Introduction
Howdy! If you're reading this, that that means you might be interested in participating in, or reading about, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm currently crafting called the Ten Sword Tales. Below, you'll find a set of essential campaign resources, including what content will be allowed, what won't be, and what changes will be implemented to ensure both coherence of theme and mechanical balance.
Motivations - or, Why Are We Here?
Though this will likely be a private campaign for myself and a small group of friends to partake in, I want to lay out the mechanical limitations of the campaign as a way of delineating boundaries for the worldbuilding aspect of this project. I may ultimately decide to expand the worldbuilding beyond the confines of the game as a sort of thought experiment; though I'm a former martial artist myself, I haven't really had the chance to endulge in fantasy fiction adjacent to it for a long time. so this sort of represents me pushing myself out of my comfort zone as a writer.
Anyways, with all that explaination out of the way, let's get into it!
Premise
Ten Sword Tales is an Eastern-inspired high fantasy story set in a world where martial artists wield a form of magic that is distinct from that wielded by more traditional scholars of the mystic arts. Geopolitical tensions still stew in the background in the form of low-intensity conflicts and palace intrigues, but the great nations of the world are still licking their wounds from the previous century of conflict and loathe to engage in direct military conflict. Into the vacuum left by the influence of the great power step the disaffected warriors that once served these great powers. These martial artists wander the landscape settling scores, taking mercenary work, staving off bandits and monsters that threaten the common folk, and testing their mettle against other martial arts to hash out which of the Nine Great Schools is the greatest above all others.
Each of the Nine Great Schools has a unique fighting style - empowered by a form of sorcery loosely termed 'blade magic' - and plays steward to a unique weapon that embodies the precepts of that fighting style. The champions of each school engage in training, power struggles, and confrontations with members of other schools to establish a pecking order within the school and determine who will have the right to bear the weapon as the school's Master.
Scope and Scale
Player characters will be dropped into the Ten Sword Isles at a lowly first level and will be encouraged to test their mettle to cultivate power and prestige. Martial adepts in the party will be expected to seek out and attempt to best members of opposing martial arts schools - which may require a degree of social roleplay, investigation, and adventuring against outlaws or monsters threatening the realm - with a final goal of claiming one or more of the schools' unique legacy weapons. Character growth can be pursued in a number of ways, but by 20th level, the player characters will ideally have achieved global renown for their deeds. Beyond 20th level and up to 30th level, the player characters will be restricted to adventuring on the other planes of existence as their powers test the limits of godhood.
Campaign Resources
The overarching goal of the following limitations and inclusions is to rectify an imbalance in power level between martial and caster classes, as well as to provide additional out-of-combat utility to each, while still attempting to stick to a cohesive theming.
Whitelisted Materials
D&D 3.5 core materials (see below): All options except full martial classes and full caster classes (see below)
Oriental Adventures (see below): All options except most base classes (see below)
Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords: All options
Weapons of Legacy: All options
Tome of Magic: All options with modifications (see below)
Complete Base Class List
Bard
Binder
Crusader
Monk
Rogue
Shadowcaster
Sohei
Swordsage
Truespeaker
Warblade
Cut Materials
Player's Handbook base classes except Bard, Monk, and Rogue: Spellcasters of all sorts in 3.5 are typically regarded as much more powerful than their martial counterparts, especially at late level, and Rogues can sometimes become pigeon-holed into the trapfinding role. For this reason, along with considerations of theming (see below), most of the core Player's Handbook classes are not available in the Ten Sword Tales setting, the exceptions being the Rogue, Monk, and Bard classes. Monk is generally considered weaker than martial adepts, but their class features are required for qualifying for various other feats and classes that would be otherwise difficult to attain; thus, Monks are on the whitelist, but discouraged above 5th level. Prestige classes from the Dungeon Master's Guide are available, however, and follow the same caster progression changes as outlined below.
Oriental Adventures base classes except Sohei: While the Oriental Adventure base classes have an appropriate thematic flair to them, many of them are near re-skins of core classes and, therefore, exhibit the same power scaling problems. For this reason, the Oriental Adventures base classes other than the Sohei are not available in the Ten Sword Tales setting. Prestige classes from this source book are available, however, and follow the same caster progression changes as outlined below. Samurai and similar iconic professions might be drawn from the ranks of other thematically-related classes rather than representing classes as they are understood in a roleplaying context; Oriental adventures acknowledges this with the adaptation notes for Ranger and Fighter.
Oriental Adventures Rokugan theming: Ten Sword Tales setting exposition supercedes Rokugan-specific exposition for the purpose of this campaign setting. For example, while the clan-specific features of Oriental Adventures classes may be used as normal, the geopolitical milieu will be different and, therefore, clan-specific affiliation will not be set as requirements for taking these classes in this setting. Entries referring to the Shadowlands will be interpreted instead as dealing with the World Roots; taint rules will not be implemented at this time. Ancestry feats may be freely taken, so long as they are taken at first level and do not conflict with one another in theming.
