Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Another Round of Random Questions

So every few months it seems some of those RPG-a-day things go around on G+. While these kind of questions are mildly useful for introspection, they are more useful as such if done collectively, so I answered all the questions I could find here...

1. Forthcoming game you're most looking forward to:
Break!! looks like it is going to be fun. Though, I've got enough games to play right now, and my players are pretty set in their ways. Still, Battle Princess is a class concept that needs to be hijacked into my games.
2. Kickstarter game you're most pleased you backed
I'm really pleased by the early drafts of Autarch's The Sinister Stone of Sakkara. I'm also really looking forward to Conan finally shipping (if only because it's the most money I've ever laid out for a single kickstarter).
3. Favorite new game of the last 12 months
The 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons is surprisingly awesome and getting a lot of traction with all the various tables I play at.
4. Most surprising game
Not much has surprised me lately (I feel like Lamentations of the Flame Princess has inured me to most kinds of surprises), but 5th edition kindof surprised me by being so good.
5. Most recent RPG purchase
Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures, which I am very pleased with so far.
6. Most recent RPG played
5th edition D&D, and more 5th edition D&D.
7.  Favorite free RPG
Pathfinder. Technically you have to pay for the products, but the rules are all released online for free under the Open Gaming License, so the only reason to pay for Pathfinder is the setting, and there is nothing all that interesting in said setting. Therefore, Pathfinder is a free product...as far as I'm concerned at least.
8. Favorite appearance of RPGs in the media
The play Hickorydickory by Marisa Wegrzyn, which involves lots of blood, strange manipulations of time and contemplations of (im)mortality, and characters playing D&D on stage. Of course, I might be biased since one of my players starred in a recent production of it.
9. Favorite media you wish was an RPG
For years I've been wanting to see a D&D-style RPG based on the English Country House genre (novels by the Brontes, Du Maurier, Wharton, Austen, Trollope, etc. or shows like Downton Abbey). Less high-fantasy spell-slinging and more giving the bad guy "a good thrashing with your cane" outside of a club because he impugned the honor of your sister/daughter/cousin/love interest. Lots of quietly adventuresome heroines, dark brooding gentlemen, politically aggressive clergy, and war and mystery as a backdrop to plots that really all center around someone getting married.
10. Favorite RPG publisher
Lamentations of the Flame Princess, hands down.
11. Favorite RPG writer
I continue to be surprised and impressed by the likes of Zak S. and Rafael Chandler. There is a lot of great stuff coming out of the DIY D&D scene and small publishers...it's hard for the big publishers with their styeleguides to compete with the unfettered creativity of these folks.
12. Favorite RPG illustration
For all that I like my games to be filled with blood and filth and despair, I love the wistful, creepy-cute style of Tony DiTerlizzi. I have especially always liked his depiction of Tieflings in the Planescape boxed set and more recently his Portrait of a Young Tiefling. In fact, the one thing that pisses me off the most about 4th and 5th edition D&D is the crappy, crappy very non-DiTerlizzi Tiefling art.
This kobold by DiTerlizzi is up there too. 
13. Favorite RPG Podcast
I hate podcasts...disembodied voices freak me out (and occasionally trigger my seizures). If you want to tell me about your cool game ideas, do it in writing.
14. Favorite RPG accessory
Currently, the "Playbooks" from Beyond the Wall. I love the idea of tying D&D character stats to their (potentially randomly generated) backstory, and making their early interactions with the other PCs also affect their stats is even better.
15. Longest campaign played
4 years seems to be my max for a single campaign, and I have a four-way tie for games running that duration.
16. Longest game session played
An epic 12-hour session with one hundred players and eight DMs after my PC managed to piss off the entire Lexington Kentucky RPGA by collaborating with the DMs to play a agent provocateur, infiltrate multiple adventuring parties, and assassinate dozens of other PCs. My 7th-level v3.0 Bard managed to kill 24 more PCs in that session before finally being caught and strung up by the angry mob of player characters.
17. Favorite fantasy RPG
Dungeons and Dragons (with heavy doses of stealing from other games).
18. Favorite SF RPG
I do not actually like SciFi games. I have never found one that I enjoyed (including computer RPGs), though I've played a little bit of several of them. I do not particularly like SciFi novels either...
19. Favorite supers RPG
Ditto as for SciFi. I am a strictly Fantasy geek...I like movies and TV shows about Super-Heroes and Science Fiction, but have never enjoyed reading books or playing games set in those genres.
