urbanized, hookah-smoking assassins of Elvenkind. Prone to substance abuse and impulsive actions, they are nevertheless very capable survivors. Most Poison Elves are Neutral Evil alignment, and their preferred class is Rogue. They are originally descended from the Qualinesti, but were disaffected with the insular nature of their bretheren. Living in Human cities, they gradually developed into a separate race. Many expect the Poison Elves to breed themselves out of existence by intermarrying with Humans, but it is little known that many of them also have Shadar-Kai parentage. LA+0 These traits are in addition to the high elf traits , except where noted: +2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma. These adjustments replace the high elf’s ability score adj...

An Affiliation for Bards The rules for affiliations can be found in chapter 7 of the Player's Handbook II . Name:   The Amazing Chicanery Troupe Symbol:  A white snake, with red eyes and tongue Motto:  Trickery is mightier than the fist Members:  Lukwind, his cohort and followers Secrets:  Lukwind's identity as a Changeling; Rohit's identity as a Vanara; Helena's identity as a half-Drow Type:  Business Scale:  1 (neighborhood) Capital:  1 Criterion: Affiliation Score Modifier Character level: +1/2 PC’s level Charisma 13 or higher: +1 Bard: +1 Can cast 3rd-level or higher illusion spells: +1 Can cast 3rd-level or higher enchantment spells: +1 5-9 ranks in Perform, Tumble, Sleight of Hand or Gather Information: +1 per skill 10 or more ranks in Perform, Tumble, Sleight of Hand or Gather Information: +2 per skill Extraordinary performance as part of the troupe: +1 per performance Has no...

Opposed Haggling Rolls My simple rules for bargaining in D20, and why you shouldn't use them: player rolls either Bluff or Diplomacy (or Charisma check) opposed by the merchant's Profession or Sense Motive (or Wisdom) If the player is buying, subtract the first roll from the second and add to 100%. That is the adjustment to the final price (for example, player rolls 44 and merchant rolls 18, so the player pays 18-44+100 = 74% of the standard PHB price) If the player is selling, subtract the second roll from the first and add to 50% (eg. 44 - 18 + 50 = 76% of standard price) As you can see from the above example, the player could potentially buy an item and then sell it back to the merchant for a 2% profit. However, I make the player roll 1d4+1 for the number of hours that it takes to find a buyer or a seller (a Gather Information check with DC 10 + 1 per 1000gp value). So they need to decide whether to take the standard price (or 50% if selling an item), or to spend...

Maximum spotting distance in the DMG goes up to 6d6x40ft on the plains, for creatures up to Colossal size. However, some Spelljammer ships are even bigger than that. Also, unless you are in an asteroid field or close to a planet, there is nothing to obscure vision. You don't even have the usual limit of the distance to the horizon, which is an important factor in naval combat. In real life, the main difficulties are the contrast/lighting conditions (wooden ships wouldn't reflect much light, but the white sails of some vessels would) and the angular size of the object. A medium-size creature (say, 6ft in height) between 240ft and 1440ft away would have an angular size of between 14 and 86 arc minutes. It is a DC 20 Spot check to notice the creature at that distance. A Drow/Neogi Deathspider with 175ft beam length would appear to be the same size if it was between 7,000ft and 43,000ft (8 miles) away. So if the lookout succeeds at a DC 20 Spot check, then he or she would notice th...