Saturday, 26 October 2019

An OSR style XP chart for 5e D&D

Chart assumes standard monster XP, and XP for GP. Typical treasure should cap at Tier III level, ca 50,000gp/hoard, with Tier IV hoards being exceptional.

Level   XP
1           0
2      1000
3      3000
4      7000
5    15000
6    30000
7    60000
8  100000
9  150000
10 200000 'Name Level'
11 300000
+1 +100,0000 up to Level 20.

Magic Item Crafting
Rarity Minimum Level Time Cost
Common     4           2 days       200gp
Uncommon 8           7 days    1,000gp
Rare             12      31 days    5,000gp
Very Rare    16      92 days   25,000gp
Legendary   20   366 days  125,000gp

Wednesday, 23 October 2019

Youtube Channels for a Gamer/GM

I'd recommend watching Youtube videos on topics of interest, generally NOT gaming videos. I get more from:

Scholagladiatoria - weapons
Shadiversity - weapons, castles, dragons, etc etc
Lindybeige - history, weapons, culture, etc etc
PBS Spacetime - space, astrophysics
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur - what it says
John-Michael Godier - space
Dr Becky (admittedly her cuteness may be a big factor!)  - space
PBS Eons (though it's pretty lowbrow compared to Spacetime) - evolution/paleontology
Overly Sarcastic Productions - history, mythology, tropes

Monday, 21 October 2019

5e D&D House Rule - Bonus Skill Proficiencies for high INT

This is intended to deal with the 5e D&D 'INT as dump stat' issue.

Bonus Skill Proficiencies for high INT

A PC may begin play with a number of additional skill proficiencies from their class skill list equal to their INT bonus.

ie 12-13 = +1, 14-15 = +2, 16-17 = +3 etc. Multiclass characters choose from their starting class skill list.

If INT is raised during play, additional class skills up to the bonus limit may be learned using the Downtime rules in XGTE, ie 10 weeks - INT bonus per skill.
___

It's intentional that very high INT PCs may max out their class skill list, then being unable to take additional skills. It favours Wizards and to a lesser extent Rogues, which I think is ok.

Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Changing battlemat scale from 1 square = 5' to 3 squares = 10'

This has several advantages in terms of plausibility, mobility, et al.
Base sizes stay the same, so a 1" base figure still occupies 1 square, now about 3.3', or 1 meter. For diagonals, count 1 diagonal as 1 (3.3'), 2 diagonals as 3 (10').
5' reach = 2 squares
10' reach = 3 squares
15' reach = 5 squares
20' range = 6 squares
30' range = 9 squares
Now 8 characters with 5' reach can attack 1 from adjacent squares as before, but an additional 3x4=12 can attack from the second rank, the target benefitting from cover (+2 AC). Still, a mob becomes a lot scarier without having to worry about any in-and-out dance!