I know that divine spellcasters pray to the elements, the dragon-kings, or, in the case of Druids, nature. Where do Adepts get their spells from?
Personally, I wouldn't use the adept in a DS campaign, since they're not really necessary. Just use a cleric or druid instead. I think the official line at athas.org is that there are no adepts in DS, but I'm not sure. Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.
What roles do the other NPC classes in Dark Sun play? While looking through Dungeon Magazine #110, I noticed that no character has levels in an NPC Class. Is Dark Sun supposed to be a high-powered game?
The commoner, expert, aristocrat, and warrior are fine for DS, but the ratio of core class characters to NPC class characters in DS is probably a lot better in DS than it is in a normal D&D world. Maybe something like 1/4 in DS as opposed to 1/10 or 1/20 in normal D&D. That's debatable though. DS was originally intended to be higher powered to compensate for the deadliness of the setting, but the rules in Dragon 319/Dungeon 110 don't do justice to how dangerous DS is supposed to be (which is the editor's fault, not the author's)
Personally, I wouldn't use the adept in a DS campaign, since they're not really necessary. Just use a cleric or druid instead. I think the official line at athas.org is that there are no adepts in DS, but I'm not sure. Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.
No, I believe you are correct.
Still, the Adept might be useful when building NPCs that do not warrant a full-fledged spellcasting PC class level. The Adept's flavor text must be amended, however, for a DS conversion. Personally, I like the concept of athasian Adepts drawing power from the Minor Spirits of the Land in order to fuel their spells, much like the current athas.org Ranger does.
What roles do the other NPC classes in Dark Sun play?
This has been discussed before, but I don't think any consensus has been reached. I guess the default rule on NPC Classes is: use the DMG, except where it conflicts with DarkSun (such as the Adept).
Check out this thread by Pennarin, though.
Is Dark Sun supposed to be a high-powered game?
I tried to address that on this thread. A little wordy, I know, but hopefully useful. My comments were made with athas.org's rules in mind, but probably works forDungeon's conversion as well.
I know that divine spellcasters pray to the elements, the dragon-kings, or, in the case of Druids, nature. Where do Adepts get their spells from? What roles do the other NPC classes in Dark Sun play? While looking through Dungeon Magazine #110, I noticed that no character has levels in an NPC Class. Is Dark Sun supposed to be a high-powered game?
Perhaps two froms of adept, as mentioned one with elemental powers (druid, cleric mix of spells) and the other a Psionic adept replacing spell use with limited psionics, which would be in keeping with the campaign setting.
and the other a Psionic adept replacing spell use with limited psionics, which would be in keeping with the campaign setting.
Pennarin made a psi-adept awhile back. Its in a thread somewhere.
This new class supplements the NPC classes from Chapter 4 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Psionicist
Training a person into the mysteries of the Way is not always possible. Some tribes or remote locales don’t have the ressources or knowledge to train psions. Reflecting a reduced understanding of psionics, the psionicist serves its people as a sage, even an healer.
The practitionners of the Way in isolated communities of the wastes, such as raiding or slave tribes, are nearly exclusively psionicists. City people with the Will but too poor to pay for psionic schooling or whose social rank bares them access to such an education often become psionicists. They are also most prevalent among bestial humanoids and giants such as b’rohgs, giths, and plain giants.
Game Rule Information
Psionicists have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Charisma determines how powerful a power a psionicist can manifest and how hard those powers are to resist. Most psionicists will become sages or erudites, and as such concentrate on Intelligence and Wisdom.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Dice: d6.
Class Skills
The psionicist’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Psicraft (Int), and Autohypnosis (Wis).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the psionicist NPC class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Psionicists are skilled with all simple weapons. Psionicists are not proficient with any type of armor nor with shields.
Power Points/Day: A psionicist’s ability to manifest powers is limited by the power points he has available. His base daily allotment of power points is given on the table below. In addition, he receives bonus power points per day if he has a high Charisma score (see Table 2-1: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Power Points, on page 18 of the Expanded Psionics Handbook). His race may also provide bonus power points per day, as may certain feats and items.
Powers Known: A psionicist begins play knowing one power of your choice, and the rest of his powers know is given on the table below.
Choose the powers known from the same power list that psions and wilders use. (Exception: The feats Expanded Knowledge and Epic Expanded Knowledge from Chapter 3 of the Expanded Psionics Handbook do allow a psionicist to learn powers from the lists of other classes.) A psionicist can manifest any power that has a power point cost equal to or lower than his manifester level.
The total number of powers a psionicist can manifest in a day is limited only by his daily power points.
A psionicist simply knows his powers; they are ingrained in his mind. He does not need to prepare them (in the way that some spellcasters prepare their spells), though he must get a good night’s sleep each day to regain all his spent power points.
The Difficulty Class for saving throws against psionicist powers is 10 + the power’s level + the psionicist’s Charisma modifier.
Maximum Power Level Known: A psionicist begins play with the ability to learn 1st-level powers. As he attains higher levels, he may gain the ability to master more complex powers.
To learn or manifest a power, a psionicist must have a Charisma score of at least 10 + the power’s level.
Psicrystal Affinity: At 2nd level, a psionicist gains the Psicrystal Affinity feat as a class feature (see Chapter 3 of the Expanded Psionics Handbook).
No, I believe you are correct.
Still, the Adept might be useful when building NPCs that do not warrant a full-fledged spellcasting PC class level. The Adept's flavor text must be amended, however, for a DS conversion. Personally, I like the concept of athasian Adepts drawing power from the Minor Spirits of the Land in order to fuel their spells, much like the current athas.org Ranger does.
This has been discussed before, but I don't think any consensus has been reached. I guess the default rule on NPC Classes is: use the DMG, except where it conflicts with DarkSun (such as the Adept).
Check out this thread by Pennarin, though.
I tried to address that on this thread. A little wordy, I know, but hopefully useful. My comments were made with athas.org's rules in mind, but probably works forDungeon's conversion as well.
I think it would be cool to adjust the NPC class to a full fledged PrC, but that is just my
Here's a
for you :DIf not, I'll do it myself.
I'd also like to work on a magewright adaptation.
In both cases, the fluff would be very good and consistently explain what those classes actually do in everyday life.
Maybe also an article that offers several options of NPC classes integration into Athasian life: in clear english, options Low, Medium, and High, which offer ever increasing percentages of NPC classes in lieu of arcane spellcasting, divine spellcasting, and manifesting PC classes.
The article would be modeled after some article I think I saw once, either in the DMG or Eberron.