I'm seeking constructive help on polishing the combination of homebrew rules I plan to use on an upcoming campaign that is still a ways off. If you flat out just don't like the idea, I completely understand, so please no need to tell me. You may still feel the need so enjoy.
I'll be using a set of basic feats everyone has access to, basically the trade off feats that replace attack with another bonus and Spheres of Power as the magic system. I'm not looking to completely eradicate magic items in the game but I would like to mitigate the straight "+" items that usually float around and seem less than magical. That idea will mostly be replaced by some master crafting rules I'm lifting from a 3.5 supplement for "The Black Company". I want to multiply the items that have a "+" value but I can't decide if 5 or 10 would be adequate. Money will also not be overly abundant but I'm suspecting high level characters will eventually want to create.
The rules for item creation won't require feats but a mix of research and the Pathfinder Unchained rules for dynamic crafting. It will be gritty but not E6. I know CR and WBL are considered staples by many but I'm not aiming for the current style of play. I'm also up to discuss other elements and any help is much appreciated.
If you want to be rid of the unflavorful number enhancers, you should use Unchained's automatic bonus progression. It gives people their pluses as they level up to keep their numbers where they should be while also removing things like rings of protection and headbands of wisdom from the game.
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SoP isn't low magic by default. People have suggested it is but I think they just haven't thought about how to optimise it. Seriously, I've seen suggestions twice that flight isn't as available, when it can be done at touch range at level 1. By a mid-caster (shifter), not necessarily a high-caster.
Making items with an enhancement bonus more expensive is a nerf more for non-spellcasters. Automatic bonus progression as suggested by Asmodeus' Advocate is the reverse. It also encourages use of many of the more creative items. ABP is a better idea.
Seconding (thirding?) ABP to help with the magic item issue.
I haven't used or read Spheres of Power, but I've been very happy with a very simple solution for my own homebrew - I ban all full casters (anyone who eventually gets 9th level spells). With all the inquisitors, bards, bloodragers, etc in PF, the PCs still have plenty of options to play a caster, but none of the game-breaking craziness and DM headaches.
So far, thank you for the replies. This advice is reiterated on many other forum posts dealing with a similar issue. I currently use SoP and it is "lower" magic when you consider versatility. Yes it can do game breaking things but I'm ok with magic being magical. APB is in contrast to the concept of magic being magical for the purposes of this idea. It just builds the magic into the character. I don't have an interest in keeping the existence of the current "balance" vs. CR nor anything having to do with WBL. Again I appreciate your comments and understand fully this might not want to be a game you play in... fair. The game I'll be running will be hard but it won't be an AP considering the changes I'm making would make many of those almost impossible in certain scenarios. NPC's will be playing by the same rules as the PC's, but monsters will be terrifying.
So so far, APB is not the workaround I'm looking for... again thank you, it's just not the suggestion I need.
Enhancement bonuses are a nerf to all characters when you consider Int/Wis/Cha enhancing bonuses for spellcasters. I'm not that worried about flying characters.
I appreciate everyone that offered their advice but I'm not looking to change my idea, I'm looking to dig deeper into it. Let me say that I've already gone over those options and they can't meet the narrative I'm looking for, no disservice to any of the advice offered.
APB is in contrast to the concept of magic being magical for the purposes of this idea. It just builds the magic into the character.
You're laboring under a misconception. ABP doesn't bake magic into characters.
What ABP does is add static bonuses to numbers. It doesn't bake magic into characters any more than gaining BAB every level bakes magic into characters.
It isn't flavored as magic, because it isn't flavored at all. But if gaining deflection bonuses to AC and enhancement bonuses to ability scores is too magical for the game you want to run, just change the deflection bonus to a dodge bonus and the enhancement bonuses to innate bonuses. Now all that is happening is that as the PCs level up they get better at dodging things and fighting things- which should be happening anyway but, in Pathfinder 1.0, items are the only way to increase AC or stats significantly.
Without items, there's no way to get more than 22 AC. That means that players can't play a defensive character in a game without a lot of magic items. Because of this, items are vitally important in Pathfinder. But a lot of people don't like how they feel ("but I would like to mitigate the straight "+" items that usually float around and seem less than magical"), same as you. That's why automatic bonus progression exists, so that characters can be rightfully awesome high levels without relying on amulets and rings that don't have any flavor, and do it in settings where magic items aren't dropped like candy.
I don't have an interest in keeping the existence of the current "balance" vs. CR nor anything having to do with WBL. Again I appreciate your comments and understand fully this might not want to be a game you play in... fair. The game I'll be running will be hard but it won't be an AP considering the changes I'm making would make many of those almost impossible in certain scenarios. NPC's will be playing by the same rules as the PC's, but monsters will be terrifying.
