Policy

How much do libraries (book lots) cost, and what will they do for me?
Knowledge libraries:

Cost: 3,000 gp. Size: 1 lot.
 * General-topic book lot: Provides +1 to all knowledge skills.

Cost: 1,000 gp. Size: 1 lot.
 * Specific knowledge book lot: Provides +2 to one specific Knowledge skill.

Cost: 5,000 gp.Size: 3 lots
 * Comprehensive book lot: Provides +4 to one specific Knowledge skill.

Cost: 20,000 gp. Size: 6 lots.
 * Master book lot: Provides +6 to one specific Knowledge skill.

Wizardly libraries:

Cost: 10,000 gp. Size: 3 lots.
 * Spell creation library: All the books needed to create new spells.

How does bargaining and negotiation work?
One thing that is under utilitized in many D&D3e settings is the ability of a skilled bard or rogue to haggle and negotiate. Winter's Edge is based on a community with many merchants and crafters; as a result, it seems logical that PCs who are particularly skilled in the social arts would know how best to approach these merchants for better deals. These negotiations will be permitted through +qmail.

If a player chooses to use the queue for this, he agrees to accept whatever price comes out of the various modifiers, even if it is unfavorable. The DM will roll the skill check, and will price the goods accordingly. Please note that this applies only to NPC merchants, and cannot be used to force PCs to change prices. If a PC chooses to give you a bargain, great, but that comes through pure RP.

Every 5 points by which a player misses the DC on a roll will add 5 percent to the price he was trying to obtain. You must specify which DC you're trying to meet, and which option available at that DC you are trying to obtain; if you beat it by five or more, the DM may grant you additional options.

Difficulties for the rolls, with modifiers, follow:
 * DC 15: Build a working relationship, 1 step more favorable reaction
 * DC 20: Gain either a 5 percent discount, or a reaction 1 step more favorable.
 * DC 25: Gain one of the following options: a 10 percent discount; a reaction 2 steps more favorable; a 5 percent discount and a reaction 1 step more favorable.
 * DC 30: Gain one of the following options: a 15 percent discount and a reaction 1 step more favorable; a 10 percent discount and a reaction 2 steps more favorable; a reaction 3 steps more favorable with no discount.
 * DC 35: Gain a 20 percent discount. No further rolls can be made for that merchant for a month.

Modifiers to player rolls:
 * +1 for every step more favorable than neutral the merchant's reaction is
 * -1 for every 1000 gp book value worth of merchandise discounted in the past month by this merchant
 * +1 for every 1000 gp book value worth of merchandise for which the player pays full price from this merchant in the past month
 * -1 for opposed alignment or goals.
 * -1 to -5 for a member of a rival organization, depending on rank and activity.
 * -1 to -3 if the PC previously threatened or strongarm the merchant.

In addition, staff may add other modifiers based on IC actions. The +qmail should be sent to the Bargain queue, formatted as follows:

Item(s) desired:

Book price(s):

Merchant: (You may simply say 'the Enclave' or the Kauppatori' if you wish)

Skill being used: (Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidation)

DC of check desired:

Option desired:

You may also add any relevant notes about the negotiation process here. Any incomplete Bargain queue items will be rejected and returned for revision.

Is there any change to the Skill Focus feat?
After some consideration of the source material (and several feats granting bonuses to more than 1 skill), the Skill Focus feat has been changed from +2 to any skill, to +3 to any skill. This is already, automatically reflected on your +sheet if you have the feat.

How is Leadership handled on Winter's Edge? How may I choose a cohort?
As of 4/9/2004, any PC wishing to take the Leadership feat must apply for approval prior to taking the feat. This must be sent separately from the advancement app and be done through the +request queue. The procedure is as follows:

You must +request to DMSTAFF with the topic 'Leadership.' In the +request, you must include the following:


 * A justification (at least a paragraph) of why your PC should have followers.
 * An estimate with all factors of your Leadership score.
 * A summary of what sort of cohort and followers you would like to get.

This should be done well in advance of leveling, as DM Staff will need to approve your application before you can actually take the feat.

