d20 Modern
Combined Errata and QA

Rob `The Other Nice Man' Kenny

Welcome to latest version of the combined d20 Modern Errata & Questions and Answers.

A big thanks to Charles, Rich, Stan! and all the other d20 Modern writers that have taken time to drop by the message boards and answer peoples questions. Also thanks to everyone that has helped to maintain the QA thread on the WoTC message boards, especially Loyal and Mistwell.

If you have any questions or problems with this document then email me at d20modern@otherniceman.net.

The writers are regular vistors to the d20 Modern boards (http://boards1.wizards.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=359), if you have a question about d20 Modern that is not answered in this document then visit the boards and ask your question, be sure to put the marker [WOOF!] in the subject line of your post (like: ``[WOOF!] Questions about motorcycle'') to bring it to the attention of the writers. What does [WOOF!] mean? I don't know, however Charles has a standing offer: He'll send a crisp new one-dollar bill to the first person who correctly identifies the origins of the [WOOF!] tag. If you think you know, post your idea!

Table of Contents

Part I
Errata

1  Chapter One -- Characters

Page 21 -- Ignore Hardness Talent Tree

Ignore Hardness: The Strong hero ignores 2 points of an object's hardness.
Improved Ignore Hardness: The Strong hero ignores 2 additional points of an object's hardness (for a total of 4).
Advanced Ignore Hardness: The Strong hero ignores 2 additional points of an object's hardness (for a total of 6).


Page 22 -- Table 1.4 The Fast Hero

7th Level Defense Bonus should be +6.

Page 26 -- Research Talent Tree

Linguist: With this talent, the Smart hero becomes a master linguist. Whenever the hero encounters a new language, either spoken or written, he can make an Intelligence check to determine if he can understand it. The check is made with a bonus equal to the hero's Smart level. For a written language, the bonus applies to a Decipher Script skill check instead.

Page 31 -- Captivate

The charismatic hero has the ability to temporarily beguile a target through the use of words and bearing.

Page 31 -- Dazzle

The charismatic hero has the ability to dazzle a target through shear force of personality, a winning smile, and fast-talking.

Page 31 -- Taunt

The charismatic hero has the ability to temporarily rattle a target through the use of insults and goading.

2  Chapter Two -- Skills

Page 54 -- Table 2.5 Poisons

Tear Gas; Initial damage nauseated for 1d6 rounds

Page 54 -- Craft (chemical)
Explosive Reflex DC
Improvised 10
Simple 12
Moderate 12
Complex 15
Powerful 15
Devastating 18

Scratch built explosives deal concussion damage.

Page 58 -- Bribery and Diplomacy

To make a bribe, you must make a Wealth check against a DC set by your GM. Several typical DCs are given on Table 4-13 in the Services section of Chapter 4. If you succeed in the check, you gain a +5 bonus on your Diplomacy check when making the bribe. For every point by which you beat the Wealth check DC, the bonus increases by +1, to a maximum bonus of +10. You may take 10 on the Wealth check, but you cannot take 20.

Page 60 -- Escape Artist

For ropes, your Escape Artist check is opposed by the Dexterity check result of the opponent who tied the bonds. Since it's easier to tie someone up than to escape from being tied up, the opponent gets a +20 bonus on his or her Dexterity check.

Page 70 -- Pilot

There is no penalty for operating a general-purpose fixed-wing aircraft. Other types of aircraft (heavy aircraft, helicopters, jet fighters, and spacecraft) require the corresponding Air Vehicle Operation feat, or else you take a -4 penalty on Pilot checks.

Page 75 -- Tumble

Tumble past Opponents: With a successful Tumble check (DC 15), you can weave, dodge, and roll up to 20 feet through squares adjacent to opponents, risking no attacks of opportunity. Failure means you move as planned, but provoke attacks of opportunity as normal.

Tumble through Opponents: With a successful Tumble check (DC 25), you can roll, jump, or dive through squares occupied by opponents, moving over, under, or around them as if they weren't there. Failure means you move as planned, but provoke attacks of opportunity as normal.

3  Chapter Three -- Feats

Page 77 -- Agile Riposte

Benefit:Once per round, if the opponent the character has designated as his or her dodge target (see the Dodge feat) makes a melee attack or melee touch attack against the character and misses, the character may make an attack of opportunity against that opponent. Resolve and apply the effects from both attacks simultaneously.

Page 80 -- Armor Proficiency (Light)

Benefit: When you wear a type of armor with which you are proficient, you get to add the armor's equipment bonus to your Defense. Also, the armor check penalty applies only to Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, and Tumble checks.

Normal: A character who wears armor with which she is not proficient adds only the armor's nonproficient equipment bonus to her Defense. Also, she suffers its armor check penalty on attack rolls and on all skill checks that involve moving.

Page 84 -- Improved Combat Throw

Benefit: In melee combat, if an opponent attacks and misses you, you may immediately make a trip attack against him. This counts as an attack of opportunity, which you can make even if you are unarmed.

Page 88 -- Two-Weapon Fighting

Benefit: Your penalties for fighting with two weapons are lessened by 2 for the primary hand and 6 for the off hand.

Page 89 -- Vehicle Dodge

Prerequisites: Dexterity 13, Drive 6 ranks or Pilot 6 ranks, Vehicle Expert.

4  Chapter Four -- Equipment

Page 93 -- Rent or Own

To buy a house, you only have to make a wealth check for the down payment (that's what the purchase DC in the Housing section of Table 4-12 represents).

Page 94 -- Requisitioning Equipment

For example, you want to requisition a machine gun. Your 5th-level hero receives a mission in which combat is a near certainty, and she turned in all her requisitioned gear undamaged at the end of her last assignment. She has a Charisma bonus of +1. The purchase DC for the weapon is 19. She gains a +5 bonus on the check: +6 for a necessary object, -6 for the military restriction, +2 for proficient in the use of the object, +2 for turning in previous gear, and +1 for Charisma. You roll a 12. Since you're 5th level, your result is 22 (5 + 12 + 5), which beats the machine gun's purchase DC. The machine gun is issued to your character.

Page 96 -- Table 4.4 Ranged Weapons

Damage for the M-60 (medium machine gun) should be 2d10. Move M-60 (medium machine gun) from Heavy Weapons to Longarms section.

Page 96 -- Table 4.4 Ranged Weapons

Browning BPS (10-gauge shotgun); Rate of Fire: Single
Mossberg (12-gauge shotgun); Rate of Fire: Single


Page 96 -- Table 4.4 Ranged Weapons

Insert Missing Longarm: Benelli 121 M1 (12-gauge shotgun)
Damage: 2d8
Critical: 20
Damage Type: Ballistic
Range Increment: 40 ft.
Rate of Fire: S
Magazine: 7 int.
Size: Large
Weight: 8 lb.
Purchase DC: 17
Restriction: Lic (+1)


Page 96 -- Table 4.4 Ranged Weapons

Sawed-off shotgun (12-ga shotgun); Restriction: Illegal (+4)

Page 101 -- M-60

Remove: The Exotic Firearms Proficiency(heavy machine guns) feat applies to this weapon.

Page 104 -- Table 4.6 Explosives and Splash Weapons

Molotov Cocktail; Purchase DC: 3

Page 105 -- Tear Gas Grenade

Anyone caught in a cloud of tear gas must make a Fortitude save (DC15) or be nauseated for 1d6 rounds.

Page 106 -- Tear Gas Grenade

The purchase DC given is for a box of 6 grenades.

Page 113 -- Table 4.10 General Equipment

Modem, Broadband; Purchase DC: 6
Duct Tape; Purchase DC: 3
Lockpicks (Lockpick set, Lock release gun)

Page 116 -- Cellular Interceptor

About the size of a small briefcase, a cellular interceptor can detect and monitor a cell phone conversation within a 5-mile area by listening in on the cellular service's own transmitters. Intercepting the calls of a particular cell phone requires a Computer Use check (DC 35); if you know the phone number of the phone in question, the DC drops by 10. Obviously, the phone must be in use for you to intercept the call. A cellular interceptor cannot be used to intercept regular (ground line) phone connections.

Page 123 -- Vehicles

Vehicles are described by a number of statistics, as shown in table 4.14

Page 126 -- Table 4.15 Vehicle Weapons

BMP-2 30mm cannon; Range Increment: 300ft.
M1A2 Abrams tank cannon; Range Increment: 400ft.
M2A2 Bradley 25mm cannon; Range Increment: 350ft.

5  Chapter Five -- Combat

Page 135 -- Table 5.2 Actions in Combat

Stand up from prone, sitting or kneeling provokes and Attack of Opportunity.

Page 135 -- Table 5.2 Actions in Combat

Start / Complete full-round action should be an attack action, not a move action.

Page 137 -- Start/Complete Full-Round Action

The ``start/complete full-round action'' attack action lets you start undertaking a full-round action (such as those listed on Table 5-2: Actions in Combat) at the end of your turn, or complete a full-round action by using a move action at the beginning of your turn in the round following the round when you started the full-round action.

Page 142 -- Natural Healing

If you undergo complete bed rest (doing nothing for an entire day), you recover two times your character level in hit points. A 5th-level hero recovers 10 hit points per day of bed rest.

Page 144 -- Table 5.4 Defense Modifiers

1 Does not apply if target is adjacent to attacker. This circumstance may instead improve bonus to Defense granted by cover. See Cover, below.

Page 149 -- Thrown Explosives

Replace:
(1 Ft. to 5 Ft.) with (hit)
(6 Ft. to 10 Ft.) with (Miss 2 to 3 Range Increments)
(10 Ft. to 16 Ft.) with (Miss 4 to 5 Range Increments)

6  Chapter Six -- Advanced Classes

Page 166 -- Tactical Aid

As a full-round action, the Soldier provides tactical aid to all of his allies (including himself) within sight and voice range of his position. This use of tactical aid requires an action point.

This aid provides a +1 competence bonus on attack rolls. The bonus lasts for a number of rounds equal to one-half of the Soldier's level in the advanced class, rounded down.

Page 170 -- Inflitrator: Class Skills

Insert:
Spot (Wis)

Page 172 -- Nip Up

A Daredevil of 2nd level or higher can stand up from a prone position as a free action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Page 174 -- Blanket Protection At 10th level, a Bodyguard can use his expertise to provide protection for up to six allies (not including himself) within sight and voice range of his position.

7  Chapter Seven -- Gamemastering

Page 204 - Table 7.2 Wealth Bonus by Level

Character Level: 1st; Wealth Bonus: determine wealth normally
Character Level: 2nd; Wealth Bonus: +6

8  Chapter Eight - Friends and Foes

Page 240 -- Illithid

Will +11;

Page 241 -- Illithid

Remove Combat Casting Feat and replace with Iron Will

Page 241 -- Illithid Dedicated Hero 2/Smart Hero 1

Remove Combat Casting Feat and replace with Iron Will

Will +14;

Page 247 -- Moreau

Moderate moreaus are all bipedal and can pass as human if they wear hoods or hats and keep to the shadows (-10 penalty on Disguise checks to pass for human). Some appear to be accident victims or suffering from birth defects rather than as members of a separate species. They generally have abundant body hair, but lack true pelts. All are Medium-size and possess low-light vision.

Page 248 -- Bat Moreau Species Traits

Insert:
Blindsight (Ex): Using nonvisual senses, such as sensitivity to vibrations, scent, acute hearing, or echolocation, the creature maneuvers and fights as well as a sighted creature. Invisibility and darkness are irrelevant. The ability's range is specified in the creature's descriptive text. The creature usually does not need to make Spot or Listen checks to notice creatures within range of its blindsight ability.

Page 250 -- Feline Moreau Species Traits

First seen in the People's republic of China, they are also found in the service of the Japanese and Indian governments. Overt feline moreaus possess retractable claws that function as natural weapons (1d4/20, slashing).

Page 266 -- Yuan-ti

Insert:
Mas 11

Page 266 -- Yuan-ti Dedicated Hero 1/Charismatic Hero 2

Insert:
Mas12

9  Chapter Nine -- Campaign Models

Page 292 -- Shadow Enemy

At 5th and 7th level, a Shadow Slayer selects a type of Shadow creature as a favored enemy. Due to his extensive study of these foes and training in the proper techniques for combating them, the Shadow Slayer gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot checks when using these skills against creatures of this type. He also gets a +1 bonus on weapon damage rolls against creatures of this type.

Page 292 -- Shadow Enemy

Remove:
In the case of humandoids, the Shadow Slayer must also choose an associated subtype, as indicated on the table below.
Remove:
Lycanthrope, (Subtype), (goblinoid), (gnoll) and (reptillian) from the Shadow Enemy Type table

Page 308 -- Battlemind Class Skills

Add:
Craft(visual arts)

Page 318 -- Mage Class Skills

Add:
Craft (visual arts)

Page 319 -- Spellcraft

Remove:
20 Draw a diagram to augment casting a dimensional anchor on a summoned creature. Takes 10 minutes. You can't try again. The GM makes this check.

Page 321 -- Scribe Scroll

Starting at 2nd level, a Mage can create scrolls from which he or another spellcaster can cast a scribed spell. You can create a scroll of any spell you know. Scribing a scroll takes one day. The purchase DC for the raw materials to scribe a scroll is 13 + the scroll's spell level + the scroll's caster level.

Page 322 -- Brew Potion

The purchase DC for the raw materials to brew a potion is 15 + the potion's spell level + the potion's caster level.

Page 323 -- Spellcraft

Remove:
20 Draw a diagram to augment casting a dimensional anchor on a summoned creature. Takes 10 minutes. You can't try again. The GM makes this check.

10  Chapter Ten -- FX Abilities

Page 346 -- Glyph of Warding

You set the conditions of the ward. Typically, any creature entering the warded area or opening the warded object without speaking a pass phrase (which you set when casting the spell) is subject to the magic it stores. Alternatively or in addition to a pass phrase trigger, glyphs of warding can be set according to physical characteristics (such as height or weight) or creature type, or species (such as "medusa" or "undead"). Glyphs can also be set with respect to allegiance (such as good, evil, law, or chaos). They cannot be set according to class, Hit Dice, or level. Glyphs respond to invisible creatures normally. Multiple glyphs cannot be cast on the same area. However, if a file cabinet had three drawers, each could be separately warded.

Page 361 -- Key Ability

The first line beneath the power's name provides the key ability associated with the power. A psionic character must have a score in this ability equal to at least 10 + the power's level in order to manifest the power. For example, inflict pain is a 2nd-level power and its key ability is Charisma; thus, a Telepath must have a Charisma score of 12 or higher to use this power.

Page 362 - Wild Talent

Benefit: Select one 0-level psionic power. You can manifest this power up to three times in a 24-hour period. There is no power point cost for using this power. Where manifester level is a factor (such as for determining the range of the power), use your manifester level + 1. Thus, if you have no levels in an appropriate psionic class, you use the power as if you were a 1st-level manifester.

Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Each time you take the feat, you select a different power.

Page 369 - Mind Darts

Intelligence
Level: Battle Mind 3; Display: Visual (see text); Manifestation Time: Attack action; Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level); Target: One living creature; Duration: Instantaneous; Saving Throw: Reflex half; Power Resistance: Yes; Power Point Cost: 5

You create a flurry of mental bursts that deal 5d6 points of damage to a single target within range.

Part II
Frequently Asked Questions

11  Chapter One -- Characters

What are characters assumed to start with, equipment wise?

Characters start with a place to live and a reasonable assortment of clothing. Anything else they have to buy.

Can characters take a 10 or 20 on purchases during character generation?

Yes. Players can take a 10 and take 20 on pre-game purchases.

Does a class skill gained from an occupation remain a class skill even though a character may multi-class into a new class for which the skill is no longer a class skill?

If your occupation grants you a class skill, that skill is treated as a class skill for you every time you go up in level, regardless of the class you level up in.

It states that if skills from an occupation are already class skills, the player adds a +1 modifier to the skill. Now, how do we determine if this bonus applies when multiclassing, is it class skill for any class the character has, only the class they took at first level or something else?

The skills associated with your occupation are always class skills for you, throughout your entire career. In addition, if an occupation skill is also a class skill for your starting class (the class you take at 1st level), you gain a +1 bonus to that skill. You do not gain a +1 bonus later, if an occupation-granted class skill is also a class skill for a new class you add after 1st level.

The Dedicated hero's empathy talent only activates after the target is observed for 1 minute prior to skill use. Does this observation have to be immediately prior to skill use, or can you just observe someone and then have empathy forever?

It must be used immediately before the use of the skill, and the bonus applies only to use of the skill in that encounter. In other words, you can't observe someone at one point and then use the bonus some time later.

Must the observation be visual or can you ``observe'' merely audibly, for example listening through a closed door or on the radio?

In terms of this talent, ``observation'' usually means being able to see and hear the target. Your GM can bend the rules on this if the situation warrants; for example, he might allow you to get away with only hearing the target if the target is involved in a lot of intense or heated conversation. Or he might let you get the bonus if you listen for 5 minutes instead of fully observing for just 1.

The charm talent (Charismatic hero) only works on targets of the chosen gender. What about targets without gender, such as constructs, elementals, plants, or oozes (not that it's likely to matter in the last case).

The charm talent cannot be used to influence genderless creatures. (It plays upon gender relations; if the creature cannot be appealed to in those terms, the ability is useless).

A Charismatic hero wants to use her talents against a member of the opposite sex. Does the bonus from the charm class ability stack with the bonus from the fast talk ability?

No. Both of those bonuses should be competence bonuses. As such, they don't stack.

When a tough hero gains/takes the electricity Resistance and has a modifier that is equal or more than the stun gun dmg would he then ignore the roll vrs. paralyzation?

If the character takes no damage at all, he does not have to make the save. He is unaffected by the attack.

If the character takes any damage at all (even a single point), he must make the save. His electricity resistance does not affect the saving throw.

If my Dedicated hero's Wisdom bonus increases, do I get to pick an additional skill for my cool under pressure ability?

If you gain a permanent Wisdom increase, your new Wisdom bonus applies to the cool under pressure ability--so yes, if your bonus goes from +3 to +4, you get to pick another skill on which you can take 10. If your Wisdom bonus goes up due to a temporary increase (from the enhance ability spell, for example), you do not get to pick additional skills for the cool under pressure ability.

What happens if my characters advance beyond 20th level? Are there any rules for epic-level d20 Modern characters?

We don't have any rules for characters above 20th level yet. We may publish some in the future. In the mean time, you're probably not going to go too far wrong if you simply keep advancing them as normal. If you borrowed a few elements from the Epic Level Handbook, they'd probably work just fine too.

Extreme effort says it takes a full round action and then applies its bonus to any Strength check or Strength based skill check. Does this mean that if I take a full round action I can apply this to a trip attempt since trip is essentially an opposed Strength check? How does this work with attacks of opportunity? Does extreme effort only provoke attacks of opportunity if the action you are doing would normally provoke attacks of opportunity?

You can use extreme effort in opposed Strength checks, including those that are part of combat maneuvers. However, the Strength check is a full-round action for you, so you can't do anything else. For example, you can use extreme effort in the opposed Strength check to make a bull rush, but only if you start adjacent to the opponent (you can't charge him, as that wouldn't allow you to use a full action for the check). Also, you could only push him back 5 feet, as you're only allowed a 5-foot step yourself.

Effectively, this means you can only use extreme effort in trip and 5-foot bull rush attempts. All other special attack types require additional actions as well as the opposed Strength check, making extreme effort impossible.

Extreme effort has no effect on attacks of opportunity. You provoke (or don't provoke) attacks of opportunity normally when using extreme effort.

The Dodge feat isn't on the list of Fast hero bonus feats. Was it left out deliberately, or was it an oversight?

It was left out deliberately.

The Fast hero already has enough very attractive features; giving it the longest list of bonus feats (which would be the case if you added Dodge) would just be a bit too much. We could have added Dodge and removed something else, but given that many Fast hero players are going to pick Dodge as one of their starting feats anyway, that seems to do the class a disservice. For those who have to use a non-bonus feat slot for Dodge, all I can say is that it's a small trade off for an otherwise excellent class choice.

What class abilities count as mind-affecting? I'm thinking of the Charismatic talents captivate, dazzle, and taunt; the Smart trick talent; the Personality ability winning smile; and the Negotiator's talk down chain.

All of the above class abilities, plus the Negotiator's sow distrust ability, are mind-affecting.

Does the Charismatic captivate ability make the target flat-footed? Does it keep him flat-footed if he is already? Does it stop him from attacking the Charismatic hero? Similarly, if the talk down ability is used, the target stops fighting. Is he now flat-footed, and does he remain so until attacked?

The Charismatic hero's captivate talent needs some clarification. It can only be used on flat-footed opponents (it can be used out of combat, or in combat but only on NPCs who haven't acted yet). A captivated opponent remains flat-footed.

