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There is no common language. Creatures that get common as a language instead get a regional language of their choice. Players are informed of the region they will begin in, so as to start off with a language common to those around them.
I just think the inclusion of "common" is too meta for a realistic multicultural world. I can see one language becoming extremely popular around the world due to a nation being a past or current world power, like English is in our world, though. Given their history of having dominated nearly everyone at some point in the ancient past, I'd say Taldan...or because of their trade power, maybe Absalom.
Common is Taldane in Golarion. It's a trade language, not everyone knows it, just every PC and anyone who does any form of serious trading or government role.
There is no common language. Creatures that get common as a language instead get a regional language of their choice. Players are informed of the region they will begin in, so as to start off with a language common to those around them.
I just think the inclusion of "common" is too meta for a realistic multicultural world. I can see one language becoming extremely popular around the world due to a nation being a past or current world power, like English is in our world, though. Given their history of having dominated nearly everyone at some point in the ancient past, I'd say Taldan...or because of their trade power, maybe Absalom.
According to the Inner Sea World Guide Common = Taldane
Common (Taldane): One of the oldest languages still in use in the Inner Sea region, Taldane is also the most widely spoken in the area, and is used as a common tongue.
EDIT: I hate it when I forget to press Submit and then find it was already stated when I do :)
One of mine is cohorts, animal companions, familiars, summons, eidolons and mounts, etc. Go on the 'owning' PCs initiative.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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If you're looking for a wealth of house rules, new monsters, archetypes, prestige classes and more I'll direct you to my blog, the Encounter Table.
I haven't been updating it as often since I've been regularly freelancing for Paizo, but I think it has done stuff you guys might like! :)
Any ability who's text reads "light or one handed piercing weapon" shall instead mean "light or one handed finessable weapon". This is important, because I consider the Spear, Quarterstaff, and Scimitar to be finessable weapons. Yes, this does mean a Swashbuckler with a Scimitar is as good as one with a Rapier.
The Greatsword is called a Longsword, and the Longsword is called an Arming Sword. Longswords, though two handed, aren't massive swords. Really big swords aren't common or popular in my setting.
A Katana is just a Longsword, though there is a trait allowing it to be weilded one handed for 1d10 damage.
Armor values are different. The heaviest thing available is a breastplate, but a breastplate is heavy armor with an AC bonus of 9. Full plate hasn't caught on and never will, but I wanted the basic numerical values of armor to remain the same.
I have wondered if there were many beasties stomping about, whether the zweihander would become more or less prevalent.
Would it be considered better to try and kill monsters as quick as possible, or try to win over time with weapons meant for usage against humans?
Your longsword has the same greatsword stats?
The longsword does have greatsword stats. The difference is aesthetic. To me, a greatsword implies a really big sword like a zweihander, and something like that isn't prevalent at all in my setting. The idea of fighting in dense formations is pretty much dead do to the widespread availability of magical artillery. Scattered formations and trenches are the face of the battlefield to reduce vulnerability, and really heavy suits of armor aren't used because they are expensive, don't provide enough protection from artillery, and slow down the wearer too much (it is vastly overestimated how encumbering full plate is, but it is still a fact that it'll slow you down). To put it simply, soldiers just aren't slamming formations together on an open field all that often anymore. Militaries stress tactical mobility, and prefer lighter weapons and armor.
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Here's my 'houserule' (I've heard people argue that it's how it actually works, but i call it a houserule and make everyone leave it at that)
Being good is in the perception of the player in relation to his or her background, there are no inherently good or evil actions if they can be justified by cultural views
This opens up things like a hobgoblin Paladin who enslaves the wicked forcing them to pay their debt to society, or a good orcish cleric wiping out a village of dwarves, including women and children.
It also allows for some of the divine classes akin to the catholic church of medieval times, in which they thought they were doing goodly divine things when they were often committing acts which we would deem evil today.
gah, alignment rules. I've always been of the idea that Good is a greater idea then any mortal society, and it's not what you think is Good, it's what Good IS and how you stand next to it.
