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I like to modify my Pathfinder games a bit. Here is what I have, critiques, suggestions, and requests for explanations or justifications are appreciated.
Many of these rules are similar to the 3.0 version posted here, but some things were removed and some things added.
Materiel from the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat, and Ultimate Magic is allowed. Firearms are restricted to campaigns specifically intended for them.
From the third party supplement Psionics Unleashed, everything except the races is allowed.
The GM owns the following 3E/3.5 books. Materiel from these books is allowed or disallowed on a case by case basis, and may be tweaked if necessary.
Online materiel may or may not be allowed. The GM will make this decision prior to character creation. If the GM decides that it is allowed, materiel from Grit and Gunslingers and the Ardwright are allowed, and materiel from Maxximilius's Archetypes, Meepo's Archetypes, and SmiloDan's Classes is allowed by GM approval of the specific option in question.
If the GM allows something that proves to be unbalanced, the player may be asked to modify or replace the option in question.
The GM will provide a list of races that exist in her campaign setting prior to character creation. Some races, such as Gnomes and Halflings, are not available. Some new races are available, and some other races are modified. The list provided will explain all of this.
All races may use human stats in place of their racial stats if desired, or the official stats for the race may be used. This is a temporary house rule, in effect until the Advanced Race Guide is released.
Combat maneuvers may be taken as move actions if desired. This does not replace the official rules for combat maneuvers, it adds to them.
Casting a spell causes you to become flat footed until your next turn.
Ultimate Combat katana stats are not used. Katanas use longsword, bastard sword, or great sword stats, depending on the size of the individual sword.
All classes except the fighter get an additional 2 skill points per level. This applies to archetypes that modify skill points.
Fighters get an additional 4 skill points per level. This applies to archetypes that modify skill points.
Spontaneous casters do not increase a spell's casting time when using metamagic.
Fighters add the following skills to their list of class skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Fly, Heal, Knowledge (Any), Linguistics, Perception, Perform, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Stealth, Use Magic Device
All characters gain one feat per level. This includes monsters.
Two Weapon Fighting and Vital Strike scale with level. This means you gain the improved version for free as soon as you meet the prerequisites.
All characters get Vital Strike for free.
All Characters get Combat Expertise, Power Attack, Weapon Finesse, Point-Blank Shot, and Precise Shot for free.
A Rogue or Ninja may trade her entire Sneak Attack progression for a bonus feat at 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level and a full base attack bonus. A Rogue or Ninja may trade half her Sneak Attack progression for a full base attack bonus. If she does this, she does not gain the Sneak Attack ability until 3rd level, when she gets 1d6 of Sneak Attack damage, and it improves by one die at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level. A Rogue with the Master Strike ability and no Sneak Attack may use Master Strike whenever Sneak Attack would normally be able to be used.
Polearms with the trip feature or ability to grapple may be used to, with a trip or grapple attempt at a -2 penalty, pull rider from her mount, causing her to fall prone in a space next to her mount.
Scimitars, Quarterstaffs, Bo Staffs, and Longswords are finessable weapons.
A Spear (not a Longspear or Shortspear) may be used as a double weapon if desired, with the blunt end treated as a Quarterstaff.
You can shield bash with a buckler. It is treated as a light shield with a -1 damage penalty.
In Thyressa the gods are poorly understood by mortals, and people aren't even sure if god is the correct term for them. There also happen to be thousands of them. Polytheism is more common than monotheism, and religion is highly complicated. Character religion is handled by the player, not the GM, and the GM does not provide a deity list. There is a small list of major religions (so far, it has 1 religion), but players are free to make up their own religions and deities for their characters to adhere to. Characters from classes that can have any domain, such as Clerics, can choose whatever domains they want instead of working off of a list of domains by deity. It is permissible to be a Cleric, Oracle, or Inquisitor, or Paladin who is polytheistic.
Each paladin has a personalized code of conduct put together by the GM and player during character creation. The Core Rulebook code of conduct does not apply, this personalized code does. If it is violated, the paladin begins to fall from grace.