20. Favorite horror RPG
Masque of the Red Death. Call of Cthulhu and LotFP have some good horror elements, but I'm much more attached to traditional Gothic-style horror (which might go along with my desire for a Country House RPG, since there is a lot of bleed-over between those two genres of writing).
21. Favorite RPG setting
Historical Earth. Reality is so weird, it's hard to improve upon.
22. Perfect gaming environment
Any quiet place with several comfortable couches, plenty of power strips to plugin laptops, a coffee-table to roll some dice on, a couple of lamps (no bright overhead light), as little background noise as possible, and ready access to Thai takeout. Definitely not a large table with mats, and maps, and miniatures and other crap that will distract me from my imagination.
23. Perfect game for me
Something with lots of complex character building options as collaborative process between the players, but with light-weight, quick base mechanics once the game actually starts. Some strange Frankenstein's monster blend of Burning Wheel/Beyond the Wall character creation, 5e D&D combat, and old school GMing.
24. Favorite house rule
If you chuck a PC at negative hit points into a body of water and let them bleed out there, they will come back as one of The Drowned. Otherwise, if you die you are dead and have to hope someone is willing to sell their soul to Dormin to get you back.
This originated as part of a shared world-building exercise combining Dawn of Worlds and Pathfinder, but was such a cool idea that I have used it in every Pathfinder game I have played since. I am working on adapting the Drowned racial mechanics to other D&D editions.
25. Favorite revolutionary game mechanic
Right now...Advantage/Disadvantage in D&D.
26. Favorite inspiration for your game
My players. Especially if I can get multiple groups of PCs operating in the same setting simultaneously so I can play their crazy ideas off against each other.
27. Favorite idea for merging two games into one.
Burning Wheel's Character Burner adapted for Pathfinder.
28. Favorite game you no longer play
Big Eyes, Small Mouth. If only because I cannot think of any game that I like that I no longer play.
29. Favorite RPG website/blog
I hate to play favorites with the community, but judging strictly by the number of things I've saved and flagged as usable some top ones include: DND with PornstarsCritical Hits, The Sign of the Frothing Mug,and WWCD
30. Favorite RPG playing celebrity
I couldn't care less...
31. Favorite non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing
My wife.
32. Worst game you ever played
Houses of the Blooded
33. Interesting rule embedded within otherwise baleful game
Flexible dice choice in Ysgarth. This was an annoying D&D knock-off, but it let the player choose which dice to roll in any situation: if the max damage for a weapon was 12, you could choose to roll 1d12, 2d6, 3d4, 4d3, 1d8+1d4, or any other dice combination that adds up to a max of 12...thus giving the player control over the probability curve of the results (more dice raises the minimum and average results at the expense of decreasing the probability of the maximum occurring).
34. Game you never played but you knew it sucked just looking at it
Dogs in the Vineyard -- Mormon vigilantes? Seriously?
35. Game you most wish didn't suck
Amber DRPG
36. Game about which you have the most mixed feelings
Pathfinder: Some wonderful adventures and interesting character options, but the world/background fluff is mind-numbingly boring, and some of the "improvements" over D&D 3.5 actually make it even slower to play...
37. Old game most in need of an upgrade
Kult
38. Game you can run with the least prep
AD&D 2nd Edition
39. Game with awful art (and who you wish you could hire to fix that)
D&D 5e. Tony DiTerlizzi and Zak Smith.
40. Best houserule you've seen in action and now use in your own games.
The perennial OSR-wide favorite: Shield's Shall be Splintered.
41. Game you've most changed your thoughts/feelings about
D&D. I used to get caught up in all kinds of edition wars: 3rd is better than 4th, but AD&D was better than 3rd, blah, blah, blah. It turns out they all play basically the same, are universally interchangeable (with only minimal thought necessary), and they all have bits and pieces of rules that can be stolen to make the other editions better.
42.  Game you'd use to run just about any setting if you had to
D&D (any edition). I've adapted it to games about everything from High Fantasy LotR nonsense to the Manhattan Project...
43. Game that haunts you and you're not sure why
Tunnels & Trolls
44. Best Star Wars game?
Dungeons and Dragons.
45. Game that's good in theory but you're kind of on the fence about it to be honest
Basic D&D and its various clones. There seems to be a lot of love for this game, and it has some excellent ideas that can be ported to AD&D, but I could never get over the race-as-class thing. OD&D (LBBs + Greyhawk) let me play a dwarven cleric or an elf that picks locks, why would any legitimate successor take away those options?

