AD&D Homebrew

I fear I may be crucified for this one. I mean not really, but it may be one of the more egregious liberties my table takes. Because of the very simple & easy to understand and not-at-all-in-any-way-unclear gygaxian prose which fills the PHB & DMG, there's an interesting observation to be made about the lister duration of certain spells. Shocking Grasp, PHB pg 68. The duration is listed as "one touch." The spell explanation says "... which gives a jolt to the creature touched..." and "the magic user must only come close enough to his or her opponent to lay a hand on the opponent's body..." This seems to indicate that the spell must be cast, then the caster must touch their opponent. Simple, right? How long do I have to move & touch my opponent? What if they're fleeing? Am I meant to cast this spell (granted only a 1 segment casting time) in the midst of pitched melee, hope I don't get hit while casting, and immediately touch someone or the spell is wasted? Seems a poor tactical choice for someone with a THac0 of drinking age, an AC that's always hit by a drunken blind housefly, and a HP pool so small that I literally cannot be sneezed upon or I'm dead. If only the spell would say in the description that you have up to a round or a turn (like Jump,) which is how I picture most DM's running it, though then the question of it it could bleed over into the next combat round if cast when the party lost initiative in a bad way happens. My table, of course, picked the fun option. Since the duration is listed as "one touch," we allow it to remain until the touch is used, i.e until the caster calls it forth. You cast it after breakfast before saddling up, then around lunchtime the trolls charge out of the woods, and you tap one for 1d8+1/level. But wait, it gets better/worse! Can I cast 2 of them and have them both in play? Yes, but you can only discharge 1/attack, and you have to specify which hand you wish to discharge it with when you cast it. And if your attack misses, you don't discharge it. Oh, and we do place a limit of 1 per 2 levels of the caster, so you can only have 2 at 3rd, 3 at 5th, and so on. Isn't that OP? It hasn't broken the game yet. MR, good AC, and careful tactics to avoid melee with casters keep it viable, powerful, but balanced. What other spells does this apply to? -Stoneskin, (UA pg 57) who's duration is listed as special, and is said to withstand 1 attack (or attack routine, but I'm not letting it negate a troll's Claw/Claw/Bite, just the first claw.) Volley (UA pg 63) Duration is again special (because it's the duration of the volley'd spell most likely) but again the description says the spell is "prepared" (probably they meant "in memory, ready to cast.") -That's actually all I've found so far. Now I can hear the gears turning inside your head. Wait, Stoneskin is stackable, up to 1 per 2 levels? You must be 7th lvl to cast it, which means you can have 4 Stoneskins layered onto a creature, and since its' range is touch the caster can get the whole party! This is gonna break the world! Not really. The caster has to be able to find the spell, learn it, then memorize it and cast it, burning that spell slot for the day (or at least until they get 6 hrs of proper sleep.) Also, you ever walk around in steel toe-boots and accidently kick something without realizing it until you take your boots off and marvel at how scuffed they are? Stoneskins like that for your whole body, so slowly over time characters are gonna lose them without even realizing it. A single round of missile fire from some goblins might be enough to strip away several layers of protection. Traps may strip away one, or several, and poisoned traps still touch enough to deliver poisons (at least those which don't need to be fully insinuated into the body, just touching the skin is enough.) Fighters going up in melee combat will last a few more hits, but then the protection is gone, and the damage starts. Allowing Stoneskins to be stacked means you can add a few extra monsters to the encounter to balance it out after all. There was also a memorable moment in my campaign where a giant sand-worm thing erupted from the ground and someone used a Wand of Frost to call in a hailstorm above it... and the rest of the party! Since the hail is listed to be fist sized bullets, I ruled 1hp of hailstones = 1 Stoneskin, and deducted all the party's Stoneskins before dealing out (reduced) damage. That character lost their wand privileges for a bit afterwards, and we still reference that moment of bad decision making some 2 years later. Stoneskins offer no protection against magic attacks such as magic missiles or fireballs, so I haven't found it too powerful for my tastes (though i have laughed and cried after a crit was negated by "Stoneskin" and giggled like a schoolgirl when I did the same to one of the players who attacked a well prepared NPC assassin.) As for Volly, my campaign hasn't reached that level yet. The lead magic user is closing in on 12th lvl, and he does have a copy of Enchant an Item, but he's yet to see Volley. I don't anticipate it breaking the game much, even when combined with stacked Stoneskins & Shocking Grasps. And I can always throw more monsters with maxxed out HD, and push the difficulty dial up from "hard" to "very hard." The survivors will get more XP too! Seems like a win-win :)

The Rope of Entanglement (DMG page 153) is a very powerful item. Read as written, it allows the entanglement and capture of anywhere from 16 kobolds to 1 storm giant, holding them fast with no way for the entangled to break free. No saving throw is listed, nor is the need for a "to hit" roll. There are a few counters of course; anti-magic/dispel magic, oil of slipperiness, feather fall if used carefully, self immolation, it can be cut by outside forces, etc. All that said, it's still very OP, so after a lot of playtesting we've made the following adjustments:

-Magic Resistance can resist the rope, which functions at 11th lvl for purposes of checking the resistance.

