William King, sword and sorcery writer and scholar, has kindly donated his sword and sorcery gaming toolkit for use by all gamers and it is our honor to host it. While the toolkit is intended for use by gamers, there is much within it of interest for fans of sword and sorcery in general, for Mr. King is well-versed in the genre and has many excellent observations about its structure.

Mr. King is not only the author of numerous Warhammer novels and other exciting works, he is an award-winning game designer.

--Howard Andrew Jones

These are rules for the D20 system published under version 1a of the Open Gaming License. All the rules given here are open gaming content. To use them you will need access to the Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook if you are a player and the Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual if you are a DM.

All contents of this book, regardless of designation, are copyrighted year 2004 by William King. All rights reserved. You may copy or distribute this ebook freely as long as you make no changes and charge no money.

Reproduction or use for commercial purposes without the written permission of the author is expressly forbidden, except for the purpose of review or use of OGC consistent with the OGL.

Table of Contents

Character Generation

Feats

Alignment

Combat

Magic

New Spells

Sword and Sorcery Campaigns

Styles

Running Sword and Sorcery Campaigns

Customising a S&S campaign

Copyright Declaration

OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a

About These Rules

The rules given here are meant to let you play in a classic Sword and Sorcery style world like those written about by Robert E Howard, Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner and Lin Carter. They are set in a world where the heroes are usually steely-thewed barbarians, mighty warriors or cunning rogues. Magicians are usually the villains. Magic is rare and frightening. Non-humans are uncommon. You can't buy magic items in shops. You avoid wizards like the plague. Combat is bloody and usually fought against seemingly overwhelming odds.

In D20 terms S&S heroes tend to be warriors, rogues and barbarians. Magic is rare. There are no clerics. Healing magic is less powerful if it exists at all. There are monsters a plenty but they tend to be rare and unique. Humans are the dominant race, and where there are other races they tend not to be too different.

This set of rules is something I have wanted to do for a very long time. I have always loved Sword and Sorcery. I began work on my first set of S&S rules, Elder World, an attempt to simulate Karl Edward Wagner's Kane stories almost 25 years ago, using the original Runequest as the base system. Over the years it's something I have returned to again and again using second edition D&D, the Hero System, Gurps and others. Even after all these years, S&S remains my favourite sub-genre of fantasy, and with the coming of the new d20 rule system I decided to have another go at writing the rules for my own campaign. Having written them all down, I thought it would be a nice thing to share them with anybody else that was interested in the genre, so here they are!

Who am I?

My name is Bill King. I am a writer and game designer currently resident in Prague in the Czech Republic. I have written several novels in the Sword and Sorcery genre for Games Workshop's Black Library imprint and worked as a developer for several games companies. You can find out more, if you are interested, at www.trollslayer.net.

Why a toolkit?

Because not all Sword and Sorcery worlds are the same and not everybody agrees with any given set of rules even about the same world or style of world. I have tried to provide a selection of rules which you can mix and match until you hopefully have something that matches your vision of the world. These rules are not intended to be used all at once-in fact it would be impossible to do so. They are intended to let you pick and choose the rules you like until you get the sort of world you are trying to recreate. For the record my default standard set of rules for a S&S campaign would include the following rules: all the rules in character generation, defence bonus, quick healing, scary monsters, the taint of evil, spell-casting fatigue and low magic.

Just so you know where I am coming from I have usually included the thinking behind each of the rules and options. If you disagree with it you can change it. My own preferences are for simple add-on rule systems that have as little book-keeping as possible and which work with the grain of the d20 system. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Disclaimer

No game product ever released is perfect. It is very likely indeed that I have made mistakes, or expressed myself badly or illogically. If that is the case, do let me know, so that the oversight can be rectified. You can contact me via the website.

Character Generation

Creating characters follows much the same procedures as normal.

Abilities

You may want to let your players use the methods for generating high powered characters (pp169-170 of CR II). Give them 32 points to play with or let them roll 5d6 and drop the two lowest dice.

Why? S&S characters really rely on their abilities and will rarely see many magic items during their careers

Choose Race

This is easy since the only race normally available is human.

Why? Even the decadent elder races of the S&S genre tend to be just normal humans with cosmetic changes such as pointy ears, almond shaped eyes, and a somewhat different cultural outlook.

Choose Class

There are only four classes to choose from; barbarian, fighter rogue and sorcerer. Barbarians, fighters and rogues are handled exactly as in the PH. Sorcerers are changed as below.

Why? These are the classic classes of the genre. It is full of barbarian swordsmen, mighty warriors, cunning thieves and sinister sorcerers. I cannot think of any tale of the source material where any other PH class appears.

Sorcerers

In an S&S campaign sorcerers can be almost anything from scheming decadent noblemen, to feather wearing shamans. Sorcerers are handled exactly as in the PH with the following changes.

Key Characteristic. If you feel it better represents the sort of character you want to play you can change your sorcerers key characteristic (i.e. the one from which he calculates bonus spells, saving throws against his spells etc) to either Intelligence or Wisdom. A sorcerer whose magic comes from force of personality would use Charisma. A sorcerer who gets his power from strength of will would use Wisdom. A sorcerer whose power comes from the intelligent application of knowledge would use Intelligence.

Learning Spells. Sorcerers can add spells to their list of spells known. They are not limited to the maximum number in table 3-17 on p54 of CR I. Spells cost 100 XP per spell level to learn and the sorcerer must have some source from which to learn the spell, a teacher, an ancient book, a summoned demon, whatever. It can take however long the DM decides to learn spells. It may take days per level, weeks per level or months per level. It is up to each DM to set the exact interval for his campaign to reflect the difficulty of mastering magic as he sees it. He can set the exact learning period for each spell if he so wishes. For more on this see below.

