Certain portions of this document are Open Game Content, per the Open Game License. The Open Game License is attached to the end of the main page. All of the pages and text in the House Rules section is Open Game Content except any mentioned setting names (primarily Europ and Forgotten Realms). Artwork and text in any other section is Closed Content. Open Content may be reproduced per the rules of the Open Game License. Closed Content may not be reproduced.
Please see the Open Gaming License for the appropriate legalese.
Everyone receives a number of feats based on experience level. This works just like in the PHB, p.22, except that the feats are gained at 1st level and then every 3rd level after that (4th, 7th, 10th, etc.).
Everyone may increase their attributes based on experience level. This works just like in the PHB, p.22.
Characters may select 12 skills to learn as class skills. These are skills which are part of the character's background, and do not change with time.
Special thanks to the kind folks ENWorld for helping me with this: Altin, Balsamic Dragon, Celebrim, CRG, Duncan Haldane, Green Knight, Greybar, hong, Inez Hull, Joshua Dyal, Lady Dragon, Light Phoenix, MavrickWeirdo, mmadsen, S'Mon and Tonguez. Italicized folks had a direct, concrete impact in the writing herein.
All characters (PC or NPC) receive XP per scenario. A scenario is roughly defined as:
XP for scenarios is not divided by party members. That's why the XP is per scenario rather than per "encounter". If you prefer to use encounter XP, divide between the party and give it out more often. A full year of a difficult job such as farming will be about 12-24 encounters, but will divide that number between the 12-24 peasants who helped out.
Assuming a reasonably challenging life, a "year at a difficult job" is treated as CR 2. Time of trouble may shift that up to CR 3 (or even CR 4), and leading a sheltered life would only be worth CR 1 (or even CR 1/2). Most medieval commonfolk lead CR 2 lives. The following chart shows various CRs tracked over a lifetime:
CR 0.5 CR 1 CR 2 CR 3 CR 4
Attain Years Age Years Age Years Age Years Age Years Age Description
Lvl 2 +6 21 +3 18 +2 17 +2 17 +1 16 somewhat experienced
Lvl 3 +14 35 +7 25 +3 20 +2 19 +2 18 experienced
Lvl 4 +20 55 +10 35 +5 25 +3 22 +3 21 full professional
Lvl 5 +26 81 +13 48 +7 32 +5 27 +4 25 master of the trade
Lvl 6 +33 115 +17 65 +10 42 +7 34 +4 29 locally reknown
Lvl 7 +40 155 +20 85 +13 55 +10 44 +7 36 regionally reknown
Lvl 8 +53 208 +26 111 +18 73 +13 57 +10 46 nationally reknown
Lvl 9 +80 288 +40 151 +27 100 +18 75 +13 59 "name" level
Lvl 10 - - - - +39 139 +26 101 +18 77 semi-legendary
The bulk of the population will be level 3-5, with levels 1-2 representing youth. The higher levels are about as common as the Description column indicates - they are few enough to be reknown in their region. Troubled times typically result in more heroes, and this is reflected rather well in the above.
Adventurers: The typical adventurer in my campaign will be getting involved in 3-4 scenarios per year, of a CR equal to their level. This will usually translate into 1 level per year!
Soldiers: Soldiers will tend to be slightly higher level for their age than the bulk of the populace. A veteran is 2nd-3rd level, but still young by modern (20th century) standards, and will form the hard-kernelled core of any military force. A green soldier can expect to fight three or four times on the front lines, over the course of a month, before being considered a veteran and moved to easier duty. It is a tragedy of warfare that the young and green are usually the orc fodder used to soften the foe for veterans.
With levels taking years to achieve, the effects of age become important. The rules below cover aging for humans, and are somewhat harsher than the normal D&D3E rules.
For every 5 years over 25, lose -1 DEX and -1 CON, and gain +1 INT and +1 WIS. If any attribute reaches 0 because of this, the character dies.