A paladin's fall from grace takes a long time, with the character losing paladin abilities for antipaladin abilities one by one as she descends further and further into unacceptable actions, until finally there is nothing left of her paladin abilities whatsoever. The GM decides when a paladin begins to fall, and the GM will not have a paladin begin falling without warning her about her actions so that she may avoid falling, unless she does something extremely evil, like genocide. Redemption works the opposite way, with antipaladin abilities being traded out for paladin abilities one by one as the paladin steadily ascends towards the path of good.
Alignment is not used. Here is an explanation of how this effects the game.
The atonement spell does not exist. Things that would require it are handled via RP.
Plane shifting spells are not available to mortals, only to outsiders. Plane shifting requires special techniques and components that require multiple adventures just to discover. The existence of planes and outsiders is known, but they are not well understood. They can be summoned and bound with the proper spells.
Any outsider of good bent is called an Angel, and any outsider of evil bent is called a Demon.
No time stop, wish, or miracle spells, including limited wish or minor miracle. Time Stop does not exist, and wishes and miracles are the domain of powerful outsiders, fey, and magic items.
Teleportation magic is only allowed for summoning, spell like abilities, or supernatural abilities.
You may reroll a failed knowledge check if you come across a source of additional information such as a book or an overheard NPC comment.
There is no level or stat loss when being raised from the dead. However, it does cause mental stress. Roll a will save (DC 10 + character level + days dead). If you fail, you gain an insanity (3.5 Unearthed Arcana insanity, not Gamemastery Guide insanity). Insanities are not determined randomly. Instead, the GM talks with the player to see which insanity the player is most comfortable roleplaying, and gives the character that insanity. Characters who are raised from the dead have no memory of what happened to them after they died. The fate of the dead is unknown to mortals.
All medium armor uses the stats for either hide or breastplate, and all heavy armor uses full plate stats. Armors can still be made out of unusual materials (such as adamantine or mithril). The reason for this house rule is that there is no reason to wear medium armor that isn't a breastplate (unless you are a druid or first level character) or heavy armor that isn't full plate once you have the gold for it, and I dislike that, so I prefer for medium and heavy armor to have the same stats, with the differences being aesthetic. That way, you can wear chainmail instead of a breastplate or heavy lamellar instead of full plate without being less effective for it.
Traits are not used.
Ability scores are 25 point buy. Alternatively, you may roll 4d6, drop lowest die 6 times, then reroll the lowest result, in the presence of the GM.
When leveling up, you may either roll HP in the presence of the GM or just assume an average roll (which is half of the maximum dice roll, not a fraction).
Witches have a choice between summoning a familiar and forming an arcane bond. Witch familiars work the same as wizard familiars, as does the arcane bond feature. A witch writes spells in a grimoire, which functions like a wizard's spellbook but holds a great deal of ritual significance to the witch. A witch who loses a grimoire is treated as a witch in another Pathfinder game who has lost a familiar. A witch coven does not need to posses a hag. Bluff is on the list of witch class skills.
No communing with deities. I like my deities mysterious and ambiguous.
Clerics, Oracles, and Inquisitors can't lose their powers for becoming corrupt. That's a Druid/Paladin thing, and Paladins don't lose their powers, they just slowly accrue evil powers as replacements.
Ammunition, food, and water is not tracked unless scarcity is important to the adventure. Spell components are only tracked if they have a specific cost or scarcity is important to the adventure. If the GM decides to track resources, she will inform the players ahead of time so that they may prepare for this.
All characters are literate regardless of class except for those with the true primitive archetype.
Magic ratings are used. Arcane and divine magic ratings do not stack with each other.
Ultimate Combat called shots are allowed.
The following classes are renamed:
Barbarian - Berserker
Samurai - Vassal
Ninja - Trickster
All spells with the healing subtype belong to the necromancy school.
There is no such thing as positive and negative energy. Instead there is healing energy (which acts like positive energy) and harming energy (which acts like negative energy). If you can channel energy, pick one of these two abilities or an alternative channel from Ultimate Magic each time you channel energy.
Undead are healed by healing energies and harmed by harming energies. This means that channeling healing energy will NOT harm undead as is usual.
