A tentative list of house rules that I may implement on my next campaign.
Any thoughts? Are there any loopholes or balance issues I might be missing?
House Rules for Pathfinder Campaign:
Character Creation:
All characters receive hit points equal to ¾ of their max except at 1st level where they receive their max. So d6 gets 4.5 per level, d8 gets 6 per level, d10 gets 7.5 per level, and d12 gets 9 per level.
Treasure:
Treasure will be the biggest change compared to a conventional Pathfinder campaign. Instead of detailing out treasure received, it will be highly abstracted.
Players receive magic item points instead of gold pieces.
Magic Item Points (MIP) are received according to the following table:
Level MIP
2 1,000
3 3,000
4 6,000
5 10,500
6 16,000
7 23,500
8 33,000
9 46,000
10 62,000
11 82,000
12 108,000
13 140,000
14 185,000
15 240,000
16 315,000
17 410,000
18 530,000
19 685,000
20 880,000
So for example, a 10th level character would receive 62,000 MIP which are used to purchase Magic Items at the standard gold piece rate. Starting 4th level, no more than ½ your total can be used to purchase from any single magic item category (weapons, armor, wondrous items, etc). So the most expensive single item that a 10th level character can purchase is 31,000.
Consumable magic items such as scrolls and potions can be used once per level. So if you purchase a potion of cure light wounds at 1st level, you can use it again once you reach 2nd level or trade it in and have the MIP available for other purchases. To compensate for the fact that these 1 shot items aren’t lost permanently and the MIP aren’t lost, all costs for consumables are doubled from the listed cost. So a potion of cure light wounds would cost 100 MIP instead of 50 MIP. Wands keep the listed cost, but have only 15 charges each since those 15 charges reset every level. Any consumable with a gold piece cost associated with the underlying spell must add that cost to its price.
Special materials such as mithril and adamantine must be paid for separately from the magic item itself.
You do not have to spend your entire budget at the beginning of each level. In fact, spell casters are probably better served if they reserve some of their MIP to cover material component costs of some of their spells. At the player’s choice, the GM can determine treasure normally for some/all of their MIP (IE drop normally after an encounter). A player can also add specific magic items during play as long as it is under budget and he has a plausible game reason. The GM reserves the right to restrict/disallow this if it’s something cheesy like finding a dragonbane weapon when they know that the boss for this level is a dragon.
Item creation feats are abstracted. Every item creation feat you take allows you to halve the cost of a magic item in that category. So if you have Craft Magic Weapons, a +1 weapon that normally costs 2,000 gold would count as only 1,000 MIP toward your budget. Every point of the appropriate craft skill such as weaponsmith or armorer reduces the cost of masterwork or special materials such as mithril or adamantine by 5% to a minimum of 10% of the cost of the material. So someone with 10 ranks in craft armor would pay only 7,500 MIP instead of 15,000 MIP to add adamantine to heavy armor. At 18 or more ranks, it costs him only 1,500 MIP. It’s assumed that you craft the armor first before getting it enchanted.
Any character class can take any item creation feat or craft skill they wish. Either they have the actual capability, or it’s assumed they have some reliable contacts who will do the work for them. Players are encouraged to create a backstory for why the contact would grant them such a boon such as being a patron or childhood friend.
If you purchase permanent inherent magics such as inherent bonuses to stats or permanency spells, the cost must be paid every level, otherwise it’s assumed to be dispelled at some point. If a permanent inherent magic is dispelled, the PC can get it back at the next level if the cost is allocated but it is lost for the current level. If a PC loses magic items through an effect such as sunder or disjunction, those items are only lost for the current level and he gets a fresh MIP budget for the next level.
Experience
Experience will be greatly simplified.
Encounter Levels of:
Average Party Level +0 to +1 = 1 XP
APL + 2 = 2 XP
APL + 3 = 3 XP
APL + 4 = 4 XP
APL - 1 or less isn’t worth any XP since it really isn’t a challenge for a typical PC party. An exception might be if the party is attacked while short some resources such as HP or magic spells.
Story awards might be anywhere from 1-4 XP.
15 XP will be needed for each experience level increase. At GM discretion, the party might level slower or faster if needed for a particular section of the adventure.