For each 1 year over 30, make a CON Check vs. DC 10. Every time this check is failed (a natural 1 always fails), roll (or choose) one of the following Aging Effects:
1d20
1-3: STR -2 (muscle atrophy, bad back, weak legs, etc.)
4-6: DEX -2 (shaky hands, stroke, broken hip, etc.)
7-10: CON -2 (bad heart, weakened immune system, fragile bones, etc.)
11-12: INT -2 (memory loss, perception disorder, etc.)
13-14: WIS -2 (childhood regression, wandering mind, etc.)
15-16: CHR -2 (irascible, heightened fears, etc.)
17-18: Attack of Age! (permanent -5 hp; heart attack, ill winter, etc.)
19: Worsening Vision (-5 on all Spot and vision-related checks; taken twice results in blindness)
20: Hard of Hearing (-5 on all Listen and hearing-related checks; taken twice results in deafness)
Aging is harder on farmers than on nobles. Add the following bonus/penalties based on social class and environment. Europ does not use this, but I included it for completeness' sake.
Upper Class: +1 to CON for aging rolls.
Middle Class: no effect (merchants, sages, craftsmen).
Lower Class: -1 to CON for aging rolls.
Urban Setting: no effect.
Rural/Wilderness Setting: -1 to CON for aging rolls.
Malnutrition: Each season of a year you spend malnourished counts as a full extra year of aging.
Based on the above and some arcane spreadsheet lore, rural populations tend to break down like this (35% of the population is 4th level professionalsor better):
Under 15: 41.5%
15-19: 12.2% (level 1-2)
20-24: 11.3% (level 3)
25-29: 10.3% (level 4)
30-34: 9% (level 4-5)
35-39: 6.7% (level 5)
40-44: 4.3% (level 5-6)
45-49: 2.5% (level 6)
50-54: 1.3% (level 6)
55+: 0.7% (level 7)
The true elvenkind live for centuries, and follow the same advancement as humans. Fortunately, they are far rarer, and generally tangled up in politics of their own in the summerlands, and rarely interfere with mortal reality. A sidhe king of an underhill is likely around 12th to 18th level, and most sidhe of any "reasonable" age (by their standards) are likely well past 5th level.
This is in keeping with mythology, and is just one more reason not to follow the fey folk into a hole in the ground.
My advancement rules were originally written for a setting with no dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, or halflings. But that's just my setting... how do these rules work for other settings?
The first thing, of course, is to get some aging rules for all of the races. This is pretty easy, actually: just multiply all human years by the race's maximum age (I rounded closest), divided by the human maximum age. Then use my modified human aging rules with the same multiplier.
Dwarf: x4
Elf: x7
Gnome: x5
Half-Elf: x2
Half-Orc: x1
Halfling: x2
Thus, a Dwarf will modify attributes for every 20 years over age 100, and make a CON Check for every 4 years over 120.
Once that's done, there is a question about your setting that has to be answered: Do you want the long-lived races to be slow learners or do you want to deal with the effects of them achieving higher levels? Note that you need to answer this question no matter what, if you have long-lived races who gain experience points.
Slow Learners
Easy, just multiply years and months (for non-adventurous jobs) by their age multiplier for purposes of CR of scenarios. Thus, an elf has to farm for 7 years before gaining the XP for a CR 2 farming scenario. If you are using MavrickWeirdo's simpler rules, an elf gains 1 XP every 7 days (elves "learn something new every week" ).
Longevity Means Experience
This is more difficult, but can be more rewarding in terms of the richness and believability of your setting. Here are some possible approaches to the issue:
Reign of Flowers: Elves rule the world. "Young" elves (between age 105 and 200) are typically below 10th level, but any elf old enough to have started aging is more skilled than all but the most legendary of humans. In order to maintain their political superiority, there will need to be at least one "aged" elf per 10-40 humans (depending on level), and they will need to be ruthless when it comes to human heroes, rebellions and whatnot.