I.e. what is 'good' in a LE society is not Good. Otherwise you get your Good Orc cleric able to Holy Smite a Good Dwarf, which makes no sense.
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I pretty much did away with most 'human languages'. C'mon, genetic languages are a fictional trope, and this is a magical world. Languages like we have on Earth are instead invented to differentiate societies and keep things apart.
So, the races all have genetic languages which any member of the race can understand, and can even read (you automatically know what the words mean and symbols represent). That doesn't mean you can SPEAK it (you still have to learn it, but it's extremely simple) or Write it (you still need to learn the symbols) but if you see them, you can read them.
Creatures speaking a racial language other then their own must learn it, and always sound 'off'. Elves always sound like they are trying to when speaking human, Dwarves always sound gruff, halflings too cheerful, gnomes like they have a dark joke behind every other word, etc etc. Likewise, humans speaking Elvish talk like hicks who can't carry a tune, totally flat; slur Dwarvish, make Halfling sound grim, and waaay too bumpkin honest in Gnomoi. It takes extra Ranks in a language to 'lose the accent', and another to 'talk like a native'.
The tongue of Man is the 'common' tongue because Man is the most widespread race and its the second language of virtually every traveler. It also helps that Man's language is known to assimilate terms from other racial languages, probably because of the interbreeding and magical contamination between races, and it's the easiest genetic language for other humanoid races to learn as a result.
'Country' languages are elitist things literally invented to differentiate castes and tribes from one another, and generally spoken only by the hierarchical societies who have the time and effete ninniness to spend on such things. Great way to separate upper from lower classes, however. So, the only ones who would speak 'Taldane' would be the nobles and upperclasses of Taldane who want to differentiate themselves from non-Taldanes and those grubbing lower classes amongst themselves.
==Aelryinth
I'm considering implementing an idea broadly similar to Savage Species, but for templates, not races. Starting level for my games is either 4 or 5. Levels 1-3 are never played. This means that the template levels could comfortably slot into those levels. I also think that there needs to be some variety in the template levels. Like, let's say you want to be a werewolf. You may want to be a straight warrior, or you may want to be a gish. So, provide two template classes. Warriors get some werewolf abilities for the levels they put in, but also get to, say, add their werewolf levels to later class levels for determining how powerful an ability is or how much grit/panache/ki is in their pool. Meanwhile, gish werewolves don't get quite as many werewolf abilities as warriors, but they can add their werewolf levels to one class that casts spells no higher than 6th level for the purpose of calculating spells known and spells per day. So, being a werewolf means sacrificing some ability progression, but not all of it. The more powerful the template, the more levels it has.
gah, alignment rules. I've always been of the idea that Good is a greater idea then any mortal society, and it's not what you think is Good, it's what Good IS and how you stand next to it.
I.e. what is 'good' in a LE society is not Good. Otherwise you get your Good Orc cleric able to Holy Smite a Good Dwarf, which makes no sense.
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Please don't pretend there are any inherent good things or evil things in the real world.
A man could be selfless in the crusades, he could give to charity and to the church, as he thought he was bettering the world by making it godlier.
He would purge the wicked, for they were also godly.
Purging the wicked included raping and pillaging of small defenseless villages down to the last child, taking all of their belongings which would be given to the church or to the king, and then selling off any prisoners they don't decide to kill on the spot into slavery.
These men, again, thought they were doing the world a service, that they were removing demonic taint, and that they were bringing people to a better afterlife, crusaders often died selflessly for weak travelers and pilgrims.
to a society that a crusader belonged to, he was a good man, a champion, upholding not only their codes of honor (Lawful), but also enacting what he was taught to hold positive impact on the world (Good)
Now if the good orc cleric is smiting a good dwarf, is he being granted that power from his god or philosophy? Is his god or philosophy against dwarves but also promoting a way of life that is considered to be for the greatest good by said god?
Now regardless of that happening, which it wouldn't anyways because cure cures the living and inflict cures the dead, good undead are still healed by inflict and evil living creatures are still healed by good divine magic.
