So I was considering doing a low magic, clash of the titans esque game (It will take inspiration from the Harryhausen movies of old, Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts et all)
Originally I was tempted to use a retroclone or one of my older editions (either RC or 2e is what I know and own). Having seriously considered my players I have decided to perhaps use pathfinder since it's the current game of choice everyone has books for and all that.
I'm considering a slimmed down Pathfinder ruleset, with Humans only, and only a few classes. Fighter, Mage, Rogue, Cleric for sure... Oracle, and maybe the martial artist monk (alot of grappler types in greek mythology). Any other good suggestions for classes allowable? Also has anyone already wrote up the Greek Gods for pathfinder?
Also on a rules side, what armor and weapons are appropriate and what aren't, as well as any spells to cut out or tone down.
I'm also considering untyped Bonuses in place of magic items, so that all magic items are artifacts of heroes or the gods rather than just a +x sword or whatever. Thoughts?
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I would do what Sean K. Reynolds did for his New Argonauts campaign setting. Limit to light and medium armors (medium armors being reserved for the noble or elite.) Fighters, for giving up heavy armors, gain Combat Expertise as a bonus feat.
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As for stuff I would do, I would severely limit spellcasters, unless they were the Circe type witch or sorceress.
I would allow barbarians, though reskin them as something like Hercules, maybe have the grapplers be the Barbarian Brutal Pugilist archetype.
As for the untyped bonuses, I would call them "blessings", maybe they are blessings from the gods.
I would like to add so much more, but I just don't have the time right now...
I hope some of this helped!
Definitely look at New Argonauts. It will do a lot of the work for you. I believe it is free to download in several places.
You might also want to check out the various Godling products to get that true Mythic Hero feel. :)
Hyrum.
Well as of right now I'm looking at non god heroes, just men being BA and all that. I will definately look at the New Argonauts setting (I have before but its been forever and I forgot it existed). I'm thinking I like the blessings idea for the untyped bonuses and good call on limiting spellcasters to Oracles and Witches and the like. Maybe even sorcerers with no standard wizards...
I'm considering Allowing only Oracle, Witch, and Sorcerer (possibly Summoner) and maybe Inquisitor as casters. I'm unsure as of yet on the Cleric itself. Though a less warrior priest maybe allowed. Paladins will become chosen or champions of a god.
Also I'm considering giving full spell progression of Wizard/Cleric to the aforementioned casters, but cutting ALOT of spells and making many into rituals...
Ideally The game I would homebrew would be Pathfinder with human only
The classes as of now would be
- Barbarian
- Bard(sans spellcasting but gain sneak attack)
- Cleric (no armor casting?)
- FIghter
- Monk (Martial Artist Archetype only)
- Paladin (Champion)
- Ranger
- Rogue
- Sorcerer
- Cavalier
- Oracle
- Summoner
- Witch
There would be Light and medium armor only, and no Xbows (only long and short bows)
At appropriate levels characters would recieve enhancement bonuses to attack and damage, abilities, and saves as Blessings for becoming heroes. These would replace magic items. Magic items would be needed to overcome DR magic and would still have abilities such as flaming and spellstoring or whatever.
These are my basic thoughts.
Just a thought, Has anyone figured out a table that says at X level a pc should have a +x weapon, at X level they should get a +x stat item, at X level they should get a +x saves? I think that would fundamentally help me.
EDIT: Almost forgot. I am tempted in a throwback to old school to allow Gestalt characters at level 1 only, but costing them double xp to level. They also couldn't multiclass unless it was a prestige class, but they still took the double xp cost and only got 1 prestige level. I like the idea as a way to sort of throwback to multiclass/dualclassing of earlier editions.