The Negotiator's talk-down ability has no effect on the target's initiative status. The target stops fighting, but doesn't stop defending himself and doesn't become flat-footed.

How do you determine starting Wealth for high-level characters?

The bonus given on Table 7-2 is the starting point. To that number, add any additional Wealth bonus for the character's starting occupation, feats, etc. Also add a bonus equal to the number of ranks the character has in Profession. Finally, the result is the Wealth bonus for an NPC. When creating a high-level player character, add +2 to the total. Now, for a shortcut, you can simply equip an NPC with a reasonable assortment of gear, then give him the bonus shown on the table as his current Wealth (ignoring the benefits of feats, occupation, Profession skill, etc.). That's purely a quick-and-dirty way of using the table.

How do you determine starting action points for a high-level character? The system on page 204 doesn't seem right.

The action point formula given on page 204 is for NPCs. For high-level player characters, the character gets the number of action points granted by his last class level. For example, a 5th-level Strong hero would get 7 action points, because his fifth level in Strong gives him 5 + 1/2 his level.

If you take levels in Mage and buy ranks in Spellcraft, then take a Smart level, can you choose the Savant talent for Spellcraft?

No. Savant can be applied only to the listed skills.

Does the bonus from the Personality's unlimited access ability stack with the bonus from the Dedicated hero's empathy ability?

Yes, but only in situations when the unlimited access ability applies.

A side note on unlimited access: This ability can only be used to get into semi-public events--parties, tours, the private room at the back of the restaurant, etc. In other words, places where members of the public (even if it's just a select few) are granted admission. You can't use it to get into places where no member of the public is ever admitted, like a secret military installation.

Does the bonus from the Field Medic's medical specialist ability stack with the bonus from the Dedicated hero's healing knack ability?

Yes.

In the Charismatic Hero's talents, Charm is listed as only being usable on GM characters. Was this intended as a guideline to keep players from abusing each other, or does this literally mean that GM character Charismatic Heroes are unable to use those particular talents on Player characters?

Charm affects a GM character's attitude. The rules concerning GM character attitudes don't apply to player characters, so charm can't affect player characters.

Can I take two feats at first level, with one being the prerequisite for another?

As a general rule in the d20 system, anything that has prerequisites can be taken simultaneously with the prerequisites. If you have two feat slots (at 1st level, or some other level when you get a bonus feat and level feat at the same time), for example, you can pick two feats for which one is a prereq of the other. Same is true for class talents. (The exception is if the thing itself grants the prerequisites--for example, if a prestige class has certain skill prereq, you can't take the class and then use the class's skill points to buy the necessary skills.)

I was wondering if there are any guidelines for creating new occupations. For example, none of the listed occupations have "concentration" as a skill. Is there some reason for this, or just happenstance? Is there a formula/rule-of-thumb for creating occupations that weighs the value of skills, feats, wealth, and reputation?

There's no design reason why Concentration isn't offered by any existing occupation; if you created an occupation that included Concentration that would be fine.

Balancing occupations is complex. In general, the factors include: The number of class skills, bonus feats, and the Wealth bonus are the main factors; they shouldn't all be high. The number of class choices, feat choices, and Reputation are lesser balancing factors, along with age prerequisites.

Can anyone tell me how to adapt non-human characters(both standard and monsters) to a PC-format.

The rules for creating a non-human character are basically the same as those for adding a character class to a creature (see page 230). To sum up: 1) The character gets one fewer skill point per level. (This is reflected on table 8-20.) Since you normally get 4 times as many skills at 1st level, the character gets 4 fewer skill points at 1st level. 2) The character gets only one feat at 1st level, instead of 2. 3) The character does not get a starting occupation. 4) Use the racial ability modifiers for the race from the D&D Player's Handbook (if you have it and the race is covered there). Otherwise, here's a trick for determining the ability modifiers from the d20 Modern stats: If the given ability is an odd number, subtract 11 from it. If the ability is an even number, subtract 10. The result is racial modifier for that ability score. For example, a goblin has Str 8 and Dex 13. Subtracting 10 (because 8 is an even number) from 8 gives us -2. Subtracting 11 (because 13 is odd) from 13 gives us +2. So the racial mods for a goblin's Str and Dex are -2 and +2, respectively. This is a rule of thumb and won't always work perfectly. These rules apply primarily to creatures that normally only have one Hit Die. For higher Hit Die creatures, you'll have to fudge it or wait for Urban Arcana. [Also] Moreaus have their own rules. They're essentially the same as those above, except that moreaus do get starting occupations, and the ability score modifiers are given in the descriptions.

Weird question, but nonetheless... One of the characters in my campaign wants to play a pimp. There are a few questions I need to ask about that: 1) What should be the check to see if he "recruits" a woman; 2) How many women should he be able to have at a time; 3) How would this affect his Wealth bonus.

To determine how much Wealth the character gains through pimping, use the same rules every character uses to gain Wealth: Profession checks at level advancement. See Regaining Wealth, on page 92. No additional rules are necessary; the character's income is not subject to special rules just because it's an unusual job. As for determining job-related specifics, I'd handle this no differently than I'd handle any other profession. If the character was the manager at a McDonald's, and for some reason he needed to know how many employees worked for him, as GM I'd make an educated guess and perhaps roll a die to add a bit of randomness to my guess. Same thing for the pimp--should it ever matter exactly how many "employees" he has (and I doubt that it ever really would, just like it probably wouldn't really for the McDonald's manager), I'd pick a reasonable answer, roll a die, and give the player a result. Playing a pimp could be an interesting, amusing (or thought-provoking) Roleplaying opportunity. But there's no more reason to play out the specifics of the job than there is for any other character.

With all this multi-classing & occupations, how can I tell when something is a class skill or a cross-class one?

In d20 Modern (and D&D, and all other WotC d20 games), when you add a new level to your character, you buy skills according to that class. So when you add a level of Fast hero to your character, you purchase skills as a Fast hero. Fast hero class skills (and any permanent class skills you have from your starting occupation) cost a single point per rank; cross-class skills cost two points per rank. It doesn't matter what your previous classes are. Just because a skill was a class skill for you at some previous level does NOT make it a class skill for you forever. On the subject of starting occupation related skills, the skills associated with your starting occupation are always class skills for you, throughout your entire career. In addition, if an occupation skill is also a class skill for your starting class (the class you take at 1st level), you gain a +1 bonus to that skill.

I thought that I had read somewhere that prestige classes were also in d20 Modern. I believe this may have been in one of the preview sections on advanced classes where it explained that characters would go from the base classes to an advanced class and then to a prestige class. Am I wrong or did the d20 modern book just not include them? If the latter, will PrCs be included in other books?

Prestige classes are part of the d20 Modern system; however, none are included in the core book (which was published 64 pages over planned count, even after we cut a bunch of stuff we planned to include). You will see prestige classes in later products, starting with Urban Arcana.

Can defensive roll be used to avoid the effects of a failed Fort save check due to massive damage? Or would it only apply if the damage dealt was sufficient to drop the character to 0 or fewer HP by itself? Would it have any effect on a non-lethal massive damage failed check (i.e., could the character change the effect of the knockout to just being dazed)?

Defensive roll does not interact with hit point loss due to massive damage, any more than it interacts with hit point loss due to poison. It applies only to the actual hit point damage dealt by an attack. It does not interact with nonlethal damage.

Not bringing massive damage into the question, can Defensive Roll be used when the character is flat-footed?

Yes it can. The only time it can't be used is when the character is immobilized.

How do you handle an ordinary NPC when you want to add a hero level or more? Do you just change the ordinary levels to hero or do you add a hero level?

The character levels up just like normal, with all the benefits a hero character gains at the new level (but no retroactive benefits applied to earlier levels). For example, take a 3rd-level Strong ordinary who's adding a level of Strong hero. The character already has +3 BAB, +2 Defense, etc. He has the standard array of ability scores, and a given number of hit points. He has no class abilities (talents or bonus feats), and no action points. When he adds the level of Strong hero, his BAB, Defense, saves, etc. go up just like any other Strong character advancing from 3rd to 4th level. He gains 1d8 + Con hit points, and 3 + Int skill points, just as he has every other time he went up in level. But in addition, he gains 7 action points and a bonus feat (the standard class feature at 4th level). He is now a 4th-level Strong hero, but you'll have to make a note somewhere that he's short 2 talents and a bonus feat due to the fact that he was an ordinary for his first three levels.

Just a quick query about the Faith talent, which is available to dedicated heroes. Does it mean that when you expend an action point you can add your Wis bonus *to* the action point die (getting, say 1d6+2 as your bonus), OR does it mean that you can add your Wis bonus *instead of* rolling the die when you expend an action point? I'm guessing that it is the first, but I'd appreciate a quick clarification.

When a Dedicated hero with the Faith talent spends an action point to increase a roll, she adds 1d6 + her Wis modifier (rather than just 1d6) to the roll.

In an earlier thread, when someone asked if the bonuses from the Charismatic talents charm and fast-talk stacked, you said no as they were both competence bonuses. Does that apply to all talent-based skill bonuses (Dedicated hero's empathy, aware and healing knack, Smart hero's savant, Negotiator's conceal motive, Field Medic's medical specialist, and Personality's unlimited access)?

None of these bonuses are typed, which means they stack with other bonuses. However, very few of these abilities stack with other abilities, because they generally affect different skills. The only instances in which two of these abilities grant stacking bonuses are empathy and unlimited access (which both give bonuses to Bluff and Diplomacy--but only when trying to get into restricted events) and healing knack and medical specialist (which, when stacked, grant a maximum total bonus of +5 on Treat Injury checks).

A side note on unlimited access: This ability can only be used to get into semi-public events--parties, tours, the private room at the back of the restaurant, etc. In other words, places where members of the public (even if it's just a select few) are granted admission. You can't use it to get into places where no member of the public is ever admitted, like a secret military installation.

12  Chapter Two -- Skills

The description of the Concentration skill is confusing. In what situation can I use Concentration to avoid attacks of opportunity?

Here's a clearer version of the relevant parts of the skill description:

Check: You make a Concentration check whenever you may potentially be distracted while engaged in some action that requires your full attention (such as making a Disable Device or Treat Injury check). Situations such as taking damage, working in a bouncing vehicle, or dealing with severe weather can require you to make a Concentration check.

If the Concentration check succeeds, you may continue with the action. If the Concentration check fails, the action automatically fails (with the appropriate ramifications, if any), and the action is wasted.

A successful Concentration check still doesn't allow you to take 10 when you are in a stressful situation; you must roll the check as normal.

Special: You can use Concentration to avoid attacks of opportunity when attempting a skill check that normally provokes attacks of opportunity. The DC to do so is 15.

If the Concentration check succeeds, you may attempt the action normally without incurring any attacks of opportunity. If the Concentration check fails, the related check automatically fails just as if your concentration had been disrupted by a distraction. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity, however.

This use of Concentration applies only to skill checks. It does not apply to other actions that normally provoke attacks of opportunity, such as movement or making unarmed attacks.

What is the Listen DC to hear the sound of gunfire? Is it the same as the DC to hear a battle?

Given that, in a modern setting, one normally thinks of a battle as involving gunfire, we should have been clearer that the DC given is for a melee battle or large fistfight. The DC for gunfire is -20.

What happens when there's a loud noise that might mask quieter sounds?

Any time you're trying to hear a noise that is competing with another noise with a DC 10 or more lower than the target noise, apply the ``listener distracted'' penalty to the Listen check.

For example, let's say you're in the same room as a large fight (Listen DC -10). A gun is fired outside, 50 feet away (Listen DC -20, +15 because it's through a solid wall, +5 for distance, for a total DC of 0). You suffer the -5 penalty on any Listen check made to hear the gunshot.

This also means that if you're attempting to move silently, if your check result is 10 or more higher than the DC for background noise, the opponent suffers the -5 penalty for being distracted.

Is there any way to modify these similar to the poison rules in the web enhancement? Can you add abilities like ``set on fire'' by increasing the Wealth and Craft DCs?

No such rules exist at this time. The idea seems pretty reasonable, however, so if you'd like to introduce those sorts of rules to your game, by all means do!

Can you sell articles/novels written using the Craft (writing) skill, or use the skill in place of Profession?

No. The Craft skill is is only for making things you use in the game. Only Profession is used to generate Wealth.

Is there a penalty if one character uses Sleight of Hand to conceal an item on another?

You cannot use Sleight of Hand to conceal other characters' weapons for them; the skill involved isn't just hiding the weapon, it's also moving and wearing the weapon in a way that prevents other people from noticing it.

For characters who don't have ranks in Sleight of Hand, I recommend stacking up lots of bonuses: carrying Tiny weapons, wearing loose or bulky clothing, using a concealed carry holster, etc.

I want to plant some evidence on a bad guy. How do I do that?

You can use Sleight of Hand to plant an item on another character without them realizing it. Your opponent makes a Spot check to detect the attempt. You get a modifier for the size of the object (see Table 4-3: Concealing Weapons and Objects). To successfully plant the object, you must get a result of 20 or higher, regardless of the opponent's check result. The opponent detects the attempt if her check result beats your check result, regardless of whether you successfully plant the object.

A planted object is concealed (see Concealed Weapons and Objects). If you don't care about concealing the object (for example, if you're planting a ``kick me'' sign on the target's back, or slipping a gun into the target's coat pocket where others will be able to see it), you gain a +5 bonus on the attempt. This bonus stacks with the modifier for the object's size.

This isn't a question exactly, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. It never made sense to me that you could read and write English, then learn to speak Spanish and not be able to read it.

It's not a perfect system, that's true. To be completely realistic, languages would need a whole system to themselves at least as complicated as the skill system. We didn't think such a system would be worth--all the extra complication would not make the game any better or more fun.

So here's another way of looking at it: instead of spending 1 skill point to speak the language, and another 1 skill point to read and write it, imagine that instead it costs 2 skill points to speak, read, and write the language. That's essentially the same as the existing rules, just a bit more restrictive in how you spend your points. And it's a darn good deal compared to the cost of being competent at other skills.

With all this multi-classing & occupations, how can I tell when something is a class skill or a cross-class one?

In d20 Modern (and D&D, and all other WotC d20 games), when you add a new level to your character, you buy skills according to that class. So when you add a level of Fast hero to your character, you purchase skills as a Fast hero. Fast hero class skills (and any permanent class skills you have from your starting occupation) cost a single point per rank; cross-class skills cost two points per rank. It doesn't matter what your previous classes are. Just because a skill was a class skill for you at some previous level does NOT make it a class skill for you forever. On the subject of starting occupation related skills, the skills associated with your starting occupation are always class skills for you, throughout your entire career. In addition, if an occupation skill is also a class skill for your starting class (the class you take at 1st level), you gain a +1 bonus to that skill.

As I read and reread the perform skill, I find myself saying, ``Okay!? So what is it supposed to do?'' All it says is you make the audience go yay or nay! Nothing else? No get a wealth increase? No added bonus to Diplomacy or Gather Information or any Charisma based skills? What's the deal with it?

A: The standard uses of Perform have virtually no direct effect on game mechanics because, well, the standard forms of creative performance have little bearing on modern adventuring. So why is there a Perform skill? There are several answers: First, many players like the option of having some skills that reflect character concept as well as game advantages. This principle also applies to skills like Craft (visual art) and Knowledge (art). Second, there may be special mechanics for non-standard uses of the Perform skill in future products, either from us or from third-party publishers. (Think of the D&D bard class, or Lorne on Angel.) We wouldn't want to shut the door on that possibility by omitting any skill to cover creative performances. Third, as the example on page 45 (top of the right-hand column) shows, you can use Perform (or other skills that don't have direct game mechanics applications) to your advantage if you're creative about it. Perform does not affect Wealth, because a single performance isn't sufficient to really affect your Wealth bonus. If your character is a serious professional musician, however, who frequently performs for money, you might be able to talk your GM into letting you make a Perform check instead of a Profession check to increase your Wealth when you go up in level.

The warning on the perform skill (and for that matter on Craft and Knowledge) says not to arbitrarily make up new categories, but to try and fit things into a broad interpretation of existing categories. How strict is this limitation meant to be? Does it mean you shouldn't make up any new categories, or only make up new categories when the proposed category just doesn't seem to fit in with any others, or something else? Let me offer an example. Assume you wanted a PC with DJing abilities. Is it warranted to have a separate Perform: DJing skill, or should it be ``forced'' in to another category like Perform: Acting.

When designing new adventures, you should probably be pretty strict. When launching a campaign, you can be somewhat looser -- but not too loose. Here's why:
Let's say you have a character who wants to be a performer -- someone who's good at many types of performance. (Perhaps he's basing his character on someone like Harry Connick, Jr. -- a person who sings, plays a couple of different types of instruments, and even acts. He isn't great at everything, but he's great at some things and at least competent at some others.) With the existing list, the player has eight skills to spread his skill points around. If you increase that without increasing the number of skill points characters get, you restrict the player to a smaller slice of the skill pie, as it were. The more skills you add to the game, the narrower the focus of individual characters. That may be OK in your game (especially if you only increase the list by 1 or 2 skills), but be aware that it does narrow your characters.

That's why you shouldn't be too loose with this when launching your campaign. Here's why you shouldn't introduce new skills into adventures: Players choose their skills from the list in the book. There's virtually no chance that you (as GM) will think up a new skill, and the players will happen to have also thought up (and taken) exactly the same skill when they were making their characters. If you encourage the players to think up new skills, chances are they'll spend valuable skill points on skills that won't match up with what you call for in your adventures. Likewise, if you introduce new skills in your adventures, there's no chance that players will have ranks in those skills. If the skill matters to the adventure, the heroes will be unprepared. If it doesn't, why bother to define the new skill? I hope that clarifies the rationale a bit. As always, you're welcome to change the game as you see fit!

This isn't a mistake, but something that was probably overlooked. A smooth, flat, vertical surface has no climb DC, meaning it can't be climbed. Bracing against two opposite walls grants a -10 DC modifier. So, climbing two opposite, smooth, vertical walls is still impossible?

Interesting observation. I'd probably assign a "theoretical" DC of, say, 30, to perfectly smooth vertical walls, as a basis for checks modified by conditions (such as bracing against opposite walls) that make it possible.

13  Chapter Three -- Feats

Why can't I get the benefits of burst fire when I use a weapon with a three-round burst setting, even if I don't have the Burst Fire feat?

A. There are a lot of misconceptions about what a three-round burst setting on a weapon does for the user. Many people think the setting is designed to allow more accurate use of autofire, presumably by limiting the recoil of the weapon. It would seem to make sense, then, that the user should get the benefits of the Burst Fire feat when using such a setting. The truth, however, is that the three-round burst setting is a limiter designed to prevent the wasting of ammunition. It serves no other purpose and offers no other advantage when the weapon is fired.

A three-round burst setting makes it no more of less easy to aim autofire at an individual target. It simply prevents someone who uses autofire in this manner from wasting ammunition.

If a character takes the feat Weapon Focus for his rifle, does that apply to all forms of attack with the rifle, including making rifle butt or fixed bayonet melee attacks?

No. If two functions of a weapon require separate proficiency feats, they aren't both covered by a single Weapon Focus feat. In this case, shooting your rifle requires the Personal Firearms Proficiency feat, clubbing someone with the rifle butt requires the Simple Weapons Proficiency feat, and using a fixed bayonet requires the Archaic Weapon Proficiency feat.

Sometimes weapons have more than one function, but the multiple uses are covered under a single proficiency feat.

Do brass knuckles provoke attacks of opportunity, even though they deal lethal damage? When used with the Brawl feat, they increase the base damage dealt by +1 -- is that 1d6+1 lethal damage or 1D3+1 lethal? Do brass knuckles have any effect on the Improved Brawl or Combat Martial Arts feats?

Attacks made with brass knuckles provoke attacks of opportunity just like normal unarmed attacks. Also, you cannot make attacks of opportunity with brass knuckles (just as you cannot make attacks of opportunity with normal unarmed attacks). When used with the Brawl feat, brass knuckles deal 1d3+1. You gain no additional benefit from brass knuckles for having the Improved Brawl feat, and there is no benefit to using brass knuckles with the Combat Martial Arts feats.

Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. By acquiring just one feat -- Two Weapon Fighting feat -- I can use one weapon in my off hand at no penalty, even if I'm not fighting with two weapons (let's say hypothetically, I injured my primary hand)?

The d20 rules never specify which hand is your primary hand. (There's no place on the character sheet to specify whether your character is right-handed or left-handed, and most players probably never even give it a thought.) Furthermore, there are no rules for hit location, or for being specially incapacitated by damage. In short, the d20 system simply never deals with what happens if you use a single weapon in your non-primary hand. So that's not really an issue.

