Concerning bloodline abilities

[Unoi8ub4]

Hi all. I still play ad&d 2e here and had a question concerning the bloodline abilities.

Has anyone ever fully converted them so as to have them run completely off of blood score instead of the way they were originally presented?

I am currently "attempting" to convert all of them to be based completely (as much as I can) off the character in questions bloodline strength and or score so was just curious if someone else had already done so over the past 25 or 30 years.

For example a minor ability such as detect lies is a static duration and caster level as well as uses per day. What I am doing is making all of the above variable, depending upon their personal bloodline strength (minor, major, great, etc) as well as their actual bloodline score (whatever it may be)

For the above one I believe I tentatively have it set at caster level of the ability is equal to bloodline strength divided by 5 rounded down (minimum of 1), duration as 1 round per 10 bloodline strength (minimum of 1 round), and uses per day set to bloodline strength divided by 20 rounded down (minimum of once per day).

I have always felt that the way they did it was jist very arbitrary and also feel that by switching it in such a manner where it has little to nothing to do with a characters actual level, that it makes the bloodlines more "real" instead of just a tacked on system of special abilities where as your bloodline strength and score changes so do the abilities you have gained from it. So what do you all think?

[Sorontar]

I haven't used it in that way for DND 2e. Wouldn't that go against the design of 2e? It only has saving throws, Weapon Proficiencies and Non-Weapon Proficiencies and class abilities. These are skills you always have, not things that are limited like spell slots. A character can hide in shadows or walk without trace as much as they want if they have that ability. The only measure is whether they succeed or not.

So I guess my question is whether you are basing your proposal on how other D&D editions work, not 2e, or whether there is something from 2e that you are basing this on?

Sorontar

[Doyle]

I've not tried to alter the bloodline abilities in 2e (and done only minor modifications for 5e), although I did try a similar method for the spells of another system.

The trap you might find is scaling. Several of the abilities already scale up on strength. If you got a number system balanced for minor abilities, the major edition of the same ability might seem overpowered.

Balance might be found for the party where the blood scores are within 20 of each other. Consider the party gaining enough levels that they feel they can take on Rhoubhe Manslayer - the difference in bloodpoints means that he is still going to defeat them easily.

Rather than have a blanket system that covers all blood abilities, you might want to examine each one and then compare an average level character against itself at bloodline scores of 20, 80 and 200 points.