House Rules

[Grim Luck]

Good stuff there.

Our group has reduced the number of 'house rules' that we actually apply. While we may add certain setting specific rules, here and there (we're using True 20 for everything from Futuristic Sci-Fi and modern Psi Spy, to Victorian Pulp) we're trying to keep our actual house rules pretty low.

Here's our boiled down list:

* We always use the 'Skill Familiarity' Option

* We always remove the 'Loss of Control' part of the Wild Talent feat

* We've removed the Light Armor feat, and the need for it

* All roles begin with 4 unassigned feats

* All Attack powers, and 'shaping' powers (and other miscelaneous world affecting powers like 'Move Object') use Intelligence as the 'Power Ability'

* All Sensory or Healing powers use Wisdom as the 'Power Ability'

* All Interaction powers use Charisma as the 'Power Ability'

We also use some setting specific rules, but that usually just affects the 'Powers' and the advantages that Adepts get.

[Michael Tree]

I haven't run True20 yet, but when I do I'll be using the following house rules:

* Trained and Familiar skills, described above. I might also give characters a few familiar skills for free.

* Power ranks are determined by 3 + Adept + (Warrior + Expert)/2.

* Characters gain +1 to any attribute every 3 levels, but cannot choose the same attribute twice in a row.

I'm tempted to create a "Damage" characteristic that slowly increases. This would increase the damage of their attacks, and also improve their Toughness saves. I like characters becoming tougher as they gain levels, but not to the same degree as in Blue Rose. So as to not unbalance the roles, I'd probably give everyone +1 every 4 total levels.

[The Shadow]

* Power ranks are determined by 3 + Adept + (Warrior + Expert)/2.

Intriguing. So an Adept is half as good as a Warrior at combat, and Warriors and Experts are half as good as an Adept at magic. I like the symmetry, and it has a definite appeal for some sorts of campaign.

* Characters gain +1 to any attribute every 3 levels, but cannot choose the same attribute twice in a row.

Not sure of the point of this one.

I'm tempted to create a "Damage" characteristic that slowly increases. This would increase the damage of their attacks, and also improve their Toughness saves. I like characters becoming tougher as they gain levels, but not to the same degree as in Blue Rose. So as to not unbalance the roles, I'd probably give everyone +1 every 4 total levels.

I recommend trying the game vanilla before implementing this. I really think it goes against the whole concept of the Toughness save - that people generally require about the same amount of killing, it's just that some people are much more able to avoid being killed. :) This is actually one of my favorite aspects of the game.

[Grim Luck]

About the increasing toughness save, I concur with .... the Shadow

Characters already have access to things that can make them better able to take damage as they level.

1. As they gain more levels, and more money, they're better able to afford equipment that can add to their saves.

2. Because all roles have increasing combat modifiers that add to defense as well as to attack, as characters level they become harder to hit by the same level of threat, making them harder to kill in a roundabout way.

3. Experts are able to purchase the 'Defensive Roll' feat as they level. Warriors are able to purchase the 'Great Toughness' feat as they level.

4. As characters level they can eventually increase dexterity (which adds to defense) or strength (which adds to parry). So a 12th level character could have a higher cap on Strenght or Dex. Not to mention magical items that give bonuses to Str or Dex which become more available to higher level characters (in many settings)

5. As characters gain a couple of levels, they gain conviction, allowing them to shrug off some wounds or re-roll failed toughness saves giving them a much better chance of avoiding damage.

For me, and some others on the board, the persistance of the perception that because toughness doesn't increase and therefore characters of 10th level may be felled by a 3rd level critter makes the game seem more exciting while in truth, high level characters are already much more tough than lower characters because of the points I've outlined.

Also, increasing toughness would (by comparison) weaken lesser characters, as opposed to strengthening higher characters. Already, a level 1st character has a skill cap (my one frustration with True20) of 4, whereas a 10th level character has a skill cap of 13. The difference of an increasing 5% chance of success at every level is huge when you're talking about a difference of more than 5 to 7 levels. If increasing toughness is added, a 1st level character has much less of a chance of wounding a big baddie, so you'll have to coddle such characters by giving them adventures with 'training wheels' until they get through the first few obligatory character levels so that they can start to be called 'heroes'.