More importantly, we realized that the Ambidexterity feat really only served to make two-weapon fighting an ability that costs two feats instead of one. This seemed like a needless cost and a needless complication. So we got rid of it. The advantages of two-weapon fighting are still pretty marginal (in my mind, anyway); it's really more an issue of style than of substance. Most of the players who choose to fight with two weapons do so because it's pretty cool, not because they gain any real edge in combat. And that's as it should be--players get options that suit their tastes, while the game remains balanced and has the right feel.

I know you mentioned there are no rules in d20 Modern for specifying which is your off-hand, but as a rule of thumb, if you did have to use your off-hand instead of your primary hand to attack or perform some skill, would you have no penalty if you had the Two Weapon Fighting Feat, but at -4 if you didn't? That is, if I ported this rule over to D&D, should I handle it as if the Feat covers the Ambidexterity and Two Weapon Fighting Feats entirely?

A: Yes and yes.

Can I take two feats at first level, with one being the prerequisite for another?

As a general rule in the d20 system, anything that has prerequisites can be taken simultaneously with the prerequisites. If you have two feat slots (at 1st level, or some other level when you get a bonus feat and level feat at the same time), for example, you can pick two feats for which one is a prereq of the other. Same is true for class talents. (The exception is if the thing itself grants the prerequisites -- for example, if a prestige class has certain skill prereq, you can't take the class and then use the class's skill points to buy the necessary skills.)

If using two guns, can you Double Tap with both weapons in the same round?

Sure. And of you have multiple attacks (due to a high BAB), you can double-tap on each attack. The restrictions are that you suffer the -2 modifier on each attack (which can get pretty steep if you're stacking it on top of two-weapon fighting penalties) and that you have to have enough ammo in the weapon.

What types of Vehicles does each vehicle feat apply to, and what are the prerequisites for things like Vehicle Dodge?

In general, if a feat doesn't specify a type of vehicle, it applies to all vehicles. For example, have a look at Force Stop: it specifies surface vehicles.

I have been looking everything over, and I cannot find a single reason why anyone in their right mind would employ a machinegun. You need an extra feat for it, with the quick reload feat you can do everything with an automatic 7.62mm rifle that a machinegun can, only better.

You don't actually need the Advanced Firearms feat to use an MG. When you use autofire, you target a 10' square with an effective Defense of 10. Without the feat, you take a -4 on the attack--making the roll, effectively, against a Defense of 14. That's still less than the Defense of many characters, so even an attacker without the feat can use autofire pretty effectively. [So why ever take the Advance Firearms feat? Well, getting rid of the -4 is a small reason, but the big reason is that it's a prereq for other important feats, like Burst Fire.] That leaves us with two advantages to using an M60 instead of a G3: longer range increment, and a large (possibly unlimited) ammo capacity. These factors may not be very important in most roleplaying game encounters, which occur quickly and at close range. That's fine. If your characters are finding that the G3 suits them better in most of their encounters, that's probably pretty realistic.

If using two guns, can you Double Tap with both weapons in the same round?

Sure. And of you have multiple attacks (due to a high BAB), you can double-tap on each attack. The restrictions are that you suffer the -2 modifier on each attack (which can get pretty steep if you're stacking it on top of two-weapon fighting penalties) and that you have to have enough ammo in the weapon.

Can you use things like Combat Martial Arts with Agile Riposte, and do the attack of opportunity rules change for this?

The attack of opportunity granted by Agile Riposte is no different than any other attack of opportunity. All the normal rules and restrictions for AoOs apply. So, yes, someone with Combat Martial Arts or a natural attack can take advantage of Agile Riposte.

While not normally a common piece of equipment for a modern day character, riot shields, capture shields, and various other shields still do find the occasional use, and I was wondering how they are meant to be handled. I noticed no 'shield proficiency' feat off-hand. Should I have one if shields are to play any role in the game, or do they fall under one of the existing armor proficiencies? Do they still provide an armor class/defense bonus, or are shields simply considered 'cover', like the D&D tower shields?

Shields work the same in d20 Modern as in D&D. A character proficient in medium or heavy armor is proficient with shields. You'll see a fair bit more on shields in Urban Arcana.

I have heard people say ``if you can stun someone during a fight, then KnockOut punch will pretty much finish him off''. I am a little confused, because I do not think that is how the rules work, for three reasons: - when you equal or exceed someone's Con with non-lethal damage, they make a DC 15 save. If they succeed, they are DAZED, not stunned (and if they fail they fall unconscious)...KO Punch only applies when the opponent is FLAT-FOOTED, not dazed or stunned [and] ... dazed, flat-footed and stunned are all separate conditions and (while similar in some respects) are not equivalent...So it seems to me that KO Punch (and Imp KO Punch) will only ever work during the first round of a fight, if you can catch someone flatfooted. Am I missing something here?

Flat-footed is not the same thing as denied Dex bonus. Flat-footed only occurs at the beginning of combat, when a character has not yet acted. I can't think of any situation in which a character already in combat becomes flat-footed. (There may be such situations, but if so they're rare; I can't think of any at the moment.) Yes, Knockout Punch could easily be named Sucker Punch. (In fact, I remember that we considered that name when we were designing the feats; I don't recall exactly why we decided against it.) It really is useful mainly in surprise situations.

Weapon Finesse: Unarmed Strike: You can do that.. right?

Under Unarmed Attacks (page 135), it says "Unarmed strikes count as light melee weapons (for purposes of two-weapon attack penalties and so on)." Use of the Weapon Finesse feat falls under the "and so on" part. In other words, yes, you can choose unarmed strike as you Weapon Finesse "weapon."

Can a character alternate between CMA-lethal and Brawl-nonlethal unarmed attacks in a single full attack?

Absolutely. Why not?

Does improved brawl or combat martial arts have any effect on using brass knuckles? Does improved brawl increase brass knuckle damage at all?

Combat Martial Arts has no effect on using brass knuckles, and vice versa. Brawl can be used with brass knuckles only when dealing nonlethal damage; if you choose to deal lethal damage, you don't get the benefit of the Brawl feat.

Now, why all the confusion? It really comes down to a single word in the description of brass knuckles on page 106: ``[brass knuckles] allow you to deal lethal damage with an unarmed strike. . .'' That means you have a choice when you use brass knuckles: you can deal lethal or nonlethal damage. Unfortunately, in my notes in one location I had apparently misread that as ``brass knuckles cause you to deal lethal damage. . .'' (You don't have a choice; the damage is automatically lethal.) If that were the case, you wouldn't be able to stack the benefits of brass knuckles with Brawl or Knockout Punch, since those feats deal only with nonlethal damage.

If you want to deal lethal damage with brass knuckles, you cannot take advantage of any feat that delivers nonlethal damage only. That means you don't get the benefit of the Brawl or Knockout Punch feats.

If you want to deal nonlethal damage, here's how things play out:

14  Chapter Four -- Equipment

Do you have to purchase a separate license for every single item, or does one license cover every item of that restriction level?

A single license covers every item on a given table that has a restriction level equal to or lower than the level of the license. For example, if you purchase a Beretta 92F (Licensed restriction level) and an appropriate license, that license covers any additional items from Table 4-4 that also have the Licensed restriction level. If you later wanted to purchase an AKM (Restricted restriction level), you would have to also purchase the higher-level license for it. You could then purchase any other item from Table 4-4 of Restricted or lower level without needing another license. One exception to this rule: Table 4-10: General Equipment. Every item on this table is licensed separately, except items that are grouped together. For example, a black box requires a separate license from demolitions kit. However, a single license covers both pistol and rifle suppressors, since they're grouped together under ``suppressors''

Do licenses for firearms simply let you own the firearms, or do they also license you to carry them?

In general, your license allows you to own and use (in a legal manner) the item in question. Thus, the license for a firearm allows you to carry the firearm (but doesn't, of course, legally permit you to shoot someone).

Why are the range increments in d20 Modern so low? Can't modern sniping rifles and tank cannons hit targets as far away as a mile or two?

A weapon's range increment is not merely ``the longest range we've ever heard rumors of this weapon being used at divided by 10.'' The actual formula is roughly 2/3 of maximum effective range divided by 10. This provides a base maximum range unaffected by feats or special equipment; the actual effective range is attained (or exceeded) by adding such elements as the Far Shot feat or special sighting devices.

The hit points and hardness given for armored vehicles are clearly wrong, everyone knows that M1A2 Abrams tanks are much tougher than the stats in d20 Modern. What are the correct stats?

The hardness and hit points given for the Abrams tank and other vehicles are correct. At a glance, 20 points of hardness may not seem to make the Abrams as invulnerable as it should be, but don't underestimate the value of hardness. Also, don't forget that objects (including vehicles) are immune to critical hits.

Remember also that a reducing a vehicle to 0 hit points merely disables it-the vehicle isn't destroyed until it reaches the negative of its hit points. And consider that tanks, like anything else, have vulnerabilities-optics, running gear, external portions of the weaponry, etc. Tanks can be (and often are) disabled without any penetration of the main armor.

Finally, you might want to consider the role of tanks in your game. In the real world, it's nice to imagine (whether or not it's true) that an Abrams fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan is entirely invulnerable to anything the enemy can throw at it. In a game setting, however, the tank is either a tool of the heroes or a tool of the bad guys. In either position, if it's completely invulnerable, your game is going to get pretty boring pretty quick.

It's been pointed out that a character using a firearm could conceivably kill a tank-for example, a 2d10 assault rifle with the Burst Fire feat deals an average of 22 points of damage per round-enough to get a couple points past the tank's hardness. That's OK. It would take that character 32 rounds to disable the tank in that manner. That's not too unreasonable if the tank is just sitting there, helpless and not fighting back. And if it is fighting back, I don't give the attacker much chance of surviving more than three or four rounds, let alone 32. In that time, the attacker might deal 6 or 8 points. of damage to the tank. A pretty reasonable result.

One last note: Rich Redman, one of the game's designers, was quite satisfied with the armored vehicle rules-and he served as an M1A1 tank platoon leader in the gulf war. If anyone knows the Abram's capabilities and strengths, he does.

How much does ammunition weigh?

There are many, many calibers of ammunition available. To keep things simple, here's a quick table based on the damage dealt by the weapon and the number of rounds in a magazine. To determine how much a loaded magazine weighs, look it up on the table, rounding the number of rounds in the magazine up. For example, a Glock 17 has a 17-round box magazine and deals 2d6 damage. Rounding 17 up to 20, the weight given for a loaded magazine is 0.5 pounds.

Shotgun shells are a little heavier; use the weight value for one damage step higher. (For example, a 12-ga shotgun deals 2d8 damage, but the ammo has the weight of 2d10 damage.)

  Weight per Number of Rounds
Damage 10 20 30 40 50 100
2d4 0.5lb 0.5lb 0.5lb 0.5lb 1.0lb 1.5lb
2d6 0.5lb 0.5lb 0.5lb 1.0lb 1.0lb 2.0lb
2d8 0.5lb 0.5lb 0.5lb 1.0lb 1.0lb 2.0lb
2d10 0.5lb 1.0lb 1.0lb 1.5lb 1.5lb 3.0lb
2d12 1.0lb 2.0lb 3.0lb 4.0lb 5.0lb 10.0lb



Why is buying a house considered a down payment but you have to pay the full price for a car?

Everyone has a place to live, whether they buy or rent. For that reason, we built the cost of your monthly housing payment (whether it's rent or mortgage) into the Wealth system. The extra hit to your Wealth score for buying a house comes only from the downpayment; your character still makes monthly mortgage payments, but you don't have to make Wealth checks for them and they don't affect your Wealth score.

(You might argue that mortgage payments are generally more expensive than rent. That's true. We made up for that by basing the downpayment DC on about 20% of the full cost of the house--despite the fact that it's possibly to buy a house with as little as 3% to 5% down (sometimes even 0% down). The extra cost of mortgage payments is also offset by the fact that home ownership improves your credit rating, and therefore expands your buying power. So in the end, it evens out.)

Cars differ from houses in that they are optional--it's not assumed that every character has a car, so the cost of monthly car payments isn't built into the Wealth system. Don't think, however, that just because you take a one-time hit to your Wealth you must have purchased the car outright. On the contrary, your Wealth goes down when you buy a car because your buying power (including your available credit) goes down. It's assumed that your character is making monthly payments, and those payments cut into his ability to afford other things.

Why are the purchase DCs so high? When I look at the dollar values (on Table 7-1), it seems like a lot of things are more expensive than the prices I've seen in real life.

There are really two issues here: gear quality and purchase DC meanings. I'll tackle the latter first.

Remember that the dollar values on Table 7-1 represent the top of the range for each purchase DC (see the paragraph under the Setting Purchase DCs header). For example, purchase DC 14 is given as $350; purchase DC 15 is given as $500. That means that purchase DC 15 actually represents all dollar costs higher than purchase DC 14, or everything from $351 to $500. There are numerous firearms on Table 4-4 with purchase DC 15 -- all of these have dollar prices between $351 and $500.

On the other point: when you go shopping (especially on the internet), you can find a very wide range of prices for a given type of product. For example, if you go looking for a backpack, you could find models ranging in price from $30 to $600. In setting a purchase DC for a backpack, we used the cheapest reasonably available price we could find for a model that was sufficiently rugged and reliable for moderate adventuring use. There are cheaper (and more expensive) options out there, but we decided to set the price based on what you'd pay for something that was really good enough for adventuring use.

The characters in my game have recovered a bunch of gear from NPCs and creatures they defeated. How do I determine the Wealth bonus from the items they found?

The straightforward, simple, by-the-book method for Wealth awards from adventures is to simply grant a Wealth award as directed on page 204.

If the heroes recover a bunch of gear from NPCs, they can divvy it up and sell it individually. For example, one character gets the NPC's assault rifle, another takes his night-vision goggles, and a third gets his laptop. Each individual hero can then keep his share if he wants to use it, or sell it according to the rules on page 94.

You can also let the characters ``sell'' cash, if you prefer to give cash instead of the Wealth awards listed on page 204. For example, instead of giving the party an overall Wealth bonus of +6 for an encounter, you might give them $1,600. Splitting it up among 4 characters, they each get $400-the equivalent of purchase DC 15 (from Table 7-1 on page 204). Each character gains Wealth as if selling an item with a purchase DC of 15. Remember that the sale value is equal to the purchase DC minus 3-that rule applies even when ``sellin'' cash.

A Barrett Light 50 and machine guns are Huge. The rules say that this means a bipod is necessary to use them. What rules are there for this, or is this only flavour?

A bipod must rest on something. That means that the weapon must be fired from the prone, or from a position (say, in a window ledge or on a wall) where the bipod can be rested at shoulder height.

The standard scope in d20 Modern multiplies the weapon's range increment by 1.5. There are many more powerful scopes than that out there-what if I get a more powerful version? Would it give me a bonus on attacks?

The standard scope in the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game represents a typical 3x to 7x telescopic scope. There are more powerful scopes out there (up to 12x), but they should probably carry more severe penalties for use (such as requiring two or more attack actions to acquire the target, requiring a Concentration check to use, and/or the user being effectively blind to anything except the target). Higher-powered scopes might multiply the range increment by 2 or even 2.5--but probably not more than that. (There's a lot that goes into range increments other than the magnification of the sighting device. The range increment for a standard scope is multiplied by 1.5, even though the scope magnification is 3x to 7x.)

As for bonuses, scopes already do that by increasing the range increment (and thus decreasing the range penalty). Imagine shooting a weapon with a range increment of 100 ft. at a target 550 ft. away. You suffer a -10 penalty on the attack. With a scope, your range increment becomes 150 ft., so you suffer only a -6 on the attack. That's like getting a +4 bonus compared to the weapon without a scope!

Finally, when wondering about the long ranges that some snipers achieve, remember that the benefit of the Far Shot feat stacks with the benefit of a scope. So even with a basic standard scope, a sniper with the Far Shot feat actually doubles the range increment of his weapon!

PC A (Wealth Bonus +3) tries to buy a Widget (Purchase DC 14). PC B (Wealth Bonus +3) attempts to Aid Another and succeeds, thus granting PC A a +2 bonus to the Wealth Check made to purchase the Widget. PC A makes his Wealth Check and, with the bonus is able to purchase the Widget. PC B subtracts 1 point from his Wealth Bonus for performing the Aid Another. Now... how much does PC A subtract from his Wealth Bonus? Does PC A subtract 1d6 points from his Wealth Bonus (the Purchase DC is 11 points higher than his current Wealth Bonus) or does he subtract 1 point (with the Aid Another from PC B his effective Wealth Bonus increases to +5 and the Purchase DC is merely 9 points greater)?

The former (1d6). The Wealth loss is based on the purchase DC and the character's actual Wealth bonus. Modifiers to the roll (for a friend's aid another attempt, or anything else) are just that--modifiers--and do not actually change your Wealth bonus.

In the footnote under the acid table on page 54, it says that the damage given is per round of exposure to the acid, but it doesn`t give a duration. How long does acid last?

That footnote refers to immersion. In all other cases, the acid deals damage once, on initial contact, only.

In other words, a flask of mild acid deals 1d6 damage. (Or 1 point as splash damage; see page 106.) Then it's done.

If a character were immersed in a pool of mild acid, he'd take 1d10 points of damage per round of immersion. There is no `duration' for the acid; the character continues to take damage until he`s dead or no longer immersed in the acid.

Do brass knuckles provoke attacks of opportunity, even though they deal lethal damage? When used with the Brawl feat, they increase the base damage dealt by +1 -- is that 1d6+1 lethal damage or 1D3+1 lethal? Do brass knuckles have any effect on the Improved Brawl or Combat Martial Arts feats?

Attacks made with brass knuckles provoke attacks of opportunity just like normal unarmed attacks. Also, you cannot make attacks of opportunity with brass knuckles (just as you cannot make attacks of opportunity with normal unarmed attacks). When used with the Brawl feat, brass knuckles deal 1d3+1. You gain no additional benefit from brass knuckles for having the Improved Brawl feat, and there is no benefit to using brass knuckles with the Combat Martial Arts feats.

I can't seem to find a rule regarding double-barrel shotguns. If both barrels are fired at once, is the attack handled like a double-tap (one extra die of damage)?

Effectively, yes.

If the shotgun is fully-loaded (there's a shell in both barrels), you can fire both at once. You receive a -2 penalty on the attack, but you deal +1 die of damage with a successful hit. Obviously, firing both barrels leaves the weapon empty; you have to reload to fire again. You do not need to have the double tap feat.

Reloading a double-barrel shotgun, like reloading any firearm with an internal magazine, is a full-round action.

These rules apply to the sawed-off shotgun in the d20 Modern rulebook.

The description on page 94 and techie description are extremely general on what mastercraft can actually effect. The Techie description says all weapons, armor and some other devices can be made mastercraft. The mastercraft description says a mastercraft object can provide a bonus to attack rolls (standard), damage, Defense, or some other characteristic that improves when the object is used. So, what can this actually be used on? Can an object have more than one mastercraft bonus? For a +12 purchase DC can my 1911 have a +2 to hit, and to damage? Can my box of .45ACP rounds? My cleaver? Can I give my armor +2 to Defense, and -2 to it's check penalty?

For starters (in response to some other posts on this thread), forget what you know about masterwork items. Mastercraft follows different rules than masterwork (which, in fact, is why they have different names).

As a very general rule, you can mastercraft pretty much any item that does or can provide a bonus on a roll or check, or which otherwise has a numeric value. So, yes, you can give a firearm a +1 on attacks or damage rolls. You can increase an armor's Defense. You can affect ammunition, or a cleaver.

A given item can only have a total bonus from mastercrafting of +3. You can apply this however you want. For example, if your 10th-level Techie mastercrafted his Barret Light Fifty, he could give it a +2 on attacks and +1 on damage. The total bonus can't exceed +3.

You can mastercraft multiple items for a combined effect. For example, you could mastercraft the rifle to give you +3 on attacks, and a box of ammo to give you +3 on damage.

That said, you can't stack bonuses directly. Bonuses from mastercrafting are circumstance bonuses. They don't stack with each other, although they do stack with circumstance bonuses arising out of different circumstances.

Thus, you could mastercraft a laser sight to give you an additional +3 on attacks (in addition to the existing +1 equipment bonus). This would apply to any weapon you attached the laser sight to--but it wouldn't stack with the weapon's bonus from mastercrafting, if any. A +3 sight attached to a +3 weapon would simply give you +3.

Mastercrafting can't give an item an ability it can't normally have. You can't mastercraft your eyeglasses to give you a bonus on attacks, because eyeglasses don't normally have a game effect on attack rolls. Likewise, a mastercrafted laser sight still won't work outdoors in daylight.

You can mastercraft ammunition. For these purposes, the quantity give on Table 4-5 counts as a single "object" for the purposes of the mastercrafting rules. In other words, if you set out to mastercraft a batch of 5.56 ammo and follow the rules on page 179 as if mastercrafting a single object, you end up with 20 mastercrafted bullets.

Wait a sec, does that mean a mastercraft baretta (+1 damage) beats a guy over the head better than a regular baretta? I guess it would.