-A primary target must be designated. Anything within the size limit and within 10' is subject to a save vs spells to avoid being entangled (inspired by the rope of constriction,) but the primary target gets no save.

I'm aware polyhedron magazine had a sage advice where one of the greybeards said it needs to roll to hit @4hd, but frankly that's stupid. (In plate mail I'm harder to entangle compared to leather armor?) These 2 adjustments should keep the Rope powerful and very treasured without it being overpowered. Of course we're still playtesting these alterations, so I guess we'll se how it goes.

One of the last things I can think to add off the top of my head is our crit tables (heavily inspired & refined from Dragon Magazine #39, Good hits and bad misses by C. Parlagreco.) There's crits by weapon type, and fumbles by melee or ranged type. I'll attach the file for y'all to read through if you want. And yeah, that about marks the end of the homebrew that comes to mind. I'm sure there's plenty of other little things we do, some smart, some just because, and some that need revision. There's a whole thing we used to do about called shots, but that was not to my liking so not that long ago I discontinued it and am using the method by the books (wherein called shots simply allow you to possibly target an easier "to hit" AC.) Hope y'all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed sharing it.

Now I get to talk more combat options after that giant post I did coving all the other little things. Let's jump into it:

-"Well aimed shots:" Anyone employing a missile weapon may opt to take a well aimed shot. Fire rate is reduced to 1 shot only, and it occurs after 1st strikes from the losing initiative party. The character gets a +2 to hit. If a crossbow (or another 1 shot/round weapon) is used & immediately reloaded, it is then fired at the same half point each following round of normal shots, or if a second well aimed shot is employed then at the start of the round after that (R1.5 well aimed shot, R2.5 normal shot or R3 well aimed shot...) This is useful for monsters with high AC obviously.

"Sweeping attacks:" A character can try to do a sweeping attack under the following circumstances; they must have sufficient attackers that it's possible (i.e they are swarmed by monsters rushing them,) and their weapon must have sufficient reach. As a rule of thumb, a longsword sized weapon can hit 2 normal frontal attackers, a 2 hander could hit 3, but these numbers been be adjusted by DM fiat based on how the enemy behaves, enemy size, character size, and so forth. Mindless undead that charge to their doom would be swept in higher numbers. If these conditions are met, the character rolls to hit once vs all the monsters, but each target is subject to a repeating -2 to hit, so the first is -2, second -4, third -6, and so forth. Damage is likewise diced once, and reduced by 2 for each successive target. Hammers & other blunt weapons are at -3 to hit successive targets, but damage is still -2 for each.

There is also a possibility of a "Skewering attack" based on the same odds and circumstances of a sweeping attack, but the opponents would need to be lined up & the character would need to employ a long spear or an awl pike of some kind. There is also a strength check in such cases to pull the weapon free after a successful hit.

"Attacking with Abandon:" Picture Luke Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi, right after Vader taunted him about Leia. He went after Vader with full offensive power, disregarding his own defense. Any fighter or fighter subclass can attack with abandon. They get 1 extra attack/round with their melee weapons or fists, and are +1 to hit, (note this bonus to hit is not magical, so a werewolf would not suddenly be strikeable just because it's attacker was attacking with abandon,) but they lose the bonus to their AC from their shield and dexterity, and suffer a -1 to AC besides that. If they need to make a saving throw and the cause is something they are not targeting while attacking with abandon, they save at -1. At the end of the 2nd round of attacking with abandon, the character must make a wisdom check, or falls into a berserk state (see below,) and each following round of attacking with abandon this check is made again at -2, then -4, then -6, etc.

"Berserking:" Unlike attacking with abandon, berserking may only by attempted by a fighter or fighter subclass if the character has a legitimate reason to be mad or very desperate, otherwise they must attack with abandon until they fall to the berserk state. A wisdom check is required in either case, and success indicates the character does not become berserk. While berserk, the following bonuses and penalties apply. 1 extra attack per round, +1 to hit, +2 to damage. The character loses all bonus to their AC from their shield, and their Dex, and an additional -2 after that. They are also at -2 to all saving throws, however they are immune to sleep and charm person spells, and unlike a normal warrior they do not drop a 0hp, they fight on until they are slain at -10 (each round they are in negative HP they should lose 1hp from internal bleeding and so forth, as they are mortally wounded.) Worst of all, berserkers do not differentiate between friend and foe, they attack whatever living creature is closest (in the event they were previously attacking something with abandon, that would be their first target.) berserkers may end their berserk only if there is nothing left standing or they pass a wisdom check after "killing" something. (The victim could be at negative hp or have thrown themselves to the ground and played dead.)