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what about for x3 and x4 multipliers?What about them? Getting to max one or two of three or four rolls isn't enough?
"Fairness"?
I guess that I generally feel that although theoretically-probabilistically equivalent, during play, a wider crit range is usually more useful to a PC than a higher crit multiplier, because of a few factors, one being "overkill factor," another being the way Critical feats are set up, etc...
Besides, double natural 20s happens on fair dice once every 400 rolls, yes? By that frequency, why not let them maximize the entire crit?
EDIT: it would be cool if Alignment Philosophy Discussions are taken to a different thread!
Fighters and Rogues get a free archetype (from a short list) without swapping out anything, and can take second and subsequent archetypes normally.
This is a cool idea
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gah, alignment rules. I've always been of the idea that Good is a greater idea then any mortal society, and it's not what you think is Good, it's what Good IS and how you stand next to it.
I.e. what is 'good' in a LE society is not Good. Otherwise you get your Good Orc cleric able to Holy Smite a Good Dwarf, which makes no sense.
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Please don't pretend there are any inherent good things or evil things in the real world.
Whoa there!
Please don't pretend You'd Know if something was inherently good or evil in the real world! WE CAN'T TELL.
In a magical world, you can.
Here's a link: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/tabletop/checkfortraps/8386-A ll-About-Alignment
It does a good job explaining the difference between 'good' and Good. What's Good for LE and CE and N and LN is often very different from what is Good.
Good is big. Bigger then any mortal opinion, mortal philosophy, mortal race, or your point of view. Good IS the definition of itself, you don't get to set it. It transcends all those things.
And in the game, you can very specifically tell what is Good, attack with Goodness, fight Evil, and the like. Personal values have nothing to do with these.
I'm sure Orcs think of the NG ranger who has been killing them for years as one of the most sinister, lethal beings alive. They probably consider shining paladins horrible warriors that need to be put down with all speed. An Orcish paladin-killer in a CE society is a great hero!
He's still a CE murderer, and the Paladin still LG.
I'm not saying you can't play that way, but you have to take so much out of the game to make it logically consistent, and it's FUN to actually be able to tell the Good guys from the Bad guys. it's one of the things I like most about the game, actually.
If I want irrelevant alignment and grim and gritty, I'll play Warhammer.
==Aelryinth
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gah, alignment rules. I've always been of the idea that Good is a greater idea then any mortal society, and it's not what you think is Good, it's what Good IS and how you stand next to it.
I.e. what is 'good' in a LE society is not Good. Otherwise you get your Good Orc cleric able to Holy Smite a Good Dwarf, which makes no sense.
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Please don't pretend there are any inherent good things or evil things in the real world.
A man could be selfless in the crusades, he could give to charity and to the church, as he thought he was bettering the world by making it godlier.
He would purge the wicked, for they were also godly.
Purging the wicked included raping and pillaging of small defenseless villages down to the last child, taking all of their belongings which would be given to the church or to the king, and then selling off any prisoners they don't decide to kill on the spot into slavery.
These men, again, thought they were doing the world a service, that they were removing demonic taint, and that they were bringing people to a better afterlife, crusaders often died selflessly for weak travelers and pilgrims.
to a society that a crusader belonged to, he was a good man, a champion, upholding not only their codes of honor (Lawful), but also enacting what he was taught to hold positive impact on the world (Good)
Now if the good orc cleric is smiting a good dwarf, is he being granted that power from his god or philosophy? Is his god or philosophy against dwarves but also promoting a way of life that is considered to be for the greatest good by said god?
Now regardless of that happening, which it wouldn't anyways because cure cures the living and inflict cures the dead, good undead are still healed by inflict and evil living creatures are still healed by good divine magic.
While some perception is involved, alignment is purely descriptive not proscriptive. It describes what you have already done.
Good requires putting yourself on the line to save those you do not even know, or to improve their lives. Was he putting doing that? Okay, those acts were good.
