3.5e OGL Variant Rules

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3.5e OGL Variant Rules

Article	Description
Combining Rules for IPs with Rules for GPs	The sum of a player’s wealth (equipment, gold, and gemstones) and their IPs should follow the guidelines for character wealth by level.
Cursed Items	Using Cursed Items with the Complete Gear Influence Points
Small Influences	Any limited use influence that costs less than 3,000 IPs destroys the mundane object once the magical use has been expended.
Special Materials	The data given on the table regarding Influence Points by level could be reduced by a specified amount so that the difference can be given to the players in the form of gold pieces. With that gold, a player can buy a piece of armor made out of the special materials which can then be influenced by the character as the player desires.
Alternative Skill Systems	The variant skill systems discussed here eliminate some of the complexity of the standard skill system, but at the expense of fewer opportunities for customization.
Bloodlines	Every so often, an individual is born who stands out a little from the rest of his people. This individual displays characteristics associated with a different kind of creature, such as a dragon, giant, celestial, or demon. Such a character is said to have a bloodline.
Character Background	If you define background as "everything that happened to a character before now," then you can use this character background variant to actually generate a character.
Character Flaws	Flaws are like the flip side of feats. Whereas a feat enables a character to be better than normal at performing a task (or even to do something that normal characters can't), a flaw restricts a character's capabilities or imposes a penalty of some sort.
Character Traits	Traits are aspects of a character's personality, background, or physique that make him better at some activities and worse at others.
Complex Skill Checks	With most skill checks, a single die roll immediately determines whether or not a character succeeds. If a character wants to jump across a chasm or recall a specific piece of information, his success or failure is apparent after a single check.
Craft Points	This variant is designed specifically for campaigns that don't offer a lot of "downtime" to the PCs. It unifies the rules for crafting items and creating magic items, while also replicating a character's ability to come up with just the thing he needs for a specific task in the nick of time. It glosses over the realities of such work-tool kits, alchemical reagents, laboratories, long hours of toil, and the like-to keep the game moving along at an exciting pace. After all, fighting giants, demons, and dragons is generally a lot more fun than waiting for the wizard to finish crafting a new ring of protection.
Elemental Racial Variants	The core d20 System cosmology has six inner planes, four of which correspond to the classic elements: air, earth, fire and water. You can link races to various elements without making them extraplanar creatures. In fact, you can create an entire philosophical system based on various combinations of element types and and their relative strengths.
Environmental Racial Variants	Racial variants are a great way add diversity to your game without drastically changing the ecology of your world. One method of altering the existing races is to introduce environmental variants, a number of which are presented here.
Generic Classes	The variety of class options available to characters can seem overwhelming. Though that variety can lead to interesting and exciting combinations, a game master who desires to run a simpler campaign (while still allowing for character variety) can use these "generic" character classes in place of the standard character classes.
Gestalt Characters	In this high-powered campaign variant, characters essentially take two classes at every level, taking the best aspects of each.
Legendary Weapons	This variant is a simple rule system that allows the abilities of weapons to improve along with those of their wielders. A character wielding a legendary weapon—whether that weapon is a sword, axe, bow, or even a magic staff—is eligible for one of the scion prestige classes presented below.
Prestigious Character Classes	A number of character classes described in the d20 system represent very specific (if not always specialized) roles in the game. These classes- the bard, the paladin, and the ranger- might require special training to enter, training that can be mimicked by transforming these classes into prestige classes.
Racial Paragon Classes	In most d20 campaigns, the ideas of class and race are separate concepts. But with racial paragon classes, the line between the two becomes blurred. Racial paragons are, as their name suggests, nearly ideal examples of the strengths and abilities of the character’s race.
Reducing Level Adjustments	When a character with a Level Adjustment advances in experience, the Level Adjustment he started with becomes more and more of a burden. Eventually, the benefits of the creature type may come to be eclipsed by those of his class features, and the player may regret his choice of race. Under this variant system, the character can pay an experience cost at certain intervals to decrease the burden of his Level Adjustment.
Spontaneous Divine Casters	As a twist on the traditional divine spellcaster, this variant concerts the cleric and druid into spontaneous spellcasters. Such characters have a limited number of spells known, as the sorcerer does, though their selection is not quite as limited as the sorcerer's list.
Weapon Group Feats	In the d20 System, weapons are divided into three categories: simple, martial, and exotic. While this system works very well for establishing the complexity of each weapon and balancing the classes’ abilities against one another, grouping weapons by similar type offers an exciting variant to determine what weapons a character knows how to use.

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