Why? In the source stories sorcerers are nearly always portrayed as scholars of ancient secrets and forbidden lore who learn their spells through study. They are not limited to a certain number of spells.

People of Knowledge. In S&S tales sorcerers are nearly always scholars of lore, sometimes forbidden. To reflect this at each level a sorcerer gets 1+1 skill point per Intelligence bonus. These can be spent ONLY on Knowledge skills. They get 4 times this bonus as a starting character. All Knowledge skills are class skills to a sorcerer.

Spells are draining. Magic is enormously draining and costs the sorcerer a lot. Sorcerers always use the rules for spellcasting fatigue.

Magic has its price. This rule reflects the fact that in the source tales magic often warps the body and spirit of its user. If this optional rule is used your character may very well acquire some taint points. These are covered later.

Why is the sorcerer like this? Neither of the two major PH magician classes fits the standard mage of the genre. The fire and forget style of the wizard seems antithetical to the idea of most sorcerers as scholars of ancient lore, and the sorcerer just did not have the flexibility and range of most genre mages. In the stories most mages are scholars doing research into forbidden lore. This is usually the basis of their power and I wanted the rules for sorcerers to reflect this.

Bonus Skill

Characters in S&S novels tend to be more skilled than in the basic rules. They get two bonus class skills of their choice. This always counts as a class skill whatever their class.

Why? In the books there tends to be more overlap between the classes, and they sometimes seem to bleed into each other. If you want a barbarian who can pick pockets or a rogue with some wilderness skills, this rule will let you have it.

Feats

The following feats are specially chosen to reflect the nature of an S&S campaign. They might not be appropriate for other sorts of campaign. Always check with your DM before choosing them.

Defensive Fighting

Each level of this feat gives you +2 bonus to defence. This does not stack with armour. Use your armour bonus or your defensive fighting bonus whichever is higher. Shields do stack with this feat. Anything that would cause you to lose your Dexterity bonus prevents you from using your defensive fighting bonus. This feat can be taken multiple times and stacks with itself. A DM may set a maximum number of times this feat can be taken. The usual limit is three.

Resistant to Taint

For all purposes, including the unnatural vitality and embrace the darkness feats, the characters taint score is halved (round down). Example. A character with this feat and a taint score of 3 would suffer a -1 penalty to Constitution and Wisdom.

Unnatural Vitality

Prerequisites: 3 levels of taint (see below), diehard.

You die at 10 + your taint level below zero HP instead of -10 HP.

Embrace the Darkness

Prerequisite: 4 taint points.

You have embraced the power of the dark side and learned to use it to your advantage. You get 1 bonus spell slot for casting each day for every spell level you can cast up to your level of taint. So for example 6th level sorcerer with this feat can cast an extra zero, first, second and third level spell per day. He doesn't get a 4th level bonus spell slot because he cannot cast 4th level spells yet.

Alignment

The worlds of S&S are usually morally grey. The heroes are often thieves, mercenaries or assassins. They are actions can sometimes be downright wicked. They are often concerned more with vengeance or loot than right.

For game purposes, alignment does not exist the same way as it does in a conventional D&D world. The only real alignments are what we will call cosmic. These are supernatural forces of good and evil. Forces of cosmic evil include the undead and evil outsiders. These are the things that show up on detect evil spells. It's these things that protection from evil works against.

For most characters in a S&S campaign, there is only one real alignment. For the sake of simplicity we shall call it neutral. All humans and most living things fit into this alignment. All extremes of human behaviour from the worst to the best are there. This does not mean your characters can't behave in a manner that would be described as good or evil in most role-playing games. They can easily. It's just that they won't show up on any spells that register or affect alignments.

Evil exists but it needs to be judged on its actions since it rarely shows up on a detect evil spell. Few spells with any alignment descriptor work normally in a S&S world.

In most S&S worlds there is no such thing as cosmic good. It just does not exist, and the cosmology is very bleak. If you do want to include it, such things as good outsiders are what show up on detect good spells.

Why? Spells such as detect evil just don't fit into the genre as they currently stand. S&S is morally a murky and realistic genre. The hero's actions are often wrong by our standards both legally and morally.

Law and Chaos

In some S&S universes, most notably Michael Moorcock's, the forces of Law and Chaos are very active. They are ideological super-powers claiming to be the manifestations of the ruling and guiding principles of the universe. They are not notably good or evil but given over to more pragmatic realpolitik, helping those that support them. You can use Law and Chaos as the primary alignments of your universe. You probably should not use good and evil in the conventional D&D sense if you do.

Alignment Requirements

Obviously when you are not using alignments, you can forget about alignment restrictions for most things or you can replace them with the rules for taint given below.

If you want to use prestige classes that use alignment requirements, you should consider using tests instead. In order to join the prestige class the character will have to perform an appropriate deed or quest instead. To become an assassin you may have to kill a target selected by the Guildmaster for example. Obviously the test should require the sort of behaviour an organisation expects of its members.

The Taint of Evil

Supernatural power tends to warp the minds and bodies of mages in S&S worlds. Any character possessing the Taint will show up on a detect evil spell and be affected by spells that affect evil.

Taint points are simply a measure of how corrupted a character has become in body, mind or spirit from the use of magic. In some worlds they might represent the results of exposure to the warping chaotic energies of magic, in others they may represent the spirit poisoning power of the dark forces of sorcery. In any case, they represent exposure to magical radiation as it were, and the resulting effects.

Acquiring Taint Points by Magic

There are several variant methods of acquiring taint points. As a DM you should decide in advance which one you want to use.

Paying A Terrible Price for Forbidden Knowledge. (Use this variant in a world where magic is powerfully warping to mind or spirit.) Whenever you gain the ability to cast a higher level of spells than previously you gain a taint point. You can never have less taint points than the highest level of spell you can cast.

