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I seek to put together a Pathfinder campaign less reliant on combat for experience and advancement. Where I can reward players for coming up with solutions for problems and encounters that don't require killing and violence. That smart thinking and creative problem solving a player can find a course of action that doesn't require them to go into combat, at least not as often.
Well, you can give them XP for "defeating" enemies by clever plans (bypass guards, convince NPC to join their side, avoid entire Tomb of Horrors by digging the hill out from the top instead of using the tunnels), etc.
Or give them normal XP for nonviolent solutions and only half XP for solutions that go to violence.
Have them operate in a town/city/area where any behavior is monitored by guards and other law enforcement activities. Make sure there are consequences for unseemly behavior.
Set up situations where violence is contraindicated -- for instance, "sneak into the princess' bedroom and plant the incriminating letters in her flowerpot without being suspected -- if the guards spot you, you've failed."
Well, according to Pathfinder/D&D legacy rules, "defeat" is any scenario by which PCs stop the bad guys. Subdual, arrest, and the like, all count as "defeat."
I also give XP for great role-playing, and any half-hour in which there is no combat, I give the PCs 1/6 of a level-appropriate CR's XP.
I just went from level 1-10 with my wife in a solo campaign without having more than two combats.
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Most important for something like this is to sit down and talk to your players about it. Get them to buy in and make sure they create both mechanically and thematically the kind of characters that have other options besides murder hobo. Also make sure they create their characters as some kind of connected unit. Whether its past friendships, an organization, or nationalism or whatever, dont rely on the typical 'rag tag group coming together in rough times'. They should be a team from the start, with the intent to work together as something kept in mind when puting together their characters.
This is especially important in a low combat campaign because there is less direct threat to force the pcs to work together, and non-combat encounters are more problematic with things like overlapping skills and abilities. If the barbarian sinks skills and other abilities into intimidate to be the interrogator, but theres also an inquisitor who just plain blows him away in intimidate and sense motive, then it will be problematic in dealing with those sorts of skill based situations when they are both present.
That doesnt mean there cant be overlap, there should be, but much the same way people each sort of choose a 'thing' in combat focuse games(frontliner, divine caster, ranged, arcane caster etc) you probably want characters that divide up things like rogue skills (stealth, disable device, sleight of hand) the face (social skills), the smart guy (knowledge linguistics, etc). The areas each character is most profficient in shouldn't overlap much. The only way to accomplish that is coordination when creating the backgrounds and mechanical aspects of their characters.
Well, you can give them XP for "defeating" enemies by clever plans (bypass guards, convince NPC to join their side, avoid entire Tomb of Horrors by digging the hill out from the top instead of using the tunnels), etc.
By raw, you get xp for 'overcoming challenges'. If the guards are a challenge and your objective is to get into the castle, sneaking past them is overcoming the challenge. You should get xp for that rules as written, regardless of the campagin type.
Or give them normal XP for nonviolent solutions and only half XP for solutions that go to violence.
I generally find carrot works better then stick with players. If I were using xp (I dont anymore) i would grant greater rewards then normal for non-murder hobo means of accomplishing goals.
Have them operate in a town/city/area where any behavior is monitored by guards and other law enforcement activities. Make sure there are consequences for unseemly behavior.
Set up situations where violence is contraindicated -- for instance, "sneak into the princess' bedroom and plant the incriminating letters in her flowerpot without being suspected -- if the guards spot you, you've failed."
An intrigue campaign is great for this sort of thing. Lots of things to do that arent murder, though ofcourse, sometimes, violence is still necessary, its not the go to.
I have a megadungeon that I'm running right now. Yeah, it has a combat focus, but I design encounters to be "beaten" in multiple ways sometimes.
Basically, when I write up an encounter, I also write beside it in brackets some possible means players may use to beat it. These come down to: [Combat, Dialogue, Stealth, Skill Challenge, Magic]. Note that Combat is only one of five possible means the players may use to beat or bypass the encounter.
Let's use a few sample encounters just to make my point.
Encounter 1: Guard Room
So, there's a guard room here. The players can hear the monsters inside making noise before they approach the door, and if they know the right language they'll realize they're gambling. (Yes, good job gambling away on guard duty day.) However, there IS a simple alarm trap in front of the door; if they trip it, the encounter will default to Combat.
However, if the party disables the trap and kick the door in, they'll have the guards at a disadvantage - enough that they could convince them via Dialogue to stand down. Alternatively, they could use Stealth to creep into the room, allowing them to either bypass it completely, assassinate the residents or force the enemy at an even GREATER disadvantage which again allows Dialogue.
Whatever option the players use, they get full XP.
Encounter 2: Trapped Hallway
These rooms are usually pretty straightforward and typically operate as a Skill Challenge. There's traps. Disable them. Whoo.
However, let's say one of your players has the levitate spell. He looks at the room and says "Hold on. These traps are all ground based, right? So why don't we just hover over them?"
Either completing the Skill Challenge or using Magic to get over the traps counts as beating the encounter, ergo earning the party full XP.
Encounter 3: That Old Black Magic
Recently, my players walked into a room where they saw a ritual sacrifice going on. Namely, a troll (scary guys in my setting) was sacrificing a kobold and a ghoul to dark and despicable gods. Now, the troll didn't want to fight the party - being an intelligent creature, the troll realized that fighting the party could end really, really badly, so he was more than happy to negotiate and allow the party to pass by freely.
They did just that. I awarded half XP.
