I'm currently DMing an E8 campaign in an extremely low magic setting. Basically, magic is the thing of myths and legends, similar to our world's stories of Camelot. The closest thing to magic are the Paladin and Ranger spell casting abilities, but these have been reskinned as favor from the gods and an almost supernatural understanding of nature and how to use its resources.
My two players are both currently Paladin 3, but one has expressed an interest in multiclassing into Bard. The general flavor of Bard fits the character very well, so I'm inclined to let her... But the arcane spell casting is definitely out of place in this world set.
Does anyone have any good suggestions on replacing that class feature without over or underpowering the class?
In her specific case, my initial thought is to allow her Bard and Paladin levels to stack when determining her Paladin spells per day. Since Bards get a lot more spell access than Paladins, I've also been thinking of letting Bard/Paladin levels stack when determining the potency (but not the uses per day) of Lay on Hands. Does this seem reasonably balanced?
There are one or two archetypes that remove the spellcasting. Alternately, you could go 'not arcane, divine now'.
There is a 3rd party set of products by super genius games called their 'archetypes'. They dont work like paizo's archetypes, they instead involving each class trading out a set of class abilities for another set.
One of the packages the bard can trade is their spellcasting. So the player could do that and take any of their archetypes (whichever fit the character best)
In 3.5, using a class features equivalencies table, you could essentially trade out spellcasting (halfcaster) for a bonus feat every four levels.
A useful link for class feature equivalencies can be found here. You'll need to use your judgement, obviously.
Edit: Note, a half caster is a paladin or ranger, for example. For a bard, I'd consider 7 feats instead of 5.
My two players are both currently Paladin 3, but one has expressed an interest in multiclassing into Bard. The general flavor of Bard fits the character very well, so I'm inclined to let her... But the arcane spell casting is definitely out of place in this world set.
Does anyone have any good suggestions on replacing that class feature without over or underpowering the class?
Actually, we've got a spell-less bard archetype out that would blend seamlessly with the paladin. It's called the sophisticate, and it's almost as "knightly" as it is "bardly." It's 100% spell-less and extraordinary (no supernatural or spell-like abilities).
Hope it helps! It's only a buck, but drop me a PM if you're truly broke and I'll get a copy of the archetype out to you free of charge.
Daron Woodson
Abandoned Arts
8 skill points per level OR a full BAB should be a fair trade.
You can always grant the bard bonus masterpieces instead of spells. They are magical in nature however.
8 skill points per level OR a full BAB should be a fair trade.
I disagree on the skill points, that would only net them an additional +2, and they can substitute skill checks as it is. I think the replacement abilities should follow the rate at which they gain new levels of spells...hmm. Would hexes be a good replacements?