These house rules are being used to modify the D&D 3.5 system.

The Glories, and other adventurers and legendary heroes (and villains), are gestalt-class characters. This means that their level is in two classes simultaneously, with the combined class being given the best results from both classes. For more information, see Gestalt Characters on d20srd for more information.

As adventurers improve, they become more adept at avoiding attacks, even without armor. This allows characters to survive without relying on heavy armor and fits the high adventure tone of the campaign. Note that Defense Bonus does not stack with armor bonus (they gain defense bonus or armor bonus including enhancements, but not both), and that Defense Bonus -does- provide improve armor class against touch attacks. For more information, see Defense Bonus on d20srd for more information.

Note that this doesn't help the NPC classes, commoners, and similarly zero-PC-level characters at all… which is one of several reasons they vastly prefer armor.

So why wear armor? Simple: armor lets you reduce damage from attacks. A heavy suit of platemail might encumber you, but it also makes it much harder for the dragon to kill you with a bite.

The first X points of damage from an attack (excepting attacks that ignore armor) are converted to nonlethal, where X equals the armor bonus of the armor in question. See Armor as Damage Conversion on d20srd for more information. These two rules combine - so a character with a high defense bonus may still wear leather armor to get the damage conversion even though the armor bonus doesn't matter. Bonus damage added to an attack, such as from critical hits, sneak attacks, electrical shocks, etc, ignores this damage conversion.

Some quick numbers:

• Light Armor: Padded armor gives +1 armor bonus, which means it also converts one point of damage from each attack into non-lethal damage. Leather armor gives +2 armor bonus and converts two points of damage to non-lethal. Studded leather gives +3 and converts 3 points, and chain shirts give +4 and convert 4 points.
• Medium Armor: Hide armor gives +4 armor bonus and converts 4 points; scale mail also gives +4 armor bonus and converts 4 points; chainmail gives +5 armor bonus and converts 5 points; breastplates also give +5 armor bonus and converts 5 points.
• Heavy Armor: Splint mail and banded mail each give a +6 armor bonus and thus convert 6 points; half-plate gives +7 armor bonus and converts 7 points; full plate gives +8 armor bonus and converts 8 points.
• Remember, a 1st or 2nd level professional adventurer could also use their Defense Bonus instead of Armor Bonus, which is +2 for monks, sorcerers, or wizards; +3 for bards, rangers, or rogues; +4 for barbarians or druids; +6 for clerics, paladin, or fighters.
• Nonlethal damage is not deducted from hit points; instead, it accumulates. When nonlethal damage equals your current (not maximum) hit points, you are Staggered; when it exceeds your maximum hit points, you are knocked Unconscious. As a note, you can deliberately inflict nonlethal damage with a weapon that normally does lethal damage, or vice versa, by taking a -4 to your effective to-hit.
• When Staggered, you can only take a move action or a standard action, but not both; you also cannot take full-round actions.
• When Unconscious, you are prone and helpless. When helpless, you have an effective Dexterity of 0 (-5 to your AC), and melee combatants get a +4 to hit you as a prone target (ranged attackers do not get this benefit, but the -5 AC for being a still target is vastly helpful). Rogues can sneak attack helpless victims. As a full round option, anyone can make a melee attack (or ranged attack if adjacent to the target) to deliver a coup de grace. They automatically hit and score a critical hit, and if a rogue they also gain their sneak attack damage bonus. If the target survives that damage, they still have to make a Fortitude save vs DC 10 + (damage dealt) or die immediately. Delivering the coup de grace does trigger attacks of opportunity where relevant, and has no bonus effect on creatures that are immune to critical hits.

This means that a non-adventurer warrior might benefit from leather armor for the AC boost as well as the damage resistance provided, but a 1st level fighter would gain no bonus from leather armor in terms of avoiding attacks; their +6 defense bonus is higher. With that said, a 1st level fighter would still find taking non-lethal damage more appealing; if facing a 1d4 dagger, leather armor would make the pain non-lethal most of the time. Meanwhile, a warrior in a breastplate would not take lethal damage from a man armed with a dagger… at least, until they have collapsed from repeated beatings and thus given their enemy time to take them captive or finish them off.

Note that this means that adventurers will have to make sure they have brought a legitimate end to an enemy, especially enemies who are tough enough to take a beating. However, negotiations are an option in many cases; most intelligent enemies would rather survive to live another day; and most unintelligent enemies don't tend to wear armor.

Heroes (and those destined to become heroes) have a reserve quantity of hit points equal to their base number. These reserve hit points automatically convert to regular hit points at the rate of 1 per minute of nonstrenuous activity, effectively providing a personal pool of healing. Whenever a normal hit point is recovered via reserve points, a point of nonlethal damage is also recovered, dramatically extending the survival rates of heavily armored types. Any healing (normal or magical) a hero receives replenishes normal HP first, then the reserve pool. This doesn't extend a hero's ability to withstand a single encounter, but does give them the ability to get up after a single savage beating, or survive longer than they otherwise might. See Reserve Points on d20srd for more information.

As noted, the Empire of Astor has started developing black powder weaponry in earnest, as opposed to being merely the invention of the occasional mad gnome. While not everyone has them or knows how to use them, those who have a thorough training in the Astorian Army are certain to know how to handle them. See Pathfinder Firearms for more information. Advanced firearms are still rare, but the early firearms are available for anyone who wants to spend the money. Notably, in other kingdoms, these weapons are still few and far between. Guns have the tendency to ignore armor bonuses and thus armor damage conversion at closer ranges, making them quite deadly for anyone unfortunate enough to confront a gunslinger.

In addition to the primary six statistics, people have a seventh statistic, Luck. Luck modifiers are used in any circumstance when being 'lucky' is more important than being good at something. In situations where there is a flat chance of something being true, the DM assigns a DC based on the chance of it being true, and your Luck modifier is added to the roll. (For example, if a trap hits half of the tiles in a room and it's unclear whether you were standing on one of the bad tiles, that'd be a DC of 10 (50% chance), rolled with your Luck modifier. In addition, if your Luck modifier is higher than your normal statistic modifier, you can invoke your Luck to replace the normal modifier with the current Luck modifier; this lowers your Luck by 1 point for one week (or one adventure). You can also Press Your Luck to make a good situation better or salvage a bad situation at the last moment. The DM assigns a DC based on the situation, and you roll against this DC with your Luck modifier; succeed and luck smiles upon you, fail and luck leaves you when you need it most. Regardless of other consequences, this lowers your Luck by 1 point for one week (or one adventure).