The Unseen Servant forums

The following House Rules will be in affect. Many of these have been modified/used/copied from other excellent GMs on this board such as Ogre Mage, GreyWolfVT and Spearmint

The game will be a 1st edition AD&D game including Unearthed Arcana

Character Creation: (Last edited on 11/29/22)

Stat Rolls: 4d6 drop the lowest and place where wanted (Please note that there are 7 characteristics with COM added in UA). Roll up three characters and take the best one.

The following classes will not be allowed for players: Barbarian, Monk, Assassin, Bard

The following sub-races will be allowed for players:

• Dwarves will all be Hill or Mountain - both will use the level limits of Mountain.
• Gnomes will all be Surface Gnomes
• Elves will be High elves or Wood elves
• Halflings - All three will be allowed, but all will use the level limits of Tallfellow

Alignments: Any good or neutral alignment is allowed. This means LG, CG, NG, LN, N, CN.

All characters will start with 110,001 Experience Points.

• This will not be affected by exceptional ability scores.
• Multi-Class characters will divide this as evenly as possible between all of their classes.
• Dual Class characters will give 40,000 or 40,001 (player choice) to the first class and the remaining amount to the second class.

Hit Points

• First Level Hit Points will be max,
• All additional levels will be based on the character hit die type with no re-rolls allowed. All characters with:
  • d4 for HP shall roll d3+1 (2-4)
  • d6 for HP shall roll d4+2 (3-6)
  • d8 for HP shall roll d6+2 (3-8)
  • d10 for HP shall roll d8+2 (3-10)

Multi-class Hit Points

• For CON Bonus this will only apply to fighter levels, if there is no fighter class this will only apply to the first class
  to advance to a new level
• Multi-class characters can have .5 hit points (or 1/3 or 2/3 if triple classed). These will not do anything in play but will
  allow the character to not have to round down every time.
• Example a multi-class fighter/thief has 20.5 hit points. This character has a 14 CON and advances a new thief level and for the
  d4+2 rolls a 3+2=5. This would mean the character would now have 23 HP (20.5 + 2.5 = 23)

Starting gold and equipment

• All characters can start with any non-magical equipment that they desire valued at 100 gp or less.
• Cavaliers and Paladins will start will Plate Armor
• Fighters, Rangers and Clerics can start with any non-magical armor they wish up to plate mail.
• Each character starts with 150-300gp (100+5d4x10) pocket change
• Each character will get a "random" collection of gems and jewelry on his or her person
• Each character will get a "random" collection of magical items focused on their class that they may request as offensive focused, defensive focused or misc. focused
• Fighters can downgrade a weapon (generally one plus or removing special abilities) and change the weapon to one they exactly want - this can only happen at the time of character creation.

A player can opt to have a henchperson at the start.

• This person will have 3001 EXP (unless that person is a Ranger in which case they cannot have one until 8th level).
• Stats will be determined by two collections of 4d6 rolls
• The race and class can be selected by the player with the following restriction - only magic users and illusionists can have that class as a henchperson.
• Alignment will be the same as the PC
• Magic User / Illusionist henchperson will get their spellbook from the PC.
• In most situations this henchperson will be controlled by the PC, but will be subject to morale checks and the like.
• All magical items they have come from the PC.

Class House Rules (Last edited on 12/28/22)
Cleric

• A Cleric can cast one Detect Evil Spell for free per day without using a spell slot
• Cure Light Wounds - The lowest possible roll is a 1 at levels 1-2, a 2 at levels 3-4, 3 at level 5-6, etc. The since we are not limited by physical dice this should be a d8 for levels 1-2, d7+1 for levels 3-4, d6+2 for level 5-6, etc.
• Cure Serious Wounds - This is the same a CLW+d8+1
• Turn undead - max range 60 feet.

Druid

• Cure Light Wounds - The lowest possible roll is a 1 at levels 1-2, a 2 at levels 3-4, 3 at level 5-6, etc. The since we are not limited by physical dice this should be a d8 for levels 1-2, d7+1 for levels 3-4, d6+2 for level 5-6, etc.
• Cure Serious Wounds - This is the same a CLW+d8+1
• When a druid changes form (into a bird, reptile, or mammal), he/she retains the ability to speak; however, he/she cannot cast spells while in animal form. All equipment is left behind unless an item has the ability to change.