So there you have it. Do note that all the above is fair game for the (intelligent) monsters to use as well.

I feel like diving into some more combat options, but I keep saying I'm gonna circle back on some other things, so let's knock those out first. This post is just gonna be some more odds & ends.

-Perfect memory is rolled for at character creation time. By default, there is only a 1% chance of having perfect memory, though one invented race called Cerebellums have a 2% chance. The benefit of perfect memory is, of course, being able to perfectly recall something that you commit to memory later, but we add more. The time needed to rememorize spells is reduced to only 3 minutes/level (which is why it's very important to track spell limits per day), and as I will also explain below, it greatly assists with the time needed to learn a new spell.

-Ambidexterity is also determined at character creation. By default it's a 12% chance, but elves have a 15% shot (and Champas with their 4 arms have a solid 25% of "multi-dexterity.") The benefit of ambidexterity is a reduction from the penalties of dual wielding, -2 from each hand, so with a 17 dex & ambidexterity, you are not at penalty to hit while dual wielding. I also am unsure if BTB dual wielding allows you to attack first because of # of attacks, but we rule the dual wielding alone does not, but having ambidexterity allows you to gain initiative bonuses of the extra attack(s)

-Thief skill points: Rather than use the charts from the PHB, we allow characters to spend points where they want to put them, i.e a character could ignore "read languages" to pump up "climb walls." There are several balancing factors. Thieves start with 200 points, Assassins with 140, they both gain 30/level. No more than 50 points may be allocated to a single stat (before racial adjustments) at character creation, so no one starts with 100% move silently & hide in shadows. Obviously characters need to train their skills to put points into them. (And I totally stole your method for leveling up, thanks Anthony.)

-We allow any race to play any class (not just Dwarf Magic Users,) and we don't do racial/class level caps or stat caps. The reasoning being is that it's nice to let the players play what they want as long as there is balance against any given class (elves live very long but that -1 to con really hurts them, they're discriminated against because the world is humancentric, etc), and really it doesn't matter when there's a 30% chance (which feels like 70%) that the character is gonna die against a gang of kobolds if they don't play smart. This has led to one player always playing half orcs, but again, it works out all right & the player felt good for playing the characters they wanted.

-We also allow any race to multiclass, not just the non-humans, since there's no level limits. Why doesn't everyone multiclass then? Because the climb for XP is rough, especially when the amounts you get are then divided up among your classes equally or by the rate you used them (A fighter/MU who didn't cast any spells in a fight with goblins would be encouraged to give the bulk of the XP to their fighter class as that's what they used most, contrary to the book, I know.) I do give the xp for 1gp=1xp because otherwise no one is reaching 5th lvl ever. I also give (small amounts of) XP for good roleplay because it is an RPG after all, but that's usually not the focus, more of a bonus for being involved with the world.

-I allow a character reduced to 0hp to make a wisdom check. On failure they fall unconscious. On success they retain enough ability to do something non-offensive, i.e binding wounds, drink a potion, crawl away, shout a short sentence, and so on.

-Also characters can bind their wounds for the round, using about 3sp worth of cloth, restoring 1hp & preventing external bleedout. Useful because getting even 1hp back without spells is very nice in AD&D.

-We handle magic users & specialists learning spells like so: It takes 2d4 days /spell level to learn the spell. If the caster uses a single casting of "read magic" then the time is 2d4 hours/spell level instead. If the character has perfect memory, the time is reduced to 20% as well, so a caster with perfect memory using read magic could learn a 1st lvl spell in just 24 minutes! (1 hour/5 = 12 minutes) Pretty nifty, but of course they have to pass the % roll to learn the spell otherwise they must level up & try again if they want it.

-Speaking of which, Magic Users in my campaign do not need to try to learn all their spells to level up. I see no point in forcing it, they're gonna go for the spells they want regardless & will be resentful if they're forced to learn Grease and fill up their mental capacity only to later get Magic Missile and not have room for it (there is a dangerous way to attempt to unlearn spells in my world, but it's not commonly used, as the side effects could be pretty bad & there is a chance of failure.)

-And while I'm on that tangent, I allow magic users to write spells if they have the materials without using write, but it takes 1 day/level of the spell, whereas with Write it takes only 1 hour/level of the spell. Perfect memory does not effect these times.

-Also we allow characters to start at max HP, and we also let them re-roll hp rolls that are under 1/2 (so a fighter rerolls on 1-4, but keeps a 5.)

Now, I imagine if you've been reading through all this, you're probably thinking that despite my claims of sticking mostly to the spirit of the books, my table does seem to play kinda fast & loose and has a lot of mechanics that lead to munchkin characters. I mean, imagine an Immortal Fighter/Magic User/Assassin with perfect memory & ambidexterity & stats rolled using 6d6 & better than 50% normal HP & everything else? It'd be a crazy strong character!

