Accepted Sources
All character choices should be discussed with the DM before being selected. In general, most content from any Wizard's published will be allowed, but some changes may be required to blend it with the lore of Threa.
Likewise, homebrew content will be considered on a case by case basis. Balance becomes a major issue with homebrew content. Items posted here: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/wiki/list are likely well balanced, but changes may still need to be made. More can be found https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/top/?t=all but it is more likely to need rebalancing. Also there is a lot of memes there.
Starting HP
To counteract some of the overwhelming lethality in the early levels, every character begins with
Bonus Hit Points. To determine these bonus HP, simply roll 3d4, and drop the lowest roll. For example, if you rolled a 1, a 2, and a 4, you would ignore the one, and add 2+4=6 HP to your starting HP.
Ability Scores
You may use Point Buy or Standard Array for starting ability scores.
Feats
To increase character diversity and uniqueness, every character may select a Feat at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20. You may still substitute a feat for an Ability Score Increase granted by levels in a class if you wish.
Lucky
Rename to "Fordained". This feat grants 2 "fate points" instead of 3 luck points.
Ritual Caster
Prerequisite: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma 13 or higher.
Backgrounds
Custom backgrounds are legal and encouraged where appropriate. This means two skill proficiencies and mix-match of two language or tool proficiencies, and an appropriate feature.
Character Replacement
If a character is being made as a replacement after character death or retirement, the new character can't be the same class as the old character. Replacement characters start at the same level as the rest of the party.
Leveling Up
We use milestone leveling instead of XP. Major quests or multiple smaller quests result in level ups at appropriate junctions. Players can expect to level up at least every 1-5 sessions (faster in the beginning, slower later on). Players may choose to take average or roll for hit points at each level. Rolls must be made in front of everyone. Multiclassing is allowed, but players are encouraged to provide story-appropriate reasons and methods for their characters to multiclass.
Flanking
If two allied characters are at opposite sides of an enemy they are considered in flanking position and they each gain access to a bonus action called "Distract". Using "Distract" confers a +2 bonus to the next attack of the other flanker, so long as they are still in flanking position when they make the attack. This bonus expires if it is not used on that character's next turn. You must describe what you are doing to distract the enemy.
Skill Checks
- We use passive insight, which works in a similar way to passive perception.
- When rolling perception or insight checks, any roll below your passive perception or insight score counts as whatever your passive is.
- When helping another character with a skill check to provide advantage, the character providing help must be proficient in the skill, unless the DM makes an exception.
- Sometimes skill checks will be based on different ability modifiers than suggested by the character sheet.
- Sometimes we resolve checks with a group check, where a majority or half of the party need to pass a check. Failure by 10 or more counts as two failures. Success by 10 or more counts as two successes.
- Some skill checks are only allowed for characters proficient in the skill.
- If you make a skill check against another player, that player determines the DC.
Critical Hits
The Default rule for critical hits is to roll any dice in your damage formula twice. Instead, roll the dice once, and add the maximum amount a roll could generate to the roll (plus any other modifiers).
Healing Potions
Drinking a healing potion can be done as a Bonus Action. All other potions, and administering a healing potion to another character, are still Actions.
Lingering Injuries
A character gains one level of exhaustion each time they suffer one of the following effects:
When they take a critical hit- When they drop to 0 hit points but are not killed outright
- When they fail a Death Saving Throw by 5 or more
In addition, a character can choose to automatically
stabilize at 0 hit points by rolling on the
Lingering Injury table on page 272 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Resting
Short Rests
Short rests work much the same way as the Player's Handbook, however instead of requiring 1 hour of rest time, only 10 minutes are needed.
Long Rests
Long rests no longer require 2 hours of light activity and 6 hours of sleep. Instead, it requires at least 3 hours of sleep and 3 hours of light activity (or sleep). You still recover 1/2 of your hit dice (rounded down, minimum 1), but you do not recover any hit points automatically. Instead, you may spend hit dice in the same way as during a short rest. You still recover spell points and abilities as normal.
This option works well in dungeons and wilderness, where you need to recover while in a dangerous environment. Only two guard watches are needed. Do note that this does not meet the physical sleep requirements of most races, so using this option multiple nights in a row may begin to require Constitution Saves to avoid levels of Exhaustion
Full Rests
A full rest recovers all abilities, hit points, and hit dice to full. It requires a number of days with ample rest as needed by your species (8 hours for most) based on the quality of your rest. While in town, your rest quality can be determined by your Lifestyle Expenditure as described in the Player's Handbook. Consult the table in the sidebar for more information.
Note: Wilderness camping is considered Wretched, but having rations increases it a level, having a bedroll increases it a level, having a tent increases it a level, and a successful survival check (to build a good fire, hunt fresh food, select a good camp site, etc) increases it a level. You can never rest at more than "Modest" while camping.
