Pax Artificium - System

Stats

Stats are bought with a point system. Point costs for stat values are as follows:

* Negative values indicate point gain

Players have 22 points to spend on stats. Characters will receive a stat increase at every second level, instead of every fourth level.

Skills

Players can buy additional ranks in a skill above the usual max. First rank above max costs two points, second costs three, third costs four, etc. This way, low-level characters can specialize in a skill or two. In addition, to avoid penalizing players who do this in the long run, ranks purchased in this fashion can be "bought back" for additional points. That is, a 1st level character with 7 ranks in a skill must have paid 4+2+3+4 = 13 points total for those ranks. When the character reaches 2nd level, he would have only needed to pay 5+2+3 = 10 points, and thus he receives three retroactive points to respend.

Some skills are not trainable. These are still in the skill list, but no ranks can be bought for them normally. (Some classes and feats may grant bonuses to these skills.) These skills include: Listen and Spot. A new feat, Improved Alertness, improves these skills by an additional +2 each. The DC for moving silently is 10 + the listener’s Listen check. The DC for hiding is 10 + the spotter’s Spot check.

Wealth

Everyone gets to "take 8" on initial Wealth score. In addition, if you had any specific "expensive" items written into your backstory, you start with those with no penalty to your Wealth bonus. But any additional items you require beyond those from your backstory you must purchase according to the normal rules.

Vitality

Instead of HP, I am using the Star Wars d20 Vitality system. Compute your "hit points" normally, but realize those are actually your "vitality points." You have a set number of "wound points" equal to your Constitution, which does not change as level increases. The Toughness feat increases wound points, not vitality points.