Spellcaster type: Sorcery

An idea for foci… Define them somewhat, give them an ancillary benefit similar to a weak version of the spell (like a charm person focus being an incense that improves reaction rolls for diplomacy/seduction) and make many of them alchemical, and you have an improved role for alchemists at the low/cheap end of the game… Healing, charming, luck/bad luck, etc.

Wow, that does sound awesome. I’ll have to pick it up.

Is it OGL? Maybe there’s a way to make an ACKS-based rules package with it.

Good thought, Dr. Pete.

It sure is OGL.

It’s also a closed system; they lost the license sometime in 2010-ish, so what’s out there is what’s out there.

There’s still smatterings of new content from their e-zine ‘Signs & Portents’, that’s free online.

Has this been playtested? I am particularly concerned about the survivability of low-level Sorcerers. Maybe make them similar to Spellswords so that in low levels they rely on their sword more than on magicks.

Also, how many times a day a Sorcerer can try and cast spells, given the fact that spells can fail and cause damage?

It has’t been playtested in the slightest! It’s a conceptual draft, and nothing more.

I share your concerns vis a vis low level Sorcerers. I’m not sure if hp damage is even a good way to go.

That sounds superb. I went to buy the book on DrivethruRPG but it’s out of print. I’ll dig around on eBay and Amazon and see what I can find.

In a dark sword-and-sorcery variant of ACKS, this could be fun. Especially if you eliminate Clerics and have a single Sorcerer spell list; Sorcerers can learn healing spells just as well as fireballs (in other words, eliminate the Arcane/Divine division).

Also allow Experimentation on the Research throw to cast spells; success would mean a more powerful spell is cast; failure means bad consequences for the Sorcerer. Or maybe ALL spellcasting would REQUIRE experimentation of sorts?

But this needs some SERIOUS playtesting.

Good luck. Noble Knight (.com) has some of the 2E books; the main rulebook is currently sold out (but was available as of October, maybe it shows up from time to time). They have the Pocket Edition (no art, no bestiary, first edition)

There’s not a huge list of changes between 1E and 2E: http://hyboria.xoth.net/rules/changes_in_conan_second_edition.htm

Some Googling shows me Mongoose had a fire sale when they lost the rights; and they couldn’t continue selling, which would explain the lack of PDF. Oughta be a law that OGL content gets released in the wild in those cases.

Though guess in theory anybody could re-release the OGL content.

I’ll also chime in to suggest you avoid the 1st edition, unless it’s the Atlantean edition; lots of problems in the original printing.

As a whole, I’d say Conan D20 was among the very best D20 variants ever released.

That is true; I forgot about that. It was fixes and the 3.5E update. The Pocket Edition was of the the Atlantean edition.

This could be going along the lines of “crypts and things” then? With their white/grey/black unified spell list?

Another element of that system I’d like to see acksified is the con/HP system. It seems like it would go well with the mortal wounds table.

Back in the old days, I played a version of dnd with opposing attack defense rolls that I miss, though it wasn’t as involved as the d20 Conan system, I think.

I’ve not read Crypts and Things but will check it out.

For S&S ACKS, we’ve discussed the following:

  • When reduced to 3/4 HP, you are “Bruised”
  • When reduced to 1/2 HP, you are “Bloodied”
  • When reduced to 1/4 HP, you are “Brutalized”
    Each hour you recuperate your level in HP, but if Bruised cannot recover to more than 3/4; if Bloodied, to more than 1/2; and if Brutalized more than 1/4.

Bruised condition heals after a night’s sleep.
Bloodied condition heals after a week.
Brutalized condition heals after a month.

OK I ordered both Conan 2nd Ed and Scrolls of Skelos from eBay.

Awesome. I’m looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

Scrolls or Secrets? Secrets is the 2E version.

The relevant part of C&T is interpreting HP as fatigue/luck points. A stiff drink will restore a bit, but healing does not.

Once your HP are gone, you take con damage, real wounds, and must save to stay up. HP return with a good nights sleep, but con damage heals as wounds, with healing magic, proficiencies and such helping con damage only. Integrating that with the wounds table is either trivial or filled with hidden danger… Not sure :slight_smile:

Another thing Conan-d20 did was reduce the d20 massive damage threshold to 20 points from 50 points - the Fort save becomes 10 + (1/2 damage dealt) (so, 11 to 20).

It takes a “fatigue/skill” view of HP, in the ability to take a beating and stay up, and the ability to turn killing blows into minor scrapes (which goes along with the Dodge/Parry rules well). Lowering the Massive Damage cap that much helps keep the “one blow from death” feeling alive.

This is getting to be a complexly threaded thread. I’m glad there’s more than a few S&S devotees around the ACKSverse.

Secrets - 2E!

It’s definitely getting to be a more complex thread, isn’t it!

In any event, I love sword & sorcery. My own campaigns are (I think) quite sword-and-sorcery flavored, and we tried to give the ACKS rulebook a sword-and-sorcery vibe with our use of more Persian/Middle Eastern flavored art. Essentially we went as far towards S&S as we felt we could go without alienating the traditional fantasy enthusiast who likes elves and dwarves.