No. If you mastercraft a weapon to provide a bonus to damage, and the weapon has more than one mode of use, you must specify the mode to which the bonus applies. So if you give your pistol a +1 on damage when shooting, it doesn't apply to damage when making a pistol whip attack.

What was the consideration in giving a Beretta 92FS a 33% longer range than a Glock 17? The weapons' ballistic characteristics are not all that different. Certainly not different enough to warrant that kind of difference.

Range increments are always measured in 10-foot steps. Thus, though the real ballistic characteristics might have suggested range increments of, say, 33 feet for the Glock and 37 feet for the Beretta (not that big a difference), rounding the numbers to the nearest 10 feet gives us 30 ft. and 40 ft., respectively. That said, balance was also an issue. The Glock was given a +1 mastercraft bonus, due to its consistently excellent reputation for quality and accuracy. Even given that reputation, it's borderline that it deserves a +1 that other weapons don't get. We decided to err liberally in terms of the bonus; in exchange, we erred conservatively in its range increment. [When I say ``erred'', I don't mean that we made an error. The real-world data on firearms and other devices is often a little contradictory and somewhat subjective; when we interpret the many sources of data, we have to decide which end of the spectrum we're going to base our game numbers on.]

I have been looking everything over, and I cannot find a single reason why anyone in their right mind would employ a machinegun. You need an extra feat for it, with the quick reload feat you can do everything with an automatic 7.62mm rifle that a machinegun can, only better.

You don't actually need the Advanced Firearms feat to use an MG. When you use autofire, you target a 10' square with an effective Defense of 10. Without the feat, you take a -4 on the attack--making the roll, effectively, against a Defense of 14. That's still less than the Defense of many characters, so even an attacker without the feat can use autofire pretty effectively. [So why ever take the Advance Firearms feat? Well, getting rid of the -4 is a small reason, but the big reason is that it's a prereq for other important feats, like Burst Fire.] That leaves us with two advantages to using an M60 instead of a G3: longer range increment, and a large (possibly unlimited) ammo capacity. These factors may not be very important in most roleplaying game encounters, which occur quickly and at close range. That's fine. If your characters are finding that the G3 suits them better in most of their encounters, that's probably pretty realistic.

I have a problem. Someone reduces their wealth mod to 0. Then, they roll a check to buy something with DC around 7 or 8. They immediately turn around and sell it, increasing their mod by 1. Then they can take 20 to buy something with purchase DC up to 21. [. . .] The only thing I can think of to counter this would be to limit the amount of game time available to make purchases by making events happen in-game to interrupt that.

A: I recommend strictly enforcing the rule under Shopping and Time, bolstering it with the following house rule: ``When your Wealth bonus is +0, all objects, no matter how common, take a number of hours equal to their purchase DC to buy.''

Also, I'd add the rule that selling objects also takes a number of hours equal to their normal (not sale value) purchase DC

Then I'd get your adventure started, so that any player who wants to screw around with buying and selling starts missing out on the action.

By keeping one wealthy party member, when anyone's wealth decreases, that wealthy character can help anyone else recover their wealth modifier to nearly the level of the wealthy character by this method: The poor character has some cheap token possession, and sells it to the wealthier for a vastly inflated price, but still beneath 15 and beneath the wealthier character's wealth bonus. Thus, the wealthier character loses nothing, and the poorer gains.

The rules for buying and selling don't change just because it occurs between characters. If a hero wants to sell something to his friend, the sale value is equal to the normal purchase DC for the item minus 3. The players can't simply decide to change that, no more than they can arbitrarily decide to change the DC of any other check.

A rich character can help his friends in a number of other, perfectly acceptable ways. He can buy things and give them to his friends (if his Wealth bonus is above +14, he can buy his friends an infinite supply of items with purchase DCs of 14 or less). He can make aid another checks, giving his friends +2 on their rolls. Those ways of helping out are fine.

Can't A lucky player can make money by doing the following: purchase something 12 or more greater than their wealth (with take 20), thereby reducing their weatlh by a dice roll (1d6+1 or 2d6+1 - note the item would have to be at least DC 15, since you can't take 20 if you have +0 wealth) - sell the same item and recover a dice roll of wealth (since the sale value would be at least 11 higher than their wealth, after deductions from buying it)? If the sale dice roll (1d6+1 or 2d6+1, or whatever) is higher than their buying roll, they will make money out of this.

Remember that when you sell something, its sale value is 3 points less than its normal purchase DC. That makes it tough (though not impossible) to use this method. And because the gains are (at best) the same as the losses, this is a very risky and unreliable way to try to cheat the system.

While not normally a common piece of equipment for a modern day character, riot shields, capture shields, and various other shields still do find the occasional use, and I was wondering how they are meant to be handled. I noticed no 'shield proficiency' feat off-hand. Should I have one if shields are to play any role in the game, or do they fall under one of the existing armor proficiencies? Do they still provide an armor class/defense bonus, or are shields simply considered 'cover', like the D&D tower shields?

Shields work the same in d20 Modern as in D&D. A character proficient in medium or heavy armor is proficient with shields. You'll see a fair bit more on shields in Urban Arcana.

Can you add a Mastercraft bonus to an item that has nothing to do with a die-roll? If so, can you do things with Mastercrafting like make ordinary objects smaller (and, for example, increase the Mastercraft bonus once for each size category smaller), and combining two objects together to disguise the purpose of the object (costing an additional Mastercraft bonus)? For example, you could use this ability to, say, add a hidden camera to sunglasses. So you reduce the size of a digital camera from tiny to Diminutive (a change of two size categories), and call that a +2 (I am making that rule of thumb up as an educated guess by the way). Then add in a disguise to the object, in this case sunglasses, and call that a +1 (again guessing). Total mastercraft adjustment is +3. Wealth Check DC is about a 20 (Craft Electronics, a digital camera is somewhere between a cell phone and a computer, closer to a computer I would think) plus 3 (mastercraft adjustment) for a total of 23. Craft check is going to be about a 28 (again somwhere between a cell phone and a computer, but closer to a computer), plus 3 (mastercraft adjustment) for a total of 31. XP cost will be 25 X Techie Level (which is no less than 10th level, to get the +3 adjustment) X 3 (the mastercraft adjustment). For all of these checks I would compare the item to other similar items, to make sure nothing is too out of whack.

Technically, you can't do this with mastercrafting, although I do like your ideas for house rules. I don't have any specific advice for you on this, but I have been mulling over a new advanced class based on gadget construction and improvisation--the field scientist and techie aren't very relevant to my post-apocalyptic campaign. If I get something written up, I'll post it. (It probably won't happen for a week or two, though, at least.)

Well, since I haven't really found anything about anything, I feel I have to ask. This is at least partly about secret agents and the like, and well, say agent and I think most think of Bond. And that leads us to Q-branch. So, is there any plans for rules to modify vehicles? Souped-up engines, armor, and of course the .50-cals behind the headlights and the catapult passanger seat. I know that there might not be TONS of it in my campaign, but I also know at least one and possibly more of my playes will ask! *G*

No vehicle modification rules exist at this time. I'd love to see some, mainly because I think my players would like to make some modifications to their Humvee in our post-apocalyptic campaign. (A ram plate would be nice, considering how often the front end of their vehicle is used as a weapon--and how much time they spend on repairs afterward!) Maybe we'll put something together soon.

Any suggestions on guidelines for converting 3rd edition weapons to archaic weapons in d20 Modern? Can they just be plopped in as is, or is there damage modification that must be done in order to make them comparable to d20 Modern weapons? Also, what would a good guideline be for finding Wealth DCs for converted weapons?

In general, weapons from D&D are fairly plop-and-play. If you use them as-is, you probably won't have any serious problems with your game. If you want to be exacting, you can apply the following conversions:
Range Increment: Decrease the range increment to about 1/3 of the D&D increment.
Crits: Change all crit damage to x2.
Purchase DC: Use your best guess at the price, and refer to Table 7-1. If you have no idea on the price, as a rule of thumb you can go with 1 gp = $10. (Thus a weapon that costs 7 gp would cost $70, or purchase DC 8.) If the weapon is generally easy to obtain in the modern world (like nunchaku), you might drop the purchase DC by 1; if it's exotic or rare increase the DC by 2 or so.

Why can't vehicles suffer critical hits?

Vehicles are objects. Critical hits apply only to creatures.

Why have you made vehicles objects though? Seems to take the fun out of vehicle combat.

A: Have you played any vehicle combat yet? It's been plenty of fun in my games! Some food for thought:
  1. The rules give you some options for disabling vehicles other than simply reducing them to 0 hp. Shooting out the tires or windshield is more interesting in the game (and realistic) than trying for a critical hit.
  2. If you're imagining critical hits as huge fiery explosions like in the movies, remember that what comes around goes around. If you can blast your opponents in a gigantic explosion, they can do the same to you. One of the challenges in designing the vehicle combat system was preventing cars from becoming whole-party coffins. We don't wan't anyone's campaign being brought to a screeching and untimely halt because a lucky roll by a bad guy resulted in the fiery death of the entire party!
  3. Sure, you may think that cars have a "discernable anatomy," and you may think you know what that anatomy is. But what about a UFO? A mini-submarine? Those cool little carlike things in Minority Report? Where do you draw the line between objects (even vehicles) that have discernable anatomies and those that don't?
  4. Vehicles may be immune to crits (and hence coups de gras), but they can still be quickly dispatched. That's what Disable Device is for.
  5. Some people have complained that we didn't stat armored vehicles tough enough. Part of that is because they are immune to crits. Allow crits against vehicles, and you may end up with some squirrely results when playing with armored vehicles.
All of these issues (except perhaps #2) are solvable if you really feel crits against objects will make your game better. And you're always welcome--encouraged, even--the modify the game as you see fit. But my guess is that if you give it a try as written, you'll be happy with the results.

How much cover bonus does a tank benefit from a hull-down position?

As with all cover situations, that's for your GM to adjudicate. (I'd probably give a tank 3/4 cover against attacks from the front for being hull down.)

What kind of equipment bonus does the M1's Fire Control System give to gunner's attack rolls, when tank is moving?

We don't specify. However, it's probably not unreasonable to allow the fire control system to negate some of the penalties for a moving vehicle, up to, say, 2 points of penalty.

Is insurance for my rainwater tank included in my Wealth level?

Yes. (And I managed to keep a straight face . . .)

The d20 Modern version of the Shuriken seems to work differently than I am used to. How does it work?

OK, here's the scoop on shuriken. Forget what you know about D&D shuriken; in d20 Modern they work differently. You can only throw one at a time, and you do get to add your Strength bonus to damage. And, as the rules state, you can draw them as a free action. What does that mean? Dealing only 1 point of damage is pretty weak, but 1 + Str bonus can be OK if you have a decent Strength. Drawing as a free action can be a real bonus. Shuriken can be a useful delivery system for special attacks, such as poison.

The parabolic microphone and laser microphone both indicate that they are used by pointing them at the source of the sound to be heard. Does this pointing require the use of a touch attack roll?

No touch attack is necessary. You must, however, have an unobstructed line of sight to the source of the sound. The distance penalties are reduced as described in the web enhancement, but any other penalties (such as "listener distracted," or those we've discussed for background noise) apply.

Also, the laser microphone picks up sounds by measuring the vibrations on the glass. Does the sensitivity of this measurement require that both target and "shooter" be still (i.e., can this be used on a moving target and/or from a moving platform)?

Yes, both the listener and the target must be still. In other words, this piece of equipment can only be used by a stationary listener, and only be used on a stationary window (in other words, not a vehicle window). This should have been made clear in the web enhancement.

I was wondering about a cars hardness and shooting through the car. Seeing as a car has a hardness of 5 and every gun does atleast 2d6. If you shoot at a door of a car forever. The car will not become disabled, so where does the extra damage go?? I was watching a tv show and a bank robbery in LA where the robbers had automatic rifles (AK47 or something) They were pumping round after round into a car where a few people hiding behind. every one of those people got hit. Why not in D20. Could it be like the glass where if you try to shoot somebody with glass between you and them you see first if you hit the glass and the glass has like a hardness of 2 and 1hp and then you see if you hit the person and add the leftover damage? Is that Valid? or what else would be good. I know that the door would provide concealment and the doors hardness and hp for cover but would it be possible to hit somebody ducking in a car??

Here's how it works: Sam hides behind a car. Yuriko shoots at him. GM rules that Sam has 9/10 cover, since it's possible to actually see some part of him depending on the angle of the shot. He gets a +10 cover bonus to Defense, and a +4 bonus to any Reflex save (taking half damage if he fails his save and no damage if he succeeds). The Reflex save is important for situations where a bank-robbing whack job fires his AK 47 on full auto at cops and bystanders hiding behind cars (see the Autofire rules under Special Attacks in Chapter Five: Combat). Depending on where Sam hides and whether or not he's shooting back, he may have less cover. If it's important to know what happens to the car, you use the "Striking the Cover Instead of a Missed Target" rules in Chapter Five: Combat. In d20, you shoot at your target. Any intervening object gives cover or concealment, but you still shoot at the target.

It's true that in real life, sometimes attacks penetrate cover and hit people on the other side. We don't really model that in the d20 system--just like we don't model the fact that an attack can go right through the target and hit a second person. You might want a house rule of some sort; something similar to the rules for shooting through windows. Perhaps a car door has hardness 5 and, say, 3 hit points. If you hit the target's Defense but miss because of the cover bonus, any excess damage is taken by the target. That would probably work reasonably well, though I'm betting that the benefit to your game experience wouldn't be worth the extra complication and the slowing down of play. YMMV, of course.

I know others have dredged this up but I wanted Mr. Ryan's opinion on this. How come in d20 Modern there's no rules about shotgun spread. The closest I found was the damage thinning at ranges. Even indoors at twenty feet you can peg people standing six feet apart.

Despite the misperception common in most roleplaying systems, shotguns do not spread that widely. (The spread at moderate ranges is about enough to cover a dinner plate--NOT enough to hit several people.)

That said, I've provided some slightly different rules in Ultramodern Firearms: The -2 penalty per range increment applies to damage, rather than attack rolls. This means that shotguns are a little more likely to hit at long ranges (due to their spread), but that their damage falls off with range (due to the fact that few projectiles might hit, and that shot loses its velocity faster than ballistic rounds do). [It will have the] same theoretical maximum as any other non-thrown ranged weapon: 10 range increments. However, in practice the maximum is lower: a 2d8 shotgun losing -2 damage every range increment has a functional maximum range of 8 range increments. (If you roll 16 damage, after 8 range increments that damage is reduced to 1). On average, the damage is reduced to 1 after 4 to 5 range increments. See how cleverly that works out! [Also] Ultramodern Firearms has rules for different forms of shotgun ammo (and ammo for other firearm types as well, of course), and for different types of choke.

Regarding the Man Portable XM214, Anyone think up the stats for this yet? For those who don't know, its the gatling gun/backpack model like that used in Predator and "not used" by special forces.

Trolls with mini-guns--now you're thinking! I probably shouldn't be leaking this, but you might just see stats for the XM-214 in Urban Arcana. You didn't hear that from me, of course.

Do you have any quick rules for Flechette rounds?

Sorry, don't have any at this time. Off hand, I'd probably treat them as armor-piercing rounds.

Ok if you buy something 15 or higher wealth you lose 1 point. If you buy something 1 to 10 points higher than your wealth you lose 1 point plus 1 more point if that number is 15 or higher. Now if you buy something 11 to 15 points higher than your wealth you lose 1d6 points, plus 1 for it being over 15. But do you still lose another 1 because it is also 1 to 10 points higher than your wealth. If you buy some 16 more points higher than your wealth you lose 2d6 plus 1 for it being over 15. But do you also lose 1 more point for it being 1 to points higher and 1d6 more points because it is 11 to 15 more points higher. I hope this is clear but if not I'll do a example: Character wealth 9. Buys something wealth 10 cost 1 wealth point. Buys something wealth 15 cost 2 wealth points. Buys something wealth 20 cost 1d6+1 or 1d6+2. Buys something wealth 25 cost 2d6+1 or 3d6+2. I think the answer would be that the wealth cost only stacks with with the 15 or higher?

The only element that stacks is the additional penalty for the item being DC 15 or higher. For example, say you purchase something with a purchase DC 17 points higher than your Wealth. (Perhaps you have Wealth 10 and are taking 20 to buy a car with a DC of 27.) Your Wealth loss is 2d6+1 points. The table isn't as clear as it could be, but if you read it carefully this makes sense. The item is ``16 or more points higher'' than your Wealth level. It isn't ``16 or more points higher'' and ``11-15 points higher''; therefore, the -2d6 penalty doesn't stack with the -1d6 penalty.

The table on page 91 on the Modern handbook gives the Purchase DC versus the amount your Wealth modifier changes. My question is: do all of those stack? For instance, if the Purchase DC of what I'm buying is 15 or more over my Wealth modifier, my Wealth modifier goes down by 1d6+1, right? 16 or more, 2d6+1? Or 3d6+1?

2d6+1. The only element that stacks is the +1 for purchases over DC 15.

What if I'm selling something that is WAY over my Wealth modifier. Allow an example (this is from my mafia campaign, dealing with the dealing of drugs, so if you're offended by that kind of thing, don't read further): Kaen, a 5th-level Smart/5th-level Charismatic hero, has a Wealth modifier of +10. He spends quite a bit of time (takes 20) to locate and purchase one thousand grams of ketamine from a black market dealer to sell on the street. The block has a Purchase DC of 29 ($30,000), which is 19 higher than his Wealth modifier, and therefore lowers his Wealth by 2d6+1 points. He rolls a 7, therefore loses 8 points of Wealth, for a new Wealth modifier of +2. He then takes the time to convert the 1,000 grams of ketamine into quarters (5,000 quarters x $25 = $125,000). After distributing the drugs through his dealers, he compares the sale DC and his Wealth modifier. The Purchase DC of $125,000 is DC 34, which is 32 higher than his Wealth modifier. Per the current rules, Kaen would roll 2d6+1 to determine the Wealth increase, but how could I (truly) lose buying power after quadrupling my money? Perhaps an ad hoc modifier of X amount on the 2d6+1 roll? Or should I double it to 4d6+2, since 32 is twice 16? Yes, that could result in Kaen having a new Wealth modifier of +28, if I really roll good, or do something like this: For every 4 points difference over a difference of 20, I could add a +1 to the 2d6+1 roll? A +2, maybe?

What you're describing is a character whose job is drug dealing. The Wealth system's rules for buying and selling aren't really geared for characters who are engaged in commerce to make a living. There are, however, perfectly good rules for determining how much your character earns from his day job--they're under Regaining Wealth on page 92. These rules apply whether your character is a lawyer, a McDonalds manager, or a drug dealer (or, as someone mentioned in an earlier post, a pimp). I don't recommend using the system of buying a selling goods to determine your character's Wealth level. Instead, use the regular rules for Wealth gain. If your characters go on crime-related adventures (and earn Wealth rewards for doing so; see page 204), that's great. But their "everyday" income, even from crime, should probably be covered by the normal Wealth gain rules.

I'm running a real-world (no FX or GeneTech) campaign with a mafioso theme, where the players will be playing mafia family members fighting against corporatized, corrupt law enforcement. However, it occurred to me that the Wealth system, while effective and well-conceived, doesn't seem to cover something I need to cover. For example, the mafioso characters bust up a rival family's drug deal. There's $100,000 in cash in a couple of a briefcases. The characters take it (obviously), but how would that effect their Wealth rating? Do I instead assign the briefcase a 'modifier value', like "there's +10 Wealth in that briefcase" and split it up between the four players? Or can I do the following, which a friend and I brainstormed earlier: The $100,000 goes into a Pocket Wealth modifier, which can be used to lower Purchase DCs of items they want/need. For example, hypothetically, I turn the $100,000 into a 20 Wealth points. Each player gets 5, with which they can lower the DC of something/things they want. Like they want to buy a gun with a DC of 17, so instead they use 3 of the points to lower the DC to 14, so it takes the pressure off their personal Wealth modifier. Does this make sense? Will it horribly unbalance the Wealth system? Does it even work?

I recommend approaching this from another angle. Rather than deciding in advance that the briefcase contains X much money, and then trying to convert that into Wealth, start instead by determining an appropriate Wealth reward for the encounter (or adventure), and then convert that into dollars. (Remember, it's the Wealth reward that matters--the dollar amount is really just flavor.) In this case, if you're planning this briefcase to be the reward for an EL 5 encounter, Table 7-3 (page 204) recommends a Wealth bonus of +8. As GM, you could then arbitrarily decide to describe the briefcase as containing, perhaps, somewhere around $20,000 (or whatever). The important thing isn't really the amount of cash--it's the bonus to Wealth.

