My homebrew campaign setting: Arten Island

[tzar1990]

Shield CoveThe TriadDerrisGlassmoorAmmonfordBrighton may well be the most infamous city on the island. Formerly a forgettable farm and trade town, it boomed when a local adventurer brought an unusual species of blighted mushroom back with him. The fungus grows to an enormous size, with a woodlike skin, but is hollow in the sphere on top of its stalk, and its growth can be controlled through the application of salts and oils. Since then, the mushrooms have been used to create cheap housing throughout the town, as their unnatural durability lets them grow anywhere, even in the bay, projecting up out of the water. However, while the locals all agree that the mushrooms are of great benefit, many outside distrust the town, wondering to themselves how exposure to blight-touched homes might affect the locals. (Get your psionics here, folks!)

8.   Born out of a military encampment, Rosend was founded by soldiers, camp followers, and refugees from the Altus Range incursion. It is located near the center of the island, but a long inlet stretches all the way from the east coast to the town. While the town is lacking in actual industries besides a bit of fishing, it is supported by the other cities in exchange for fulfilling its duty of maintaining the Rosewall, an emergency measure which divides the island into a northern and southern half, and will be activated should either half of the island be overcome by the blight. Nowadays, those with nothing left often travel to Rosend, where they are guaranteed room and board in exchange for service in the local military. As a result of this policy, Rosend has a large standing militia, and even maintains a few forts near the blighted zone to the north.

Some possible adventure locations:

A.   Fort Armindale, funded by a group of mages and aristocrats from across the island, is a secretive facility dedicated to the research, usage and breeding of blighted, but relatively safe, monsters and organisms. The location is maintained exclusively by lawful individuals, all of whom have sworn oaths to keep the place secret and prevent potential blight outbreaks with their lives. Security is considered paramount, for obvious reasons. The squat grey fort has very few windows, and thick doors across its only entrance, but the most important part of the defences are the moat. Magically enhanced, it appears perfectly normal until something attempts to cross it without being in one of the two authorized boats. At that point, the water defies gravity and begins climbing up anything solid, while also freezing it solid unbelievably quickly(4d8 frost damage per turn) Those attempting to fly in will also find themselves in trouble, if not from the bound air elementals, than from the antimagic fields established in a rough dome above the fort.

B.   Redstone IslandWarden Forest is a dark, forbidding place with a few interesting properties. The trees there are significantly larger than those nearby, and the animals are likewise oversized. The forest is actually unmapped, due mostly to a subtle compulsion effect seemingly generated from the trees that causes those within to feel a sense of anxiety and desire to leave. While there were initially fears that the forest was blighted in some way, investigation showed that any effects were natural, if somewhat disturbing. Since then, a small group of druids have taken residence in the forest, claiming it as a sacred place. They seem to be unaffected by the aura, and have made it clear they value their privacy.

D.   Found on the east coast of the island, the Shattered Stone Archipelago

[veekie]

Just a word of warning, barring a handful of spells in obscure sourcebooks, the spells that make other classes obsolete are nearly all core. If you're restricting sources due to lack of familiarity with them, go ahead though.

RE: Teleport
Nice interpretation of the off target chance. Allowing missed destinations to apply vertically as well is...interesting to put into play. What about the 'without error' and short range(D. Door, for example)  teleports though? Shadow Walk and other 'hyperspace trek' type spells? I presume Shadow Walk uses these beacons as navigational aids in the murk of the alternate dimension, sort of like the Astronomicon through the Warp in W40K)

Neat idea, how prolific are these major magical infrastructure and do they need some power source(tapping ley lines, requires some caster to feed, regular sacrifices, etc) or do they just work
by unexplained magic?
Would also be nice to provide more landmarks of these big projects, some artificial, purified river, etc.

For avatars, avatars as in giant stompy god or more like Odin the Wanderer?

Are those towns united in any sense(alliance, some overall ruler, etc) or are they more or less independent? Salvage runs off island? Presumably the place would be a little low on mineral ores and such considering how most islands are, unless the dwarves mine into bedrock and then off island in the deeps.

[tzar1990]

Just a word of warning, barring a handful of spells in obscure sourcebooks, the spells that make other classes obsolete are nearly all core. If you're restricting sources due to lack of familiarity with them, go ahead though.

Good point. I guess I'll just houserule the spells as I go along. I have a copy of the PHB at home, so it shouldn't be too hard to find the spells that need to be altered. I'll make sure to discuss any changes with the players before making them, though..

