So I am about to run the Jade Regent adventure path, which I have ran and played in sever times in the past. This time I am adding several of the unchained rules in order to create what I think is a more balanced system that focuses heavily on skills. One of the variants that I have fallen in love with is the Automatic Bonus Progression rules where many bonuses normally gained from items are already built into character progression.
I have been playing around making characters in herolab trying to test the limits of these variant rules in order to see how powerful characters can become. I noticed when making an ogre mage hero lab applied the automatic bonus progression to the racial hit dice. I thought maybe this was ok since the creature is an intelligent being. I then loaded up a T-Rex to see if herolab applied the automatic bonus progression to its racial hit dice...and it did.
My question: Is automatic bonus progression meant to be applied to racial hit dice or just to character levels? I can understand the ogre mage getting it but it seems strange that the T-Rex develop a deflection bonus or mental prowess. I would think automatic bonus progression would only apply to beings with above animal intelligence...
You shouldn't apply it to racial hit dice, especially for a pure monster that already hits its numbers without using gear (which shouldn't use ABP at all). For a monster NPC with some monstery stuff and some class levels that would normally have equipment, you should give ABP based on the total CR, not hit dice (which may be much too high, especially for fey).
Thank you so much, the numbers look a bit better like that! Still, if you make say a cloud giant fighter with ABP, would it be fair to say they have so much gear built in that the CR gets adjusted just like any NPC who receives extra wealth?
The answer is "it depends, but probably not". If adding the NPC stat array, class levels, and ABP bonuses gives stat values that match those for the chosen CR on the Monster Statistics By CR table (Bestiary 1 page 291), then it's fine. However, ignore the High/Low Attack column and treat Average Damage as target Expected Damage Value (which is something you'll need to calculate). If a particular aspect of ABP would make particular values too high, such as armor attunement, don't use those ABP aspect, or reduce that aspect.
Sounds right. I remade a core monk I am playing through the ABP rules and they seemed to be very generous to him especially in armor class, perhaps its just going to be like that for a few monsters as well. I feel like I am really getting into the nuts and bolts of Pathfinder now :P
That's the goal of Pathfinder Unchained: to give you a toolbox that will unleash creativity and make you the designer!