Here's what my characters have figured out they can do: Character has a wealth of 8. He buys something with a purchase DC of 28 by taking twenty. He then buys tons of other stuff, dropping his wealth to 1. He then sells the thing with a purchase DC of 18, bringing his wealth back up to, on average, and 8. I know about the time limit that you can impose via the taking twenty, but what if I want to run a campaign with lots of downtime between adventures?

I guess I'm confused about how this is too abusive. Or rather, I'm confused about how this abusive use of the rules gained anything significant for the player's trouble. The guy has a Wealth bonus of +8. He buys something with a purchase DC of 28, taking 20. He loses 2d6+1, dropping his Wealth to, lets say, 4. (On average, it would drop him to 0, but let's say he got lucky.) He then takes 10 to buy a handfull of things with purchase DCs in the low teens. His Wealth drops to 0, he sells the expensive thing (sale value 25) for a Wealth gain of 2d6+1, raising his Wealth bonus (on an average roll) to +8. So, by virtue of spending a week of game time doing nothing but buying and selling, and by getting a lucky roll on his Wealth loss, the guy ended up with three or four extra possessions valued at DC 11 to 14. If he hadn't gotten lucky, it wouldn't have worked. And if he'd gotten unlucky on the Wealth gain for selling the big item, he'd end up with the same net loss of Wealth that he'd have suffered if he'd played by the rules. So what am I missing? How is the player using this to grow fabulously wealthy? What is he getting out of the system that makes it worth all the trouble?

Charles, you gave me a nice set of rules for starting wealth bonus for characters above level one in an earlier post. It looks good, but now that I've tried it, I realized that the numbers it gives are very high. My PCs started with wealth bonuses from 20 to 26. When I'd tried simply calculating a wealth bonus from scratch (Taking starting, 1st level wealth rules, then adding a few levels of profession rolling and flat bonuses to it) I only got 17, and that doesn't account for anything they spent along the way. Now, I see a few possibilities: 1. Rewards. I'd sort of assumed that monetary rewards were somewhat rare here, but seeing these numbers made me question that. Should most adventures involve the players receiving money at some point? Obviously this is GM discretion, but I'm just wondering if that's what the standard expectation is. 2. I may simply be using your system wrong. They get a flat 7 for 4th level, then another 7 if they maxed out profession. Also, another 2 for being PCs. That's already 16, and they still get to roll, and add occupation bonus. If that's wrong, please tell me. 3. Or there could have been a mistake in the system. It might just have been presented wrong, or unclearly.

A: Looks like your problem lies somewhere between #1 and #2. It is expected that characters will receive monetary rewards for some encounters; that expectation is built into Table 7-2. That said, in point #2 you list the factors that go into their total, including a die roll. The die roll is incorrect; the heroes' 4th-level starting Wealth should be 7 (from Table 7-2) + 7 (if they maxed out Profession) + 2 (for being PCs) + occupation bonus.

Does improved brawl or combat martial arts have any effect on using brass knuckles? Does improved brawl increase brass knuckle damage at all?

Combat Martial Arts has no effect on using brass knuckles, and vice versa. Brawl can be used with brass knuckles only when dealing nonlethal damage; if you choose to deal lethal damage, you don't get the benefit of the Brawl feat.

Now, why all the confusion? It really comes down to a single word in the description of brass knuckles on page 106: ``[brass knuckles] allow you to deal lethal damage with an unarmed strike. . .'' That means you have a choice when you use brass knuckles: you can deal lethal or nonlethal damage. Unfortunately, in my notes in one location I had apparently misread that as ``brass knuckles cause you to deal lethal damage. . .'' (You don't have a choice; the damage is automatically lethal.) If that were the case, you wouldn't be able to stack the benefits of brass knuckles with Brawl or Knockout Punch, since those feats deal only with nonlethal damage.

If you want to deal lethal damage with brass knuckles, you cannot take advantage of any feat that delivers nonlethal damage only. That means you don't get the benefit of the Brawl or Knockout Punch feats.

If you want to deal nonlethal damage, here's how things play out: Is the fixed bayonet damage correct? They deal less damage than a rifle butt. (1d4 vs. 1d6.) A fixed bayonet should do about as muchdamage as a shortspear (1d8), but the rulebook says a bayonet does 1d4/1d6 damage - it's safe to assume that the 1d6 is meant for the bayonet being used fixed to the barrel of a rifle (or shotgun), while the 1d4 refers to the bayonet being used as a knife.

The 1d4/1d6 statistic is for using a bayonet on a rifle as a double weapon. Effectively a knife (1d4) and the rifle butt (1d6)

Different guns have different kinds of safeties, and for some weapons, HKP7, it is a major feature of the gun. But I don't see any rules for what kind of action tripping a manual safety is, whether you can do it while drawing a gun, and wat happens if you wander around without a safty on at all?

Activating a weapon's safety is a free action. For this reason, we don't bother with rules for whether the weapon is on safe or not; it's assumed the weapon is safe when appropriate, and not safe when appropriate.

Are there any rules in d20 Modern for how long it takes to get into and out of armor?

The time required to don armor depends on the armor type; see the table below. Don: This column tells how long it takes a character to put the armor on. (One minute is 10 rounds.) Readying (strapping on) a shield is only a move action. Don Hastily: This column tells how long it takes to put the armor on in a hurry. The armor check penalty and armor bonus for hastily donned armor are each 1 point worse than normal. For example, if Russell donned his light-duty vest hastily, it would take him 2 rounds, the armor would provide only a +4 bonus to his AC (instead of +5), and his armor check penalty would be -5 (instead of -4). Remove: This column tells how long it takes to get the armor off (important to know if the wearer is suddenly submerged; see the drowning rules in Chapter 7).
  Don Don Hastily Remove
Shield 1 move action N/a 1 move action
Impromptu Armor
Light 1 round 1 attack action 1 move action
Medium 1 minute 5 rounds 1 minute*
Concealable Armor
Light 1 round 1 attack action 1 move action
Medium 2 rounds 1 round 1 round
Tactical Armor
Light 2 rounds 1 round 1 round
Medium 4 rounds 2 rounds 2 rounds*
Heavy 1 minute* 4 rounds 4 rounds*
Archaic Armor
Light 1 minute 5 rounds 1 minute*
Medium 4 minutes* 1 minute 1 minute*
Heavy 4 minutes** 4 minutes* 1d4+1 minutes*

* If the character has some help, cut this time in half. A single character doing nothing else can help one or two adjacent characters. Two characters can?t help each other don armor at the same time.
** The wearer must have help to don this armor. Without help, it can be donned only hastily

15  Chapter Five -- Combat

Do you use Str or Dex when throwing?

You use Dex for the attack; in this regard, thrown weapons are no different from any other ranged attack. You add your Str modifier to the damage, however, like you would with a melee attack.

What happens if a character falls or jumps out of a moving vehicle?

If you jump or fall out of a moving vehicle, you take damage as a collision with the ground. Apply a x1/2 multiplier if you're only hitting the ground. (If you hit an object, like, say, a bridge abutment or a boulder, the collision multiplier is x1.) Unlike other collisions, though, you do not get a Reflex save for falling or jumping out of a moving vehicle.

So, for example, if you fall out of a vehicle while traveling at highway speed, you take 2d8 points of damage (4d8 for the collision of a Medium-size creature with the ground at highway speed, x1/2.)

If you fall from any height (jumping out of a car while driving over a bridge, for example), add normal falling damage to the total.

If you deliberately jump from the vehicle, you may attempt a Tumble check (DC 15; don't forget the check/roll modifier for the vehicle's speed). If successful, roll 1d6 and subtract the result from the damage taken.

Are guns considered melee weapons or ranged weapons for disarming purposes? Does the answer change depending on whether the weapon was last positioned for a melee attack (pistol whip) or ranged attack (shooting)?

The default answer is that a firearm is a ranged weapon; therefore you use the rules for disarming opponents with ranged weapons. However, if the opponent last used his weapon as a melee weapon (making a pistol whip, rifle butt, or fixed bayonet attack), treat the firearm as a melee weapon.

The driving rules don't seem to include aerial manoeuvres; they all require Drive checks. Are the Pilot DCs the same? Will air combat rules come out in Urban Arcana or a future supplement?

We don't have complete air combat rules at this time. The vehicle combat system should work just fine for basic air movement (though you might think up a few additional manoeuvres). The Drive check DCs apply to Pilot checks when the vehicles in question are aircraft.

How does being underwater protect you from attacks?

Water provides both concealment and DR.

Water provides concealment. Clear water provides one-half concealment if barely submerged, three-quarters concealment if submerged below 5 feet, and nine-tenths if below 10 feet. Murky water increases the concealment by one category (three-quarters if barely submerged, for example).

Water also provides DR: 1 point of DR per foot of depth.

Thus, someone swimming at a depth of 5 feet in clear water benefits from a miss chance of 30% and DR 5.

In d20 Modern the description of disarm has been expanded to make it clear that the reactionary disarm arising from a failed disarm attempt does not provoke an attack of opportunity. However, the reactionary trip arising from a failed trip attempt has not been expanded.
Does the reactionary trip attack provoke an attack of opportunity?

When you make a trip attack, you begin it by making an unarmed touch attack. It's this touch attack that provokes the attack of opportunity.

You then go on to make an opposed Strength check. If you lose, the target gets to make an opposed Strength check to trip you. The opponent goes straight to the opposed Strength check without first making an unarmed touch attack.

For that reason, the opponent does not provoke an attack of opportunity from you.

When you lose control a spin or roll requires the vehicle to move forward a number of spaces equal to its turn speed. These are normally beyond your normal movement.

If, after a collision with speed loss you have no further movement, you lose control do you move forward one space pushing the other vehicle or simply spin/roll on the spot?

Use the guidelines given for collisions when the vehicle must still move forward: the colliding vehicle pushes the other vehicle or object aside, if possible. (If not, it stops where it is.)

If someone takes Brawl, they deal 1d6+Str non-lethal. If they take Combat Martial Arts, they deal 1d4+Str lethal or non-lethal. What happens if you have both feats? Can you then deal 1d6+Str lethal damage?

At any given time, you use one feat or the other. In other words:

If you want to deal nonlethal damage, and don't care if you're considered armed or unarmed, use the Brawl feat to deal 1d6 damage.

If you want to deal lethal damage, and/or you want to make an unarmed attack of opportunity (or not provoke an AoO when making your unarmed attack), use the Combat Martial Arts feat and deal only 1d4 damage.

When using autofire, what happens if your targeted 10-foot-by-10-foot straddles two range increments? For example, the weapon has a 30-foot range increment, and the 10-foot area begins 25 feet away.

You count the range to the 5-foot square closest to you (just like you do when attacking a creature that takes up more than one square).

I'm attacking a 10-foot-by-10-foot area with autofire. A car takes up two of the 5-foot squares. Does the car take double damage, since it occupies two squares?

No. Autofire is an area effect. As with all area effects, everything within the area takes the prescribed damage (unless it saves), regardless of the creature or object's size.

It helps if you remember that autofire works exactly the same way as grenades and fireballs. If you cast a fireball at a Gargantuan dragon, the dragon takes 10d6 damage--not 10d6 per five-foot square it occupies. Same for autofire.

I have the Double-Tap feat, and I get extra attacks due to my high base attack bonus. Can I use Double-Tap on every attack? How about Burst Fire? How about standard autofire?

Yes to both. You can use the Double Tap feat, Burst Fire feat, or standard autofire on any attack. There is no restriction on the number of times you can use these abilities per round, or the type of action you take. If you can make an attack roll with a firearm, you can use these feats (or autofire) with that roll. (Provided, of course, that you meet the conditions of the feat, such as having enough ammo in the weapon.)

A bad guy is hiding behind a hostage. If I shoot at the bad guy, how do I determine if the attack hits the hostage instead?

Any time a good guy is in the way of a ranged attack on a bad guy, there are two possible modifiers to your attack: cover, and shooting into melee.

The shooting into melee modifier is a straight -4 penatly to your attack. It applies any time a good guy is in a square adjacent to the bad guy's square--even if the good guy is completely out of the way (on the far side of the bad guy, for example). It simply represents the extra care you have to take to avoid having a stray shot hit your friend. Fortunately, if you have the Precise Shot feat, you don't suffer this penalty.

The cover penalty for a hostage works like any other cover situation--the GM determines how much cover the bad guy gets from the people in between him and the attacker. Generally, standing behind a creature of the same size category gives someone half cover, which means a -4 penalty on the attack. However, this is always subject to GM adjudication, and the GM can determine that the bad guy gets more or less cover depending on the situation.

To determine if a missed attack hits the cover (in this case, the hostage), simply determine whether the attack would have hit if the cover hadn't been there. For example, if the bad guy's Defense is 17 (meaning you need a 21 to hit him with the cover penalty), and you roll a 19, you hit the cover. (A 19 would have hit the bad guy if the cover hadn't been included.)

The two penalty sources stack, so if you don't have Precise Shot and you're shooting at a bad guy who has one-half cover from a hostage, you're looking at a total penalty of -8. However, to determine if a missed attack hits the hostage, the guidelines I just gave you only apply to the cover penalty, not the shooting into melee penalty. So, going back to my example, the roll of 19 would not hit the hostage. The bad guy has a Defense of 17. The shooting into melee penalty means you need a 21 to hit him. Throw in the cover, and you need a 25. Any result less than 21 misses completely; any result of 25 or greater hits the bad guy. Only results of 21 through 24 (in other words, misses caused by the cover penalty) miss the bad guy and hit the hostage.

Why can't I get the benefits of burst fire when I use a weapon with a three-round burst setting, even if I don't have the Burst Fire feat?

There are a lot of misconceptions about what a three-round burst setting on a weapon does for the user. Many people think the setting is designed to allow more accurate use of autofire, presumably by limiting the recoil of the weapon. It would seem to make sense, then, that the user should get the benefits of the Burst Fire feat when using such a setting. The truth, however, is that the three-round burst setting is a limiter designed to prevent the wasting of ammunition. It serves no other purpose and offers no other advantage when the weapon is fired.

A three-round burst setting makes it no more of less easy to aim autofire at an individual target. It simply prevents someone who uses autofire in this manner from wasting ammunition.

Do brass knuckles provoke attacks of opportunity, even though they deal lethal damage? When used with the Brawl feat, they increase the base damage dealt by +1 -- is that 1d6+1 lethal damage or 1D3+1 lethal? Do brass knuckles have any effect on the Improved Brawl or Combat Martial Arts feats?

Attacks made with brass knuckles provoke attacks of opportunity just like normal unarmed attacks. Also, you cannot make attacks of opportunity with brass knuckles (just as you cannot make attacks of opportunity with normal unarmed attacks). When used with the Brawl feat, brass knuckles deal 1d3+1. You gain no additional benefit from brass knuckles for having the Improved Brawl feat, and there is no benefit to using brass knuckles with the Combat Martial Arts feats.

Why are the range increments in d20 Modern so low? Can't modern sniping rifles and tank cannons hit targets as far away as a mile or two?

A weapon's range increment is not merely ``the longest range we've ever heard rumors of this weapon being used at divided by 10.'' The actual formula is roughly 2/3 of maximum effective range divided by 10. This provides a base maximum range unaffected by feats or special equipment; the actual effective range is attained (or exceeded) by adding such elements as the Far Shot feat or special sighting devices.

If a character takes the feat Weapon Focus for his rifle, does that apply to all forms of attack with the rifle, including making rifle butt or fixed bayonet melee attacks?

No. If two functions of a weapon require separate proficiency feats, they aren't both covered by a single Weapon Focus feat. In this case, shooting your rifle requires the Personal Firearms Proficiency feat, clubbing someone with the rifle butt requires the Simple Weapons Proficiency feat, and using a fixed bayonet requires the Archaic Weapon Proficiency feat.

Sometimes weapons have more than one function, but the multiple uses are covered under a single proficiency feat.

What happens when you try to sideswipe a vehicle into a person?

There are no special rules for sideswiping a person; the rules for the sideswipe stunt apply to any target the driver wants to sideswipe. (In fact, it says ``a driver can attempt to sideswipe a vehicle or other target'' right in the first sentence.)

That said, the text might be easier to interpret if the fourth paragraph had been written as such:

``If the stunt is successful, the sideswiping vehicle and the target both take damage as if they had collided (See Collisions and Ramming, page 160), except that the collision multiplier is 1/4, and the target (or the driver of the target vehicle) can make a Reflex save (DC 15) to reduce the damage to both vehicles by half of that result. If the target is another vehicle, that vehicle's driver must succeed at a Drive check (DC 15) at the beginning of his next action or lose control of the vehicle.''

The rules, of course, state that you can't use a ranged weapon for an attack of opportunity. I imagine this is because ranged attacks draw an AoO when used in melee range. Would the Gunslinger ability of Close Combat Shot(which does not draw an AoO when a ranged weapon is fired in melee combat) allow you to use a ranged weapon as an AoO?

Close combat shot does exactly what it says it does: allows you to make attacks with some firearmes without provoking attacks of opportunity. Just because it protects you from attacks of opportunity does not mean that it allows you to make them.

Can a Bodyguard use the Harm's Way ability when he if flat-footed, If he started the combat adjacent to the ally that he is defending?

Nope!

I can't seem to find a rule regarding double-barrel shotguns. If both barrels are fired at once, is the attack handled like a double-tap (one extra die of damage)?

Effectively, yes.

If the shotgun is fully-loaded (there's a shell in both barrels), you can fire both at once. You receive a -2 penalty on the attack, but you deal +1 die of damage with a successful hit. Obviously, firing both barrels leaves the weapon empty; you have to reload to fire again. You do not need to have the double tap feat.

Reloading a double-barrel shotgun, like reloading any firearm with an internal magazine, is a full-round action.

These rules apply to the sawed-off shotgun in the d20 Modern rulebook.

Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. By acquiring just one feat -- TWF feat -- I can use one weapon in my off hand at no penalty, even if I'm not fighting with two weapons (let's say hypothetically, I injured my primary hand)?

The d20 rules never specify which hand is your primary hand. (There's no place on the character sheet to specify whether your character is right-handed or left-handed, and most players probably never even give it a thought.) Furthermore, there are no rules for hit location, or for being specially incapacitated by damage. In short, the d20 system simply never deals with what happens if you use a single weapon in your non-primary hand. So that's not really an issue.

More importantly, we realized that the Ambidexterity feat really only served to make two-weapon fighting an ability that costs two feats instead of one. This seemed like a needless cost and a needless complication. So we got rid of it. The advantages of two-weapon fighting are still pretty marginal (in my mind, anyway); it's really more an issue of style than of substance. Most of the players who choose to fight with two weapons do so because it's pretty cool, not because they gain any real edge in combat. And that's as it should be--players get options that suit their tastes, while the game remains balanced and has the right feel.

I have been looking everything over, and I cannot find a single reason why anyone in their right mind would employ a machinegun. You need an extra feat for it, with the quick reload feat you can do everything with an automatic 7.62mm rifle that a machinegun can, only better.

You don't actually need the Advanced Firearms feat to use an MG. When you use autofire, you target a 10' square with an effective Defense of 10. Without the feat, you take a -4 on the attack--making the roll, effectively, against a Defense of 14. That's still less than the Defense of many characters, so even an attacker without the feat can use autofire pretty effectively. [So why ever take the Advance Firearms feat? Well, getting rid of the -4 is a small reason, but the big reason is that it's a prereq for other important feats, like Burst Fire.] That leaves us with two advantages to using an M60 instead of a G3: longer range increment, and a large (possibly unlimited) ammo capacity. These factors may not be very important in most roleplaying game encounters, which occur quickly and at close range. That's fine. If your characters are finding that the G3 suits them better in most of their encounters, that's probably pretty realistic.

If using two guns, can you Double Tap with both weapons in the same round?

Sure. And of you have multiple attacks (due to a high BAB), you can double-tap on each attack. The restrictions are that you suffer the -2 modifier on each attack (which can get pretty steep if you're stacking it on top of two-weapon fighting penalties) and that you have to have enough ammo in the weapon.

Combining the Martial Artist with the Soldier gives you Improved Combat Martial Arts, which increases unarmed threat range to 19-20, and the Soldier's Improved Critical, which bumps it up by one. This makes my threat range 18--20, correct?

If I understand your question correctly, you're asking if the 19--20 threat range from Improved Combat Martial Arts stacks with the increase in threat range from the soldier's Improved Critical class ability. (Assuming, of course, that unarmed strike is the weapon chosen by the soldier for his weapon specialization class ability.)

The answer is Yes. A 5th-level soldier who chose unarmed strike as his weapon specialization back at 2nd level has a threat range of 18-20 if he also has the Improved Combat Martial Arts feat.

Later, add Advanced Martial artist, meaning that criticals are 18-20/x3. Then, add Knockout Punch and Improved Knockout Punch. Improved Knockout punch gives you a x3 critical. Does this mean that you use the d20-standard and make that auto-critical x4 nonlethal when attacking a flat-footed opponent?

