Davashuum

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To those looking for more American Indian fantasy: If you're willing to go outside of the d20/ D&D-legacy realm, there's Totems of the Dead and Ehdrigohr. Totems of the Dead is swords & sorcery setting for Savage Worlds, based closely on pre-Colombian contact North America, with close analogues for most of the major American Indian cultural groups (including the Aztecs), plus rules for visitors from fantasy equivalents of Russia, Scandinavia, China, etc. I gather the author is an anthropologist with a strong familiarity with American Indian culture. Ehdrigohr is a dark fantasy setting using Fate. The creator is a Lakota (Sioux) story-teller and the world of Ehdrigohr is heavily influenced by traditional Lakota beliefs, but with elements from a wide range of world cultures mixed in. Totems of the Dead probably wouldn't be that hard to convert to Pathfinder. I haven't finished reading through Ehdrigohr, but it feels like enough of its own thing that converting it might be hard.

Also, in the realm of fiction, there's the fantasy novel Bear Daughter, which is heavily influenced by the society and mythology of the Indians of the Pacific Northwest. The author, Judith Berman, is an anthropologist who studied with those peoples; she has an essay somewhere online on how she dealt with the issues of cultural appropriation when writing the novel.

So, while there is certainly a dearth of American Indian-influenced fantasy, the field is not completely barren. (More, of course, would be good.)


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I like the idea of the Vessel. A divine embodied/infused hero. Reminds me of 4e invoker crossed with a super-hero. Lots of options per each domain/deity, and plenty of room to maneuver with regard to making some very interesting archetypes with different approaches - either mechanical or flavor/theme.

I'd be up for brainstorming this one Muskrat. PM me if you are interested.

Thanks! I was just throwing out ideas in the hopes someone would pick them up. These ideas for classes keep occurring to me, but I have no genuine interest in game design. So if someone else wants to do it, great! My one suggestion would be to considering making it a Constitution based class. Your Con determines how much of your god's holy (or unholy) power you can handle residing in your body. It would be interesting to have magical abilities power by a non-mental stat. That would also benefit tbok1992 by making it easy to reskin as a Mutant.

Another thing it would be interested to see: A redesigned barbarian, whose rage abilities are based on ki-points and who relies on Charisma instead of Constitution. That would give the class a much different flavor.


I was thinking of something that might work mechanically similar to a mutant, but with different flavoring: the Vessel. They are a divinely powered, non-spell-casting class. Basically, they get special abilities and powers consistent with their god's spheres of influence. It's sort of an all granted powers, all the time idea. I suppose the Vessel could be an archetype of the Mutant, changing primarily the source of their powers and perhaps the ones available.


The idea was more to address the seeming need to always have a cleric in the party, by giving other character classes the option to fill that role. In one just started campaign I'm in, after the first combat encounter, the person playing a druid promptly converted his character over to a cleric, since otherwise it was clear we would lack the healer the party needed. It's less about stomping on niches than allowing people more options.


Id like to see some of the things people have already mentioned, such as a swashbuckler and NG and CG paladin archetypes.

Here are some other suggestions:

Charlatan: An arcane caster focusing on illusion and enchantment spells. Sort of a super-specialist in the same way the summoner is to the conjuration school. I could see it being either Charisma- or Intelligence-based, with an archetype to swap out one for the other.

Kensai: A full BAB, d10, etc., heavily-armored combat class that gets a ki pool and ki-based abilities. (I'd also advocate a lightly armored one, but Tripod Machine's Adventuring Classes has the Martial Artist, which fits the bill.)

Naturalist: (I would have called this a witch, but the name is already taken.) A Wisdom-based arcane caster, who learns their spells not through academic study or inborn power, but through intuitive observations of nature. The naturalist would memorize spells using a "journal," consisting of their insights gleaned from observing the natural world. The class would probably use the druid spell list. Each Naturalist would need to select one of the following "paths," which would give appropriate special abilities: Astrologer/ Astronomer, Beast Friend, Geomancer, Green Thumb, Mariner, Wind Walker/ Weather Worker.

Philosophical Wizard: Wizards who take philosophical schools, centered around certain themes akin to clerical domains, instead of the standard schools.

Physiologist Wizard: A Wizard archetype who gets access to healing spells and maybe channel energy, creating an arcane healer.

Psalmist: A Bard archetype that makes it a divine caster and swaps out some standard class features for access to a domain.

Seer: A Wisdom-based arcane caster focusing on divination spells (another super-specialist). They might have a Second Sight class feature that gives them various abilities such as detect lies, detect alignment, see invisible, etc. Also, a danger sense ability that helps out with surprise checks and in combat, with their allies maybe getting bonuses at higher levels.

Sun Druid: A druid archetype focused on the sun and light. Nature's Bond must be with the Sun domain. Swap out some class features for other, appropriate powers, such as channel energy.

Theurgist: An Intelligence-based divine caster. They get their powers not through prayer and communion with their deity, but through studying scripture and observing their deity's works in the world. For instance, a Theurgist of a god of war might study military strategy as a metaphor for all life. They should get at least one domain, but something other than channel energy to make them distinct from clerics.


I'm currently playing a Pathfinder game on the site that's a great deal of fun. For people who don't have the free time they might like to play games face-to-face, this can be a great option. And you can still engage in in-depth role-playing, if you don't mind writing a bit.

It's also a really friendly site. I've been there over two years now and I've seen only minor disagreement. No flame wars or anything. It's really quite remarkable how well people get along. In addition to the actual games, there's a random chatter forum and a shoutblock that allow people to socialize, which definitely makes it feel like a real community.