Making everyone switch hitters, no Christmas tree effect, and caster martial balance.


Homebrew and House Rules


I have concepts, and I need help fleshing them out. This is going to be pretty setting specific. Basic idea is that technology is modernish, everybody got a gun, PCs work for the government dealing with out of control magic users and monster hunting, it's a high magic setting, divine magic rarely comes from dieties, and PCs all have some magic.

Switch hitting comes first. Multi-shot firearms are the default weapon, but melee combat does happen. A combat oriented PC needs to be good at both, but without feat taxing. A PC optimized for melee would fare poorly in too many combats. A PC optimized for range would do better, but not be much fun in melee.

Second is magic item proliferation. First off, PCs are government employees in a high priority function. If they need equipment, they will have it. WBL also doesn't work, because PCs aren't engaging in looting or receiving big rewards (they can't legally accept them). So, the magic item system is a non-starter. What I'm thinking is taking away the Sorcerer class, so that I can take the Bloodline feature and apply it to all PCs. (Setting lore states that all the gods but one were killed by mortals recently, and this led to magic becoming much more prevalent. Sorcerers could be a symptom of this, but as a template rather than a class, and bloodlines could be related to personality or interests rather than ancestry.) Add a bunch of stuff to bloodlines to replace magic items, and there we go. Increase BAB progression by 5 Monte Cook style and increase frequency of attribute bonuses from level so that Bloodlines don't have to handle that. These template based Sorcerers are pretty powerful, so the government hires them for the very hazardous task at hand. This should also make switch hitting a bit easier, since you don't need to invest in a magic weapon.

Finally, we have caster martial disparity. With martials being ranged combatants and fighter and rogue types having a little magic from Bloodlines, the equation has shifted a bit. To make things more complicated, though, I really want to use spell points from Super Genius Games, and I banned some types of magic from the setting:

Resurrection
Teleportation of living objects (you could do it, but the subject will invariably die)
Summoning

Spells requiring a dirty exist, but the one diety left alive is very bad news, so PC don't have access.

As for classes, the Summoner has to be banned, but I might be open to a mutant class using the eidolon mechanics if it can be made balanced. Clerics exist, but PC Clerics are elamentalist casters. Only NPC Clerics have god magic. Druids exist with modification (less wild shape reliance). Inquisitors and Cavaliers no decision. Paladins banned. Antipaladins allowed (as I said, the one remaining diety is bad news). Oracles no decision. Barbvarians folding into Ranger. Gunslinger redundant, banned, Fighter gets the Grit. Other classes either overlooked or allowed. Have ACG, have only read Arcanist class so far. Arcanists allowed.

Ideas? Suggestions? Thoughts?

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