House Rules

• The DM keeps the official copy of all characters. No character may enter play until the DM has an official copy of that character.
• You have 3 game sessions to finalize your character. That is, you can make any revisions you think necessary for the first 3 game sessions. The character becomes official on the 4th session that character is played in, after which any revision needs DM approval. However, any revisions made still need DM approval to get in. This is to make sure the character in play actually matches the idea you had for it.
• New characters beginning after the campaign has progressed will start with XP equal to two-thirds the average total of all the other existing PCs. If above level 1, they get equipment equal to the DMG NPC guidelines for a character of their level. Otherwise, if level 1, they get normal starting equipment. Dependent on background story, the DM is likely to also grant the player one 'special background item' which will further raise the value of starting equipment.
• All the PHB races are open, although half-elves, half-ogres, and half-orcs are extremely rare and should be discussed with the GM.
  • Once the campaign is at higher levels, players with interesting concepts for a character using other races from the MM or other published sources may query the DM for approval.
• All PC & NPC classes published in the PHB are used, and several prestige classes have been approved for the setting.
• Feats, Skills, Spells, and Equipment as listed in the PHB and any of several additional feats and skills listed on this site are allowed.
• No character can have an evil alignment. Good is recommended. Chaotic Neutral does not mean your crazy and can do anything.

Stat generation:

The Duchy is a hard place, and the characters need every bit of help they can get. At the same time, I want to keep things fairly equal between players, so the following system has been implemented. It is recommended that a player FIRST put a lot of thought into the character concept and background, write the complete background, and THEN actually build the character. That's the best way to get more points. Its also the best way to build a character that you will be able to role-play to the hilt, thus garnering you more enjoyment, as well as the lucrative exp awards, which good role-playing brings.

Points Available to Spend on Ability Scores

• 30 points plus:
  • +1 for a background story that works with the setting. Players are encouraged to read this website's gazetteer on the Duchy and the Kingdom. This point cannot be earned if the DM is the one who provides the hooks into the setting for the player. The point is to get the player's involved and aware, not the DM. :-)
  • +1 if you have 1 or more major and/or 3 or more minor plot hooks built in. (A major plot hook is something that drives the story and gives the DM options to work with nearly every game session. It must be easy to work in under most normal circumstances. A minor plot hook is anything that can give such story ideas but will not do so consistently on a regular basis.)
  • +1 for a character phobia or drawback. Must be a consistent part of the character's background story, and must have good potential for in-game repercussions. (Examples include a phobia of a specific creature type, such that the phobia will come up in the game, but not necessarily very frequently -- or an addiction to gambling.
  • +1 for a character illustration -- I don't care who draws it, as long as it's a representation of what they 'really' look like. Don't draw a frog and call it your character but a cartoon-like sketch or digital artwork are both great. You can get experience points, but not character points, for doing character illustrations of other player's characters.
  • +1 for having a miniature of your own that looks like the character, painted or not.
• All of these bonuses are stackable to a maximum ~35 points. You can only take each item once. A bonus is not given until the reason for it is achieved. You can design the character assuming you'll get it of course, but keep in mind that things like plot hooks are judged by the DM. As mentioned above, a character has until its 3rd gaming session to be finalized, and thus the third session to complete these bonus efforts. Efforts turned in late are still worth experience points.

Ability Score Point Costs

Please keep in mind that ability scores are paid for BEFORE applying racial modifiers, thus stats can be higher than 18 for those races which get bonuses to their stats

Skill Points

In order to encourage players to at least partially match their skill-sets with their background, the following house rule is being implemented as an incentive. In addition to starting skill points as provided by the class selected, all players may spend 3 additional skill points on 'background skills.' These skills are to be spent on skills which best mesh with the characters background from before the character took up training in their current class. These background skills are to be treated as 'class-skills' for the spending of these 3 points (and ONLY these 3 points), thus 3 points will buy 3 ranks.

A typical example would be a character whose background indicates he was the son of an innkeeper. The best skill for him to spend those points on would be Profession (Innkeeper). Another example, if the character background indicates he was raised by the local temple, those skill points would be most sensibly put into Knowledge (Religion). Granted, if that player went on to become a priest, the skill also matches his class-skills, but the point is that the points were spent on the most logical skill as drawn from his background.

Typically, players must spend these extra skill points on Profession, Craft, or Knowledge skills. As the point of these extra skill points is to encourage rich backgrounds which mesh with the pc's abilities, please see your DM if you feel it makes more sense to spend the extra points on skills outside of those areas. An example would be a player who was raised by a horse-breeding family. Handle Animal would make sense for this pc, and the DM is likely to approve it.

Class-Specific House Rules

Clerics

In addition to being able to spontaneously cast healing spells in place of other spells memorized, as indicated in the rules, a Priest may attempt to swap out any spell available for the day with any other spell of equal or lower level (provided the new spell is one which they can cast). Doing this is a full round action during which the priest beseeches his deity and prays (for forgiveness for choosing poorly when first making his choices for the day, for deliverance from whatever plight requires the change in spell, or something similar).

At the end of the round, the priest makes a Diplomacy Check vs. DC 15+. The DM will also add or subtract modifiers from this DC based on the level of piety and faith which the priest has exhibited lately. On a successful check, the god (or one of his minions most likely) hears the pc, and grants the request. At this time the spells swap, and the new spell is available to cast on the next round. On a failure, the god has not listened, and the priest's prayers go unheard. If the check fails by 5 or more, the priest should not attempt to beseech his deity for such favors any further this day.

The player MAY retry this attempt on either a success (for other spells swaps) or failure, however, after a failure by 5 or more, any second attempt that day which ALSO fails by 5 or more will annoy the deity and ALL of the priest's spells for the day will be wiped.

This will leave the cleric with no more magic until he has slept the requisite time and performed the necessary rituals to regain spells the next day.

Economy

The economy presented in the standard Dungeons and Dragons sourcebooks is frankly ludicrous. To rectify this using the simplest means possible, I have instituted a few simple guidelines, with this goal in mind:

• 1 Copper = 1 Dollar, 1 Silver = 10 Dollars, 1 Gold = 100 Dollars, 1 Platinum = 1000 Dollars... what this means is, when a character is handed a gold piece, I would like them to honestly react as though they had just been handed a hundred dollar bill.
• The COPPER PIECE the default currency of the common man, and SILVER is used frequently by the wealthy. For those of you who used to play Mythus, One Buck = One BUC (Base Unit Coin).
• When using stock adventures, just start off by chopping the coinage intake by half to 1/3rd.
• When selling any item of value to a storekeep, the base offered price for the item is 25% of full value (in silver), not 50% (although good diplomacy and/or bluffs can push the resale up that high).