Evil requires sacrificing others for your own gain. Was he doing that? Yeap. He was torturing and enslaving other (sacrificing their well-being and freedom, respectively) in order to further his beliefs. So he did evil acts too.
Your guy may believe he's doing good, but he's probably LE. It's fine to *believe* you're doing good even if you're not, even in the Pathfinder universe. Even without mental issues, those with the Aura feature do not show an alignment until 5th level, and even then the Aura feature shows your *god's* alignment, not necessarily your own (exempting Paladin).
Since most don't' even reach level 5, there would be an idea that there is an absolute good and evil, but most would still have to base it off of guesswork and hope that their priests are honest with them. Even if they are level 5, not everyone has a method of detecting alignment nor attempts to if they have one.
TL;DR - Alignment is both absolute and relative in the Pathfinder universe. What it says on your sheet is the absolute part, based entirely on your actions. Relative is what you and those around you think you are based on your intent or their interpretation of your actions. There are probably many evil folk out there who think they could write G on their sheet but can't, even though others say they can too.
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"Fairness"?what about for x3 and x4 multipliers?What about them? Getting to max one or two of three or four rolls isn't enough?
I find it perfectly fair that everyone can get up to two maximized damage dice. x3 and x4 users get one or two extra damage rolls in exchange for critting less times overall.
Note that the expanded crit ranges don't grant maximized damage dice unless the confirmation is a 20.
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PUNCTUALITY: If you're on time, I give something nice; maybe max damage on your first hit, or auto-crit your first threaten.
DIVINE SPONTANEOUS CASTING: Clerics spontaneously cast domain spells instead of healing.
MONK SPRINGING FLURRY: A monk with Spring Attack may make all of their flurried attacks at any point along their movement. Punch, move 10', kick, move another 5', head-butt, move another 10', punch.
DOUBLE DAMAGE MEANS DOUBLE: ALL damage is multiplied by a crit's damage multiplier. Sneak damage, flaming, whatever, if it's dealing damage on a critical it's dealing more.
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If you prove to me that you can keep your anime out of my D&D, you can make a character using a non core race.
Players who have played and done really well with a nongood character are allowed an antipaladin
Players who are reasonable and fair are allowed to make there own classes with approval.
If you pick a rogue, you get to start at level three
You cannot pick a fighter if you cannot convince me you won't be a total waste of space for non combat roles. I expect higher charisma characters to do the main stuff, but I perfer everyone to have a fair shot.
Needing ideas to make fighters not suck at non combat stuff.
If you attempt to play a murderhobo, you will be forced to use the archives of nethys for your character.
if you bring any form of anime into my game, I will have a restraining order filed against you and your grandchildrens grandchildren.
Define 'non combat stuff' for the fighters, and we'll give you a hand. it's amazing how restricted people's view of that can be.
In any event, it will involve tacking a LOT onto the Fighter class.
==Aelryinth
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FLUFF = CRUNCH: All core races alternate racial abilities (and some other stuff from 3.5) are doled out at various character levels. This tends to tamp down the half-dragons, half-celestials, and other very powerful non-standard template/races.
Will saves use your Charisma bonus if it's higher than your Wisdom bonus.
Bad saving throws are 1/2 your level instead of 1/3.
Every class has a minimum of 4 + Int skill points. Monks and Rogues get two more.
Rebuilds of the Monk, Rogue, and Fighter made from a combination of fixes cribbed from the boards and my own ideas.
The alignment system is totally removed. Effects formerly based on alignment either don't exist anymore or use something else to determine their effects.
Healing spells have been moved to the Necromancy school.
Breath of Life has been renamed Cure Deadly Wounds and clerics may cast it spontaneously. A negative energy version exists as well.
Cure and Inflict spells scale differently. Cure/Inflict Light Wounds is still 1d8 + 1/CL, but Moderate Wounds is 2d8 + 2/CL, Serious Wounds is 3d8 + 3/CL, and so on.
by non combat stuff I mean stuff like going to a town and trying to solve a murder mystery, or talking to the princess so her dad doesn't use your intestines as a jump rope, or convincing the orc warleader to not butcher you and your friends while you cross through his lands.