No. The benefits from the Combat Martial Arts feats do no stack with those of the Brawl feats.

While not normally a common piece of equipment for a modern day character, riot shields, capture shields, and various other shields still do find the occasional use, and I was wondering how they are meant to be handled. I noticed no 'shield proficiency' feat off-hand. Should I have one if shields are to play any role in the game, or do they fall under one of the existing armor proficiencies? Do they still provide an armor class/defense bonus, or are shields simply considered 'cover', like the D&D tower shields?

Shields work the same in d20 Modern as in D&D. A character proficient in medium or heavy armor is proficient with shields. You'll see a fair bit more on shields in Urban Arcana.

It says that the driver of a vehicle can do up to 2 stunts during movement, if no attack action is taken. However, in the description of 'dash' and 'hard brake' (or whatever it's called) it tells the total possible change in movement categories as if it were only possible to do that stunt once in a round. I would appreciate some clarification on this matter.

A vehicle cannot increase speed more than two speed categories per round, and cannot decrease speed more than three speed categories per round. Thus, you can only succeed in one dash or hard brake stunt per round. However, if you attempt a dash, and fail, you can use your second stunt to attempt it again.

Well, since I haven't really found anything about anything, I feel I have to ask. This is at least partly about secret agents and the like, and well, say agent and I think most think of Bond. And that leads us to Q-branch. So, is there any plans for rules to modify vehicles? Souped-up engines, armor, and of course the .50-cals behind the headlights and the catapult passanger seat. I know that there might not be TONS of it in my campaign, but I also know at least one and possibly more of my playes will ask! *G*

No vehicle modification rules exist at this time. I'd love to see some, mainly because I think my players would like to make some modifications to their Humvee in our post-apocalyptic campaign. (A ram plate would be nice, considering how often the front end of their vehicle is used as a weapon--and how much time they spend on repairs afterward!) Maybe we'll put something together soon.

1) If a character in a threatened area provokes an attack of opportunity from an opponent with a pistol or rifle, the opponent can make an attack of opportunity with their pistol grip or rifle butt. 2) Also, attacks of opportunity cannot be made by using a ranged attack, but can be made by using the melee aspect of an otherwise ranged weapon (e.g., stab with a throwing knife, whip with a pistol grip).

Both of these are correct. Now, here's one point you might consider: If a melee attack form does not appear on the melee weapons list, it probably counts as an improvised weapon. For example, whacking someone with your crossbow is probably an improvised weapon attack. In such cases, the attacker suffers a -4 penalty (see Improvised Weapons on page 109).

During a full-attack option, can a character switch freely between the ranged and melee aspects of pistols and rifles? For example, could a character with a rifle and 3 attacks due to high BAB, shoot at one target, strike a melee opponent with their rifle butt, and then shoot another target? If they alternate between modes in one full-attack action, do they suffer an attack penalty to either set of attacks (or both)?

A: The attacker can switch between modes freely. The attacker provokes attacks of opportunity any time she makes a ranged attack within a threatened square.

I have heard people say ``if you can stun someone during a fight, then KnockOut punch will pretty much finish him off''. I am a little confused, because I do not think that is how the rules work, for three reasons: - when you equal or exceed someone's Con with non-lethal damage, they make a DC 15 save. If they succeed, they are DAZED, not stunned (and if they fail they fall unconscious)...KO Punch only applies when the opponent is FLAT-FOOTED, not dazed or stunned [and] ... dazed, flat-footed and stunned are all separate conditions and (while similar in some respects) are not equivalent...So it seems to me that KO Punch (and Imp KO Punch) will only ever work during the first round of a fight, if you can catch someone flatfooted. Am I missing something here?

Flat-footed is not the same thing as denied Dex bonus. Flat-footed only occurs at the beginning of combat, when a character has not yet acted. I can't think of any situation in which a character already in combat becomes flat-footed. (There may be such situations, but if so they're rare; I can't think of any at the moment.) Yes, Knockout Punch could easily be named Sucker Punch. (In fact, I remember that we considered that name when we were designing the feats; I don't recall exactly why we decided against it.) It really is useful mainly in surprise situations.

Since a character is Flat-Footed until they've acted, if such a character were Dazed before their first action, would this mean that the character is Flat-Footed for an extra round since being Dazed means not being able to act?

You betcha. If a brawler can keep a target dazed (by forcing massive damage saves, even if the target succeeds in the saves), the target remains flat-footed (and thus susceptible to Knockout Punch).

Why can't vehicles suffer critical hits?

Vehicles are objects. Critical hits apply only to creatures.

Why have you made vehicles objects though? Seems to take the fun out of vehicle combat.

Have you played any vehicle combat yet? It's been plenty of fun in my games! Some food for thought:
  1. The rules give you some options for disabling vehicles other than simply reducing them to 0 hp. Shooting out the tires or windshield is more interesting in the game (and realistic) than trying for a critical hit.
  2. If you're imagining critical hits as huge fiery explosions like in the movies, remember that what comes around goes around. If you can blast your opponents in a gigantic explosion, they can do the same to you. One of the challenges in designing the vehicle combat system was preventing cars from becoming whole-party coffins. We don't wan't anyone's campaign being brought to a screeching and untimely halt because a lucky roll by a bad guy resulted in the fiery death of the entire party!
  3. Sure, you may think that cars have a "discernable anatomy," and you may think you know what that anatomy is. But what about a UFO? A mini-submarine? Those cool little carlike things in Minority Report? Where do you draw the line between objects (even vehicles) that have discernable anatomies and those that don't?
  4. Vehicles may be immune to crits (and hence coups de gras), but they can still be quickly dispatched. That's what Disable Device is for.
  5. Some people have complained that we didn't stat armored vehicles tough enough. Part of that is because they are immune to crits. Allow crits against vehicles, and you may end up with some squirrely results when playing with armored vehicles.
All of these issues (except perhaps #2) are solvable if you really feel crits against objects will make your game better. And you're always welcome--encouraged, even--the modify the game as you see fit. But my guess is that if you give it a try as written, you'll be happy with the results.

How much cover bonus does a tank benefit from a hull-down position?

As with all cover situations, that's for your GM to adjudicate. (I'd probably give a tank 3/4 cover against attacks from the front for being hull down.)

What kind of equipment bonus does the M1's Fire Control System give to gunner's attack rolls, when tank is moving?

We don't specify. However, it's probably not unreasonable to allow the fire control system to negate some of the penalties for a moving vehicle, up to, say, 2 points of penalty.

The d20 Modern version of the Shuriken seems to work differently than I am used to. How does it work?

OK, here's the scoop on shuriken. Forget what you know about D&D shuriken; in d20 Modern they work differently. You can only throw one at a time, and you do get to add your Strength bonus to damage. And, as the rules state, you can draw them as a free action. What does that mean? Dealing only 1 point of damage is pretty weak, but 1 + Str bonus can be OK if you have a decent Strength. Drawing as a free action can be a real bonus. Shuriken can be a useful delivery system for special attacks, such as poison.

I was wondering about a cars hardness and shooting through the car. Seeing as a car has a hardness of 5 and every gun does atleast 2d6. If you shoot at a door of a car forever. The car will not become disabled, so where does the extra damage go?? I was watching a tv show and a bank robbery in LA where the robbers had automatic rifles (AK47 or something) They were pumping round after round into a car where a few people hiding behind. every one of those people got hit. Why not in D20. Could it be like the glass where if you try to shoot somebody with glass between you and them you see first if you hit the glass and the glass has like a hardness of 2 and 1hp and then you see if you hit the person and add the leftover damage? Is that Valid? or what else would be good. I know that the door would provide concealment and the doors hardness and hp for cover but would it be possible to hit somebody ducking in a car??

Here's how it works: Sam hides behind a car. Yuriko shoots at him. GM rules that Sam has 9/10 cover, since it's possible to actually see some part of him depending on the angle of the shot. He gets a +10 cover bonus to Defense, and a +4 bonus to any Reflex save (taking half damage if he fails his save and no damage if he succeeds). The Reflex save is important for situations where a bank-robbing whack job fires his AK 47 on full auto at cops and bystanders hiding behind cars (see the Autofire rules under Special Attacks in Chapter Five: Combat). Depending on where Sam hides and whether or not he's shooting back, he may have less cover. If it's important to know what happens to the car, you use the "Striking the Cover Instead of a Missed Target" rules in Chapter Five: Combat. In d20, you shoot at your target. Any intervening object gives cover or concealment, but you still shoot at the target.

It's true that in real life, sometimes attacks penetrate cover and hit people on the other side. We don't really model that in the d20 system--just like we don't model the fact that an attack can go right through the target and hit a second person. You might want a house rule of some sort; something similar to the rules for shooting through windows. Perhaps a car door has hardness 5 and, say, 3 hit points. If you hit the target's Defense but miss because of the cover bonus, any excess damage is taken by the target. That would probably work reasonably well, though I'm betting that the benefit to your game experience wouldn't be worth the extra complication and the slowing down of play. YMMV, of course.

Weapon Finese: Unarmed Strike: You can do that.. right?

Under Unarmed Attacks (page 135), it says "Unarmed strikes count as light melee weapons (for purposes of two-weapon attack penalties and so on)." Use of the Weapon Finesse feat falls under the "and so on" part. In other words, yes, you can choose unarmed strike as you Weapon Finesse "weapon."

I know others have dredged this up but I wanted Mr. Ryan's opinion on this. How come in d20 Modern there's no rules about shotgun spread. The closest I found was the damage thinning at ranges. Even indoors at twenty feet you can peg people standing six feet apart.

Despite the misperception common in most roleplaying systems, shotguns do not spread that widely. (The spread at moderate ranges is about enough to cover a dinner plate--NOT enough to hit several people.)

That said, I've provided some slightly different rules in Ultramodern Firearms: The -2 penalty per range increment applies to damage, rather than attack rolls. This means that shotguns are a little more likely to hit at long ranges (due to their spread), but that their damage falls off with range (due to the fact that few projectiles might hit, and that shot loses its velocity faster than ballistic rounds do). [It will have the] same theoretical maximum as any other non-thrown ranged weapon: 10 range increments. However, in practice the maximum is lower: a 2d8 shotgun losing -2 damage every range increment has a functional maximum range of 8 range increments. (If you roll 16 damage, after 8 range increments that damage is reduced to 1). On average, the damage is reduced to 1 after 4 to 5 range increments. See how cleverly that works out! [Also] Ultramodern Firearms has rules for different forms of shotgun ammo (and ammo for other firearm types as well, of course), and for different types of choke.

[Assume the following senario] Let's say that your PCs and some [Werewolf] bad guys are shooting at each other. [The Werewolves have no cover, but the four PCs do have cover as follows.] Al is standing around the corner, looking around to fire off shots as he can. Bev is kneeling around the same corner, leaning out to fire off shots in tandem with Al. Carl is standing behind [some 3-foot high] crates. Dana is kneeling behind the same crates, looking out to pop shots at the werewolves as they start to close on her and Carl. [Anything wrong with this senario so far?]

[Yes] If A is standing at a corner (occupying the square behind the corner), B can't also be there (occupying the same square), regardless of whether she's standing or kneeling. The two characters can't take up the same space. (You could house rule this one if you really want it to be possible for two people to shoot around the same corner (or from behind the same car door, or whatever); perhaps each person suffers a -4 penalty on attacks, or a -2 on attacks and -2 on Defense, because they're in each others' way.)

[In the above scenario] Do any of the werewolves have cover relative to any of the PCs, based on what I said?

The answer is no. If they were using melee weapons, it'd be a different story, but the fact that they're using ranged weapons makes it like arrowslits -- the werewolves don't get any cover.

[In the above scenario] What bonuses to Defense would each person have?

A: I would probably give everyone half cover. (More than half of their bodies are covered, but probably half or so of their vital areas are exposed. (This is the same reason a 3-foot wall only gives you one-quarter cover--see page 144 for more.)) [As for D] [y]ou can give her the normal cover plus the kneeling bonus, or the better cover--whichever is higher. In this case, obviously, the result is the same. But if she started at half-cover, and kneeling improved her cover to three-quarters, I'd give her the benefit of +7 (three-quarters) rather than +6 (one-half cover plus kneeling). (Note that kneeling doesn't always increase your cover; if you started and half-cover and kneeling didn't actually increase it to three-quarters, the bonus should only increase to +6. As with all cover situations, it's up to the GM to visualize the situation and decide how much cover the character has.)

[In the above scenario] just to make sure of the mechanics, how would you as a GM deal with a player who said, "I want to snap off a shot at the werewolf and then duck down behind the crate completely"?

A: I'd say "yes, and I want a pony." Seriously, the characters' normal efforts to avoid being hit are already built into their Defense. If the character wants to take extra steps (perhaps that's what's happening here), she can fight defensively, using the normal rules for that (-4 on attack, +2 to Defense)--see the top of page 137. Hope that helps. Glad to hear that the players are making some smart tactical decisions in their gunplay!

The rules state that if the attack that disables a vehicle deals damage equal to half its full normal hit points or more, the vehicle explodes after 1d6 rounds. This explosion deals 10d6 points of damage to everyone within the vehicle (Reflex save, DC 20, for half damage), and half that much to everyone and everything within 30 feet of the explosion (Reflex save, DC 15, for half damage). What type of damage is this? Fire? Concussive? Combination of the two? None of the above?

Fire.

Can a character make their off-hand unarmed attacks with something other than their hand while using a two-handed weapon as their primary weapon (e.g., great sword, rifle)? The text for unarmed attacks indicates that they can be made as kicks or headbutts; Living Weapon includes elbows and knees as well.

I don't see why not. If you have a great sword in hand, and want to take the TWF penalties to also throw a kick in with your great sword attack, you certainly can.

If the character is using a two-handed melee weapon as their primary attack and a non-hand unarmed attack (kicks, etc.) as their off-hand attack, what would be the damage bonus for high STR?

The two-handed weapon gets 1.5 x Str; the unarmed strike gets half Str. Standard rules apply; they don't change just because the off-"hand" is a kick.

An interesting question about two-handed and off-hand attacks with a negative STR modifier: does the two-handed weapon use a straight 1.0xSTR penalty or is it 0.5xSTR penalty?

If your Strength modifier is negative, you always add 1 x the modifier to damage, regardless of whether the attack is one-handed, two-handed, with a light weapon, with an off-hand, etc. The Strength mod multiplier for off-hand or two-handed weapons only applies if your modifier is a bonus.

Can AoOs be made with either set of attacks in a two-weapon combination? If the character is making ranged weapon attacks with their primary hand, they should be able to either use their off-hand melee attack or the melee aspect of the ranged weapon in their primary hand (pistol whip, rifle butt) for the AoOs.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking here. If you get an attack of opportunity, you can make it with any melee weapon you have in hand. That includes a rifle butt (even if you were using the rifle as a ranged weapon on your turn) or an unarmed strike (if you have Combat Martial Arts). You can't make an AoO with a ranged weapon.

Does the use of a two-weapon attack need to be declared at the beginning of attacks by a character?

Absolutely, since the penalties apply to your first attack as well as the additional attack.

If a character initiates a two-weapon attack (normally a full attack), and makes their first primary weapon attack, can they then break off the attack and take a move action, or are they stuck with the full attack action?

You can take a move action. After all, you've already paid a penalty in taking the TWF penalty on the first attack, and you haven't done anything that takes more than a standard action. (You've only made one attack.)

If a character is using a two-weapon attack, with a ranged weapon for one set and a melee weapon/CMA unarmed attack for the other, do their ranged attacks still provoke AoOs, or does their melee weapon/CMA attack indicate that they are still on the defensive? Would the same thing also apply to non-CMA unarmed attacks mixed with a melee weapon? If the character's ranged weapon is alternating between melee and ranged attacks (rifle shot, rifle butt, rifle shot), would it also apply?

Anything that normally provokes an attack of opportunity does so even when you are two-weapon fighting. The fact that you are fighting with two weapons does not negate attacks of opportunity you might provoke. So, for example, if you attack with a knife in one hand and an unarmed strike (and you don't have Combat Martial Arts), the unarmed strike provokes an AoO just like normal. Likewise with ranged attacks. (Note, however, that you can't get the benefit of the Two-Weapon Fighting feat when mixing ranged and melee weapons; if you mix them you are stuck with the normal penalties.)

Can a character alternate between CMA-lethal and Brawl-nonlethal unarmed attacks in a single full attack?

Absolutely. Why not?

Now I was wondering what if your PC gets killed what are you to do? It is not like D&D where you can just go to your local temple and pay for raise dead spell because magic is not as common here. I guess that you could spend some time and look for a person who has the spell (if you are even allowing them) but they would have to be at least 9th level.

In d20 Modern, dead is usually dead. Just one of the differences between a modern setting and a high fantasy setting.

D20 Modern states that concussive damage is a type of energy damage. Objects are affected by energy damage in different ways, depending upon the type of energy. For example, sonic and acid deal full damage to objects, fire deals half, and cold deals one quarter. How does concussive damage affect objects? Full? Half? Other?

Concussive attacks deal normal damage to most objects. (In general, concussive behaves identical to sonic damage.)

How come two people can punch each other all day and not have a scratch under the current nonlethal rules? That makes no sense!

OK, let me clear this up completely:
Two average joes, with no special skills or feats, can punch each other all day long. No one is going to be knocked unconscious, and no-one is going to be seriously hurt. They may have some bruises, black eyes, and bloody noses, but nothing serious enough to warrant the actual loss of a hit point.

Realistic? Maybe, maybe not. (I tend to think it is--I've never seen anyone knocked out or seriously hurt in a fistfight, unless the fighters were experienced or using weapons.) It's certainly more realistic than the subdual system, in which average Joes will reliable knock each other unconscious after about three hits.

On the flip side, the all-or-nothing nature of this system models something we see in movies all the time--the ability to sneak up behind a guard, hit him on the head, and have him fall unconscious. It takes a couple feats to be able to do this reliably, but it works (it doesn't work with the subdual system if the target is higher than 1st or maybe 2nd level).

Hope that clears things up!

But that means three low level guys can gang up on one guy and never knock him out! Fix these rules!

Three refugees (or accountants) trap a character in a back alley. They start kicking and punching him, apparently with the goal of knocking him unconscious. After 15 or 20 seconds, the character is not unconscious. The frustrated refugees (or accountants) start picking up bottles and two-by-fours. Now they're packing some punch, and the character, whose beating to this point was entirely superficial, starts taking some real injury.

What's wrong with this scenario? Nothing. It's realistic. It's the sort of thing we see in modern movies and fiction all the time. And it's exactly the result you get in d20 Modern.

Some people have called on us to "fix" these rules "before it's too late." We aren't going to, because they aren't broken. They work great in play, they require less bookkeeping than the subdual system, and they're more (yes, that's more) realistic.

If you'd like to use a different system in your home campaign, by all means do so. But recognize that you're doing so because of a difference in your taste, not because of a flaw in the game.

I, and the rest of the design team, stand by the assertion that this is a realistic, playable, and enjoyable system--and I think you'll agree when you give it a try. If it bothers you that two accountants can trade punches all day long with no real effect, I offer two points:

First, the game is not about amateur fisticuffs. If you need to simulate schoolyard scuffles, pick up a copy of Atlas Games' Lunch Money. You'll have a lot more fun. But if you're like most of us, the corner cases that are causing such a fuss on this thread will never come up in your game.

Second, remember that in the game, like in real life, people who actually want to harm one another have many options other than trading painful but generally harmless punches. They can pick up weapons. They can accept the standard -4 penalty for dealing normal damage. They can grapple. They can look for situational advantages. They can take a karate class.

If your idea of a fight is two people trading punches, with one of them falling unconscious after 18 or 24 seconds, this system isn't for you. If, on the other hand, you can see that in real life, the movies, comics, books, and every other milieu you might reasonably want to mimic in a modern roleplaying game, unarmed fights are somewhat more chaotic and require more creative approaches than simply trading punches, you'll probably find that d20 Modern's system serves your needs just fine!

I hope this answers any lingering questions. I certainly hope that, even if you aren't convinced, you can find some other aspect of d20 Modern of greater importance on which to base your decision to buy and enjoy the game.

Do people take half damage if they make their save? They do for other area of effect attacks.

The rules on this are pretty clear: "every creature within the affected area must make a Relex save (DC 15) or take the weapon's damage."

Anyone who says you take half damage on a save is reading something into the rules that isn't there. Period.

It's true that, in the d20 System, many effects that allow Reflex saves deal half damage on a failed save. Apparently, some people are now assuming that that's the default rule. It isn't. If a save cuts the damage in half, the rules will say so.

In general, how does healing differ between D&D and d20 Modern?