Monday, September 7, 2015

The Exodus: Session 11

We dress out the dead megatherium...
    Its stomach filled with meat contaminated with Cursed Khort...
        Clearly deliberately poisoned...
    Khut excises the digestive tract and turns the rest into jerky...
    Khadagan gets a nice pelt to wear.
       
We entreat the Drowned River spirit to help us find where Cursed Khort grows...
    Khut spots Watery Horntail spores on the wind...
        We follow them northwest looking for a monsoon tarn...

We find the Tarn...and a large camp of the Black Crow tribe...
    Maybe 300-400 tribesmen...3 wind-beasts (standards) flying...
        Notched Curled Horn (Hellhorn standard)...
            With the triple-curl of Orbghuz IronCrown...who hates us...
        Also standard of Brackith Axetooth (another vanguard clan)
        Also black-hand-on-white-field of the Black Hands...
            Including Naquim Black-Hand...who hates us...
    Lots of Black Crow hunting ripclaws circling around overhead...

We crouch discussing whether there is any hope for peace...
    Khad spots an albino ripclaw flying in from the West....
        making a bee-line for the camp...
    Khut shoots it down, the bird vanishes, and drops something...
        Khut stealth-sprints and grabs a bamboo thing that the bird dropped...
        Warbeasts thunder out of the camp...
            Ado creates an alarm cascade in the local fauna distracting them...
                Two peal off...two head strait for Khut's position...
                Khut goes flat and hides...
                    AND escapes by the skin of his teeth...
                Sorq sends Alev, her miacid familiar to retrieve the arrow...
                   
Khut hands over the bamboo thing to Sorq to figure out what it is...
    It is wrapped in a strip of paper with black-shaman runes on it...
        Wrapped around a stick of specific length...
        then re-wrapped to make it incomprehensible...
    Sorq interprets the markings and figures out the right stick size...
        "Beast herd west, bring everyone, the hunt begins"
       
Ado decides to entreat the Dust spirit for aid against the Hellhorns...
    Khut gopher-snares a licken...and hands it over to Ado...
        Ado rips out the licken's throat, makes a circle of blood around himself...
            His attention is drawn to the Hellhorns...
                Who are breaking camp...slowly...
        Khadagan entreats Drowned River to mire their wagons...

We send Semek's wife back to Drowned River to rouse the hunting parties...
   
Seeing the hunting parties saddling up, we decide to cause trouble...
    Sorq sends Alev in to set fire to the camp...drawing off one of the parties...
        1 down...
        2 Blackhand, 2 Axetooth, and 3 Hellhorn hunting parties left...

We run down the southernmost Black Hand hunting party...
    Chase them for 20 minutes...Sorq shrinks and rides Khut's shoulder...
    Catch them up on a south-facing slope, out of sight of the others...

Khut leaps onto the rear-most warbeast...
    Sorq color-sprays the driver...
    Khut body checks the rider and spearman off...takes control of the animal...
        And Charges his Rhino into a headlong rush against one of their Rhinos...
            And Sorq paralyzes their driver...
                And Vadim comes up and blows the spearman off with a gust...

Ripper runs off after a licken, taking Ado into the thorns with him...
    And Ado gets shot a lot...
        I mean A LOT...

Khad charges down a ridge and tackles a rhino, grabbing its head...
    and actually brings it to a halt...
        Sending its rider and spearman flying...

The lead rider releases a Ripclaw to warn the others...
    Which is promptly shot out of the air by Khut...
       
A spearman climbs up on Vadim's Rhino and is promptly thorn-whipped off...
    Then the Driver is gusted off...
        And Vadim has his own rhino...
       
We run around and pound them with Warbeasts...
    and grind them into the dust...

We take their pikes, a case of healing potions, and the 4 warbeasts...
    We toss down healing potions...and ride hell for leather to the west...
   