So before you add an increasing toughness, take a look at what's already there... unless you WANT 1st and 2nd level characters to be utterly useless compared to any higher level creature or opponent that they come accross in your setting world.

Just my two cents.

[The Shadow]

Well said, Grim.

Anyway, D&D's idea that a high-level character has to be hit with a sword more times to kill them has always struck me as blatantly silly. Yes, I know all the Gygaxian arguments about how you're just whittling away their luck, combat skill, and so on - but those arguments have never been anything more than weak justifications for a blatantly broken design.

GURPS always made more sense to me in that respect, but GURPS has its own problems. M&M got it right, and now True20 has as well. (Got it right in the sense of, "Gives a very 'realistic' feel without being overcomplicated, unheroic, or bogging the game down.")

The especially nice thing about the Toughness save is that if you restrict the use of Conviction, it makes combat very gritty and unpredictable - something characters very much want to avoid. This is a good thing in many settings! Whereas with Conviction as written, it really does give a flair of heroic derring-do.

[Ether]

When I finish getting my True20 Elder Scrolls stuff set up and placed into a nice pdf for players' benefit, I'll start working again on my Young Kingdoms notes.

And when I do, one of the things I'm definitely implementing is a Major Wound system similar to that found in Chaosium's Stormbringer game (and the less popular d20 conversion, Dragonlords of Melnibone). Characters will accrue complications and disfigurements as play goes on. Essentially, a character suffers a Major Wound any time she uses a point of Conviction to reroll her Toughness save after a Disabled or worse wound result (regardless of how the second roll turns out).

Pretty harsh, and anywhere but the Young Kingdoms, I wouldn't approve. As is, I think it should work fairly well.

[Grim Luck]

Oh, I just remembered the old D&D jokes.


Q What do you call a 1st level fighter?
A Meat Shield

Q What do you call a 1st level thief?
A Caught

Q What do you call a 1st level magic-user
A Dead

Q What do you call a 1st level cleric
A Leader

Yeah, they weren't that funny several years ago either.

[The Shadow]

So Grim - you say the True20 skill cap bothers you. Do you have any proposal of what to do about it?

[Grim Luck]

Nope. Not really.



Its a conundrum... how to fix something without making rules too unwieldy.

[The Shadow]

I suppose you could use skill points, and lift the cap... but then you run into the danger of Johnny One-Skills... Guys who can't tie their own shoes but can Disable Device or whatever like demigods. :)

Or, how's this. We've already got the idea of "half cost for half ranks" Skill Familiarity.

So how about "double cost for half-again ranks"? ie, Skill Training can give you two skills at lvl + 3, four skills at (lvl + 3) / 2, or one skill at (lvl +3) * 1.5? This seems good for low levels, but might go out of control for high ones. Maybe keep 23, or maybe 25 or 30, as the maximum you can have.

If you implemented this, you might want to get rid of Skill Focus, maybe even Talented. Or perhaps not.

[Michael Tree]

Intriguing. So an Adept is half as good as a Warrior at combat, and Warriors and Experts are half as good as an Adept at magic. I like the symmetry, and it has a definite appeal for some sorts of campaign.

Exactly. I'd might also implement a similar rule for other abilities that rely on other role levels, like some of the expert feats.

This house rule would work best in campaigns where multi-role adepts, and powers in general, are more common. Powers and Adept feats remain exclusive to the adept role, but continue to progress if the character takes levels in warrior or expert, albeit at a slower rate. I would love to run a True20 game set in the Deryni universe, and this house rule suits that setting well: Characters that focus entirely on developing their powers (like Camber) become masters of them, but others who are also warriors or experts (like Morgan and Duncan) nevertheless improve their powers.

I'd be tempted to just make power ranks based on total level, but that has more severe balance implications, and makes the adept role less attractive.