In general: Yes, there are differences in the way healing works between d20 Modern and D&D (in fact, there are differences in almost every subsystem). The reasons for these differences are generally A) we felt that some systems should just work differently in a modern setting, and B) it's been 3 years since the design of D&D was wrapped up, and in the intervening years we've simply thought of better ways to handle some things. In the case of healing, there's also C) magical healing, considered a standard part of D&D, is rarer (sometimes nonexistant) in d20 Modern, so we needed to pay more attention to the skill's capabilities, and strengthen it to keep the game playable (without eclipsing the value of magical healing when and where it does exist in the game).

How do natural healing and long term care combine?

OK, here's an clarification of how natural healing and long term care work in d20 Modern: If you get a good night's sleep (8 hours), you gain back 1 hp per level. (We changed this from D&D's full day of light activity because A) we didn't want characters without magical healing to have to quit the adventure in order to heal, and B) most players ignore the D&D rule anyway, and simply regain 1 hp/level/day no matter what their characters do.) If you go with full bed rest, you gain back 2 hp/level/day. If you benefit from long term care--which requires full bed rest--you gain back 3 hp/level/day.

Is it necessary to use tool kits to heal people?

Now, equipment (a first aid, medical, or surgery kit) is required for most Treat Injury checks. As with all checks that require tools, you can attempt it without the tool, but you suffer a -4 penalty. Except where noted, the tools are not interchangeable. (You can't use a surgery kit if a medical kit is required.)

The driving rules don't seem to include aerial manoeuvres; they all require Drive checks. Are the Pilot DCs the same? Will air combat rules come out in Urban Arcana or a future supplement?

We don't have complete air combat rules at this time. The vehicle combat system should work just fine for basic air movement (though you might think up a few additional manoeuvres). The Drive check DCs apply to Pilot checks when the vehicles in question are aircraft.

If, for my turn's action, Can I first move my Speed (30 ft.) then, for my second Action, take a 'Start/Compete Full-Round Action' attack action, and start a Full Attack action?

The effect of the action always occurs in the second half. You don't break up the action over the two turns; you do the whole thing on the second turn. Thus, if you used it to make a full attack, you wouldn't make any of the attacks until the second round. Start/Complete only applies to actions that you conduct continuously over the length of a turn--like casting a full-round spell. Discrete activities, like making attacks, cannot be used with the Start/Complete.

Does improved brawl or combat martial arts have any effect on using brass knuckles? Does improved brawl increase brass knuckle damage at all?

Combat Martial Arts has no effect on using brass knuckles, and vice versa. Brawl can be used with brass knuckles only when dealing nonlethal damage; if you choose to deal lethal damage, you don't get the benefit of the Brawl feat.

Now, why all the confusion? It really comes down to a single word in the description of brass knuckles on page 106: ``[brass knuckles] allow you to deal lethal damage with an unarmed strike. . .'' That means you have a choice when you use brass knuckles: you can deal lethal or nonlethal damage. Unfortunately, in my notes in one location I had apparently misread that as ``brass knuckles cause you to deal lethal damage. . .'' (You don't have a choice; the damage is automatically lethal.) If that were the case, you wouldn't be able to stack the benefits of brass knuckles with Brawl or Knockout Punch, since those feats deal only with nonlethal damage.

If you want to deal lethal damage with brass knuckles, you cannot take advantage of any feat that delivers nonlethal damage only. That means you don't get the benefit of the Brawl or Knockout Punch feats.

If you want to deal nonlethal damage, here's how things play out: There are 2 sets of rulings from you on switching between the ranged use and melee use for a firearm, and I just wanted a confirmation/clarification.
Currently the ruling looks like you can always make an AOO with a firearm by using it as a melee weapon (provided the attack is a listed attack, like rifle butt, pistol whip, fixed bayonet, etc...), even if your last use was as a ranged weapon. However, for purposes of a disarm attempt, you go by whatever the last use of the weapon was (melee or ranged). Is this correct?
Here are the prior rulings:

Is a firearm considered a ranged or melee weapon for purposes of disarm attempts?
The default answer is that a firearm is a ranged weapon; therefore you use the rules for disarming opponents with ranged weapons. However, if the opponent last used his weapon as a melee weapon (making a pistol whip, rifle butt, or fixed bayonet attack), treat the firearm as a melee weapon.

1) If a character in a threatened area provokes an attack of opportunity from an opponent with a pistol or rifle, the opponent can make an attack of opportunity with their pistol grip or rifle butt. 2) Also, attacks of opportunity cannot be made by using a ranged attack, but can be made by using the melee aspect of an otherwise ranged weapon (e.g., stab with a throwing knife, whip with a pistol grip).
Both of these are correct. Now, here's one point you might consider: If a melee attack form does not appear on the melee weapons list, it probably counts as an improvised weapon. For example, whacking someone with your crossbow is probably an improvised weapon attack. In such cases, the attacker suffers a -4 penalty (see Improvised Weapons on page 109).

During a full-attack option, can a character switch freely between the ranged and melee aspects of pistols and rifles? For example, could a character with a rifle and 3 attacks due to high BAB, shoot at one target, strike a melee opponent with their rifle butt, and then shoot another target? If they alternate between modes in one full-attack action, do they suffer an attack penalty to either set of attacks (or both)?
The attacker can switch between modes freely. The attacker provokes attacks of opportunity any time she makes a ranged attack within a threatened square.

The second and third questions both deal with what the gun-wielder has to do to switch modes between ranged and melee attacks. In both cases, the answer is "nothing." In effect, the gun wielder can use either mode of attack whenever he or she wants; changing modes is not an action.

The first question deals with how the gun-wielder's opponent addresses disarm attempts. The answer is that; unless you have a reason to do otherwise, treat the firearm as a ranged weapon.

I don't think there's a contradiction here, unless I'm missing something. If so, please let me know!

Different guns have different kinds of safeties, and for some weapons, HKP7, it is a major feature of the gun. But I don't see any rules for what kind of action tripping a manual safety is, whether you can do it while drawing a gun, and wat happens if you wander around without a safty on at all?

Activating a weapon's safety is a free action. For this reason, we don't bother with rules for whether the weapon is on safe or not; it's assumed the weapon is safe when appropriate, and not safe when appropriate.

What can you do while at 0 hp and disabled without losing an hp. It says any strenuous activity makes you drop to -1, but what is considered by rule standards as strenuous? Is it attacking, is moving your speed in distance stenuous?

In general, you can do anything listed under Move Actions on Table 5-2 without losing a hit point. Your GM may always has the option of deciding that something is strenuous, however, depending on the circumstance. For example, moving a heavy object is probably strenuous most of the time.

Most things that require an attack action are strenuous. Again, your GM can rule something non-strenuous, as he sees fit. For example, there are many skill uses that require an attack action that probably aren't strenuous.

As a guideline, how long should elapse between surprise rounds? For example, a hero sneaks into the compound, surprises some guards, and shoots at them. Now, we can all agree that he shouldn't just be able to run round the corner or throw a smoke grenade, Hide again and get another surprise round. But how long should it take for the guards to once again be able to be surprised? If more heroes or guards sneak onto the scene, and their enemies don't detect them, how is that handled? Is surprise no longer a factor after a combat begins?

A surprise round occurs any time initiative is rolled and some characters are surprised; a surprise round can occur at the beginning of every encounter. There is no time limit between encounters. If one encounter ends, you'll probably want to end the initiative and roll again when the next encounter begins, even if that's just a minute later. With the start of a new encounter, there's the possibility of a surprise round. If the guards in a compound have heard gunfire, they're likely to be alert--so it'll be hard to get the drop on them. (Simply providing yourself with concealment doesn't mean you surprise your opponent.) But just because they're alert doesn't mean that they can't be surprised.

Is it possible to climb 50 ft. up a wall, then jump down and count that as a charge (or dive)? Can Tumble help against the damage taken?

Falling is not movement, so, technically, you can't charge while falling. That said, I'd probably bend that rule a touch to allow a character to make a charge by jumping from a height. There are a lot of important considerations, though. For starters, the fall would have to be deliberate. In other words, if you jump from a height, you can use the drop as a charge. But if you fall inadvertantly, you cannot. When you make a charge, you can't do any other movement, including movement to line up the charge. Thus, you must already be in perfect position at the start of your turn. You can't climb up and then jump, all in the same round. And you can't line yourself up if you're not directly above the opponent. You have to already be in position. You can jump down from directly over the opponent, or from 5 feet to any side (so that you land in a square adjacent to the opponent). Remember that if you land in the opponent's square, you provoke an attack of opportunity before you make your attack (just like any other time you try to enter an opponent's square). All the other rules for charging apply. For example, you must drop at least 10 feet, but no more than twice your speed. (If you have a speed of 30, you can make a charge attack if you fall 60 feet, but not if you fall 70 feet.) At the end of the charge, after the attack, you take damage from the fall. As normal, you can make a Tumble check to reduce that damage.

16  Chapter Six -- Advanced Classes

What's the difference between the Investigator's discern lies ability and the normal use of the Sense Motive skill?

To see the difference between Sense Motive and discern lie, lets look at the two ways Sense Motive can be used: to overcome a bluff, and to get a sense of the trustworthiness of an NPC.

In the first case, keep in mind that a bluff is not the same thing as a lie. A bluff is a quick prevarication intended to distract, confuse, or mislead, generally only for the short term. A bluff is not intended to withstand long-term or careful scrutiny, but rather to momentarily deter an action or decision. You bluff your way past a security guard by flashing a video club card and acting like you know what you're doing. You bluff your way out of a brawl by acting like you're tougher than the 250-pound biker. Bluffs involve attitude and body language. Bluffs often include lies, but they usually aren't very sophisticated and aren't intended to deceive the target for more than a few moments.

A lie, on the other hand, is a simple misrepresentation of the facts. A suspect tells you he was in Chicago on the day of the crime, when in fact he wasn't. A client tells you he'll pay $10,000 for the job when he intends to stiff you. Body language and attitude aren't a big part of communication. The lie may be very sophisticated and well thought-out, and is intended to deceive you at least until you discover evidence to the contrary.

Sense Motive checks can help you see through bluffs. But, when used properly, they should not help you determine that any given statement is a lie. Furthermore, an NPC should not have to make a Bluff check every time he utters a lie-therefore, there's nothing to use Sense Motive on.

The second function of Sense Motive is to determine the general trustworthiness of a character. Using it in this way, you might determine that your suspect is highly, well, suspicious, and might tend to lie to you. But that doesn't tell you which, if any, specific statements are untrue. (In fact, an NPC can be highly untrustworthy even if he doesn't happen to be telling any lies at the moment!) Furthermore, this use of Sense Motive requires a whole minute to use, so it can't be applied to a single statement.

Discern lies, on the other hand, can be applied to determine the truth of an individual statement.

After using Talk Down the target is ``indifferent to the Negotiator and the situation in general''. Can the Negotiator immediately a) use Diplomacy to move the target to Helpful and/or b) use Sow Distrust to move the target from Indifferent (as opposed to Helpful) to Hostile on the chosen target?

Once the talk down ability has been used and the target is indifferent, the negotiator (or anyone else) can go on to use any skill or capability they want to. That includes using Diplomacy or the sow distrust ability to alter the target's behavior. Of course, those attempts will have to happen on later rounds, as the talk down ability is a full-round action.

In what circumstances can you use the Negotiator's talk down ability? Can you use it on any unfriendly or hostile character?

Sure!

Does the bonus from the Personality's unlimited access ability stack with the bonus from the Dedicated hero's empathy ability?

Yes, but only in situations when the unlimited access ability applies.

A side note on unlimited access: This ability can only be used to get into semi-public events--parties, tours, the private room at the back of the restaurant, etc. In other words, places where members of the public (even if it's just a select few) are granted admission. You can't use it to get into places where no member of the public is ever admitted, like a secret military installation.

Does the bonus from the Field Medic's medical specialist ability stack with the bonus from the Dedicated hero's healing knack ability?

Yes.

How do the Daredevil abilities action boost and adrenaline rush interact?

The Daredevil's action boost ability allows you to spend up to 2 action points in a round on the same action . (Sorry that the text isn't very clear on that0. Therefore, you can spend 2 action points to boost a single ability score with the adrenaline rush ability. When you reach 8th level, the action points you spend affect two ability scores.

In other words, a 5th-level Daredevil spends an action point to boost her Dexterity. She rolls 1d4+1 to see how much it's boosted. After seeing the result, she can elect to spend a second point to boost that same score by another 1d4+1. She cannot, however, spend the second point to boost a different ability score.

An 8th-level Daredevil who spends an action point could boost both Dexterity and Strength by 1d4+1, then spend a second point to add another 1d4+1 to the total boost. She could not, however, spend the second point to boost, say, Dex and Con.

What class abilities count as mind-affecting? I'm thinking of the Charismatic talents captivate, dazzle, and taunt; the Smart trick talent; the Personality ability winning smile; and the Negotiator's talk down chain.

All of the above class abilities, plus the Negotiator's sow distrust ability, are mind-affecting.

Does the Charismatic captivate ability make the target flat-footed? Does it keep him flat-footed if he is already? Does it stop him from attacking the Charismatic hero? Similarly, if the talk down ability is used, the target stops fighting. Is he now flat-footed, and does he remain so until attacked?

The Charismatic hero's captivate talent needs some clarification. It can only be used on flat-footed opponents (it can be used out of combat, or in combat but only on NPCs who haven't acted yet). A captivated opponent remains flat-footed.

The Negotiator's talk-down ability has no effect on the target's initiative status. The target stops fighting, but doesn't stop defending himself and doesn't become flat-footed.

The rules, of course, state that you can't use a ranged weapon for an attack of opportunity. I imagine this is because ranged attacks draw an AoO when used in melee range. Would the Gunslinger ability of Close Combat Shot(which does not draw an AoO when a ranged weapon is fired in melee combat) allow you to use a ranged weapon as an AoO?

Close combat shot does exactly what it says it does: allows you to make attacks with some firearmes without provoking attacks of opportunity. Just because it protects you from attacks of opportunity does not mean that it allows you to make them.

Can a Bodyguard use the Harm's Way ability when he if flat-footed, If he started the combat adjacent to the ally that he is defending?

Nope!

The description on page 94 and techie description are extremely general on what mastercraft can actually effect. The Techie description says all weapons, armor and some other devices can be made mastercraft. The mastercraft description says a mastercraft object can provide a bonus to attack rolls (standard), damage, Defense, or some other characteristic that improves when the object is used. So, what can this actually be used on? Can an object have more than one mastercraft bonus? For a +12 purchase DC can my 1911 have a +2 to hit, and to damage? Can my box of .45ACP rounds? My cleaver? Can I give my armor +2 to Defense, and -2 to it's check penalty?

For starters (in response to some other posts on this thread), forget what you know about masterwork items. Mastercraft follows different rules than masterwork (which, in fact, is why they have different names).

As a very general rule, you can mastercraft pretty much any item that does or can provide a bonus on a roll or check, or which otherwise has a numeric value. So, yes, you can give a firearm a +1 on attacks or damage rolls. You can increase an armor's Defense. You can affect ammunition, or a cleaver.

A given item can only have a total bonus from mastercrafting of +3. You can apply this however you want. For example, if your 10th-level Techie mastercrafted his Barret Light Fifty, he could give it a +2 on attacks and +1 on damage. The total bonus can't exceed +3.

You can mastercraft multiple items for a combined effect. For example, you could mastercraft the rifle to give you +3 on attacks, and a box of ammo to give you +3 on damage.

That said, you can't stack bonuses directly. Bonuses from mastercrafting are circumstance bonuses. They don't stack with each other, although they do stack with circumstance bonuses arising out of different circumstances.

Thus, you could mastercraft a laser sight to give you an additional +3 on attacks (in addition to the existing +1 equipment bonus). This would apply to any weapon you attached the laser sight to--but it wouldn't stack with the weapon's bonus from mastercrafting, if any. A +3 sight attached to a +3 weapon would simply give you +3.

Mastercrafting can't give an item an ability it can't normally have. You can't mastercraft your eyeglasses to give you a bonus on attacks, because eyeglasses don't normally have a game effect on attack rolls. Likewise, a mastercrafted laser sight still won't work outdoors in daylight.

You can mastercraft ammunition. For these purposes, the quantity give on Table 4-5 counts as a single "object" for the purposes of the mastercrafting rules. In other words, if you set out to mastercraft a batch of 5.56 ammo and follow the rules on page 179 as if mastercrafting a single object, you end up with 20 mastercrafted bullets.

Wait a sec, does that mean a mastercraft baretta (+1 damage) beats a guy over the head better than a regular baretta? I guess it would.

No. If you mastercraft a weapon to provide a bonus to damage, and the weapon has more than one mode of use, you must specify the mode to which the bonus applies. So if you give your pistol a +1 on damage when shooting, it doesn't apply to damage when making a pistol whip attack.

I thought that I had read somewhere that prestige classes were also in d20 Modern. I believe this may have been in one of the preview sections on advanced classes where it explained that characters would go from the base classes to an advanced class and then to a prestige class. Am I wrong or did the d20 modern book just not include them? If the latter, will PrCs be included in other books?

Prestige classes are part of the d20 Modern system; however, none are included in the core book (which was published 64 pages over planned count, even after we cut a bunch of stuff we planned to include). You will see prestige classes in later products, starting with Urban Arcana.

Combining the Martial Artist with the Soldier gives you Improved Combat Martial Arts, which increases unarmed threat range to 19-20, and the Soldier's Improved Critical, which bumps it up by one. This makes my threat range 18--20, correct?

If I understand your question correctly, you're asking if the 19--20 threat range from Improved Combat Martial Arts stacks with the increase in threat range from the soldier's Improved Critical class ability. (Assuming, of course, that unarmed strike is the weapon chosen by the soldier for his weapon specialization class ability.)

The answer is Yes. A 5th-level soldier who chose unarmed strike as his weapon specialization back at 2nd level has a threat range of 18-20 if he also has the Improved Combat Martial Arts feat.

Later, add Advanced Martial artist, meaning that criticals are 18-20/x3. Then, add Knockout Punch and Improved Knockout Punch. Improved Knockout punch gives you a x3 critical. Does this mean that you use the d20-standard and make that auto-critical x4 nonlethal when attacking a flat-footed opponent?

No. The benefits from the Combat Martial Arts feats do no stack with those of the Brawl feats.

Can you add a Mastercraft bonus to an item that has nothing to do with a die-roll? If so, can you do things with Mastercrafting like make ordinary objects smaller (and, for example, increase the Mastercraft bonus once for each size category smaller), and combining two objects together to disguise the purpose of the object (costing an additional Mastercraft bonus)? For example, you could use this ability to, say, add a hidden camera to sunglasses. So you reduce the size of a digital camera from tiny to Diminutive (a change of two size categories), and call that a +2 (I am making that rule of thumb up as an educated guess by the way). Then add in a disguise to the object, in this case sunglasses, and call that a +1 (again guessing). Total mastercraft adjustment is +3. Wealth Check DC is about a 20 (Craft Electronics, a digital camera is somewhere between a cell phone and a computer, closer to a computer I would think) plus 3 (mastercraft adjustment) for a total of 23. Craft check is going to be about a 28 (again somwhere between a cell phone and a computer, but closer to a computer), plus 3 (mastercraft adjustment) for a total of 31. XP cost will be 25 X Techie Level (which is no less than 10th level, to get the +3 adjustment) X 3 (the mastercraft adjustment). For all of these checks I would compare the item to other similar items, to make sure nothing is too out of whack.

Technically, you can't do this with mastercrafting, although I do like your ideas for house rules. I don't have any specific advice for you on this, but I have been mulling over a new advanced class based on gadget construction and improvisation--the field scientist and techie aren't very relevant to my post-apocalyptic campaign. If I get something written up, I'll post it. (It probably won't happen for a week or two, though, at least.)

17  Chapter Seven -- Gamemastering

How do you determine starting Wealth for high-level characters? Table 7-2 seems to be inaccurate.

The bonus given on Table 7-2 is the starting point. To that number, add any additional Wealth bonus for the character's starting occupation, feats, etc. Also add a bonus equal to the number of ranks the character has in Profession.

Finally, the result is the Wealth bonus for an NPC. When creating a high-level player character, add +2 to the total.

Now, for a shortcut, you can simply equip an NPC with a reasonable assortment of gear, then give him the bonus shown on the table as his current Wealth (ignoring the benefits of feats, occupation, Profession skill, etc.). That's purely a quick-and-dirty way of using the table.

How do you determine starting action points for a high-level character? The system on page 204 doesn't seem right.

The action point formula given on page 204 is for NPCs. For high-level player characters, the character gets the number of action points granted by his last class level. For example, a 5th-level Strong hero would get 7 action points, because his fifth level in Strong gives him 5 + 1/2 his level.

The characters in my game have recovered a bunch of gear from NPCs and creatures they defeated. How do I determine the Wealth bonus from the items they found?

The straightforward, simple, by-the-book method for Wealth awards from adventures is to simply grant a Wealth award as directed on page 204.

