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I'd had a 3.5 steampunk idea on the backburner for a long time, and my recently renewed interest in D&D via Pathfinder has brought it to the forefront.
I'm hoping to go light on the amount of conversion. I've removed several base classes and intend to replace them with alternate base classes from 3.5 supplements (after some possibly extensive conversion, sometimes you just can't avoid the old elbow grease). The adjustments to the core classes being used should be minimal, mostly changing some armor and weapon proficiencies to account for tech level and changes in weaponry. I also removed a couple basic races and replaced them with some appropriate alternates.
The basic idea is that the world was once a typical D&D world (essentially, your basic Western fantasy setting) until the gods got their tights in a bunch and more or less cut off the material plane from all of the others. The quick explanation is that magic (especially divine) changed a lot and people understandably started focusing on technology as an alternative. A moderate amount of arcane power still exists in the material plane (though priority of its application has shifted to support technology) and divine magic barely exists any more (no gods), the natural power of the planet's spirits being the only source for it.
I'd like some commentary on the class/race loadout I've got so far. These are the early stages, so a lot of things will likely change but I think this is a good base. Advice on the slight adaptations to the core classes and conversion of the other base classes is also highly appreciated.
Classes:
Fighters: Mostly unchanged. Will probably give proficiency with all firearms and remove heavy armor proficiency.
Rogue: Also largely unaltered. Likely add pistol proficiency and change some of the magic-oriented rogue talents (Or are the called tricks? Can't remember.) to tech-based ones.
Bard: No changes. It's a plot point why the bard's unconventional "music-powered" magic hasn't been affected by the slight reduction of overall magicalness in the world.
Barbarian: Also unchanged. There's still plenty of tribal cultures in the world, and they don't see much worth in all of these newfangled devices.
Monk: Unchanged, again. The other side of the coin from the tribal peoples, stuffy ascetics devoted to personal perfection likewise care little for all that is newfangled.
Spirit Shaman: The only divine spellcasters left, hailing for the aforementioned tribal societies. While it's going to take some serious work to bring in line with the Pathfinder core classes, I want to preserve as much of it's flavor as I can.
Artificer: No brainer. Don't think I'll have much trouble adapting it, either. A lot of concerns about their ease of overproducing magic items in PF's system will be addressed by changes I'm making to magic item's overall cost in the world and the fact that Artificers will be the only source for many of them at all.
Warlock: Again, hopefully will not require TOO much work to Pathfinderize. Regardless, his ability to create magic items is going to be removed completely.
Swashbuckler: Fits the setting to a tee, should require little conversion work, and mitigates the loss of melee class options created by the lack of Paladin and Ranger.
Questions, comments, criticism (thoughtful and polite), and advice will all be accepted with great appreciation.
Well if Artificer is a given... there will be Warforged? Clockwork? Animated objects(prolly errata'd to clockwork).
Warforged - You could make the small & medium ones android-like(skin covered) in the flavor of "Westworld" (1973). (Robotic wild west theme park gone bad.)
Ranger - I would keep them, but make them specifically Private Investigators, Bounty Hunters or Trackers... all of which existed during the "wild west". Making agencies/guilds to interact with/against players could be tons of fun. (ex: Pinkerton Detective Agency) Replace spell-use with something interesting, maybe a fame/infamy mechanic providing them with increased/decreased social interactions with the public and possibly fear effects at higher levels against intelligent enemies.
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Well if Artificer is a given... there will be Warforged? Clockwork? Animated objects(prolly errata'd to clockwork).
Warforged - You could make the small & medium ones android-like(skin covered) in the flavor of "Westworld" (1973). (Robotic wild west theme park gone bad.)
Ranger - I would keep them, but make them specifically Private Investigators, Bounty Hunters or Trackers... all of which existed during the "wild west". Making agencies/guilds to interact with/against players could be tons of fun. (ex: Pinkerton Detective Agency) Replace spell-use with something interesting, maybe a fame/infamy mechanic providing them with increased/decreased social interactions with the public and possibly fear effects at higher levels against intelligent enemies.
Hello Daniel! I appreciate the input, but that's a bit more adjusting on one of the core classes than I really want to do. I considered whether or not to include the Ranger for some time and eventually decided that the smoothest way to do it was to say that without magic any more urban role you could come up with for a Ranger can easily be done by multilclassing Fighter/Rogue or Swashbuckler/Rogue.
