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This is in part a side path to This, focusing extensively on the idea of the borrowers(along the lines of the fantasy stories by Mary Norton).
As a concept, Borrowers are a race of tiny, humanoid creatures that live in the shadow of "the Big People"(everything else). Because they are such a small race, they cannot build or manipulate the world around them to the same extent as "the Big people", so they instead live in the shadows of their civilizations, "borrowing" small objects and items to support their small colonies and havens. they "pay" the former owners of these objects with items and objects of their own. Since they are so small, they actually are at quite a risk from the "big people", with most encounters ending in swift and brutally violent deaths for the borrowers involved.
Yet some borrowers form actual bonds with the big people and help them with their problems. Some are even fascinated by the stories and tales of adventure, danger and excitement, taking up the hallmarks of an adventurer and setting off to make a name for themselves as a hero or legend. These borrowers have learned to punch above well above their weight, scaling their larger adversaries and striking their weak points with devastating effect. others have turned to magical or divine arts, and become devastating small scale pockets of destruction against even the largest foes.
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Race:humanoid(borrower subtype)0rp
Size:tiny(4rp)
Speed:normal(0rp)
Racial modifier:Flexable((+2wis,+2 to any of choice during character creation)3rp)
Languages:standard(Common,borrower. High intelligence gets choice of sylvan, abyssal, elven, gnome, halfling, goblinoid, dwarves)(0rp)
Racial traits
unnatural(2rp)
Flexable bonus feat(4rp)
Skilled(4rp)
Lowlight vision(1rp)
Totals:
18rp
This is only using the race builder, with one editiation. Any thoughts on how to improve it.
The Borrowers (1997) - IMDb
www.imdb.com/title/tt0118755 Cached
Directed by Peter Hewitt. With John Goodman, Mark Williams, Jim Broadbent, Celia Imrie. A secret family of four-inch people living inside the walls of a house
Lets just split the difference and leave them at tiny.
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Isn't tiny between 1' and 2' tall? Borrowers are usually a lot smaller than that.
The minimum size I could get rules for in the race creation is tiny. A green sting Scorpion is a tiny creature, as is a sprite. That's suitibly small enough for the purposes of building a tiny wizard, rogue, or other class.
Not familiar with the source material, so forgive me if I'm missing something.
Shouldn't they have a -2 str and a +2 dex for being tiny? And even then, that seems a bit much strength given their size. They are on par with halflings and gnomes despite being 1/3 the size.
Also, normal speed seems fast for anything that size.
Otherwise tiny humans with excellent senses. Seems ok.
Size mod would be -2 STR +2 DEX for tiny I believe. This would be in addition to any racial ability modifiers.
I would probably do -4 STR +2 Dex in addition to the existing modifiers if using them among normal-sized beings. They're also definitely very close to diminutive. Also, as Tiny, they should only be able to carry half of what a medium character with the same strength can.
EDIT: According to the monster advancement table, a monster increased from Diminutive to Tiny should get +2 STR -2 DEX, Tiny to Small should get +4 STR -2 DEX, and Small to Medium should get +4 STR, +2 CON, -2 DEX, which adds together for multiple size changes. That is all intended to make the monster stronger overall, but I think -4 STR +2 DEX is fairly reasonable for tiny, and -6 STR +4 DEX would make sense for diminutive I guess. Weights of items and carrying capacity change a lot too...
Are you still using a 5 ft. grid for your combats? Because the real question of how to handle a campaign focused on fine/dimin/tiny creatures is the lack of reach. There are so many issues ... far far fewer attacks of opportunity and oppotunities to flank, for example ... Because you do not threaten adjacent squares, so no AoOs for moving, unless maybe you are occupying the same square as your foe, and you are leaving it. Also if you do not threaten, you cannot flank, so rogues get far far fewer chances to sneak attack. And you cannot aid another in combat unless you can threaten your foe.
One answer is to move to a one foot combat grid. Then ...
Fine - takes up 1 space, threatens 0 squares around itself*.
Dimin - takes up 1 space, threatens 1 square around itself.
Tiny - takes up 2 squares by 2, threatens 2 squares around itself.
Small - takes up 4 squares by 4, threatens 4 squares around itself.