* Characters gain +1 to any attribute every 3 levels, but cannot choose the same attribute twice in a row.

Not sure of the point of this one.

I like the idea of characters improving their innate potential over time (ie. their abilities), and +1 every 6 levels seems too slow a progression in game. I don't know if I'd actually use this rule, it's just a thought.

I recommend trying the game vanilla before implementing this. I really think it goes against the whole concept of the Toughness save - that people generally require about the same amount of killing, it's just that some people are much more able to avoid being killed. This is actually one of my favorite aspects of the game.

I definitely would use the game as is before trying anything as radical as this. It was just a thought.

[Grim Luck]

Hmmm.

I just realized that we DO have a way of dealing with this, somewhat...

We tend to set the level of characters and the world between a certain scale. And by extension, we're setting the levels of skills available to the characters and NPCs.

So, our group seems to like their characters best when they're around 6th - 10th level. So that's where we start our characters.

We like to think of our characters as people who start as 'competant' at something, so that means that the world's level of competant ranks should be somewhere around 9 to 12 ranks in a skill.

Likewise, since our characters begin to lose interest for us when they're much grater than 10th level, and a maxed out skill rank with ability and appropriate feats should be 18-25 or so (Base (3) + Level (10) + Feats (5) + ability (7))

With the characters limited, thusly, we tend to have minions range between level 3 to 5, serious threats from level 5 to 9, master threats from 9 to 13 and truly godlike powerful NPC's tend to be put at level 13 to 15.

With that established, if we want an otherwise level 3 NPC to have 15 ranks in Craft (Swords), to use a silly example, then I just assign him 15 ranks in it. period.

I suppose if I really want to break this cap, I should just allow skill focus to be bought multiple times, perhaps as much as three times. This would allow a starting character in our games to have as many as 20 ranks in something.... (?)

I sometimes feel, though, that this limits our player's fun as we 'grow' because the growth is so graduated and spread out.

The only REAL fix I could see would be to use a point based system, like that of M&M, but with heavy adjustments allowing characters to gain points with which they can buy up specific things, like saves and skills....

I don't know...

Of course, even with this complaint, right now True20, and the way we're currently running it, is our game system of choice.

[Grim Luck]

Oh, and Shadow, I didn't mean to just glaze over your suggestion. Its not a bad idea, really, I'm just not sure I'd actually implement it as it doesn't feel ... elegant.

Please don't take this as a slight, as I certainly don't have any other suggestions, and as you can see from my last post, my work-around is really group specific and wouldn't appeal to a lot of other gaming groups.

[The Shadow]

This house rule would work best in campaigns where multi-role adepts, and powers in general, are more common. Powers and Adept feats remain exclusive to the adept role, but continue to progress if the character takes levels in warrior or expert, albeit at a slower rate.

I concur. It would work well, I think, for Star Wars, which SuentisPo and are trying to convert a game of over to True20. (In slow motion. Not much in the way of gaming lately, I'm afraid.)

I would love to run a True20 game set in the Deryni universe, and this house rule suits that setting well: Characters that focus entirely on developing their powers (like Camber) become masters of them, but others who are also warriors or experts (like Morgan and Duncan) nevertheless improve their powers.

Ooooooh. The Deryni universe would go VERY well into True20!! How would you handle the ability modifiers for powers?

I'd be tempted to just make power ranks based on total level, but that has more severe balance implications, and makes the adept role less attractive.

Yes, that's the rub with making power rank equal to level + 3. There isn't much point in having the Adept role unless you change it; and that opens up a whole can of worms.

[Michael Tree]

I concur. It would work well, I think, for Star Wars, which SuentisPo and are trying to convert a game of over to True20. (In slow motion. Not much in the way of gaming lately, I'm afraid.)

In could work well for Star Wars. However, I might make it an ability of the Jedi Background that Warrior levels stack fully with Adept levels for determining power ranks. Jedi powers do not seem to be at all diminished by warrior training.

Ooooooh. The Deryni universe would go VERY well into True20!! How would you handle the ability modifiers for powers?

