Derro got the shaft!

[BLACKDIRGE]

Hi all,

Let me just preface this little rant by saying that I love third edition and I am happy 99% of the time with the conversions form 2nd to 3rd. But sometimes the wizard's of the coast bunch do something that just defies logic. Here is one of those little aggravations I found recently.

I am converting a 2nd edition adventure from a Dungeon magazine called Train of Events (I highly reccomend it) which features derro as the main antagonists. Derro in 2nd edition had a specialty spellcasting class known as a savant. The savant knows a limited number of spells but could cast them repeatedly through out the day, sounds like sorceror to me. The savant wield most of the power in Derro society and are relatively common.

When I looked up the derro in the 3rd edition monstre manual so I could convert my NPC savants (who would now be sorcerors) I was mystified by the fact that they get a -4 to charisma. In the description of the derro it goes on to tell how important and powerful these savants are and that they are indeed sorcerors.

Why in the world would a race with a -4 to charisma go anywhere near the sorceror class at all. They certianly wouldnt be common and with the -4 they definately wouldn't be powerful enough to controll the power structure of their race.

So what am I to do? I really want to run the adventure, but I dont want the 8th level derro sorceror in the game to be unable to even cast 4th level spells. Arrgh!

Any input would be appreciated.

Dirge

 

[Macbrea]

Even though their Charisma sucks it doesn't mean they cannot make sorcerors.


Example: Char 16 - 4 for race is char 12

That is chr 14 by level 8 easily able to cast those 4th level spells.

Granted this means to get a High savant you have to do some wacky stuff.

Char 18 - 4 = 14 + 5 leveling allows the guy to cast 9th level spells.

He should probably aquire some items to assist his charisma by level 17 though.

 

[Piratecat]

Easy. The ones who become savants are the rare derros born without the charisma penalty. Instead, they are born somewhat weak or sickly (ie strength or con penalties instead), but their inner light shines through.

Tah dah! Easy solution, extra campaign flavor.

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

Easy. The ones who become savants are the rare derros born without the charisma penalty. Instead, they are born somewhat weak or sickly (ie strength or con penalties instead), but their inner light shines through.

Tah dah! Easy solution, extra campaign flavor.

This I like, almost like a subrace of a subrace =]. Perhaps give them a -2 to con and reduce thier dex bonus to +2 and then add a cha bonus of +2. Too much?

Thanks
Dirge

 

[Dr. Zoom]

Use the 25 point buy from the DMG for savants. The typical abilities add up to 14 points after you consider their racial modifiers, which are Str -2, Dex +4, Con +2, Cha -4. This assumes the ability scores of the typical dwarf listed in the MM. So you have 11 points to add to Cha, which is 10 before the -4 racial modifier. Those 11 points will make the Cha 17. Subtract 4 for a typical savant Cha of 13, more than enough for all but the highest level sorcerers.

The typical savant ability scores using this method are:
Str 9
Dex 14
Con 13
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 13

An 8th level savant would have a Cha of 15. And the description says they have lots of magic items, so most would probably have a Cha boosting item of at least +2 in value.

 

[Greythax]

In 1E, derro were one of my favorite races. Though the savant was hardly the reason, it was those repeating poisoned crosbows

Greythax