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Yes, yet another version. I'm still trying to perfect things. As usual, these are written with a view of firearm heavy campaigns.
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If the GM allows something that later proves to be unbalanced, the player may be asked to modify or replace the option in question.
Alignment is not used. See here for how this changes the rules.
Casting a spell causes you to lose your defense bonus to AC until your next turn. Defense bonuses are the replacement to armor, and are based on BAB.
Spontaneous casters do not increase a spell's casting time when using metamagic.
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, provided you possess the earlier version.
All Characters get Vital Strike, Combat Expertise, Power Attack, Weapon Finesse, Point-Blank Shot, and Precise Shot for free.
Sneak attacks may be made from any distance within the first range increment of the weapon.
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.
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.
Each character is entitled to two traits, selected from a setting specific list presented by the GM.
Ability scores are 25 point buy.
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.
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.
Ultimate Combat called shots are allowed.
All spells with the healing subtype belong to the necromancy school.
If a healing spell is cast on a corpse that has died within 1d3 + 2 minutes, and this spell raises the corpse's hit point total above its constitution modifier in negative hit points, the corpse returns to life. The corpse may not have more hit points that half it's constitution score in negative hit points when it returns to life, and resumes the dying condition normally, though it does not get an attempt at stabilization until losing a hit point. After 1d3 + 2 minutes, this can still be attempted, but it will likely fail to revive the corpse, and if it succeeds there will probably be brain damage. Whether or not such a late revival attempt fails, whether it does brain damage, and what this brain damage does is up to DM fiat. Once a person has been dead for 1d3 + 7 minutes, the individual can no longer be brought back to life, as resurrection magic does not exist.
Undead are treated the same way as living creatures where healing spells are concerned.
Teleportation magic is only allowed for summoning, spell like abilities, or supernatural abilities.
All classes except the fighter get an additional 2 skill points per level. This applies to archetypes that modify skill points.
This version of the fighter replaces the original class.
This provides the basic gist of how firearms work, though there will be some tweaks made, and the cover rule will not be used.
The Cleric, Oracle, Druid, Paladin, and Inquisitor are banned. Rangers shall take the Skirmisher archetype. The gods no longer provide humans with divine power do to many, many instances of misuse.
The Magus adds these spells to it's spell list.
Sorcerers, Wizards, and Witches add these spells to their spell lists.
This last one isn't so much a rule as a flavor choice, but whenever a hit is scored with a weapon, a card from the Gamemastery Critical Hit deck is drawn. The effect on the card is NOT applied. Instead, the card tells the GM where on the body the attack struck, allowing the GM to quickly come up with a description of the attack based on amount of damage possible and amount done. Hopefully, by being more descriptive with combat, martial characters will be able to have more fun, since they can visualize what that 11 points of damage did.
Great stuff.
Thanks. I'm especially fond of my revival idea. I don't like the revolving door afterlife, so I've always disliked resurrection magic, but without such magic you can very easily lose a character you love permanently to a bad roll. I think revival is a workable replacement. I got the idea from how, in real life, jump starting the heart can revive someone who has only been dead for a few minutes, but if you wait too long it won't work because the brain is too far gone. I think it reduces the chance of permadeath quite a bit, while eliminating the revolving door afterlife and maintaining the risk of death.
I like most of them, though I disagree with the blanket banning of divine classes. They could easily be re-flavored to being powered by their own force of will or perhaps treated as just another branch of magic.
I'd personally think of it as being reminiscent of psionics... in the general sense people pray to gods whose power is dependent on prayer and then these gods give back the power to those they like. Sounds a lot like prayers are psionic energy that the people never even realized they had.
I like most of them, though I disagree with the blanket banning of divine classes. They could easily be re-flavored to being powered by their own force of will or perhaps treated as just another branch of magic.
I'd personally think of it as being reminiscent of psionics... in the general sense people pray to gods whose power is dependent on prayer and then these gods give back the power to those they like. Sounds a lot like prayers are psionic energy that the people never even realized they had.
Well, I banned them because I'm having a hard time trying to remove all traces of a religious background from them, and the religious background just doesn't fit my world. The divines don't trust mortals with divine power anymore. Too many holy wars started without divine consent, too many teachings taken far out of context, too many churches far removed from their deity's teachings, and too many divine casters gone corrupt. The divines got tired of having to punish offending followers every five minutes and put down the constant firestorms, and they were tired of clerics who didn't even listen to them. Divine casters are well and truly gone as a result. Hell, the divines don't even trust ANGELS with divine power anymore. They're mortals, now, and are depowered enough as a result of the divines getting fed up that they are perfectly acceptable as a PC race. Same with demons and devils. The angels, demons, and devils in the Bestiaries still exist, and I'll still use them, but these creatures are, in my setting, demigods (of which there are a lot, and which the gods CAN'T depower and banish to the mortal realm [and boy, would they love to]), not angels, demons, or devils. Same stat block, different creature.
