Honestly, I think trying to use Pathfinder to mimic the play of Skyrim is a doomed prospect from the start. As you're finding the integration of magic and fighting in Skyrim is incompatible with the class-based mechanics of Pathfinder and trying to marry the two will be messy at best.
I'd suggest either just using Skyrim as a campaign setting and using the Pathfinder rules as is, or using a different game system altogether.
i would say use a class-less system and marginal advancement (that ive seen on other forums) where you just increase 1 thing at a time like a bab here a hit die here skills there. start at 10 across the board and let people buy them up as they do things give exp for certain things that they do etc. alot of dm work it would seem
Multiclassing works fine. Skyrim dose have a level cap after all. Just dont let them take any Spellcasting classes if they didn't take any in game effort to learn something. If they wanna multicast is a 6E Style game and nerf themselves than let them.
I don't have it with me at the moment, but I remember an alternate class system from Unearthed Arcana 3.X. Basically there were three class "trees", a Skill class, a Warrior Class, and a Caster Class. All of the features from the standard classes, (i.e. Sneak Attack, Smite Evil, Spells, etc) were treated as 'free feats' provided you had certain prereq's.
I may not be explaining it well, but I think for a setting like this, it would be a good place to start.
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I don't have it with me at the moment, but I remember an alternate class system from Unearthed Arcana 3.X. Basically there were three class "trees", a Skill class, a Warrior Class, and a Caster Class. All of the features from the standard classes, (i.e. Sneak Attack, Smite Evil, Spells, etc) were treated as 'free feats' provided you had certain prereq's.
I may not be explaining it well, but I think for a setting like this, it would be a good place to start.
That's pretty much the way "Kingdoms of Amalur" works. The feel of the gameplay is more than a little reminiscent of the Elder Scrolls games (not really surprising, considering who designed it :-) The game graphics are far more comic-book than the mostly realistic ones in Skyrim (weapons the size of a wardrobe, not a walking stick), but that doesn't matter for a tabletop game.
I've come up with a similiar idea
What about using the map and NPCS but use pathfinder rules
You have all these small dungeons that in most cases you could be completed in a gaming session
Eliminate the powers etc -just keep magic the same
change the dwarves to a lost dwarven race but keep dwarves in the game
maybe make a draugr skeleton type with some having a knockdown attack
spinkle in as many pathfinder npcs and monsters
Based on this wiki for this game you could ahve enough adventures for a long time
I think converting skyrim could be a cakewalk that way
You need a classless system, perhaps Mutant and Masterminds.
And the last path in Skyrim remove the cap level.
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Although this thread was from last year if you are interested I worked with Kazarath to make a Pathfinder Conversion to Elder Scrolls. This uses Morrowind as the base area but I have races, Birth signs, materials, artifacts, subtype alterations, and monsters including the Vampire Bloodlines. I have been playing this with my group for some time now and it seems to balance fairly well. Any advice is welcome though.
Just use GURPS, both elder scrolls and fall out are based on this system.
I'm not asying converting the whole thing i'm saying just using the towns/npcs/map/dungeons. Its an open world game that has tons of locations already fleshed out. It could be easy to get a copy of the map with all locations marked. then there are multiple sites that have all the details on dungeons/npcs. Why change the pathfinder rules. I find it to be a great base template for a pathfinder campaign
It depends on how much "Pathfinder" versus "Skyrim" you want to keep in terms of game mechanics.
If your choice is to use Pathfinder, which is what this post assumes, I would not use a classless system (and prior Elder Scrolls games had "classes" of a sort so it's not unthematic), as classes are a main crux of how Pathfinder is balanced (if you decide not to use Pathfinder, I agree with the Mutants and Masterminds suggestion upthread). I WOULD bear in mind the various gishy classes that do make warrior-caster builds a little easier to play, and you might consider some custom prestige classes to help enable such builds better. Plus even Skyrim tends to push for the warrior/mage/thief divide, even if you can mix up skills a little more easily.
I am not sure why you are going for such a low level cap. My level 50+ dragonborn I am sure is on par with a level 20-ish Pathfinder character. I would suggest rather using the slow leveling mechanic than medium or fast, since it takes awhile in Skyrim to get that powerful.
For assembling your spells, you might consider comparing Skyrim spells to Words of Power and assembling setting-appropriate spells from those lists. This is to say not you should use the Words of Power system per se, but that they may provide a cleaner slate for building appropriate spells.
I would probably disallow prepared caster classes--there is not really prepared casting in the Elder Scrolls. Your spellcasting classes that you'd work with would probably be Sorcerer, Bard, Ranger, Paladin. I would suggest using the arcane sorcerer bloodline and/or writing custom bloodlines related to the Elder Scrolls schools of magic (alteration, restoration, destruction, etc.).
If you allow dragonborn and thus use shouts, you will have to write those up. Basically mostly work like SLAs but DO require a verbal component. You'd have to decide whether it uses a more Pathfindery mechanic like limited uses per day, or a more Skyrim-like mechanic where the ability recharges every five rounds or so.
As more of an aside, it would be fun to build Hearthfire style rooms/houses with the mechanics in Ultimate Campaign. :)
If you're trying a straight conversion of TES skills, you're better off with the skill system from Morrowind or Oblivion. Of course, the Volkihar do have the immensely cool Change Shape (gargoyle) at will.