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I love this (below)
Clerics, Oracles, and Inquisitors can't lose their powers for becoming corrupt. That's a Druid/Paladin thing, and Paladins don't lose their powers, they just slowly accrue evil powers as replacements.
But not so much this. (below)
There is no such thing as positive and negative energy. Instead there is healing energy (which acts like positive energy) and harming energy (which acts like negative energy). If you can channel energy, pick one or an alternative channel from Ultimate Magic.
Undead are healed by healing energies and harmed by harming energies. This means that channeling healing energy will NOT harm undead as is usual.
The alternate Channels universally suck, (way to small a bonus with way way way too short a duration, not a single one is worth it) and this pretty much cements Clerics into the walking bandaid role. I know you have a very different playstyle, but this seems like it would make Clerics (and similar healer classes) very boring.
Fighters get an additional 4 skill points per level.
Why? Off all the classes, Fighters should either not recieve any extra skills, or just +2 like the others. I might even suggest dropping Rogues to 6+Int, especially with what comes next.
A Rogue or Ninja may trade her entire Sneak Attack progression for a bonus feat at 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level and a full base attack bonus. A Rogue or Ninja may trade half her Sneak Attack progression for a full base attack bonus. If she does this, she does not gain the Sneak Attack ability until 3rd level, when she gets 1d6 of Sneak Attack damage, and it improves by one die at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level. A Rogue with the Master Strike ability and no Sneak Attack may use Master Strike whenever Sneak Attack would normally be able to be used.
This is very powerful and honestly not inline with the class at all. I'm not liking it. The old version was much better, I think. Also, whats really the point of even having a Fighter class with this?
All characters are literate regardless of class except for those with the true primitive archetype.
Did I miss something?
I love this
Clerics, Oracles, and Inquisitors can't lose their powers for becoming corrupt. That's a Druid/Paladin thing, and Paladins don't lose their powers, they just slowly accrue evil powers as replacements.But not so much this.
I'm a fan of the slow fall for Paladins. I don't like the whole "snaps fingers, Paladin falls" thing, I like it to be an extensive character development. It also ties into the thing about corrupt divine casters generally not losing their powers. The gods are pretty mysterious, and for some reason they almost never take powers away. There are several theories as to why this is, but the truth is that once powers are given, they can't be taken away. They can change over time to fit the emotions preset in one's soul, as in the case of Paladins, but not out and out eliminated. The only exception is Druids, and they don't get their power from deities.
All spells with the healing subtype belong to the necromancy school.
There is no such thing as positive and negative energy. Instead there is healing energy (which acts like positive energy) and harming energy (which acts like negative energy). If you can channel energy, pick one or an alternative channel from Ultimate Magic.
Undead are healed by healing energies and harmed by harming energies. This means that channeling healing energy will NOT harm undead as is usual.
Why?
Fighters get an additional 4 skill points per level.
I've always thought Fighters could use a tad more skills and skill points. They could use a bit of non-combat utility, and extra skills makes sense for a trained professional.
I think of necromancy as magic dealing with both life and death, which includes healing. This was actually how things were in 2E, though I never actually played 2e (I started in 3.5). For me, however, it makes sense. As for undead, I think of healing as something that stitches flesh together and harming as something that tears it open. Whether the body in question is alive or dead is irrelevant to this. Furthermore, I don't use positive or negative energy do to the fact that I consider healing and harming morally neutral, so it doesn't make sense for healing to harm undead with the way I view healing. It makes sense in vanilla Pathfinder, but I'm not using vanilla.
A Rogue or Ninja may trade her entire Sneak Attack progression for a bonus feat at 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level and a full base attack bonus. A Rogue or Ninja may trade half her Sneak Attack progression for a full base attack bonus. If she does this, she does not gain the Sneak Attack ability until 3rd level, when she gets 1d6 of Sneak Attack damage, and it improves by one die at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level. A Rogue with the Master Strike ability and no Sneak Attack may use Master Strike whenever Sneak Attack would normally be able to be used.This is very powerful and honestly not inline with the class at all. I'm not liking it. The old version was much better, I think.
It's supposed to be an alternative to SA. Suggestions on fixing or replacing it would be appreciated.