So Few Left: Once, perhaps, elves ruled the world. But today, there are simply too few of them to do so. There are a hundred or more humans per elf, and that's not even counting the upstart dwarves and gnomes, or the barbaric orcs and goblinoids. Sure, individual elves are ancient and powerful, but an uppity elf will likely get swarmed by a kingdom of humans... and killing all of them is likely beyond him.
Summerlands: The elves are powerful, but are concerned with events in their own realms. This is much how the Epic Levels Handbook seems to suggest Epic NPCs are handled, and it works okay. Vaguely Tolkien. This is also sort of how I'm handling their equivalent-in-spirit in my own Europ setting.
Guiding Hands: The elves live so long because they've largely conquered their own gaps in worldly understanding. Now they provide (benevolently) a guiding hand to those who ask it, and otherwise leave the world alone.
Humans Don't Organize, Mr. Silverleaf: There are not quite enough elves to maintain a ruthless grip over the world, and humans have organized a thorough resistance. You could have Swiss-like dwarves who are curious which side will win, halfling guerillas helping the humans secretly, and elven traitors (who may simply be agents for the enemy). This will also tend to result in higher average levels for humans, because of their constant state of warring.
PCs possess a greater measure of fortune and misfortune in their lives, and (like Odysseus, Beowulf or Lancelot) tend to suffer or seek adventures on a regular basis. Sessions will alternate between daring doings ("our heroes have discovered papers indicating an infernalist who dwells in the Frankish king's court, but which do not reveal his identity") and the passage of time ("after vanquishing the infernalist hidden in the King's court, the intrepid heroes spend three months near Paris, wenching and ladding their way across the countryside"). About one year will pass per level gained (per the guidelines above) with the occasional exceptional years.
Around level 8-9 (as the PCs hit age 22-23), they will come into their own as heroes, their exploits familiar to most of the people of France, and some of their tales trickling even into other countries. Their skills will be such that even a group of veteran soldiers would find them a difficult foe, and monsters would fear their arrival.
Over the next several years, then, they would become true heroes of their generation, until finally Dame Age began to take her toll from them. Then, in the twilight years, they will have a last grand adventure, on which the fate of the world rests, before retiring to the calm life or dying gloriously.
Each level you gain a number of class points which you can spend on various class features. The "typical" campaign will start with 45 points at 1st level, and gain 18 points per level thereafter. Europ starts with 30 points at 1st level, and gains 12 points per level thereafter.
Note: The Toughness feat is not allowed. A feat can provide a +2 to a save or skill, above and beyond the normal level-based limit, but you may only take one such feat per save/skill per level.
Barred Alignment Axis: +1 points
Required Partial Neutral: +1 points
Two Barred Alignment Axes: +2 points
Required Alignment Axis: +2 points
Two Required Alignment Axes: +3 points
Paladin's Code: +3 points
Druidic Armor Restriction: +3 points
If you break a restriction, you lose twice its value in class abilities, usually from your feat selection. You can usually "repent & recover" your abilities, but this should be more difficult than simply following the restriction again.
Restrictions can not be "bought off" except by losing the aforementioned class abilities.
