Atheism in Felltower is always a disadvantage.
For an earlier discussion that underpins this, see my post on Felltower Religion & Intolerance.
Quirk-level: Thinking all magic is just magic, regardless of wether it comes from the Good God, or Nature, or wizardly Mana, is a quirk. It's seen as a misunderstanding. At worst, some (especially those with Intolerance) as a mild heresy. But it's unlikely to cause you any real trouble. It's just an oddity. Clerics react to you at a -1.
Delusion [-5] level: Characters who think there might be a big powerful being called the Good God, but that the Good God isn't the paramount diety or that the Good God doesn't have incredible power and reach, have this level of delusion. The "the Good God used to just be a powerful wizard" line of thought is this level of delusion. That the Good God exists and has powers and can provide a specific class of spells to its worshippers is provable fact. The Good God doesn't need your belief to exist. All that's required is your worship. Everyone reacts to you at a -1, clerics at a -3.
Delusion [-15] level: Not believing in the Good God as a God is a serious flaw. You'll be regarded as insane, dangerous, a heretic, and an idiot. Disbelieving in the existance of the Good God as a God is like disbelieving in rain or fire. Everyone reacts to you at a -3, and Clerics won't have better than a neutral reaction.
Believing in gods other than the Good God is fine, and isn't even a quirk. Disbelieving in them is best handed as Intolerance. Worshipping other gods is considered heretical, and is at least quirk-level and usually more like -5 level Delusion. Intolerance will handle the reactions back to that, too, and can and will stack.
Worshipping demons can get you excommunicated, but also cool powers - see Evil Clerics - but doesn't bode well for your reaction rolls in town.
Sunday, October 18, 2026
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
DF Felltower - Caps & Limits Draft II - Further Reflections
I'm still noodling around with my ideas in this last post.
Absolute Base Skill Cap
Skills are capped at 30. Skills above 30 can be purchased, or you can end up with them thanks due to stat boosts and buffs, but any skill about 30 will be discarded before applying any modifiers.
This is not an effective skill cap, it's a base skill cap.
This seems a little fairer than Stat+10 as a limit. It doesn't matter how you get it. DX 13 and Broadsword @ DX+17 is a fair build. But when you get DX 14, you have a 30. Stipulating it's not an effective skill cap means you can't, say, get 33, absorb -2 for Bad Footing and a -1 for a foe's SM and still have a 30. You can't get 34 and just always do at least -2 in Deceptive Attack. We lock it down to 30, and then apply any situational modifiers.
Safest way to deal with this is to stop getting skill somewhere in the mid-20s, and just know that sometimes you down a DX potion and wield a Balanced sword with Accuracy 3 and end up with a 30.
There are some downsides to this, but they should only fall on folks with a massive skill who then try to pile on a lot of bonuses.
Flat Effect Potions
I'm officially promoting this one to be up for a vote. I like the +3. It's still a very nice boost. Potions are still a fantastic way to gain a large bonus for a small cost with a long duration. But they're not going to be swingy if I get a solid yes vote on these.
Fixed-Effect Feint
Resolve a Feint, Beat, or Ruse normally.
If the attacker wins by the contest, the target defends at -4.
Extreme Feints
For high-skill fighters in cinematic games, this optional rule allows them to leverage their skill further. Resolve the Feint, Beat, or Ruse normally. If the attacker wins the contest, the target defends at -4. If the attacker wins the contest by 10+, the target defends at -8.
The other option is that Feints apply normally, but you can't inflict any more than -10 on your target. That's the cap.
Finally, it might be worth a defense cap, like the one discussed here. A maximum 20 defense before modifiers would get rid of a lot of need to defense-maximize, which means I don't need to find as many high-skill foes as possible just to give them a shot at hitting high-DX foes.
We'll see what everyone thinks of these.
This last big fight wasn't ruined by high skill, but I do want to make sure limits mean people know the upper bounded limits of the system. Put the limits in that allow for such a fight as a special occasion skill blowout, but not a defacto basis for character expectations. Skill bosses will still be dangerous, and PCs won't essentially out-DX and out-skill the entire monster catalog . . . with a high cost in character points and fun and a low return on investment in effectiveness within the game.
Absolute Base Skill Cap
Skills are capped at 30. Skills above 30 can be purchased, or you can end up with them thanks due to stat boosts and buffs, but any skill about 30 will be discarded before applying any modifiers.
This is not an effective skill cap, it's a base skill cap.
This seems a little fairer than Stat+10 as a limit. It doesn't matter how you get it. DX 13 and Broadsword @ DX+17 is a fair build. But when you get DX 14, you have a 30. Stipulating it's not an effective skill cap means you can't, say, get 33, absorb -2 for Bad Footing and a -1 for a foe's SM and still have a 30. You can't get 34 and just always do at least -2 in Deceptive Attack. We lock it down to 30, and then apply any situational modifiers.
Safest way to deal with this is to stop getting skill somewhere in the mid-20s, and just know that sometimes you down a DX potion and wield a Balanced sword with Accuracy 3 and end up with a 30.
There are some downsides to this, but they should only fall on folks with a massive skill who then try to pile on a lot of bonuses.
Flat Effect Potions
I'm officially promoting this one to be up for a vote. I like the +3. It's still a very nice boost. Potions are still a fantastic way to gain a large bonus for a small cost with a long duration. But they're not going to be swingy if I get a solid yes vote on these.
Fixed-Effect Feint
Resolve a Feint, Beat, or Ruse normally.
If the attacker wins by the contest, the target defends at -4.
Extreme Feints
For high-skill fighters in cinematic games, this optional rule allows them to leverage their skill further. Resolve the Feint, Beat, or Ruse normally. If the attacker wins the contest, the target defends at -4. If the attacker wins the contest by 10+, the target defends at -8.
