Sword & Sorcery 3.5 - Relics & Rituals - Olympus, Dungeon and Dragons Complete(Full), D&D Complete (English)
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A genre sourcebook for v.3.5 fantasy roleplaying
C
HAPTER
F
IVE
: M
AGIC
ITEMS
A
UTHORS
:
W. Jason Peck, Aaron Rosenberg, Christina
Stiles
A
DDITIONAL
M
ATERIAL
:
Christopher Kennedy & Ethan Skemp
D
EVELOPER
:
Ethan Skemp
E
DITOR
:
Aileen E. Miles
M
ANAGING
E
DITOR
:
Andrew Bates
A
RT
D
IRECTOR
:
Aileen E. Miles
L
AYOUT
AND
T
YPESETTING
:
Aileen E. Miles
C
OVER
A
RTIST
:
Eric Polak
I
NTERIOR
A
RTISTS
:
John Bridges, Talon Dunning, Jeff Holt, Leif
Jones, Alex Sheikman
B
ORDER
D
ESIGN
:
Alex Sheikman
F
RONT
&
B
ACK
C
OVER
D
ESIGN
:
Matt Milberger & Aileen Miles
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Relics & Rituals: Olympus
© 2004 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. Distributed for Sword and
Sorcery Studios by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
This printing of
Relics & Rituals: Olympus
is published in accordance with the Open Game
License. See the Open Game License Appendix of this book for more information.
White Wolf is a registered trademark and Relics & Rituals: Excalibur, Sword and Sorcery, Sword
and Sorcery Studios, the Sword and Sorcery logo, Creature Collection, Creature Collection 2:
Dark Menagerie,
Creature Collection 3: Savage Bestiary, Relics & Rituals, Relics & Rituals
2: Lost Lore, amd Relics & Rituals: Excalibur are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved.
“d20 System” and the “d20 System” logo are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast,
a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License
Dungeons & Dragons
® and Wizards of the Coast® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Wizards of the
Coast in the U.S. and/or other countries, used with permission.
The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or
copyright concerned.
11
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C
REDITS
R
ELICS
& R
ITUALS
: O
LYMPUS
C
ONTENTS
C
REDITS
1
I
NTRODUCTION
3
C
HAPTER
O
NE
: R
ACES
6
Humans 7
Dwarves 9
Elves 11
Fauns 16
Gnomes 19
Half-elves 22
Half-orcs 23
Halflings 25
Spartes 27
C
HAPTER
T
WO
: C
LASSES
30
Existing Core Classes 30
Prestige Classes 38
New Prestige Classes 39
Anointed of Styx 40
Blessed of Aeolus 42
Feral Maenad 44
Hadean Strider 47
Herald of the Sea 50
Master Pankratiast 53
Olympic Paragon 56
Paladian Defender 59
Promethean Magos 62
Sacred Huntress 65
Sun-Chosen 68
C
HAPTER
T
HREE
: S
KILLS
, F
EATS
& E
QUIPMENT
70
Skills
70
C
HAPTER
F
IVE
: M
AGIC
I
TEMS
135
Armor 136
Weapons 138
Potions 140
Rings 142
Rods 143
Scrolls 144
Staves 145
Wands 145
Wondrous Items 145
Cursed Items 151
Artifacts 152
C
HAPTER
S
IX
: C
AMPAIGNS
155
History, Mythology and Fantasy 155
The Land 156
Cosmology 163
Heroism and Hubris 165
The Games! 156
The Gods Themselves 158
Monsters 176
Optional Defense System 182
A
PPENDIX
: O
LYMPIAN
M
ONSTERS
184
Calydonian Boar 185
Cerberus 186
Charybdis 188
Cyclops, Crafter 190
Cyclops, Savage 191
Dactyl 192
Diomedean Horse 193
Gray Women (Graeae) 194
Harpy 195
Sirens 196
Ladon 197
Medusa 199
Mountain Nymph (Oread) 200
Nemean Lion 201
Scylla 202
Stymphalian Bird 204
Water Nymph (Oceanids, Naiads, or Nereids) 205
Feats
74
Equipment
82
C
HAPTER
F
OUR
: S
PELLS
94
Bard Spells
96
Cleric Spells
98
Druid Spells
102
Paladin Spells
104
Ranger Spells
105
2
Sorcerer/Wizard Spells
106
New Spells
111
I
NTRODUCTION
I
NTRODUCTION
Olympus, where they say is an abode of the gods, ever unchanging;
it is neither shaken by winds nor ever wet with rain, nor does snow come
near it, but clear weather spreads cloudless about it, and a white radiance
stretches above it.
— Homer,
The Odyssey,
book VI
They are perhaps the most famous myths
in the world. Mighty Zeus, father of the gods,
hurling thunderbolts from the pinnacle of lofty
Mount Olympus. The twelve impossible labors
of Herakles. Perseus, armed with the weapons
of the gods, striking off Medusa’s head. Theseus
entering the labyrinth of the Minotaur. The
Trojan War, and the subsequent ten-year voyage
of Odysseus. There is arguably no ancient myth
cycle that has persisted so long in the imagina-
tions of so many — no mythology that produced
as many heroes that are recognized around the
globe. The ancient Greeks saw a world filled
with both magic and rationality, where the gods
themselves were mighty elemental forces and
yet fallible and “human” at the same time. They
made their gods in their own image, and yet they
lost no sense of wonder in so doing.