All characters are literate regardless of class except for those with the true primitive archetype.Did I miss something?
That's mostly intended to apply to NPC classes like commoners, and is setting specific. To make a long explanation short, high economic efficiency + urbanization + public education = widespread literacy.
Why? Off all the classes, Fighters should either not recieve any extra skills, or just +2 like the others.
I take the opposite position. I think of a Fighter as a highly trained professional who should have plenty of skill training. Plus, I am one of the players who has an issue with out of combat utility and Fighters.
The alternate Channels universally suck, (way to small a bonus with way way way too short a duration, not a single one is worth it) and this pretty much cements Clerics into the walking bandaid role. I know you have a very different playstyle, but this seems like it would make Clerics (and similar healer classes) very boring.
I let Clerics and Paladins pick their channel whenever they use the ability, which makes up for becoming flat footed whenever they cast a spell and unable to flash-fry undead with a healing spell or lay on hands. I should have been more clear in the explanation of that rule.
No,a rogue with full BAB is NOT BROKEN.The math has been done,the fighter will still beat the rogue every time EVEN IF the rogue still has full sneak attack progression.ANyways,sneak attack is circumstantial(though it is easy to flank),and honestly the rogue is one of,if not the weakest classes in the game.
That is what the full BAB options are for. SA is useful IF YOU PLAY THE CHARACTER A SPECIFIC WAY, but if you do not play a character that way it's not very useful at all. That's why I favor having both Rogues with it and Rogues without it, so as to fit more than one playstyle for the class.
I will mention, however, that, with casters flat footed when casting around, an SA Rogue can royally screw up a Wizard.
Blur, Displacement, Mirror Image.
I will mention, however, that, with casters flat footed when casting around, an SA Rogue can royally screw up a Wizard.
You have to get those spells cast first. If the Rogue gets the drop on you, that's not easy.
Oh, and true seeing. If the BBEG has illusions, the party Wizard has stuff that helps the Rogue see past them.
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Why? Off all the classes, Fighters should either not recieve any extra skills, or just +2 like the others.
I take the opposite position. I think of a Fighter as a highly trained professional who should have plenty of skill training. Plus, I am one of the players who has an issue with out of combat utility and Fighters.
As oppossed to all the other highly trained professionals? As a real life soldier, this is absolutely not true. There are exceptions, but the soldiers that you would concider "fighters" focus on fightery stuff, (mastering martial arts, weaponry, combat drills, etc. . . not architecture, lore, medicine, history, math, etc. . . like I said, there are exceptions, but that's why they are exceptions.
I understand you want it a certain way, and it's your home game, so do what you want. I'm just giving my opinion.
No,a rogue with full BAB is NOT BROKEN.The math has been done,the fighter will still beat the rogue every time EVEN IF the rogue still has full sneak attack progression.ANyways,sneak attack is circumstantial(though it is easy to flank),and honestly the rogue is one of,if not the weakest classes in the game.
I'd say these are all matters of opinion, and "doing the math" matters not at all in real games (vs "on paper"). But you are leaving off the fact that a Rogue can trade in sneak attack for roughly half the Fighters Bonus Feats & Full BaB, and still have all of the other MANY Rogue abilities. Wht would anyone play a Fighter? Secondly, the Rogue is not a "combat" class. Trying to play it as such is why people think it is so weak. This is probably the biggest contrinuting factor that the Fighter is (also) weak and underpowered.
I let Clerics and Paladins pick their channel whenever they use the ability, which makes up for becoming flat footed whenever they cast a spell and unable to flash-fry undead with a healing spell or lay on hands. I should have been more clear in the explanation of that rule.
You let them pick from all of the Alternate Channels each time before Channeling Energy? Is that right?
Flat-Footed? Why? Casting makes you flat footed until your next round. And Rogues are Underpowered?????
I don't think we'll come to agreement on skills. I don't see a Fighter as a common grunt, I see a highly seasoned and well trained professional with a vast amount of knowledge about many subjects, including medicine, lore, history, math, and architecture, all of which can be incredibly useful things to know about in a war. Medicine has obvious uses for a professional fighter, lore is useful when fighting monsters and magic users, history is useful because studying past wars is essential to commanding effectively in modern ones, architecture is a vital topic in any urban battle or siege, and math is useful when dealing with large scale combat and supplies. I see the Fighter as someone who likely knows a couple of these things well, at the very least.