Leadership is done per the book rules, with one exception. For the sake of ease of tracking and so forth, cohorts which can advance by level will be handled as summarized below. Cohorts and followers will need to be summarized in text, and sent to DMstaff for updates, when the PC levels.

The cohorts granted by the Leadership feat offer interesting possibilities for RP, but also offer potential problems. To this end, we have decided the following:

A leveled cohort gains no XP from scenes in which he participates. Instead, he is granted a level when the PC to whom he is a cohort levels. It is the PC's responsibility to ensure that the new level benefits and features are logged to their PC object, and to have them updated by staff when they level. A cohort gets his wealth from his PC companion as a rule. If a cohort is brought along on an adventure, it's up to the PCs involved in the adventure as to whether he should get a share of the treasure.

All special cohorts must be approved by DMstaff for appropriateness. Dragons of any age category or type are not acceptable cohorts or familiars. Full-blooded outerplanar entities will be rejected; halfbloods are more readily accepted.

Wow, it's cold here. What rules do we use to deal with that?
Please note the following rules, excerpted directly from the core rulebooks. Vintermor qualifies as below zero for a good portion of the year. As a result, your characters will need to dress for the weather, or suffer the effects of the cold. We will be applying these negatives to you if you're not appropriately prepared for the harsh cold of Vintermor. This means you must have proper dress, or items to protect you (such as a Ring of Warmth).

The prickly fingers of icy death have robbed many an adventurer of her life. Prolonged exposure to cold temperatures and harsh weather can wear down a character who isn't protected against the climate. Hypothermia, frostbite, and exhaustion can quickly kill in bad weather. The best defense against cold and exposure is to get under cover and keep warm.

Cold and exposure deal subdual damage to the victim. This subdual damage cannot be recovered until the character gets out of the cold and warms up again. Once a character is rendered unconscious through the accumulation of subdual damage, the cold and exposure begins to deal normal damage at the same rate.

An unprotected character in cold weather (below 40 degrees F) must make a Fortitude saving throw each hour (DC 15 +1 per previous check) or sustain 1d6 points of subdual damage. A character who has the Wilderness Lore skill may receive a bonus to this saving throw and may be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well.

In conditions of extreme cold or exposure (below 0 degrees F), an unprotected character must make a Fortitude saving throw once every 10 minutes (DC 15 +1 per previous check) taking 1d6 points of subdual damage on each failed save. A character who has the Wilderness Lore skill may receive a bonus to this saving throw and may be able to apply this bonus to other characters as well. Characters wearing winter clothing only need check once per hour for cold and exposure damage. A character who sustains any subdual damage from cold or exposure suffers from frostbite or hypothermia (treat her as fatigued). These penalties end when the character recovers the subdual damage she took from the cold and exposure.

Fatigued: Characters who are fatigued cannot run or charge and suffer and effective penalty of -2 to Strength and Dexterity. A fatigued character becomes exhausted by doing something else that would normally cause fatigue. After 8 hours of complete rest, fatigued characters are no longer fatigued.\

Exhausted: Characters who are exhausted move at half normal speed and suffer an effective penalty of -6 to Strength and Dexterity. After 1 hour of complete rest, exhausted characters become fatigued.

Wilderness Lore/DC 15: Gain a +2 on all Fortitude saves against severe weather while moving up to one-half your overland speed, or gain +4 if stationary. You may grant the same bonus to one other character for every 1 point by which the check result exceeds 15.

Can I get married?
Yes you can get married in game to a pc of the opposite sex. The players must send in a +request for a DM run scene for the wedding. However, you may not marry two of your alts to each other.

Do I have to tithe (donate) to my church?
Members of religious orders (including monks, paladins and clerics) are expected to tithe to their respective churches. This should go without saying. The target number is ten percent, though significant contributions less than that will sometimes suffice.

The benefit is that when you call on your church to cast spells for you, and you have been faithful to your god and aims, you will generally be granted spells at their material cost. The exception to this is any spell which is on the list of 'restricted' spells which cost more to have cast by any NPC; those costs will be adjucated by the DM handling your request, but will generally be done at (normal cost - material cost)/2.