Medium - takes up 5 squares by 5, threatens 5 squares around itself.
Large - takes up 10 squares by 10, threatens 10 squares around itself.
*A fine creature could threaten the squares around it with a reach weapon.
This scheme scales such that by the time you get to medium, you are back to a regular PF/D&D grid. And it makes medium creatures seem amazingly big.
Tiny combat.
Use a grid with each square representing 3 inches across?
Adjust all characters and objects up 2 size categories. To them, a pebble weighs as much as a bolder.
Some swarms are now a mob. Individual vermin can be targeted.
Summoning in combat will result in normal vermin, not dire or giant.
I would probably do -4 STR +2 Dex in addition to the existing modifiers if using them among normal-sized beings. They're also definitely very close to diminutive. Also, as Tiny, they should only be able to carry half of what a medium character with the same strength can.
EDIT: According to the monster advancement table, a monster increased from Diminutive to Tiny should get +2 STR -2 DEX, Tiny to Small should get +4 STR -2 DEX, and Small to Medium should get +4 STR, +2 CON, -2 DEX, which adds together for multiple size changes. That is all intended to make the monster stronger overall, but I think -4 STR +2 DEX is fairly reasonable for tiny, and -6 STR +4 DEX would make sense for diminutive I guess. Weights of items and carrying capacity change a lot too...
Don't even need to look at monster advancement, the race builder automatically grants -2 str +2 dex when making a tiny race. You can make penalties on top of that as part if the race's ability scores.
Sounds like an interesting concept for a dungeon. I should try that.
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I recently got a PDF of the Micro-sized adventurers. To be honest, i think this might help in building a diminutive race that is balanced to the actual pathfinder system (so you don't get those pocket wizards blowing everything up).
so Edits to be made...
Modifiers are going to include the -6 str, +4 Dex suggested for being diminutive. As for racial modifiers, i might need some help with that one.
As for abilities(traits), I want to give them 'Improvisational'-which gives them bonuses for crafting weapons, armor and gear from various objects(representing their ability to adapt the items around them into more useful equipment).
Unnatural is staying (since everything is so big, the chances of being eaten by the dog are about as high as being eaten by an actual monster).
Any other suggestions, since i'm at a bit of a loss for how to deal with how to work in factors like treasure and shops, fighting gigantic and colossal foes with a diminutive creature, and some of the other issues with being around 9 inches tall at most.
They don't smell like a squirrel. They smell like humans, so dogs and cats treat them as such. Mice and especially rats were the enemies of The Littles. They would repair the house wiring. The rodents kept trying to chew through it.
They had their own civilization. They practiced barter and trade. The clocks lived under the clock and were always repairing it. The clocks would build winches and suchlike out of lost parts. If someone got trapped under something, they would ask someone to go get the clocks, with their pulleys and winches.
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They don't smell like a squirrel. They smell like humans, so dogs and cats treat them as such. Mice and especially rats were the enemies of The Littles. They would repair the house wiring. The rodents kept trying to chew through it.
They had their own civilization. They practiced barter and trade. The clocks lived under the clock and were always repairing it. The clocks would build winches and suchlike out of lost parts. If someone got trapped under something, they would ask someone to go get the clocks, with their pulleys and winches.
Great Imagery and shows some insight into their world. Borrowers society is built in part on a bartering system, between both the big people that they live alongside, and the borrowers themselves. Services, materials, objects, stories, knowledge, food, and even the odd coin find their way into the system of the borrowers. For the unaware, they believe it to be the result of misplacement, bad luck or pests.
For the knowing, they take the opportunity to either share with their tiny lodgers, actively drive them from the homes, or take advantage of them to serve their own means. Since most borrowers belong to unknowing households, many prefer to keep their activities and existence a secret. After all, what they don't know won't hurt them.
Borrowers could be a interesting source of information, to those who know how to seek them out. What secrets can be kept from a borrower, especially when you know nothing of their existence.
Studio Ghibli (creators of Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and a host of other Disney/John Lasseter sponsored anime) created their own movie take on the Borrowers, The Secret World of Arrietty.