So fighters need to have investigative skills and/or diplomacy?
If they have these skills, but they aren't very high, is that allowed?
If they fail the rolls to do more than combat, do you fire them?
If they have knowledge skills and use those instead of social skills are they told to revise & resubmit their character?
Do you help fighters achieve these requirements in any way? They don't get many skill points you know.
Is your stat generation very high?
Thank you for answering any of these questions.
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by non combat stuff I mean stuff like going to a town and trying to solve a murder mystery, or talking to the princess so her dad doesn't use your intestines as a jump rope, or convincing the orc warleader to not butcher you and your friends while you cross through his lands.
Okay, you're directly referencing lack of skill points and lack of class skills that are applicable.
Fix 1) Give them 4 skill points per level, and let a fighter add any two skills to his class list at level 1. They get bonus skills like they get bonus feats.
Fix 2) Turn their class list to Intimidate, Profession, Athletics, Craft, and any two other skills of their choice.
When they receive a point of Bravery, they also receive an additional skill point per level and their choice of a class skill.
Bonus: Every level the fighter does NOT receive a bonus combat feat, they receive a bonus training feat. This Feat may be any feat that enhances Skills (such as skill focus), boosts saves (such as Great Fortitude), or affects stats or movement (such as Endurance). IF they choose a feat that affects a skill, that skill also becomes a class skill for the fighter, if it is not already.
Bonus 2: When a fighter gains his favored class bonus, if he selects hit points or skill points, he may select an additional favored class bonus to reflect his additional training.
#1 fixes the skill problem from level 1. However, it still puts them behind the Ranger in skill points. This is bad...the ranger has spells. He shouldn't have more skill points then the fighter.
#2 Is more organic. At high levels, they wind up with more skill points then a ranger, and they get to 'train into' the skills they might need as they level up. So if they need ranks in Diplomacy, they can train for it and take it at level 2 or 6. If they need Knowledge (Engineering) to take over the siege engines, they can train that instead...and they'll have the points to be instantly competent in it when they do so.
Bonus: Is meant to hand out feats that boost skills, so that fighters can be VERY good at skills by grabbing, say, Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Synergy (Alertness, +2 Initiative and Perception), giving them an instant +5, +10 at 10th level on those skills.
Bonus 2: The fighter doesn't have to choose between hit points and skill points...he can get both. If he gets the human feat, he could ALSO grab a 3rd favored class bonus!
Simple fixes, but I think they'll solve your problem.
===Aelryinth
PUNCTUALITY: If you're on time, I give something nice; maybe max damage on your first hit, or auto-crit your first threaten.
Stealing this, right here. My latest group isn't so bad, but the last one I was in had players who REGULARLY showed up 30-60 minutes late, and everyone else insisted we don't start without them. (Honestly, I had to delete a rant I almost typed up to derail things here it ticked me off so much.)
The new group only has people, at most, ten minutes late...but those who show up when they actually say they would should be rewarded for it.
(Actually, no, showing up when you say you would should be expected, but since punishing lateness is frowned upon, rewarding doing what any decent human being should be expected to do is better than nothing. Sorry. I still ranted a little. It was much worse before, trust me.)
Oh, yea. Every single class gets +2 skill points per level.
In the case of the Fighter, Perception and Stealth are class skills.
There is a Vendalia Military weapon group for Fighters. It includes dagger, arming sword (which acts as a longsword would), longsword (Which acts as a greatsword would. With a trait, it can act as a bastard sword.), battleaxe, spear, shortspear, bayonet, light crossbow, heavy crossbow, musket, pistol, handaxe, light shield, heavy shield, short sword, wakizashi (also any other slashing short sword), scimitar (also a cutlass), glaive, naginata, lance, heavy saber, halberd, longbow, recurve bow. Other countries may have other weapon groups, and the weapons in this group correspond to weapons the nation of Vendalia commonly issues, not to every single weapon they use. Vendalia is Anglo-Chinese with influence from many other cultures, including significant Japanese influence, so the weapons used look like a mix of different cultures.
