Darksun 3.5e, 4/6

[Raganui Minamoto]

So... got to ask... how many people would play this?

It's DnD 3.5, Darksun setting. If you don't know what Darksun is, I laugh at you. Then tell you to go to

http://www.athas.org/

And get the free books.

Hell, even if you know what it is, do that so you can see how it's done in this edition. Also, note, I will use the Expanded Psionics Half-Giant, not the one in the Darksun book cause it's just wrong...

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ECL: 3 (Cause even peasants are at least lvl 3 Warrior NPC class)
LA: +1
Allowed: All from Athas.org. Main book is Darksun 3 Rulebook. Only exception is you can't be a thri-kreen. Also, using the EPHB Half-Giant, which can be found on the http://www.d20srd.org/
Semi-allowed (books with things I'm taking stuff from or is needed by the Darksun 3 rulebook): PHB, Expanded Psionics Handbook. Basically, anything that the Rulebook says 'look at PHB' or 'look at EPHB' for.
Denied: All else, this is DARKSUN!

It's tough in Athas, only the strong survive. Also, metal is rare and magic items even rarer. You can't spend money on buying magic items, cause NO ONE will sell them, at least not for ceramics. So, uses your heads and stay calm. Now for the important business.

As said Athas is tough, so...
Stats: Come in two forms. Roll and Point Buy. Also, don't delete posts, we'll find you if you do.

Roll: 5d6, drow lowest 2 dice, 7 times.
Point Buy: Cannot be taken if you decide to roll. 42 points.

Starting Gear: Well, here's the big kicker. You will start with no money and I will give you your gear. This is because you'll be starting as slave-gladiators. Why? Cause it's probably the easiest start.  

[Wrasynth Ksyamen]

*Waves his hands around frantically.* OH! OH! OH! I WANT TO PLAY THREE FIVE DARK SUN SO BAD! >_< GIMME GIMME GIMME! *Holds the guild hostage with large guns.* I WANT DM FOR DARK SUN!!! >_< GIMME!!!  

[Plainsfox]

I have some experience with Dark Suns.  

[Raganui Minamoto]

Jiminy Crapsmith, calm down Wrasynth.

3 people do not a party make.

Need at least 4.  

[Rock_DS]

I'll jump on this =3 I know nothing about DarkSun XD Could be interesting

 

[Raganui Minamoto]

Ok, basically... big bad evil dude decided to purge the world of all non-humans, leading a crusade to do so. He was immortal and was really freaking powerful. He had these immortal champions that were dragon blooded that did a lot of it.

Of course, not everyone succeeded. That would be boring. Either way, something happened, not sure what, and the champions turned on the dude. Some died in the process while they were sealing him in ******** NOTHING. Seriously, this dude got his power from a thing called the Black, where shadow people resided... so they trapped him under the black, where there was nothing at all so he couldn't do anything.

About this time, one of them became a 30th level dragon and went berserk, killing some others. Yea, immortality doesn't prevent death from, say, beheading. So, after he came to his senses, he got charged with guarding the evil dude for all eternity.

I should also mention that by this time, the world was a ravaged wasteland cause of them.

That's cause of Defilers as they're called. Arcane magic (except sorcerers) is powered by drawing life from the world itself. You completely destroy an area around you when you cast. Plants, bugs, ect. Hell, even the ground becomes sterile, unable to grow stuff for a very very long time. It's one of the reasons there's the Silt Sea.

Now, as I said, Sorcerers don't cast spells like that... but... they don't exist either. That's cause all sorcerers are Dragonblood... and killed as soon as found.

This is cause of the rulers, who are the remnants of those immortals. They're Sorcerer Psions who call themselves God-Kings. Funny thing, they actually can grant spells to their Templars while the templar is in their City State.

On another note, Gods don't exist. Dunno if there ever were any or not, but basically, when you die, you get thrown into The Gray. Think a massive version of the Wall of the Faithless from Faerun. Except you aren't stuck in a wall, just this super interplanar barrier that your soul wanders around till it disperses. It also prevents things like... Plane Shift! Kinda, it's very hard but if you basically kill off a chunk of the planet you MIGHT be able to get through.

That's right, you're stuck here. Why? So you don't go ruining other planes, ya damn defiler.