New house rule. If you want to switch the saving throw bonuses for your class or classes around, this is fine, so long as you have the same number of good saves and poor saves as you would normally have. So, you may switch around saving throw bonuses to have a Fighter who isn't as stout as many but has an iron strong will, but you may not switch things around to have a Rogue who is both iron tough and incredibly reflexive, because a Rogue only has one good save, not two.
Intimidate is based off of either Strength or Charisma, whiichever modifier is higher. Same Use Magic Device and Charisma/Intelligence, Heal and Wisdom/Intelligence, Survival and Wisdom/Intelligence ONLY IF YOU HAVE RANKS IN KNOWLEDGE: NATURE, Disable Device and Dexterity/Intelligence ONLY IF YOU HAVE RANKS IN KNOWLEDGE: ENGINEERING, Profession and any ability IF THE GM AGREES THAT THE SPECIFIC ABILITY SCORE DESIRED MAKES SENSE FOR THE SPECIFIC PROFESSION SKILL, Craft and any ability IF THE GM AGREES THAT THE SPECIFIC ABILITY SCORE DESIRED MAKES SENSE FOR THE SPECIFIC CRAFT SKILL.
To be honest, whilst it might fit your campaign world etc, I am not really sure that forcing a ranger character to take an archetype would work. I would love to hear why you have made that rule.
The divine caster ban? Meh it makes sense, although makes any healing seeimingly incredibly rare which makes sense.
Arcane casters can now heal, it's Necromancy now...
Love the idea of switching saves around!
Arcane casters can now heal, it's Necromancy now...To be honest, whilst it might fit your campaign world etc, I am not really sure that forcing a ranger character to take an archetype would work. I would love to hear why you have made that rule.
The divine caster ban? Meh it makes sense, although makes any healing seeimingly incredibly rare which makes sense.
From what I understand, healing used to be Necromancy back in 2E. I'm pretty sure arcane casters couldn't do it, but without divine casters I may as well allow it.
Love the idea of switching saves around!
I wanted to do it to fit a build for the aforementioned Fighter who lacks the physical durability of most front line warriors, but who is incredibly dedicated to a cause and possessed of a will and determination that just doesn't bend or break. I don't see why not to extend this ability to all characters and classes. It won't cause any balance problems since the ratio of good to bad saves can't be changed.
To be honest, whilst it might fit your campaign world etc, I am not really sure that forcing a ranger character to take an archetype would work. I would love to hear why you have made that rule.
When I pulled divine casting, I didn't want to eliminate the Ranger class wholesale. So, I took the spelless option that exists and applied that to the whole class.
The Cleric, Oracle, Druid, Paladin, and Inquisitor are banned. Rangers shall take the Skirmisher archetype. The gods no longer provide humans with divine power do to many, many instances of misuse.
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Well, I banned them because I'm having a hard time trying to remove all traces of a religious background from them, and the religious background just doesn't fit my world.
I don't know if you ever played 2ed AD&D Lankhmar – City of Adventure setting?(from Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series).
The setting left the system pretty much intact but had two types of "arcane magic": white magic and black magic. Black wizards use the mage class, white wizards used the cleric class.
All that to say that I do believe that even Pathfinder's cleric can be re-fluffed as a practitioner of white magic or whatever (same for oracle and I'm willing to bet, inquisitor and paladin) and removing all religious flavour. It takes a bit of intellectual gymnastic however, and a bit of re-naming would help. At any case I'm 100% certain I could sell it to my mom and dad in one instant; the hard part is for us gamers to "unlearn" what we have become accustomed to recognize as the effects of religion in D&D. Otherwise there's nothing religious about destroying (or making) skeletons or boosting your friends' abilities. Although it can be seen as a religion, Star Wars' Jedi could be considered clerics...
That being said...
I think a homebrew setting without divine magic is fantastic. I still believe that Pathfinder offers wide enough of a system so that a homebrew (or published) setting doesn't HAVE to use 100% of its content.
anyhow, good gaming!
'findel
Do you ever use armor as DR or piecewise armor?
I don't use armor at all in my campaign setting. This is because musket fire would most likely penetrate whatever one was wearing.
The Cleric, Oracle, Druid, Paladin, and Inquisitor are banned. Rangers shall take the Skirmisher archetype. The gods no longer provide humans with divine power do to many, many instances of misuse.
...
Well, I banned them because I'm having a hard time trying to remove all traces of a religious background from them, and the religious background just doesn't fit my world.