Falcar, you don't seem to be PMable. I'd like to have a word in private about vampires. :)
Any ideas on the Draugr shout ability. I dont want my players to have this but the Draugr shout ability to push people down etc could add a new element to games especially encounters on bridges, stairs etc.
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Falcar, you don't seem to be PMable. I'd like to have a word in private about vampires. :)
Whoops, never realized I could not be messaged.
Any ideas on the Draugr shout ability. I dont want my players to have this but the Draugr shout ability to push people down etc could add a new element to games especially encounters on bridges, stairs etc.
For "Fus Ro Dah" I would have it be a cone shape stagger for FUS, then knock back 2 squares for RO, and then 4 squares and prone on DAH. DC would be con based. fortitude save.
I like what you've done with the races, though on my own copy, I've amended each of them slightly and brought them up to 11 pts each. I can post them here if you want.
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Could you post them in my Thread I made for it? Also I could not PM you either. Unless I just cannot find the send message part.
Underneath "Arakhor's page" and "830 posts". :)
Any ideas on the Draugr shout ability. I dont want my players to have this but the Draugr shout ability to push people down etc could add a new element to games especially encounters on bridges, stairs etc.
I would make it a 15 foot cone effect that deals a small amount of bludgeoning damage and performs a bull rush upon all in the area of effect, CMB equal to the draugr's hit dice plus appropriate ability score modifier of your choice. This would be a supernatural ability with audible components.
My thoughts if I may. I have thought of this a lot. Even to the point of figuring how to do lvling up. But that's kinda where I get hung up. But now I'm thinking of just using the rule system and using Tamriel for the world. Use the lore and even allow Dwarves even though dwarves are extinct. I'd go as far as teleporting them in from "Sand Point" of one of the other cities so there would be reason for dwarves to exist. Even have npc's act differently around any dwarf characters because of the lore.
But I'd keep it pathilfinder. All rules would remain intact a part from casting for the Wizards. Still not positive how that will work.
You could consider allowing Rogue Talents to any class with Minor Magic and Major Magic, though you might homebrew a faster progression of talents, and a few higher level of Major Magic accessing 2nd, 3rd and 4th level spells. Then disallow any full or half casters, only non-caster classes, and archetypes like skirmisher that removes spellcasting from rangers, for any half-casters to be non-casters. Only allow magic through the very limited use of those rogue talents. Then you have Skyrim characters all casting spells and not be gishes.
That's one idea anyway.
1.) To everyone saying you need to have a class-less system to really get the world right- do you? Yes, in the video games, the Heroes of TES series are Jack-of-All-Trades, Knight-Ninja-Wizards; however I propose you consider the everyday warriors and spell-casters of Nirn for a second. Think of the Companions and the College of Winterhold. Think back to the Ashlands of Vvardenfell- what about the honor warriors of House Redoran or the scheming Telvani mages?
My point here is that in the world of Nirn everyone else, more or less, is not some sort of weird-chimera of skills the PCs tend to be. For me including the class-less system of the video game is like including the quick save feature: pointless. The universe of the Elder Scrolls is so well loved for its mythos, pathos, and structure, and are the main reasons I see people wanting to Pathfinder there. Holding onto video game mechanics without considering their integrity to the setting causes more harm than good I feel- heck, I once had to play a game of All Flesh Must Be Eaten set in Raccoon City. All six of us had 4 inventory slots each. That's it.
Anyway, my point is that using classes in a Nirn setting, as they are, is fine and fits with the world if not the games. If you need to change something I'd either ban the divine magic classes or work them into arcane hybrid classes- all magic comes from the same source on Nirn and it has more in common with arcane then any other magic type.
2.) cranewings, it seems like you are set with the setting and I say more power to you for that; have fun. However, when you get the chance, you might want to look into the 3rd party book Spheres of Power. It was made to offer up a whole new take on magic for Pathfinder and imitating Nirn's magic was one of its goals, more or less.
3.) @Bjorn Splinter-Spear: Teleporting your Sand-Point players to Nirn sounds awesome Bjorn but on dwarves- remember that beyond a love of digging deep ES Dwarves (aka the Dwemer) and Goloraion dwarves are anklysaurs to armidillos.
-Dwemer are of average height, compared to humans. Dwarves are, well, dwarfed next to us.
-Dwemer deny the gods authority, going as so far as to make a mech capable of tearing reality asunder just so they can be rid of divine influence. The dwarves meanwhile revere their pantheon as not only their creators but THE creators.
-Dwemer professed the power of science, unconditional. Dwarves profess the power of their gods, while considering honor, family, and coin.
-Dwemer were a#$$@!&s, ready to destroy creation on the basis that the world was a dream, and that they could not truly understand it until they woke up (Read: tear reality apart). Dwarves are stubborn and xenophobic, but generally noble and ready to fight all things vile at the drop of a hat.
-Dwemer were elves. Dwarves are not-elves (seriously, as in dwarves are like the antithesis to the elves, their opposites).
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I think it is a doomed failure as soon as you say "Skyrim" in the title. Why not "Tamriel" as a title, you know, the continent that they are on. Or, maybe "Elder Scrolls", the actual name of the franchise!
If you say Skyrim, you limit yourself to the same damn region concept wise. And sort of label yourself to ther fans of the series that've played the past games. What are you going to call it when you add a place like Elsweyr, would you call it "Skyrim: Elsweyr-Pathfinder"?
Much rather the better title should be "Elder Scrolls".