Anyways, things native to other planes have a much easier time passing through the Gray.

So yea... now I bet you're wondering about Clerics... seeing as there are no gods. Well, clerics are worshippers of the Elements. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth. They get their power from one of the elemental planes. Well, I think they can do more than that, but they are of one of the planes.

Reason why elementals are taking worshippers? To try and preserve the prime material plane. They draw energy from it to live. Unfortunately, Defilers are killing it off so...

Anyways, read the books, read the wiki, you'll do fine.  

[Rock_DS]

Sounds cool =3 What sources are open and the creation guidlines =3

 

[Raganui Minamoto]

It's up.  

[Wrasynth Ksyamen]

There actually is a 3.5 download on that athas site he linked. I can transfer files over yahoo instant messenger if anyone is interested. My S/N is wrasynth (big surprise.). Anyways this about what I can contribute.


The jist of what the DM was describing was right after the green era where it was a bit more of an a typical D&D world. There were orcs, trolls, pixies, and yes, even your mom's apple fritters. This big bad immortal of which he spoke of convinced living legends. These were essentially paragons, of the epic proportions. They themselves weren't immortal but the legends grew to the point they may as well have. Any ways the big bad immortal convinced these champions that the meta humans would kill everything somehow. Sooo they put together a crusade and marched in all four directions. Trolls, orcs, lizard men, goblinoids, dwarves, and pixies were all hunted to the brink of extinction. Now I'm not too clear as to why the champions turned, but they did.

This was after all these paragon champions were settled into cities. Some of them conquered cities, and others just became citizens and moved up to elected officials. So not all of these champions were bad mostly just misguided. Except whats his face drawf burner or what ever he was called. I put him into the same category as jew burning steve.

That's about all I can really elaborate on. There is a lot more information in the down loads.

Also remember dark sun all the iron and steel materials that could be mined were strip mined. So steel gear and iron weapons are worth their weight in gold. If you want to stop a thief, call him a wizard and he will be stoned to death on the spot. Your torches are actually hollowed out bones with some cloth wrapped around the end burning lard. So you may have to have some of your gear made in inferior materials. How ever I just suggest using the dark sun equipment list. One last thing. Money is done in ceramic bits because of the scarcity of workable ore. So one athasian coin is made up of a ceramic coin scored to be broken up into bits. Depending on which city state your in each ceramic coin breaks up into different numbers of ceramic bits. I think the city state of Draji is like 10-12 bits to a coin. Where as an other city state might have like 5. Also last bit, KEEP CAREFUL CAREFUL WATCH ON HOW MUCH FOOD AND WATER YOU HAVE!

Anyways I'm torn. I think I'll play a mul psychic warrior if that's all right?  

[Plainsfox]

Hrrm.... Half elf or Human Cleric or Ranger? >.<  

[Raganui Minamoto]

Oh yes, I should probably go over the differences in races between your standard DnD (aka Faerun/Greyhawk) and the Athasian versions.

As said, most races don't exist anymore. Or if they do, it's in such a low quantity that no one knows of their existence.

Anyways, from the top.

((Warning: The views and opinions here are how the general human populus sees them.))

Elves:

DnD: While Faerun and Greyhawk elves can be snide bastards, they're smaller than humans and generally forest living peaceful guys.

DarkSun: Athasian elves are generally desert nomads. They're at least 6' 6" when fully grown. They also have the ability to run for days on end without rest... and I do mean it. They don't sleep, don't eat... don't even take fatigue or anything while in their Elf Run state. However... a lot of them are slaving bastards who would sell you and your gear to an arena pit sooner than share water.

Half-Elves:

DND: Rare outcasts who seek to find a place in life.

Darksun: Rare outcasts who seek to find a person they've been hired to kill.

Dwarves:

DND: Mine dwelling craftsmen and warriors.

Darksun: Craftsmen who can be so involved in a task that they zone out from their surroundings. They live in human towns and are basically fully integrated into their society.

Halflings:

DND: Small, quick little fellows who are normally large of appetite and quick of finger.

Darksun: Baby eatting savages who dwell in the few remaining jungles.

Half-Giants:

Well, what do you expect me to say here? They're half humans, half giants... strong and suppose to be dull of wit.