In all honesty, if I were to run a game where all of the players were Borrowers, I'd just change the scenery, re-flavor the weapons/armor and whatnot, and retain the normal stats for whatever races I use. Humans, elves, and dwarves could all be different 'subspecies' of Borrowers. I'd also use Ratfolk as literal talking rats and mice (Secret of Nimh, Redwall) as well as Eric Morton's Frog and Bat Clan supplements for frogs/toads and bats.
For other animals that would be a threat to them (cats, dogs, raccoons, birds) I'd change the standard animal stats to gargantuan and adjust accordingly.
Adjusting the combat grid to fit the world would take some thinking though. Hrm.
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There is the micro sized adventurers from Everyman, that has some adjustments for small sizes.
I would be interested in doing a borrowers style campaign focused on building up a haven in a new location. Maybe including interactions with the places inhabitants, a plot going on in the background to the main plot, which influences and is influenced by the players actions and interactions. The borrowers style of 'outsider looking in' can set up some interesting characters, and introduce the big bad without to much difficulty.
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What would also be cool is the animal companions, familiars and mounts available to them too. Since they are so small, a regular sized familiar might be a bit big for them, so I imagine seeing ants, beetles, and other insects to fill in those roles, and also some fun elements like mounting a small mammal.
The campaign options don't really decrease. Imagine thumbelina or Tom Thumb as being examples of borrower heroes of the past, the borrowers part in mediating a conflict between different fey within the same location. Thwarting a royal assasination, and thus exposing your existance to the world, risking the safety of your haven. So many options, and so many stories that could be told.
I like the idea of borrower Varients based on the pre-existing races. It creates interesting questions like 'how did the borrowers come to be?''why do they appear to be like smaller versions of Golorian races?''when did they first appear, and how did they survive so long without being discovered?'. It's those kind of things that I thought about when forming the idea for Florafaunar.
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Cavaliers would be a combination of really funny, and also kind of badass to the average borrower. They have managed to forge a bond between the creatures that might kill them and have gained the ability to control them.
A borrower witch, Druid or hunter might also be able to take a feat to use animal comanions of the size of the actual pathfinder characters. This does offer some potential for shenanigans, but remember that they would need to take feats for mounted combat to start accurately throwing spells and arrows from the saddle. They also would be in the category of 'people you do not mess with', cause in the battle between nature trying to kill them and them, they came out a little ahead.
My topic, leveled mutations, provides a halfway point. A Midget mutant is unstable, and they can temporarily hold "normal" size. The children of 2 stable tiny Dwarves would be tiny all the time.
04: Midget 1st level-1 size category smaller than base creature.
5th level-Can expand to base creature normal size. If distracted, must will save or snap back to midget size.
10th level-2 size categories smaller than base creature.
20th level-3 size categories smaller than base creature.
Sorc. Stealth. Bonus spells Reduce Person (3rd), Reduce Person Mass(7th), Baleful Polymorph(9th).
A Borrower mutant might be rapidly outgrowing their world, and at some point would have to start misleading their fellow big people about their past. They would have all the feats for using giant objects, and a skill bonus for all things tiny.
03: Giantism. 1st level-1 size category larger than base creature.
5th level-Can shrink to base creature normal size. If distracted, must will save or snap back to full size.
10th level-2 size categories larger than base creature.
20th level-3 size categories larger than base creature.
Sorc. Intimidation. Bonus spells Enlarge Person (3rd), enlarge person mass(7th), animal growth(9th).
Link Leveled Mutations..
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qkwf?Leveled-Mutations#28
I went another route. I'm planning a campaign where the feywild works like the minish from Legend of Zelda: the Minish Cap. Basically by going through fae rings you can shrink and be able to see the fey world which is mostly populated with gnomes. Basically treating everything else as giant-sized rather than have to deal with micro-sized stats.
However one thing I have not read yet but am excited for is Micro-sized Adventures. Which may help you out a bit better in playing with smaller than tiny PCs.
The mutations rarely stay unstable generation after generation. In the Terrasque's case, it survived because of mostly good mutations, and almost no defects. Either that or some deity made it as a terraforming bulldozer.
What I'm saying, is you can keep having them get bigger, if you want, because you're the GM! I prefer to have the unstable mutation be a one generation thing and future generations be stable, like almost everything in the Bestiary.