Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Supporting Changes

Supporting Changes

By making substantial changes to the skill system, we open up a few attached subsystems to scrutiny as well. This chapter details changes to the class features and subsystems most impacted by the skill changes presented here.

You've Got Your Skill In My Shtick - Altered Class Features

Divine Spellcasting

For skill dependency reasons, as well as thematic reasons, the divine spellcasters have been divided into two groups.

Clerics, Paladins and similar spellcasters remain attached to the divine source, their spells are granted by their deities. These spellcasters draw their power from the strength of their convictions and their connections with their patrons, and their spellcasting stat is henceforth Charisma instead of Wisdom. As they have class features that depend on this stat anyway it's not really a big deal. They remain tied to the Knowledge(religion) skill in its new form, Thaumaturgy, which is a Charisma skill.

Druids, Rangers, and similar spellcasters become more firmly attached to the natural world as the source of their spells and no longer need to revere any particular deity. The spellcasting stat for these characters remains Wisdom. They remain tied to Knowledge(nature) in its new form, Geomancy, which is a Wisdom skill. They no longer have secondary ties to Knowledge(religion).

Bard Spellcasting

Since we’ve done away with the stupid idea that only spontaneous casters can be Charisma based, Bards can now cast with Int as their primary stat if you like. It gives them a bonus to their casting skill, Arcana, and other things, but may lower their bonus on skills that they previously depended on.

Trapfinding Class Feature

The ability to find traps of any DC has been folded into the Dungeoneering skill, so this class feature does absolutely nothing as written in the PHB. Please use the following replacement text:

Trapfinding:As a full-round action you may move up to your base speed while also searching each 5’ square immediately in front of you for traps. You may ‘Take 10’ on this check if you like, and it is recommended that you do so that the game doesn’t slow to a crawl while you roll for each square. If you reduce your speed to only half of your base speed you may ‘Take 15’ instead.

Are We There Yet? - Revised Movement and Fatigue Rules

The lives of adventures happen at three distinct speeds: the leisurely or cautious pace of the unhurried, the swift and sometimes rushed pace of the hustling, and the desperate pace of the flat-out. And while no one likes to talk about it, these speeds tire people out. These rules are intended to better model this unfortunate truth while also allowing for characters to exceed their normal limits as they grow in level.

Pacing

Unhurried Pace

Whenever you fill your round with a single move or standard action, you are moving at an unhurried pace. There are a lot of actions that can be taken at this pace, as long as they aren’t paired with other actions, since most actions in the game are either standard or move-equivalent actions. A ‘full-round action’ is never an unhurried action despite the fact that it is only one action that takes up your entire round. This is because it uses both your standard and move actions for the round, and thus can not be unhurried.

For the purposes of overland or local movement, this pace includes taking only a single move action to move up your base speed in one of your movement modes for the round. When this is done by humanoids with their base land speed we call it walking, but it’s no more tiring for a bird to fly or a mole to burrow at their base speeds. Moving in a fashion for which you do not have a base speed, like climbing a wall without a climb speed, may or may not fall into this pace depending on the actions required.

Hustling Pace

Any round in which you take both a move and a standard action is a round spent at the hustling pace. This category also includes many full-round actions, but not all of them. Casting a spell with a 1 round casting time is a full-round action at the hustling pace, while running is a full-round action at the flat-out pace. The deciding

For the purposes of overland or local movement, this pace includes taking either a single or a double move action with one of your movement modes for the round. When this is done by humanoids with their base land speed we call it jogging or hustling (if they take another action in addition to movement). Moving in a fashion for which you do not have a base speed, like climbing a wall without a climb speed, may or may not fall into this pace depending on the actions required.

Flat-Out Pace

When a creature throws caution to the wind, and sacrifices endurance for speed, they are moving at a flat-out pace. There are few actions that even allow this pace, and almost all of them are movement. All flat-out actions are full-round actions.

The most common action taken at a flat-out pace is the Run action. The run action is also the only action we care about for the purposes of local or overland movement. Moving in a fashion for which you do not have a base speed, like climbing a wall without a climb speed, may or may not fall into this pace depending on the actions required. By defining this pace in this way, however, we can alter the Run action slightly to make it more equitable, since every action in this category will tire you in the same way.

Revised Run Action

Run action: As a full-round action, a creature can cover up to 4 times their base movement speed in exchange for caution and precision. They may even split their movement among different movement modes, but all modes must be natural for the creature. Most humanoids can only do this with their base walk speed, buy flying, swimming, climbing, burrowing, and any other natural movement speed is also eligible. A creature with a base land speed of 30’ and a burrowing speed of 20’ could run 60’ on land before burrowing the final 40’ by taking this action. You may not take a run action if you are fatigued or exhausted.

