Ursion Thrune's page

THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD. Things end. The rot away. The balance falls apart. At the center of the world of Orphos is a city built atop the skull of a long forgotten, dead god. Once a capital of ancient empires, it now sits as the central metropolis for a republic of magi.

It is a time of great change and upheaval. The vampire clans of Crux continue their schemes beneath its streets. The University of Crux digs further and further beneath the city for lost knowledge. Intrigue, crime and secrecy rule the streets. Everyone is looking for somebody to do their dirty work in Crux, to find things and to get things done. In interesting times, Adventurers have no shortage of business to find.

I've managed to cobble enough bits of a setting together to start the process of thinking out some mechanics. But in the meanwhile, I figured I share my absurd amount of fluff and flavor. I decided to focus on thinking out the basic pillars of flavor and themes in Crux before I attempted to think out how to adapt Pathfinder to it.

Most of the following links to my personal blog, but it should help anyone interested in reading more on Crux. I'm always eager to hear suggestions/improvements. I'm currently looking for anyone willing to read and give me their two cents on the project. That and I'm spreading word about it as I go.

This is my main theme document. I've been writing material expanding out from it.

WHAT IS CRUX?

Its a city set in the center of the setting. The world of Orphos is entering a period not unlike the Napoleonic era. A revolution has taken over most of one continent, only to be ruled by a Empress standing on revolutionary reforms and values; a new nation built on new radical ideas was founded only fifty years prior after a war for its independence; an ancient empire dominates world trade through slave labor, arrogantly thinking it still is a power worth fearing; and a world-spanning monarchy is struggling with reforms of its own, while still pursuing colonies its own people don't want.

Guns are prevalent, and religions are largely unaligned, supporting members of all alignments while espousing their own central values. Crux sits at a place central to world trade, that once was a capital of empires and has a university sitting atop the skull of a long forgotten god.

Right now I'm preparing to do some retooling of races for some balance concerns, as well as detailing more of Crux itself. Adventuring sites, plot hooks and the like, all of which I'd more than happy to hear suggestions for. If I like something I plan to use, I'll try and link back to whatever or whoever posted it. They should get the credit if turns out to be good idea.

Still working this out for my home game, but thought I'd share. Some mechanics still need some figuring out, names aren't 100% solid, but I think the wacky idea behind it is all good:

Prestige and Achievements
Prestige Classes carry an inherent opportunity cost in the case of levels that might not always reflect the real concept for a character. While Prestige Classes offer a great deal of customization, they don't always feel worth that cost. Lowering a character's base class features in order to obtain levels in a prestige class will drive some players to never take levels that might otherwise be interesting for them.

Prestige Titles
This variant replaces prestige classes with a different system altogether. Inspired by Mythic Adventures, the Prestige system replaces prestige classes with a Achievement system: Titles. Like Mythic Tiers, Prestige Achievements aren't the same thing as levels a character obtains, and don't cost any sort of multiclassing. They have requirements like Prestige Classes do, but the First Achievement is earned when a character joins the organization that supports that class for the first time.

Characters each new Achievements when they complete Challenges that their Prestige Organization likes and supports. Their title grows in ability as a character completes challenges that reflect the goals and nature of that title.

Characters first can choose to pursue and gain a Title at 5th level. Characters can achieve up to five Achievements in a Prestige Title. In order to join and gain access to a Title and its achievements, characters must first meet the prerequisites of that title.

Peerage: At the first achievement, the character receives a bonus on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks made against any one else that shares the same title as they do. This bonus is equal to that character's number of Achievements.

Prestige Saves: At the first achievement, the character receives a bonus on saving throws. Each title has its own favored saving throws. On these favored saving throws, the character gains a prestige bonus equal to the character's number of achievements.

Additional Training: At the first achievement, the character gains new class skills. Each prestige title has its own class skills, which the character adds to their own list of class skills. In addition, every time a character gains a new achievement, they also gain additional hit points or skill points. Each prestige title lists the skill or hit points gained at each new achievement obtained.

Title Feature: Each Prestige Title has a feature ability that all members obtain when they first gain a Achievement in that Title. This feature isn't a Prestige Ability, and is in addition to the prestige ability they can select on their first achievement.

Prestige Ability: At each Achievement, the character gains a prestige ability from that title's list of available prestige abilities.

Capstone: All prestige titles end in a Capstone ability at the 5th achievement.

