[Axel]

Then Star Wars is definitely something you should look at, since it has zero-g combat rules.

[WizardofOwls]

Oh, almost forgot, magical items can also be used for flying... carpets, brooms, cloaks, etc. The Star Wars game sounds interesting, but isnt it more geared toward sci-fi?

[Dthclaw]

Yes, but the rules in question are so easy to adapt to any sort of setting that it's funny. Seriously. You just need to substitute a different skill for Pilot - probably Ride, in most cases - to handle it, and from there it is literally plug-and-play.

[Axel]

In almost all cases Star Wars works better for any setting than the rules out of Modern or Future.

[WizardofOwls]

Humanoids in the Shattered World

Half-orcs and half-ogres do not exist in the Shattered World. This is because - in Oramis - humanoids (orcs, kobolds, ogres, goblins and hobgoblins) are not true races... they are people who have been horribly, magically changed and twisted by the evil mages of the enemy into these new forms to serve the Nameless One. A kobold, for instance, is actually a Twyll (Halfling) that has been irrevocably altered. Here is a chart demonstrating which humanoid creatures are creted from each race:

Twyll (Halfling) - Kobold
Gnome - Goblin
Dwarf - Hobgoblin
Elf - Orc
Human - Ogre

This change is achieved through the use of a dark spell called Corrupt and its sister spell, Mass Corruption.

Corrupt
Transformation [Evil]
Level: Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S, M (One helpless being)
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Touch
Target: One helpless being
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: Fort / Will saves negate
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell transforms one helpless being into a monstrous humanoid. The type of humanoid is determined by the victim’s race:

Twyll (Halfling) - Kobold
Gnome - Goblin
Dwarf - Hobgoblin
Elf - Orcs
Human - Ogre

The victim’s alignment becomes evil and all previous memories are erased. These changes are permanent unless reversed by some means. A Fortitude save will negate the physical effects and a Will save negates the mental effects. This spell can only be cast by an evil character.

Sources: Create Darkenbeast, Create Chosen One

Mass Corruption
Transformation [Evil]
Level: Sor/Wiz 9
Target: Up to CL/2 helpless beings

This spell is identical to the 6th level spell Corrupt in all ways except that it can be used to affect up to half the caster's level in helpless beings.

[Raven Bloodmoon]

Like boat-doken? Or maybe 100 politicians facing aft and debating. I'm sure their hot air would be sufficient to propel the ship forward.

Seriously, though. What sort of means would be acceptable? Has anyone considered a rocket or jet-style propulsion? Any wondrous item that can create fireballs at will within a combustion chamber with a nozzel should produce soem nice thrust. You could have your first rocket ships.

What about binding air elementals to your ships like horses? Just throwing out random ideas here. Also, enchanting the hull with fly could work. Additionally, creative research leading to derivatives of reverse gravity could create a gravity-propulsion drive where the ship continuously falls in the direction you wish it to go.

[WizardofOwls]

Magic In the Shattered World

Identify Shard
Divination
Level: Clr 1, Sor/Wiz 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Sight
Target: One shard
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell reveals the name of a single shard which the caster must be able to see. An Obscure Shard spell will prevent the caster from discerning this information.

Source: Identify

Locate Shard
Divination
Level: Clr 4, Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Unlimited
Target: One shard
Duration: 10 min./level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

You sense the current location of a shard in relation to your current location. An Obscure Shard spell will prevent you from discerning this information. To locate a shard with this spell, its name must be known.

Sources: Discern Location, Locate Object, Locate Creature

Rainbow Bridge (Created by LeadPal)
Evocation [Force]
Level: Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: Bridge up to 5 ft. wide/level and 1/4 mile long/level
Duration: see text
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

A rainbow bridge spell creates a horizontal plane of force of any coloration that slowly extends from one shard to another. The bridge cannot be moved from its position relative to the two shards it connects, it is immune to damage of all kinds, and it is unaffected by most spells, including dispel magic. However, disintegrate immediately destroys it, as does a rod of cancellation, a sphere of annihilation, or a mage’s disjunction spell. Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through the wall in either direction, although dimension door, teleport, and similar effects can bypass the barrier. It blocks ethereal creatures as well as material ones, supporting an infinite amount of weight without being damaged. Gaze attacks can operate through a rainbow bridge.