Tainted Power. In this variant the knowledge of magic is not tainted, but drawing on its power is. Whenever a magician casts a spell of higher level than his taint score he gains a point of taint. This can be removed by the usual means but it will come back the next time a spell of higher level than the new taint score is used. One variant of this is to allow the magician a Will or Fortitude saving throw to avoid the taint with a DC equal to 10+ the spell level. Another possibility is that only some spells have the taint effect. These might include evil spells and spells that cause physical damage and harm.

Magical Taint Levels

It is possible to set the default level of taint at different levels ranging from -9 to +9. The magical taint level is added to the taint level where appropriate to find out the affects of taint. In forbidden knowledge worlds magic may not cause taint until you start casting 3rd level spells. This would be written as taint level-2. Heavily tainted worlds might immediately give you a higher level of taint. Taint level +1 would mean you would get 1 taint point as soon as you acquired zero level spells, 2 when you got first level and so on. In tainted power worlds the taint level would be added or subtracted to the level of the spell to see whether it caused taint.

Affects of Taint

Taint is a bad thing. It warps body and spirit. Each taint point acts as a penalty to a characters Constitution and Wisdom scores. A character with Constitution 12 and Wisdom 14 and 3 points of taint would effectively have a Constitution of 9 and a Wisdom of 11 for all purposes such as calculating ability bonuses, HP etc. If your taint score ever equals or exceeds your Constitution score you are dead. If it ever equals or exceeds your Wisdom score, you fall into a coma and suffer all the effects of starvation and thirst until you are dead. Alternatively you might become completely and irrevocably mad or possessed by demons as your DM decides. In any case you need to create a new character.

Taint has other bad effects warping body and mind. It causes aches and pains and eventually physical and mental changes. A character who has taint points equal or greater than to 25% of his Constitution or Wisdom score is mildly tainted. A character who has taint scores equal to or greater than 50% of his Constitution or Wisdom score is moderately tainted. A character who has taint points equal to 75% or more of his Constitution or Wisdom scores is severely tainted.

The DM should apply one of the following penalties as soon as a character acquires the appropriate level of taint. Physical penalties take affect when the Constitution score provides the taint effect. Mental penalties apply when it is Wisdom. You suffer penalties for both. Mostly these affects should be role-played since they are really only the manifestations of the Constitution or Wisdom loss.

Mild Physical Taint Affects

Mild Mental Taint Affects

Moderate Physical Taint Effects

Moderate Mental Taint Effects

Severe Physical Taint Effects

Severe Mental Taint Effects

Example. Rab has Constitution of 12 and Wisdom of 14. This means that he will acquire a mild physical taint effect at 3 taint points, a moderate one at 6 taint points and a severe one at 9 taint points. He will also acquire a mild mental taint effect at 4 taint points, a moderate one at 7 taint points and a severe one at 11 taint points. He will be dead at 12 taint points because by then they will equal his Constitution.

Other Ways of Acquiring Taint

If the DM decides there may be other ways of acquiring taint points during the course of a campaign. Certain accursed places or objects may also cause taint. For every 24 hours spent in a tainted place or in contact with a tainted object the character must make a fortitude saving throw. The base DC is 10+5 for every 24 hours of consecutive exposure. The campaign's taint level is used as a modifier to the die roll. At the Dm's discretion you may also have to make a taint roll whenever you summon a demon or an undead creature.

Cleansing Taint

Certain spells if they are available can affect taint. Remove Curse and Remove Disease can remove one point of taint but cannot reduce it below one. Greater Restoration can reduce the level of taint by its user's caster level right down to zero. In Price of Forbidden Knowledge campaigns absolutely nothing can ever reduce taint level below the level of the highest level spells a mage can cast.

At the DM's option sorcerers can recover from taint at the rate of one point per month if they utterly abstain from performing magic, avoid any place where it is being cast, and any exposure to any device, place or thing that might cause taint. At the end of this month, they can make a Fortitude saving throw DC equal to 10 + their current taint level and if they succeed they can reduce their taint level by one. Once again in Price of Forbidden Knowledge campaigns they cannot reduce their taint level below the level of the highest level spells they can cast.

Using Taint Instead of Alignment

You can use taint scores to replace alignment for some things. For example magical items that only work for evil characters under the standard rules will only work for characters with a taint score of 1 or higher. Items that only work for good or non-evil characters will only work for those without a taint score.

Familiars and Taint

In some campaigns, especially those with taint levels of zero and above, the sorcerous nature of the bond between familiar and mage automatically results in the owner acquiring one point of taint. While the familiar is alive this cannot be removed by any means.

Combat

The following rules can be used to give more of the feel of sword and sorcery combat.

Defence Bonus

Characters get a defence bonus equal to their base attack bonus divided by 2 rounded down. This is added to your AC.

Monsters get this bonus at the DM's discretion. In many cases a monster's natural armour bonus includes an element that comes from its fighting skill. In such cases the DM should not give a base defence bonus as well.

Why? This bonus is meant for use in worlds where magical armour is very rare. It simulates how difficult sword and sorcery heroes are to hit as described in the books. In addition D&D encounters tend to be designed on the assumption that characters will be of a certain AC at a certain level because they have acquired assorted magical protective devices. In most S&S campaigns characters will never possess magical armour and this bonus helps balance things.

Armour as DR

Instead of giving a bonus to armour class, armour acts as DR/- equal to its armour bonus. Because a character can still be bruised, winded, concussed or stunned even through the thickest armour half of the damage stopped by the armour is treated as non-lethal damage.

Shields do not give DR but add to armour class as normal. Magical armour should probably do the same with its bonus.

The normal rules for stacking different types of DR as given in CR2 apply.

Monsters are treated slightly differently. Some of them have huge natural armour. Where a DM feels that this comes from a tough hide, metallic skin etc he should assign a DR as appropriate up to a maximum of 10. This should be subtracted from the monsters armour class as given in CR3. Really tough monsters are just too tough for most players weapons otherwise.

