Gameplay
Basic Combat Mechanics
Moonsea Adventures holds close to standard DnD rules. Monsters can score Critical Hits just like Player Characters. Death from massive damage is possible. Ranged attacks in melee, drinking potions, and activating healing kits will incur proper Attacks of Opportunity. Casting spells will disable Expertise. A mage's spells can potentially harm, but not kill, its own party members.
Death and Dying
If a character is reduced to -1 to -9 Hit Points, they are in the state of dying, during which they get a dice roll every round to stabilize their condition (a d20 roll modified by their current constitution bonus), and unless healed by magic or given successful medical treatment, will lose 1 HP per round. At -10 HP, they are dead. Stabilized characters are no longer in a state of dying, and slowly regain their HP. When a stabilized character's HPs return to positive numbers they can once again act in a normal fashion.
Dead characters leave carriable and resurrectable corpses. While dead, the player is sent to the Fugue Plane in which they can either wait to be resurrected by another player, or respawn in the temple of Selune in the city of Oserion's Haven. The current penalties for respawn/resurrection on this server are as follows. Respawn: 200XP /level + 50GP/level. The cost in gold is tallied by the temple priests and must be paid upon resurrection. If the fee is unpaid, then the next resurrection costs 200XP/level + 50GP/level + past debt converted from GP into XP. Please note that your past debt is not absolved by the drain in XP, and that the current gold fee is added into your debt. So it is very easy to incur massive XP loss for players who do not believe in paying the priests.
The costs for a player cast Raise Dead: 100XP/level for the dead character and requires the caster to possess a "pure diamond", which is consumed by the casting of the spell.
The costs for a player cast Resurrection: 50XP/level for the dead character and requires the caster to possess a "flawless diamond", which is consumed by the casting of the spell.
Rest and Recovery
Resting is restricted to once per 30 minutes of real time. This is a roleplay server, not an action server, designed so you will not need to rest after every battle. Currently, all spells and abilities are regained upon rest; however, Hit Points are not, which are regained at a rate determined by the constitution score modified by the rest items in possession or otherwise usable. The more rest items available, the more HPs regenerate during rest. Our resting items are as follows.
Tent kits: Anything in the radius of the tent gets a bonus to HP regeneration. Multiple tents do not stack.
Campfires: Anything in the radius of the campfire gets a bonus to HP regeneration.
Bedrolls: Personal items that degenerate over time. Possession of one of these yields a moderate increase to HP regeneration. Bedrolls come in varying qualities with varying bonuses and durability.
Food: A perishable item that is consumed upon rest. Provides a modest increase to HP regeneration.
There are several other things in game that will aid in resting; it's up to you to figure out what they are!
Character vs. Character play
There is open roleplayed Player Character versus Player Character (CvC or PvP) conflict. However, there are a few things to note about our setup. Characters cannot be slain by PvP, only left for dead or incapacitated. When a character reaches negative HP, they are knocked down and paralyzed for several moments. It is up to the victim to determine how to roleplay defeat - i.e. death, dismemberment, etc. Also, once a duel or battle has been fought, it's over. The feud is done for that week. There will be no cycle of healing, buffing, and attacking. Further, before a combat is initiated you must set your opponent to hostile.
These rules are not a justification for griefing or mindless player slaughter, but a means for the roleplayed and responsible settlement of in-character disputes. There is a level of CvC that will be tolerated on this server and a level that will not. A "kill event" is generated for the player initiating the "killing blow". The "kill event" is added to a counter called the "Kill Count".
Players that accrue an unusually high "Kill Count" will be spoken to by the DMs and questioned on their behavior. Players that are consistently complained about, or whom are caught preying on low-level characters or newcomers to the server, will be dealt with in a harsh manner including but not limited to level loss, suspension, permanent attribute loss, banning, and public execution of the offending characters.
Spell Changes
There will be changes to some of the spells if they are found to be imbalanced. We believe that there are more aspects to balancing a game than just denying the use of something, or altering a spell or feature's effects. Only in rare instances will we ever 'nerf' a spell. However, we do believe in making the usage of spells fair and balanced. Some incredibly powerful spells may require reagents, special conditions or statuses, a cost in XP to use, or even an adverse affect on the player's reputation in-game. Check our Spells section for more details when they're available.