# of Challenges needed to reach a new Achievement in a Prestige Title:
1st Achievement: Meeting the prerequisites and obtaining membership itself is all that is needed to gain the first achievement of a Prestige Title.
2nd Achievement: 3 Challenges
3rd Achievement: 5 Challenges
4th Achievement: 7 Challenges
5th Achievement: 10 Challenges

This is only a rough outline of the idea, but I think it is implementable as this. I think it'll allow people to consider prestige class ideas for their characters that previously they hadn't considered for the cost of losing their base or core class levels.

New Feat: Dual Titles [Prestige Feat]
Prerequisites: 1st Achievement
Benefit: You can select a second title. If you meet its prerequisites and can join it, you may select that Title's abilities in addition to your first title's. Furthermore, you can select to use that title's hit points, skill points or favored saving throws instead of your first title. You must select which title you use for your Prestige Saves and Additional Training, but both together. You cannot select separate titles for Additional Training and Prestige Saves, they must both be selected from the same Title.

Extra Prestige Ability [Prestige Feat]
Prerequisites: 1st Achievement
Benefit: You gain a prestige ability from your Prestige Title.

More musing and examples on my blog.

Whatcha think?

okay, I'm working on a homebrew set in a very early Industrial era (like, Napoleonic practically). I came across the idea of Adventurers unionizing like other labour tried to do in the same era.

Am I rehashing an idea here or has this being done before?

I'm trying to put together some ideas for a setting for a pathfinder game set in a Napoleonic-Jacksonian era. Just thought I might kick this out there and see if anybody has anything clever.

I've started building it up, my main deviation from core pathfinder so far is that the setting's deities and religions are unaligned. Borrowing from Arcanis from Paradigm Concepts, none of the gods involved have alignments. I haven't thought through all the ramification for that...

I also don't like using Elves or Dwarves or most of the standard races, just out of an urge to be different.

But, whatever. I'm still on the "building it" step.

Any thoughts? If you are curious about what I've made so far, check out the linkage below.
Linkage!

More Linkage!

Anybody see this?http://www.killershrike.com/Fate/Fae/Pathfinder/PathfinderFateAccelera ted.aspx

FAE conversion for a lot of Pathfinder things. Just curious if anyone other than the original author has tried it out.

I've been meaning to playtest this with my own group (which is always willing to put up with my bizarre experiments), but I'd thought I'd post it here and see if anyone thinks its a good idea or not.

7th Ability Score: Prowess (Pro)
Prowess replaces the base attack bonus characters normally would gain. Instead, Prowess measures your character's capacity to use violence. Those with high Prowess excel at harming and killing others- while those with low Prowess have problems with using violence against others, hesitating instead of striking hard when attacking another.

My plan to implement it so far is just replace Base Attack where ever it is mentioned with a character's prowess modifier.

In addition, if Extra Attacks are still desired, I'd suggest creating a feat that allows a character those extra attacks or make it into a new class feature of Martial Classes.

So, what do you awesome gaming folk think?

I've been playing a Gunslinger for a week or two now (been loads of fun), although my style isn't as precisely mechanical as others, I do have an observation to throw out there.

I think that Grit as a pool, although it right operates with Wisdom, should probably be Charisma-based instead.

While Wisdom does represent being aware of yourself and your environment, Grit doesn't feel like a extension of your Wisdom to me. Grit is "fluctuating measure of the gunslinger’s ability to perform
amazing actions in combat, both offensive and defensive." To me, that sound more of something to do with the ability score that rarely sees play, Charisma.

I like to think of it this way: A gunslinger is forcing things with their personality, shooting and daring to do things that impress others and leave them a little slack-jawed. Also, favoring Charisma for Grit rewards the Gunslinger for the Charisma-based skills the class obviously favors: Bluff and Intimidate get more interesting when Charisma is tossed in.

I've been talking with my GM and we're going to try it out in our next few sessions. Its a subtle change, but hey, thought I should mention it.

So far my only issues with the class is its name and the nature of spellstrike (and touch range spells). I dislike the idea of something (essentially a "spellsword" class) getting a name like Magus. The image I have of Magi in my head and the class presented differ a bit. Flavor-wise, I'd suggest coming up with something that displays what the class is better- Spellsword, swordmage, Imago or something else.

It doesn't quite suit me for the Magus name. A magus, the one I think of, is more akin to a magister, or some sort of wizard that is ultra-focused on all magic, not just wizardry. Something more like that, but something that isn't needed at the moment in Pathfinder, at least to me.

As for spellstrike, its neat-looking, but I wonder how useful it'll be with how few spells the Magus gets are actually touch spells (or at least touch range). I'd instead think maybe modifying the feature to mimic the spellstoring effect of some magical weapons, but thats kinda the same thing isn't it? Hmm.

Oh well.