BARBARIAN FEATS Fast Movement (1 feat: +10' per round movement) Rage (1 feat: use 1/day) Greater Rage (1 feat: increases Rage to +6) Not Winded By Rage (1 feat: as it says) Uncanny Dodge (1 feat: doesn't lose AC when flat-footed) Uncanny Dodge (1 feat: can't be flanked) Uncanny Dodge (1 feat: +2 vs traps, stackable) Damage Reduction (1 feat: DR 1/-, stackable) BARD FEATS Bardic Music: Inspire Courage (1 feat) Bardic Music: Countersong (1 feat) Bardic Music: Fascinate (1 feat) Bardic Music: Inspire Competence (1 feat) Bardic Music: Suggestion (1 feat) Bardic Music: Inspire Greatness (1 feat) Bardic Knowledge (1 feat) CLERIC FEATS Turn or Rebuke Undead (1 feat) Domain-Related Abilities Vary (???) DRUID FEATS Nature Sense (1 feat) Animal Companion (1 feat) Woodland Stride (1 feat) Trackless Step (1 feat) Resist Nature's Lure (1 feat) Wild Shape (1 feat: use 1/day) Wild Shape: Large (1 feat, modifies Wild Shape) Wild Shape: Huge (1 feat, modifies Wild Shape) Wild Shape: Tiny (1 feat, modifies Wild Shape) Wild Shape: Dire (1 feat, modifies Wild Shape) Wild Shape: Elemental (1 feat, modifies Wild Shape, takes 2 uses!) Venom Immunity (1 feat) A Thousand Faces (1 feat) Timeless Body (1 feat) FIGHTER FEATS 11 feats spread over the levels MONK FEATS Improved Unarmed Strike (1 feat, 1d6 damage, no AoO) Unarmed Damage (1 feat: stages damage up: d8, d10, d12, d20) Flurry of Blows (1 feat) Rapid Movement (1 feat per +10' per round movement) AC Bonus (buy as BAC) Stunning Attack (1 feat) Evasion (1 feat) Improved Evasion (1 feat) Deflect Arrows (1 feat) Still Mind (1 feat) Slow Fall (1 feat: stages distance up: 20', 40', 60', any distance) Purity of Body (1 feat) Improved Trip (1 feat) Wholeness of Body (1 feat) Leap of the Clouds (1 feat) Ki Strike (1 feat: treat unarmed as +1 weapon, stackable) Diamond Body (1 feat) Abundant Step (1 feat) Diamond Soul (1 feat) Quivering Palm (1 feat) Timeless Body (1 feat) Tongue of the Sun & Moon (1 feat) Empty Body (1 feat) Perfect Self (1 feat) PALADIN FEATS Detect Evil (1 feat) Divine Grace (1 feat) Lay On Hands (1 feat) Divine Health (1 feat) Aura of Courage (1 feat) Smite Evil (1 feat) Remove Disease (1 feat) Turn Undead (1 feat) Special Mount (1 feat) Remove Disease 6/week (4 steps) RANGER FEATS Track (1 feat) Favored Enemies (1 feat: 1 enemy) Ambidexterity (1 feat) Two-Weapon Fighting (1 feat) ROGUE FEATS Sneak Attack (1 feat: +1d6 flanking damage, stackable) Evasion (1 feat) Uncanny Dodge (1 feat: doesn't lose AC when flat-footed) Uncanny Dodge (1 feat: can't be flanked) Uncanny Dodge (1 feat: +2 vs traps, stackable) Crippling Strike (1 feat) Defensive Roll (1 feat) Improved Evasion (1 feat) Opportunist (1 feat) Skill Mastery (1 feat) Slippery Mind (1 feat) SORCEROR FEATS Summon Familiar (1 feat) WIZARD FEATS Summon Familiar (1 feat) Scribe Scroll (1 feat) 4 Bonus Metamagic Feats
At first level, the following background 'feats' may be purchased for 5 CP.
Nobility: You were born an lower-tier aristocrat, given to privilege but not rulership. Generally, you (and your retinue) may expect some degree of hospitality from any non-hostile, nobile household, and even hostile households may provide you with hospitality if the political situation is right. You are somewhat above peasant law, as long the law doesn't catch you in a back alley with no witnesses, although you are expected to follow the rules of noblesse oblige (and the lord of any peasants you are terrorizing will likely take umbrage with your behavior). In return, of course, you are expected to provide other nobility with as much hospitality as you can, to treat your inferiors with humanity, and to treat any leadership role you are given with far more respect and dedication than others.
Upper Class: You were born to wealth. While you lack the social and political status of the nobility, you are still above most of the rabble. You begin the game with 2d10 x 100 gold in the form of clothing, equipment, investments and pocket money.
Heirloom: You begin play with a true magic item, and heirloom that has passed down through your family. See your Guide for details.