|
1 person marked this as a favorite.
|
Hey guys - I am starting a PF Dark Sun campaign in the next month or so, and am looking for some, not so overwhelming partial transparency rules. I have found a lot of good material(www.athas.com and found a 3.5 conversion to pathfinder rules, and character classes for all the Dark Sun classes. The 3.5 conversion to pathfinder rules said to use transparency rules, but in Dark Sun I would prefer not too), but nothing on integrating psionics and magic for PF, except with transparency rules. So far I have decided that spellcraft, UMD and knowledge(arcana) can be used as psicraft, UPD and knowledge(psionics)(respectively) at a -5.
I think I would like anti-psionic and anti-magic be different. Also, does anyone remember how arcane/divine worked(together or seperate) in dark sun?? It has been over a decade since I played it, and don't remember if there was any difference with them.
Outside of that I am kind of lost, and will probably get overwhelmed before I get something concrete. I do not have any 3.5 psionic material, so please don't direct me to that book if possible. Some nice house rules or something would be great. I am not having much luck on google and figured someone here would have something, or might be able to point me in the right direction.
There's some 3rd party products that deal specifically with Pathfinder Compatible Psionic Material, I remmeber them being pretty good.
That's all I can say, seeing as how I've only really touched on the 4e dark sun stuff.
Well for arcane, you have to deal with defiling, more so how do you plan on making it work, side effects, and so on. This bleeds into magic treasure, rarity of it, and a whole other Thread worth of topics.
As far as divine goes, well with no gods, one of the domains has to be elemental related, earth, air, water, fire. The others, come and go.
Also, some divine spells mess with the flavor and or feel of the setting, Create Food and Water, and the various "bring back from the dead" spells. They take a large amount of the violent nature of the world and nullify it almost completely if left in as is.
As far as psionics, I would recommend a UPD if you want to make it slightly more difficult, but keep in mind psionics are common on Athas and held as being better then arcane. And for nulling psionics, I took the easy route and just ruled if it effects one, it could effect the other.
I love DS, best setting ever made by TSR imo. Just such a different setting it would take a good amount to retool to fit into the PF setting, hell even 4th Ed. didn't feel like DS to me.
|
1 person marked this as a favorite.
|
Tark of the Shoanti wrote: Well for arcane, you have to deal with defiling, more so how do you plan on making it work, side effects, and so on. This bleeds into magic treasure, rarity of it, and a whole other Thread worth of topics.
As far as divine goes, well with no gods, one of the domains has to be elemental related, earth, air, water, fire. The others, come and go.
Also, some divine spells mess with the flavor and or feel of the setting, Create Food and Water, and the various "bring back from the dead" spells. They take a large amount of the violent nature of the world and nullify it almost completely if left in as is.
As far as psionics, I would recommend a UPD if you want to make it slightly more difficult, but keep in mind psionics are common on Athas and held as being better then arcane. And for nulling psionics, I took the easy route and just ruled if it effects one, it could effect the other.
I love DS, best setting ever made by TSR imo. Just such a different setting it would take a good amount to retool to fit into the PF setting, hell even 4th Ed. didn't feel like DS to me.
For defiling and preserving I am using the rules given in the Dark Sun House Rules Pathfinder Conversion. They are pretty good, and add good flavor. I cannot find the link, but I have a copy of it if you want it I could send it to you. You need the rules from Asthas.com that they put out for 3.5, it converts that data for you. They have a lot of content on there for 3.5, so that should be easier to convert over.
I am making magic treasure rare, and not purchasable on open markets, making feats that deal with mercantile(there is a cool rogue ability that will now be useful) actually worth taking on several levels. Psionic items will be more readily available, but of lower overall power.
For Divine- I am using some classes that I found that have been converted for pathfinder. If you search "Dark Sun Pathfinder 4shared" on google one of the first links is some classes that someone put together for dark sun. I'm pretty sure he just stole them, and changed a few things where necessary to fit the game, but they work nicely. He had already created all the elemental clerics, so I will be using those for the game. I am removing create food and water and all raise dead spells(I'm going to allow breath of life though), and after third level, all healing spells move up two levels. What do you think?
I made druids and rangers (also the classes from that same person) also cast closer to wizards, as preservers. A major difference- rangers loose two casting levels (affects all aspects of casting) when not in a favored terrain. Druids are tied to a type of land- and each type has two elements attached. When they are in a land one step away- they loose one level, and when they are two steps away they loose two. For example, burning sands is Earth and Sun- if they were in the crystal springs- Earth and Water- they would loose one full caster level.
Templar's of course draw their powers from the sorcerer kings, and will be handled similar to the elemental clerics. I think I will randomly have them not be able to cast spells though. Speaking of that, I think all divine spells had some chance of failure and some chance of an adverse effect- need to incorporate that.
