Open Gaming License
Feats
List of spells
Equipment
Adept*
Aristocrat*
Bard
Berserker
Cleric
Commoner*
Druid
Expert*
Fighter
Holy Warrior*
Paladin
Priest
Rogue
Sorcerer
Warrior*
Wizard
* NPC class
Core changes are things like changing XP costs (for spells and items) into time (for example, atonement for a deliberate sin takes 33 days to cast); making raise dead-like spells take time to cast (usually 33 days as well); adding the priest and holy warrior NPC classes; compressing the adept's spell advancement; and so on. These are things which directly shape the way the setting evolved, or simplify my ability to comprehend the shaping.
For example, XP costs of any sort change the population distribution by age and level to something that I would require a supercomputer to calculate. So I removed them.
Adepts have a compressed spell list, and eventually get access to 9th level spells. This was instituted primarily because of the demographics - very, very few adepts make it over 10th level in En'hedu, while D&D core assumes that there are 20th level commoners all over the place.
Aristocrats are pretty cool now. They can provide a bonus for others to virtually any task (but not for themselves) once per day, and get bonuses on certain social skills. Although they are still not quite on par with a PC class, they're only a hair below.
Priests are non-combat clerics, and fulfill most actual religious duties. Holy warriors are to clerics what warriors are to fighters. This was done primarily because I did not want clerics to be as common as the NPC classes - a cleric in the party should feel like he is as special as the barbarian, druid, or wizard, not just a common member of clergy.
There is no Turn Undead. Turn Undead is simply too irritating. If I throw enough undead at the party that an average roll from the cleric will result in a fun fight, then one of two things will happen: the cleric will roll crappy, and everybody dies; or the cleric rolls well, and the fight is avoided almost entirely. With that said, clerics get Smite Foe instead, and that works on the undead (and everything else) just fine.
Alignment exists, but is part of the overall cosmology, and as such, has little to do with day to day life or even adventuring. "Evil" means "aligned with Void" (even accidentally!); "Good" means "NOT aligned with Void"; and Neutral is not allowed for in the normal course of events. Similarly "Law" means "aligned with organizing principles of the universe, such as Ahona and Lath"; "Chaos" means "aligned with the creative and flux principles of the universe, such as Loa and Shune"; and "Neutral" means "caught somewhere betwixt the two". The only alignment that really matters is "Evil", and that's primarily because demons, and practically anyone they come in contact with, radiate it... which makes it useful. For the most part, alignment-oriented spells do not exist, because no one's bothered with them for several millenia.
There are no 1 minute/level spells. All of these are either 1 round/level or 10 minutes/level.
This was done for two reasons. Firstly, because 1 minute/level is stupid. Secondly, because warfare becomes way too complex when durations are too long for a single clash, but too short for a complete battle - I would either need to write up a complete set of rules for pressing the attack after a clash, or get rid of the issue. Laziness won.
Any spell which brings back the dead takes a lot of time to cast, usually 33 days or more. This primarily prevents the "video game abuse", aka resurrection insurance corporations. It also makes population statistics possible to calculate comparatively easily.
Any spell which once cost XP now takes time to cast. Miracle and Wish both do not cost XP to replicate lower level spells. This removes some demographics difficulties, and makes most of the most abusive spells in the game something that a society has to WANT to get. Without this rule, for example, gates to other planes and other countries would be sufficiently common in any society that I would have to treat the world as a cosmopolitan, interplanar village... which isn't terribly amusing to me. When I want Timeline, I'll run Timeline.
Setting flavor changes are additions which make the setting more interesting. In some cases they have an impact on how the setting works (the armored caster sorcerer has a slight impact on how many sorcerers work for the military), but for the most part, they just provide new options to characters, with minimal setting impact. Blood magic, shield wall feats, some new combat spells, and so on, all have a minimal impact on the overall setting, but allow some interesting character concepts.
Barbarians are called berserkers, and have some variants (stolen straight from the Unearthed Arcana book) available based on environment they developed in. You can play a core book berserker, or tap one of the variants. Berserkers can read and write just like any other PC.
