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I've played a lot of Pathfinder since it first came out, both as a GM and as a player, and I'm getting ready to start running a new campaign. As I do so I find myself reflecting on the overwhelming popularity of two handed weapons amongst player characters in my group. They are flat out the best and simplest way for martial characters to do damage in the game. By comparison ranged combat and sword and shield styles seem much less effective. With that in mind I'm wondering about adding some house rules to promote a bigger variety of combat styles and I thought I'd ask the opinion of the messageboards here to see if there are any obvious pitfalls that I've overlooked. ;-)

All characters gain the following feats for free reducing the 'feat tax' problem:

• Point-Blank Shot – makes everyone a little better at ranged attacks.
  
• Weapon finesse – which is only useful for high Dex characters but makes them more viable combatants.

And similarly any character who meets the prerequisites gets these feats for free. Prerequisites given in brackets below for convenience.

• Combat Expertise (Int 13)
  
• Mounted Combat (Ride 1 rank)
  
• Quick Draw (BAB +1)
  
• Shield Focus (Shield Proficiency, BAB +1)
  

Finally to rein in the use of two-handed weapons Power Attack would not give 50% extra damage when using two handed weapons just the regular damage increase.

So I'm have an idea for a character but I'm not sure how to build him and the game starts on Saturday. Any thoughts would be greatfully received!

Elrohir is the son of a famous elven swordsmith whose weapons have been turning up in the hands of the Elves' enemies. This has brought suspicion upon his family and he has resolved to leave the Elven lands and find out what has been going on so that he can clear his family's name.  He also wants to build his own reputation as a weapon smith both to bring honour to his family and to prove himself to them. He is a skilled swordsman himself who uses an elven curve blade.

The campaign is going to be from level 1-5 and I was thinking I'd take Master Craftsman at level 5 and see if he can make a magic sword before the end of the campaign. We're using 15 point buy and anything from the SRD

Over a year ago I started using an alternative Hero Point system which my group really likes. As it's become a really popular house rule I thought I'd share it here in case it's of interest to anyone else. It's speeded up combat a bit and gives the players a bit more control over the story than normal. It's adapted from the Fortune Point system in Atomic Highway. There's a long post about how these mechanics affect the game, in my experience, over on my blog if you're interested. Anyhow on to the rules!

Fortune Points in Pathfinder RPG
I start with about 20 Fortune Points (FPs) divided amongst all the players, so depending on how many people there are, players get between three and five each. I sometimes give out extra ones during play if someone does something particularly cool or funny but usually just two or three over a four hour session. I always have physical counters that people can pick up and pass around, somehow it's just better than making them another number on the character sheet.

If you want to just test out the mechanic in your game you might try giving one to each player to start with.

Using Fortune Points
You can use Fortune Points in the following ways:

• You can spend one FP to change one d20 roll to a natural 20. You can't score critical hits from doing this but that's the only limit. You can use one to confirm a critical. You can only affect d20 rolls so damage cannot be affect.
• You can spend two FPs to create a plot tweak, a small change in the plot that you want to see happen.
• You can spend more plot points, typically five, to create a plot twist which is a more major change in the plot.
• Players may spend points on other players if they wish. They may also club together to buy plot twists and tweaks.

My group will soon be starting the Kingmaker AP in our homebrew setting and I was wondering if anyone could help with ideas for my build.. I want to play a character inspired by the ancient Greek Hoplites, but more the cultured Athenians than the warlike Spartans from the 300 movie. He doesn't need to be highly optimised by any stretch of the imagination but he does need to contribute in combat. A few specific things I'd like my character to do:

• fight with a spear and shield - I think the Shaft and Shield feat may well come in handy.
  
• Wear a breastplate - heavy armour doesn't fit my theme.
  
• have some sort of tactical ability to help his party.
  
• speak well and have some intelligence
  
• Oratory would be nice to have when we get to the Kingdom building part.

We're using 20 point buy and starting at level 1. The other characters that I know about are:

• Human Paladin of Sarenrae
  
• Human Cavalier, Order of the Cockatrice
  
• Elf Alchemist
  
• One unknown...

My inital thoughts were Fighter with the Tactician or Phalanx Soldier archetype, or Cavalier (Order of the Tome). I really like the Cavalier class for the Tactician, Order and Challenge features, although the mount isn't something I need for this character. However, we've already got two heavy hitters for our front line so I'm wondering about doing a Bard, Oracle or Cleric who can do other stuff but still fight. I'm also thinking about multi-classing but I can't decide what would be best to start in.

Any suggestions would be most welcome!

My friends and I are about to start Kingmaker and are pondering the possibility of creating characters based on the Greek and Roman world. I think it could be fun and different but I was wondering if anyone else had done this (in any campaign) and how it worked out?

Hi folks! I'm looking for some advice on how to make a mechanically useful but rather unusual human wizard. (I'm not looking to optimise him, just make him useful!) I want to make a Merlin style character who is the group sage and advisor and uses magic in a more subtle and folklore-y way than a typical Pathfinder Wizard. He'll probably be a bit old and eccentric. I expect I'll still keep Fireball in my spell book for those days when we absolutely, positively have to kill every single last critter, but I don't want it to be the first resort. I'd also like to stay away from summoning spells for similar reasons.

Anyhow I'd appreciate your thoughts on any or all of the following:

• Which school should I specialise in? Divination, transmutation, illusion and enchantment all have their appeal.
• Interesting magic items.
• Feat-wise, I'm thinking of taking Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Magic arms and Armour and the Feral Speech arcane discovery. That leaves my human feat and first level feat open. Any thoughts?
• Bonded item - what's the most iconic thing for a wizard? I'm tempted to make it his hat.. I might be able to persuade the GM on that!

Finally a little background to the campaign. This is a prequel to one that I ran a while back about an order of Knights in a city run by a Lawful Good King and the Priests of the sun god. This campaign is going to be about the foundation of the city about a 1000 years before, when a small group of exiles from an 'evil' empire fled north to start a new life. The other party members include a Cavalier, a Paladin, a Rogue and a Monk, so I think we'll see the foundation of the aforementioned knightly order before too long.. Apparently there's going to be big emphasis on survival against a variety of tribes that will be hostile to us. I think there's goingto be a fair bit of negotiating too.

We're starting at level 6 with a 25 point buy and 16,000 gp. The GM says we won't be getting a lot of treasure in the campaign, so I need to pick my starting equipment carefully. I'm planning towards level 10, although we might go beyond that.

I've been using the kingdom building rules for some time now in my homebrew campaign and everyone is enjoying them, but war is on the horizon and I'm not quite so confident in the mass combat rules. I'm sure I'll keep some aspects of them, especially for maintaining armies since they mesh with the Kingdom Building rules. We've experimented with them in some small battles but I think they might be a bit too abstract for my group. So I was wondering, what experience other people have had with running wars in Kingmaker?

I'd be interested to hear any general experiences you've had, although I've got a few specific questions too.

1) Do you find that the Mass Combat rules make for a good war? Did you come up with any improvements?

2) Has anyone used the Warpath rules and how did you find them? They seem like a light simulationist set of rules that my group might enjoy.

3) Has anyone got any good house rules for followers from the Leadership feat interacting with a mass combat system? I'm thinking about some free basic equipment and/or lower consumption as most of the characters have taken the Leadership feat.

4) Since our campaign involves small numbers of troops, I've reduced the number of soldiers in a small army to 25, a medium to 50 and so on on. Has anyone else done this and did it throw up any oddities? The only thing I can think of is that the PCs become more of a battlefield presence.

That's all for now!