Why? Some people feel it is unrealistic that armour makes you harder to hit rather than stopping damage. This rule adds an extra calculation to combat and tends to make fights longer at higher levels but works very well with the Constitution as HP variant of these rules. You need to be careful with anything that makes DR very high because it can make characters all but invulnerable.

Quick Healing

Since HP represent an abstract ability to absorb damage why not have them recover at level per hour UNLESS they go below zero in which case they recover in the normal way outlined in the PH. Using this system you don't start recovering non-lethal damage until you have recovered all your HP damage.

Getting your breath back. Using this variant rule you can recover even quicker. As long as you have not lost more than half your HP, you are merely battered and winded. You can get recover HP and non-lethal damage at the rate of level per combat round of rest in which you do absolutely nothing. Once you have lost more than half your HP you recover at the rate of a level per hour, until you are over the half HP threshold.

Energy Drain and Negative Energy Levels

In worlds where healing magic is rare or non-existent energy drains are far more threatening. In a S&S world they should never result in permanent level loss. A character should just repeat the saving throw to attempt to lose the negative level every day until it is made & the negative level is lost. To balance this the DM may only allow the character to make the saving throw to lose the level every week or month instead of every day. If your total number of negative levels equals your total number of levels you are dead.

Negative levels give you -1 per negative level to your spell fatigue roll.

Ability Drains

Generally speaking the same thing applies to ability drains. They should be treated as ability damage instead. A good rule of thumb is; never inflict on a player something there is no cure from in the campaign. It does not mean finding a cure should be easy but there should at least be one available.

Finally it goes against the generally independent minded grain of the genre to have the heroes constantly running to uber-powerful NPCs for help. I think its better to let them heal most things on their own in their own time. These are worlds in which very often all a character has to rely on are his own abilities. It seems grossly unfair to permanently impair them.

Death Spells

Instant death spells are far more dangerous in a world without raise dead. In an S&S world they do not kill instantly, instead they take you to -1 HP with all the consequences that entails.

Sample Death Spells- Slay Living, Finger of Death, Power Word Kill.

Massive Damage

If you want more realism in your combats then taking damage more than your Constitution should force you to make a massive damage saving throw DC is equal to damage. If saving throw is failed you are automatically at -1 HP & dying.

Hit Points Equal to Constitution

For hyper-realistic campaigns characters get HP equal Constitution. For every size level above large double a monster's HP. For every size level below small half a monster's HP.

Monsters without any Constitution should either use HP as given in the monster manual or get 3d6 HP modified by size and whatever other modifiers the DM wants to apply whichever the DM deems more appropriate.

If you use this system rogues roll d6 per sneak attack damage dice. On 1-2 they do no additional damage. 3-4 +1 additional HP of damage. 5-6 +2 additional HP. Basically d3-1 per dice of sneak attack.

If you choose to use this system damage spells should never improve with caster level. They always do the basic damage given in the spell description. Any change that affects Constitution automatically affects HP.

Variant. A slightly less fierce variant of this which still allows some HP progression is to allow characters to gain HP equal to their Basic Attack Bonus. Fighters and barbarians thus gain an extra +1 HP at first level and an extra HP per level thereafter and so on. If you want to be really generous as a DM you can give double the Basic Attack Bonus as extra HP.

En Masse Attacks

Attackers get +1 to hit for every additional attacker after the first. This gives swarms of low level grunts some hope of hitting against high levels. It seems fairly realistic as well.

Scary Monsters

In S&S campaigns pretty much all monsters are unusual and scary. On first encountering them, characters must deal with the fear affect. This should be handled according to the rules for frightful presence (pp309) of CRIII.

Contest of Wills

Sometimes the rules call for a contest of wills. This is merely a competitive die roll pitting both parties Will saves against each other. Highest roll wins.

Magic

The way magic is handled is probably the most important difference between S&S campaigns and normal D20 fantasy campaigns. In S&S tales the focus tends to be on the sword-wielders. Magic is just not that common. Worlds tend to bear a fairly close resemblance to our own in the ancient or medieval period and magic does not do a great deal to affect the social structure. There are no shops that sell magic items, and magicians are rarely for hire. Mostly they are shunned by the masses who (for the most part quite rightly) fear them. When it's used magic is usually enormously tiring and mages rarely cast a great number of combat spells. They normally prefer to work behind the scenes and favour summonings to work their will from a distance. In many worlds just drawing on the forces of magic seems to have a warping effect on the body and psyche. There is usually an atmosphere of horror associated with magic.

The rules given here try to reinforce all of this. Probably the most important concept in S&S magic is that it always comes at a very high price. S&S magicians using some of these options may not seem very powerful when compared to a standard D&D wizard. This is quite deliberate. It reflects the genre. It should also be remembered that there is one balancing factor; the relative uncommonness of magic means that there are few people who can deal with it. Society as a whole is normally not as well prepared to deal with its magicians as it is in a more standard campaign.

Spellcasting Fatigue.

Spellcasting is extremely physically draining for the caster. Every time you cast a spell you must make a spell fatigue roll. This is a fortitude saving throw against DC 10 + the level of the spell you are casting. If you fail this saving throw, you are fatigued. If you fail the saving throw when you are fatigued you become exhausted. Exhausted characters cannot cast spells. Fatigue and exhaustion are recovered from in the usual manner. If you fumble a spell fatigue roll, and are not fatigued you become fatigued and must immediately make another spell fatigue roll at the same DC as the first.

The Endurance feat does NOT give you a bonus to spell fatigue rolls.

Casting spells counts as a strenuous action for purposes of feats such as diehard.

Variant. If the DM allows you can cast spells while you are exhausted but to do so you must make your spell fatigue roll before you cast the spell. If you fail the spell does not go off and you are stunned for d4 rounds. The spell slot is lost.