We catch up and see a lantern-flash signal from another hunting party...
    Telling us to circle with our pikes...
    AND we see that it is a herd of Holy Mountain Beasts...
        Apparently they are trying to drive them off a cliff...
    We jump a ravine and circle to the west to try to cut off the herd
        hoping to drive them south instead of NW to the ravine...

Vadim lays down some thorns in front of the next closest hunting party...
    Then he and Sorq rush headlong into a forest of Holy Mountain Beast legs...
        And Vadim makes "Friends" with a HMB bull calf...
            AND makes a friend for life...
            AND gets STOMPED by the angry mother HMB...
    Sorq sends her cat in...which claws its way up on one....
        And vanishes in a flash of fire...
            Causing six HMBs to charge, panicked back to the east...
                Strait at the Black Hands...
            Vadim gooses it and bursts out ahead of the HMB herd...
           
Meanwhile, Khut slides his beast into a ravine for cover...
    AND does a looooooong, arcing shot in the dark...
        AND tags an Axetooth standard bearer...
        WITH a Black Hand arrow....
            Hilarity ensues...

AND...we run into some Quicksand...
    Khut barely rears and pivots his beast before it goes in...

Two Black Hand hunters peel off and chase to Khadagan...
    Khad shoves a bag of poisoned thermopsis powder in a spearman's face...
        And then the Driver vanishes, shot off the beast by Khut...
    The second driver gets Ripper-poo flung in his face by Ado...
        Who swings down under his warbeast to dodge their counter-attacks...
            AND jabs his spurs into his own beast, unleashing a Thunder Wave...
                Blowing them and their beast away...
        One more beast comes up behind him...
            And the third driver vanishes just like the first...
       
Suddenly, out of nowhere...there are swarming clouds of Ripclaws...
    Which tear into everyone...
        Khad spots a flickering crow...a shaman in spirit form...
            AND cleaves it with his axes, dissipating the flock...

Sorq, now out it front, bursts into flame, spewing fire everywhere...
    AND TURNS THE HERD...
        Everything in the north turns into a royal cluster-fuck melee...
            Hellhorns vs. HMBs...

Khut does some surgery to a warbler arrow...and launches it...
    With a long, shrill cry of "FUCK YOU ORBGHUZ IRONCROWN!"
       
We start driving six HMBs south...Vadim's baby, the mama, and four others...
    Sorq drives them with firebolts...
    Ado mimics the cries of a calf to draw the mothers on...
AND then the Nohai come running on...
    We send them circling out to the edge of the fight...
        Orders to pick off stragglers and wounded (of whatever species)...
            They come back hauling enough meat to feed the tribe for 13 days...
               
We get back to Drowned River...
    With six Holy Mountain Beasts...and Literal TONS of meat...
Khad takes a fresh HMB Steak to Semek...
    and asks him to step up the manufacture of his Razorclaw-talong swords...

The starving Nohai gorge themselves until they pass out...
    And for once the Steppefolk don't mind...

One Character, Nine Systems: Part 7

Last week, I proposed an experiment of generating the same character in nine different editions/variations of the D&D game. In the first post we introduced Junco Eliade, now it's time to give him some crunch. In this iteration we'll use:

Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition was the first edition of the game put out by Wizards of the Coast, rather than TSR, and represented a significant overhaul of the rules: ascending ACs and attack bonuses, level-selective multi-classing, point-based skill systems, feats...everything. The shear number of rulebooks and rules expansions could be overwhelming (especially since the advent of the Open-Gaming License allowed third parties to create their rules and add-ons that were compatible with the game). There was also a re-print and revision 3 years after the initial release, dubbed v3.5, which invalidated several of the earliest publications. For the sake of this experiment, we will be using the revised v3.5 rules and will consider all books published by WOTC after 2003 for D&D 3rd Edition to be in scope (though it is unlikely that we will use rules from more than 1 or 2).