Campfires
Whenever the party takes a rest, you may opt to tell a "Campfire Story". The DM will roll on a table to determine the topic of your conversation - it may be a story about the past, or a role-playing encounter between you and another player or NPC. Telling a Campfire story grants you an Inspiration Card. You may hold up to 2 Inspiration Cards at a time. Only one Campfire Story can be told during a short rest. During a long rest or full rest, each player has an opportunity to tell a story. Inspiration can still be rewarded for role-playing or heroic acts during play as well. As a player, feel free to suggest when an action or scene may warrant it.
Death Saves
Death Saves are all made as whispers to the DM. You cannot tell other players how close you are to death. This will ensure there is always a sense of urgency if someone is down.
Resurrection & The Undead
As the souls of the dead are collected to fuel the magic used on Threa, and by the Empyreals when the need arises, returning the soul to a body is more difficult than in standard D&D rules. See the
Magic and Corruption article for changes to each individual spell. Below is an overview though.
Pinning the Soul
When a person dies, their soul naturally seeks to leave the body. The first step in
any resurrection process (Revivify, Raise Dead, Reincarnate, Resurrection, True Resurrection) is to pin that soul back to a body. To do so, the character performing the resurrection must tie departed soul to his own in order to prevent it from floating to the well of souls. A character may tie any number of souls to their own, but despite centuries of research, the Tol Maran have found themselves unable to tie a soul a second time. Since that healer has now tied the departed soul to his own, should he die, the departed soul will return and the resurrected character will die as well. As such, all resurrections are merely borrowed time. In game terms this means a character can only resurrect another character once. If that character dies a second time, a second healer can resurrect him and now their souls are tied instead of the first healer's. A single healer can resurrect as many people once as is needed, but nobody a second time.
Retrieving the Soul
Within the first few moments of death, the soul is caught in The Leys, and as such is now the property of The Veiled One. In order to retrieve the soul, he must be appeased - and the soul too, must be convinced. Thus begins the
Resurrection Challenge. Up to three characters can offer to contribute to the ritual via a Skill Check. The DM asks each of them to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.
Examples of this Skill check would be: Persuasion to implore the deceased to return, or a Religion check to know what physical offering the veiled one would take in exchange, etc.
Once all contributions are completed, the deceased character rolls a single, final Resurrection Check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 2 for each previous time the character has been resurrected (signifying the erosion of the soul's connection to this world). For each successful contribution skill check, the DC is decreased by 3, whereas each failed contribution check increases the DC by 1.
On a successful check, the character's soul (should it be willing) will be returned to the body, and the ritual succeeded. On a failed check, the soul does not return and the character is lost. This could be because the soul does not want to return, The Veiled One forbid its return, or even because the soul had already been burned to power some magic somewhere on the world.
Necromantic Pinning
The process of pinning a departed soul is different in Necromancy than in healing. Instead of tying the soul to his own, a Necromancer utilizes the power of the returned's soul to bind it - essentially burning part of the creature's soul away. This has several effects. First, a soul damaged in this way is forever so - once somebody has been risen as undead, they can never be resurrected or raised again. When they die a second time, their soul unravels and what energy is left is washed away in the Leys. Second, the more of a soul that is destroyed to do this, the less that remains for higher thinking. Unskilled necromancers can create little but skeletons and zombies incapable of speaking or feeling because they must destroy so much of the soul to raise their creations. More skilled necromancers are able to destroy less of the soul, allowing undead creations that can still think, feel, and speak. Finally, this process causes intense psychic pain in the raised creature. This drives most undead to madness, despite their intelligence. Respite can be found in the consumption of living tissue, as the brief connection to life seems to ease their pain, but it does not last.
Necromantic Soul Retrieval
For the most part, Necromancers care little whether the soul that inhabits a body is the same one that did before. For most cases, they will simply pluck any available soul from the Leys. If a Necromancer does want to return the same specific soul to the body, they must utilize the same Resurrection Challenge as a healer.
Eyes are the Window to the Soul
No matter how they were returned, someone who's soul has departed their body is always changed. Any who are restored before they joined The Leys or the Well of Souls lose their natural eye color. The entire eye appears milky white.
A soul pulled from The Leys had begun to mingle with the souls of animals, and change to a wild yellow.
A soul returned from Well of souls is instead a swirling green, almost like a heavy green mist - affected by the magic protecting the well.
Finally, a damaged soul forced to the body by Necromancy turns its eyes to deep black pools.
These cannot be healed in any way, though illusion can disguise it, as can mundane things like goggles or cloths conceal it.
Movement
During your turn, you can make a single diagonal movement during each "Move" action at 5', and that is all - the rest of your movement must be vertical or horizontal.
Encumbrance
We'll be using the Variant Encumbrance rules from page 176 of the Player's Handbook.
Intelligence Bonus Proficiencies
At character creation, apply the following adjustments to your proficiencies based on your Intelligence Modifier. These are cumulative
| Int Bonus |
Modifier |
| +1 |
Gain a bonus tool or language proficiency. |
| +2 |
Gain a bonus tool or language proficiency. |
| +3 |
Gain a bonus skill proficiency from the following list: Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Survival, or Performance. |
| +4 |
Gain expertise in one of the skills listed above. |
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