The Land of Forgotten Gods
Basics
I believe characters are epic. Not they will become epic but at 1st level they are epic. That's why I use the 30 point build for characters and give a bonus 5 HP at 1st level. Standard humanoids use a 0 point build. The characters are better then even other adventures. If the party comes across another group of adventurers they will be stated with 15 points. This allows the party to engage with with grander foes at 1st level without being completely unbalanced later.
This campaign will take place in the LE land of Phi'Shaw. The characters will find themselves on the wrong side of the law and for that reason lawful characters are discouraged.
Also this is a low magic setting where there are restrictions on spell casters, see classes section for greater details. There are no item creation skills, and magic items are very rare and anything more than a +1 weapon or armor is near enough priceless. There will be some compensation for the lack of magical equipment in order to keep characters in line with the power level of monsters, especially those with powerful magical abilities that the standard races aren't capable of reproducing. This setting is much more about the characters' abilities then the characters' magical equipment.
Without clerics and no full casting classes, and potions being rare healing is handled differently. See other house rules for more details.
Classes
There are several restrictions to classes in Phi'Shaw. Magic is scary and forbiddin. There are no wizard schools and no churches for anyone to study at. Here are the rules regarding classes from the core PF rules.
Bards: Bards are the master spell casters in Phi'Shaw. They gain the greatest control over magic, more than any other spellcasters. Bardic spells are known as bardsong and not considered magic by the populus at large. The most powerful Bards are welcomed into the High Choir, the nations highest order of magic users.
Clerics: There are no clerics in Phi'Shaw. This class is completely restricted.
Druids: Druids are the masters of divine magic in Phi'Shaw. Even the magic of nature is difficult to master and as such druids are restricted from being single classed. A player wanting to play a Druid can multiclass into Druid at 2nd level. A charcter can never have more than 1/2 thier levels in a full spell casting class. Most Druids are multiclassed with ranger, and any character can choose both ranger and Druid as favored classes and recieve the favored class benefits when they take a level in either class. Druid ranger multiclass characters gain somesort of additional benefit to be determined later.
Monks: Monks in Phi'Shaw come from an order that teaches harmony and peace. They believe in walking the middle path and while most monks maintain thier unyielding path for personal perfection some set forth to bring balance to the world. In addition to being lawful a monk can choose to be true neutral.
Paladins: Paladins are exceedingly rare in Phi'Shaw. The evil government and the oppression by the Magistrates pits every Paladin with the internal conflict of enforcing a corrupt law, or breaking the law for the good of the people. So most paladins fall in the case of the prior or are put to death by the Magistrates or thier Deputies.
Sorcerers: Magic is wild and feral and none understand that better than the sorcerer. Sorcerers are wild unpredictable creatures of frothing terror. Thier magic is sometimes as potent as even the bardsong even if they don't always have full control over it. Like all full casting classes a character must multiclass into this class and may never have more than 1/2 their class levels in full casting classes. The feral nature of the sorcerer mixes well with that of the barbarian and a sorcerer barbarian multiclass character can choose the favored class benefit whenever taking a class from either class. Also sorcerers can cast spells in armor up to medium with out arcane spell failure. Sorcerer barbarians can cast spells while raging.
Wizards: Magic is an untamed beast in the land of Phi'Shaw. As such few have the will to study magic. Wizards of the land do not train in acadamies ir with books. They experiment with the raw magical energies around them. It is a hard arduous process but some find control of this oft unpredictable magic. Wizards like all full spellcasting classes must be multiclassed into at level 2 or later, and a character can never posses more than 1/2 thier levels in full spellcasting classes. Due to the restriction of no item creation feats wizards do not gain the scribe scroll feat at second level but instead gain the ability to once per day cast any spell they know, except those from a restricted school, without preperation. This spell does not take up any of their daily spell slots. The spell cannot be modified by a metamagic feat. This ability can be used one additional time per day at fourth level and every third level after that to a max of four times per day at 10th level. Most wizards are multi-class fighters. Wizards do not suffer arcane spell failure when wearing armor they are proficient with. Multiclass fighter/wizards may gain the favored class benefit whenever they gain a level in either class. Also Bonus feats gained from either class are interchange, when gaining a level where a fighter gains a bonus feat a fighter wizard multi-class can choose from the wizards bonus feats, or vice a versa. Also a fighter wizard with four levels or more of fighter can retrain any wizard bonus feat at anytime he would normally be able to retrain a fighter bonus feat.
If there is interest in any APG class let me know and I will look into said class. As far as I have seen the cavalier looks like it can be added in without any changes. The oracle and the witch both look like they would fit flavor wise but would need to be paired with some martial class to dilute their spellcasting. I don't know much about the inquisiter and would need to study it more. The summoner just doesn't fit within the context of this world.
Gods, Magic, and Technology
Phi'Shaw is a land where the gods have been forgotten. The very word god us virtually unknown. If you tried to explain what a god is to a person they would most likely think you were talking about a Magistrate or even the Lord King himself, Cidavantis Ellismount. For whatever reason the Magistrates try to squash all forms of organized worship. There is religion though. Secret societies worship nameless deities in the back of inns, or in abbandoned farm houses that the wilderness has reclaimed. The largest order of these cults is the Druidic Nation. All Druids and most rangers worship the goddess mother of nature. Even her name is unknown. In the eastern highlands the barbaric tribesmen of the Scaralish people worship the unnamed spirits of strength, travel, fire, weather, and prosperity. Dwarves say there is a mountain king who lives deep beneath the earth and the dwarf nations all honor and pay homage to him. Elves revear the stars in the night sky and often say thier hopes and dreams to the star of thier birth. That is all of what can be said for active religion within Phi'Shaw.
