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Gaia's Dream House RulesVIII. HOUSE RULES
ACTION POINTS (AP) From the Eberron Campaign Setting: Action points provide a player with the means to alter d20 rolls in dramatic situations, reflecting the luck that can change crushing failure into heroic success. Your character has a limited number of action points, and you must use them wisely, since you don’t replenish this supply until your character attains a new level. You can spend an action point to improve the result of an attack roll, a skill check, an ability check, a level check, or a saving throw; other uses of include activating class features, spell recall, hastening infusions, or stabilizing (see below). When you spend an action point, you add the result of a roll of 1d6 to your d20 roll to help you meet or exceed the target number for the roll. You can declare that you are spending an action point after you have already rolled the d20, but you must do so before the Dungeon Master reveals the result of your roll (whether the attack roll or check or saving throw succeeded or failed). You can’t use an action point on a skill check or ability check when you are taking 10 or taking 20. You can only use action points once in a round. If you spend 1 or more action points on a special action (see below) you can’t spend a point in the same round to improve a die roll, and vice versa. No spell, power or other special ability can allow a character to re-roll an action point die. If a character suffers permanent level loss, he does not lose any action points he has remaining, and any subsequent level advancement provides new action points as normal. If your character is 8th level or higher, you can roll more than one d6 when you spend an action point. If you do so, apply the highest result and disregard the other rolls. As a 15th-level character, for example, you can roll 3d6 and take the best result6 of the three. So, if you rolled 1, 2 and 4, you would apply the 4 to your d20 roll.
At 1st level, you have 5 action points. Each time you attain a new level, you gain a fresh supply of action points equal to 5 + ½ your character level, rounded down. Any action points you didn’t spend at your previous level are lost. You determine your supply of action points after all other issues related to level advancement have been resolved. In effect, this determination becomes step 10 in the process (see pages 58-59 of the Player’s Handbook).
Special Actions Instead of altering the results of a d20 roll, you can use action points to perform one of the special actions described below. In addition, some prestige classes and feats allow you to spend action points to gain or activate specific abilities.
Activate Class Feature: You can spend 2 action points to gain another use of one of the following class features that has a limited number of uses per day: bardic music, rage, smite evil, stunning fist, turn or rebuke undead, wild shape, and other daily or limited-use powers.
Gaia’s Dream House Rule – Spell Recall: As a swift action, arcane and divine spell casters and artificers may also spend 1 action point +1/2 the level of the spell (always rounded up, minimum 2 AP) to recall a previously cast spell or infusion.
Death’s Door: On his turn, a character may spend 3 action points to gain an additional move or standard action while dying; this extra action does not cause the PC to fall unconscious and prone Hasten Infusion: On his turn, an artificer can spend 1 action point to imbue an infusion in 1 round, even if the infusion’s casting time is normally longer than 1 round. Stabilize: When your character is dying, you can spend 1 action point to stabilize at your current hit point total. Spending an action point does nothing for you if you’re already dead. Dazed: When your character is dazed, you can spend 2 action points to "shake it off" and act in the round normally.
NEW FEATS The following feats in Gaia’s Dream are taken directly from the Eberron Campaign Setting, and modify the acquisition and/or use of Action Points. ACTION BOOST [GENERAL] You have the ability to alter your luck drastically in dire circumstances. Benefit: When you spend an action point to alter the result of an attack roll, a skill check, an ability check, or a saving throw, you roll d8s instead of d6s and add the result to the d20 roll.
HEROIC SPIRIT [GENERAL] You have a larger reservoir of luck than the average hero. Benefit: Your action point maximum per level is increased by 3. Thus, you now gain a number of action points equal to 8 + ½ your character level at each new level you attain. This number also represents the total number of action points you can have at each level. Normal: Without this feat, player characters receive and are limited to action points equal to 5 + ½ their character level at each new level they attain. Special: Non-elite NPCs normally do not have action points. By taking this feat, an NPC gains and can use 3 action points every level. Certain elite NPCs may have action points equal to their ECL or CR.
ARTIFICERS The Artificer class from the Eberron Campaign Setting is available as a PC class in Gaia’s Dream, along with all of its extra infusions, abilities and feats from the ECS supplements such as Magic of Eberron,
CHARACTER CREATION New characters in Gaia’s Dream should be created with the 32 point buy option. As DM, I will consider any and all options for PC races and classes. If you have a concept for a particular race and/or class from any of the official D&D 3.5 supplements, please bring it to my attention. We can probably find a way to fit your concept somewhere into the milieu of Gaia’s Dream.