Race: Dwarf, Hill
3rd edition has countless sub-races of dwarves throughout its numerous splat-books: Hill, Mountain, Deep, and Gray dwarves in the Monster Manual, Dream Dwarves in Races of Stone, Glacier Dwarves in Frostburn, Aquatic, Arctic, Desert, Jungle, and Earth dwarves in Unearthed Arcana, and many more. As with 2nd Edition we will take the precedent of earlier editions and go with the most common/generic dwarven subrace: Hill Dwarves, as they appear in the Player's Handbook.
Class: Cleric 2nd / Fighter 1st
3rd edition has no racial limitations on classes. Multi-classing is handled significantly differently from previous editions. Rather than choosing two classes and advancing them simultaneously, each time the character gains a "character level", he must choose which class to advance, gaining the next numeric "class level" in the class chosen. Since his role as a Cleric features more prominently in Junco's description than his combat prowess, we will give Junco levels of Cleric in a 2:1 ration to his fighter levels.
3rd edition also introduces the idea of a "Favored Class". Characters that multi-class suffer a penalty to their earned experience, but ignore that penalty for their racial favored class. Dwarves have Fighter as their favored class, so Junco will not suffer any experience penalties (he is effectively treated as if he were a single-classed Cleric for determining experience penalties.
"Character" Level: 3rd
Minimum XP: 3000
Alignment:  Lawful Neutral
Hit Dice: 10+1d8+1d10+9
Average Hit Points:  29
With 3rd edition, characters start with maximum hit points for their class at 1st level. New hit points at each level are gained based on the class chosen. Since Cleric is his primary focus, Junco's first level will be in Cleric, with one additional level of Fighter and Cleric thereafter. Constitution modifiers are added to rolled hit points at each level.
3rd Edition includes "Racial Substitution Levels" for certain combinations of class and race, giving slightly different powers based on those combinations. Dwarves have racial substitution levels for the Cleric class, so those will be used here. One key advantage is that he will gain a d10 hit die for his first level of Cleric. The combination of gaining maximum hit points at first level, the increased die size, and a larger racial bonus to his Constitution score significantly increases Junco's average hit points compared to previous editions. 
Stats:
  • Str: 9 -- -1 modifier
  • Dex: 16  -- +3 modifier
  • Con: 17 -- +3 modifier
  • Int: 16 -- +3 modifier
  • Wis: 11 -- +0 modifier
  • Cha: 6 -- -2 modifier
3rd edition has no ability requirements or limitations based on Race or Class, erring on the side of allowing any combination desired to the player. It does grant modifiers to ability scores from the character's choice of race. Dwarves gain a +2 bonus to Constitution, and a -2 penalty to Charisma (double the modifiers from AD&D).
Dwarf Abilities:  
  1. Dwarf base land speed is 20 feet. However, dwarves can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or whose speed is reduced in such conditions).
  2. Darkvision: Dwarves can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and dwarves can function just fine with no light at all.
  3. Stonecunning: This ability grants a dwarf a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn’t stone but that is disguised as stone also counts as unusual stonework. A dwarf who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a dwarf can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A dwarf can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up. Dwarves have a sixth sense about stonework, an innate ability that they get plenty of opportunity to practice and hone in their underground homes.
  4. Weapon Familiarity: Dwarves may treat dwarven waraxes and dwarven urgroshes as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons.
  5. Stability: Dwarves are exceptionally stable on their feet. A dwarf gains a +4 bonus on ability checks made to resist being bull rushed or tripped when standing on the ground (but not when climbing, flying, riding, or otherwise not standing firmly on the ground).
  6. +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison: Dwarves are hardy and resistant to toxins.
  7. +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects: dwarves have an innate resistance to magic spells.
  8. +1 racial bonus to attack rolls against orcs (including half-orcs) and goblinoids (including goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears): Dwarves are trained in the special combat techniques that allow them to fight their common enemies more effectively.
  9. +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against monsters of the giant type (such as ogres, trolls, and hill giants): This bonus represents special training that dwarves undergo, during which they learn tricks that previous generations developed in their battles with giants. Any time a creature loses its Dexterity bonus (if any) to Armor Class, such as when it’s caught flat-footed, it loses its dodge bonus, too. The Monster Manual has information on which creatures are of the giant type.
  10. +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks that are related to stone or metal items: Dwarves are familiar with valuable items of all kinds, especially those made of stone or metal.
  11. +2 racial bonus on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal: Dwarves are especially capable with stonework and metalwork.
  12. Automatic Languages: Common and Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Terran, and Undercommon. Dwarves are familiar with the languages of their enemies and of their subterranean allies.
Characters in 3rd edition are automatically fluent and literate in Common and their native tongue. They also gain a number of "bonus languages" equal to their Intelligence modifier (3 for Junco). The "Bonus Languages" listed under the race description are not learned automatically, but rather are those which are allowed to characters with exceptional Intelligence. Thus this incarnation of Junco knows a total of 5 languages.

