Pulpwood! Mint Condition class: The Adept

It's back, baby! I'm hitting Pulpwood! again, as I just realized how close it was to completion. Here is the much awaited Adept class!

Adept
Hit Dice: d8
Skill Points per Level: 5
Favored Save: Reflex
Class Skill: Stealth OR Perception

Adepts are the people who are willing to get their hands dirty, and are willing to do subversive deeds for the greater good. They live in the alleyways, the jungles and in old warehouses. They are masters of stealth, trickery, disguise and moor.
Adepts can be anything from a private investigator to a spy. They can be the big-game hunter or the scrappy-but-lovable pickpocket.

Talents

Silver Tongue- Your Adept is a master of false truths. When they want to make someone believe a lie the Adept is telling, you get a +2 bonus.
Improvement- If this Talent is improved, the bonus increases to +4.

Face Reading- Your Adept can easily read someone's intentions, even past a poker face. They can do a Perception Action Roll to see if someone is trying to hide an emotion.
Improvement- If this Talent is improved, a +2 bonus is added to the roll.

Pick Pocket- Your Adept is a master at picking pockets and cutting purses. When he does this activity, he gets a +2 bonus.
Improvement- If this Talent is improved, the bonus increases to +4.

Trap Expert- Your Adept has spent most of his life dealing with, and disarming, traps of all kinds. He gets a +2 bonus when attempting to locate and disarm traps.
Improvement- If this Talent is improved, the bonus increases to +4.

Infiltration- Your Adept can open almost any lock, and enter almost any building. He gets a +2 bonus when attempting to open locks.
Improvement- If this Talent is improved, the bonus increases to +4.

Exploit Weakness- Your Adept can easily see what will most likely harm an enemy or foe. This could be used to determine if an enemy can only be injured by a certain substance, such as werewolves and silver. The Adept rolls a Perception Action Roll, and if he succeeds, he figures out the weakness.
Improvement- If this Talent is improved, a +2 bonus is added to the roll.

Keen Senses- Your Adept has sharper senses than others. When taking this Talent, the player must choose one of the five senses (taste, touch, sight, hearing, smell). When doing a Perception Action Roll that involves one of those senses, they get a +2 bonus. Note that the bonus to sight does not replace or compound on the Trap Expert Talent. This Talent can be taken multiple times, with the player choosing a different sense each time.
Improvement- If this Talent is improved, the bonus increases to +4.

Backstab- Your Adept knows how to manuver around enemies, eventually finding a weak point to attack them. As a move action, the Adept can attempt a Stealth Action Roll to reach the weakpoint of a target. If they succeed, they can then immediately attack, doing 1d6 more damage on their strike then they normally would. If they fail the Stealth Action Roll, they can not attempt to backstab that enemy for the rest of the battle. The backstab only works on creatures with discernible anatomies.
Improvement- If this Talent is improved, the damage increases to 2d6.

Disguise- Your Adept is a master of disguise and concealment. Given an hour, the Adept can create a disguise to look like almost any person of their relative height and weight. However, the disguise is rough looking, so all close observers have a +2 bonus to their Perception Action Roll to see through the disguise.
Improvement- If this talent is improved, observers no longer gain the bonus to their roll, and the Adept can create disguises that vary his height by up to 6 inches and his weight by up to 100 pounds.

Ambush Sense- Your Adept is surprised by almost nothing. If the Adept is surprised during battle, he only suffers a -1 penalty to his initiative.
Improvement- If this Talent is improved, the Adept suffers no initiative penalty if they are surprised.

Basic 4e - Classes and Races

So, I guess I'm going to work on Basic 4e, because it seems like a fun thing to do. I know it seems as if every day I'm getting farther away from Pulpwood!, but it's always at the back of my mind. This project, however, seems somewhat short term.

So in thinking about how races and classes would be constructed, I worried how to take everything in a class and distill it down into a few core aspects. I also worried that the races were just not interesting enough.

However, I have come up with a solution in the form of Gamma World!

The latest Gamma World, which is technically 7th Edition, uses a reduced 4e as its base. It also has what I see as an elegant solution to the race/class problem.

In Gamma World, each character has two origins which grant them 3 powers each. They can choose from these powers as they level up, choosing either one origin or the other.

Why not do this with Basic 4e? Each race and class could have an ability, a power with some kind of variable usage or even a small boost, and they can choose a race ability or class ability at certain benchmarks. In between, they can gain things such as generic powers and stat boosts.

How Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies will play into this, I'm not sure. I'm also uncertain on how to flesh out some races, such as humans, but we'll have to see.