RE: Teleport
Nice interpretation of the off target chance. Allowing missed destinations to apply vertically as well is...interesting to put into play. What about the 'without error' and short range(D. Door, for example)  teleports though? Shadow Walk and other 'hyperspace trek' type spells? I presume Shadow Walk uses these beacons as navigational aids in the murk of the alternate dimension, sort of like the Astronomicon through the Warp in W40K)

I figure I'll let teleport without error be a fairly high level spell. I mean, combined with decent divination, you have the ability to be wherever you want, whenever you want to, and that's a near-epic ability in my opinion. Dimension door has a relatively short range, so I doubt it will be a problem. I see shadow walk as  needing the beacons to keep you close to reality. I'm thinking of having a "deep shadow" cosmology, where people in the shadow plane can wander away from reality, having everything become darker, grander and less real if they're not careful. It lets them travel faster, but at much higher risk. Beacons like the circle would be needed to come out of the shadow plane and towards reality... but only if you don't go to deep...

Neat idea, how prolific are these major magical infrastructure and do they need some power source(tapping ley lines, requires some caster to feed, regular sacrifices, etc) or do they just work
by unexplained magic?
Would also be nice to provide more landmarks of these big projects, some artificial, purified river, etc.

I see major magical devices like that as being relatively uncommon (a large town might have a few nearby, whereas a smaller town might have a single weak one). The reason the windroad works so well is that the foci all work together (once you have a wind blowing north, it doesn't take as much magic to keep it going in that direction as it does to start it up). I see the devices as drawing magical power out of the earth, but still needing human charging and maintenance every now and then. Fortunately, mages are more common in this setting, so it's just a matter of sending 10 or so apprentices out and having them pump some spells into the cairns.

For avatars, avatars as in giant stompy god or more like Odin the Wanderer?

More like Odin the wanderer. I'm thinking  that an avatar of Wee Jas might turn up at the funeral of a powerful mage, Pelor occasionally walks the streets of Glassmoor, and there are rumors that an androgynous young person in a simple cloak sometimes gives his/her blessing to those who help return blighted areas to nature.

Are those towns united in any sense(alliance, some overall ruler, etc) or are they more or less independent? Salvage runs off island? Presumably the place would be a little low on mineral ores and such considering how most islands are, unless the dwarves mine into bedrock and then off island in the deeps.

The towns are united, with a council that has representatives from each town meeting regularly in Queen's Reach. Unfortunately, the unity of purpose the people had in the past have faded, and the island is becoming more like a collection of city-states than a united nation.

The island is large enough that salvage runs off island aren't necessary yet. With the exception of on semi-active volcano, the central mountain ranges on the island contain plenty of untapped mineral sources. Notably, the dwarven town of Kemel-Za has found iron, silver and gold nearby, and prospectors near Derris claim that there may be a small bit of mithril in the foothills to the west.

[veekie]

I figure I'll let teleport without error be a fairly high level spell. I mean, combined with decent divination, you have the ability to be wherever you want, whenever you want to, and that's a near-epic ability in my opinion. Dimension door has a relatively short range, so I doubt it will be a problem. I see shadow walk as  needing the beacons to keep you close to reality. I'm thinking of having a "deep shadow" cosmology, where people in the shadow plane can wander away from reality, having everything become darker, grander and less real if they're not careful. It lets them travel faster, but at much higher risk. Beacons like the circle would be needed to come out of the shadow plane and towards reality... but only if you don't go to deep...

Theres still stuff like Tree Stride(and the Blood Walk ability from the blood mage PrC), though on the other hand, that only works mostly as a forest bypass anyway, since you can't exit anywhere there aren't, well, trees. They automatically have end points due to the medium they exit through.

I see major magical devices like that as being relatively uncommon (a large town might have a few nearby, whereas a smaller town might have a single weak one). The reason the windroad works so well is that the foci all work together (once you have a wind blowing north, it doesn't take as much magic to keep it going in that direction as it does to start it up). I see the devices as drawing magical power out of the earth, but still needing human charging and maintenance every now and then. Fortunately, mages are more common in this setting, so it's just a matter of sending 10 or so apprentices out and having them pump some spells into the cairns.

I could certainly see an artificial river flow used to connect the mines to major towns though, you could haul a lot more material with a river and boats than wagons, what with not needing much in the way of hauling beasties, provided a pair of magical devices at the head and tail of a loop can pump water fast enough to keep a flow going, with a simple waterlock to pass from the end of one stream to the start of another. Sides, you can tax em for use of the waterlock.

Soften Earth and Stone, Stone Shape, Move Earth and Wall of Stone based devices would be incredibly useful for mining and construction as well. Large, semiportable, wagon sized devices would do it.

A volcano...depends on how wacky you wanna get.

[Empirate]

more interesting most of the time, not less. Consider banning all races except a select few. No Dwarves, Orcs, Gnomes and Planetouched makes Elves and Halflings stand out more. No Wizards makes Sorcerers feel special and unique (since their small spells known list ensures most Sorcerers will differ from each other). A social ban on missile weapons and spells (cowardly weapons unbefitting a true nobleman!) ensures melee gets its day. A barter economy instead of gp makes everything much more sensible (no WBL) and gives your world that "mediaeval" feel. Magic that can "fail" (relies on a skill check or similar) becomes much more special whenever it doesn't (as well as taking the higher tier classes down a notch).