Also, no warforged running around. However, the amount of creatures with the Construct type will be dramatically increased and there'll be more than a few machines of war and the like to test the PC's mettle, and the Artificer will have a lot of pull against opponents like that.
Also, and I realize I didn't make this clear with the OP, but this is very much the "genesis" era of a steam punk world. It has only been a couple hundred years since the Material Plane was thrown out on its own and the longer-lived demi-humans (Dwarves, essentially, since Elves and Gnomes aren't around anymore) can still remember when magic worked and was as strong as the way it used to be. In other words, steampunk-esque material exists but it is somewhat crude and often assisted by the still-in-use art of magical animation. Also most of it, as often is the case with new technology, has been developed for military use.
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My only comment or advice is check out Iron Kingdoms by Privateer Press. It has some interesting steam/clockwork/tech magic in it and some of the classes and prestige classes might fit very well with what you are doing.
Ah, I have to say that does look like a nice book. And I like what I'm reading about it. I think you're right, there's probably one or two things in there I can use for this campaign. And the rest of it looks nice for other ideas I have. Thanks!
If 3.5 material is open to use, you might want to take a look at Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms for inspiration and things to steal.
Of particular note to your campaign might be the following base classes:
The Arcane Mechanik is an arcane caster who proxies magical equipment creation through the use of Mechanika, a magical pseudo-science.
The Bodger is McGuyverish type tinkerer who is liable to pass you back an atomic bomb when passed a toaster (and toast if you give him an A-Bomb) and whose abilities with machines extends to the mastery of screaming profanity at it to cause it to work.
The Gun Mage is a spontaneous arcane caster who is magically bonded with his/her weapons and who relies heavily on ranged gunplay to chew through a target, often delivering touch spell effects in a blaze of hot lead.
Also of consideration might be the Combat Alchemist, a non-magical potion mixer who has distilled the arcane down to a potent chemical science, catalyzing reagents to mimic normal spells (and who brews up and throws unstable fireball potions at you on the fly).
The Updated Arcane Mechanik is available in Privateer Press' Liber Mechanika
The Bodger and Gun Mage are available in Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms Character Guide
and the Combat Alchemist is available in Privateer Press' No Quarter Magazine
These are slightly outdated supplements (of which a more up to date set of rules may be found in the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide), but if you like what you see...
Basically the most important changes to the Gun Mage was that the spell list expanded dramatically and they gain the ability to spontaneous cast in light armor as long as they had a spell focus (in their case, a gun).
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These are slightly outdated supplements (of which a more up to date set of rules may be found in the Iron Kingdoms Character Guide), but if you like what you see...
Basically the most important changes to the Gun Mage was that the spell list expanded dramatically and they gain the ability to spontaneous cast in light armor as long as they had a spell focus (in their case, a gun).
REALLY like the general idea behind the Gun Mage. I think I'm going to tool around with that, especially since I wanted one more base class to round things out.
I also like the sound of that Privateer Press book. Looks like I've got a purchase to look forward to.
I'm kind of iffy on those firearm rules. I'm leaning more towards the idea of "guns have been around a while, have largely replaced bows in civilized lands and aren't 'exotic' anymore". As a result, I probably wouldn't use quite as good a crit range as they have. Also, the reloading mechanic seems clunky.
Thanks much!
Have you given thought to all the races that will be involved? While not necessarily warforged (as they're not OGL), there may be some that would like to play some sort of construct as a PC.
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I considered whether or not to include the Ranger for some time and eventually decided that the smoothest way to do it was to say that without magic any more urban role you could come up with for a Ranger can easily be done by multilclassing Fighter/Rogue or Swashbuckler/Rogue.
See, I've always seen their "divine" magic as normally being little more than tricks of the trade. I think you could reflavor it pretty easily to be a mental, non-divine and non-magical thing. Then you would be left with the small work of coming up with a more updated, urban-specific Favored Terrain list for specific types of urban terrain, and you'd be done. Very little mechanic tweaking needed in my opinion.
It is, however, your world, I was just offering my 2 cp.
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Have you given thought to all the races that will be involved? While not necessarily warforged (as they're not OGL), there may be some that would like to play some sort of construct as a PC.
