User:Xandar

My Content

As of the creation of this page, there should be nothing of interest here, and if you've stumbled across this somehow, I apologize for its blandness. I've created an account with intent to publish Homebrew content on here in a number of forms. The initial content that'll appear will likely be very rough and very badly balanced, what makes sense to me might not to others.

While there is nothing here currently, there are Rudimentary Ideas that I've come up with and will make note of while working on my first major piece.

Warning now, I have a bad habit of making things unnecessarily complex for the sake of what I deem to be "Awesomeness."

Completed Projects

Expanded Armor Class (3.5e Variant Rule) Brought about primarily because I was wondering why people played Armor class as a Hit v Miss system, I wanted to spice my games up a little and add an interesting level of realism. The result is this system, which I think works well enough for what it is.

Cyclone Boots (3.5e Equipment) A take on a relic from Castlevania Lords of Shadow 1, adapted to have functions in 3.5e. I tried to replicate some of the lore for the item as well as one of the moves from the game, though the latter comes out in a fare more rudimentary form, it's functional and may require some tweaking.

Current Projects

A list of projects that I'm currently working on. While I should focus on one, there's Never just one going on in my mind.

Alchemy Revision. The most pressing and Largest of my Homebrew projects at the moment. A number of revisions have been made to it as it's been worked on, but now it's finally near completion, I would wager approximately 95% Completion at that. As-is, a few things still need to be Defined or Finalized (Specifications for the Quantity of Liquid a Potion Recipe Results in, for example, factor into how large of a Splash zone a Potion may have when Thrown). The overall project has reached a Tremendous size, Five separate Google Docs files Totaling an Unbelievable 56+ Pages of Content. A Fair amount of three of them are defining the system as a whole and information on it, while the majority of it is basically a Tremendous List, list of Potions, List of Toxins, list of Converted Venoms, etc.

If you'd like to look at this at its current status, you can find it here

Mana-Casting. Sort of a Pseudo Fusion of methods that others have put forth with my own spin on it. Functionally complete, but I feel it needs more work.

Magic Item Revision. A companion to Mana-Casting that works in tandem with Mana's removal of Daily limits to spellcasting, this eliminates them for magic items and works Mana into those. Still needs work on some ends as certain things still interact very oddly.

Equipment Health Variant. An alternative system to determine the health of your weapon or item.

Weapon Strength Requirements, Redone. A system for determining what you can one hand vs Two hand based on your strength. Directly inspired by New weapon requirements (3.5e Variant Rule) but with some of the criticism of the Discussion page kept in mind, though it opens up new problems in the system for some.

Armor Strength Requirements. Done up as a companion to the above rule though oriented around armor instead. Doesn't change the formula up nearly as heavily as the Weapon stuff does, but can offer a bit of fresh air for Heavy-Armor wearers. Does come with some negatives when interacting with some of the rest of the system however in ways similar to the Weapon Strength requirements.

Project Status

A rudimentary Update log or bit of Information for things that don't have their own pages yet.

Complete Alchemy - An Alchemic Overhaul

Currently going under the title "Complete Alchemy - An Alchemical Overhaul," this system is very near completion. Estimated 95% completion in fact. The current list of things To-Do is basically just revision and fleshing out some of the Potion and Toxin lists some more, however a Small Facet of the system called "Herbalism" still has some factors that need to be defined.

The Project has a number of files now, some which have been written, they are as follows:

Complete Alchemy An Introduction Document to the revision as a whole. All of these will eventually be presented as Wiki pages of course, this one covers a general amount of information about the system as a whole, Defining Alchemy, Herbalism, the differences between the two (In short, Refined Chemistry vs sort of Mashing Reagents together into a paste or something), changes to existing Feats (Eventually will include Custom Feats, should I finally figure out a few suitable ones), Changes to Spells in accordance with the system (Primarily preventing the ability to use Fabricate or Creation to have Easy infinite-access to Reagents, but some extra functional uses for the system), and finally Changes to Existing equipment. Most of what was changed around and listed in these Sections was drawn from the Brilliant Gameologists forum "Arsenic and Old Lace" thread, which contained a tremendous amount of information about Poisons in 3.5, listing Feats and Animal companions and equipment etc that helps with Poison use. Not All of it has been transferred over, I converted what I felt was most appropriate, removed (Left out really) a few things, and am fully aware that it's unlikely to be the Entire chunk of Alchemy and Poison use related feats.