Why? In the source material spellcasting is almost always extremely physically draining which is why this rule should probably always be in force in an S&S campaign. Anything that reduces fatigue should be looked upon with suspicion by the DM. This is particularly so if you are using the spell slot magic version of the sorcerer which is in many ways more powerful than its SRD counterpart when the trend should be to make it less powerful. Potions and other one-shot devices that the DM has some control over the provision and disposal of are not so bad. Spells are the real problem. If you choose to use one of the variants that allow such spells to become available to PCs you should be very careful.

There are several ways of dealing with them. You could simply ban all spells and effects that reduce fatigue. Or you could assume that the fatigue caused by spell use is so deep that methods that remove normal fatigue simply don't work with it. Or you can assume that such spells are very draining and can only be cast by people who are not fatigued and automatically cause a level of fatigue to their caster

Mixed Lists

Since sorcerers are the only spell casting class available you may want to allow them to choose spells from any list including the cleric/druid ones. If you do decide to then spells that are available on more than one list should always use the casting level for sorcerer/wizards if that is in the spell description, otherwise they should use the highest level given in the spells description. Allowing divine spells raises a few issues that need to be addressed.

Raise Dead, Resurrection etc. These are not common spells in the S&S genre. When they are used at all it is normally be evil beings and is seen as some form of necromancy. As a DM you should be very careful about how these are used. They probably should not be accessible to the PCs at all but if they are you may want to include rules such as this one. Anyone raised from the dead automatically gains taint points equal to the spell level. If these are removed by any method the person brought back from the dead dies once more. It is the power of the evil magic that keeps them alive.

Maximum Spell Levels

You don't see many meteor swarm spells in the S&S genre. Magic is generally less powerful and perhaps more subtle than in a standard D&D game. One way of simulating this is to have maximum spell levels. This simply means that you set the maximum level of spell available in the campaign. For most sword and sorcery campaigns, levels 3 through to 5 are good maximums. Once the maximum level is set no one can cast spells of any higher level. Players still get their extra spell slots per level and can use them to cast spells they do know.

An alternative method is to make the ability to cast spells of a level above the campaign maximum a feat with prerequisites that include being able to cast the maximum level of spell possible in the current campaign. This gives you access to the next level of spell up. Another feat gives you access to the level above that and so on. You might also want to consider other prerequisites like having a pact with some powerful demon lord or possession of a mighty sorcerous artefact. You may even want to go as far as charging one feat per spell learned above the campaign maximum. In this case the only prerequisite should be having a spell slot capable of casting the spell, and perhaps a long quest or particularly difficult bit of research to learn the spell.

This will at least explain to the PCs why the villains have access to spell they do not if you do want to throw in a mega-powerful mage.

Links

In many Sword and Sorcery worlds certain things maintain a link with their originator even after physical separation. Possession of such an object or link allows you to cast spells targeted at the subject over a great distance and without needing a line of sight. The exact distance such a link can be used over is up to the DM but one mile per caster level is a good starting point.

Good examples of a link that can be used on a subject are hair, nail clippings, blood, bodily fluids etc. Clothing that has been inn intimate contact with the target such as a shirt that may have been soaked in sweat can also be used.

At the DM's option it is possible that other things used or in contact with a target over a long period of time such as a favourite tunic or item of clothing or weapon may also act as a link.

It's also possible to use links to greatly increase the range of scrying and communication spells say by a factor of 100 or more at the DM's option. Of course this only works when such spells are targeted on the originator of the link.

lower Spell Return

Magicians have it hard in a S&S campaign. Spells are more fatiguing to cast and spell slots may, at the Dm's discretion take longer to return.

One Spell Slot Per day. In this variant the sorcerer gets back only one used spell slot per day, starting with the lowest level one. This simulates those worlds where magic is enormously fatiguing and magicians cast very few spells. This has the effect of making them consider very seriously whether to use them in the first place.

Conditional Spell Slot Return. In this variant sorcerers get back their spell slots only when they fulfil a condition or it is fulfilled for them. Performing a sacrifice to a Demon God, or resting for 8 hours in the throne of skulls deep within their tower of power is an example of the former. Getting back their spell slots once per month when the moon is full is an example of the latter. For maximum pain to the sorcerer these two options can be combined.

Rare Magic Items

Magic items are very rare in Sword and Sorcery campaigns. To simulate this you may want to ban most item creation feats. Alternatively you can make the XP cost for magic item creation equal to the material cost.

Ability Based Casting

Using this variant you do not need to use spell slots instead you can simply cast any spell you know and make a spell fatigue roll as described above. When exhausted you can still cast spells by overdrawing on your power. If you fail your spell fatigue roll when overdrawing you take Constitution damage equal to the level of the spell +1. Once you have taken Constitution damage this way you cannot cast any more spells until the Constitution damage heals. Creatures who do not have Constitution scores overdraw on their Wisdom score instead.

Using this variant you can add metamagic effects by adding to the spells level when making the spell fatigue roll and calculating ability damage.

Limited Lists

The other way to limit magic is by limiting available spells. In classic S&S very few direct damage spells should be allowed. GM may wish to ban them all.

The main forms of offense should be summonings, limited monster summonings and mind spells.

Banned Spells

Here is a list of spells the DM should consider banning.

Comprehend Languages. This makes deciphering ancient documents just to easy in a campaign where knowledge is power.

Read Magic. Once again this spell makes the deciphering of magical texts too easy and just does not fit the atmosphere of S&S games.

You might want to consider banning the really gross attack spells such as meteor swarm. They just don't really fit the style of the genre. In some campaigns the DM might want to consider banning all direct damage spells.

