Rules+of+Ansalon

=House Rules Packages=

==Each package below is a bundle of house rules that can be added to the game to improve the quality of gameplay. Each package can be selected by the group individually, but ideally all packages would work best together. We can vote on them individually at the game and I will provide more exact details and answer questions regarding each set of rules changes.==

Cinematic Combat Package
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 * The Purpose of this package is to add some random variables to the mix of normal combat to make combat both more exciting and quicker. The speed at which combat is resolved potentially makes it more lethal to those involved, but the thrill of rolling a critical hit or a weapons damage result penetrating multiple times adds a random shot of adreneline to the mix
 * This Package includes:
 * Hit Point Kicker: Characters and Creatures recieve extra HP at their first level or hit die. This amount is based on the size of the character or creature (see table below)
 * Penetrating Die Rolls: When a die roll for damage/healing reaches it's maximum result (i.e. 1d6 rolls a 6, 1d4 rolls a 4) That die is rolled again at a -1 (ie. 1d6-1, 1d4-1) and the result of the second die roll is added to the total. This generates a random increase to the first die of 0 to maximum result for said die -1. If another maximum result is rolled then this process continues until something other than the maximum result is rolled. If a weapon does multiple dice of damage (such as a greatsword or a spell) then an die that results in the maximum is rolled again, thus is either die for a greatsword comes up a 6 or any number of dice in a Fireball spell comes up a six that die is rerolled in the same style as above. This greatly increases the effectivness of spells, including healing spells which recieve the same benefit. This rule change also balances weapons. Low damaging weapons such as a dagger more appealing because the chances of penetrating are greater.
 * No critical or Fumble Confirmation: Criticals are momentous and should be. If a target has a high AC then it's obvious that any blow that is good enough to penetrate such armor had to hit a vital area (such as the slit of a visor). Mechanically it's just another die roll that in and of itself slows combat, but also determines whether combat will be resolved even slower. With this system all natural 20s are criticals and all natural 1s are fumbles. If a weapon has an extended crit ranges (such as the 19-20 of a longsword) Then a crit result other than 20 is a critical only if that result is enough to beat the targets AC. In short criticals are always criticals as long as they beat the targets AC except natural 20s which are automatically critical hits.
 * Hackmaster Criticals: I'll be porting the critical hits table from Hackmaster to make use with this package.
 * Hackmaster Fumbles: The flip side of the coin, I will also be porting the fumbles tables from Hackmaster.
 * **Size** || **Hit Point Kicker** ||
 * Dimunitive || 5 HP ||
 * Tiny || 10 HP ||
 * Small || 20 HP ||
 * Medium || 20 HP ||
 * Large || 20 HP ||
 * Huge || 30 HP ||
 * Gargantuan || 40 HP ||
 * Colossal || 50 HP ||

Dynamic Initiative Package

 * This package is designed to mix up combat by changing the way in which initiative is handled.
 * This package includes:
 * Weapon Speed Factors: Designed to balance weapons by increasing the time in which it takes to swing larger weapons. A modified weapons table will include listings of all weapon speeds. This makes lighter weapons more appealing in that you can swing them quicker. Also feats such as Improved Initiative become more appealing because they'll let you swing your Greatsword faster or make you even faster with your dagger which has extra benefit as detailed below
 * Segemented Rounds: Each round will be broken into 20 segements. Essentially the number result of the initiative roll is which segment your character will act on. The segments will count down from 20 so the faster the better. Initiative results above 20 are ignored in this method, other than to determine who truely goes before who. However negetive initiatives represent such slow actions that the character with a slow initiatve might not act until the next round. Characters with negetive initiatives will subtract that number from 20 and act on that segment of the second round. (i.e. -4 initiative would act on segment 16 of round 2)
 * Initiative is rolled each round: Initiative will represent more than who goes first in combat. It will represent the characters opportunity to act and react to situations and change the tempo of combat. In the begininng this may indeed slow down the speed of the game, but once we're used to the system it should flow just as easily as standard initiative. This method has a few benefits as a side effect. First, it keeps combat jumping, you'll never know how each round will turn out. A bad roll in round 1 for initiative means less if you can roll better in round 2. Also, it can change the time a player spends between rounds waiting for their turn. Secondly, characters with faster weapons may get to strike an opponent more often then they get to strike back.

Called Shots Package

 * This package includes rules for calling shots and damaging limbs of opponents.
 * This package includes:
 * The ability to call shots: A player can target a specific area of an opponent at a penalty. The penalties for specific areas will be listed in a table, but the benefits are two fold. First, targeting an area increases the crit range of an area by 1, A longsword swung at the arm crits on 18-20, a Scimitar at the face crits on 17-20. The downside is that the severity of such criticals is less and any roll that isn't a natural 20 must still beat the targets AC to be a critical hit. The Second benefit is that each limb will have a threshold at which too much damage will render it unusable. Therefore a player can target the weapon hand of his opponent, forcing him to drop his weapon or switch hands and take a penalty to hit.
 * Character Handedness: With the option of damaging a characters primary hand to disable there chances of hitting. As such characters will have to clearly designate which hand is their primary and which hand it their secondary hand. Attacks made with the off-hand will be at a -2 penalty. This penalty is included in the penalties for two-weapon fighting and is not to be added in addition too.
 * Locational Hit Points: Each location on the body will recieve a percentage of hit points as detailed by the DiVinci's Man handout. These are not seperate Hit Points or Additional Hit Points, but a the amount of Hit Points an area can sustain before it is disabled. (i.e. The leg below the knee has 25% percent of the character maximum HP, if the character has 4 HP then the leg below the knee can only sustain 1 point of damage before it is disabled. If the character has 100 HP then the leg can sustain 25 points of damage before it is disabled.)