If the heroes recover a bunch of gear from NPCs, they can divvy it up and sell it individually. For example, one character gets the NPC's assault rifle, another takes his night-vision goggles, and a third gets his laptop. Each individual hero can then keep his share if he wants to use it, or sell it according to the rules on page 94.

You can also let the characters ``sell'' cash, if you prefer to give cash instead of the Wealth awards listed on page 204. For example, instead of giving the party an overall Wealth bonus of +6 for an encounter, you might give them $1,600. Splitting it up among 4 characters, they each get $400-the equivalent of purchase DC 15 (from Table 7-1 on page 204). Each character gains Wealth as if selling an item with a purchase DC of 15. Remember that the sale value is equal to the purchase DC minus 3-that rule applies even when ``selling'' cash.

18  Chapter Eight -- Friends and Foes

D&D creature types include the beast and the shapeshifter. Why aren 't these types included in d20 Modern?

We figured the beast type was redundant. Most beasts could either be recategorized as magical beasts or animals. That made the game simpler, without making it any less sophisticated. And that's good.

The same was pretty much true for the shapeshifter type. There aren't many game effects that care if a creature's type is shapeshifter. They work fine if they keep their original type in their original or hybrid form, and take on the animal type when changed to an animal.

If a replacement is created of a character who smokes or is addicted to drugs, would the replacement share those addictions? What about if the primary has a disease, like Alzhimers?

Replacements do not share the same life experiences as their originals.
Therefore, they don't suffer any of the original's non-permanent afflictions. For example:

The replacement gets full hit points even if the primary was injured when the sample was taken.

The replacement gets the primary's normal ability scores (up to 12), even if the primary suffered ability damage when the sample was taken.

The replacement does not suffer the effects of poison or disease, even if the primary was poisoned or diseased when the sample was taken.

However, any permanent damage is reflected in the replacement. For example, if the original suffered permanent ability drain, the replacement would also have the new, lower ability score.

We don't really have rules for addiction and long-term congenital diseases; these things are best handled by your house rules or through roleplaying. That said, a replacement would probably not suffer these afflictions, as they are a result of the primary's life experiences. Of course, a replacement that was created to mimic a primary that smokes might take up smoking in order to better replicate the primary.

19  Chapter Nine -- Campaign Models

Under Monsters of the Id, it says that a crazed talent always creates the same kind of monster. Later, a character is described as creating different types of monsters. Is that correct?

The crazed talent can create one or more creatures of the same type; the type can differ each time the id monster manifests. Perhaps it would have been clearer to phrase the beginning of the paragraph on page 304 as "A crazed talent can create a single monster with Hit Dice equal to two times the crazed talent's character level, or a number of identical monsters whose total Hit Dice equal two times the crazed talent's character level."

As for Cindi's situation on page 311, I think what was meant is that her initial manifestation is a set of kobolds; if these are destroyed her later manifestations are a single gnoll, followed by two goblins, followed by the kobolds again, and so on.

If a mage casts a spell requiring only verbal components and records his voice on a CD or Tape and plays that tape back on a Cd player or walkman would that spell go off?
The way I see it this would be similer to writing a scroll. The Mage would only be able to make so many recordings but any person could set the spell off.

Simply recording a spell -- even a verbal-component only spell -- does not cause the spell to occur every time the recording is played. Spells are cast primarily through mental manipulation of arcane forces; the verbal (or other components) are only a small part of the process.

You might be able to create rules for recording scrolls in other media besides writing, but all the rules for scroll creation and use would still apply. The material costs, the XP cost, and the creation checks would remain the same (or equivalent), and the restrictions on who could activate the scroll (a caster capable of casting that type of spell, or someone making a Use Magic Device check) would not change.

How many times per day can the Shadow Slayer use his Slayer Weapon ability?

The Shadow Slayer can use the Slayer Weapon ability at will.

(Generally, that amounts to once per combat -- even at a minimum, the weapon is empowered for 4 rounds. Since most combats are over in 4 or 5 rounds, that doesn't leave much time to empower the weapon again. However, if the Shadow Slayer needs to do so, she certainly can.)

If you take levels in Mage and buy ranks in Spellcraft, then take a Smart level, can you choose the Savant talent for Spellcraft?

No. Savant can be applied only to the listed skills.

A Shadow Slayer with favored enemy (monstrous humanoids) attacks a medusa guarded by an ogre Bodyguard, who uses his harm's way ability. Does the Slayer get his attack/damage bonuses?

No. The Shadow Slayer may have intended to attack the medusa, but ultimately attacked the ogre, against which the shadow enemy bonus doesn't apply.

How ``real'' is a monster of the id? Can a werewolf created as a monster of the id give someone lycanthropy?

For all intents and purposes, monsters of the id are 100% real. If you're bitten a monster-of-the-id werewolf, you can contract lycanthropy. Likewise, if you're killed by a monster-of-the-id vampire's energy drain, you become a spawn of that vampire.

The only caveat is this: If such an effect breaks the "rules of reality" for your campaign, it doesn't happen. For example, if you're running an Agents of PSI game in which psionics are real but other supernatural things (like vampires and werewolves) aren't, a monster of the id isn't going to suddenly change the rules of reality and populate the world with real vampires and werewolves.

(Of course, since monsters of the id respawn in 1d20 hours, it's always possible that the new monster of the id would take the form of a spawned vampire or lycanthrope. However, such examples aren't really spawns of the original; they're simply new iterations of the original id monster.)

Does the Slayer Weapon enhancement bonus work only against creatures of Shadow or does the weapon become for all intents and purposes a +X magic weapon?

The latter. A +1 slayer weapon is a +1 weapon for that Shadow Slayer. Hopefully, he'll use it to go kill evil shadow creatures--but the bonus is in effect no matter what he uses it against.

Does the damage bonus for the Shadow Enemy now work on undead, unlike the ranger's similar ability?

The bonus applies to the shadow slayer's chosen type of favored enemy. If the shadow slayer chooses undead, it applies to undead.

I'm a little dubious about the Slayer's Fast Healing ability. The main reason for this is that I do not know how Fast Healing works in conjunction with falling into negative hit points. The three possibilities, as I see it, are thus:
  1. Slayer heals X hit points per round. Once he/she falls into negative hit points, Fast Healing is ineffective.
  2. Slayer heals X hit points per round. Once he/she falls into negative hit points, Fast Healing is inneffective until he/she stabilizes.
  3. Slayer heals X hit points per round, even while in negative hit points.
Option 3 is correct. Fast healing works so long as the character is alive (above -10 hp); being at negative hp does not otherwise affect the use of the ability. You're correct that this is a very powerful ability. It's also obtained at a high character level, and at a point in a character's career where the difference between 0 hp and -10 hp is pretty slim.

OK, the magic user advanced class gets as his 10th level class feature the ability to prepare a "maximised" version of a spell. So what ones can he do? Let's just have a little look at the spell list for a moment. His max spell level is 5, so he can only maximise 1st and 2nd level spells. That gives him, lets see, magic missile and sleep? No 2nd level spells that could be affected, can't affect 3rd level spells. What is the plan here? Why are they given such a functionally useless ability as their 10th level class ability? Empower would have been a much more reasonable choice, surely - at least you could prepare a couple of empowered 3rd level spells. Being able to sleep 2x 4HD creatures when you are 15th level doesn't seem particularly useful, and 25 points of magic missile damage is a bit ho-hum. What am I missing here?

The magic system in the d20 Modern core book is the bare-bones center of what we'd like it to become. There will be additional spells, as well as the ability to increase caster level above 10th, in Urban Arcana and other products. It's an unfortunate side effect of having to cram an entire game into 384 pages that some class abilities will not be as flexible as we ultimately envision them. Hope that sheds some light on it!

When I get Spell Mastery I have an Int bonus of +3 and so get 3 spells that I can prepare with out my book. Later my bonus goes up (permanently) to + 4. Do I now get to have another spell I can prep without my book?

A: Yes.

20  Chapter Ten -- FX Abilities

If a mage casts a spell requiring only verbal components and records his voice on a CD or Tape and plays that tape back on a Cd player or walkman would that spell go off?
The way I see it this would be similer to writing a scroll. The Mage would only be able to make so many recordings but any person could set the spell off.

Simply recording a spell -- even a verbal-component only spell -- does not cause the spell to occur every time the recording is played. Spells are cast primarily through mental manipulation of arcane forces; the verbal (or other components) are only a small part of the process.

You might be able to create rules for recording scrolls in other media besides writing, but all the rules for scroll creation and use would still apply. The material costs, the XP cost, and the creation checks would remain the same (or equivalent), and the restrictions on who could activate the scroll (a caster capable of casting that type of spell, or someone making a Use Magic Device check) would not change.

How does flaming projectiles work with Double Tap/Burst Fire? Does it do +1d6 or +2d6/+3d6/+5d6 on 1 hit? How about autofire?

The flaming projectiles spell increases the damage by +1d6, period. If your weapon deals 4d8 because you're using the Burst Fire feat, it deals 4d8+1d6 with the flaming projectiles spell.

If a character finds or creates an electronic copy of a scroll, can she duplicate the file to make more? How about photocopying a scroll on paper?

A scroll works only because the caster imbues it with magical energy. Copies of the scroll--in any medium--do not carry that energy, and therefore do not function. For example:

If you create a scroll in your PDA, then duplicate the file, the original file still functions as a scroll but the duplicate file does not.

If you create a scroll on a piece of paper, then photocopy it, the original scroll functions normally but the photocopy does not.

For that matter, if you scribe a scroll on a roll of parchment, and then have a professional scribe carefully copy it to another sheet of parchment, the original scroll functions normally but the copy does not.

In short, no matter how you duplicate a scroll, the duplicate is not magical and does not function as a scroll.

Where do potions of cure light wounds come from? What about scrolls of raise dead?

Items such as these can come from two sources.

First, there are several new advanced classes and prestige classes in the forthcoming Urban Arcana campaign setting that can create items such as these. If you're wanting your character to be able to create such items, that's probably the most important source for you.

If you're simply wondering where they come from, don't forget the other source: Shadow. When creatures come from Shadow, they often bring stuff with them. It's actually an assumption of the game setting that many magic items found in our world actually originated in Shadow.

OK, the magic user advanced class gets as his 10th level class feature the ability to prepare a "maximised" version of a spell. So what ones can he do? Let's just have a little look at the spell list for a moment. His max spell level is 5, so he can only maximise 1st and 2nd level spells. That gives him, lets see, magic missile and sleep? No 2nd level spells that could be affected, can't affect 3rd level spells. What is the plan here? Why are they given such a functionally useless ability as their 10th level class ability? Empower would have been a much more reasonable choice, surely - at least you could prepare a couple of empowered 3rd level spells. Being able to sleep 2x 4HD creatures when you are 15th level doesn't seem particularly useful, and 25 points of magic missile damage is a bit ho-hum. What am I missing here?

The magic system in the d20 Modern core book is the bare-bones center of what we'd like it to become. There will be additional spells, as well as the ability to increase caster level above 10th, in Urban Arcana and other products. It's an unfortunate side effect of having to cram an entire game into 384 pages that some class abilities will not be as flexible as we ultimately envision them. Hope that sheds some light on it!

21  General Questions

I thought that I had read somewhere that prestige classes were also in d20 Modern. I believe this may have been in one of the preview sections on advanced classes where it explained that characters would go from the base classes to an advanced class and then to a prestige class.Am I wrong or did the d20 modern book just not include them? If the latter, will PrCs be included in other books?

Prestige classes are part of the d20 Modern system; however, none are included in the core book (which was published 64 pages over planned count, even after we cut a bunch of stuff we planned to include). You will see prestige classes in later products, starting with Urban Arcana.

For franks, how many starting feats should they receive? As it stands, I've been thinking that they (being basically human) would get two feats at first level, if they do not have any special qualities, (such as darkvision) and one if they do have special qualities (with the special qualities taking the place of the second feat) What's the official word on this?

A: Franks get 1 starting feat, just like nonhuman races in D&D.

Any rumors of a GM screen coming out before I start photocopying charts and glueing them to cardboard?

We won't be releasing a GM screen between now and August 2003. Beyond that, I can't comment on future releases.

Is there any chance of a D20 E-tools patch? I know I use it for D&D, and would prolly have a LOT of use for a D20 patch as well.

Sorry, I have no information on E-Tools at this time.

I was just hoping someone could tell me if the d20 Modern site will feature an adventure soon. The web-enhancement was great but I am anxious to see how some of the pros envision a d20 modern mission. That would be fantastic! I don't know if this was asked or not and I couldn't find any mention anywhere I looked, so sorry if it has been brought up already.

A: When and where you'll see a web adventure is a question only the WotC web team can answer. I'm pretty sure they've got some in the works, though, because they recently had me write one, and I'm aware of at least one other writer asked to write one. So you should see something, but I don't know when. Perhaps someone on the web team can step in here to answer (if you're reading this)? [Editor's Note: There is one out now, written by Steve Winter called Le Chien de l'Onyx.]

Is there going to be any more web support for d20 Modern? It's been a month now with no updates to the site.

A: [Taken up by Rich Redman] A couple of notes for all you fans 1) There is no Wizards web team. This site is maintained and paid for by Hasbro. The people doing it sit in the Wizards' offices, but they work directly for Hasbro. 2) Hasbro budgets for this website, for good or ill, take your pick. 3) IMO, Julia Martin is doing a brilliant job of working with these circumstances. She really knows how to maximize time and money. 4) The lay-offs in September threw everybody for a loop. 5) I have a contract with Julia to produce d20 Modern columns for this site on a monthly basis, first one going up in January. I turned in the first three before the d20 Modern chat, so it's going to be April before luris blear gets a column on building fiends (but I haven't forgotten my promise to do it). I'll listen to any requests for columns, my e-mail is available through my screen name. 6) The great Steven "Stan!" Brown has a contract to produce d20 Modern adventures for this website, I believe on a monthly basis. You want support material? You got it! Starting next month [January 2003]

Now that Urban Arcane is on the release schedule, what can you tell us about it?

You'll start seeing some preview articles on the web site in the coming months, much like those you saw for d20 Modern before its release. Beyond that, I'm sworn to secrecy. . .

Regarding the Man Portable XM214, Anyone think up the stats for this yet? For those who don't know, its the Gatling gun/backpack model like that used in Predator and "not used" by special forces

Trolls with mini-guns--now you're thinking! I probably shouldn't be leaking this, but you might just see stats for the XM-214 in Urban Arcana. You didn't hear that from me, of course.

Will there be rules for skateboarding in Urban Arcana?

You'll see rules for bikes, skateboards, and in-line skates in Urban Arcana!

I'm beginning to wonder what Urban Arcana is really going to be about. I was expecting something similar to "Magic In The Shadows", and instead it sounds more like the "Shadowrun Companion" (to use a RPG analogy). I'm not complaining (more D20 Modern stuff is always good), but the focus of this book seems to be somewhat unclear. Isn't it meant to extend the UA campaign setting? How are skateboards and miniguns doing this?

In general, Urban Arcana is focused on topics that relate to the setting as described in the d20 Modern rulebook: a relatively high-fantasy modern setting, with lots of magic and monsters. Another aspect of Urban Arcana is that it's a little over the top--so we're including rules for a few over-the-top non-magical topics, like adventurers on skateboards shooting XM-214 miniguns. (You'll also see things that aren't really magical, but are really useful in a supernatural setting--like super soaker's loaded with holy water. . . .) That said, there are also a number of things that we would have loved to fit into the main book, but couldn't because of space, that we're adding to Urban Arcana. I don't think you'll find lack of focus to be too much of a problem, although I do think the book will have lots of interesting stuff, even for gamers who aren't playing an Urban Arcana campaign. In a sense, you could think of the Urban Arcana book as a general companion to d20 Modern, but written with the expectation that you're playing in the Urban Arcana setting (unlike the main book, which tries not to make any assumptions about your campaign setting).

Can anyone tell me how to adapt non-human characters (both standard and monsters) to a PC-format.

The rules for creating a non-human character are basically the same as those for adding a character class to a creature (see page 230). To sum up: 1) The character gets one fewer skill point per level. (This is reflected on table 8-20.) Since you normally get 4 times as many skills at 1st level, the character gets 4 fewer skill points at 1st level. 2) The character gets only one feat at 1st level, instead of 2. 3) The character does not get a starting occupation. 4) Use the racial ability modifiers for the race from the D&D Player's Handbook (if you have it and the race is covered there). Otherwise, here's a trick for determining the ability modifiers from the d20 Modern stats: If the given ability is an odd number, subtract 11 from it. If the ability is an even number, subtract 10. The result is racial modifier for that ability score. For example, a goblin has Str 8 and Dex 13. Subtracting 10 (because 8 is an even number) from 8 gives us -2. Subtracting 11 (because 13 is odd) from 13 gives us +2. So the racial mods for a goblin's Str and Dex are -2 and +2, respectively. This is a rule of thumb and won't always work perfectly. These rules apply primarily to creatures that normally only have one Hit Die. For higher Hit Die creatures, you'll have to fudge it or wait for Urban Arcana. [Also] Moreaus have their own rules. They're essentially the same as those above, except that moreaus do get starting occupations, and the ability score modifiers are given in the descriptions.

Even though it is early days I would say that d20 Modern is doing far better than Alternity did, this is just an observation, I have no facts to back this up. Also my gut feel is that it is doing better than Star Wars. Just wondering how things are looking from WotC's perspective, are sales expectations being met or hopefully exceeded? And to the main crux of this post, if d20 Modern exceeds sales expectations will more support be given to it from WotC, say in the form of it's own magazine or an increased product schedule? I love this game, best RPG I have played in the 20 years of my gaming life, and I need to have more official support for it.

My understanding is that the game is doing quite well. I don't know exactly what ``quite well'' means (and, honestly, if I was privy to that information I probably wouldn't be allowed to share it here on the net). But as I understand it we're all very pleased with its success so far. That said, don't expect any significant changes to our release schedule any time soon. Even if the success of the game warrants radical changes, we'd probably give the game several months to ensure that the success is long-term and not a short-term fluke. And even then, since it takes a year or longer to get a product from schedule to market, you wouldn't see a surge of additional releases for quite some time. (What you will see, however, is a surge of products from third-party publishers. If d20 Modern prospers, small publishers will jump on the bandwagon with products that they can get to market much faster.) Our existing schedule calls for substantial support for d20 Modern for the foreseeable future, and with the success of the game so far that should continue to be the case!

The latest Bullet Points mentioned that you guys had a working Wounds/ Vitality system that converted Undead/Constructs...How did it do that? Did they just get 10 extra Vitality to make up for the missing con score?

The favored system (I say "favored" because it was never finalized) was the system described in the Polyhedron Shadow Chasers mini-game: creatures without Con scores simply have no wound points. In the case of undead, reducing them to 0 vitality only "killed" them temporarily; to permanently destroy them you had to get a critical hit with a special weapon (a stake in the case of vampires, for example) or, in some cases, destroy some sort of "focus."

I have one question regarding the Suppressive Fire feat. I have been looking for ranged AoO since the first edition of Star Wars D20 and this is the first time I have a rule in print, thank you. However, I am a little fuzzy on the range requirement. The feat says that you threaten a target or an area, autofire, ``...that is at least 30 feet away...'' So, I can threaten someone 300 yards out but I can't threaten someone 15 feet away? Is this correct?

Yes, it is correct as written that the feat can only be used against targets at least 30 feet away. The concept here is that you continue to shoot at the targeted area even when it isn't your turn. (That's why using the feat costs you five bullets in addition to any used in the original attack and any AoO you make.) It didn't seem reasonable to be able to do this at targets within just a few feet--in general, suppressive fire is really only effective at longer than point-blank range. So, why 30 feet? Basically, because 30 feet is the d20 system's definition of point-blank. If I had my absolute druthers, I'd probably set the distance at around 20 feet--but since 30 feet is a standard increment used for many game effects, I decided to keep this feat in sync with the rest of the game. You're free to change it if you prefer (as always!), but I doubt that the added complication will really change your game experience enough to be worth it.

I have a couple questions about the Pancor Jackhammer. From what I gather, the Jackhammer uses up it's entire clip on one autofire. Is this correct? Is a 5 round autofire and a 3 round burst an acceptable alternative? The thing is that I want to use one as my main weapon because, well you just can't a beat an automatic shotgun, but my smaller back up SMG is just better considering the Jackhammer's lack of ammo and range. Is there some tactical advantage that would make it more effective?

It is correct. Probably one of the reasons automatic shotguns haven't really caught on in real life.

Now I was wondering what if your PC gets killed what are you to do? It is not like D&D where you can just go to your local temple and pay for raise dead spell because magic is not as common here. I guess that you could spend some time and look for a person who has the spell (if you are even allowing them) but they would have to be at least 9th level.

In d20 Modern, dead is usually dead. Just one of the differences between a modern setting and a high fantasy setting.

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