The other option is that Feints apply normally, but you can't inflict any more than -10 on your target. That's the cap.
Finally, it might be worth a defense cap, like the one discussed here. A maximum 20 defense before modifiers would get rid of a lot of need to defense-maximize, which means I don't need to find as many high-skill foes as possible just to give them a shot at hitting high-DX foes.
We'll see what everyone thinks of these.
This last big fight wasn't ruined by high skill, but I do want to make sure limits mean people know the upper bounded limits of the system. Put the limits in that allow for such a fight as a special occasion skill blowout, but not a defacto basis for character expectations. Skill bosses will still be dangerous, and PCs won't essentially out-DX and out-skill the entire monster catalog . . . with a high cost in character points and fun and a low return on investment in effectiveness within the game.
Sunday, October 4, 2026
DF Felltower - Caps & Limits Draft
This is really an attempt to head off long-term issues before they become a real problem. We're already at a point where PC skills are quite high. Do they need to be higher? I think no - I've talked about why offensively (crazy feints) and defensively (defenses so high foes can only crit fish.)
Here is where I am leaning:
Hard Skill Cap - Stat+10 limit on any/all skills.
If I do this, I may consider a Power-Up that allows you to except the limits. It wouldn't be a perk, sorry, but it would be a limited Power-Up, perhaps capped at 3 levels like a lot of the maxima-exceeding power-ups.
This way a fighter-type has a clear idea of what the most possible skill you'll ever be able to get. That's skill-35 for a thief with maxed out DX, not that anyone runs thieves in my game.
Can foes exceed this? Yeah, of course. Foes can have all sorts of stuff you can't as a PC. Deal with it. Dealing with it is part of the game.
Mundane DB sources don't stack.
Magic DB sources don't stack
This is more of a clarification - I ruled this before again and again but I am concerned people forget it when it matters, especially given the math done by the VTT "helping" us.
You can benefit at most from one source of mundane DB - a shield.
You can benefit at from one source of magical DB - Deflect or Shield spells, in general.
I expect this will generate questions about edge cases, but I honestly can't think of any. Have a shield? Get the shield DB. Have a magic shield? Get the shield DB including Deflect. Have a Shield spell? Get that, instead, if it's higher than your Fortify level on the shield you're wielding.
This was how I'd been runing it for a long time, but I am not sure if the VTT sheets can handle this. And the way my players sometimes count up bonuses by trying to get the net ("I'm +2 for Shield, but -4 for stunning, so I'm at -2") can potentially lead to a double count error (". . . and my magic shield is DB 5 so I'm at a net +3.")
I'm still undecided on fixed-effect Feints and Deceptive Attacks, if only because it gives PCs a fixed target of defenses to aim for, even higher than they generally have now. No one wants to roll less than a 16 for defenses if possible even with situational penalties. It's the downside of a "build" system instead of a class-and-level system without feats. And a Rule of 16 for defenses would be awesome but no one will accept that later in an ongoing campaign when they've worked up to higher defenses.
If my players like this, we'll consider adding another:
Fixed Potion Effects - All +1d6 buff potions are actually +3. Notably this includes Strength and Agility potions.
They'll just work with a flat effect, which will save on potion costs (people down them until they get a good roll) but also mean I don't have to deal with +5 to +6 DX in fights.
Any other limits I should give some thought to?
Here is where I am leaning:
Hard Skill Cap - Stat+10 limit on any/all skills.
If I do this, I may consider a Power-Up that allows you to except the limits. It wouldn't be a perk, sorry, but it would be a limited Power-Up, perhaps capped at 3 levels like a lot of the maxima-exceeding power-ups.
This way a fighter-type has a clear idea of what the most possible skill you'll ever be able to get. That's skill-35 for a thief with maxed out DX, not that anyone runs thieves in my game.
Can foes exceed this? Yeah, of course. Foes can have all sorts of stuff you can't as a PC. Deal with it. Dealing with it is part of the game.
Mundane DB sources don't stack.
Magic DB sources don't stack
This is more of a clarification - I ruled this before again and again but I am concerned people forget it when it matters, especially given the math done by the VTT "helping" us.
You can benefit at most from one source of mundane DB - a shield.
You can benefit at from one source of magical DB - Deflect or Shield spells, in general.
I expect this will generate questions about edge cases, but I honestly can't think of any. Have a shield? Get the shield DB. Have a magic shield? Get the shield DB including Deflect. Have a Shield spell? Get that, instead, if it's higher than your Fortify level on the shield you're wielding.
This was how I'd been runing it for a long time, but I am not sure if the VTT sheets can handle this. And the way my players sometimes count up bonuses by trying to get the net ("I'm +2 for Shield, but -4 for stunning, so I'm at -2") can potentially lead to a double count error (". . . and my magic shield is DB 5 so I'm at a net +3.")
I'm still undecided on fixed-effect Feints and Deceptive Attacks, if only because it gives PCs a fixed target of defenses to aim for, even higher than they generally have now. No one wants to roll less than a 16 for defenses if possible even with situational penalties. It's the downside of a "build" system instead of a class-and-level system without feats. And a Rule of 16 for defenses would be awesome but no one will accept that later in an ongoing campaign when they've worked up to higher defenses.
If my players like this, we'll consider adding another:
Fixed Potion Effects - All +1d6 buff potions are actually +3. Notably this includes Strength and Agility potions.
They'll just work with a flat effect, which will save on potion costs (people down them until they get a good roll) but also mean I don't have to deal with +5 to +6 DX in fights.
Any other limits I should give some thought to?
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