Magic User

• A Magic User can cast Read Magic and Detect Magic once per day each without using a spell slot

Illusionist

• An Illusionist can cast Read Magic (as Magic User) and Detect Illusion each once per day without using a spell slot

Magic User / Illusionist School Specialization
A magic user may select a school of specialization. For an Illusionist this is automatically Illusion/Phantasm. If this is selected:
Once (or more) per day when casting a spell of their school the wizard may attempt Hard ability check against INT (with a -1 penalty
per spell level) to retain a spell after it has been cast. For every 3 levels of experience, the wizard gains an additional attempt i.e. 2 at 4th level,
3 at 7th level, 4 at 10th level, etc. This can only be from a maximum spell level following a similar pattern (i.e. 1st level MU/I
spell at 1st-3rd level, 1st or 2nd MU/I spell at 4th-6th level, 1st-3rd MU/I spell at 7th-9th level, etc.)

Starting Spellbook
A Magic User or Illusionist will start with triple the number of first level spells, 2.5 times (rounding down) of 2nd level
and double all the other levels (this does not include the bonus spells) you are allowed to cast each day - assuming that this does not exceed
the max allowed by INT. This should be done in the following manner:

• First select the most important spell (or spells) that you want this character to have. This can be a total of 4 spell levels
  (e.g. 1 4th level spell, 1 3rd level and 1 1st level, 2 2nd level, 1 2nd level and 2 1st level or 4 1st level spells). If you
  have a specialization this all must be from the specialty.
• Second if you are a specialist, you can roll 0, 1, or 2 spells (your choice) from each level that are random spells
  from your specialty. (Re-roll any you already have.)
• Third randomly roll your remaining spells from the UA table, re-rolling any spells you already have.

Four cantrips can be taken in the place a 1st level spell if that is the option of the magic user or illusionist

Cavaliers
The ability to operate at negative HP is only from 0 to -3 HP.

Paladins and Rangers do NOT get bonus spells from a high wisdom score.

Weapon Specialization is allowed for single class and multi-class fighters. If the character is dual-classed (fighter first) it is assumed they had a specialization and lost it during the time to get the second class. Only single class fighters (not including Rangers) can double specialize.

Non-weapon Proficiencies
We will be using the second edition rules here. You only get these for one class if you are a multi-class character (but can select from all the choices the various classes offer)
Warriors get 3 initially and 1 more per 3 levels
Wizards get 4 initially and 1 more per 3 levels
Priests get 4 initially and 1 more per 3 levels
Rogues get 3 initially and 1 more per 4 levels

See https://www.purpleworm.org/rules/ Table 37 (Player Handbook -> Chapter 5: Proficiencies (Optional) -> Nonweapon Proficiencies II -> Table 37)

Thrown missile weapons - All hand hurled missile weapons of the following types may add any strength modifiers to their weapon damage (Spears, javelins, hand axes, throwing hammers)
There are no nonmagical "strength bows".

Missile fire into melee - If a friendly is between the attacker and target and is less than 50% of the height of the target you can fire over the friendly in short range. If the attacker has a friendly to the side or rear then they can still fire. If the friendly is 50% or greater of the height and in the way, the target will get a cover bonus and any misses will require a second roll to his to hit the friendly.

Encumbrance Rules will apply.

d6 ability checks. The GM will assign a difficulty level on the action you choose to attempt and success will be determined by rolling your attribute (STR,DEX) or lower on that number of d6's as follows:
Easy 2d6
Normal 3d6
Hard 4d6
Very Hard 5d6
Nearly Impossible 6d6


Combat Initiative - We will be using side based initiative, d10 (high roll wins) to start the combat at then alternate sides until the encounter ends. Use a d10 roll to determine the individual initiative order each round and adjust them accordingly. If you include a d10 roll with your attack rolls and I will adjust it as necessary.
Please post your attack rolls and damage rolls along with you actions during combat.

Natural 20's and Natural 1's
Critical Hit and Fumble Rules for players - 20 is a critical, 1 is a possible fumble (the player can roll an additional d10 if the 1+d10 would have hit then there is no fumble)
Critical Hit
01-20 - Max Damage
21-65 - Roll damage normally and double the weapon damage (not other bonuses)
66-83 - Roll damage normally and triple the weapon damage
84-93 - Gain an extra attack this round
94-95 - Damage opponents armor, -1 to AC until repaired
96-98 - Maximum damage, make a system shock survival roll or die
99 - Sever appendage (if makes sense from attack), Maximum damage, make a system shock survival roll or die
100 - Instant Death

