So in the near future I'm going to be doing a Pathfinder campaign based on the Seven Portals level hub from Hexen. It feels like a really good fit because everybody in my group is a huge fan of the souls games and I've always felt like Hexen(my favorite fps of all time) felt more like a souls game than even Kingsfield. It's going to be awesome... if I can pull it off.
I'll be adding in bosses, NPCs and even a few mechanics form Demon's Souls and the two Dark Souls games(I have not played Bloodbourne yet. Need to get a PS4.) I have the basics figured out, but would appreciate some input and discussion on the finer details. Thanks in advance.
1 So I pretty much have the level design set up for me; six doors leading to the Guardians of Ice, Fire and Steel levels with the seventh skipping the other hubs and going right for the bossfights. I'm considering making the doors to the left represent other levels I liked from the aforementioned games, like the Darkmere from Hexen or the Grave of Saints from Dark souls 2. I'm also not sure how well all of the backtracking will translate to pen and paper if I use a pefect copy of the original hubworld. Either way the concept is that six switches must be pulled from all the levels to open the seventh door.
2 Secondly, the biggest change is that I'm adding NPCs and bosses from the souls games into the mix. Players will chill out with the forlorn knight, rescue or murder Lautrec/Yurt, haggle with Shalquar and even level up with the Maiden in Black. I'll also be throwing in red phantoms and maybe a boss for every level(the main enemies will still be from Hexen, however). For the final bosses, the three kings and finally Korax I want to do something pretty special and have each king boss represent each souls game with Korax being more or less unchanged. The kings each represent a fighter cleric and mage and I've been going about who to have for each. So far I'm thinking the Mirror Knight (Dark Souls 2) for the fighter, a Gwendolen/Monlight Butterfly teamup(Dark Souls 1) for the mage, and on the cleric I'm a bit iffier. The Fool's idol seems obvious, but in our last big game the DM already did a boss based on her and it was awesome, so that's off the table. Maybe I'll have it be Patches; nobody'll see that coming. I'm not married to any one concept for the bosses and look forward to any suggestions.
I'll also add covenants. One for the Warrior, Mage, Cleric, and the Heretic as a shutout to Hexen's prequel. Fulfilling each of the covenant's requirements will grant each classes' second weapon (The Heretic's covenant will grant the Ethereal Crossbow because I love that thing). If I can fit it in somehow, I'd like to add in the Sunbro and the Rat King covenants as well
3 The hardest will probably be the changes to the mechanics. I'll be doing a Soulslike take on player death. Each time a PC dies, they will respawn at a bonfire at the beginning of the level... if they pass a sanity check. The first check will be a DC 10 will save, anybody can make it. Each time a player dies, however, the DC goes up by 5. If a player fails the DC they go hollow and their character sheet belongs to me to be used as a red phantom at any time(or the Mirror Knight if I use him). Mechanics-wise that's the easy part.
I also want to use the Souls' elements and upgrade system. I figure each enemy will have a chance to drop a Titanite Shard on death, to be used to make a weapon +1 at the blacksmith (btw I won't be using xp for souls/currency. Money will be souls; anything else is just a bit too much of a headache.
Now for the hard part; the elements. I really want the elements to work like the Souls games. Instead of a lighting weapon doing an extra 1d6 damage I want it to add wisdom to attack and(maybe) damage, maybe at the cost of some strength bonus. I also want it to be balanced somewhat. It's easy to base lightning on wisdom and magic on intellegence, but what about when fire is added to the mix? Poison? This is probably what I'm having the most trouble with, and I'm afraid I won't find an easy, satisfying answer to it. Oh well.
Anyway, that's that. Any questions, comments or advice would be greatly appreciated. Umbasa
I'm not familiar with Hexen, but you could try something similar to the Maiden Astraea and Garl Vinland fight for the Cleric Boss Fight? I'd probably do Garl as Leeroy (Give him the special attack from Grant & maybe hp regen from the shield or something) for a more cleric-ey feel.
I've been looking at making a Darksouls Pathfinder campaign, but haven't had the time to fully flesh it out yet. My idea for hollowing was that Every time they die they roll 1d6 and lose 1 point from the related stat (1-Str, 2-Dex, 3-Con, 4-Wis, 5-Int, 6-Cha). If a player gets to -3 in one stat, or if they get a -1 in every stat, then they hollow. Thus some characters would hollow after only 3 deaths, but a lucky character might still be "Sane" until they die 11 times.
I also thought Hero Points (Advanced Players Guide p322) work pretty damn well for Humanity. They can be used to restore 1 stat point lost after death for each hero point spent, or used any other way the book says, or any way you can think of.
Just my thoughts, but since I'm planning to run this at some point anyway, any feedback coming my way would be appreciated too =)
I hadn't thought about Hero Points, that's clever. I considered Astrea but figured against it on the grounds that she's really depressing. Ditto for Sif.