I'd likely just leave them the way they are. The books don't describe the powers as being linked to any particular personal characteristics, aside from a general emphasis on meditative techniques. However, each of the characters in the books tend to have a characteristic way of approaching their powers. Camber is very academic (Int based), the Michaelines tend to focus more on discipline and insight (Wis based), Elaine is a master of meditative techniques (Wis based), and Morgan tends to use his powers through flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants innovation and sheer chutzpah (Cha based).

Yes, that's the rub with making power rank equal to level + 3. There isn't much point in having the Adept role unless you change it; and that opens up a whole can of worms.

It's not quite that extreme. Powers and Adept feats would still be exclusive to the Adept role, and if a character wanted more than a handful of powers he'd have to take lots of levels in it.

[Warbringer]

- All criticals cause at least a hurt
- All minions can survive at least a hurt (Will save to hang around)
- Changed Tougness bonus for C (+12), G (+9), (H) (+6), L (+3) to simulate natural armor better
- You cannot "parry" an attack from a creature +2 your size
- Undead add their Wis to Toughness.
- New Powers Memorize (learn 3 "spells"), Worship (+1 Conviction, spend 2 Conviction per Worship), Summon, Bind, Shadow Shaping, Shadow Strike. Teleport, Plane Shift, Ward (As a reaction acts a dispel),
-Scribe Scroll (Convert any know power into a "spell". Rank is fixed at the rank of the adept writing the scroll (casting adept uses his own Talent, Power, and Ability Modifier)
- Memorize (Can be taken multiple times). Each gains 3 spell slots that can be learnt. Once cast, the spells need to be relearnt
- Worship (Can be taken multiple times) Each gains an additional point of conviction. Adept can use 2xWoship conviction points to use any feat or power, plus can spend those points to aid another. Essentially, the adept calls upon the will of their god. Regain 2xWorship per day by praying
- Magic Items (in progress) -
- Fatigue Adjustments (a little complicated)... Spells casting times are considered on a linear scale

Reaction...Move Action...Standard Action...Full Action...1 Minute...1 hr...1 day

All spells have a default casting time. An adept can either spend more time casting a spell, or attempt to quicken the casting time.

-10...-5...-3...-1...+1...+3...+5....+10

The above is usually applied to only the fatigue check. However, if the power has a variable time and DC it may be applied also.

Consider, an adept using Flesh Shaping needs Extensive alterations, but needs to do it in a Full Round Action. Normally, the action takes 1 hour (p 42), with a DC30.

The change from 1 hour to 1 Full round is 2 steps (+5)

[The Shadow]

Warbringer: I like your idea of adding Toughness for size - it makes good sense. Big'uns require more killing. :) Small creatures might even suffer a modest penalty.

Hmmm. Now that I think of it, maybe the big guys should just get a flat bonus to Con. After all, it takes a lot more or nastier poison to affect a giant than a dwarf!

I'd like to see you present your new powers in more detail in a separate thread. They're intriguing, but there isn't enough detail in your brief post to sink one's teeth into.

Grim Luck: Forgot to reply to you earlier. No offense was taken - and honestly, I didn't think it was very elegant, either. :)

And I think you're right that the best workaround, if one is dissatisfied with low-level skill caps, is simply to start at a higher level. There's absolutely nothing stopping you, and you can stay in the midlevels as long as the group wants. (You can even decree that there ARE no 1-3 level characters in the game - the average person starts at level 4. Or whatever.)

After all, why do level advancement if it's going to make people lose interest in the game? You can still have characters grow, though, using a trick Aaronil's been using in the "Caliphate Nights" game.

After our first adventure (I don't know if he plans to do it every time or not) he gave us each a free bonus feat or other perk (bonus to Reputation, minor magic item, etc.) of his choice, relating to what we did in the adventure. If that keeps up, we won't be chafing at the bit to level as quickly, I think.