You're right. It would be strong. That's why I frequently max out monster HP or numbers appearing. That's why some encounters are "layered" onto each other, such as that time the party went into the lair of a Gargantuan Spider (big big spider, homebrewed, I'll share it someday,) and faced a shit ton of large spiders & huge spiders, and quite a lot of giant spiders. They got full XP for all monsters when they were victorious, but it was a fight to remember. Character deaths have been high, at least 20 or so have died from poor decisions & bad luck. One poor soul thought they could split away from the party for a few hours to explore the wilderness in the night & was hypnotized by a hypnosnake & eaten for breakfast. 4 died to a massive blue dragon after they chased a tribe of Sisthik down to it's lair, and then another 2-3 died in a second assault on the same dragon. I wiped a party of 8 or so with a nightmare at one point (not my happiest moment, but the dice rolls & monster actions were legitimate.) We play at a more powerful level, so I get to ramp up the monster's power to match!

This isn't to say the party is always dying & failing. They have stopped an evil cult from recovering a scroll with very important magics inscribed on it, and delivered the scroll to an opposing force of good. They have defeated demons & devils (or at least banished them to the outer planes again,) and are currently on the trail of a wicked necromancer who has an interesting connection to the Immortal Magic User. Everyone seems to be having fun, and no one has quit the campaign on me yet for being too Monty! Anyways, enough bragging, this got really big, hope y'all enjoyed it, till next time.

Today's the day, let's talk about magic users! Put on your robes and wizard's hats... or instead a suit of leather armor?

1st adjustment: Mu's have an abysmal HD and no options for armor outside of magical items such as bracers of defense or rings/cloaks of protection. Therefore we allow magic users to wear leather or padded armor and still cast spells, but nothing else (other than the ultra rare elfin chain of course.) No studded leather, just regular leather. If that seems too Monty, I gently remind y'all about elven casters in plate mail (which we don't allow, more on that later.) Base AC 8 +Dex adjustments isn't going to break the world. The magic user was in leather armor, and he still ended up curled in a ball under the wagon with his winter blanket when the party was jumped by a Kamadan (true story.)

2nd adjustment: Spell ranges & AOE are not adjusted for indoor areas. Missile fire makes sense since you need to arc your shots which is hard with a 10' ceiling. Fireball still has a 2" radius AOE. It is devastating, and extremely careful precautions are needed to avoid back-blasting the party, but it is useable underground.

3rd adjustment: MU's may rememorize 2 spells per slot per day. If they have a spell left over from the previous day, they can cast that as well, since the "gun" was loaded the previous day. Therefore, A 1st lvl caster can cast at most 3 spells per day, assuming they had one left over from the previous day. This keeps casters decently relevant without becoming overpowered since they still need to spend the 15 minutes/spell level to rememorize their spells (unless they have perfect memory, more on that later.)

4th adjustment: No Illusionist Class. Yeah, let me explain. So we figured "if there's an illusionist class, why not a necromancer? Why not an Alterationist, an Enchanter/Charmer, an Evocationist?" The answer is that half of those were probably introduced in later Dragon Magazine articles, I haven't read them all. We came up with a simple solution. A magic user can become a specialist in one of the 8 schools of magic when they level up. When they cast spells from their school of specialization, they are effectively 1 level higher, but if they cast a spell from any of the other schools, they are effectively 1 level lower. The Necromancer at 3rd lvl casts only 1 magic missile. The Evocationist casts 2 missiles at 2nd. It's a rough Band-Aid, and I can see it not being appealing, but I really didn't want to make 7 different specialist classes & figure out their spell lists. (I mean I could have just gone by the book, but then I would have spared myself the headache of figuring this out, and we can't have things be easy can we?)

5th adjustment: Dwarf Magic Users. Alright here we go. So the PHB lays out that dwarves get bonuses to saves vs Spells & RSW based on their constitution. I genuinely don't know why, but I was taught those 5% increments are actually Magic Resistance (I know, way more powerful!) So a dwarf with an 18 con has 25% MR, 17 has 20%, and so on. So if a dwarf wanted to be a magic user, every time they cast a spell they would have to check against their own MR (calculated at their current level, so at 1st lvl with an 18 con there is a 75% chance of outright spell failure!) The benefit of course being that they have Magic Resistance. I'm actually gonna check this with my DM and see why we do that, because that does feel really powerful.

6th thing: We allow magic users to detect magic as an innate power, but it's limited & can give false positives & negatives. At character creation, roll 1d100.

1-80 = by touch, triggers curses.

81-90 = by smell, 1' range, seems nuts but fairly safe.

91-95 = by hearing, range 5' (hard to pinpoint, very maddening)

96-99 = by taste, seems crazy but fairly safe.

00 = by sight, range 3', otherwise as the spell detect magic

Anyways, that all that's fit to print with magic users that I recall right now. I'm sure there's more, the more I type the more I realize we've kinda just reworked 50% of the game.

Again, sorry it's been a few, things ended up happening that ate up all my time. Anyways, today I feel like sharing some actual homebrew that isn't mechanical in nature.