Reagent Compendium - A complete rundown of the Reagents which this rebuild employs, details on the Rarity of the Reagents and subsequent difficulty to find them in the wild, examples of environmental difference, variables related to areas that get enough visitors that Alchemists may have picked them clean of Reagents already, etc. It defines the functions of Different Reagents in both Herbalism and Alchemy, presenting them in a straightforward way that allows readers to reference the Document (Eventual Page) to know what factors the different Reagents will contribute to their Custom-Creation. It Currently contains close to Sixty Reagents, a small pool of which is comprised of Toxins.

Potions Catalog - A Document (Eventual Page) that covers virtually everything relevant to Potions, but partly has info directly relating to Alchemy as a whole (This may be Removed and transferred to the "Complete Alchemy" Document, or at least placed there as well so that it doesn't require anyone to reference multiple pages at once.) A decent portion of it is Dedicated to a list of Potions that I've created as a standard sort of introduction to the system, serving as examples to follow or take inspiration from when creating a Potion of your own.

Mortis Alchemia - While Mortis Alchemia is the name that I'm most happy with so far, it is still subject to change. This Document covers everything to do with Toxins in a format similar to the Potions Catalog, restating a decent amount of information (To prevent referencing different documents/pages excessively). Identical to the Potions document, it has a list of Pre-defined Toxins meant to serve as examples and guidelines for designing a Toxin yourself.

Converted Venom List - Far more Generic in naming structure, the Converted Venoms list is precisely what you'd think it is. I painstakingly searched through all of the monster Manuals that I could get my hands on (Though I should note it was almost exclusively these, additional books that have Creatures in them with Venom may not be on the list). The introduction and first section of the Document explains how to convert a Venom to this system based on its Normal 3.5 Paramters, but the majority of it contains already converted ones, so most of the work has been done already.

Initially it was planned to form a version of this Revision that didn't contain the Custom Potion/Toxin elements, and it was thought that being able to do that was going to be a Far off Dream that may or may not be possible, however through intense effort on my part and a friend of mine who's been acting as my consultant on all of this, that has been achieved and is fully integrated. A tremendous amount of progress has been made in the last Two Months or so that I've been working on it, and frankly I'm glad to be nearly done. Once the last of it is defined I'll begin adapting it to the Wiki and looking for Feedback, and fully expecting it to upset people some or not appeal for a number of reasons.

The Revision at this moment sits at Approximately 95% Completion, currently sitting in a playtesting status while some minor additional material is sorted.

Mana Casting. Mostly complete but a little similar to two existing concepts on the Wiki, I'm attempting to do more to distance it from them while also rebalancing it. Its current incarnation severely empowers casters as it grants spellcasting more on a per-encounter basis, though it does restrict it even outside of combat depending on the actions of a caster. It divides casters up into numerous classifications, most of which already exist though one has been altered and renamed due to my own preferences. Spontaneous casters generate mana internally, channeling it outwards, Prepared casters harness ambient mana and form it according to their whims, Divine casters are granted mana by their deities for their purposes, and Primal casters (In short, druid types) draw mana from the world around them. As it's worked on it gets more unique, but the question of balance still persists, and some things still need tweaking and altering outright.

Magic Item Revision. Again, mostly complete, but it needs some work around the edges, and a fair amount of playtesting to tweak it with. Simply put it removes the daily limit uses to magic item powers and gives them mana stores with which to fuel casting instead. Some have additional interactions as batteries for mana in regards to casting classes, different metamagic interactions, and more. Gives three classifications of magic item, one which can be made with no cash investment but won't last even if only used to cast very basic spells

Equipment Health Variant. I absolutely despise the health of various pieces of equipment, hardness is functional enough and helpful as it goes up in enhancement levels, but the values of HP for items are just so... Random. The insistence to use the HP per Inch of Thickness concept baffles me as the only instance I personally see value in it existing is when you're determining the health of a wall or barricade where you can say "It is this many inches thick and proportionately has this much health." The current formula is very much ridiculous looking, but shifts it to effectively have more HP the more material there is, which is similar to HP per inch of thickness, but shifts it to be based on the Weight of a weapon or piece of armor instead. Proportionately it is harder to destroy a Gigas Hammer than it is to destroy any type of dagger short of an artifact dagger, HP per Inch of Thickness *Could* reflect that, but in my head at least it's confusing to try and imagine how that works out. When its based on the weight instead, its a simple number fed into an equation. Just works nicer for me at least.

Weapon Strength Requirements, Redone. A system based entirely around your strength to determine what weapons you can wield and how you can wield them. Using this it is entirely possible to one-hand two-handed weapons, this comes with the problems you may immediately see when feats and abilities (Two weapon fighting especially) reference the Light, One Handed, and Two Handed weight categories, but allows Conan to swing his Greatsword one-handed if he has strength enough to do so. Almost all of the thresholds for One-Handing two-handed weapons are fairly steep so its not something you'd see commoners doing unless they're particularly jacked. Keeps in mind the Exponential increases of D&D based on Strength's interaction with carry weight, as your ability to wield something is directly tied to carry weight specifically.