Sorcerers wear armor, and rely only on Verbal components (but they can not cast silently, just like bards). They also have access to the cleric spell list. The goal of this change was to produce a sorcerer that was not a weaker carbon copy of the wizard, but something else entirely. There are some other changes, but that's the essential ones.
Spellstaff: Wizards can bind a staff to themselves magically, and craft dweomers into it which enhance their own spellcasting ability. This is an item that grows with the character, and is kind of cool.
Animate Scrolls: This is a simple spell that most wizards learn, which allows them to have several scrolls floating around them "at ready" for reading.
A raft of new feats are available. They can be roughly classified as:
I decided against using the Expanded Psionics Handbook, but I wanted some psionics in En'hedu... I just didn't want it to be a viable third spell-casting category, which I would then have to go through, piece by piece, to determine its impact on the setting. So I made it a set of feats, each of which give some adequate powers, but have reasonably high prerequisites. Someone who WANTS to play a psionicist can (and there are certainly distant monasteries in En'hedu where they do), but from a societal standpoint, it gives less than it costs, and so has a marginal impact on the setting as a whole.
Dweomercraft replaces the Craft X magic item rules. The basics work essentially the same, except that it takes time, rather than XP, to make items; and the divisions of items are a little more sensical. I added a unified system for scrolls, tattoos, a wizard's staff, potions, unguents, powders, and everything else. The end result is mostly the same, in terms of what kinds of things PCs will own.
Comfort zone rules are things which allow me to treat the rules as intuitive, but have no impact on the setting. For example, I dropped rangers and monks, and provided feats that allow a fighter or rogue to play their part (or druid in the case of rangers). The net effect is that there are people with ranger or monk abilities, who have the same effect on the setting, but they aren't "forced" in the way the core classes are. Similarly, armor provides an AC bonus and a DR bonus - this does not affect combat probabilities in any significant way, so war results are the same. Comfort zone rules are "transparent" - the setting will be the same with or without them, but with them, I will enjoy running the game more.
The ranger and monk have been replaced with feats.
There are no prestige classes. That's what feats are for. Many organizations teach specific feats, and some organizations may have "access" to secret or special feats.
You can multiclass freely. When calculating BAB and Saving Throws, calculate all Good progressions as if they were one class, all Moderate progressions as if they were one class, and all Poor progressions as one class. For example:
A Fighter 2/Rogue 2/Cleric 2/Wizard 2:
Under the OLD system, the above would have looked like this:
BAB: fighter +2, rogue +1, cleric +1, wizard +1. Total +5.
Fort: fighter +3, rogue +0, cleric +3, wizard +0. Total +6.
Ref: fighter +0, rogue +3, cleric +0, wizard +0. Total +3.
Will: fighter +0, rogue +0, cleric +3, wizard +3. Total +6.
Under THIS system, it looks like this:
BAB: good +2 (fighter), moderate +3 (rogue/cleric), poor +1 (wizard). Total +6.
Fort: good +5 (fighter/cleric), poor +1 (rogue/wizard). Total +6.
Ref: good +3 (rogue), poor +2 (fighter/cleric/wizard). Total +5.
Will: good +5 (cleric/wizard), poor +1 (rogue/fighter). Total +6.
Characters gain one feat every odd-numbered level.
All skill checks are rolled on 3d6 instead of 1d20.
It costs 1 skill point per language you know. You know one automatically. You get an additional +1 language per +1 bonus of INT. Some races/etc., may provide an extra one for free.
It costs 1 skill point to know a single script. You know one script automatically. Some races/etc., may provide an extra one for free.
Armor provides some AC and some DR. It is classified as flexible and rigid. The heaviest rigid armor provides AC +4, DR 4/-. Magical augmentation can add to AC or DR. Arcana Unearthed published a system extremely similar, but not quite as balanced out. The main purpose to this is to make heavier armor useful.
Weapons are classified more thoroughly, and En'hedu uses a more generic and complete weapons list. This is at least partially built around the Stone to Steel OGL supplement. Weapon proficiency is handled with Weapon Groups from Unearthed Arcana, modified to handle the revised weapons list. There are more exotic weapon proficiency choices, and they mean a bit more.
All bonuses to grappling from feats and size are halved (usually from +4 to +2). Grappling in general still works the same.