Hi all –

I’ve written up these notes to give you a basis for creating your characters. I’ll send a separate outline on the world and campaign as soon as I have something together. For now, assume that this will be a standard fantasy pseudo-medieval setting. A substantial amount of your time will be spent outdoors, but there will be opportunities for underground, city, and naval action.

Rules Set:

We will be using the standard D&D 3.5 ruleset. (see house rules below)

The following 3.5 books are “approved” for PC use, meaning that you can choose classes, feats, skills, spells, equipment, etc. from these sources:

• Dungeon Masters Guide
• Dungeon Masters Guide 2
• Arms and Equipment Guide (3.0 version)
• Magic Item Compendium
• Player’s Handbook
• Player’s Handbook  2
• Complete Adventurer
• Complete Arcane
• Complete Divine
• Complete Mage
• Complete Scoundrel
• Complete Warrior
• Book of Exalted Deeds
• Book of Vile Darkness
• Spell Compendium
• Tome of Battle – the Book of Nine Swords
• Tome of Magic – Pact, Shadow, and Truename Magic
• Unearthed Arcana

If there is something missing from this list that you seriously want (either a book or a specific class/skill/whatever from a book) let me know and we’ll make a call on it.

Character Setup:

• You will be starting at 6th level, with 15,000 EP.
• We will use the same “stat buying” method (see page 169 of the DMG) except that I will give you 34 points to play with (2 more than Jenz, ‘cause I’m nicer).
• We will use regular Base and Prestige classes – no gestalt (I enjoyed trying it, and would play gestalt again, but it is a bit of a book keeping headache). As noted elsewhere, alignment restrictions do not apply, but other restrictions (e.g. requirements for starting a prestige class) do apply.
• You get 15,000gp to spend on equipment and magic items to start.
• I can assist you in setting up your characters in PCGen if you like (and can ftp you a copy if necessary).
• If there are major gaps in party capabilities, I will run a couple NPCs to fill in (but weaker than the PCs – lvl 4 or 5)
• Any secondary characters (NPCs) or hirelings should be 28-point buys, and 4th level as a guideline.

Bob’s House Rules:

Adopting some house rules I liked from Jenz’ world:

• Wizards can declare one spell at each spell level that they can cast anytime they want in place of any prepared spell. The selected spontaneous spell can be changed when leveling.
• The Wizard class gets bonus feat progression similar to that used by the Fighter class. The first 2 levels of feats can be used for non-wizard feats if desired.
• Sorcerers get 2 additional spells in their “known” lists for each level.
• There are no alignment restrictions on classes, and rules concerning penalties if you ever “quit” a class are ignored.
• The skill Disable Device will also be used to allow setting of mechanical traps, using the rules in chapter 3 of the DMG (this replaces the Craft: trapmaking skill)
• Spot and Search are the same skill – you needn’t buy them separately.
• You can generally create a feat that will make 3 related skills “in class” for you. The main exception to this is the Rogue skills that are only for that class - Disable Device, Open Lock, and Forgery.

And a slightly modified one - Each PC may select one “color skill” from each of these types:

• Craft
• Profession
• Perform (non-bard, if you're a bard, this is a core skill for you and you pay, since your special abilities key off it.)

These color skills will are free and the character gets them at maximum level (character level + bonuses + 3).

Hit Points
Zero-level characters and NPCs start out with Hit Points (HP) equal to half their CON rounded up. After this, they gain a die based on class plus their bonus based on CON for each level (normal D&D 3.5 progression). The purpose of this rule is to give everyone a few extra HP at low level, and provide a consistent HP level for zero-level people.
Example: Moe is  1st level Fighter with a CON of 14. Fighters get a d10, and Moe rolls a 6, so at 1st level Moe will have (14/2 = 7) + (6{rolled} + 2 {bonus for a 14 CON}) = 15 HP.

Maps
I may give you maps from time to time. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that these are drawn by an omniscient, all powerful being (‘cause I know that’s how you think of me…). Unless otherwise noted, any maps you get are as liable to inaccuracy as any old map.

Level Advancement
When a character has enough experience to make a new level, the following occurs:

• I’ll be keeping track of EP for my own tracking purposes, but you needn’t bother with it – I’ll adopt Jenny’s method of just letting you know when you’ve made level (unless anyone really has a burning desire to keep track).
• Improvement in skills or feats already possessed and additional hit points are gained after the first full nights rest (8 hours) following the attainment of the required experience total (after points are awarded at the end of an adventure). This also applies to improved abilities gained at every 4th level.
• In order to gain a new skill, unknown spell, or feat that is unrelated to previous abilities, a character must practice and train. This normally requires 1 week of full time effort to learn a new skill or ability. For example, Duff the Mage wants to learn horseback riding, and has never been on a horse before. He will need to spend a week practicing in order to gain this new skills. The time requirement can be reduced to 2 days if a suitable tutor can be found. A suitable tutor is one who already has the same or a similar skill to the one being sought, and who is willing to devote their full time to training the character.

Material Components
Hate ‘em. Most spells do not require any material components. The exception to this rule is spells which involve extended rituals, such as divination spells. Also, for some specific or more powerful spells that I may want to limit, I may require components (and not necessarily the standard ones).

Spells
You can assume that arcane spells of levels 1-3 are generally available. Beyond that (levels 4 and up) you will need to find a source to learn the spell. There are Schools of Magic in most larger cities. This restriction does not apply to divine spells – they are gifts from the Gods.

Resurrection
When resurrecting, roll a Fortitude save at DC20 to avoid losing a point of Con.

Critical Fumbles
Critical fumbles are treated similarly to critical hits. Any roll of a natural 1 in combat risks a critical fumble. The character must re-roll to confirm the fumble. If the second roll is also a miss, then it is a critical fumble. The degree that the second roll misses by determines the severity of the fumble:

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