Animals with bloodlines

[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----

From: "Michael Romes" <Archmage@T-ONLINE.DE>

Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 12:18 PM





> Maybe Tuarhievel looks like that but they have a road and a

> human queen ;-)



I reject nearly all of the changes to the regional books in the PS as having

occured. As one might see from my ongoing orphan story, I set the situation

up so that it may go that way, but clearly it hasn`t happened. So AFAIC,

Prince Fhileraene still reigns, though visitors to the realm could meet the

[formerly] human Savane Mhoried in court. In this regard I see the regional

sourcebooks as canon, and the PS`s as a collection of adventure seeds.



> There is no need that an old forest must look like Canadas

> Mammoth-tree dream come true with giant old trees and lots

> of space between.



Given Tuarhievel`s location, a Canadian anology probabaly isn`t far off.



> Especially the description of the Sielwode contradicts that picture

> to the extreme with lots of undergrowth, thorns and whatever that

> will make it nearly impenetrable to any non-sidhelien passage.

> Sounds a lot like the old Blackwood Forest of Germany to me.



Wildscape (which I briefly reviews a few weeks ago) gives forests several

qualities, including density and difficulty. Density reflects how far apart

the trees are and how much undergrowth there is. It effects movement, line

of site, can effect cover and skills use too. Assuming an old-growth elven

forest, the determining factor will be the shape of a full grown tree and

the canopy that forms. If the canopy is dense, undergrowth is reduced. The

other quality is difficulty which reflects the likelihood of taking damage

because of falls, thorns, or poisons in the woods. For myself, I generally

only apply difficulty of someone moves faster than the density proscribes,

or is inable to see (darkness, blindness, &c). But clearly one could apply

these to various woods. As I think I mentioned, there are also advanced

forest traits mentioned, like gloom, oppression, and sentience, which might

be employed as well for old, elven forests.



Kenneth Gauck

kgauck@mchsi.com

[irdeggman]

Here is the summary from Noble Steeds as requested.

A lot of info is OGL.

The steed is not a cohort. It is a mount, that could be perceived as similar to a paladin’s special mount. A character can give up to 10% of the exp he receives to each of his mounts. If he has 3 mounts he can give each one 10%. This donation must be done at the time that the character is awarded exp points. A paladin’s special mount gains a bonus of 1 point exp for every 2 that the paladin gives it.

Building a steed. There are 4 steps: choose a classification, choose a breed, choose a class and select feats.

Classification. These are Light Horse, Heavy Horse, Pony, Elephant, Camel, or one of the legendary ones (Pegasus, Gryphon, etc.) Each classification has attributes, starting ability scores, movement, special qualities, skills and feats.

Breed. Choose a breed within the classification. For example under Light Horse there are 3 breeds, Arabian, Barb and Spanish Andalusian. Each breed has ability modifiers to the classification.

Class. There are 3 classes: Courser (Race Horse), Destrier (Warhorse) and Palfrey (Trick Horse). Each class has requirements (ability scores) that must be met. They also have class features that are gained by level.

Feats. Feats include things like:

Fearless – the steed is not spooked by loud noises, fire, the smell of blood or other battle hazards. It suffers no penalties to it actions on a battlefield for unusual circumstances of this nature. Additionally, it is immune to Fear effects.

Heavy Burden – the steed can carry half again its normal burden without penalty.

Many, many other feats are listed.

Steed levels go at 2nd 200 xp, 3rd 400 xp, 4th 1200 xp, etc. They gain ability increases at various levels +4 at 1st, +1 at 4th and 8th. They gain bonus hit points at levels +4 at 1st, +4 at 3rd, +8 at 5th, etc. There are only 10 levels in a steed class.

Each class also has its own BAB and saving throw progressions plus class features like Increased movement at 1st level for a Courser, Increased Movement II at 4th level, and other similar type abilities.

Each classification gains level based feats at different levels, not the standard every 3rd level.



All in all a very, very good and detailed book.

Here’s the link to their write up. It is very reasonably priced too. If you order a copy, tell them I sent you, since most of the plant staff is in my gaming group.

http://www.avalanchepress.com/gameNobleSteeds.php

Hope this is useful. I also have a copy of their Celtic Age, which is another very good book, although not as good as Noble Steeds, IMO.

[Michael Romes]

Originally posted by geeman@Mar 2 2004, 08:00 PM
I just wanted to note that the idea of Cerilian elves riding some of the

larger deer species (elk or moose) raises the possibility of their cavalry

rivaling Anuirean knights (heavy cavalry.) Some deer species comparable to

war horses. Moose can be over 22 hands, compared to Shire breed of heavy

horse which is generally 17-18 hands. Plus the fact that they have antlers
...

geemans post, together with some other posts who see the elven mounts as
creatures of the forest and not comparble to the mounts of humans, brought a
side to that picture that I saw :P
http://home.t-online.de/home/Archmage/Bilder/hunt.jpg