Now, in this case, the evil of the troll remains, and he does have treasure on him that's desirable. If the party were to have pickpocketed him and gotten his stuff or were to have actually killed him, I would have awarded full XP. However, they opted to use Dialogue on a blatantly evil creature when the majority of the party is Good aligned. It was a smart decision, but it doesn't fit the group morality necessarily. Taking action against him successfully would have netted full XP. (Fighting him, losing, and retreating so as not to die would have netted half XP as well.)
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Don't use XP at all. Have them level up when they hit certain milestones that you set. The players do not have to know what those milestones are. Starting and/or finishing quests and story arcs are good milestones. If the characters are not 'losing' XP for letting things live they will be less likely to try to kill everything.
Don't use XP at all. Have them level up when they hit certain milestones that you set. The players do not have to know what those milestones are. Starting and/or finishing quests and story arcs are good milestones. If the characters are not 'losing' XP for letting things live they will be less likely to try to kill everything.
+1
There are also Urban settings that can lend themselves to: burglary; crime solving; inquisition and "witch-hunts" - campaigns where your main focus is overcoming puzzles or needing to infiltrate an organization. The main skills will be Bluff, Intimidate, Sense Motive, and Disable Device and the like, not combat. Climb and acrobatics (roof-runners and cat burglars). Disguise. Non-combat actually makes a lot more Skills pertinent!
Non-combat actually makes a lot more Skills pertinent!
Definitely. I played a drunken illusionist in one campaign and had a blast using Disguise, Bluff, Acrobatics, Perform (Comedy), and various spells like Disguise Self, Invisibility... Grease... *Cough*
I also used the Pink Boa trick advised by a certain internet personality named Spoony. Wearing nothing but a pink boa, my illusionist ran into a fortress saying "Sorry I'm late; really sorry; shouldn't have gone to that party!"
People just... stared... and he escaped just fine. It also made for great roleplay opportunities when, once, he was captured and his bags were searched only to reveal objects like the aforementioned boa, shackles, small bottles of oil, Universal Solvent, glue, honey, wood-eating acid, pinches of sand...
...all of which saw some use during my wacky adventures, yes. And none of it was risque in case that was your assumption. It was all used for infiltrating places.
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@ChainsawSam
Well thanks for your thoughts but when it comes to D&D and Pathfinder I feel the systems work just fine for campaigns less focused. More I feel the systems have all the tools need to handle both combat related challenges and those that are more puzzle or intrigue. As such I disagree with your words, my apologies for such.
That and really, murderhobo wouldn't be a thing unless many parties were killing and slaughtering everything around them as they travel. The first answer often seems to be kill it, I want to see something more creative from party then this.
That and it fits the setting better and its source for it not be heavy combat campaign since in the source the heroes never kill those they fight. Instead they use non-violent solutions to the problems they face, and while I will make sure the combat rules of Pathfinder are used I will also encourage my player to come up with other answers to the challenges I have them face.
The adventures they will find themselves apart of will often require the use of social skills, all skills really, and more creative thinking. They will have to use their heads not just the combat mechanics of the game. Planning not just charging into a fight to aggressively and violently take out threats. Sure I will still have more combative encounters take place, such as with undead or undeniably evil forces but it wont be the norm.
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Read up on Eberron campaign setting adventures. Eberron is exactly this setup, most of the time, you do big investigation, explore and then just have one mean fight instead of many encounters everywhere.
Now that is funny, not only does Eberron offer an answer to my question involving a campaign where 'you cannot bring the dead back to life' but now that of having a less combat focused campaign as well. I never considered that the one campaign setting I had mostly ignored could have much of what I am looking for. -laughs-
Read up on Eberron campaign setting adventures. Eberron is exactly this setup, most of the time, you do big investigation, explore and then just have one mean fight instead of many encounters everywhere.Now that is funny, not only does Eberron offer an answer to my question involving a campaign where 'you cannot bring the dead back to life' but now that of having a less combat focused campaign as well. I never considered that the one campaign setting I had mostly ignored could have much of what I am looking for. -laughs-
It's a pretty good setting with rich lore. It also expands your playable races considerably depending on where you start. The goblinoids (namely goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears) used to run a pretty powerful empire and they still have a recognized nation. Orcs saved the world at least once (IIRC) and there's a whole group of them (druidic in nature) dedicated to saving it again should the same threat crop up. You have Shifters and Changelings (which wouldn't be hard to convert to PF), both of whom have a solid and unique feel. Gnomes only use the facade of being happy-go-lucky goofballs when they actually hide a society full of political intrigue and backstabbing (and I believe Whisper Gnomes are part of the setting but are specifically gnomes bred to be assassins)...
Depending on where you want the campaign based, there are a few cities that are REALLY multicultural and have a lot of history surrounding them. You can make an interesting campaign while having a wide variety of character options.
+1 to Eberon, and +1 to agreeing to the campaign style as a group. If you try to make it happen by yourself, you'll find nothing but frustration.
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Actually if I do use the Eberron Campaign Setting I will avoid converting anything myself and just go with what this site offers: here
Bear in mind that Traps have CRs and award XP.
It's hard-coded into the system that disabling/overcoming Traps awards XP.
Haunts are the same.
While everyone THINKS that muderhobo-ing your way through the world "is the only way to gain XP in Pathfinder!!!" it's utterly fallacious - the game is designed with dungeoncrawling originally in mind, and overcoming traps is supposed to award you XP just as much as overcoming boss fights.
Overcoming a hostile fight with Diplomacy or other method beyond fighting is still "overcoming" a challenge, and thus XP awarded based on the CR is proper.
This idea can easily be extended to things like Chases, mysteries, etc.
The GameMastery Guide gives ideas for how to run things like that, though they don't directly present hard-coded rules for determining CR or abstract things like mysteries, etc.
