Game Information
Changes from standard D&D 3rd Edition
New Character Creation
Characters will use the "point buy" system for their ability scores as described in the DMG (pp. 19-20). However, the players will have 32 points to spend instead of the standard 25.
A quick summary: Each player begins with an ability score of 8 in each attribute, and may spend up to 32 points to improve their ability scores. See the chart below for the point costs per ability score.
| Ability Scores | Cost | Ability Scores | Cost | |
| 9 | 1 | 14 | 6 | |
| 10 | 2 | 15 | 8 | |
| 11 | 3 | 16 | 10 | |
| 12 | 4 | 17 | 13 | |
| 13 | 5 | 18 | 16 |
Here is a short list of common ability score combinations that can be generated from 32 points.
| Common Ability Score Combinations |
| 16,14,14,12,12,10 |
| 16,16,12,12,10,10 |
| 18,14,12,10,10,10 |
| 18,12,12,12,10,10 |
Experience Points
Experience Points (XP) are awarded "per session" instead of per Encounter as described in the D&D3e PHB and DMG. See the article "d20 Per Session Experience" for the explanation of how XP will be given out.
Available Character Races
The following character races are available: Human, elf, and dwarf. Orc may become a character race later on.
There are no "half-" anythings. Interracial sex is possible, but no offspring ever results.
Orcs
Orcs are not necessarily chaotic evil. Like all intelligent creatures, their alignment is a product of society and personal choice rather than genetics.
Elves
Elves do not die of old age, making them effectively immortal. The exception to this are elvish sorcerors, who generally live about 100 years after their "awakening".
Elves aren't necessarily "in tune" with nature. They are craftsmen of incredible skill, honed over centuries of practice, who easily integrate magic with their more mundane skills.
Magic
Magic is well-established in the region, but not common outside of the more cosmopolitan areas. Mages of truly high level are rare, and acquiring spells at higher levels can be difficult. Thus, there are a handful of "old wizards in towers" scattered about, doing research into magic, attempting to learn spells above 6th and 7th levels.
Some humans manage to live to extremely old ages by the nature of their work with magic. Each spell level achieved slows down the aging process that much more. This applies to wizards, clerics, druids, and bards, as well as any other class that grants access to spells, except sorcerors.
Sorcerors are not so limited as wizards, but their lives are not extended by the magic they wield. It's as if the passion inside them that gives rise to their magic keeps them going, burning them out from the inside. In appearance, they do not age past their prime, but they seldom live past the years normally alloted a human life. Even elven sorcerors seldom live longer than a century.
Druidic orders, like the more staid (stuffy?) schools of wizardry, limit access to the highest levels of magic. Unsanctioned progression past the 6th spell level is grounds for death (recycling of the spirit). Clerical orders are relatively recent in Bekannte, evolving from the druidic orders. Thus the clerical orders operate much the same, and limit access to spells 6th level and higher.
Magic - Limitations from D&D
The following spells in the PHB are not available: astral projection, banishment, contact other plane, dimensional anchor, gate, interplanar message, lesser planar ally, lesser planar binding, greater planar ally, greater planar binding, planar ally, planar binding, plane shift, summon monster I-IX. Spells from other supplements will be listed when they are reviewed.
Where certain clerical domains grant summon monster, substitue summon nature's ally.
There is only the Material Plane, and the Ethereal Plane. The Ethereal Plane is called the Spirit Realm by the residents of Bekannte. No other planes from the D&D cosmology exist. Spells like teleport, teleportation circle, and teleport without error, that are considered to pass through the Astral Plane in "normal" D&D, work in Bekannte as described in the PHB, but do not pass through any other plane. The spell elemental swarm, and other spells that summon elementals, require a volume of elemental material from which the elemental can be formed. Spells like shadow conjuration, that are considered to pull shadowstuff from the Plane of Shadows, work in Bekannte as described in the PHB, but use shadowstuff from shadows or darkness in the real world. [an error occurred while processing this directive]