Friday, March 21, 2014

Death to the Saving Throw, Part 2


  Sorry it's taken so long to post this, but I've been busy with real life stuff for the last week & a half. Some General notes:
  • All spells that allow saving throws are considered automatically failed unless the player takes some specific action to attempt to negate the spell's effect. For example, taking cover behind a suitably large enough pillar, or under a table may negate a spell's damaging effects from affecting the character entirely(or may automatically reduce the damage by a set amount)
  • Shields Shall be Splintered: direct damage spells like lightning bolt, melf's acid arrow, etc. should be subject to this rule.
  • Armor Shall be F%$#ed: Non-magical armor should be able to provide the benefits of a passed save(1/2 damage) if the player chooses to sacrifice the armor vs. AoE attacks like breath weapons, fireballs, & the like.
  • Magical Armor is Spiffy: There are a couple of ways of handling this, and I'm still testing them out. The first is that magical armor automatically reduces the damage of magical spells by 1 point of damage per die per plus that the item provides. The second option is that each plus provides 1-10% magic resistance (depending on how spiffy you want the armor to actually be).
  • Disbelieving Illusions: If the player has cause to believe that  a given spell is an illusion, a flat intelligence check should be enough to prove it one way or another. A penalty to the roll can be applied equal to the spell level.
Individual Spell Notes:
Charm X/Domination:  Automatic failed save when the spell is cast, but there's a % chance per day of the spell giving out equal to the victim's Intelligence + any magical defense pluses + # of days the spells has been active.
Entangle: Bend Bars/Lift Gates roll to be able to move 10 feet in that round.
Grease:  Rather than a saving throw, a Dexterity check makes more sense.
Magic Jar: Possession of new body should automatically succeed unless certain precautions are taken(a magic helm, circlet, etc. that prevents the takeover from occurring).
Polymorph: All these spells still require a system shock roll.

Next time: Monsters

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