The average Vendalian soldier is a Fighter. It is militia who are Warriors. Professional soldiers have a lot of training before ever seeing combat (it's about eight months minimum in Vendalia at the moment), and combat is fought in staggered units, not close formations, do to the dangers of magical artillery. Don't want to clump up and form a nice target. That's actually why Fighters have Stealth and Perception. A fair amount of warfare is staying low and unnoticed while getting in close, then attacking from very short range. I'm considering allowing Fighters who were in the military to trade away medium and heavy armor proficiency for a good Reflex save to further reflect the importance of avoiding artillery to modern warfare. Soldiers generally don't wear a lot of heavy armor.
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Another house rule I may have to add for my next game: All swift actions are changed to free actions that can be performed at most once per round.
I'm fine with wanting to limit some actions to once per round, but doing so by making it swift tends to create huge clashing issues in certain classes. God forbid a magus wants to activate his only combat style and buff his blade in the same turn.
Got ripped on the Fighter (and others) lack of skill points last nite at a pizza ordering (odd how no green peppers can spark gripes about Perception checks...). One of the 'new kid' DMs proposed allowing the Fighter to use 'fighter gained' base attack bonus to be the default for Initiative, Perception, Intimidate, etc.
Haven't read through the whole thread so I don't know if someone already houseruled the same thing, but here's mine:
The stat prerequisite for Combat Expertise and all feats that have Combat Expertise as a prerequisite is changed to Dex 13 instead of Int 13.
Justification: Not only does this make several feat lines more accessible to martial characters without stat-dumping, it makes more sense logically to me. Things like being better at tripping or disarming aren't intellectually more complex than regular fighting, but should require a certain amount of agility in order to efficiently perform.
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Haven't read through the whole thread so I don't know if someone already houseruled the same thing, but here's mine:
The stat prerequisite for Combat Expertise and all feats that have Combat Expertise as a prerequisite is changed to Dex 13 instead of Int 13.
Justification: Not only does this make several feat lines more accessible to martial characters without stat-dumping, it makes more sense logically to me. Things like being better at tripping or disarming aren't intellectually more complex than regular fighting, but should require a certain amount of agility in order to efficiently perform.
For the next game I DM, I'm just ditching ability score pre-requisites entirely. I looked through most of the feats on d20pfsrd and only a small handful that had such pre-requisites actually required them to make sense (e.g. Divine Protection, which makes no sense if you don't have a +1 or higher cha mod), and even for those the pre-requisite is generally self-enforcing.
It's all part of my "Options, Options, Options!" initiative, removing barriers to entry that exist only to enforce flavor.
Haven't read through the whole thread so I don't know if someone already houseruled the same thing, but here's mine:
The stat prerequisite for Combat Expertise and all feats that have Combat Expertise as a prerequisite is changed to Dex 13 instead of Int 13.
Justification: Not only does this make several feat lines more accessible to martial characters without stat-dumping, it makes more sense logically to me. Things like being better at tripping or disarming aren't intellectually more complex than regular fighting, but should require a certain amount of agility in order to efficiently perform.
I just changed Expertise to reflect the fact it's the feat for INTELLIGENT warriors. It has a lot of synergy with other feats and abilities.
As I don't like Dex to damage skills/effects (or any variant stat replacement effects), Expertise with Weapon Finesse lets you add your Expertise bonus to finessable weapons as a damage bonus. Caps nicely and keeps Strength centerpoint, but is still a distinct buff.
If you have Combat Reflexes, your # of AoO's allowed increases by Expertise.
If you have Improved Init, it improves by Expertise.
If you have TWF, you can strike once with your offhand weapon during a standard action if you have Expertise.
Pick a number of Combat Maneuvers equal to your Expertise bonus. You do not provoke your AoO's when performing those maneuvers, and you add your Expertise when attempting or defending against those maneuvers.