Yea, psionics are held highly in Athas, and it shows that through the campaign. I believe to limit psions, they will not get epic level powers(though they can still raise their manifester level- inherently allowing them to cast higher level powers anyway- but the loss of epic is pretty big overall)
I found a couple sets of rules(for magic psion non-transparency) and blended them together to get something I liked- that ended up like this:
House Rules for Magic/Psionics Interaction:
• Detect magic detects the presence of psionic auras, but not the strength or discipline
• Detect psionics detects the presence of magic auras, but not the strength or school
• Dispel magic checks that target psionics are cast at a -4 penalty
• Dispel psionics checks that target magic are manifested at a -4 penalty
• Antimagic field has a chance to hinder psionics, and null psionics field has a chance to suppress magic; every 1d4 rounds, an opposing effect has a 50% chance to be hindered
• Creatures with resistance to mind-affecting spells and effects gain resistance to psionic equivalents, and vice-versa
• Creatures with spell resistance gain power resistance equal to their spell resistance minus five
• Creatures with power resistance gain spell resistance equal to their power resistance minus five
• The strongest spells and powers can be immune to tampering except by their associated magics.
• Spells of 9th level cannot be affected (e.g. dispelled, etc.), but can be detected by the use of psionics. Power resistance functions against such spells, but the caster level check is made at +4.
• Powers of 9th level cannot be affected (e.g. dispelled, etc.), but can be detected by the use of spells. Spell resistance functions against such powers, but the manifester level check is made at +4.
• The following skills can be used interchangeably for skill checks, but at a -5 penalty to emulate the opposing skill; if a character has ranks in both skills this penalty is reduced to -3. Ranks in these skills never “stack” and are not interchangeable for other purposes (such as meeting prerequisites for a prestige class):
o Spellcraft and Psicraft
o Use Magic Device and Use Psionic Device
o Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (psionics)
• Counterspells do not affect powers and vice versa.
• All other equivalent spells and powers are interchangeable; for example, identify and psionic identify can each detect magic or psionic properties
What do you guys think??
Yea Dark Sun is awesome, and I haven't played it since my high school gaming group, and the group I have now is much better. I am very excited.
I just might use that to replace my stuff in the game. I like it.
Worldbuilder wrote: Hey guys - I am starting a PF Dark Sun campaign in the next month or so, and am looking for some, not so overwhelming partial transparency rules. I have found a lot of good material(www.athas.com and found a 3.5 conversion to pathfinder rules, and character classes for all the Dark Sun classes. The 3.5 conversion to pathfinder rules said to use transparency rules, but in Dark Sun I would prefer not too), but nothing on integrating psionics and magic for PF, except with transparency rules. So far I have decided that spellcraft, UMD and knowledge(arcana) can be used as psicraft, UPD and knowledge(psionics)(respectively) at a -5.
I think I would like anti-psionic and anti-magic be different. Also, does anyone remember how arcane/divine worked(together or seperate) in dark sun?? It has been over a decade since I played it, and don't remember if there was any difference with them.
Outside of that I am kind of lost, and will probably get overwhelmed before I get something concrete. I do not have any 3.5 psionic material, so please don't direct me to that book if possible. Some nice house rules or something would be great. I am not having much luck on google and figured someone here would have something, or might be able to point me in the right direction.
I have had a lot of success converting Dark Sun into Pathfinder.
First off, I too am doing a dark sun campaign with the Pathfinder rules, it works fairly well. I have much of the free material from Athas.org converted for Pathfinder already.
Secondly, I am allowing my players to use "Psionics Unleashed" a pathfinder compatible product released by Dreamscarred press to handle all the Psionic Materials (You should be able to get it easily.) This book basically is a new version of the Expanded Psionics Handbook for 3.5 and is very well written and easy to use. The product covers all your psionic needs. As for the Defiler, Preserver and Templar I basically added them as Archetypes. Defiler is just a wizard archetype. You add in Arcane Defilement as a class feature. I kept the old Defiler Aura from second edition Dark Sun. That was all I did to round out the defiler. Preserver I am still working on. I finished the Templar yesterday. Templar is a cleric Archetype. Replace Aura, favored weapons and Domains with Assumed Domains (Domains granted by the Sorcerer-Kings), Sigil, and A Choice of Two Martial Weapons for proficiency. Add in that a Templar gains Turn or Rebuke Undead at level 4 and your done.
Psionics Unleashed is awesome on toast with awesome bacon on the side served with a glass of cool refreshing awesome, and you must not run a Dark Sun Pathfinder game without it (and the supplement-in-progress, Psionics Expanded). ^.^
I'm currently running (a fairly new) PF Dark Sun campaign as a PbP here on the forums. If you look in my profile I have most of the House Rules I went with.
I would, however, suggest against magic-psionic transperancy for a Dark Sun game. Mainly for the sole fact that Arcane is such a different beast on Athas. There's the defiling/preserving nature of it, and the Veiled Alliance. How could this organization of secret wizards exist if any basic level trained Psion, from any schoolhouse can detect arcane magic with the lowest level power just with a penalty on the check?
Also, for Domains, you could assign each Sorcerer-King any groups of domains that fit their profile (like War for Hamanu). In fact, the Inquisitor class would make GREAT Templars.
You guys can see our progress on http://underableedingsun.wordpress.com/. I also have all the classes I used, and did include an Inquisitor or Cleric variant for the Templars. I kept with the partial transparency rules I stated above, along with the chance for divine failure rules. I'm using psionics unleashed, though no one in the party is playing with psionics, though some enemies are. The game has really been a blast so far, though its very tough(as DS should be). I'm using as much stuff from Athas.com as possible, though a lot of my campaigns are old 2e, and I am having a lot of fun converting those. Thanks everyone. Let me know how you're games go.
Recent threads in Conversions
|