Members of a faith may tithe as well to gain similar benefits, but it is only required for clergy/paladins.

Is IC theft allowed? How about IC swindling/conning?
Theft:

As one of the core classes in D&D is 'Rogue,' and a large part of the Rogue's abilities focus on stealth and thievery, a policy for dealing with theft is required.

Any scene where a PC tries to steal from another PC will need staff intervention. The thieving PC would need to roll an appropriate skill. Any PC who is present, actively scrying, or otherwise able to detect the crime will get opposed Spot/Listen checks to detect what he is doing. At this point, the thief has now auto-consented himself to the consequences of his actions, including but not limited to retribution on the part of the cheated PCs up to and including PKilling, and legal punitive measures.

The same rules above apply for NPCs, though the thieving PC's opposed roll will come from a relevant NPC, if any exist, and is only auto-consented to the NPC's reactions and legal ramifications. No scenes that arise from the outcome of thievery will be retconned, period, unless there is evidence of staff misconduct or other policy violations that would otherwise void the scene.

In short, you'd better be damned good to get away with it.

Swindling:

We do not support people taking advantage of other players financially in ways such as insisting on buying magic items from crafters at below-crafting-cost, hitting up other players to buy them magic items or give them money, or anything like this. This is not to say folks cannot help out others voluntarily - far from it. We encourage that. But we do NOT want people to be pressured into, essentially, screwing over their own PCs.

If you're short cash, you'll get equalized when you level. There's no excuse to swindle other players. We've seen this happen enough times that the ruling needed to be made. It's cheating, no more, no less. It will be handled as such.

Please note that this is different from characters taking advantage of characters. If you want to do an IC swindle or cheat, or browbeat a PC for money, you need to inform the other player of this, see news theft. You will also have to deal with any IC consequences.

Do I need to have the matching strength bonus to use a Mighty bow?
Some bows are made as 'Mighty' bows, with a greater strength required to pull the bowstring, and bonuses to go with the harder pull. However, your character MUST have a strength bonus equal to, or higher than, the bow's Mighty bonus in order to even pull the bow string. A character with a lower bonus simply cannot get the bowstring back far enough to shoot accurately.

What can I know about the Underdark races?
No PC may have any detailed knowledge of the Varsidar or any other Underdark races in their background without justification. They may know of the major races, and have heard legend and rumor, but they will not know the true details. Players who have encountered the Underdark in plots may, of course, use all IC knowledge accordingly.

Does Winter's Edge have any new Craft skills?
Craft/Cartography. The skill of making maps. Int-based, and gets +2 Synergy Bonus for 5 ranks of Intuit Direction, and +2 Synergy for 5 ranks of Wilderness Lore. In other words, the better you are at knowing where you are, the better you'll be about conveying that knowledge.

What are 'Regional Feats?
Regional feats are a concept from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. They offer people from certain regions the ability to take additional feats based on the culture and terrain of their point of origin. The feats used on Winter's Edge are listed below:


 * Blooded: Verkant, Dalriada, Half-Orc
 * Blood of Fire: Lumidart
 * Bullheaded: Dalriada, Thromgar, Vintermor
 * Discipline: Taldara, Meloria, Hill Dwarves
 * Education: Taldara, Meloria
 * Forester: Elaidar, Sildar, Laurelin, Dalriada
 * Horse Nomad: Bereza
 * Mercantile Background: Mastana, Verkant
 * Resist Poison: Half-Orc, Dwarf (Hill and Cursed)
 * Saddleback: Bereza
 * Silver Palm: Verkant, Taldara
 * Smooth Talk: Meloria, Taldara
 * Strong Soul: Half-Orc, Half-Elf, Human
 * Survivor: Vintermor, Thromgar, Dalriada, Elaidar, Morthidar
 * Thug: Verkant, Thromgar, Half-Orc
 * Treetopper: Laurelin, Sildar