Jeanmiwan's page

Congratulations, Adam !
You just invented a brand-new way to play role-playing games.
You just have to find some name for your style.
I propose everyone here to call that "home rules" or "home ruling", as you wish.

I'm afraid to say its not been positive. I find the games massive vocal fanbase is often aggressive against non players and even amongst its own ranks, and I unfortunately was exposed to several such fans via my FLGS who gave the game such a bad image it would be enough to put me off.

It's about the same with every fanbase. It's a shame, but I guess it's human nature. I met the same problem with many rings (gaming rings, musical fans, more adult groups I shouldn't talk about... worst of all : many of these groups claim to be "open minded")

with cmb’s and cmd’s and bab’s and a thousand other acronyms a barrier against entry. And despite all their books being detailed and illustrated, their layout sucks for a partially sighted person like me.

I' believe it's made to shrink printed characters and by the way having lighter and cheaper books. I remember old AD&D having some HP, HD, THAC0, PP, OL, FT/RT, MS, HS, HN, CW, RL... I may miss some of them.

Pathfinder doesn't feel modern. It's now what? 6 years old? with no major changes to the rules, and they themselves are built on stuff thats nearly 15 years old.

That's what keep its fanbase : not having to buy the same core rulebooks again and again every two or three years like other products, even some that don't change that much from edition to edition (thinking about a "G", a "W" and a great number like 40.000 ?)

(...) I cam considering tweaking the Pathfinder Beginners Box rules to give it aspects of other modern systems and to make the game work for my style of play (...)

So you're using house rules and it's allright, you don't have to feel sorry for that. Many of us do that, too.

Movement

The beginners box set still uses the Pathfinder idea of counting diagonals, so the first counts as 5' of movement, the second as 10', the third as 5' and so on. Yawn, old fashioned, and boo, too much hassle. Let’s just simply take the 4e approach of diagonals are 5' of movement.

I do prefer using hexes rather than squares. It's so more realistic to me. Squares are used in Chess, I don't see anything modern in it.

Critical Hits

(...)get rid of confirming critical hits, so a 20 is always a critical hit doing double or triple damage. And I would do this as a literal double like 13th age, i.e. two times the damage die roll plus mod, rather than rolling two damage dice.

scimitar threat range : 18-20

keen scimitar threat range : 16-20
keen scimitar with improved critical feat threat range : 14-20
With your rule, every opponent with an AC of 14 or more gets a critical strike anytime it's hit.
The "confirmation roll" is made to avoid having all fighter in the world fighting with scimitars (or rapiers, same thing) : ùore damage than a greatsword (thanks to the critical's doubled STR mod) AND carrying a shield.
Moreover : since in most encounters, monsters are in greater number than PCs, no confirming roll makes the game far more dealy to PCs than to NPCs.

Healing

The term healing covers a multitude of issues, and some of these might address themselves at higher levels but at level 1, Pathfinder characters are fragile.

Especially if monsters don't need to confirm-roll a critical threat.

A short rest is a 5 minute breather at the end of combat, you calm your heart rate, bind up wounds, readjust armour, loosen tired muscles. In that 5 minutes, you regain 1 hp, and you don’t break a time sensitive quest.

When the average fighter (STR 16, longsword, power attack) inflicts 10 damage, I don't see the point of recovering 1 HP

An extended rest is what it sounds like, a longer rest, proper binding of wounds, bashing armour back into shape, sharpening swords, praying etc. It requires the characters to hole up somewhere safe for an hour, but let’s them regain 1 + CONS mod hp (minimum of 1).

Not sure, but that's what gives back a full day of resting, in the rules. Keep playing "Neverwinter Nights" and clicking "rest" after every fight. (I must admit I love this game, excepted for that rest button)

Why not giving a second hid die at first level, if durability is your concern ? Pathfinder beta version was suggesting this, if I remember well (a D6 more HP for every 1st level character, whatever their class)

Finally, you have long rests, which are several hours long, and in a dungeon require a safe place and a watch. The way I would do this is to differentiate in dungeon resting and at home/tavern resting. In a dungeon, a long rest should let you regain up to half of your maximum hp (and to break tradition, we’ll round that up like Next does), while in a tavern a long rest regains all hp. That way there’s a reason to travel back to their home base.

I remember having to think about an adventure strategically and fights tactically not to give up on too many hit points before facing the "boss" in the end of the adventure.