You have additional Combat Options: Offensive Fighting (+2 th/-4ac); or gaining your Expertise bonus th/dmg, or to AC/Saves, if you give up your Move Action. (which means you have a 'full attack' option even if you only get a single attack.)
etc. etc. Expertise becomes a Reason to have int 13...it's just that good! It's the feat for the EXPERT FIGHTER. It's an awesome feat!
Moving the stat req to Dex really does nothing. it's still a trap feat, not because of the Int req, but because it's basically a really crappy feat overall. It makes the doorway to the Improved COmbat Manuver feats easier, but meh.
==Aelryinth
Please let me know how that goes in you games, deleting two non-magic classes.
If you hadn't deleted rogues, that sneak attack change would have been a great house rule.
A friend's house rule that worked for a campaign
DR pulled back a bit by 3-4 points, no longer quite so ridiculously high (all the bloody time), all powerful monsters have a vulnerability, something that goes right through the DR, like Brass weapons. This was to adapt the rules a bit to a low magic game.
I think Fighter still has a niche for just having so many feats. Some characters, no matter how much they'll suck at higher levels, can only work with so many feats.
Removing Rogue and allowing Slayer/Investigator is a good trade, though. Just let them take all Rogue talents and convert some archetypes.
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Well, rogues are kind of useless, everything they can do a slayer does a hundredfold.
I just combined the slayer and the rogue.
Also, summoners now only get up to fourth level casting.
greater rejuvinate eidolon is now a fourth level spell. So is evolution surge mass.
Because atleast now they have limited casting and summon spells being reduced to level twenty is much more balanced.
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My favorite house rule would have to be...
Immersive RP Combat Bonuses: the basic idea is if the character describes his attack routine very well (within limits of possible descriptions) he or she gets a +1 immersive bonus that stacks on top of any other bonus they make on their d20 rolls for those attack/actions.
This applies to in combat skill checks as well such as intimidate, bluff, acrobatics, escape artist, and any other skill that can be used in combat...
This also can be applied to spellcasters. If they describe the casting of their spell such as roleplaying verbal and somatic components well enough they get a +1 immersive bonus on the attack roll if such a spell requires an attack roll. If it does not require an attack roll and instead relies on DC's they instead get a +1 immersive bonus on the DC of that spell.
Immersive RP Social Bonuses: same idea as above but functions for skills that are used outside of combat. If the player can think of a very rp heavy way of coming using a skill they will get a +1 immersive bonus to the use of that skill. In addition if the character uses another skill as part of that action to promote rp and interplay with npc's such as:
A player decides to use diplomacy on an npc but wants to reinforce it with a sleight of hand check to impress the npc with minor "magic parlor tricks" he may roll the sleight of hand check first and if it succeeds against the appropriate DC associated with that check they instead get a +2 immersive bonus to their upcoming diplomacy check. If the player fails the reinforcement check they instead get a -2 immersive penalty on the roll.
I made these house rules to help improve my players ways of thinking and essentially help them practice and evolve their Roleplaying which is in my opinion an important part of the game. Its much more satisfying to hear a player say "I spin in a 360 degree motion slashing the ogre with my first scimitar and follow up with a wicked backhand maneuver from my second scimitar in hopes of felling the beast!" And such descriptions should be rewarded appropriately with a lil extra bonus.
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This may already be doable by standard rules, but:
The survival skill can, at a slightly higher DC, allow you to "live off the land" in an urban area, which in this case means living like a homeless person.
@Shae'ura-Drae: Good rule! One thing I'd do differently, though, is make the bonuses less consistent and more situational to exactly what they're doing (so a +1 to attack rolls in some cases, but in others a +1 to damage, or +2 to critical confirmation rolls, an increase of 1 to the attack's threat range, a -2 bump to the target's initiative for the rest of combat, etc). It improves the experience still further, better demonstrates the link between what's happening in-game and how the mechanics represent that, and also does more to help avoid allowing people to settle into an "I did a trick, now gimme my biscuit!" kind of groove.