Critical Fumble
01-28 - Drop weapon 2d10 feet away (if attacking without weapon reroll only once)
29-58 - Stumble, lose next round
59-78 - Stumble, hit self; roll for critical hit
79-88 - Stumble, primary opponent gets another attack
89-99 - Fall down, lose next round and drop weapon 2d10 feet away
100 - Hit closest ally within 10 feet

Movement in Combat:

• If you can get to your target in half of your movement rate or less, you can still make one attack. If the distance to the enemy is more than one half of your rate, you can only move during the round and will not be able to make an attack. If you have an attack that allows multiple shots, (bows, daggers, darts, etc.) any necessary movement will negate the ability to get the second (or third) shot off.
• You can move up to 10 feet and still cast a spell. Any movement of over ten feet will not allow you enough time to get the spell off in the same round.
• Switching weapons mid round will only be allowed if the first weapon is dropped and not stored or sheathed. Fleeing a battle after switching in this fashion will likely result in the loss of the dropped weapon.

Movement and Charging:

• You may run (charge) at double your movement rate which will be limited by your armor worn and encumbrance. Indoor and outdoor movement will be computed as the same rate.
• Charging an opponent will give you a +2 advantage to hit while taking away your AC Dexterity bonus. (or weakening it by one) Only one charge can be made per turn.
• Any character in bulky armor or carrying a bulky amount of gear (105 lbs. or more) is unable to charge due to encumbrance.

Non-Magical Ammunition Recovery:

• Indoors: 33% it will be lost or destroyed
• Outdoors: 50% it will be lost or destroyed

Spell Recovery:
A full 8 hours of rest is necessary to retrieve any spells and abilities. If you can rest somewhat comfortably, with no disruptions like battle etc., you can recover all spells and spell related abilities, (lay hands, etc.) regardless of your current level. (M.U.'s and Ill's. will obviously need a viable light source to read by) This can only be done once in a 24 hour period. I don't allow multiple rest periods in the same day. You can rest as much as you like for as many hours as you like, but you will only get one set of spells per 24 hour period.

NO Sneaky, Covert, or Quiet Spellcasting:

Edited 3/1/23

Base Movement Rates

Humans, Elves, Half-elves, Half-orcs all have the normal 12" move with appropriate adjustments for armor and encumbrance.

Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings start with a 9" move, but are not lowered for encumbrance until they would be lowered to a 6" or less.

Color Spray (Alteration)
Level: 1
Components: V,S,M
Range: 1"/level
Casting Time: 1 segment
Duration: 1 segment
Saving Throw: Special
Area of Effect: 1/2'' X 2" X 2" wedge

Explanation/Description: Upon casting this spell, the illusionist causes a vivid fan-shaped spray of clashing colors to spring forth from his or her hand. From 1 to 6 creatures within the area of effect can be affected in order of increasing distance from the wizard. The spell caster is able to affect 1 level or hit die of creatures for each of his or her levels of experience. Affected creatures are struck unconscious for 2 to 8 rounds if their level is less than or equal to that of the spell caster; they are blinded for 1 to 4 rounds if their level or number of hit dice is 1 or 2 greater than the illusionist; and they are stunned (cf. power word, stun, seventh level magic-user spell) for 2 to 8 segments if their level or number of hit dice is 3 or more greater than the spell caster. All creatures above the level of the spell caster and all creatures of 6th level or 6 hit dice are entitled to a saving throw versus the color spray spell. The material components of this spell are a pinch each of powder or sand colored red, yellow and blue.

Potions of Healing and Extra-Healing

Are a little more effective on average than the DMG describes with some of the lower rolls removed.

Potion of Healing roll should be 1d4+6 (7-10)
Extra-Healing should be 1d6+2 (3-8) for a third of the potion or 3d6+9 (12-27) for the entire potion.

Just some House Rule thoughts on Light, Continual Light, Darkness, Darkness 15' radius and Continual Darkness.

Light is bright as torch
Continual Light is nearly like full daylight

Darkness covers normal vision
Darkness 15' and Continual Darkness covers normal vision, infravision and ultravision

Light vs. Darkness - Area of crossing will be like neither is present. If the centers touch the two are dispelled.
Continual Light vs Darkness 15' or Continual Darkness - Area of crossing will be like neither is present. If the centers touch the two are dispelled.
Light vs. Darkness 15' or Continual Darkness - Area of crossing, the Darkness will win and overwhelm the Light. If the centers touch the Light is dispelled.
Continual Light vs. Darkness - Area of crossing the Continual Light will win making the area as bright as torch light. If the centers touch the Darkness is dispelled.