Personally, I found it very satisfying... tying my character's abilities to what he actually did. Gives one a warm glow to be awarded by the GM, too. :)

Michael Tree: Upon reflection, I think you're exactly right about Deryni ability mods. Sounds like a cool game!

[The Shadow]

Let me clarify what I said about the awarded-feats business.

My character Abdul got a feat Aaronil dubbed "Bravery": +4 bonus against fear and intimidation.

It's a nice enough feat, but Abdul's a 1st level Adept. If we'd leveled after the adventure, I would never have chosen it on my own, even though Abdul did display conspicuous bravery during the session.

But a feat that one wouldn't have picked for oneself upon levelling can still be cool and satisfying to receive for free! :)

Great way to get lesser-used feats into circulation, too.

[The Shadow]

Here's a thought.

Is there any particular reason why Conviction goes up with level?

I see Conviction as a player-level thing, not really a character-thing. It's basically a measure of how heroic, how cinematic, the game is. The Virtue and Vice tie-in is just there to encourage consistent characterization.

One could, yes, easily imagine a setting in which Conviction really does represent some sort of mystical quality of the character. Nisarg's Eternal Rome game is an example. But by default that's not how I view it.

So, as a house rule, why not just name a number and stick with it? The Narrator picks the number based on the feel he's going for in the campaign - low (or even nonexistent) for a gritty, realistic feel, high for rollicking cinematic feel.

[timemrick]

Is there any particular reason why Conviction goes up with level?

Here's my interpretation of the rule's intent:

As a hero advances in level, he becomes more experienced and confident in his abilities, and thus more able to push himself beyond his usual limits. Facing and surviving the life-and-death challenges typical of a hero's life teaches him that those limits can be exceeded, and increases his faith that he can do so when he really needs to. Therefore, he can do so more often.

[SuentisPo]

A new power I'm toying with is based on the idea of Conviction being a perceptable force that the characters can manipulate. (If you've read the Liavek books, that's the basic concept.) This would work best in a magical world where Conviction does not come back every day.

Base idea: You can "borrow from the future", share or cancel Conviction. DC 15 to gain a point of Conviction when you have none. The next point that you would normally gain is "spent" to pay this back. If you need another before you have paid it back, the DC is 15 +5/pt you already have borrowed and once you fail, you cannot use this again until you have paid all the points you "borrowed". With a DC 15 roll, you can transfer 1 point of Conviction to another player. The last part, I'm not sure about. Either you can a) make a roll (DC ~25 or so) and prevent a person from spending a point of Conviction (no points spent by either person) or b) make a roll and spend a point to cancel a point as it is being spent (they spend the point, but get nothing).

In this world, there would probably be a feat to give extra Convinction.

Comments?

[Bhikku]

Here's some that I started doing in d20, that i'm carrying over to True 20 and Blue Rose:

Exploding Dice
A natural 20 is open-ended, meaning you roll an additional d20 and add it to the result. (Modifiers only apply once per check, not once per die, naturally.) Some circumstances, like weapon threat ranges, allow you to roll an extra die even when you don't have a natural 20 (pretty much like rolling crits normally, see). And this applies to all rolls, not just attacks.

Critical Everything
The corellary to this is: any roll that beats its Difficulty by 20 or more is a critical success. For attacks that means a boost to damage or some additional effect based on striking exactly where you mean to - so you might disarm your foe without all the extra hoopla, or you might blind him for a few rounds with a heavily-bleeding wound just above the eyes. (Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed gave me this idea; it was a Hero Points thing). On a skill check, some imagination is needed, but neat stunts can abound: e.g., an Acrobatics check allows you to flip past your enemy as if it was a 5 ft step, so you can decide to take a full-round action, or you might just get some extra distance out of a normal move. And a critical save generally means that any reduced effect you might have suffered is negated (like Evasion).

Whammies
A natural 1 is a 'whammy,' meaning something bad is happening - even if your roll is a success. So a whammy that hits might mean your blade is stuck in the monster's flesh and torn from your hands, where a whammy that misses might mean that you slip in a slick of your teammates' blood, and are now prone (and possibly sliding toward an unfortunate destination). My tradition with whammies is to let the player come up with her own grief and if it's too measly, I'll pile on some extra. Once in a while a player will be excessively creative in slamming her own character, which I usually balance by tossing in an extra benefit (like Conviction).