Some time ago I was gifted with a player who was full of ideas from later editions; he wanted to bring in a whole bunch of new races and classes and convert them to 1e so he could use them in my world. I told him if he did the legwork and the product was balanced and would fit in the world, I would consider it. One of his inventions, a four armed race, was close, but not quite there, so I finished it up:

Champa

Stat adjustments -1 str, -1 con, +1 Dex, -3 char, -4 com

Movement speed: 9"

Special Abilities/Attacks: 25% chance of multidexterity (I'll discuss this in a later post.) Extra arms give + 1 unarmed attack, or +3 attacks with melee weapons.

Height table

1-30 under height

31-95 average

96-00 over Height

Under Over

Male Height 40" 1-4 1-8

Female Height 36" 1-4 1-6

Weight table

1-20 under weight

21-65 average

66-00 overweight

Under Over

Male Weight 80# 2-16 3-24

Female weight 75# 2-12 2-20

Age table:

Assassin 1d6+6

Cleric 1d8+6

Fighter 1d4+4

Holy warrior 2d4+4

Magic user 2d6+6

Monk 2d4+8

Ranger 1d4+6

Thief 1d6+4

Age Brackets:

1 infant

2-3 young adult

4-10 mature

11-14 middle age

15-18 old

19-20 venerable

Thief skills adjustments: (we handle these differently as well.)

pickpockets:

open locks:

find/remove/set traps:

move silently:

hide in shadows:

hear noise:

climb walls: +20%

read lang:

find hidden doors:

pass with out trace:

info gathering: -50%

tracking:

Disguise: -150%

So there's that. Simply assessed, the race gains the benefit of 4 attacks when using one handed weapons, but it's incredibly short stature means anything longer than a short sword becomes problematic for it to wield. A -1 to str & con means it's not really a great frontline warrior, but the +1 to dex & multidexterity (again, I'll explain this later,) means using multiple weapons is encouraged. Even if the character gets lucky and finds a girdle of giant strength, the abysmal lifespan means that the character has a short time to shine, and any encounters with a ghost are potentially lethal. Armor will be a pain point, as no suit of armor will allow the 2nd set of arms to work without being custom made. I feel it's fairly balanced. And this also reveals my table rolls not only for starting age, but also height and weight. And our system for thief skills is different too.

Of course, I also invented then as monsters you can encounter as well:

Champa

Frequency: rare

No. Appearing: 5-50

Armor Class: 6

Move: 9"

Hit Dice: 1-6hp

% in lair: 85%

Treasure Type: D

No. of Attacks: 4

Damage/Attack: by weapon or 1

Special Attacks: nil

Special Defenses: nil

Magic Resistance: standard

Intelligence: low

Alignment: Neutral

Size: S (usually 3'-3'6)

XP value: 15 + 1/Hp

Champas are small humanoids with four arms. They live in a tribal society and spend most of their time lounging around or hanging from trees. They are omnivorous, but tend to forge for berries or herd small cattle rather than hunt. They are very good climbers, and can climb walls as a thief of 6th lvl. They can use primative spears, daggers, slings, and other small weapons. Champas attack with all 4 of their arms when forced to defend themselves, but are generaly pacifistic in nature and will run rather than fight.

For every 10 Champas there is a leader of at least 6hp, with 1 assistant of at least 4hp. For every 25 there is a sub-chief of 8hp with 1-2 guards of at least 6hp. For every tribe of 40 there will be a chief of 12hp (2hd) and AC 5, and 2-8 bodyguards of a full 8hp.

The weapons used by Champas are as follows: (d20 roll)

1-4 clubs 25% (1-5)

1-4 daggers 20% (6-9)

3-12 darts 15% (10-12)

1-4 short swords 5% (13)

sling w/ rocks 10% (14-15)

3-12 javelins 10% (16-17)

1-2 spears 15% (18-20)

Champas appear very similar to humans, with similar skin tones, hair and eye colors and so forth; however they have four arms, much shorter stature, and proportionally higher weight. They wear ragged furs, and speak their own language, but are intelligent enough to learn others such as common. They tend to be friendly but cautious around strangers. They live very short lives of about 18 years or so.

(since my table doesn't do psionics I never included that. I'd imagine they have average to low chances of psionic ability compared to other races.)

Enjoy.

Sorry it's been a bit, ran a session yesterday so no post from me. Anyways, today's topic; Paladins. Great class. We throw them out.

Overly dramatic perhaps, but read on.

Behold, the Holy Warrior. Inspired by the existence of the Antipaladin, (or the Celestial Knight,) the holy warrior is the title of whatever class serves as a "paladin" for deities which care to have them. The Sun Goddess Sarine has Sun Warriors, Nemesis, the Goddess of Revenge, has Avengers, Dactorine, the Death God, has Knights of Death, and the list goes on.

