Going Greek

[Greylurker]

So, I’m drifting off to sleep last night and an idea rattles into my brain

“you know what was cool
The Greek Odysseys”
The Gods were active, petty and vain
Magic was raw and primal
Heroes were bigger than life
And the journey was as important as the quest

Now I’m awake and I’ve had my coffee and the idea still appeals to me. Not everything in Pathfinder fits though.

Barbarian, Fighter and Rogue are in
Cleric and Paladin are out
Oracle feels like a Must
Wizard feels wrong
Witch feels right

Gunslinger is right out

Alchemist is a maybe. Bomb=Greek Fire=Works Mutagen? Not sure might work, might need refluffing

Monk.not sure. Most of me says no, part of me says Grecco-roman wrestling. Brawler Playtest maybe?

Considering SSG’s Godling class. Feels like a good fit but I don’t have any experience with it. Anyone actually played with one in their game?

Words of Power for Magic,gives magic a more primitive feel to me, but removing high speed transport stuff like teleport. Can’t have an Odyssey if you can “Poof” to the end

Mythic Rules feel like a good choice for this
Equipment list is going to need trimming down

So anyone else got ideas on what should and shouldn’t be in a Epic Greek style pathfinder campaign?

[Kolokotroni]

Since they were more or less built with guys like perseus in mind the godlings are an excellent fit. And i've used them a fair bit and they are rather good. The one thing to note is they are VERY flexible classes. If you use them to build concept they are excellent and you can do almost anything with them (you could very easily just have a party of 4 godlings and have a very well rounded and functional party). If you go out of your way to optimize, they can be pretty high on the power scale.

[downlobot]

I think clerics and pally's would work, just not in the proselytizing sense; more of a chosen by the god sense. You could literally have their god be their questgiver, and not rely so much on alignment but on their willingness to go out of their way to complete random tasks for some petty and vain deity.edit: that is, the gods might not care so much if you're good or evil, but will strip your powers if you ignore them.

Wizards I think would be ok, too. But the populace would associate them with hecate or equivalent, so would probably actively distrust if not torch and pitchfork them. Anytime anything goes wrong in a place you're visiting, the wizard should be prepared to be scarce or defend herself from the mob.

Plus, just about anything goes once your trip takes you past annatolia, lots of room for meeting monsters and classes from all over at the crossroads of the world. I think it would be awesome.

[Indagare]

From the base classes, I think Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Bard, Ranger, and Sorcerer could work well. Some tweaked version of the Monk could work too.

From the advanced classes I think that some tweaked version of the Alchemist (Greeks had alchemical abilities but the mutagenic properties don't make sense), Cavalier (Greeks loved their horses), and Oracle (the curses do not make sense) would work. The Witch is definitely going to work.

In theory, Druids would fit in with a more primordial setting, but they have a more Celtic feel than Greek feel to them. Magus's might also fit in from the aspect of Sparta having warriors and there's no reason to think they couldn't have warrior-spell casters.

Clerics are on the fence. The Greeks worshiped a lot of deities, and there were temples dedicated to specific deities, but the 'defending the faith' aspect of a Cleric might not work so well. As downlobot pointed out, the good-evil dichotomy simply wasn't there. The Greek deities cared more about getting worshiped than the nature of their worshipers. They were also pretty fickle when it came to rewards and punishments. Getting the attention of any of the gods was almost never a good thing.

[Sean K Reynolds]

Grey, you might want to take a look at a (now free) PDF I wrote called The New Argonauts.

[Greylurker]

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Grey, you might want to take a look at a (now free) PDF I wrote called The New Argonauts.

Thank you for that, into my downloads it goes

[mkenner]

Greylurker wrote:

Wizard feels wrong

If it won't fit with the vibe you're going for that's fine. Ancient greece however did have a strong magical tradition and invented many of the symbols and imagery associated with wizards in the modern consciousness.

Wikipedia reference

[christos gurd]

there is also this by little red goblin games as well

[StDrake]

might be among the materials mentionned above, but one characteristic thing comes to mind - breastplates..lots of breastplate armors and nothing above, don't think some kinds of lower grade armors like chainmail were very popular either..and of course leave pants alone for most cases

[Urath DM]

There's a 3.0 treatment in Green Ronin's "Trojan War" product, part of the same Mythic Vistas line as "Testament" (Biblical), "Hamunaptra" (Ancient Egypt) and "Eternal Rome".

They might all be out of print now, but look around used stores, or for the odd copy in the discount bin of your local game store.

There would be some conversion involved to use some of the setting-specific classes, but the background materials may help inspire a bit if nothing else.

[LizardMage]

You can always get away with doing "ancient lands" to the north and west to accommodate any item and class gaps. I'd just make items fitting those regions fairly rare/uncommon. Exotic class easily stay exotic if your PC is possibly the only one of it's type in the region.

Wizards can fit as philosophical scholars and academics that dive into mysteries of the world. Sorcerers can be those casters raised/educated by the fey or wild races such as satyrs.

Oracles are flat out chosen cursed, clerics are those that devote themselves and become clergy of the god.

I hate gunslingers so won't try to fit them.

Just a few thoughts.