CRAFTING Craft and Profession Skills At 1st level, all PCs receive 8 bonus skills points, 4 of which must be spent in a single Craft skill and 4 of which must be spent in a single Profession skill. At each level beyond 1st, PCs gain 2 bonus skill points per level to increase the ranks of those same Craft and Profession skills by 1 each. These bonus skill points are effectively “secondary” skill points and may not be used to boost other skills. Profession skills are no longer considered cross-class for any PC. No PC may add ranks in more than a single Craft and a single Profession skill with these bonus skill points, nor may the chosen skills be re-trained except as part of a re-training quest. Additional Craft and Profession skills may be gained by spending skill points as normal. This rule effectively allows PCs to engage in crafting and professions without sacrificing training in vital adventuring skills.
Craft Points PCs gain Craft Points each level as detailed in Unearthed Arcana, pg. 97-100. The new Item Creation Feats in that section of UA (pg. 99) may be chosen by PCs as detailed below. Be sure to award your PC with bonus Craft Points when he qualifies for and gains his bonus Item Creation Feat. When spending Craft Points and gold pieces to complete crafting projects, a PC must be in a safe, secure area with access to appropriate workshop facilities. Items cannot be crafted while in unsecured hostile areas or without proper facilities. The new crafted item still appears the next morning after an extended rest, per standard rules. Whenever a PC crafts items, whether or not the PC is spending Craft Points, all spell prerequisites must be met (either by the PC, an ally, or a hired NPC spellcaster) before items may be fabricated. Unearthed Arcana Open Game Content (from d20srd.org): Craft Points
Bonus Item Creation Feats Once during her career, upon reaching a new character level, a PC adventurer may select 1 bonus Item Creation Feat when she attains the appropriate level (that is, the minimum required level for the Item Creation Feat she wants). PCs with the psionic subtype may choose a feat from among the Psionic Item Creation Feats if they wish. PCs without caster levels or manifester levels may still choose a free Item Creation Feat and are still eligible to create magic items. However, such characters must either hire other party members or allied NPCs to obtain and cast the required spells for item creation, or else they must gather rare and special crafting components (which stand in for the required spells) in the course of their adventures. The free Item Creation Feat may not be swapped out for another type of feat, nor may the feat be retrained except as part of a larger re-training quest. PCs desiring multiple Item Creation Feats may spend their feats to obtain them as normal.
DEATH’S DOOR At negative hit points, a PC is dying, but conscious. He loses a hit point each round at the beginning of his turn. Taking any action other a single move action (which provokes attacks of opportunity as normal) drops the PC immediately unconscious and prone. He loses his Dexterity modifier to AC and counts as flat-footed, but is not helpless. As an exception to this rule, a PC may spend 3 action points to gain an additional move or standard action while dying; this extra action does not cause the PC to fall unconscious and prone. When a PC’s negative hit points equal or exceed -10, he falls unconscious and is at death's door. He now counts as helpless. If left untended, a PC does not die. An NPC is forced to make a Fortitude save every hour (DC 14 + 1/hour at death’s door) or die. Normal coup de grace attempts against characters at death’s door take only a standard action. Area effect spells still deal damage (to a limit of -10 hp), but don't kill PCs, nor do attacks that are not specifically intended to kill them. A monster or other DM-controlled adversary has to intentionally kill a PC for him/her to die. Once a PC reaches death’s door, he takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls, damage rolls, ability checks, skill checks and saving throws until he receives either a revivify spell (within one round of falling to death’s door) or a restoration spell. This way, if a single PC drops, s/he's bad off, but as long as the party prevails, s/he can be brought back. This keeps the same level of danger and tension as normal D&D, but removes the ridiculousness of resurrection being an expected part of adventuring life. This prevents continual interruption of the game by having to replace PCs who die.
EXPERIENCE POINT LOSS / LEVEL LOSS All experience point loss for death and crafting magic items is nullified. Characters can never lose experience points or permanent levels for any non-story reason. Because crafting magic items no longer costs XP, if a character ever runs out of Craft Points, he or she must spend an additional 20% of the base cost in gold pieces to complete the fabrication of crafted items (bringing the total cost to craft a new item to 70% of the base cost in gp).
FAVORED CLASS The Favored Class penalties are not in effect for any races in Gaia’s Dream. All PCs may multi-class freely without suffering any experience point penalty, reflecting the amazing diversity of arcane, professional, spiritual and martial competence among the myriad races of Gaia. Instead, characters who adhere to their Favored Class as written (i.e. would suffer no XP penalty for multi-classing under normal D&D rules) receive +1 skill point per level (humans and half-elves would in such cases receive +2 skill points per level).
FEATS Bonus Feat All PCs (but not monsters, standard NPCs or other characters) gain a bonus feat at character level 5. PCs must meet all prerequisites for the chosen feat. Spellcasters are strongly encouraged to select one of the Reserve Feats from Complete Mage, Complete Champion or another of the late-era D&D 3.5 supplements. This extra feat indicates that PCs are exceptional individuals among the populace and are destined for greater destinies, or perhaps for darker dooms.