Got a Little Carried Away

Remember that 'Basic 4e' thing? Well, I've started adapting the classes for it, and it turns out.... it's really easy to do.

I have finished the classes from Player's Handbook 1 and I'm now working on Player's Handbook 2. I have also decided to throw in the Runepriest and the Seeker. I am going the way of Pars Fortuna as suggesting race-as-class, but also have a system to separate them. So for example, the Tiefling in pure B/X mode would have all the Warlock abilities. In "hybrid" mode, the Tiefling and the Warlock become separate  Humans have 6 classes (the four classics, along with paladin and ranger).

Things are still up in the air on some fronts. I think I'm going to have a skill system, but it will be along the lines of LofTP in that it is based on a d6 roll with a reduced skill list. How powers work, paragon powers, epic destinies and the possibility of feats is still undetermined.

It's exciting though!

Basic 4e

So I've been throwing around the idea of making a B/X adaptation for 4e.

You may be asking, "Why is this needed? Do we need another clone/heartbreaker?" Well, it's not and we don't, but that won't stop me.

Why do I want to do this? Because I really like the ideas of 4e, but I don't always like the execution of them. The classes and races are fantastic and flavorful, but they can turn into power bloat later on. The combat system is interesting, but it takes too long to get anything done. B/X had a simple and fast system, but is often lacking in terms of pure, high fantasy flavor.

So what would be in this game?

The 17 4e base races and 20 of the base classes (no seeker or runepriest, as I think those are either too boring or too derivative of the ranger, respectively). They would actually be built in race-as-class with an optional rules set to separate them.

Classes would be simple, having only one or two basic abilities that get better over time. This would be something like the barbarian's rage, the shaman's spirit companion or the bards songs. Same goes for races.

There would be powers, but instead of codified powers, there would be a power creation system. This may be difficult to pull off, but it would for sure be interesting.

Skills and feats are still up in the air, but if they are in the game, they will be much reduced.

I also want to include paragon paths and epic destinies, but I am unsure how to do this currently.

It certainly is interesting and could be a fun project to pursue. I'll keep you updated

Races of Lore Now Available!

Just got the file from Mr. Stater, and he pulled out a pretty nifty little layout for Races of Lore! Click the link over in "Games I've Made" to download the supplement! I hope you all enjoy it.

Psionics of Lore Art

So, I decided for my supplements to stop being artless. Sadly, I have no money to hire illustrators. Happily, I am an on-and-off cartoonist, so I can draw some things!

So, Psionics of Lore will have art, by me! So far, I know I will have a piece for each class and race. I actually just finished the first one, which is of Boruk, the kith-yang psion. The other two characters will be a half-dwarf warmind and a maenad wilder. I think I may also draw some psionic items, and maybe a monster or two.

Either way, this should be cool! I'm in between classes right now, and the ink on my sketch is drawing, but I will post a preview of it when I am done for the day!

Warmind Variants

Here are the warmind variants as a little New Years gift to you all!

 Ardent

            Though most warminds use their trance to increase their attack, some use it to increase their defense. These warminds, called ardents, actually adapt mantles of different states of mind in order to protect themselves.

            Instead of the warmind’s trance granting a bonus to attack rolls, an ardent’s trance grants a bonus to AC.

Godmind

            Godminds hold the gods not only in high esteem, but high in their minds. They portray an aura of holiness, or unholiness, which protects them from enemies.

            Godminds can cast Protection from Evil or Protection from Good, depending on his alignment, twice per day. The spell has the duration of a magic-user’s casting. In exchange, he loses his ability to utilize shields. Godminds can’t be neutral.

Relativist

            Relativists have become masters of controlling gravity with their minds, using it both offensively and as a tool.

            Relativists can manifest the Telekinesis power twice per day (they use their Wisdom bonus when charisma or intelligence is listed in the spell). Relativists move 5 feet slower than their normal pace.

Blur

            The blur has developed a method of speeding up his entire body with his mind, making him insanely fast on the battlefield.

            Blurs can only wear armor up to studded leather. In exchange, they gain the improved initiative of the duelist and the increased movement rate of a monk at half his level to a maximum of +20 ft.

Crystal Warrior

            Crystal warriors have found the ability to manipulate psioncally-charged crystals. He can manipulate them easily, as well as potentially drain power from them.

            Crystal warriors can learn 4 powers normally unavailable to warminds: Crystal Shard, Crystallize, Hail of Crystals and Swam of Crystals. Further, the crystal warrior can draw up to 2d6 PP from any large crystal, psionic or not, once per day. In exchange for these abilities, the crystal warrior can only go into two trances per day.