As potent an influence as the Greek myths
have been on Western civilization, it’s no wonder
that they also frequently guest-star in roleplaying
game settings as diverse as fantasy, superhero
action, and even science fiction. Most often,
these myths enter into other settings on those
settings’ terms. Minotaurs take up residence in
labyrinths built to Northern European architec-
33
R
ELICS
& R
ITUALS
: O
LYMPUS
4
tural standards. Modern-day demigods punch
out bank robbers and super-powered terrorists.
Space stations and super-computers take their
names from the Olympian gods. But it can work
the other way around, too — players can go into
the setting of Greek myth, and interact with the
heroes, gods and monsters of legend in the lands
where they were born. This book is just such a
supplement.
Relics & Rituals: Olympus
is the second
of the
Relics & Rituals
fantasy setting toolkits,
offering game mechanical elements that allow
GMs and players to emulate the deeds of the
Greek heroes in their own games. Any individual
element can be introduced easily enough into
a fantasy game, even if it doesn’t appear Greek
at the end — the teeth of Cadmus’ dragon, for
instance, can certainly produce warriors who
wear the usual Western European trappings of a
more traditional setting. Alternately, the various
elements can be used whole-cloth to create a
fantasy world that blends Greek myth with more
traditional fantasy gaming archetypes, merging
two very familiar motifs into one world that gains
a newer, fresher life for the fusion.
As with
Relics & Rituals: Excalibur
, the
intention here is not to provide a world that is
absolutely accurate to the myths, but to offer tools
allowing the GM and players to fuse Greek myth
with the trappings of modern fantasy roleplaying
games to match their individual tastes. After all,
total accuracy to the many conflicting Greek
myths is essentially impossible....
S
ETTING
A
SSUMPTIONS
Relics & Rituals: Olympus
treats “Hellenic
Fantasy” as fantasy that is strongly rooted in the
myths of the ancient Greeks, but that does not
necessarily assume a setting that is some analogue
of historical Greece. A Hellenic fantasy (or
“Olympian”) setting presumes that the overall
cosmology and context of the myths are accurate,
but does not make presumptions about actual
countries or city-states, or even that humans are
the only civilized race in the running. It may seem
odd to have Greek myths without a setting that
is assumed to be “Greece,” but fantasy roleplayers
have been shouting oaths to Zeus and lopping
the heads off minotaurs and medusae in countless
worlds over the years. A historical (or historical
fantasy) Greece isn’t necessary for fantasy that
has a Grecian flavor.
In fact, an “accurate” depiction of the world
of Greek myth could very well appear little like
our own world. According to some traditions,
the Greeks viewed the earth as a flat disk,
divided into two equal parts by two seas (the
Mediterranean, and the Black Sea). The great
river Ocean flowed around the earth, and on
its far banks were mysterious countries such as
Cimmeria and Hyperborea, all places where the
native people were far more divinely favored than
the Greeks themselves were. In the ages before
humanity came into being, great monsters and
giants roamed the earth, tearing down moun-
tains and changing the course of rivers. Such a
world is more fantastic than many fantasy worlds
— and yet, as true to Greek myth as a historical
fantasy would be.
This book assumes no particular geography
apart from the basics — hilly regions, a warm
climate, ample coastline and islands, and so
on. A
Relics & Rituals: Olympus
campaign
could be set in a version of Greece, or it might
be used to simulate the Bronze Age of your own
homebrew world. Similarly, this book tries for
thematic accuracy where possible, but not always;
sometimes the “realities” of a setting based on
Greek myth must give way to setting elements
that make the campaign run more smoothly for
all involved.
Advice for tweaking both the usual fantasy
roleplaying game tropes and the tropes of Greek
myth to form a usable, dynamic setting are found
throughout the book. A few base assumptions,
however, may belong up front:
•
Alignment
— Even with the more mod-
ern approach to Hellenic fantasy that this book
takes, the concepts of absolute good and absolute
evil are still largely out of place. Even the most
compassionate of Grecian gods can forget that
compassion when insulted by a mortal, even
peripherally or accidentally; hubris is considered
a more grievous sin than cruelty or brutality.
Similarly, though many gods and titans are very
self-centered, they are closer to evil than Evil.
Outsiders that epitomize a particular alignment
are rarely seen, and spells that target specific
alignments are only somewhat more common.
People and monsters may still be good, neutral
or evil, but are rarely supernaturally so.
•
Planar Cosmology
— The cosmology
for
Relics & Rituals: Olympus
presumes a few
changes to the default planar setup mentioned in
the
Player’s Handbook
and
DMG
. The elemental
planes remain largely as described. However,
rather than a series of outer planes keyed to align-
ment, the outer planes are limited to Olympus,
the Underworld, the Elysian Fields, and Tartarus.
The Underworld, domain of Hades, is the source
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