Focus Instead of Components

Your sorcerer can choose to have a focus instead of components. Your focus may be a staff, ceremonial regalia, amulets, talismans, whatever. You can have a different focus for each spell or use only one focus for your power. The only real restriction is that the item is obviously a mystical focus to any observer. It is marked by magical runes, has a sense of ominous power, whatever. You have too touch it or wield it to activate your spells.

Using a focus gives you can cast that particular spell without using material components. You cannot cast the spell without it. Replacing such a focus may cause you some hardship or financial cost. If the spell requires expensive components then the focus should cost at least ten times the price of the components.

Someone with the knowledge(arcana) skill can identify the purpose of such a focus with a succesful skill roll. DC is 10+ spell level the focus is used for.

Monster Summoning

Monster Summonings tend to be the favoured attack spells of sorcerers in S&S books. You can add a great deal to the atmosphere by allowing each caster to have a personalised list of monsters which respond to the summons. For example a priest of the Spider God may have a list that allows him to summon only spiders of various sizes. A worshipper of Set might summon only serpents and so on.

You should also consider using the description of humanoid creatures from CRIII as minor demons who can be summoned using this spell.

Ritual Summon Monster

This version of the spell works just like a summon monster spell of the same level but takes d6 *10 minutes to cast and lasts for 1 hour per caster level.

A monster summoned in this way can be permanently bound if the summoner wins a contest of wills. When permanently bound the monster remains in the summoner's service until death or until it is released by the summoner. A summoner can never have more monsters bound in this way than he has points of charisma bonus. Each time the spell is used in this way the summoner gains 1 negative level. This negative level cannot be removed in anyway short of the death or release of the bound monster. It never causes permanent level loss.

If you have a link, it is possible to give it to the monsters when summoned. They will then be able to unerringly track the target for the duration of the spell. The summoned monsters can be ordered, to kill the target, capture the target and return or even to guard the target. Using the link in this way does not grant the summoned monsters any additional travel powers. They must still make their way to the target at their normal movement speed. If they can teleport they can teleport to the target with 100 per cent accuracy providing he is not behind some barrier or protective magic that prevents teleportation.

New Spells

Here are some new spells that fit well into the genre.

Animate Corpse

Necromancy

Level: Sor/Wiz 1

Components: V, S, M

Casting Time: 1 full round

Range: Close 25 ft

Duration: 1 round per level

Saving Throw: None

Spell Resistance: No

This spell animates d3 medium sized or smaller humanoid corpses within range. If there are a number of corpses the caster chooses which ones are animated. These corpses will fight for the caster or otherwise obey commands. They possess whatever weapons and armour they were equipped with when alive but are otherwise as zombies. This spell is of evil alignment.

Material components: the bodies to be animated.

Bestial Transformation

Transmutation, Evil.

Level: Sor/Wiz 3

Components: V, S, M

Casting Time: 10 minutes

Range: 100 ft

Duration: 1 hour per level

Saving Throw: See below

Spell Resistance: yes

This vile spell can be cast only during the full moon and transforms its victims into beasts such as wolves, hyenas etc. These beasts are utterly under the control of the caster until he releases them, is killed or the spell dispelled. The victims must be asleep or otherwise helpless for if they move out of range of the spell while it is being cast it is negated. The caster must succeed in a contest of wills against the best Will save among the transformed creatures to control them unless they are willing. This is the saving throw mentioned above. These creatures are not were-creatures and have no damage reduction etc. They are merely beasts of the appropriate type who have the intelligence and Wisdom scores of the humans they once were. They cannot speak. The beasts cannot be of more than 2 HD.

Sword and Sorcery Campaigns

Sword and Sorcery campaigns have a much different feel to them than normal D&D campaigns. They are characterised by an absence of what most players would think of as treasure and a general overall lower level of power. Mechanically as a GM there are a few things you should be aware of.

Challenge Ratings

Sword and Sorcery characters as a group tend to be less powerful than their D&D counterparts once you get above the first few levels. You should adapt the CR of monsters bearing this in mind. I find it best simply to give out flat experience awards based on how well I think the players did rather than CR. Certain monsters are much deadlier in an S&S environment simply because they may have attacks with which the players simply cannot deal. Energy and ability drains fall under this heading. I have tried to deal with these issues above.

Unforgiving Environments

Generally speaking S&S environments are far less forgiving than normal D&D ones. Dead usually means dead, for example.

I believe D&D was originally influenced by the S&S source material, it diverges from it in many ways, and most of those ways usually have to do with player survivability. It's extremely uncommon even in epic fantasy novels to have major characters resurrected for example. It's not uncommon for this to happen in a D&D game. The reasons are obvious. In a story the author has far more control over the fates of his characters, and if the character is dead, it's for the reason that the author wanted him to be that way. This is not a reason most players will accept when it comes to their characters.

All the healing and resurrection spells are designed to insure players against the simple bad luck they are statistically bound to endure when playing a dice driven game. Roll enough dice and any bad result no matter how unlikely will eventually happen. By taking away the spells that counter this you are effectively taking away the player's insurance policy. This is great for tension and excitement, but bad for long term player survivability. What are the options for dealing with this? Here are a couple:

Accept it.

Death is a fact of life in the S&S world just as it is in our own. The player characters are not Conan or Elric or the hero of an ongoing genre series, they are characters in a game set in a world where death is inescapable. They just need to be cautious. You should probably allow players to preserve their experience total though so that if they die, they start with the same amount of XP as their previous character. This will soften the sting a little. They should not get any experience points for the scenario in which they died.