Revised Action Fatigue Rules

Characters are often portrayed as fonts of energy and youth, but they do get tired and how quickly they get tired depends a lot on what they’re doing. Moving flat-out and running full speed is the least efficient use of your energy, but it is also the pace most likely to tire a character out in game. Movement at a different pace reduces to rounds of movement at the flat-out pace for bookkeeping purposes, since we care much more about rounds spent running from a dragon than we do about rounds spent strolling around a garden. Everyone can move flat-out for 1 round per point of constitution, so even those of average constitution can run for at least a minute. Moving at a hustling pace for 1 minute is equivalent to 1 round of running. As most fights happen at this pace, this means that battles lasting longer than 1 minute per point of constitution may be hazardous for characters. Lastly, moving in an unhurried way for 10 minutes is equivalent to 1 round of running. While that doesn’t have much bearing on combat, it does mean that you can walk across the mountains all day, resting for a minute or two every hour, without really wearing yourself out. Exactly like a heroic adventurer should.

Whatever action pace brings you to your limit, characters have to start making checks to see if they become tired once there. This is an endurance skill check, or just a constitution check if the skill is untrained. The base DC for this check is 10 or the DC to traverse the terrain, if it is difficult. Use whichever DC applicable DC is greater. To that base you add +1 for every 5 points of subdual damage you’ve taken and a +1 penalty for each check you’ve made since you were last completely rested. The results of this check appear in the check result table below.

To become fully rested after an exertion, you must rest for 1 round per round of flat-out action or 1 minute, whichever is less. After the time has passed you are considered fully rested, and you are no longer fatigued if you acquired that condition as a result of these checks. Any subdual damage acquired will need to heal normally and does not heal at all during any hour in which you acquire more of it. If you begin exerting yourself before you have become fully rested, you gain a +1 bonus to your check for each round spent resting, but must begin making checks as soon as you have moved the equivalent of 1 round at a flat-out pace.

If you became fatigued during your exertion, you’re done moving faster than a hustle for a while since the condition actually disallows taking any flat-out actions. If you became exhausted during your exertion, it stops you from doing pretty much anything beyond an unhurried pace since it disallows everything except walking. If you acquired the exhausted condition from exertion and these checks, it reduces to fatigued after 10 minutes of rest. While exhausted, time spent resting does not count towards becoming fully rested or reducing the check penalty you’ve build up. If you accrue sufficient subdual damage to lose consciousness, you do not put any time towards eliminating the exhausted or fatigued conditions until you wake up.

Base DC: 10 or difficult surface DC, +1 for each previous check since you were fully rested Check Result:

• DC+0 and above: You suffer no effects other than the increased DC of the net check.
• DC-1 to DC-5: You suffer 2 points of subdual damage. In no case can this cause you to suffer more subdual damage than you have hit points. You still suffer the +1 DC increase to your check next round if you continue, in addition to the DC penalty for your subdual damage.
• DC-6 and below: You suffer 4 points of subdual damage and become fatigued, and as such may no longer take any action at the flat-out pace, like the run action. If you were already fatigued you instead become exhausted, and as such may no longer take an action at the flat-out or hustling pace. If you are immune to fatigue, you become exhausted if you fail this check by this amount twice. The subdual damage caused by this result may bring your total subdual damage over your total current hit points and leave you unconscious.

Combat with a View - Revised Ride Rules

Every round that you are mounted, you must make a ride check as a non-action. Whenever possible, you should be taking 10 on these checks. Doing otherwise slows the game down and increases the likelihood of you suffering a substantial failure when you really don’t want to. The result of your check indicates what you can do with your mount in the round, and how many of your actions that round it takes to accomplish. Most of the time the results don’t matter, because even if you spend a full action controlling your mount you weren’t doing anything more pressing anyway. Sometimes though, like in combat, it matters a lot.

Note that even when you can perform an easy task like Direct with Knees as a free action, your mount only has a limited number of actions. If you use that riding task, and direct your mount to make a double move, that is almost all of what your mount can do in the round. You may still have a standard and a move action left to spend, but you can’t use them to make your mount move any farther or attack someone because all of their actions have been spent. Similarly, if combat breaks out and you are not riding a combat trained mount, it may take you a full round action to use the Direct with Knees ability. Even if you only keep your mount from fleeing and stay where you are, you have used both of your actions and don’t have any left to use any additional riding tasks.

You need to be aware of how your actions and your mounts actions interact in this way. Whenever your mount is out of actions, you can not get it to perform further no matter how many actions you have remaining. And when you are out of actions, your mount will not do anything that you want it to no matter how many actions it has remaining (unless it is intelligent and you ask nicely, but that’s kind of a special case).

The base DC to perform an easy task, like directing your mount with your knees, as a free action is 10 + half the CR of the mount + the attitude of the mount. Most trained mounts have the comfortable attitude, though bonded mounts like the paladin’s or animal companion mounts may instead be trusting and make every task easier. Unruly or ornery mounts may be indifferent, and wild mounts are very likely skittish; both cases make riding more difficult. In addition to the attitude modifier, you suffer a +10 increase to the check DC whenever you bring a mount into combat or similar circumstances (exploding buildings, disintegrating ruins, etc.) without proper combat training. Mounts without this training are very difficult to control when things are occurring violently around them.