The spell immediately stabilizes the motion of the two shards it connects for its duration, making the question of its viability only one of distance. When cast, the bridge slowly extends from its origin at 20 feet per round, until it reaches the target shard or until it can travel no further. At this point, the bridge begins to vanish at the other end at the same rate. (If the bridge is followed to the end and is discovered to not reach all of the way, the caster most likely has a very serious problem.)

This spell does not protect against any hazards that may present themselves on the journey across, most notably high winds on the Ways.

Although the spell can be of any colouration the caster wishes, a vivid rainbow of seven colours has become a popular cliche amongst the few mages that can cast it, and it is from this that the spell takes its name.

Material Component: A fire opal with a value of 500 gp per mile of distance between the shards. Unlike most spells, rainbow bridge can be cast without its material component, but this prevents the shards from being stabilized and it is very likely that the bridge will end in mid-air.

This post has been edited by WizardofOwls: 24 August 2007 - 06:57 PM

[WizardofOwls]

Finally got around to writing up the gnomes of Oramis. Please let me know what you think...

Gnomes

Gnomes - like muls - are an infant race when compared to the other races of Oramis, having only been in existence for around 500 years. The origins of the gnomish race have their roots in dwarves.

The dwarves have always been small in number, owing to the fact that they suffer from low fertility rates. However in the year 497 this problem was greatly compounded by a devistating plague of unknown origins - now referred to as the Dwarven Plague - that struck the dwarven clans. Unfortunately, the plague was fatal to all who contracted it. Even worse, it only affected dwarven women. Today only 1/4 of all dwarves are female.

Realizing the adverse implications that this could have on the probability of the survival of dwarves as a race, the dwarves pursued drastic measures - they explored the possibility of cross-breeding with other races. Around the year 512 A.S., the great Dwarven Breeding Experiments began. These had mixed results. The most successful of their experiments was in dwarf/human crossbreeding, which resulted in fertile half-dwarves as well as a few sterile muls. Dwarven attempts to breed with Twyll did not work at all - the progeny of all such attempts were stillborn. Attempts to breed with elves, however, had a completely unexpected result - the birth of the species which would come to be known as gnomes.

The first gnomes were treated as curiosities. There were 12 of them - six males and six females. The dwarves had no idea what to do with them, and the elves had no time for them. Thus, for the most part, they were left on their own to explore their surroundings with very little help from others. As they matured, it became obvious that they were an incredibly intelligent race, able to learn very quickly, and to retain knowledge with great accuracy. Another thing became very obvious - gnomes are unbelievably fertile and multiply like rabbits.

By the year 707 A.S.,only around 200 years later, the dwarves began to realize that if something were not done, the gnomes would soon overtake them in number. Gnomes had begun to feel restless among the dwarves anyway, feeling like outsiders, not quite fitting in, and wanted a place of their own. The dwarves were more than happy to oblige. thus began the Gnomish Migration of 710. Utilizing a handful of prototype dirigibles, the dwarves helped the gnomes to relocate to an uninhabited shard which the gnomes promptly named Shinnsa.

Today Shinnsa is a booming metropolis. Ruled by 7 of the original 12 gnomes - all of whom are obviously nearing the end of their lifespans - Shinnsa is a mecca for all of those who pursue knowledge.

Personality: Gnomes are incredibly curious about how things work, and enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together for the sheer fun of it. To other races, they seem very child-like in their youth and innocence. They also have a great sense of humor, and enjoy puns, jokes, and games as well as intricate tricks.

Physical Description: Gnomes combine the slim graceful build of their elven mothers with the smaller stature of their dwarven fathers. They stand about 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall, and weigh about 40-45 pounds. Their facial features are also a combination of those of their parent races. They have the upswept, pointed ears of the elven race as well as the trademark bulbous dwarven nose. Gnome males prefer to wear short carefully trimmed beards. Their skin ranges from dark tan to woody brown, their hair is fair, and their eyes can be any shade of blue or green. Gnomes love to dress in bright yet tasteful colors in elaborate styles. Gnomes reach adulthood at about age 40 and have an apparent lifespan of about 450-500 years. Multiple births are common among gnomes.