Wealth
It is assumed that characters have enough gold pieces to maintain themselves and make routine purchases or small bribes. Extraordinary purchases or payments (such as large bribes) must make a wealth check with the DC dependent on how much money is needed. The DC is 4 per 5% of the MIP chart. So a 3rd level character has 3,000 MIP normally. Every 150 GP needed for the purchase or bribe would add +4 to the DC of the wealth roll. So if that character needs to come up with a 600 GP payment, he needs to make a DC 16 wealth roll. All characters have a base wealth score equal to their Cha bonus. You may take a feat to add +8 to your wealth roll. Paladins, Druids, and Monks have the listed wealth, but this represents persuasion, organization, and resources, not necessarily actual gold pieces. There may be restrictions on their use of wealth under certain circumstances. You may also sacrifice some MIP for the level in order to receive a bonus to the wealth check. This represents selling some of your magic for cash or using a magic item as a bribe/payment. Every 5% of MIP sacrificed for the level adds +4 to the wealth roll. These MIP are reset as usual the next level. Multiple wealth checks on the same level will receive +2 DC penalty for each check after the first. Failed wealth checks mean that you cannot make a purchase or payment of that size again until 30 days have passed or you reach the next level. At GM discretion, a successful Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidation check as appropriate, may reduce the DC of the wealth check. You cannot Take 10 or Take 20 on a wealth check.
Multiple party members may Aid Another on a wealth check, but every participating PC is considered to have made a wealth check attempt and will have the appropriate penalty if they make another wealth check before reaching the next level. NPCs or cohorts may not aid a PC on a wealth check.
This wealth check roll CANNOT be used to purchase magic items or in any way allow you to go over your MIP budget.
Feats
Certain feats are changed from the book. The GM reserves the right to change anything else that turns out to be unbalancing in play.
Skill bonus feats such as Acrobatics and Alertness that give +2 to 2 skills are rather lame. They cost only ½ a feat so you can take 2 of them for the cost of 1 feat.
Craft Item feats. See Treasure section.
Leadership feat is not allowed. However, a party cohort will be allowed at 2 levels less than APL. This cohort can change every level depending on party needs. There will be a “stable” of NPCs available to pick from but only one will travel with the party at any given time. If not with the PCs, the NPCs will be assumed to be doing some adventuring/training/studying and will stay 2 levels behind the PCs.
New Feats
Wealthy. You receive a +8 bonus to Wealth checks. You can take this as a trait to get a +4 to Wealth checks.
Death
A character who dies and is restored to life receives 1 permanent negative level. This negative level disappears after 15 XP is gained after coming back from death. Otherwise the negative level can’t be removed without a wish/miracle.
Damage Reduction
A high enough enhancement bonus on weapons can bypass certain DR.
+3 Cold Iron/Silver
+4 Adamantine
+5 Alignment
However that amount of enhancement bonus is removed from the damage of the attack unless the weapon is made of the appropriate material. So a +5 weapon attacking a monster with DR/Silver would do damage as if it were a +2 weapon. However if it was a +5 silver weapon, it does damage as if it were a +5 weapon. This reduction can’t reduce the damage bonus of the weapon to less than the DR of the target. IE DR 1/Silver can’t reduce damage by more than 1 point.
Powerful races
If a player wants to play a race that is significantly more powerful than a standard race, he may have to pay a penalty. The PC will be treated as if he is 1 or more levels less than his actual level for his MIP budget. So an ordinary drow might be treated as 1 level less and a Drow Noble might be treated as 3 levels less. EX A 10th level elf, dwarf, or human gets 62,000 MIP. A 10th level Drow gets 46,000 MIP. A 10th level Drow Noble gets 23,500 MIP. Otherwise there is no additional penalty for playing a powerful race although the GM reserves the right to veto any race that is too powerful/complicated/unbalancing even after this penalty is applied.
Any race with a spell like ability does not get it until they reaches the level normally needed to cast that spell. So a Tiefling with a Darkness spell (2nd level spell) only gets it starting 3rd level since that is the first level it is typically gained. Darkness would not be received at 1st level as is normal. You can choose the better of Wizard/Sorcerer or Cleric/Druid spell lists to determine when the ability is gained. If the ability isn’t on those lists, then the most appropriate spell list will be used.