Unearthed Arcana (all)
Spell Compendium (all)
Magic Item Compendium (all)
Variant Rules & Theming
Binder divine progression: For the purpose of qualifying for feats and prestiges classes that advance divine casting, Binder level is treated as divine caster level. The levels of vestiges available to the Binder count as spells known of the same level. Class features that advance divine caster level advance Binder level as well unless the class already offers that progression (i.e. Anima Mage).
Binder theme changes: The Binder class recieves the Shaman (OA) theming. Vestiges are animistic spirit entites related to nature, places, and great personages througout history. The new names corresponding to each vestige will be determined as the setting is developed.
Shadowcaster arcane progression: For the purpose of qualifying for feats and prestiges classes that advance arcane casting, Shadowcaster level is treated as arcane caster level. The levels of mysteries available to the Shadowcaster count as spells known of the same level. Class features that advance arcane caster level advance mystery user level instead unless the class already offers that progression (i.e. Noctumancer).
Shadowcaster buffs: Shadowcasters in the the Ten Sword Tales setting recieve bonus uses of their mysteries at each level from high ability scores as though these mysteries were arcane spells of the same level. Class features that grant bonus spells (such as Dragon Disciple or Eunuch Warlock) also bestow additional mystery uses in this manner. Metashadow feats count as metamagic feats for all intents and purposes (i.e. Anima Mage).
Truespeaker divine and arcane progression: For the purpose of qualifying for feats or prestiges classes that advance arcane or divine casting, Truespeaker level is treated as arcane and divine caster level as is most beneficial to the character. The levels of utterances of any lexicon available to the Truespeaker count as spells known of the appropriate level. Class features that advance arcane or divine caster level advance class level for the purpose of all variable modifiers and utterances known. Dual progression classes (i.e. Mystic Theurge) only advance Truespeaker features once per level; for example, a Truespeaker 3/Binder 3/Mystic Theurge 4 would have the soulbinding ability of a 7th level Binder and the utterances of a 7th level Truespeaker, but a Truespeaker 6/Mystic Theurge 4 would only have the utterances of a 10th level Truespeaker.
Truespeaker buffs: Truespeakers are generally considered underpowered relative to other classes, so they recieve some boosts to balance them somewhat. When targeting creatures, Truespeakers can add their ranks in the Knowledge subskill associated with that creature as a bonus to their Truespeak roll. This bonus also applies to objects (via Architecture & Engineering, History, or Appraise) and places (via Geography, Local, Nature, or Survival). In cases where more than one Knowledge or other skill applies to Truespeak, the Truespeaker may choose what bonus to use. Truenamers can also create items, such as scrolls, that emulate any truespeech spells that would be available to any casters of their level or less; this ability does not grant Truenamers the ability to cast these spells without the aid of such items. Metaspeech feats count as metamagic feats for all intents and purposes (i.e. Anima Mage).
Monk buffs: Monks are generally considered underpowered relative to traditional martials. However, their unique class features are indispensable for several major prestige classes found within the whitelisted materials, so they recieve a small buff that will also serve to improve their theming with regards to the prevalence of martial adepts. The Martial Study and Martial Stance feats are added to the Monk bonus feat list. A monk may choose to expend a use of their Stunning Fist ability to recover a maneuver acquired through the Martial Study feat.
Other Oriental Adventures PrC Considerations: Several prestige classes in Oriental Adventures make referrence to assisting Shugenja. Because the Ten Sword Tales setting does not utilize this class, this assistance can instead be applied to the abilities any of the above classes re-classified as arcane or divine casters. Furthermore, as some classes (i.e. Henshin Mystic) require access to certain Monk class features (i.e. Still Mind) that don't otherwise appear in the corpus of whitelisted materials (see above), these classes may be enterable through alternative means (i.e. the Moment of Perfect Clarity maneuver) at the Dungeon Master's prerogative so long as the requirements of the class are upheld in spirit. The Ki Frenzy class feature, as found in the Sohei class, will function as the Rage class feature for the purpose of advancement and qualification for prestige classes.
Trapfinding & Lockpicking: Any character may attempt to pick locks or find and disable traps of all difficulty levels. A soulbinding, truespeech, or shadowcaster level check may be used in lieu of a Disable Device check to disable a magical trap.
Iaijutsu Focus: As with the Truename Training feat, a character can gain Iaijutsu Focus as a class skill with the Iaijutsu Training feat. Iaijutsu Training requires the Quick Draw feat and a minimum base attack bonus of +1.
Alignment & Deities: Ten Swords Tales will have its own cosmology and deities separate from those of other settings, but the concept of moral and ethical alignments will still have a presence in the world and affect requirements. Feats and prestige classes that require a character to adhere to the worship of a specific deity (i.e. Tenebrous Apostate) will no longer have that requirement, but will gain the alignment restrictions of Clerics who would worship those deities unless otherwise explicitly noted. For example, the Ruby Knight Vindicator prestige class will no longer require a prospective member of that class to worship Wee Jas, but a character who wants to take levels in that class must still remain within one step of Lawful Neutral alignment as normal for a Cleric of Wee Jas.
Favored Classes: The favored classes of each playable race will be shifted to the nearest approximation allowed within the setting limitations (see above) on a case-by-case basis. For example, the gnome favored class will be shifted to Shadowcaster to reflect that race's dedication to illusion magic.
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