Fate Points

Fate Points are a mechanic that in some ways simulates the control an author has over his heroes by placing a certain amount of that control in the hands of the players. Each player starts with however many fate points you want to give them. Three is a good number, and gains that number of points every time they reach a new level. A fate points is essentially a get out of jail free card for the PC's. When it is played they get to survive. If their character has just reached negative 10 HP and died, it was actually just that his wounds looked worse than they were to his concerned friends. He is really on zero hit points, stable and just about to recover. Fate points can also be played in those inevitably fatal situations such as falling of cliffs onto jagged rocks. Somehow there is a pool of water in the middle of the rocks that they just manage to dive perfectly into, or the branches of a bunch of trees clinging to cliff face break their fall just enough for them to survive. The sorcerer king who is just about to execute the PCs with his howling black runesword suffers a sudden compulsion to explain his plans to our hero, then lock him up in the dungeon to be sacrificed to his patron demon at midnight, naturally the dungeon has a faulty lock or an incompetent jailor. I am sure you get the picture.

In a chainmail bikini style of campaign (see below) fate points can have an even wider application. They can be spent to justify the most fantastic coincidences if need be and the players so desire (and of course, if the DM allows). In one Thongor story for example, a huge pterodactyl carries our hero off to feed its young. Not only does he manage thus to escape certain death, but it turns out that the beast's nest is located on the very island where the evil Dragon Kings are going to perform their sinister world-conquering ritual. This enables our hero to arrive just in time to rescue his captured friends and save the day. It's not very plausible but it can be fun if you are in the right mood, just like the stories are.

Low Magic

In S&S worlds you don't usually see magic shops or if you do they are a sign of great danger as in Fritz Leiber's wonderful The Bazaar of the Bizarre. Magicians are relatively rare in society and very often feared. They tend to be powers behind the throne and keep themselves out of the public eye as much as possible. This does have the great advantage of allowing you to stick fairly closely to normal historical models if you so desire. It also means that players won't be able to rely on their trusty +3 blade to get them out of trouble.

Magic items should be rare and I do mean rare. Characters may well be able to go their entire careers without ever seeing a +1 sword. Players really do have to rely on their wits and their abilities and whatever they can con any PC wizard into making for them.

Learning magic should be a long painstaking and sometimes dangerous process. It should not simply be a case that the sorcerer pays his 100 XP times spell level and gains the spell. You really should know where he learns it from. It might take him weeks or months in the Great Library translating ancient manuscripts, he may have to spend days learning it from a crazy old hermit. If he wants to be able to do his own research, you should use the rules on p198 of CR II. The sorcerer still has to pay the XP cost to learn the spell as well as the research costs. He does not have to do this until he succeeds in the spellcraft roll and learns the spell.

High Powered Magic

In some S&S universe, magic appears very high powered indeed. In Michael Moorcock's books for example, the gods themselves often intervene, and all sorts of potent magical artefacts are encountered.

If you look closely, you will notice that all of this mighty magic usually fulfils the role of a plot enabler, that is to say a thing that advances the storyline and swiftly vanishes to be forgotten about when this purpose is achieved. All of those ships that sail over land and sea, and direct divine interventions are usually simply a means of kick-starting plots or of getting our heroes where they need to go. Once this is achieved they are swiftly put on the back burner as the real low magic business of the plot begins.

The stars must be right. This is another good example of a plot enabler. If you want to explain why the heroes cannot constantly be invoking a powerful entity once they rest the artefact that controls it from the hands of the villain, tell them that it can only be used when the proper conjunction of planes, planets and stars are in alignment and this only happens once ever 1003 years. Its also not a bad way of writing those spells and devices you have found to be overpowered for your campaign out of the script. Obviously they only functioned when the stars were right and now the stars have drifted into a different alignment.

Level Limits

It has to be said that compared to many D&D characters, the heroes of S&S are not all that powerful. You may want to consider imposing a maximum level on the characters in your campaign. Level ten is a good one. Once the PCs reach this level, they can progress no further. They may retire to rule their fiefdoms or contemplate their long careers. Or they may continue in play, not progressing any further.

Why? This simulates the way most series work. Usually characters in books reach a plateau of power (one considerably less than a 20^th level D&D character in many cases) and seem to stay there for adventure after adventure. This can be frustrating for players used to open ended progression but it does have the merit of allowing you to freeze the level of power where you want it to be and limiting the potentially catastrophic impact of god-like PC's on an ostensibly realistic campaign.

Styles

There are various styles of Sword and Sorcery fiction which seem to model different levels of realism. Sometimes you can even find them within the same series or even story. There are times when Conan appears to be grittily realistic and there are times when he hews his way through small armies and ends up bleeding only from a few cuts and scratches. As mentioned above this is because writers are creating works of fiction and aren't really bound by the constraints of a rule system. They can change their model of reality to suit what they want to achieve in their story. If truth be told so can you, but in general, for games, players usually do better with a clear set of guidelines about what they can and cannot do, how the world works and what they can expect to do in a combat and so on.

When setting up your S&S campaign you should give some thought to what sort of world you are trying to create and the style of play you are trying to achieve. The various styles I can think of are:

Sword and Sorcery

This is the default style for these rules. Players are tough, competent and powerful in the context of their world. Combat is dangerous but not as much as in the real world. Magic is available although not common. Use defence bonus and quick healing rules for combat. Taint levels are zero or below. You can mix and match whatever other rules you like. All monsters should have fearsome presence at the first encounter.

Grim and Realistic

In the grim and realistic world, things are tough for the heroes. They are tough for everybody but the characters suffer in general because they have to go out and do the business on an everyday basis. This is a world that really aims for the grit and grime of the middle ages. Suitable rules for a grim and realistic world are: defence bonus, constitution as hit points, and armour as DR. You can still use quick healing but if you want to be really nasty let players heal only 1 HP per day and only if they have help. For magic you should use high taint levels and use Constitution based magic for spells. You might want to consider setting a maximum spell level of 3 or even less. Supernatural creatures are fairly rare and usually hostile. They almost certainly cause fear. The atmosphere is usually pretty horrific. The Averoigne and Zothique stories of Clark Ashton Smith are pretty good examples of this.