Cleric Abilities:
    1. Clerics are proficient with all simple weapons, with all types of armor (light, medium, and heavy), and with shields (except tower shields).
    2. A cleric casts divine spells which are drawn from the cleric spell list. However, his alignment may restrict him from casting certain spells opposed to his moral or ethical beliefs; a cleric can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own (a Lawful cleric cannot cast spells with the Chaotic descriptor). A cleric must choose and prepare his spells in advance. To prepare or cast a spell, a cleric must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a cleric’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the cleric’s Wisdom modifier.
      1. Prepare and cast 4 0th-level spells per day.
      2. Prepare and cast 2 1st-level spells per day, plus 1 1st-level Domain spell.
    3. If your cleric is not devoted to a particular deity, select two domains to represent his spiritual inclinations and abilities. The restriction on alignment domains still applies. Each domain gives your cleric access to a domain spell at each spell level he can cast, from 1st on up, as well as a granted power. Your cleric gets the granted powers of both the domains selected. With access to two domain spells at a given spell level, a cleric prepares one or the other each day in his domain spell slot. If a domain spell is not on the cleric spell list, a cleric can prepare it only in his domain spell slot.
      1. KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN
        • Granted Power: Add all Knowledge skills to your list of cleric class skills. You cast divination spells at +1 caster level.
        • Knowledge Domain Spells:
          1. Detect Secret Doors
      2. TRAVEL DOMAIN
        • Granted Powers: Add Survival to your list of cleric class skills. For a total time per day of 1 round per cleric level you possess, you can act normally regardless of magical effects that impede movement as if you were affected by the spell freedom of movement. This effect occurs automatically as soon as it applies, lasts until it runs out or is no longer needed, and can operate multiple times per day (up to the total daily limit of rounds). This granted power is a supernatural ability.
        • Travel Domain Spells
          1. Longstrider
    4. Spontaneous Casting: A cleric who is neither good nor evil can convert prepared spells to either cure spells or inflict spells (player’s choice), depending on whether the cleric is more proficient at wielding positive or negative energy. Once the player makes this choice, it cannot be reversed. This choice also determines whether the cleric turns or commands undead (see below). 
    5. Smite Giants (Su): A dwarf cleric can attempt to smite a giant with a melee attack, similar to the way a paladin smites an evil creature. He adds his Constitution bonus to his attack roll and deals an extra 1 point of damage per cleric level. The cleric can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 1 + her Con modifier (minimum once per day). If the cleric accidentally smites a creature that is not a giant, the smite has no effect but still counts as one of the cleric’s daily smite attempts. This substitution benefit replaces the standard cleric’s ability to turn or rebuke undead.
    6. Bonus Languages: A cleric’s bonus language options include Celestial, Abyssal, and Infernal (the languages of good, chaotic evil, and lawful evil outsiders, respectively). These choices are in addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of his race.
    3rd Edition includes the idea of "Substitution Levels" and "Alternate Class Features" which allow for a very large degree of customization for characters. The Dwarf Cleric racial substitution levels, in particular, gives Junco considerably more combat versatility than in previous editions.

    Note that, since Junco has a Wisdom score of 11, he will not be able to cast Cleric spells of greater than 1st level without finding some way to increase his Wisdom in the future. Thus, with 3rd edition, we see the first point where his randomly generated ability score distribution is truly sub-optimal for his chosen class(es).


    Fighter Abilities:
    1. A fighter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (including tower shields).
    2. At 1st level, a fighter gets a bonus combat-oriented feat in addition to the feat that any 1st-level character gets.
    There are no restrictions on weapons or armor from combining the Cleric with other classes in 3rd edition, so Junco has access to the full range of weapons and armor allowed to a Fighter.


    Attack Rolls:  +2 Base Attack Bonus

    Characters in 3rd edition have a Base Attack Bonus (BAB) based on their level in their chosen classes. This is an additive bonus. Multi-class characters simply add up the bonus provided by their levels in each class. Junco gains a +1 bonus from having 2 levels of Cleric, and another +1 bonus from his 1 level of Fighter.