Combat is how the Rogue is typically played. I'm trying to support that style because it's what so many people want to do with it. I need to tweak my support, and I thank you for the opinions.
Yes, divine casters can pick from any alternate channel when challenging energy.
Making casters flat footed is a caster nerf, plain and simple. In my experience, Wizards and Sorcerers just have too many options and not enough downsides. Not everybody has this problem, but I do. I think I'll restrict this rule to half BAB classes only, though. I don't think it makes full arcane casters useless. In Kirthfinder they pretty much can't cast while within 5 feet of an enemy do to the way spellcasting works, and they are still fairly powerful. They just don't dominate as much as some people, like myself, see them doing.
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I don't think we'll come to agreement on skills. I don't see a Fighter as a common grunt, I see a highly seasoned and well trained professional with a vast amount of knowledge about many subjects, including medicine, lore, history, math, and architecture, all of which can be incredibly useful things to know about in a war. Medicine has obvious uses for a professional fighter, lore is useful when fighting monsters and magic users, history is useful because studying past wars is essential to commanding effectively in modern ones, architecture is a vital topic in any urban battle or siege, and math is useful when dealing with large scale combat and supplies. I see the Fighter as someone who likely knows a couple of these things well, at the very least.
But that explanaition is doubly true for every single other class. Why would the Cleric, (a holy warrior) not know these things even better? Especially since instead of devoting their time to swordplay, they studied medicine, monster lore, history, architecture, etc. . .
It would see, perfectly reasonable then, that a Wizard could then reason that, as professionals, they should get weapon and armor training with their theif skills, long hours in alchemical study and fathoming of mathmatical riddles should teach them the trivial mechanics of a lock and trap, and their vast amounts of knowledge and running from house cats at level 1 <3E joke> should have instilled some knoledge of wearing full plate unhindered.
Fighters are common grunts. Officers and Specialists, generals and the like are what prestige classes and things of that nature are for.
That's where we disagree. I see the Fighter class as the officers, specialists, and just plain elite, not as grunts. Prestige classes just make them better at these roles. They don't create them. To me, a grunt is a Warrior, not a Fighter. I see it like comparing an infantryman to a SEAL, with the Fighter as the SEAL.
Skills aren't just about study, they're about free time. While the Cleric is leading mass the Fighter is down at the bar training up his bluff (exaggerating his experiences), diplomacy (trying to get into the barmaid's pants), and sense motive (scoffing at other fighters exaggerating their experiences). Possibly perception as well if their are cutpurses around. While the figther is training his swordsmanship the cleric is practicing his magic and studying elements of his religion that are too specific to his religion to constitute knowledge of religions in general.
I agree with this to a point. I just see a Fighter, who I consider an elite warrior and not a common grunt in any way, studying more than just weapon drills and social skills in free time, just like how a Magus or Eldritch Knight or Ranger or Rogue or Ninja studies a lot of different things in free time.
I know this. I just think that, with the way I see the Fighter, they should have more. Like an IRL officer, specialist, or commando, they know a lot of things that don't directly relate to using a weapon.
Naw. I like the game, I just have some gripes I want to patch. My rule list looks long, but it actually makes far fewer changes to Pathfinder than Pathfinder made to 3.5.
I actually don't like RPGs that are wrapped around skills, abilities, and powers very much. I prefer class based ones. I just don't like how the Fighter and Rogue are presented.
Forget the sneak attack options I added. I found better. Rogues and Ninjas replace sneak attack with the Roguery ability from this.
Spellcasting alterations finalized. Half BAB spellcasters are flat footed until their next turn after casting a spell with somatic components and a casting time of one standard action or greater. 3/4 BAB casters instead lose half their dexterity bonus to AC and are not flat footed.
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Yes the infamous Ultimate Classes!
I run barbarians from there as Archetypes that take Rage out for another ability.
I also like their NPC classes but tweaked some of them and made some of my own also like the Tribesman.