Changes to Existing Feats:
AUSPICIOUS MARKING [RACIAL] (RS 136) Goliaths place great stock in how the mottled variations in skin pigmentation herald events in that goliath’s future. Your skin patterns indicate that fate has marked you for greatness, and the patterns shift slowly to take new forms. Prerequisite: Goliath Benefit: Goliaths who can see your skin pattern are subconsciously affected by it. You gain a +2 bonus on all Charisma-based skill checks when dealing with other goliaths. In addition, you do not fall to Death’s Door until reaching -20 hit points. Normal: A character reaches Death’s Door at -10 hp.
DODGE [GENERAL] You are adept at dodging blows. Prerequisite: Dex 13. Benefit: You gain a +1 dodge bonus to your Armor Class. A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses, and you do not gain your dodge bonus while flat-footed. Also, dodge bonuses (such as this one and a dwarf’s racial bonus on dodge attempts against giants) stack with each other, unlike most other types of bonuses. Special: A fighter may select Dodge as one of his fighter bonus feats (see PHB page 38).
TOUGHNESS / IMPROVED TOUGHNESS [GENERAL] The Toughness feat is wholly superseded by the Improved Toughness feat from Complete Warrior (CW 101), which provides +1 hp per hit die rather than a single +3 hp gain. Treat all instances of PCs, NPCs, and Prestige Class prerequisites for Toughness as requiring Improved Toughness instead. Accordingly, Improved Toughness no longer has a prerequisite. A fighter may still select Improved Toughness as one of her bonus fighter feats.
LEVEL ADVANCEMENT/ HIT POINT GAIN Experience points will be awarded to the PCs of all attending players at the end of each session. Upon gaining enough XP to advance in level, the player must roll for hit points at the table in front of the DM. If the roll is less than one half the maximum hit die total (half HD+1 at odd character levels), the PC receives the amount indicated on the table for Gaining Fixed Hit Points (DMG 198). All other class benefits are gained normally.
NEGATIVE LEVELS / LEVEL DRAIN Characters who gain negative levels retain those negative levels, and all associated penalties, until they receive a restoration spell or similar effect to dispel the negative levels. However, negative levels never convert to permanent level drain. Only one restoration spell is required to dispel all negative levels on one character, but when cast for this purpose the restoration does not also restore ability damage, nor does it cancel the effects of fatigue, exhaustion or similar conditions. A character who gains negative levels equal to his or her character level is still irrevocably dead, and is not subject to the Death’s Door house rule.
RACES Half-elves receive +1 skill point per level in addition to their other racial advantages.
SPELL RANGES Close: the spell reaches 5 squares away from you. The maximum range increases by 1 square for every two full caster levels (6 squares at 2nd caster level, 7 squares at 4th caster level, up to a maximum of 15 squares at 20th caster level). Medium: The spell reaches as far as 20 squares plus 1 square per caster level, to a maximum of 40 squares at 20th caster level. Long: Simulating fantasy battles on a battle grid with Long range spells (400’ + 40’ per caster level) as written is unfeasible. Therefore, all spells with the Long range are instead treated as having Medium range (20 squares + 1 square per caster level). Range Expressed in Feet: Spells that have their range expressed in feet or that have no standard range category are unchanged.
SORCERERS Sorcerers receive the feat Eschew Materials (PHB 94) as a bonus feat at 1st level. Sorcerers are encouraged to consider the Metamagic Specialist alternate class feature (PHB2), as it fits more closely to the vision of the Sorcerer class within the milieu of Gaia’s Dream.
TACTICAL MOVEMENT & DISTANCE Speed is measured in squares on the battle grid, with each 1-inch square representing a 5-foot square in the game world. A character with a speed of 30’ may move up to 6 squares on the battle grid by using a move action. Moving diagonally works the same as other movement except you can’t cross the corner of a wall or another solid obstacle. You can move diagonally past most creatures, since they don’t completely fill their squares. Measuring distance for spells and ranged attacks is handled exactly as described above. This contradicts the standard 3.5 rules for tactical movement and measurement (PHB 147), which requires “1-2-1-2” counting for diagonals. However, spell radii and other area effects are still measured per standard 3.5 rules.
VULNERABILITY TO ENERGY Some creatures have vulnerability to a certain kind of energy effect (typically either cold or fire). Such a creature takes +1 damage per die above normal from the energy effects, but successful saving throws halve the total damage of the spell, including vulnerability damage. For example, a frost worm with the cold subtype (vulnerable to fire) is hit by a CL9 fireball spell, which normally deals 9d6 fire damage. Because the frost worm is vulnerable to fire, damage should instead be calculated as 9d6+9 (Reflex half). Any effect that deals double damage to creatures which are vulnerable to an energy type (such as Searing Spell [Metamagic], SS 53) instead deal an extra +1 damage per die, which stacks with the +1 damage per die for vulnerability. So if the frost worm in the example above was hit with a CL9 searing fireball would take 9d6+18 fire damage (Reflex half). This house rule entirely supersedes and replaces the normal 3.5 rules for energy vulnerability (MM 317).
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