    Saving Throws:
    • Fortitude:  +8
    • Reflex:  +3
    • Willpower:  +3
    Saving throws in 3rd edition are broken down into three categories: Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower. Like the character's Base Attack Bonus, these are additive, with bonuses gained from class levels, as well as bonuses from a specific ability score (Constitution for Fortitude, Dexterity for Reflex, and Wisdom for Willpower). Junco gains a +3 bonus to Fortitude and Willpower from his Cleric levels, and a +2 bonus to Fortitude from his Fighter level.

    Skills: 
    Characters in 3rd edition gain a number of points to spend on skills based on their Intelligence and class levels. These skills, like attacks and saves, are additive with a bonus equal to the number of points spent in the chosen skill, plus a relevant ability score modifier. Each class has a list of "class skills" from which he can purchase bonuses on a 1:1 ratio (1 skill point  = +1 skill). Purchasing skills from outside of these class skills is done at a 2:1 ratio (2 skill points = +1 skill). 

    Junco gains a number of skill points equal to 8 + four times his Intelligence modifier from his first Cleric level, then 2 + his Intelligence modifier for his following levels of Cleric and Fighter, for a total of 30 skill points. 

    Junco's class skills as a Cleric are: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (any) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Survival (Wis). His class skills as a Fighter are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Ride (Dex), and Swim (Str).
    • Concentration: +8 (5 points)
    • Knowledge (Religion): +8 (5 points)
    • Knowledge (History): +8 (5 points)
    • Heal: +5 (5 points)
    • Survival: +5 (5 points)
    • Climb: +4 (5 points)
    Another significant change is the "try anything" approach. While skills are strictly defined in 3rd edition, most skills can be used "untrained" allowing any character to use them (albeit with limited chance of success. These untrained skill checks are effectively just checks against the relevant ability. Here are the untrained skills available to Junco.
    • Str (-1):  Jump, Swim
    • Dex (+3):  Balance, Escape Artist, Hide, Move Silently, Ride, Use Rope
    • Con (+3):  
    • Int (+3):  Appraise, Craft, Forgery, Search
    • Wis (+0):  Listen, Sense Motive, Spot
    • Cha (-2):  Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Intimidate, Perform

    Feats:
    A new feature of 3rd edition, Feats are special feature that either gives the character a new capability or improves one he or she already has. Each character gains 1 feat at 1st level and may select a new feat at 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter, and may gain additional bonus feats based on his choice of race or class(es). Being third level, Junco gains 2 feats, plus one additional combat-oriented feat for his level of Fighter.
    • Scribe Scroll: You can create a scroll of any spell that you know. Scribing a scroll takes one day for each 1,000 gp in its base price. The base price of a scroll is its spell level × its caster level × 25 gp. To scribe a scroll, you must spend 1/25 of this base price in XP and use up raw materials costing one-half of this base price. Any scroll that stores a spell with a costly material component or an XP cost also carries a commensurate cost. In addition to the costs derived from the base price, you must expend the material component or pay the XP when scribing the scroll.
    • Weapon Focus (Staff): You gain a +1 bonus on all attack rolls you make using the selected weapon.
    • Rapid Reload (Heavy Crossbow): The time required for you to reload your chosen type of crossbow is reduced to a free action (for a hand or light crossbow) or a move action (for a heavy crossbow). Reloading a crossbow still provokes an attack of opportunity.
    While arguably meant to instill increased versatility, the every feat has certain prerequisites, greatly limiting the options that a given low-level character can select. These are further restricted by being largely optimization-centric, such that many Cleric-specific feats require scores of 13 or better in Wisdom or Charisma. These limitations, along with the requirement of having a specific stat of 10 + the spell level in order to cast a given spell, means that "good" (read as: optimized) characters of given classes or combinations of classes end up with very similar statistics. While nothing in 3rd-edition stops us from making a Fighter/Cleric with low Strength and Wisdom, he does end up substantially hampered in his ability to cast spells and with a much smaller selection of available feats to choose from.

    In Junco's case we have selected feats that reflect his historical penchant for fighting with a Staff and Heavy Crossbow, along with Scribe Scroll, which expands his versatility as a spellcaster and somewhat makes up for the lost Cleric levels from 3rd-edition's system of multi-classing, and also fits with his role as a scholar.