Armor Strength Requirements. Hand in hand meant to go with the Weapon Strength Requirement alteration, if only to avoid the question of "Why can I wield this heavy thing but not move properly in my heavy armor." If your strength is sufficient you treat armor as a different category altogether, though still leaves a method for armor to interact with feats or abilities that reference specific classifications based on the weight of the equipment in question. This also expands its interaction with materials, Mithral for example will halve the weight and move its actual category appropriately regardless of what category your strength allows you to treat it as. Minor "Improvements" that your strength gives to the equipment in question allows you to cut strength-based penalties as well, few as they are. Strength will *not* alter the fit or form of the armor and improve your dexterity whilst wearing it, so that is left unchanged.

Ideas and Plans

A list of content that I've come up with that hasn't been adapted to the game. Yet. Hopefully.

A Complete Alchemy Revision, I've always hated that Alchemy in 3.5 boils down to 'Spell in a Bottle,' In a game where plenty enough Wands, Scrolls and Staves do this, this seems incredibly redundant, and has prompted me to create my own Homebrew Alchemy System akin to what you see in games like Kingdoms of Amalur, The Elder Scrolls, and other games that include Mixing Reagents to accomplish specific effects. I'm designing it expressly to avoid having the 'Spell in a Bottle' Effect, focusing it on being more akin to a Primitive form of Chemistry where combining reagents forms compounds that have interesting and useful effects. Some of the effects do directly mimic magical effects, but they aren't presented as just "Cure Light Wounds" for example. The idea, at the moment, is to eventually have it developed to a point where the System is Incredibly Free-Flowing, and that players can Design Alchemic Substances by following a specific Formula of Mixing Ingredient X with Ingredients Y and Z, allowing for Custom Potions to be made with specially Tailored effects based on the players design.

A Witchcraft and Voodoo Expansion to Alchemy, Whereas my Alchemy Revision is planned to be more akin to Primitive Chemistry, I had to wonder about the use of more Mystical substances, where the Reagents of the Alchemy Revision are semi-magical due to the fantasy setting, you still have to distill them to draw out the effects of the Reagent for a Potion, and those effects are Properties of the Reagents. Witchcraft and Voodoo type stuff on the other hand always involves Exotic And Bizarre ingredients as well as an Incantation or Invocation of some sort. This Expansion to the revision has no work yet, but the concepts are being thought out, the easiest way to execute it would be to have an additional Reagent list each of which has more Magical properties, but then, why is it separate from the Revision? I had the thought to have it based around the Incantations used during the Witchcraft/Voodoo type creation, and the Incantations used would Empower Reagents, which are then finalized by the Alchemic side of the process. This would be rather interesting I think from a Roleplay standard, as well as to separate it from the Alchemy Revision, but would be rather Difficult to achieve the desired Level of Customization as I want from the Alchemy Revision.

A Monk Revision in the Vain of Tome of Prowess, amusingly whilst watching Kung Fu Panda, I'd wondered about the possibility of making a Monk that is more True to a Martial Arts Style. Classes like this already exist for sure, but I'd wanted to take a stab at doing it myself, where a player may Adopt a Martial Art, gaining a Single ToB style Stance, with some of the limitations removed. When the Stance is undertaken, they'd be granted Maneuvers related to the Martial Art they'd chosen, a few passive changes (Penalties And Benefits both) and the Maneuvers in question would be designed to be explicitly like Martial Arts Maneuvers. Because of the nature of Martial Arts being "Spammable" these Maneuvers would be Infinite in nature, but less powerful accordingly, and in some cases more situational, specific kinds of Counters for example tailored to the Weapon style that your opponent has chosen. This is an Extremely Rudimentary Idea, and has yet to be fleshed out at all even in my head.

Canceled Projects

Combat Maneuvers Revamp Previously this was an attempt with the goal of quantifying set bonuses for specific actions instead of requiring DM input to determine what kind of benefits you'd attain from an action. Canceled as it's kind of not necessary, and I was at a loss for actual things to mark down for it that strayed much further out of applying the effects of making a Charge in response to whatever you were doing.

Targeted Strikes An attempt at making Called Shots more functional as I really detest the brevity of effects Called Shots often provide and their severe penalty to even attempt in the first place. It boiled down to becoming a Health-Per-Limb system before I eventually gave up on it, as it either forced you to attack limbs as it was foolish not to, or to ignore it altogether as the damage dealt to a limb was better served as damage towards killing the creature at hand.