So, despite the fact I prefer high-magic settings, I thought I might get out of my comfort zone and experiment with the notion of a magic-less world. There are however a number of abilities unique to mystical classes that I might like to keep. So I got to thinking:
-How to de-spell certain classes?
Certain are obviously out (wizard, sorcerer, cleric, druid, witch, oracle) as they are very magic-centric in their theme. Others are simply too supernatural (summoner, magus, paladin).
There are 2 however that have interesting power that don’t appear too supernatural, the bard, the alchemist & the inquisitor.
The bard:
The bard gets a BUNCH of cool abilities, like bardic performance & versatile performance, that I’d like to keep available. But I do want to remove the spellcasting, and I don’t know what to replace it with.
The inquisitor:
Judgments, while supernatural in nature, do not appear too supernatural. And a number of inquisitions give some really cool mundane powers. But as in the last case, no ideas for how to replace spellcasting…
The alchemist:
I’d pretty much keep it as-is, perhaps with a tweeking of the extract list. As well as restraining some archetypes.
Has anybody thought about this before? I’m going to look over some things, but I’d be curious to know what others think.
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I could see a spell-less druid actually, gets access to all its domains as it goes, and keeps its companion. maybe rolling horizon walker into it actually.
edit: and a stonelord paladin already gives up spells.
I've been thinking about the bard & inquisitor, and her's what I've got:
-Up them to 8 skills/level (minimum)
Bard:
-Allow them to pick & chose "new" performances (from the various archetypes) every few levels.
-More bardic performance
-Access to a couple of rogue talents
Inquisitor:
-Extra inquisitions (non-supernatural kind)
-Extra judgments/day
I'm looking for more ideas.
The spell less druid wtih an animal companion would be... a Ranger.
I'd probably try to give those abilities out as alternate class features. The aforementioned Ranger has a nice list of replacable class features to fit them in.
Wildshape is more defining than you give it credit for. it would also have a very different feel from the ranger, and can afford a wider swath of interesting abilities (terrain mastery is no joke). it could look something like this.
On rare occasion there are druids who don't have the patience for learning the ways of druidic. Turning to wandering instead, they learn to master the various lands they come across.
Favored Terrain:
At 1st level, a a wordly traveler may select a favored terrain from the ranger favored terrains table. This works exactly like the ranger favored terrain ability. The worldly traveler gains an additional favored terrain at every odd numbered level, and he can increase the bonus from an existing favored terrain as described in the ranger ability. If the worldly traveler has abilities from other classes that only work in a favored terrain (such as a ranger’s camouflage and hide in plain sight abilities), those abilities work in favored terrains selected as a worldly travler. A worldly traveler does not gain any spells or spellcasting abilities, does not have a caster level, and cannot use spell trigger or spell completion magic items.
Nature Bond:
A Worldly traveler must choose an animal companion as her nature bond. Her animal companion always receives half the worldly travelers current favored terrain bonus. If the animal companion is a creature native to the current favored terrain, they instead receive the full favored terrain bonus. This modifies the nature bond class feature.
Terrain Mastery:
At 7th and every other level after a worldly traveler may choose a terrain mastery, as the horizon walker class feature, in place of picking a new favored terrain or increasing the bonus of increasing an existing favored terrain.
Habitat Advantage: At 9th level, whenever the worldly traveler takes the form of a creature native to a favored terrain that it is currently receiving the benefits from, they receive a +2 insight bonus to armor class and to attack rolls. This replaces venom immunity
Terrain Dominance:
At 11th level every other level after a worldly traveler may choose a terrain dominance, as the horizon walker class feature, in place of picking a new favored terrain or increasing the bonus of increasing an existing favored terrain.
Master of All Lands (Su):
At 20th level, the worldly traveler becomes familiar with and comfortable in all possible terrains. His terrain bonus in all favored terrains increases by +2, and he treats all other terrains as if they were favored terrains (+2 bonus). If a naturally occurring condition of temperature or weather requires a check or saving throw, he automatically succeeds. All allies within 60 feet of him gain a +2 bonus on these checks and saves; if the worldly traveler is in a mastered terrain, this bonus increases to +4.
The spell less druid wtih an animal companion would be... a Ranger.
I'd probably try to give those abilities out as alternate class features. The aforementioned Ranger has a nice list of replacable class features to fit them in.
Wildshape is more defining than you give it credit for. it would also have a very different feel from the ranger, and can afford a wider swath of interesting abilities (terrain mastery is no joke). it could look something like this.
** spoiler omitted **...
In my case, wildshape is FAR too magical for me to even consider it's existence. Polymorph spells would be removed from my alchemist as well.
I've been thinking about the bard & inquisitor, and her's what I've got:
-Up them to 8 skills/level (minimum)
Bard:
-Allow them to pick & chose "new" performances (from the various archetypes) every few levels.
-More bardic performance
-Access to a couple of rogue talents
Inquisitor:
-Extra inquisitions (non-supernatural kind)
-Extra judgments/day
I'm looking for more ideas.
I have been actually working on a spell-less bard at home. In addition to performances, I started giving it a pool of points to allocate to certain "lazylord" style abilities that give allies extra standard actions or groups of allies tactical movement.
At this point, I am maybe going to break it all down and make a new class entirely, though.
For the inquisitor: you could drop spells and bane and just give her sneak attack or the studied strike ability from the upcoming investigator. I could also see abilities that key off the actions of allies: give her an ability to attack as an immediate action when an adjacent hits an enemy that the inquisitor has somehow "targeted", or make yourself immune to attacks of opportunities while there is an ally in melee with a creature.
I homebrewed a Combat Engineer archetype for the alchemist for a low/nascent magic setting. Swap extracts and mutagen for mines (basically pre-set, more powerful bombs), firearm proficiency, and a modification system for firearms, bombs and mines. Seems to be working for the campaign so far, but there's a ton of other house rules which make it impossible to determine if it'll translate well to the game in general.