Altered Conviction
One campaign I'm putting together right now is centered around vampiric characters, and I had a lot of fun overhauling the system. (I'm waiting to afford the True 20 pdf, so right now i'm having to work from Blue Rose with whatever changes I hear about on the boards.) I based most of the vampiric traits and abilities on Fang & Fury, and i won't go into most of it. But the thing I'm offering is how i replaced Conviction. I gave vampires a Grace trait, which starts at 3 and increases every other level; but vampires don't spend Grace. Instead, they accumulate Hunger when they want the kinds of perks you'd spend Conviction for. As long as Hunger doesn't exceed Grace, the character is fine - but once it does, the vamp has to make a Will save, Difficulty being 10 + Hunger + Shadow (which is roughly analogous to Blue Rose's Corruption) or else go into a Rage (like the feat) in which the vamp is driven to attack and feed off of living creatures.

This way I let characters perform extra stunts (as if they were going into negative Conviction) and basically revel in being super-human, but they run a real risk whenever they do so.

That's my first list. I'm also working on how to import guns - i decided to lean more towards M&M than d20Modern though.

[The Shadow]

Exploding Dice
A natural 20 is open-ended, meaning you roll an additional d20 and add it to the result. (Modifiers only apply once per check, not once per die, naturally.) Some circumstances, like weapon threat ranges, allow you to roll an extra die even when you don't have a natural 20 (pretty much like rolling crits normally, see). And this applies to all rolls, not just attacks.

In Torg, both natural 10's and 20's explode, which gives an interestingly unpredictable feel. If that's what you want, you might want to try it.

There's nothing like the rush of a secondary and then a tertiary (and maybe even a quaternary!) "explosion". :) Once in Torg I rolled for a Miracle check (which are ordinarily very subtle miracles) and rolled a 20. Then a 10. Then a 20. Then a 17.

The GM stared at me, then said, "A pillar of fire descends from the heavens onto the enemy camp, burning it to the ground. There, satisfied?!" :)

[Bhikku]

That does sound like fun, oh mighty Shadow. I might use it for the big bad vampire campaign, or anything that needs a matrix-style over-the-top feel. In fact, i have an idea - appropriating the Focus rule from the psionic SRD ( for those not familiar: a Concentrate check dc 20 gives focus, which can be spent later for a concentrate check to assume the die rolled as a 15, or to gain benefit from a variety of feats), could allow heroes to gain the extra explosion while they maintain focus - it woudl fit quite a few campaign ideas i've been having lately. Thanks, Shadow!

But here's another house rule I just worked out on another thread:

Regeneration

When converting a regenerating creature from d20 to True 20, note the amount of damage it regenerates each turn. This figure translates to a Toughness bonus that kicks in after it has taken injury. So, for example, a Troll with Regeneration(5) takes all attacks except Fire and acid as nonlethal damage. Once it has been Dazed (or has 5 bruised marks) it gains +5 bonus to toughness saves against nonlethal damage.

This has the effect of making the thing slower to go down than it has any right to be (which is the point of regeneration in the first place) without necessitating a bunch of extra recovery checks every round. It sort of pre-emptively heals. (If using the Exploding Dice and Critical Everything rules, a critical save against nonlethal damage would let it heal a level.) A possible extension: any time a regenerating creature succeeds in its save against nonlethal damage, it recovers a single bruised level.

Mookier Mooks

I've been watching some third-season Buffy lately, and imagining some of the scenes playing out via True 20 rules - the point being that I want to be able to emulate that kind of fast-paced action when I'm actually GMing. One thing I noticed was that Buffy generally smacks a nameless thug around several times before he goes down, but it's always clear he feels it. That got me thinking about the current minion rules (at least as they appear in Blue Rose), where a minion is unharmed by hits right up until he manages to die. That seemed a little bit too hit point-ish to me, so I thought about how to tweak it. My idea: every time a minion combatant is hit but passes his toughness save, he takes a hurt level, and is thus more likely to go down on the next hit. This will be particularly useful for shortening the battles against minion-level creatures with heavy armor or high natural armor bonuses.