The race list:
Dwarf
Half-Elf
Half-Orc
Human
Tengu
Tiefling
Just to be clear, tieflings are not there because they are hip, nor are aasimars absent because they are "less cool" (I actually tend to prefer aasimars, and not for stat-twink reasons). This is actually connected to the state of the world and how it got there.
The tengu got thrown in because:
A.) Having removed two basic races for plot reasons, I wanted to bring the total back up to seven so my players wouldn't feel restricted in comparison to the core game.
B.) Tengu are easily the most balanced alternate PC race in the PF Beastiary (the advantages of Swortrained are honestly quite minimal, but that's another conversation) and are simple enough from a conceptual standpoint to fit into most fantasy settings without raising an eyebrow.
And you're very correct about a construct race. I've decided that I am going to add one. It will probably just be warforged (perhaps with a different name, never liked it) until I have the wherewithal to design my own.
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Privateer Press makes all the books and things Dies was linking. Which is why I recommended it. I have yet to find a better set of books for steam punk DnD. There have several of them but really only about 2 that you need. The main rule book and the mechnika book forget the name of it off the top of my head. They have the vast bulk of the stuff you would want. But I strongly recommend all their books they are very well done.
Privateer Press makes all the books and things Dies was linking. Which is why I recommended it. I have yet to find a better set of books for steam punk DnD. There have several of them but really only about 2 that you need. The main rule book and the mechnika book forget the name of it off the top of my head. They have the vast bulk of the stuff you would want. But I strongly recommend all their books they are very well done.
If you just want material, then I recommend just the following;
Iron Kingdoms Character Guide
Liber Mechanika
No Quarter Magazine #20 (which contains the Combat Alchemist. Can you tell I like the Combat Alchemist?)
The Iron Kingdoms World Guide and Five Fingers books are mostly threre to provide flavor and Monstronomicon 1 and 2 are bestiary books which you aren't looking for.
There is also a book by Fantasy Flight Games in their Legends & Lairs series for 3.5 called Sorcery & Steam that has a lot of good ideas.
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Don't forget deadlands, and the Mad Scientist class. Really good invention ideas in there.
And it really depends on what kind of tone you want: dark steampunk, an Eberron-esque steampunk where fantasy and technology intermingle, it's all really what you'd like for your setting.
And I agree with the above posters about Iron Kingdoms, the source books will definitely add alot to your game.
Living constructs are fun, but be careful with what kind of bonuses you give them, because like flying races they can negate some challenges that would otherwise pose a threat to your party.
The race list:
Dwarf
Half-Elf
Half-Orc
Human
Tengu
TieflingThe tengu got thrown in because:
A.) Having removed two basic races for plot reasons, I wanted to bring the total back up to seven so my players wouldn't feel restricted in comparison to the core game.
Actually, it looks like you've removed three (elf, gnome, halfling). I find it intriguing that you're allowing half-elves as PCs, but not elves.
Interesting with the tengu; I'll have to take a look at that myself.
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The race list:
Dwarf
Half-Elf
Half-Orc
Human
Tengu
TieflingThe tengu got thrown in because:
A.) Having removed two basic races for plot reasons, I wanted to bring the total back up to seven so my players wouldn't feel restricted in comparison to the core game.
Actually, it looks like you've removed three (elf, gnome, halfling). I find it intriguing that you're allowing half-elves as PCs, but not elves.
Interesting with the tengu; I'll have to take a look at that myself.
Ah, my mistake. The omission of the halfling was a typo. They're in there.
And the elves *used* to be around (gnomes, too) but they're gone now. Most half-elves have just sort of gotten over it for lack of any real answers to the elves disappearance. Some, however, have taken to calling themselves "new elves", living out in the abandoned elvish cities and trying to revive ancient elvish traditions.
@Jared: You are a hero for mentioning Deadlands, because it's the greatest PnP RPG ever. However, most of it's "mad science" content doesn't quite fit what I'm going for (though I am still glancing at it from time to time).
@Dies: You are a gentleman for pointing me towards those books. The Character Guide and the Liber are in my shopping cart, awaiting my next paycheck.