Chain Mail Bikini

In this style of sword and sorcery nobody ever seems to have to bother about armour. Everybody wanders around in leather weapon's harnesses, loincloths and chain-mail bikinis. Classic culprits are Thongor, John Carter and countless comic books of my youth. Unfortunately all these people still live in a world where the rules were built around the concept that armour makes you safer. How do we live with this?

One method is to give characters one level of the defensive fighting feat for every level of armour proficiency they have. Despite the name chain mail bikini camapigns can actually be quite realistic aside from the running around in thongs thing. Conan has been known to fight in no armour at all when he had no other option.

Other Styles

There are plenty of other styles of S&S that you could play none of which are covered (to my knowledge) in the sourcebooks.

Visitors from another plane. In this variant you could send the PCs from your current standard campaign off for an adventure or two or a short mini-campaign in a S&S world. They can pass through a portal, be victims of some sort of planar gateway spell or be dispatched on a quest by a high level mage or god. To keep things simple you could use a hybrid of rules from the ones given here to the core rulebooks. Your PC spellcasters can prepare their spells according to the rules of their home campaign but suffer fatigue when they cast them (perhaps because there is less ambient magical energy to draw on, or their gods are far away, or whatever else sounds reasonable). Their magical items should probably not function or they will simply totally outclass the magicless natives. Perhaps they are not attuned to the laws of magic in the new plane and cannot adapt themselves the way living things can. Use whatever sounds plausible. Magical armour and weapons simply become masterwork items. Use whatever S&S combat rules you choose. Hopefully by the time they get back to their home world they will be thoroughly grateful for what they have there.

Running Sword and Sorcery Campaigns

Much of the source material gives ideal pointers for running campaigns. Many S&S series were conceived as series of linked short stories featuring the same characters. It's hard to imagine a better model for a RPG campaign. Your characters are the heroes of the series. Each adventure stands alone. The continuity comes from having the same characters in them. There are other things that give S&S campaigns there distinctive feel.

Treasure

In S&S stories the heroes spend a lot of time looking for treasure, sometimes find it, and very rarely hold on to it. They fritter it away on any number of vices, leaving them broke and looking for their next adventure. You should encourage your players to do the same, unless they are sorcerers in which case it probably should all go on research.

Travel

Swords and sorcery heroes often travel to the ends of the earth in their quest for loot, vengeance and/or power. Your heroes should do the same. Don't bother with a lot of overland questing either. It's only important when it's the start of an adventure-such as when they are abducting by slavers en route to the mystic east, or when their ship is attacked by the Red Corsairs and driven ashore onto an abandoned island amid whose steaming jungles lie the ruins of some prehistoric civilisation.

It's perfectly acceptable to start a scenario with a line something like this: After your attempted coup against Prince Asbrutal failed you fled into the desert to escape his vengeance. Now your horses are exhausted, your water-bottles near empty and ahead of you lies the haunted oasis of Yok Latha. What do you do?

Goals

The goals of most S&S characters are pretty basic and often pretty coarse compared to those of many epic fantasy characters. They want money, sex, booze and power either temporal or mystical. Revenge is always a good motivator as well. They are usually quite uninhibited about how they achieve their goals as well. You should keep this in mind when designing characters and scenarios.

Villains

The classic sword and sorcery villain is the scheming sorcerer. He or she is usually a power behind the throne figure. They use their magic to dispatch their enemies and advance their goals. You can never go far wrong by giving the heroes an enemy like this and have that enemy do something terrible to them-slay their family, torture them, betray them and take all their money, be a rival for political power or the favours of the beautiful scheming princess. Having a villain whom all the heroes hate for their own distinctive reason is a good way of binding together an adventuring party that would normally only be motivated by self interest.

Politics

Politics has a big role in many S&S tales. Factions of nobles scheme at a king's court. Mercenary generals seek favour or plot to seize power. Rivals must be assassinated or discredited. PCs should find themselves drawn into these conflicts from time to time sometimes as ignorant catspaws, sometimes as willing henchmen, sometimes even as instigators. In general the motives of most people tend to be far more mundane than in high fantasy or classic D&D. They are out for personal gain, or revenge, or to remove their rivals. Usually even those who are involved with powerful evil sorcerers see them only as a tool to be discarded when the job is done. Naturally the sorcerers tend to see themselves as something more than that. Generally speaking you can't go far wrong in an S&S campaign if you draw the players into a web of intrigue.

Monsters

Monsters are everywhere in S&S worlds. They usually seem to favour out of the way locations from which they rarely emerge to trouble the rest of the world. Woe betide any intruder into their territory. A particular favourite of the genre is the last degenerate survivor of a dying race who is worshipped as a god by some particularly decadent humans, or kept bound by a particularly fearsome sorcerer. This is a very good way to introduce a powerful monster into a campaign, and even allow them to be found right in the heart of a city. Who knows what the thing is that stalks the tunnels below the Temple of Dark Shadows?

Customising a S&S campaign

Obviously these rules are only the smallest of starts when it comes to discussing a S&S campaign. There are many possible options open to you and you are not limited to adapting published works. It is easy to imagine many different sorts of worlds. Imagine one where divine magic is white magic and does not cause taint, and arcane magic is black magic and does. In such a world a sorcerer who restricts himself to spells from the cleric list need never suffer taint.

You could also introduce more classes from the CRI. As long as their magic causes them fatigue, they should be fairly balanced compared to the existing classes although I make no guarantees, not having tested any of them.

You could also introduce more races. I think that using these rules you might actually end up with something closer to most published epic fantasy than you would get using the core rulebooks. However, this is the subject for another rule set entirely.

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System Reference Document Copyright 2000-2003, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, Andy Collins, David Noonan, Rich Redman, Bruce R. Cordell, John D. Rateliff, Thomas Reid, James Wyatt, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

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