There's no reason whatsoever you shouldn't simply ban Invisibility effects or Summon spells or long-distance communication or something else just to emphasize that magic in this world is different, and tried-and-true tactics might not apply here. And there's also no reason not to introduce arbitrary social rules (most real social rules are arbitrary, after all), then build from there to establish the effects this would have on society as a whole: You touch metal on a regular basis, I want nothing to do with you, you're unclean. You haven't fathered a child yet, you get no voice in the village council. You've killed a living creature recently, go foster a young animal or plant a tree to make amends. He who wears the color red proclaims he is tougher than you; he who wears white announces his readiness to fight for a just cause. And so on.

Mind you, all these changes should be well-understood by everybody before the game starts - and if a player has a problem with some of these, be sure to work out a compromise. But to make a campaign that stands out, you will have to make some more drastical decisions than the names of places and what the common enemy is supposed to be.


A note regarding your proposed setting: If magic, even high-level magic, is that common, be sure to introduce a justifying element that makes sense mechanically. For example, it's very, very hard to fortify any great expanse of land with magic. Antimagic wards, Grease and Explosive runes spells on cliffs and so on are possible - but usually magic isn't something that can be produced industrially. A whole island is hard to cover in Explosive Runes, even if you have two dozen 5th level Wizards (not a trivial force) working day and night. How about introducing a magic "industry" in your world? Maybe everybody is magic-attuned to a small degree, making them capable in magic-item crafting. Maybe a 5th level Expert can take the Craft Wand feat. He just needs a magical "blueprint" (such as a Scroll) produced by a real spellcaster to produce a Wand of Magic Missile, or a dozen Explosive Runes on a cliffside. This could have a material cost and require a skill check, but probably shouldn't involve XPs.
This takes the "special" tag away from low-level magic items (which is just perfect for adventurers), and ensures that enough manpower can build a magical radio network or railway without near-epic magic.
The near-epic magic itself wouldn't be affected by this and would remain just as powerful and mysterious... after all, what individual in our world could bring down a main battle tank without superpowers? That would be a noteworthy feat, which wouldn't be reduced at all by the fact that main battle tanks can be cobbled together by some tens of thousands of totally mundane individuals. Just an idea.

[RobbyPants]

Just a word of warning, barring a handful of spells in obscure sourcebooks, the spells that make other classes obsolete are nearly all core. If you're restricting sources due to lack of familiarity with them, go ahead though.

Good point. I guess I'll just houserule the spells as I go along. I have a copy of the PHB at home, so it shouldn't be too hard to find the spells that need to be altered. I'll make sure to discuss any changes with the players before making them, though..

This could be as simple as a gentleman's agreement between you and your players asking them not to try and break the game, as well as house-rules as you see fit, to as complicated as writing up an entire list of banned/altered spells.  As to what needs altering depends on the power level you want from your group.  One approach would be a sort of "triage" where you lump spells into three groups:

(note that the bondaries between these groups will vary from group to group by what they think is an acceptable power level)

Crazy broken:
These spells are the ones that do crazy stuff that no one really considers to be the intents of the designers.  These spells involve things like unlimited free wishes at level 11 (Planar Binding), crazy damage limited only by your free time (Explosive Runes + Dispel Magic), getting a chance to rest and swap all your prepared spells via a time shenanigans (Genisis), and getting "extra lives" (Astral Projection).

Now, not all of these need to be banned, but you certainly might want to plug some of those holes.  For example, not allowing multiple runes on one object, or only tracking damage once per object will fix Explosive Runes.  Not allowing people to create demi-planes with weird flows of time will fix that problem with Genesis.


Abusable/Overpowered:
These spells are tougher to flat out abuse, but they're likely more powerful than other level appropriate spells.  Entangle offers very good crowd control right at level 1.  Glitterdust is also great when you get it and still good later in your career.

Some of the overpoweredness could also be seen as to come from other spells being too weak.  For example, in more situations than not, various forms of crowd control are superior than the same level of blasting.  This could be mitigated by weakening crowd control and/or by boosting damage.  It's really up to you and your group how you approach the issue.


Fine as-is:
These are the rest of the spells that generally speaking do what you expect them to do.  They might be situationally better or worse (such as Fireball vs mummies, ogres, or fire elementals), but generally they perform in a predictable way.  They don't wreck your game, and players are hard pressed to use them in a creative way to totally catch you by surprise.


So, going through the PHB and fixing the spells could be a pretty daunting task!  You may find it easier to warn your group up front that you may alter any spells that you feel are wrecking the game, and give them the chance to swap the spell out if they don't like the modifications.

[RobbyPants]

double-post

[tzar1990]