The holy warrior is very similar to the generic paladin in many ways, but the specifics of powers, stat requirements, and so forth are tweaked to match each deity. Is it a ton of work? Yes. Is it rewarding to see one played & enjoyed? Hell yeah .

Some of the general powers that usually always make it through in some form would be;

-Detection of XXXX 2" when focusing. Could be good, evil, undead (the death god hates the undead), whatever. Sometimes the range in adjusted. Usually it's unlimited uses/day, but requires focus.

-Bonuses to saving throws, usually +2

-immunity to XXXX. For some reason I have a hard time tweaking this one to a good balanced place.

-Lay on hands 2hp/level 1/day. Pretty standard. I think one of my holy warriors doesn't have that power, instead they have "Harming hands" which does what you think it does, save vs death magic for 1/2 damage. But that god is an evil bastard so it made sense to me he'd rather have his holy warriors take an offensive power over a healing one.

-Protection from XXXX 10'-1" radius. Again, could be good, evil, undead, elementals, whatever.

-Affecting undead as a lower level cleric. Most are just the standard -2 levels. The Knights of death are actually only 1 level lower than usual (again, death god hates the undead.) On 1 or 2 occasions, the power is absent entirely.

-Warhorses. Not always at 4th lvl. Not always a warhorse. One evil bastard god allows his followers who achieve 12th lvl to hunt down and kill a pegasus and convert it into a Nightmare. Lots of creative things to be done here.

-Holy weapons & circles of power. This is one thing I tend to leave alone, the Holy/Unholy Avengers/Reavers are decently well crafted & easy enough to use without tweaks. Some gods may have special holy weapons, i.e the Fire God's followers may well have bonuses with flame-tongue swords.

-Clerical spells at nth lvl. This one gets swapped around a lot.

The restrictions of the Paladin class can also carry over and are tweaked as well. The Magic God's holy warriors are not allowed shields & only 2 weapons, but are allowed 8 magic items they can use. The restrictions on excessive amounts of wealth & requirements of tithing are pretty standard (the good guys don't want to be excessive, the bad guys demand tribute, it all works out,) and of course all the deities refuse to work with the other alignments outside of a 1 adventure basis... usually (I tend to be fairly flexible on that since I want my players to play what they want.) There is of course an absolute mountain of ideas that can be worked with holy warriors. One of mine attacks using the magic user matrix & gets only a d6 for hit dice because they're really "holy magic users," instead of fighters. Another one has 2x XP requirements to level up, but has some premium powers if the character can make it to high level. Usually the stat requirements are altered as well. It all comes down to creativity & playtesting & refinement.

Or you could just use what the books & magazines give you. That sounds a lot easier, and all the hard work's already been done. Yeah, only an insane lunatic would insist on re-inventing the wheel...

"Mechanical deviations;" oh boy do we have a few. While I do respect Anthony's choice to go as close to the book as possible and not tinker with experimental rules endlessly, I find I enjoy the tinkering just as much as campaign work, of which there is still plenty. I guess I have more free time on my hands or something. Anyway, let's dive in with some out of combat adjustments!

-We rule all magical armor to be weightless & non-encumbering, as per PHB pg 36, even though the DMG says right there on pg 28 that it's half weight. I could swing either way with this, but I tend to rule in favor of the players when things get murky. Of course that means the various NPCs who may or may not be friendly are also running around in weightless magic armor.

-Also we rule that magic armor can change sizes, from as small as a halfling (2'6") to as tall as a hill giant (10'6".) This has resulted in an instance where the party fought a hill giant clad in +3 bronze plate mail, a memorable occasion to be sure. Magic weapons obviously don't change sizes, nor do shields.

-Instead of weapon specialization, we allow fighters & fighter subclasses to "stack" weapon proficiencies, up to 5/weapon. The benefit of doing so is that you attack at 1 level higher than actual per extra proficiency when you use said weapon (so a 1st lvl character that put everything they got on the 2 hander attacks at 4th lvl, and this bonuses includes multiple attacks/round considerations.) The drawback of stacking is that if you are disarmed then you better have a good backup weapon otherwise you gotta eat that -2 to hit due to a much smaller pool of weapons you're proficient with.

-Something I forgot to mention with Evasion, the bonus you get to AC (1-6 or 3-8 for thieves/assassins) is also a bonus to saving throws vs avoidable attack forms such as red dragon's breath .

-Something likely to change now that it's been a few years and we're all a lot smarter as players, we've been generation characters via 6d6 keep the highest 3 for all 8 stats (including Perception & Comeliness, which we've tweaked a bit, more below.) We'll probably go down to only 5d6, but with a 1st lvl party of 6 of those 6d6 characters we still party wiped against like 12 kobolds in our first 2 sessions, so it was a needed power boost at the beginning. These days when I roll my characters, I pick my race, then roll 5d6 & keep the stats in order and figure out a class from what I got. A lot more fun, and a lot less "powergamey" in my opinion.