Relations: Gnomes get along well with humans and twyll - at least those who are tolerant of their practical jokes. They enjoy spending time with dwarves, however the sentiment is not returned as enthusiastically. Dwarves had hoped that gnomes would be the solution to their fertitlity problems, and the fact that they are hyper fertile when compared to dwarves is a sore spot in gnomish/dwarven relations. Gnomes are a little intimidated yet awed by elves and rapotrans, and suspicous of Tieflings. They are, however, rarely hostile or malicious.

Alignment: Gnomes are almost always good, though they are almost equally divided between lawful, neutral and chaotic. Those who are lawful tend to be tinkers sages, researchers and scholars, while those who are chaotic tend toward illusionists, minstrels, tricksters and wanderers. Evil gnomes are as rare as they are frightening.

Gnome Lands: Gnomes may be found almost anywhere throughout the shards, though they are most numerous on the gnomish homeshard of Shinnsa. There is also a fairly large number of them to be found on the four shards which comprise the Kusaran Alliance: Kusara, Tartassos, , Carbuncle and Sheranda.

Religion: The chief gnome god is Garl Glittergold. His clerics teach that gnomes are to cherish and support their communities. Pranks are seen as ways to lighten spirits and to keep gnomes humble, not as ways for pranksters to triumph over those they trick.

Language: The Gnome language blends elements of Dwarven, Elven and Common in an eloquent yet practical language. It uses the Dwarven script and is renowned for its technical treatise and its catalogs of knowledge about the natural world. Human herbalists, naturalists and engineers commonly learn gnome in order to read the best books on their topics of study.

Names: See the section on gnomish names in the PHB page 17.

Adventurers: Gnomes are curious and impulsive. they may take up adventuring as a way to see the world or for the love of exploring. Some take up adventuring as a quick - if dangerous - path towrd wealth, which is often needed in order to purchase supplies for their experimenting and inventing. Gnome adventurers are occasionally forced to begin a life of exploration after being stranded far from home by a flying machine gone wrong. More often, though, a gnome character chooses to travel among the other races of Oramis as tinkers and craftsgnomes, selling minor inventions and masterwork objects to finance exploration into their personal interests.

Gnome Racial Traits

+2 Intelligence, +2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom, -2 Strength. Gnomes are brilliant creatures that masterfully and carefully are able to manipulate machines. However their innocence and naivete often causes them to make faulty and questionable decisions during construction.

Small: As a small creature, a gnome gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are three quarters of those of a Medium character.

Gnome base land speed is 20 feet.

Low Light Vision: A gnome can see twice as far as a human in torchlight and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

Weapon Familiarity: Gnomes may treat gnome hooked hammers ( see PHB page 118) as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons.

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against illusions. Gnomes are innately familiar with illusions of all kinds.

Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against illusions cast by gnomes. Their innate familiarity with these effects make their illusions more difficult to see through. This adjustment stacks with those from similar effects, such as the Spell Focus feat.

+2 racial bonus on Listen checks: Gnomes have keen ears.

+2 racial bonus on Craft (Alchemy) checks: A gnome's sensitive nose allows him to monitor alchemical processes by smell.

+3 racial bonus against all effects that cause aging: A gnome's elvish blood resists aging.

+2 racial bonus on Knowledge, Craft and Profession skill checks involving large and complicated machinery, mechanics or tinkering.

+1 racial bonus to Reflex saving throws: gnomes are used to ducking for cover when things blow up.

Automatic languages: Common and Gnome. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Raptoran, Twyll. Gnomes deal more with elves and dwarves than elves and dwarves deal with one another.

Favored Class: Tinker or Illusionist. The class must be chosen when the character is created and cannot be changed once chosen. A multiclass gnome's chosen favored class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty (see XP for Multiclass Characters, page 60, PHB).