I don't know if you ever played 2ed AD&D Lankhmar – City of Adventure setting?(from Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series).
The setting left the system pretty much intact but had two types of "arcane magic": white magic and black magic. Black wizards use the mage class, white wizards used the cleric class.
All that to say that I do believe that even Pathfinder's cleric can be re-fluffed as a practitioner of white magic or whatever (same for oracle and I'm willing to bet, inquisitor and paladin) and removing all religious flavour. It takes a bit of intellectual gymnastic however, and a bit of re-naming would help. At any case I'm 100% certain I could sell it to my mom and dad in one instant; the hard part is for us gamers to "unlearn" what we have become accustomed to recognize as the effects of religion in D&D. Otherwise there's nothing religious about destroying (or making) skeletons or boosting your friends' abilities. Although it can be seen as a religion, Star Wars' Jedi could be considered clerics...
That being said...
I think a homebrew setting without divine magic is fantastic. I still believe that Pathfinder offers wide enough of a system so that a homebrew (or published) setting doesn't HAVE to use 100% of its content.
anyhow, good gaming!
'findel
I guess that could be done, but I've already folding healing into the arcane classes, and it seems workable.
I guess that could be done, but I've already folding healing into the arcane classes, and it seems workable.
Since the bard can cast arcane cure-X-wounds spells, it shouldn't be a shocker for anyone anymore.
I banned clerics and bards as PC's in my campaigns. The guy communing with the God's through prayer? He's not healing you in between troll bites, he's thirteen leagues away...you'll see him at the end of the adventure.
Makes the party plan, and be careful. Healing is through potions, and heal checks. Can get scary fast. Granted, I use a HP/ Vigor and Wound point system, but...
And I cannot abide bad musicians in the middle of an intense battle. Lame. They are NPC's, to drive the story, give legends and flavor and history, and even bonuses that show up in later battles. (a cleric blesses you in your fight against the goblins, you head to the dungeon...and trigger it as a swift action, by mumbling a quick prayer. A bard gives you bonuses in a similar fashion.)
I love the alignment removal. This is what I use already, but formally written down. Awesome!
Revive is great, I'm yoinking and adapting.
I give professionalism to all characters. And untrained knowledge checks are just +10 DC.
Great stuff!
I banned clerics and bards as PC's in my campaigns. The guy communing with the God's through prayer? He's not healing you in between troll bites, he's thirteen leagues away...you'll see him at the end of the adventure.
Makes the party plan, and be careful. Healing is through potions, and heal checks. Can get scary fast. Granted, I use a HP/ Vigor and Wound point system, but...
And I cannot abide bad musicians in the middle of an intense battle. Lame. They are NPC's, to drive the story, give legends and flavor and history, and even bonuses that show up in later battles. (a cleric blesses you in your fight against the goblins, you head to the dungeon...and trigger it as a swift action, by mumbling a quick prayer. A bard gives you bonuses in a similar fashion.)
I love the alignment removal. This is what I use already, but formally written down. Awesome!
Revive is great, I'm yoinking and adapting.
I give professionalism to all characters. And untrained knowledge checks are just +10 DC.
Great stuff!
Check the Bard alternate archetypes. I dunno why anyone would ever play a vanilla Bard, but there's fun to be had in the alternates.
Depending on your campaign mythos, rangers and druids don't have to draw their magic from the same powers as paladins and clerics. I find the all out ban excessive.
New house rule. If you want to switch the saving throw bonuses for your class or classes around, this is fine, so long as you have the same number of good saves and poor saves as you would normally have. So, you may switch around saving throw bonuses to have a Fighter who isn't as stout as many but has an iron strong will, but you may not switch things around to have a Rogue who is both iron tough and incredibly reflexive, because a Rogue only has one good save, not two.
but since the beginning of the class!!
at 1st lvl the player chooses which save are good or bad... "you got 3 points for your saves, do as youll like with it"
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Weapon finesse, Power Attack, and Combat Expertise are the most necessary things here, I think. When I was making my Pokemon conversion for Pathfinder I decided ot was necessary to work that into the rules as a given. Who wants to take a feat for something you should just
be able to do?
I like everything about the revival idea except the d3. In this case I would just call it a d4+1. I know its mathematically slightly different, but I prefer the d4 for simplicity. Its a great rule change, though.
Depending on your campaign mythos, rangers and druids don't have to draw their magic from the same powers as paladins and clerics. I find the all out ban excessive.
Rangers aren't banned, they just can't cast spells. Druids are banned, because if nature isn't divine I don't know what is, they are not a good class for predominately ranged fighting, and an arcane spellcaster can fill the same theme.
I can't ban the bard. I love musicians and storytellers too much.