d20 BadAxe Games Mythic Heroes.pdf

This product requires the use of a Roleplaying Game Core Book published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

The Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition Core Books, and/or the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game , published by

Wizards of the Coast, Inc., are recommended for this purpose.

Mythic Heroes

The shared myth known as “The Hero’s Journey” is

certainly not new to the realms of storytelling. The shared

myth, proposed by Jung and expounded on in great detail

by Joseph Campbell, is likely already familiar to most fans

of fantasy and science fiction.

It is for GMs and players who wish to bring a mythic or epic

feel to their campaign. There is a sense of cooperation

among the players as well as their characters, a sense of

purpose that leads them to the ‘conclusion’ of the GMs

tale.

This work attempts to bring the magic of that shared

myth to your d20 gaming table. Each of the players at

the table adopts one of seven familiar archetypes for his

or her player character. When these archetypes come

together, the sum is greater than the parts, enabling the

group to persevere against the obstacles presented by the

GM. When the “journey” is complete, each of the players

will have played a significant role in the unfolding of yet

another myth.

This book can be adopted by any GM running a d20

campaign. As with the shared myth, the genre is not

important: you can use these rules with a fantasy, modern,

or even future setting with equal ease.

These rules allow the characters to accomplish truly

mythic tasks. They are particularly suited to low-

magic campaigns where fantastic tasks are not already

accomplished on a regular basis through the use of spells

and magic items. You can, of course, use these rules in

even a high-magic, high-fantasy game; you will simply note

that the player characters are yet another step above the

rest of the campaign world in terms of fantastic abilities.

Who Is This Book For?

This book is for GMs and players who want to play truly

mythic heroes: heroes who draw inspiration from and

follow in the footsteps of other legendary heroes such

as Heracles, Theseus, Odysseus, King Arthur, Beowulf,

Gilgamesh, and Samson, along with all of the supporting

characters who help or hinder them along their

adventures.

Finally and most simply put, these rules require the

campaign to use Action Points.

Action Points

Action points differentiate heroes from ordinary

characters: by spending action points, you can activate

heroic abilities, improve the results of your die rolls,

recover after combat, and more.

By spending an action point, if you successfully strike the

opponent, your weapon deals damage normally, as if it

had all the criteria necessary (magic, silver, good, etc.) to

bypass DR.

A character can spend an action point to do any of the

following:

Usually, you will want to make your attack roll first, and

spend the action point after confirming that the attack

was successful. In this case, you gain the benefits of

Heroic Strike only for that single attack.

Improve a d20 Check

This is the most common use of action points. You can

spend an action point to improve a single d20 roll used

to make an attack, a skill check, an ability check, a level

check, or a saving throw.

If you are able to attack more than once in a round, you

may choose to spend the action point before your first

attack. In this case, you gain the benefit of Heroic Strike

for all of your attacks in the round, but you will not have

the advantage of knowing whether or not any of those

attacks will actually hit.

When you spend an action point in this way, you roll an

action die (usually, a d6) and add the result of the action

die to the result of your d20 roll to help meet or exceed

the target number.

Improve Your Defense

You may spend an action point at any time to improve your

AC by the amount rolled on the action die. You can even

choose to spend an action point after the GM has rolled his

attack roll, but before he has informed you of the result of

the attack.

A character can even decide to spend the action point to

alter a d20 roll after the roll is made—but only before

the GM reveals the result of that roll (whether the roll

succeeded or failed).

A character can’t use an action point on a skill check

or ability check when he or she is taking 10 or taking

20 (it may only be used to improve a random roll); and

you cannot use an action point on a d20 roll that is not

a “check” to determine success or failure (for example,

when rolling initiative).

This bonus lasts until the start of your next turn and

applies to all attacks against you. You may not spend

an action point in this way if your AC has already been

increased by spending an action point.

Confirm a Critical Hit

If your attack roll is a natural 20, you score an automatic

hit, and you may be able to spend an action point to turn

the hit into a critical hit.

