Scalable Template

         The Scalable Template was designed to accommodate as many people as possible. To achieve that end, I have taken as many elements I could possibly combine and incorporated them into the design of a flexible template that could satisfy even some of the staunchest critics. The decision to use the template as the basis of the factions allowed me to free up prestige classes to serve as the niche elements that keep a faction running through their particular focus on the philosophy each group inhabits.

         Although the prestige classes and the feats are presented elsewhere, a few are listed in the templates to show how modular this system really is.

The Template         Since the focus on game play in 3e is balance, the official line is that faction abilities are feats that may be purchased by the characters in place of the choices in the Player's Handbook. So, how do you determine who's an Athar and who's a Dustman? The empty template effectively solves this problem. This template imparts no changes to the character other than appending the faction name to him. With this name, the character may select future feats and prestige classes dependent on the faction the character belongs to. This also helps to prevent players from taking faction feats designed for other factions.

         As mentioned earlier, the template is scalable. It was designed this way for players who want to maintain the feel of the original setting. To effect that end, there are four features to the scalable template that differ from the standard template, all of which are optional:

• Rank: Each faction has 4 ranks to designate the strength of the factioneer's beliefs.
• Belief Points: For people who wish to use a system to quantify a factioneer's strength of conviction, and thus status of power in belief.
• Drawbacks: For their deep-seated convictions, the members of a faction have distinct flaws that cause a hardship they have chosen to bear.
• Belief Limits: If you wish to limit the power of faction/sect abilities, you may place restrictions on their use. This is a variant rule that presents one solution and is not a statistic line on the template while the previous items are.

         While the latter three lines are initially filled out, you are free to ignore them. All other lines of the template are empty. The guidelines that follow will help you to expand the faction templates as needed for your campaign and keep them equally powered at the same time.

Feats         You may find the templates to be underpowered or overpowered as your campaign dictates. To augment the templates to fit your ideal Planescape campaign, you can add or remove feats as desired. Since feats are the official method, every faction ability has been turned into a feat. The first three feats added to the template increases the character's ECL by +1 per feat. Each additional feat increases the character's ECL by +2. This is a cumulative effect, meaning that any feats gained by obtaining a higher rank count against this total.  The reverse is also true. For every feat removed, lower the ECL by -11 for templates with 3 or fewer feats, and by -2 for every feat removed from a template with more than 3 feats.

Rank         Faction rank is in this edition predominantly a function of politics. This refers to the 2nd Edition view that dictated faction powers by rank.  Again, it's a feature designed to enforce restrictions on feats in this version. Optionally, you can use them to recreate the factions of the previous edition. All 60 faction ranks are presented in 3e terms to include balancing changes later on in this section. For a few factions, this means new ranks and powers were added.

         Also, with the ranks, you can distinguish who's a namer (someone who names himself as a member) and a Namer (someone named by the faction as a member), and thus who truly is dedicated to the faction's ideals.

         The unique aspect to the ranks in the scalable templates is that they stack with previous abilities unless noted otherwise, but the character's faction name remains unchanged for purposes of feats and prestige classes generally available to the members.

Belief Points         This line is included for people who prefer a trail-by-fire approach to gaining faction ranks. Using this line is a way to encourage role-playing as a form of demonstrating the character's conviction. As such, it's suggested that you should apply this variant only if your players and you are comfortable with awards strictly dependent on aspects that lie outside the scope of the game rules. Anything that comes from this variant is arbitrary at best.

         For those of you who don’t like the idea of using belief points, you may substitute them with XP instead. Treat each belief point as 500 XP. Thus, a 1st level character who wishes to join a faction has spent ½ of the XP needed for advancement. When you include all of the points a character spends in this way to achieve the rank of factol, it’s the equivalent of a character 2,500 XP short of 9th level. This is a great sacrifice on the part of the character indeed! DMs may wish to restrict rank advancement by requiring the character to be able to save the XP points without reaching level advancement before another rank can be gained. As an example, to reach the rank of factotum, the character must be at least 3rd level.

Drawbacks         As part of the original design of the factions, drawbacks assess a penalty for such strong convictions. The higher the rank, the greater the strength of the drawback. Each faction has a drawback that intensifies with greater conviction. As they are unique to the faction, all details concerning the drawback are given in the faction's description.

Belief Limits         When you use this rule, you are assuming that the powers the templates grant come from the planes themselves. As such, the belief-fueled powers can only be used on the Outer Planes by Namers without any affects. Usage on the Astral Plane changes the time unit to the next larger value (hours become days, days become weeks, etc.). On the Inner Planes, the time value shifts yet again. Factotums only feel this effect on the Inner Planes, demonstrating their commitment to their faction's beliefs. Factors & Factols are immune to this effect.

         You may allow a Will check to avoid this effect with at DC of 20 for the first shift and a DC of 25 to ignore the second shift (this roll is made with a DC of 25 regardless of the outcome of the first roll).

         What of the sects based on the Inner Planes? Apply the effect in reverse. For sects on the Astral, you have to choose which group of planes receives one shift and which one receives a double shift. For example, you could rule that Astral sects have their abilities shifted once on the Outer Planes and twice on the Inner Planes.

         So, why was this variant rule created? The reasoning behind it is that DMs who don't wish to increase the effective levels of the PCs can use this as a means to not only regulate the strength of a character's beliefs, but as a means to show the hardships and struggles one must undertake to reach the highest rank of a faction through the strength of conviction. This helps the novice and expert DM alike who are running a Planescape campaign keep the powers of the factions from being abused. Prestige classes, unfortunately, are hard to strip a PC of as the skills and abilities of the prestige class stem from training more than anything else that may factor into the character's choice to assume that prestige class.

Why         I wanted to preserve the feel of the factions without players feeling like they were getting free feats or taking belief lightly.

Pro         It allows you to customize the factions and sects by adding or removing feats and use prestige classes as faction specializations. The abilities of the 2e factions are preserved, but balanced for 3.5 play.

Con         Players may not like the XP or Belief Point costs. Also they may not like the fact that you can increase their ECL from their possession of templates.