@ Everyone: I've got some good progress on a Pathfinderized Gun Mage so far, as well as a Pathfinderized Swashbuckler that's been re-worked to incorporate the Ranger's Combat Style mechanic for a choice between light, one-handed melee weapons and light, one handed ranged weapons (pistols, basically). For criticism, comments, and helpful suggestions should I post them here in this thread or is there a better (or dedicated) area for that?
Thanks again, everyone! Your help has been excellent!
[@ Everyone: I've got some good progress on a Pathfinderized Gun Mage so far, as well as a Pathfinderized Swashbuckler that's been re-worked to incorporate the Ranger's Combat Style mechanic for a choice between light, one-handed melee weapons and light, one handed ranged weapons (pistols, basically). For criticism, comments, and helpful suggestions should I post them here in this thread or is there a better (or dedicated) area for that?
You could do both - create new threads for both of them and then link to them from this thread. ;)
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I was also wondering why there's no alchemist. They seem extremely fitting. If you're looking for a construct race, there's the relluk, from alluria publishing.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/3rd-party-races/alluria-publishing/relluk
You'd probably need to mix up the flavor, but it's mechanically interesting, at the very leats. Just a though.
From experience, I'd advice against changing the rules. Cut out classes and races you don't think fit your campaign.
I have learnt the hard way that changing things leads to big problems. The designers spent years developing, play testing, refining the system. Paizo spent huge amounts of time refining what was already a working system, and improved it greatly.
The main thing that you want with Steam Punk, IMO, is descriptive details. Rename things, describe them as steam punk things, but I warn against changing the mechanics.
Rename the Wizard as an inventor, give him a Gadget that he tweaks for an hour each morning to generate Powers (which work exactly as spells).
Rename the different races as regional or occupational differences.
Wands become their own gadgets, usually a metal framework holding gears and springs about the size of a shoebox that required winding to work (standard action, as per wands).
The rogue can activate his steam knife only sometimes as it is unreliable and takes time to charge. Mechanically jthis is ust his Sneak Attack, but you can see how a little description changes the flavour without effecting the rules - and players love it "Come on baby, please be full of steam this time..." as them make their sneak attack d20 roll.
What I've done in the past is to rename crossbows as simple guns like muskets, and bows became standard guns (longbow became a revolver rifle). As the players took more archer feats he bought a new composite longbow and called it a machine gun. Mechanically it worked, and as Steampunk it was great.
The rest of it is just fluff and descriptive details. The streets are flooded with horseless carriages, the skies with Zeppelins. Steam blasts from the sewers now and then, and clockwork policemen (preferably Bobbies) patrol the streets.
When they want a horseless carriage, give them a standard carriage in terms of cost and speed and other stats, but describe it as an iron framework, covered in shingles of copper sheets, with a boiler on the front, and a large barrel of coal on the back.
When the players want a flying carriage, give them the stats and cost of a flying carpet. The carriage is an open framework of brass and has retractable bat-like wings made of canvas, with a strange device that consumes a yellow cake-like substance available in the many Potion stores in the city (it is as expensive as you need, to restrict the flying carriage as much as you want - or perhaps is basically negligible and it is only 1gp for 12 hours flight - and there are no known uses for this yellow stuff other than in flying contraptions).
Use your imagination for creative description. Just don't change the mechanics. YMMV.
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A little late in the discussion, sorry...
But I agree with OberonViking.
When I originally set out on the Terah Project the plan was to mass eliminate or majorly modify most of the classes. (see Masque of the Red Death Box set from Second Edition D&D.)I quickly discovered that this was not only much more difficult than I originally thought, it really turned the players off as well.
* We created three new classes that had a distinct Victorian era flavor.
* We did not reduce the amount of magic in the world, rather we emphasized the scholarly nature of magic.
* We created new things out of the combination of technology and magic. This is the "alternate" part of the Victorian era history.
* We did reduce the number of playable races and sentient races as a whole. There are basically: elves, dwarves, gnomes, and humans.
*Instead of changing classes, we've made more era specific archtypes available to the players.
*We added feats and spells that are similar to existing rules, but reworked the wording to be more era specific.
* When we have had to make large changes to the rules, we made sure that we made those public to allow for a broader amount of input.
Feel free to look into our project and comment on the changes we've posted. You can contact me easily enough through our kickstarter page.