Taetra

These bonuses all comprise a new genre; material. It stacks with everything. So a masterwork steel longsword would deal 1d8 +1 damage, with an additional 2 to hit (1 from masterwork, 1 from material). While horridly unbalanced in the first try, my players enjoyed the addition. I, too, like the material genre, especially in a low magic setting. Hence Orichalcum, and soon to be other materials; they will add variety, and trust me, that augment critical comes at a horridly high price. As for the durability rolls, I have no problem with that, but after reviewing through item hardness and hitpoints, normal wear and tear really doesn't look all that hard to manage! If, say, someone were using a stone longsword (8 hardness, 15hp/inch), were to hit for 9 damage on someone, it would wear it down 1 hp. I think I will double the hps though, and have halfway be the "breaking down" part where it suffers penalties, and 0 be the fully broken threshold. Then again, that leads to critical hits being very, very bad for the user, too... perhaps, just take normal damage on the weapon for that? Normal damage being before crit multiplier. I've never had much experience DM'ing with casters. Do you ahve anything to suggest for limiting their power, besides tinkering with lack of proper material components?

Also, I need some help with costs on equipment and it's materials. Anyone here used the Craft skill plenty when it comes to arms and armor? I know how it works, but I don't want times and crafting to get too out of hand. I want struggle, not frustration.

Stone -1 to hit, -1 to damage, 50% chance to damage 1, 5hp Bronze -1 to hit, 45% chance to damage 1, 8hp Iron No bonuses or minuses, 40% chance to damage 1, 10hp Steel +1 to hit, +1 to damage, +1 to AC, 30% chance to damage 1, 15hp Mithril +2 to hit, +1 to AC, half weight, 30% chance to damage 1, 15hp Orichalcum +1 to hit, +1 to damage, Augment Critical 1, +1 to AC, 1DR/Adamantite, 25% chance to damage 1, 20hp Adamantite +2 to hit, +2 to damage, +2 to AC, 2DR/Adamantite, 10% chance to damage 1, 25hp It's a very rough table, just thought up after doing alot of thinking on how I want to do durability, and decided to go with chance/hp total instead of the PHB hardness/hp per inch thickness. Like I said, this is just a rough thought up table, and has not been tested in the least, so the percentages may be too high. Any feedback is appreciated, especially if it mentions future possibilities and problems.

I agree with Alorael here; there is the presence of magic users, and there's alot of them. They just lack resources and equipment and such to properly enchant. that's why I"ve imposed the double cost for magical items, and have considered limiting how high they can go. With the double cost in effect, I can say it has easily dissuaded any rich adventurer from turning in that cash for an extra ac or keen sword. It didn't stop them completely, but it made them search for different paths. My problem was that I handed out gold far too much. I realize now that everything SHOULD be shoddy, and need repairs and such. Going along with that, and after reading how crafting works, raising prices on equipment will also create a massive increase on how long it will take to make, especially if i include the fact that most likely everywhere but Draco, Blosk, and the Castle will have shoddy tools. I like that; it will force the players to take on crafts and such, to save on money. Lowering the amount of money acquired, while also imposing much much higher prices and the costs of repair will induce exactly what i'm looking for in the economic standpoint. It probably won't make my characters happy, but that's the point, isn't it? Also, I'm lucky in the fact that I haven't had people play many casters with item creation feats. It could potentially ruin it if the person is particularly ambitious, but I suppose the material components could be made to be extremely rare, making the creation of a magical item a quest in itself. Should I include the inherent forging bonuses on top of material bonuses, as Varil suggested? I like the sound of it, I'm just worried about keeping such a thing balanced, as I had trouble with materials as it was. Would anyone be interested in viewing the material bonuses table, and cost modification tables that I have made up?

It seems I've some reading to do! I appreciate the suggestions! Repairs are something I've never done before, but due to the wet and nasty of exile I'm definitely going to bring them in. Rust, blood, moss, and rock can't possibly be great on equipment, and it's a great way to drain some money. Perhaps I'll leave the DR to the much higher materials, and instead opt for AC bonuses. Also, before I forget, I've been running 3.5. I've been looking into pathfinder as it interests me in many ways, and clears up some confusions. But it's 3.5 that I know how to run, and know the most about. A couple of things I"ve been thinking about. While I want to limit amount of magical items in the game, taking a look at the magic item compendium has brought up a desire to randomly generate from there, but limit the buy list to DMG only. Also, the augment crystals in there intrigue me so much, and the tie-in with the Vahnatai would be oh so precious.

Okay, that's just being... lmao. I love the ideas, but I'd rather not do moves like that... I want struggle, not riotous anger. lol. What would be a good way to alter prices for equipment? I know I need to set a baseline higher than normal as it is, since equipment is harder to make, but I was wondering if I should do it per pound of weight, or have a multiplier on the base cost for material used?

Oh no, I had no plan on doing a complete remake; i just want the setting, the difficulty, the struggle. As for poverty and poor quality equipment... I can't quite seem to be able to nail that down. What I did do, to nail down the less magic part, was to double costs of magical improvement and enhancement of equipment. We managed to hit level 8 while only having +2's at maximum. In turn for lower magical bonuses, I instead tried a prototype material bonuses; Stone - -1 to hit, -1 to damage Bronze - Normal Iron - +1 to damage, 1dr on armors Steel - +3 to damage, 2 dr on armors (a bit too much I noticed) And so on. Players did like that... I, as the DM, found it hard to balance it out, and putting that sort of equipment on enemies allowed the party to pick it up easily... if they lived. (I should force people to repair it, now that I think about it...) Are there any ways to economize exile better? Or lower riches to accomodate a poverty-stricken region? Money is one thing I felt got out of hand, but that may have been my fault as a DM.

I did find that d20 avernum text file. It was what inspired me to pick it up, and it did have a few good ideas. But.... I can't really seem to find much else, other than roleplays on forums in the setting.

I'm not sure if this has been brought up, but I've been trying to register on this site for over a week. My problem was this, i would fill out the account information; account name, password, etc. I wouldn't bother with the information below that; I would just click the first submit button. It would bring me to the message along the lines of "You must verify, wait for email." Which I would. And it would never come. Just today I decided to fill out a bit more in my registration and try the second button.... and it worked instantly. No verification email, just done, login. Perhaps it is a problem with coding on the site, and maybe it ahs been mentioned before, but it hasn't been fixed and gave me many problems.

@Randomizer I mostly post it here because this is the rendition of the game that I can play. I own the old Exile 1 and 2, but due to having a 64 bit system I can't play those. Also, after playign through this, it seems to have alot more "pull" in the beginning that would be required to run my players through.

I guess the questions I would like discussed are this: 1. Would it work well enough to almost copy/paste most of everything, then allow the DM to work out the rest of it? An example of this would be to use introduction text/dialogue for the NPC's, then have the DM interact in a similar fashion to the adventurers. 2. I've been working on material bonuses to add flavor. Stone, Bronze, Iron, Steel, Blessed (metals) and on and on. The first rendition was very hard to balance, but it was fun. What I want to know here, is what others think of this in 3.5 and if you can contribute, that would be welcome. 3. I have a problem with... well, bluntly, lazy characters. And Avernum/Exile is not a place at all for that. What would be some good pulls to use in this setting?

I know I"m new here, but I've loved this game for just about a decade now. I love it, in fact, I love it so much that I want to create a DnD campaign of it. I was wodnering if there were any resources available to help do so, other than playing through the game to grab all the maps, NPCS, and other information. Also, if there are any really interested, I would be willing to post the work that is done.