They have a pretty good fighter class if you look at it, it has pretty much what you ask of it :)
Yes the infamous Ultimate Classes!
I run barbarians from there as Archetypes that take Rage out for another ability.
I also like their NPC classes but tweaked some of them and made some of my own also like the Tribesman.
They have a pretty good fighter class if you look at it, it has pretty much what you ask of it :)
I like it's sneak attack alternatives, and am drooling over it's Warrior class. So perfect for my purposes.
I just may use it's Fighter, once I decide how the Paizo Fighter archetypes need to be modified to be compatible with it.
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That can be tricky to pull with the fighter but if you are interested this is my tweaked version of their warrior NPC.
WARRIOR
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d10
Class Skills
The warrior’s class skills are Climb (Str), Handle Animal (Cha), Knowledge (Nobility or Religion) (Int), Ride (Dex), Swim (Str) and Survival (Wis)
Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Level BAB Fort Reflex Will Special
1 1 2 0 0 Signature Weaponry
2 2 3 0 0 Bonus Feat
3 3 3 1 1 Flesh-wound 1/day
4 4 4 1 1 Advanced Training
5 5 4 1 1 Unshakable Morale, Flesh-wound 2/day
6 6/1 5 2 2 Bonus Feat
7 7/2 5 2 2 Flesh-wound 3/day
8 8/3 6 2 2 Rank
9 9/4 6 3 3 Flash-wound 4/day
10 10/5 7 3 3 Loyalty to Death, Bonus Feat
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the warrior.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The warrior is proficient in the use of all simple and martial weapons. He is also proficient with light and medium armors and shields (except tower shields).
Signature Weaponry: At 1st level warriors are proficient with all racial and cultural weapons and armor of their people. For example, Humans Warriors from Taldor are proficient with the Falcata.
Flesh-Wound (Ex): Starting at 3rd level a warrior can shrug some damage from a blow, making it less threatening that it otherwise could be. Once per day, when taking damage, he can use this ability and reduce the damage by 2 points at 3rd level and increases by 2 every 2 levels thereafter. At 5th level and every 2 levels thereafter, a warrior can use this ability one more time per day. Flesh-wound can be used no more than once per attack and is an immediate action (a free action usable outside your turn).
Advanced Training (Ex): At 4th level a warrior improves his familiarity with racial weapons. He becomes proficient with heavy armor and tower shields.
Unshakable Morale: At 5th level Warriors never have to make Morale checks and receive a +2 bonus on saves vs. Fear.
Rank: 8th level Warriors are qualified to lead troops, and have the Leadership feat given to them.
Loyal to Death: At 10th level Warriors will fight to the death and remain conscious when below 0 hit points (they are still staggered as normal).
Bonus Feat: A warrior gains bonus feat. This can be any feat designated as bonus fighter feat.
I got some other of the NPC+some of my own if ya want them ^^
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A Fighter has enough Feats to burn on Skill Focus or SKill related Feats to be those officers and specialists, but I still don't think they deserve special treamtment over any other class that would also be officers, leaders, and specialists, (Adept, BARD, Barbarian, CAVALIER, CLERIC, Druid, MONK, Oracle, PALADIN, warrior).
A Fighter has enough Feats to burn on Skill Focus or SKill related Feats to be those officers and specialists, but I still don't think they deserve special treamtment over any other class that would also be officers, leaders, and specialists, (Adept, BARD, Barbarian, CAVALIER, CLERIC, Druid, MONK, Oracle, PALADIN, warrior).
We'll have to agree to disagree here. I think that a couple more skill points would have been good for the class in vanilla Pathfinder. I always wanted them to have a little something extra for out of combat use. 2 may work for you, and that's fine, but it doesn't work for me.
I think it's just that we see the Fighter as filling different roles.
Spellcasting alterations finalized. Half BAB spellcasters are flat footed until their next turn after casting a spell with somatic components and a casting time of one standard action or greater. 3/4 BAB casters instead lose half their dexterity bonus to AC and are not flat footed.
Eldritch Knights are treated as 3/4 BAB casters.
Full BAB casters are treated as 3/4 BAB casters.