Bonds of Blood

Narc's 3.5 Edition Ruleset Server: Terra Firma Chapter 2 - Bonds of Blood is a Neverwinter Nights module that has taken 19 months and over 7500+ (creator) hours to create, before it was released on September 1, 2004. An additional 3000+ (team members) hours has been invested in testing, creating creatures, and creating items for this world.

Before entering this new world forget everything that you know about Neverwinter Nights. Neverwinter Nights was not designed for large persistent worlds. It was not designed for player versus player activity. And it is based on the D&D 3.0 ruleset, which has been dramatically improved in the D&D 3.5 ruleset, which this module is based upon. All spells, creatures, items, weapons, classes, new rules, Neverwinter features, etc. have been created/modified to D&D 3.5 specification. This ensures balance and offers an experience that is as close to D&D 3.5 as you will get in all of GameSpy.

It is important to note that this world uses many new technologies. To list a few there is a new AI system, a new spawn system, a new dynamic area population system, a new battle system, and a lot of anti-cheat systems. The AI system makes Bosses more life-like, they use better tactics in combat, and its more efficient than the old Neverwinter AI. This world also features a new spawn system, which is dramatically more efficient then the Neverwinter spawn system and superior to the current spawn systems designed by the Neverwinter community. Because this world is a persistent world a new dynamic area populations system has been added so that dungeons can be repopulated after it has been looted by a previous party. And finally, there is a new battle system that implements the Surprise round in D&D that was not offered in Neverwinter. This system makes skills like listen, hide, spot, and move silently more valuable, as they should be.

The story of this world can be found in game. It includes the story of the chapter 1 module called Narc's Tale of Seven Dragons, and how chapter 2, Narc's Bonds of Blood, came to be. This module also included many influences from Norse, Greek, Roman mythology, from other cultures, the Holy Bible, and other games. The Latin language is also used in this world to add an old age feel to the experience.

This module has been designed with the Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark expansion packs. The Hordes of the Underdark features are used in character level 20+ areas. The Shadows of Undrentide features are mixed into the low level areas. This module requires both expansion packs as of the 1.69 patch.

Deity Rules
A player may take inspiration from nearly any non-living item in the game.

You may only have 1 deity at any given time.

Inspiration
Click on an item that you would like to set as your deity with the Deity Tool. Your deity can be an animal, an object, or an item.

Every object will inspire the character differently. Some may offer a bonus to skills, abilities, resistance, or even immunity to some effect. These bonuses last 24 hours and can only be removed by death or resting. These bonuses cannot stack.

Meditation
You must meditate to gain access to the objects powers. The meditate action can be found under the Action Token.

Sacrifice
A player should make a sacrifice to his deity before meditating. Sacrifices are placed on the ground near the meditation location.

Rest System
A player can only rest if he has at least 50% of this total health. Standard D&D rest rule only heals a player 1 hitpoint per level; so this 50% health rule is quite generous. This also makes food a lot more important as it should be.

A player can only rest once every (10 + player’s level x 2) in rounds. This stops some well known spell exploits and allows for players to use a little more strategy.

Resting in an Inn or on a bedroll cures a player of all ailments and the time rest restriction and food rest restriction do not apply.

Ambush Rule
If the player does not have an encounter in the immediate area then the area is not secure and there is a chance that he may be ambushed while resting.

While resting it is possible to get an encounter if the immediate area was not secured. Standard encounter chance is 15% in the day and 25% at night. The Hide skill is used to lower a player’s ambush chances. Players who use armor and shields will get ambushed more often because armor and shields have an armor check penalty, which lowers a player’s hide skill. It is best to buy light armor for sleeping.

If a player is ever disturbed while in deep sleep, which is represented by Z’s, then he must wait the full rest restriction to rest again.

Death and Dying
When a player’s hitpoints are -10 or lower they are dead

Death Penalties
The death penalty is 50 experience per level and 5% of the player’s gold.

Only non-enemies of a player can raise a player from the dead. This stops the raise/kill/raise/kill issue.

If a player kills another player then the death penalty is waived.

Dying Rules
When a player’s hitpoints are 0 to -9 they are considered dying.

Every round a dying player loses 1 hitpoint.

A player’s will save or fortitude save (the higher of the two) is used to determine their chance (1d100) of stabilize if dying. For example, if a player rolls a 31 on their saves and the chance to stabilize that round is 30, then the player with stabilize. If stabilized, their health will return to 1d10 hitpoints. I do not agree with the 10% chance of stabilizing in D&D as I believe the “Will” to live or the “Fortitude” of the player is a better check. There is also a variant dying rule in D&D 3.5 that uses a fortitude save, so that is another reason a fortitude check has been added.

A dying player can fool enemies around him by “playing dead” so he is not attacked while dying, giving him a chance to stabilize. The check is only done once right before the player enters dying mode. The roll is the dying players Bluff rank + 1d20 versus the enemies Will save.

Party members can use cure spells or healer’s kits on a dying player to stabilize them.

Treasure Rules
The Search skill is used as a percentage to determine a player’s chance of finding an extra item or extra gold within a container. The percentage is equal to the player’s Search rank/2 + 1d20. Detect mode does not need to be activated.

If an object is destroyed there is a small chance that it’s bearings will also be destroyed. There is also a small chance that an alarm may be triggered, calling nearby enemies.

If a higher-level player opens a chest it no longer spawns better items as it did in the Neverwinter treasure system.

Drops
Only creatures that would normally carry treasure may drop treasure and gold.

Animals drop meat. Magical animals do not drop meat. The larger the animal the more food it will drop.

Plants drop all types of food from seeds to roots to eggs that have been hidden within its branches.

Monsters can only drop items less then or equal to their level. So if a player is looking for a level 10 item he must fight a level 10 creature.

High level/Unique Items
High-level items are rare and cannot be purchased at shops.

It is possible to acquire a unique item that to no other player possesses.

Teleportation and Location Binding
A player cannot teleport while in combat.

Teleport Runes
Runes allow a player to teleport to key locations.

Location Binding
A player can teleport to a Locus Emergum as long as he is bound to it. The player must speak to the Locus Emergum to bind their location.

A player can only be bound to one Locus Emergum at a time.

A Teleportation Crystalis allows the player to travel to the Locus Emergum, costing 50gp x the player’s level to teleport a player successfully.

Hints and Tips
Allies may use a healer’s kit or a cure spell on dying members to save them from death.

Shields can be used with slings.

Keep armor, spells, potions, and weapons in your quickslot so you have instant access to them.

Know when to retreat.

It is best to use range weapons before engaging in melee hand-to-hand combat.

All party members should always focus on one monster at a time.

Bring extra swords, shields, potions, scrolls, food, etc before leaving a safe haven.

AC is overrated. Sometimes your best bet is to focus on saves, damage resistance, and spell resistance.

Just to avoid any penalties always create characters with at least 10 points in each ability.

For every 2 points of strength above 10 a character gets 1 more point of damage per swing.

Dexterity is used to determine accuracy in range weapons.

Favored classes and prestige classes are not calculated in determining the experience penalty.

Direct connect
Server direct connect IP address: 24.17.61.82:5121