Base DC: 10 + CR + attitude, +10 if in combat or similarly distracted Check Result

• DC+10 and above: As a move action, you may perform any extreme riding task. You may perform difficult, moderate, easy, or trivial ones as a free action. You may not perform any riding task more complicated than extreme, though you can perform two in a round if you really want to show off.
• DC+5 to DC+9: As a full-round action, you may perform any extreme riding task. You may perform difficult riding tasks as a move action, and moderate, easy, or trivial ones as a free action. You may not perform any riding task more complicated than extreme, which is fine because there aren’t any.
• DC+0 to DC+4: As a full-round action, you may perform any difficult riding task. You may perform moderate riding tasks as a move action, and easy or trivial ones as a free action. You may not perform any riding task more complicated than difficult.
• DC-1 to DC-5: As a full-round action, you may perform any moderate riding task. You may perform easy riding tasks as a move action, and trivial ones as a free action. You may not perform any riding task more complicated than moderate.
• DC-6 to DC-10: As a full-round action, you may perform any easy riding task. You may perform trivial riding tasks as a move action. You may not perform anything more complicated.
• DC-11 and below: As a full-round action, you may perform any trivial riding task as long as your mount is not in combat or similarly distracted. You may not perform any more complicated tasks. If you are in combat, a situation that would similarly distract and frighten your mount, or it the mount is just particularly ornery (which you should have seen coming), you are instead thrown from your mount.

Trivial Riding Tasks

• Direct Mount - You direct your mount to take a move, double move, or run action in the direction of your choosing. You must use both your hands and your legs.

Easy Riding Tasks

• Direct with Knees - You direct your mount to take a move, double move, or run action in the direction of your choosing. You only need your knees and legs to direct him, leaving your hands free for other tasks, like attacking your foes.
• Remain in Saddle - You remain in your saddle after your mount unexpectedly rears, bolts, or otherwise tries to throw you. Sometimes holding on while your mount takes you for a ride is all you can do.
• Strike a Foe - You direct your mount to use a standard action to attack a foe of your choosing. Your mount may not take a full attack action, and does not threaten an area and can not make attacks of opportunity.

Moderate Riding Tasks

• Assault a Foe - You direct your mount to take a full attack action against a foe, or foes, of your choosing. Your mount also threatens its natural area and can make attacks of opportunity, though it suffers a -4 penalty to these attacks if its intelligence is 3 or less.
• Into Harm’s Way - You direct your mount to shift into the path of a strike aimed at you. If your ride check for the round is greater than your opponent’s attack roll, the strike hits your mount instead of you, dealing all appropriate damage. Precision damage is negated in this case. This shift is a swift action for your mount.
• Leap - You direct your mount to make a jump as part of its move action. You must make a jump check as usual to see if your mount clears the gap or hurdle, but you may use half of your ride bonus in place of the mount’s jump bonus if you like.
• Regain the Saddle - This task is used to properly place yourself in the saddle after taking cover, standing up, or being knocked from it but not falling off of your mount. It is of no use in any other situation.
• Ride in Cover - You slip over the side of your mount and ride there, using it as cover against all attacks originating on the other side. As you aren’t in the saddle, you can not use the Direct Mount or Direct with Knees riding tasks, and are unable to direct your mount from this position. It will keep moving as you last directed it to until you either regain the saddle or call it to a stop. If you become unable to maintain this cover position on a later round, you must use the Regain the Saddle riding task or you immediately fall from your mount.
• Spur Mount - You cause your mount to push itself just a little bit harder. For the duration of this round it gains a 25% bonus to its base speed, rounded up. It also suffers subdual damage equal to its number of hit dice.

Difficult Riding Tasks

• Direct from Cover - You slip down onto the side of your mount and ride there, using it as cover against all attacks originating on the other side. You are unable to use the Direct Mount or Direct with Knees tasks from this position, but you can still direct your mount as you need to while using it as cover. If you become unable to maintain this cover position on a later round, you must use the Regain the Saddle riding task or you immediately fall from your mount.
• Stand on Mount - You stand up on your saddle and continue riding there. As you are not properly mounted or riding in cover, you can not use the Direct Mount, Direct with Knees, or Direct from Cover riding tasks and can not direct your mount from this position. It will keep moving as you last directed it to until you either regain the saddle or call it to a stop. If you become unable to maintain this standing position on a later round, you must use the Regain the Saddle riding task or you immediately fall from your mount.

Extreme Riding Tasks

• Direct with Toes - You stand up on your saddle and continue riding there. Wile standing you can not use the Direct Mount, Direct with Knees, or Direct from Cover riding tasks, but you can direct your mount with your toes instead. If you become unable to maintain this standing position on a later round, you must use the Regain the Saddle riding task or you immediately fall from your mount.