I get you. I totally get what you're trying to do here, and I want to help you do it, which is why I won't give up quite yet. (Though I'll try and do so before I get annoying, if I truly can't sway you.)
You want a game where magic items aren't ubiquitous and where monsters are terrifying. That's an idea I can get behind!
The problem with just removing the number boosters in Pathfinder without replacing them isn't that it breaks CR, like some people claim. I mean, if it did the GM could just use lower level monsters! (If they want the PCs to win that fight instead of fleeing, that is.) The GM is clearly homebrewing the setting, so they have no reason to need to keep CR consistent. (It isn't even consistent to begin with! Party composition and system mastery are huge factors in which fights can be won, I don't think there are many GMs who put the effort in to make their own world and yet follow CR blindly.)
CR isn't the problem with just removing the number boosters. The problem is that it screws over defenses without doing the same to offence.
At level twenty, you can expect to have a +8ish bonus to your accuracy from magic items (or automatic bonus progression). (+5 from weapon, +3 from belt.) At level twenty, you can expect to have +16/+21 to your AC from magic (+5 ring, +5 amulet, +5 armor, +1 ion stone, maybe +5 from a shield.) If you remove all these unflavorful static bonuses, offense (which is already the clear winner in Pathfinder) comes out waaaay ahead. Even if a PC tried their hardest to make a defensive character, used a shield, spent their feats on it, there's no way anyone will miss anything past level 5.
And the PCs will fail their saving throws. At level twenty, you can get +3 to your spell DCs (from a headband). And you can expect to have +5 to your saving throws (from a cloak). And yet, failing saving throws is still exceptionally common at all levels of play. This problem is made even worse as many of the things used to boost spell DCs (feats, favored schools, stupid high casting stats) work fine without any magic items at all. Spell DCs will vastly outscale saving throws.
So, what will a fight between a PC and an NPC using the same rules look like? No one will ever block or dodge an attack, and no one will be able to expect to save against spells with any consistency.
So you see, the problem is not that ABP breaks CR. It's that defences won't scale past level 3 (when the fighter buys fullplate) but offences still will.
I am adding an automatic AC boost to the characters that I'm still working with scale on. I may use the full progression from an old SRD article or some fraction thereof. If it's low magic it will be low magic all around. There won't be a ton of creatures that have high DC magical abilities, so the world will tailor a bit. The AC bonus will be untyped as it is low magic, not no magic. The saves I can live with being dangerous whilst avoiding save or die effects laden that would only punish the players unduly. I still think ABP goes too far, but I am considerate of the lack of defense and will address that.
The thing is what you are suggesting isn't really a Pathfinder Homebrew, it is a Homebrew game that borrows heavily from Pathfinder. Without WBL, CR, much money, the common magic system, and adding a AC bonus and adding a group of feats everyone can use (or did you mean don't have prereqs?) you have made a whole new thing. Which isn't good or bad, but it is a lot of work. Or at the least very limiting in the party can only fight things that transfer to the new system well.
Your PCs and the NPCs playing by the same rules is fair, in the sense that no one starts with a baked in advantage. But that can very quickly become rocket tag since it sounds like there is very little raised dead/restoration/regeneration magic.
So the point I'm getting at is, what do you need help on and have you playtested this?
May I offer a suggestion? Take a look at the following link:
https://lazlo-cos-pathfinder.obsidianportal.com/wikis/main-page
This is my website which I set up for doing a lot of what your suggesting. It offers an over haul (using many of the published variant rules) of the way armor, damage, healing, death, recovery, magic / magic items, etc all work. It is "based off of Pathfinder" however it makes such significant changes from PF RAW that I generally have to clean up the mess when PF purists look over these options and their heads explode. "But...but...but...this is DIFFERENT!!" Yeah, caught on to that did ya?
These options were largely built by following the forums and listening to the "If you could change one thing you don't like about PF 1.0 what would it be?" and similar topics. You will find that about 95% of those issues I've managed to address, although undoubtedly there are still holes I've missed, and others that I've unknowingly created with this process.
There are many different games and settings which have been based off of the d20 system, and I personally love its versatility. I've chosen to base my variant off of the Pathfinder 1.0 version of those rules and then tune it for the type of campaign setting I was looking to create. In my particular case that setting is a low magic setting.
You are welcome to use any of the material from my website you like or reach out to me directly if you'd like to discuss it.
I would advise that the one area that I've not spent much time working on was in the over hauling of individual spells (nor a spell replacement system). The reason is simple: they are enormous! and I simply didn't have the time to tackle it. Magic items are another are which still needs love, however I consider those to be much more within reach for the next phase of this project.