Humans:

DND: Most humans are 0 level commoners who farm or do other tasks.

Darksun: Most humans are at least 3rd level warriors, no matter what the hell they do. Slavery is a common thing to find, as is gladiatorial pits. If you're not strong... you're dead.



Here are the Darksun new (playable) races.



Mul:

Human/dwarf hybrids who are bred to be gladiators. Unable to breed.

Aarakocra:

Bird people who normally live in the mountains... just read about em, too much for a brief description.

Pterrans:

Reptile people that are definitely not lizardmen. If you play one, you must choose a life path: Warrior, Psion, Druid.

Warriors are Rangers, other two are self explanatory. Multiclassing is VERY RARE (maybe non-existent.), cause this is your LIFEPATH. No multi-pathing.


Race you'll be seeing some off, but won't be able to play.


Thri-Kreen:

Big 4 armed bugmen. They live to hunt prey and don't sleep. View most humanoids as food, though they don't hunt them except in dire need. Find elves especially tasty.



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Alright, next up you have the classes. You guys might wanna know the differences.

Bard:

DND: Loremasters who cast arcane magic and normally go about singing and telling stories.

Darksun: Loremasters who will sing till they can stab you in the back. Hired as assassins, they use weapons designed to go with poisons. Will share stories and lore for a price. Non-caster.

Barbarian:

They're barbarians, same in any setting.

Cleric:

DND: Divine casters that worship gods and are given power by them. Proclaim their god's word.

Darksun: Divine casters who are dedicated to an element. Normally gain some behavior based on that element. Most are seen as harmless crazy people. Promote their elements on the Prime Material plane.

Druids:

DND: Treehugging nuts.

Darksun: Rarely found, they attempt to protect the last remains of nature in this damned world.

Fighter:

Uh... yea, they're fighters.

Psion:

DND: A rare person who is normally confused for a wizard.

Darksun: Almost everyone has some psionic potential. Psions are commonplace.

Psychic Warrior:

DND: A rare person who supplements melee with psionics.

Darksun: See above.

Rogue:

DND: Everything from petty thieves to assassins to scouts.

Darksun: Petty thieves. Bards are the assassins now, bitches.

Wilder:

See Psion.

Wizard:

DND: A commonplace arcane user. Does wonders with his magic.

Darksun: A rare arcane caster. Normally evil bastards. Come in two types.

Defilers: 99% of wizards are Defilers, killing the planet with each spell they cast. They drain life from the planet to power spells.

Preservers: That rare 1/100 wizard. These wizards still have to drain life, but do so in such a way that they don't kill things. While this is a pain for most cause they have to be very careful, it allows them to cast and not doom the planet.

For more info, go read chapter 7: Magic and Psionics.



New Classes

Gladiator:

The Gladiator could be called a subspecies of the Fighter. Unlike the fighter, he does not gain bonus feats, instead gaining abilities that one would expect to see from a gladiator. This ranges from things like combat bonuses to feinting, exotic weapon proficiencies, and even the ability to make non-lethal strikes without penalties.

Templar:

Servants of the God-Kings, they gain their power from the God-Kings themselves. They are very much in the 'judge dread' type feel in that they can gain the ability to arrest, judge, and carry out the sentencing of individuals if they have proof... go read for more details.



And that's that.

There are new feats, new uses of skills... oh yea... NO ONE is literate except wizards. Why? Literacy is illegal.

Make sure to read everything and ask if you have questions.


Oh yes, a question for you all.

If I added in Dune Elements (Aka Sand Worms and the Spice), would you continue to play?

If I add these, it should be noted that you can start with Addiction: Melange. If you do, well, fun times there. You not only need to keep some with you, due to the fact that you will die if you stop taking it (for long enough), but you also will gain some benefit. What you gain is random, but is normally helpful.  

[Wrasynth Ksyamen]

Oh and never let the DM roll randomly for weather. o_o It may or may not end in your death with you being unable to do or say anything about it other than, "Oh.". One of the random weathers is that you start taking fire damage from a heat wave. Unless you can get to some cover you die. End of story.  

[Plainsfox]

Water isn't already valuable enough, Raganui? I'd still play though.  

[Raganui Minamoto]

Well, it would be processed in a different way, as a powdered substance that tastes like cinnamon.