Giving back HP this easily will just make the player bashing their way straight ahead and change dungeon crawling from strategic planning to endless dice rolling.
You may play "Descent", it will save you plenty of time. (I like this game, but it's definitely no RPG at all, it's board game)

So let’s say... all characters have one Recovery Surge action per day. It’s a standard action, and heals 1 + CONS mod hp (minimum of 1) i.e. It’s like taking an extended rest in combat.

Elf : Hff... Hff... Hff... (breathing with difficulty in the middle of a fight in the end of the afternoon)

Human : I cover you ! take a breather while I occupy those damn Orcs !
Elf : Hff... Hff... can't... Hff... alread... Hff... took one... Hff... this mornin... Hff... just aft... Hff... breakfast... Hff... Hff...

So let’s say, if a character has a constitution of 13+ they gain an extra Recovery Surge per day. So two 2 to 3 hp heals in a day, not going to break it too much.

Dwarf : Hff... Hff... Hff... (breathing with difficulty in the middle of a fight in the end of the afternoon)

Human : I cover you ! take a breather while I occupy those damn Orcs !
Dwarf : Hff... Hff... can't... Hff... alread... Hff... took one... Hff... this mornin... Hff... just aft... Hff... breakfast... Hff... Hff...
Human : But you can take two a day !
Dwarf : Hff... Hff... took anoth... Hff... after lunch... Hff... Hff...

I’ve hated rolling for hp ever since Basic D&D (...). So the Wizard gains 1d6 (or 4) + CONS mod hp when they level up.

That's an idea I love ! (no kidding)

I'm used to give everyone (even monsters and NPC) a full HD+CON modifier at first level and then 1HP/level from 2nd level (I don't like how too many HP every creature has from the very firs AD&D)
That makes the fights deadly, not only for the PCs, it speeds up combat encounters and makes players more akin to diplomacy and negotiations.

everyone gets a new, once per day Action Surge action, which let’s them take an additional standard action that round. And then as per the other features, if your constitution is 13+ plus, you get an extra action surge per day.

Chatting after the fight, beginning of the evening.

Human : You did really well against that Ogre while I was disabled, but why didn't you finish it sooner, as he staggered under you critical strike ?
Dwarf : Yeah... but remember : I already caught my chance as we were training with each other, this morning...

Give the fighter a new ability, a once per day Heavy Strike free action, that deals +1d6 damage on an attack. And then in keeping with other features, if their strength is 13+ they get an extra Heavy Strike per day.

Dwarf : But you could hit it harder before getting disabled, that would make this fight easier for both of us.

Human : You know I already hit hard this Troll and this Gnoll before lunch. I won't do it again before tomorrow.

Rogues

Why is it, in every rpg, rogues have a bit if an identity crisis. They are the uber damage dealers, the skill monkeys, the trapfinders...

Fighter are more varied. There are swordmen, axemen, hammermen, spearmen, flailmen...

Wizards are more varied. There are spell user, charm users, magic users...
Clerics are more varied. There are good gods followers, neutral gods followers, evil gods followers, mysterious gods followers, fallen gods followers.
So you're right : rogues should be varied, too...
Er... never heard about ROLE playing ? never thought that two fighters could be different in other things than the weapon they wield in battle ? the wizards different in other things than their spellbooks ? the clerics different in other things than the gods they worship ? the rogues different in other things that their skill lists ?
Haven't you ever tried to play in character ? I started playing RPG in 1989 (later than you, if I understand well) and It happened to me some times. And it was really enjoyable.
I can tell you that among those numerous AD&D longsword-and shield-wielding, plate mail-wearing fighters in our adventuring parties, they were all different. Not by equipment or by ability scores (no skills and no feats, back then) but by the life their players put in them.

My major issue is that a rogue should be sneaky, but to gain the benefit of sneak attack, basically has to flank it’s target.

Or benefit from surprise, or strike an helpless/sleeping/paralyzed opponent (choose according to events), or feint to deprive the opponent from its DEX bonus... By thinking a little, I may give you other occurences.

There is a nice simple tweak. If the rogue is hidden and attacks (melee or ranged), then it can deal sneak attack damage, and if the rogue makes a ranged attack against an enemy flanked by his allies, it can deal sneak attack damage.

I may be wrong, but that's already like this.

Everytime the target is denied its DEX bonus and/or unaware of the sneak attack. Surprise (while hidden, for example) is part of it.

You might have noticed : I HATE things like "daily abilities".
IRL, I know how to mend a puncture, I can do it anytime and as often as I need, I'm not limited to one bike wheel per day.
I know it's all about "game balance" and I feel I have to stick to the rules because of that, but adding more and more things-you-can-do-only-once-a-day seems stupide to me.
Moreover since it adds to the record-keeping a player must do and breaks the flow of the game.
To my mind.

