I plan on putting up my current campaign's characters over the next while (read: when they actually get them to me; I only have Feuryia's so far). First, I apologize for the length of them, as I have yet to be able to figure out how to do multiple columns in html. Even just trying to type lots of 'spaces' doesn't seem to work, and it all bunches together.
One may notice some differences in my characters and those in 'regular' D&D. First, I use both Comeliness and Perception as attributes like strength and intelligence. I think Comeliness was in the original Unearthed Arcana (for the Cavalier?), and Perception I got out of a Dragon magazine at least 20 years ago. (at least it seems at least 20 years ago)
(As an aside, I think my first Dragon magazine (by subscription) was something like number 95, and if I remember issue 97 (with a beautiful bridge picture on it and 2 enemies facing off) had a fiction story I remember to this day. It was about a woman who played in a computer adventure game (we would call it a MMORPG), trying to win enough cash to do something or other; she met another powerful player and together they vanquished the killer bad guy (or broke into his treasure chamber) and got the loot which was worth real life cash. I think the article was prescient, as there are hundreds, if not thousands, of players currently making their livings playing MMOG's. This story had to have been at least 10 years before Everquest, and the first big 'gold farmers'.)
Other minor things you'll see on my characters are 'luck points'; I know of at least one other DM who used them once upon a time. It is basically the ability (barring special circumstances) to change one die roll into one other die roll. In prior games, they were most often 'save my butt' points, but now they are usually used when crafting magic items or praying to a character's respective deity.
One may notice that most players only have 1 or 2 good magic items, often minor. (The average level in the party is currently level 7 or so). This is a pretty low-magic (but high-power) campaign, and we do a lot of 'item saves'. In this world, a basic suit of chain or banded mail is a big find. The better stuff is usually crafted by the players ingame or by some of the higher level NPC's. (See Dar Win and Aljamein under the NPC section) Generally, player skills and racial abilities, as well as some modifications to the stat system, would make many 'standard' magic items like Rings of Protection or Bracers of Armor near broken. I also use a lot of 'trinket' type items, either potions, alchemical compounds, and one-shot spell effects. (Dimension Door being the one the party hates the most I think.;)
As Feuryia will be the first character up, you'll notice her 'Elven Racial Abilities'. I will detail them later, but basically there are 4 (maybe 5) elf types in the world, each corresponding to one of the natural elements. (Fire, Air, Earth, Water) In exchange for some pretty potent abilities, they gain experience 10% slower. So far it has seemed to work well, and the elves don't seem quite so overpowering in my current games as they did in the past. I toyed with the idea of lessening the powers of the half-elves as opposed to the full eves, but didn't want to figure out how to do so, especially as I didn't spell out any restrictions ahead of time. At level 10, I will probably start doing new powers at every 2nd or third level. (I've never had an elf get to 10th, but I am guessing this will be the right route)
As mentioned in an earlier post or two, each player is able to learn pretty much any skill, providing they put significant time and effort into it. Generally, time passes at the same time in-game as it does in the real world, so I allow them to be learning things, studying, making magic items, working out to increase their attributes, among other things. Also unlike standard D&D, each character attribute has a percentile after it (like strength in the old days of 2nd edition), and that increases a small amount each level. Additionally, to balance that, a random attribute decreases whenever a player goes below 0 hp.
Personally, I always hated the fact that as a player my attributes were very 'static', when even in the real world I can double and even triple my strength just by working at it. I apply that concept to all the stats, and over the course of a campaign a player may increase 3 or 4 stat points instead of just the ones at 4th and 8th level.
I think that's about it; anyone with any questions, comments, suggestions or constructive criticism is welcome to comment!