This post has been edited by WizardofOwls: 30 August 2007 - 01:36 AM

[Raven Bloodmoon]

I really like your origin story. And on a side note, I really like the flavor of your setting. Please keep posting. I am enjoying reading all of this.

[WizardofOwls]

Here is the current official list of races that will be permitted in an Oramian campaign:

Standard Races:

Human
Elf
Half-elf
Dwarf
Gnome
Twyll (Halfling)

Other Races:

Hadozee (from Stormwrack)
Mul (Half-dwarf modified from the Dark Sun setting)
Planetouched (Aasimar and Tieflings)
Raptoran (from Races of the Wild)
Winged Folk (as Avariel in the Forgotten Realms setting, but not an elven subrace)

With the possible additions of:

Aarakocra
Half-dragons/Dragonborn (If I can get them to a LA of +0)
Irda (from the Dragonlance setting)
Niomus (from Mythic Races by Fantasy Flight Games)
Phanatons (from the Mystara setting)

I am also considering the addition of an original race which could be useful on windriggers:

Arachnids (Humanoid spiderfolk with 4 arms)

Half-orcs and half-ogres are not allowed since, on Oramis, humanoids (orcs, kobolds, etc.) are not true races... they are people who have been horribly changed and twisted by the evil mages of the enemy. A kobold, for instance, is actually a halfling that has been irrevocably altered. Orcs were once elves, and so on.

Player characters may not be evil, thus they cannot be fey or evil tieflings

This post has been edited by WizardofOwls: 01 September 2007 - 03:50 PM

[Raven Bloodmoon]

For the arachnids, have you considered applying the Insectile template form Savage Species to a human as a starting point? I personally love that template. Awesomeness for the Irda. I love them and am ripping them off for a race in my own setting.

Is there anything interesting about magic in Oramus?

[WizardofOwls]

Raven Bloodmoon, on Sep 1 2007, 04:25 PM, said:

For the arachnids, have you considered applying the Insectile template form Savage Species to a human as a starting point? I personally love that template. Awesomeness for the Irda. I love them and am ripping them off for a race in my own setting.
Is there anything interesting about magic in Oramus?

Well, unfortunately, I don't have Savage Species yet, so I'll have to try to come up with something on my own, or try to find something similar on the Internet for a template and personalize it.

As far as magic, I know that Dwarven mages will use some form of runic magic. Other than that, I haven't really come up with anything yet. I'd like to maybe do something with ley lines, but I've never really been creative where magic is concerned, so I'll probably jsut use the normal system. There are several interesting PrCs I'd like to use.

Here are some of them;

Elven Loremaster
Twyll Wayfinder
Dwarven Merchant
Dwarven Prospector
Dwarven Death Seeker
Forge Mage
War Mage
Runecaster
Mageslayer
Wind Sailor
Wind Tamer
Demonist/Diabolist Thaumaturge
Witch
Dreamweaver
Sybil
Houri
Justicar
Windrigger Captain
Treasure Hunter
Bounty Hunter
Dwarven Defender
Glory Seeker
Berserker
Mul Gladiator
Shaman
Blade Dancer
Sky Pirate
Skywyrm Rider
Gnomish Tinker
Battle Rager
Black Corsair
Elven Griffon Knight
Beastmaster
Blood Mage
Healer
Daughter of the Moon
Artificer
Caretaker (Druid)
Explorer

For some of these I can use official PrCs, for others I'm gonna have to make them myself unless I can find a template to rework. So...What do you think? Any other ideasfor me?

[Raven Bloodmoon]

As for the Insectile template, I believe Crystal Keep has it in their netbook compilation of templates. And if you're into ley lines, check out an old Mongoose Publishing book from 3.0e called The Quintessential Witch. The writing was horrible, but the concepts were interesting and very "witchy" feeling. They had a bit on ley lines and magic of the land.

As for PrCs, I usually homebrew that stuff because it adds more depth to the world, in my opinion. But I'm a customization freak. I can't leave a good class or rule alone.