Anyway, take my answer easy.
There's only one good way to play a RPG : the one that fits YOU.
So if you enjoy playing with all those house rules you gave us here, go on ! it's all right !

For example, if someone wrote "John 2:19" on a wall, only someone with knowledge of the bible would get the reference (and thus how it might be useful).

It seems you failed your "decipher script" skill check...

It was a message for my friend John, telling him I was waiting him for tea at two hours and nineteen minutes in the afternoon... I didn't have enough remaining chalk to write "PM"
Nothing to do with any holy book.

Yeah I got the critical hits thing right I'm pretty confident.

Attack: A d20, rolled a nat 20.
Confirm: A d20, rolled a nat 20. (Dragon died to this damage)
Second confirm: A d20, rolled a nat 14. (Dragon was already dead anyway)

Did the full damage on his first hit, then after that "only" did d10+10. I think in the future I will just double the damage instead of rolling it twice.

Er... I guess you're wrong here...

You should have played like this :

Attack: A d20, rolled a nat 20.
Confirm: A d20, rolled a nat 20.
Roll for damage. (increased for being a critical hit)

The second 20 is just a confirmation of the critical hit from the first 20. It doesn't give another strike, nor adds more damage.

Two critical strikes may be enough to kill a weak dragon, anyway, even if a "weak dragon" is still a mighty opponent, especially versus low-level characters.

If you feel bad about a dead BlackFang, just use the "SUIM" trick.
(SUIM means "Shut Up ! It's Magic !")
Don't forget dragons are intelligent beings and many are able to cast spells. This one could have found some scroll of "clone" and have used it some time ago, so the PC would have killed a copy of the original BlackFang (who could now be afraid of them... or really angry)
He could have faked death, too... but it's not likely to work for you, since he can't fake having been skinned.

The problem with pathfinder rules is that they're designed around a set of premade classes. This makes it hard to adapt them to, say, a sci-fi setting.

Think of Dragonstar.

No more published, it was released as an "OGL game", needing the core rules of the role-playing-game-you-know-of-but-should-not-tell-the-name, 3rd edition.
It can be stated a bit like "this" RPG in space, picturing some space-opera universe with Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, Orcs, and so on, and used core classes like fighter, barbarian, wizard, clerics, and so on, only having to alter them a little bit.
For example, fighters using laser guns rather than swords and piloting cars rather than riding horses, rangers specializing in carbines rather than bows, rogues dismissing electronic security rather than picking locks, wizards using spells more in a general way and relying to genades for area-effect damage...

I really like this setting where Gods created the whole galaxy rather than a mere world, and the galactic empire is ruled by dragons.

5th edition is supposed to be modular in nature. Make the game as simple or complex as you like.

Did I read "Rolemaster" and its optionnal rules that are so numerous than one year after purchase, you still don't know which one you want to use and which ones you don't want to ?

A 1st level wizard wandering alone... he's lucky he made it alive.
Only a strong warrior or maybe a cleric could hold two goblins with one bare hand. (private joke)
A rogue or a wizard is likely to get slain.

Like said, have some wandering NPC cross his path and help him after some first aid/healing potion/cure spell.

According to XP...
Logically, only the Dwarf should get any XP.
The other friend (and his character) was away, right ?

But I think just like Kolokotroni.
And I'd add than not giving full XP to every character in the party not only weakens this character, but the whole party. Because the party would count a "weak" character among the "regular" ones.
So it would be penalizing every other character, too. And the players by the way.
Especially if you've only a two-character party.
Add NPC or have every player roll two characters. (one of the two should NOT cast spells to ease character managing in-game)

Just state that the character of the missing player adventures away and gets experience, too... He still won't get the treasure share nor any found magic items.
If you really feel bad about giving full XP, give some penalty (10% or 20% less than the other characters, for example). But none at all seems unfair to me, not only for the missing player.

I used to play in a group where all PCs where always there, even those of the missing players.
Since we had a 10-player RPG club, game session with everyone being there were rather uncommon. (the GM was keeping all PC sheets for ease)
That way, the adventuring party was always at "full power".
Characters of missing player were getting full XP and treasure share, but didn't speak for magic item sharing. Sometimes they got one, but they were always "served" last.

Typically you want puzzles and obstacles to have multiple ways to solve (...) to allow for any group of any composition to overcome them.