-Speaking of comeliness from earlier, we rule it to literally just be the physical attractiveness of the character in question. It does not affect charisma. I have suggested implementing the rules from the Unearthed Archana regarding racial comeliness adjustments, but we haven't used them yet. It is admittedly a mostly pointless stat, but it does shine occasionally for roleplay purposes.

-At first it thought this was by the book until I read through both the DMG & PHB and realized it wasn't listed anywhere. "Neutral" Alignment, which is different from "True Neutral" which is done by the book. Neutrals tend to be in the middle of the road when it comes to good vs evil & law vs chaos. If the neutral sees a full money pouch lying on the side of the busy market, they will look around and see if anyone is hurriedly checking the area & return it if so, but if not they may shrug & keep the money, maybe tithe at the nearest temple with some of it. A good character would of course do their utmost to return it while an evil character would only look around to make sure they could steal it without repercussion. A neutral person will turn right on a "no turn on red" light if no one else is around. They don't make a habit of breaking the law, but if it's just in the way for no reason other than pointless bureaucracy, they're fine bending it a little for self gain, but screwing other people to get ahead in life isn't their goal. On reflection it does feel a bit like a cop out of having to pick your alignment & stick with a set of ethos, but it's already established in world so I'm sticking with it.

Getting long winded again. Gonna stop for now. Next up, the long awaited thingy about how we do Paladins.

So the party defeated Vaprak, & the magic user who threw the killing fireball uttered the following wish: "I wish to inherit the powers and abilities of the Forsaken I have killed." In return he not only got Vaprak's impressive regeneration and Magic Resistance, but also immortality. Now there's a point of contention that really immortality isn't a "power" and would need a second wish, but I was not the DM of that campaign so I didn't have a say in how it was handled, nor do I believe it was Monty of the DM to bestow what he did, because as I'm about to share we have immortals well established and there are a number of drawbacks.

Here's a list of the "standard powers" of immortals:

- True Seeing 3x a day, 6" range, lasting for 2 turns.

- Know Alignment, 2" range, when concentrating.

- Penalty of 2 on charisma check for those attempting to lie to the Immortal.

- Immune to mundane weaponry, +1 or better weapon to hit.

- Immortals will have either antipathy or neutrality from normal animals.

- Regeneration of lost body parts slowly over time.

- Immune to temperature ranges from -40f to 180f

- Cannot be raised from dead or resurrected, once dead they are permanently destroyed.

- Detection of other immortals & powerful beings (we have an entire chart for this, The more powerful the being, the smaller their 'radar' is, so weaker monsters can and will flee before the Immortal detects them. Also immortals detecting immortals have a "dead zone" wherein they know another immortal is close but lose the sense of distance & direction.)

- Save on a 3 or better

- Immune to normal diseases.

- Required sleep is 1/2, but need full amounts for spells.

- Able to regain lost Life Energy levels at a rate of 1/month.

- Immortals eat and become hungry, but they cannot die of hunger or thirst.

- Able to turn & effect undead as an 8th lvl cleric, as well as creatures from the outer planes.

- Able to sense magic on touch

- Immune to aging attacks, the effects are very temporary and reversed almost immediately.

That's quite a power boost isn't it? Saving throws of 3 or better (which means using something like a ring of protection +1 effectively means you only fail on a 1,) regeneration of lost limbs, regaining energy drain, +1 or better to hit, Turn undead at 8th lvl?!! Feels quite Monty, right?

The first balancing factor is that the newly minted immortal does not gain intrinsic knowledge of their new capabilities. The magic user had no idea he had true seeing until he attempted to disbelieve something, and only though careful experimentation (for fear of overexertion and frying his brain) has he learned the time limit and 3/day limit.

The second factor is the radar. Undead of all varieties detect him before he detects them. Most will flee, but a lich may well investigate the new power. Worst still, creatures from the upper/lower planes also can detect the immortal, which was quite a boon to the 6 Babau demons who were sent by Orcus to drag the newly minted immortal before him so he could "bargain" with the magic user for his servitude. The powers that be do not like competition after all, and a freshly hatched immortal is that much closer to attracting worshipers and becoming a demigod.

Thirdly, most importantly, death of a mere immortal (as opposed to a demigod or greater) is absolute. There is no chance of resurrection. The magic user, despite his saving throws and regeneration and Magic Resistance and only hit by +1 or better, is the most vulnerable member of the party in a way. He is one failed magic resistance check & saving throw away from permanent death, and he usually plays very carefully because of that.

Much like how it's good practice to allow a lower level party who just got their hands on "Find Traps" bypass large sections of the "mostly traps dungeon" and haul the loot back and level up with little drama so you can challenge them with harder maths, allowing a character to achieve immortality with reasonable limitations and Achilles Heels will allow them to skyrocket into high level play, quantum physics level even, where they'll quickly learn how to do math at such a higher level or perish.