Haven't had a chance to playtest either of these rules yet, so use with caution.

[DevianID]

House Rules for me:

Size Modifiers
Use the table for all size modifiers on page 84, BUT add the toughness bonus or penalty based on being larger or smaller to damage as well. This applies to weapons as well, thus a Large longsword has a 3+2 damage bonus. (Dont count them twice... a large character with a large longsword only deals +2 damage, the weapon rule is to signify that the weapon a giant uses is different from the weapon a human uses.) Characters CANT use a weapon the wrong size for them.
This way, a large character wounds a large character the same as a medium character wounds a medium character, just like a large character hits the defense of a large character the same amount as a medium character hits a medium character.

Critical Damage Bonus Change
A weapon with a +3 crit stays the same, weapons with a +4 crit are increased to +6 and weapons with a +5 crit are increased to a +9. This makes MUCH more sense as weapons with a bigger crit range before were MUCH better, AKA the rapier (+2 damage, 18-20 +3) beat the axe (+3 damage, +4 crit) all the time. Now the scythe is a viable weapon, as a crit deals a deadly +11 damage (+2 normal, +9 for the crit)

2 new feats

Focus (Expert)
With Focus, you can move with great speed, lift more, think clearly on your feet and maintain your willpower. Focus also allows you to perform any task better, be it a skill, power, or attack.

Focus grants a number of free uses of extra effort each day equal to a character’s base reflex save plus their wisdom modifier. They regain all of their Focus the same time during the day that they regain conviction. Characters with no remaining focus can still use extra effort, but are fatigued as normal.

Extra effort provides one of the following benefits, as a free action, once per round.
• +2 on a single check (any d20 roll)
• Double carrying capacity
• Double moving speed (includes jumping)
• Make a new will save against an ongoing effect that allows a will save

Chi (or Power Points or Mana, depending on setting) (Supernatural)
With Chi/Mana, you can draw on your internal energies to fuel various supernatural abilities, whether they are healing, Elemental Strike, enhance powers, ect.

Chi grants a number of free fatiguing power uses per day equal to a characters base will save plus their charisma modifier. Effectively, a character does not count a number of particular fatiguing powers as fatiguing equal to their Chi score. Once a characters Chi is depleted they may use their powers as normal, but they face the normal fatigue checks for fatiguing powers, with increases in difficulty depending on how many powers were used in an hour. A character recovers their Chi the same time they recover their conviction each day.

1 New Power

Wild Shape [Fatiguing]

With the Wild Shape power a character can change their shape to gain wildly different benefits, depending on the form chosen. While shape changed, a character can not speak/use powers and any equipment not able to be carried/worn is melded into the new form and non-functional for the power’s duration. The form lasts for one hour, or until voluntarily ended.
DC 10 Assume a medium or small animal shape
DC 15 Assume a large animal shape
DC 20 Assume a tiny animal shape
DC 25 Assume a tiny through large plant shape
DC 30 Assume a huge plant or animal shape

When shape changed, the character gains the animal/plants Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Size modifiers. The new shape’s ability scores may only exceed the characters by their rank in this power.
For example, Bruin is a 4th level Warrior with the feat Wild Talent (Wild Shape), granting him Wild Shape at Rank 7. Bruin’s Strength is +3, his Dexterity is +2, and his Constitution is +1. Bruin wishes to Wild Shape into a large bear with a +8 Str, +1 Dex, and +4 Con. This requires a roll at 15, which Bruin can do with his +7 by rolling an 8. However, this bear’s strength exceeds Bruin’s by 5, and his Con by 3, for a total of 8 higher, therefor Bruin must wait until he gains another rank in Wild Shape before he turns into a large bear.