I totally agree.

(...) using riddles and such in game forces the players to metagame which is typically a bad route to go. Especially when you consider that the super intelligent wizard that one of your players is piloting would make short work of such an easy puzzle but your 10 year old son might not.

I totally disagree.

I've got some reputation of being a really smart man IRL, according to puzzle solving. The truth is I read a lot when I was young and I already know the answers of many riddles. It's memory more than thinking.

Now, back to "role-playing".
I remember a Ad&D games from many years ago. We had to find some famous(?) hidden place that had been searched for unsuccessfully by many generations of treasure hunters and lore masters.
I'm pretty sure some of them would have had scores of 19 or 20 (really excpetional in AD&D) in Intelligence or Wisdom.

So how do you picture we managed to find it (resolving some puzzle) when the highest intelligence score in our group was 17 (the magic-user) and our highest wisdom score was 16 (the cleric) ? It's completely unrealistic, according to you, right ?

The fact is it was late at night, we were keeping awake IRL thanks to cafeine and were not thinking too clearly... we all searched for, say, more than one full hour without making the point, although we had all the advices before our eyes. 8 players around the table.

And suddenly, I exclaimed "of course ! that's crystal-clear !" and gave the answer to the GM. Do you know what I'm telling you about ?
Insight. Flash. God's word. Call it as you wish.
Anyone can have it anytime. No connection to any ability score written on a sheet of paper.

Gullyble Dwarf explained well how movement works in Pathfinder.

I'm using some house rule for movement...
It's rather simple : double characters (and NPC & monsters) movement allowance and double the movement costs.

That gives :
- 12 movement points for a Human (base 30 ft or 6 squares)
- 8 movement points for a Halfling (base 20 ft or 4 squares)
- moving across clear terrain following the squares : 2 MP/square
- moving across cear terrain diagonally : 3 MP/ square
- moving across difficult terrain straight : 4 MP/square (2 x 2 MP)
- moving across difficult terrain diagonally : 6 MP/square (2 x 3 MP)

This way, an Elf (30 ft base movement, 12 MP) can go up to 6 squares straight on clear terrain (6 x 2 MP = 12 MP) or 2 squares diagonally on difficult terrain (2 x 6 MP) or any combination of straight/diagonal and clear/difficult.

I believe it makes all simpler than alterning "5 ft" and "10 ft" base costs.

Lets say I start with a +2 Chainmail and I wanted to add Benevolent.

It's now a "+2 Benevolent Chainmail".

According to magic detection, it has an aura equivalent to a "+3 magic armor", but it still only gives a "+2" bonus to AC.
If I'm right, you'll pay the "+2 enhancement" and add +2000 cost of Benevolent. It's cheaper because it doesn't really give a "+3" enhancement.

If upgrading to "+3 Benevolent Chainmail" (I'm not quite sure how you'd do this in-game), you'll have to pay the difference between "basic +2" and "basic +3"
According to magic detection, it'll be an aura equivalent to a "+4 magic armor", though, as explained before.

The basic enhancement is limited to "+5" and you can add magic properties to push out the aura up to "+10 magic item" equivalent.
So "+5" enhancement and "+5" equivalent of added magic properties or "+2" enhancement and up to "+8" equivalent of added magic properties.
Either cases would give a "+10 magic item" equivalent aura if scanned with magic detection.
But NO "+9 Flaming Sword".

You MUST have at least a "+1" basic enhancement before addig properties, though. NO +10 added magic properties on a "+0 magic chainmail"

Just know that RPG players usually come to have fun, not to "win the game".

So as long as they have fun, it'll be okay.

As experienced players, they should take into account that you're a newbie and shouldn't bother you about "this" or "that".
In a RPG game, most of the time is spent in talking to each other, wether players asking DM for more accurate details (is this door locked ? can I see an open window ? do the bird songs seem natural ? can I fly casually ?) or talking to NPC (or to each other) while impersonating their characters.

The rules only comme in some special points : fights, important perception checks, particularly difficult obstacles, special situations (like limited time to check some skill successfully, or disarming some trap while in the middle of a fight)

Apart from those special occurences, just tell the story and fit its the details with how are acting the characters.
It's really more easy that it sounds.

At the end of the game, ask your friends how they liked the game and take their feedback into account to improve yourself game after game.

And don't forget that every player is different, every game group is different.
You won't always be able to please everyone.
The secret is not to please always the same player but each of them regularly, so no one will get bored.

Opposing board games, an RPG is played on the long run.