This has gotten long so I'll end it here. Later on I'll cover some more mechanical deviations from the book my table uses. Heresy to be sure, but we have fun, which is the important part.

Thanks Allan, Anthony. To keep things in order I guess I'll just add things here so it's nice and organized. So the next bit of homebrew that comes to mind is, like many of them, inspired by a dragon magazine article, specifically #133, "Notice Anything Different?" by Thomas Ruddick. The perception ability score. In use, we call for perception checks whenever there's a case of needing to know if there's something the character would have noticed. It could be how the captain of the guard seems nervous when questioned about his whereabouts on the night of the murder (but due to the captain's high charisma score the character is at a penalty of 8 when they make their perception checks,) or it could be hearing the goblins rustling in the brush as they prepare the surprise attack on the party. My table actually has kind of substituted perception checks for surprise rolls in a way; if the characters are unaware of the prior mentioned goblins then the monsters get a chance to attack in 1 segment for their full # of attacks, just like if the party had rolled poorly on a surprise roll. Unlike Evasion & parrying, I think my preference for perception has a lot to do with the fact that it's just what I was taught, and less with its merits as a system compared to just using the built in surprise mechanics, which I think it's fair to say are hard to parse; at least until you read Anthony's thing about it. Since I'm doing these in twos, lets jump over to one of my favorite flavors of the campaign; the introduction of the contents of the Deities & Demigods as Forsaken Immortals. Firstly allow me to clarify, my world appears in no books and no modules. Denalia is strictly my own creations mixed with every good idea I've ever been inspired by (stolen.) From the cities to the citizens to the gods themselves, I made the world so I could know every single facet of it it all its imperfect glory. I frequently homebrew monsters & magic items too, because my campaign contains a veteran AD&D player & a couple really quick learners and they'll be terribly bored if I don't keep things fresh & interesting. Anyways, the point I'm getting at is that I take pride in making my own stuff when I can, so why do I use the Deities & Demigods? And what are Forsaken Immortals? Well, simply put, the Forsaken immortals are the gods of other worlds from across the multiverse who send their avatars forth into new worlds to seed worship. These avatars are powerful and mighty (for a god seeking to establish a worshiper base in a new world must be capable of inspiring such worship, yet they lack the full suite of powers that a true divinity posses. The big thing is that if their avatar is slain then that Deity is no longer present on the world & has failed to make a foothold, which is undesirable. The Gods of Denalia are rather busy and see this as an opportunity to pass of some of the work to the mortals, so they issued a universal edict. From the blackened pits of the abyss where Nemesis reigns, to Sarine's golden cloud castle above the tip of the mountain in the 7th layer of heaven, every deity in between, every power-that-be is offering a singular Wish without strings to the one who lands the killing blow on a Forsaken Immortal. That's right folks, no monkey's paw, just 1 Wish based of your intent, and every single mortal knows about it, from the highest of kings to the lowliest of beggars. Needless to say, this makes being a Forsaken Immortal a very hard life. Now let's not get ahead of ourselves, I know at least a few people reading this know how tough some of the Deities & Demigods can be Cough Cough. Imagine a high level party encountering Vaprak the Destroyer, trying to cut him down, only to witness his spectacular regeneration. Imagine the fear, the panic, the deep desire to be the one to land the killing blow and claim the Wish! This is the peak of high stakes gaming that I've participated in so far, because my group (on a different world) was the one to lay the Troll God dead. It was a brutal fight, I am amazed we didn't lose anyone, but to be fair the party was quite bloated and we used a horn of Valhalla. What makes the forsaken deadly isn't just their high HP or attacks/round, and it's definitely not their laughable AC (Seriously, they call themselves gods with positive ACs?), but also the fact that the DM candidly told us these beings are fighting for their lives and will not hold back. Also many have spell usage (MU / Illusionists via spellbooks, Clerical and/or Druidic via prayer to "themselves.") Vaprack casted Resist Fire onto himself before combat began, and his high MR almost stopped the fireballs we sent as parting shots (having downed him only long enough to hop onto our horses & wagons & ran out of there at top speed.) Anyways, I apologize this turned into a ramble. Perception scores. Deities & Demigods as high stakes "no strings" Wishs on legs. Good stuff. I think next I'll share what we do for the "standard" powers of Immortals, and maybe how we handle certain classes like the Paladin & Illusionist. Probably tomorrow morning or so, or maybe later tonight if I get bored. Till then.

Design work is always fun. I don't use much homebrew for core rules ofc, but it's always fun to read other takes.

I don't think I would use the evasion rule, but I have mulled over a somewhat more-robust parrying rule over the years, and comparing die rolls (like an opposed roll in CoC) against a THAC0 baseline seems quite reasonable. It never felt right to me that only high-strength, magic-wielding PCs could parry effectively. (I haven't recently revisited Arthur Collins' Duellist class from Dragon #73, which I think had some additional rules for parrying in its class features).

Happy to see more options from your campaign :D

Allan.