Activate a Heroic Ability

You can activate a feat, a class talent, or class

feature with a number of uses per day, or for which

the expenditure of 1 action point is required. When a

character spends 1 action point to use a class feature, he

or she gains the benefit of the feature but doesn’t actually

roll an action die. In this case, the action point is not

a bonus to a d20 roll, it is merely spent to activate the

ability. If the ability is usable a certain number of times

per day, spending the action point does not count as one

of your daily uses.

If the roll is a critical threat and result of your attack roll

would ordinarily hit the target , then you may spend an

action point to turn the strike into a critical hit.

If you require an automatic hit to strike the target— that

is, a natural 20 plus the total of your roll plus all bonuses

still does not equal or exceed the target’s AC— you cannot

spend an action point to confirm a critical hit.

Confirm a Critical Success with a Skill

If you roll a “natural 20” on a skill check, you can spend

an action point to turn a skill check into a critical success.

The results of a critical success are better than a “normal”

success; see the Skill and Combat Challenges chapter for

details.

Emulate a Feat

A player may spend an action point to gain the benefits

of a normal feat he does not have, provided he meets

the prerequisites. For example, a character who already

has Power Attack may spend an action point to gain the

benefits of Cleave. When you use an action point in this

way, the benefits last for but a single round (until the start

of your next action).

Healing After Combat

Immediately after any combat, you may spend an action

point to heal a number of hit points equal to the amount

rolled on the die.

Make a Heroic Strike

You can spend an action point to “strike true” against an

opponent with damage reduction.

In low-magic campaigns where magical healing is in short

supply, it is recommend that an action point spent to heal

after combat be an exploding action die (see below).

This option is particularly important in low-magic

campaigns, when the GM wishes to use monsters with

Damage Reduction (vampires, lycanthropes, demons,

golems, etc.) but magic weapons are in short supply (or

even non-existent).

Spending Multiple Action Points

You may spend more than one action point in a round, but

never more than one action point for the same purpose.

For example, you could spend an action point to activate

an ability, and another action point to improve a die roll,

but you could not spend two action points to improve the

same die roll or to activate the same ability twice in a

round.

Gaining Action Points During Play

There are a number of ways you can actually gain action

points during play. The GM does not have action points

to spend; instead, he can “spend” an action point by

awarding an action point to one of the players. Most of

the time, action points are gained as a “consolation prize”

when the GM inflicts some calamity upon your character,

usually as a result of a bad roll on your part or a stroke of

luck on your enemies’ behalf.

Replenishing Action Points

You begin play with a number of action points equal to 5 +

one-half your character level (round down). Thus, 1st level

characters begin play with only 5 action points.

Activate a Critical Failure with a Skill

At his discretion, the GM may award you 1 action point in

order to activate a critical failure for a skill check (see

Appendix).

Your GM decides how often your supply of action points

replenishes, according to the desired threat level of the

campaign:

Activate a Critical Hit

At his discretion, the GM may award you 1 action point to

activate a critical threat scored against your character.

x Each Game Session: In this variant, designed to keep the

action flowing (and the characters alive) your action points

replenish at the beginning of each session of play.

Activate a Critical Miss

When you make an attack roll and get a natural 1 (the

d20 actually shows 1) your attack automatically misses. In

addition, this is a threat for a critical miss.

xx Each Character Level: In this variant, your action

points replenish only when you gain a level. Each time you

gain a level, your action points “reset” to 5 + one-half

your new character level.

If your attack roll would normally hit (despite rolling a

1) the attack simply misses. The GM may not activate a

critical miss.

In either of these first two variants, if you have more

action points already (because you have gained action

points during play— see below) you may keep the higher

total.

However, if your attack roll is a 1 and would normally have

resulted in a miss despite being an automatic miss, at

his discretion, the GM may award you 1 action point and

activate a critical miss.

xxx Never Replenish: In this grim variant, your action

points never replenish. They represent the finite amount

of luck that your hero can rely on. The only way to gain

action points in this variant is to have them awarded to

you by the GM.

The GM is free to determine the effect of a critical miss

as he sees fit. Some common examples include dropping

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