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This is a game that takes place in my own setting and using my own rules system.
I have discussed this in another thread to figure out which campaign was to be run, so most players are already chosen, but there may be room. I'm aiming for around 6 players, but I'm not opposed to 1 or 2 more if everyone is good with it.
This campaign takes place in my take on the abyss, a place in the outer planes. Creatures native to places outside the material plane are actually just spirits. Living things that die, get ejected from the material plane (except under special conditions) and then exist in the outer planes. Slowly over time, those in the outer planes will change to reflect their inner personalities, which leads to demons, angels, and other such beings.
Spirits of the outer planes do not grow like living things do. They only way for spirits to become more powerful, is to consume the soul energy of other spirits. When a person sells their soul to a demon, that demon intends on consuming the soul. When this happens, that person ceases to exist and is thus permanently gone. Not even the Allmother, the goddess of this universe, can bring them back.
The outer realms is a dangerous place, and the Abyss is the prison realm, which is very difficult to leave. This campaign takes place there, in the seedy underworld of the universe.
There is one major deity, The Allmother Emanon, and she is an active god, but there are a number of demigods.
IC excerpts from the church:
Book of creation,
"Long ago, all the worlds were destroyed, and the Allmother stood alone against the consuming evil, so she took the power of the dead gods and used it to defeat the evil, stealing it's power bit by bit till it was no more and she was left alone in the nothing.
With the enemy defeated, she set about remaking all of creation according to her own design."
The peoples,
"To the seven peoples across the nine realms, the Allmother gave gifts.
To the elves she gifted skillfullness, grace, and pride.
To the kobolds she gifted perseverance, mental fortitude, and wrath.
To the dwarves she gifted insight, toughness, and greed.
To the goblins she gifted numbers, fearlessness, and envy.
To the dragons she gifted prowess, magic, and sloth.
To the darklings she gifted curiousity, power, and gluttony.
To the children of Drunin and Elelabeth, the humans, she granted diversity, adaptability, and lust."
OOC
I know I listed sins as gifts, this is because a major religious facet is the idea that greatness and worth come from mastering one's weaknesses and failings, and using that to overcoming obstacles. Suffering and evil is the soil in which all good things grow. Thus, religion teaches that everyone is supposed to face their failings and overcome.
The sins listed as gifts are found in all races, but are particularly iconic of the races listed above. Elves are very prideful, dwarves greedy, etc.
Further, to become a priest/shamem/etc, the Allmother has a test to be passed. The priest to be gets infected with lycanthropy (the specific animal is based on individual, not the person they got bit by, so for example, one bitten by a werewolf might become a wererat) and they must master the beast and gain control of it, then they must enter one of the divine dungeons of sufficient depth/difficulty and finish it without using the beast at all. Only then are they accepted as priests. Priests are thus highly respected, powerful, and feared.
That said, mastering lycanthropy does not need to make one a priest.
Lycanthropy is not rampant, but most who get infected never master it, and can be driven mad by their guilt and fear and other feelings that come from their failing to master the beast, sometimes even giving up entirely and letting the beast win, thus becoming a problem.
---
There are many other minor races, and many of the above races have various subraces, some of which have become so different as to be almost their own race.
Notably, orcs are a type of goblin. Halflings are a type of human. Catdragons are a type of darkling (both of these are entirely my own creation).
These races are recognizable as such, but their history, culture, and some minor traits are very different.
There is a story to the creation of humans. In the early days of creation, a dwarf and elf fell in love but couldn't have kids for obvious reasons. Both being well-known and powerful members of their community, collected many priests together to beg the Allmother for children. The Allmother was inspired when the possibilities for children reminded her of humans from before the worlds were destroyed, so she recreated humans and gave them as children to dwarf and elf couple.
An elf and dwarf together always have human children, and so sometimes humans are known as dwelfs.
Kobolds and goblins are known as original races and thus have a certain legitimacy religiously speaking, but goblins of all sorts have remained largely barbaric with very few individuals ever joining the more civilized societies, and are often considered as failures as a race.
Kobolds have many barbarian tribes, but also many civilized ones. But many dislike dealing with kobolds, and kobolds are well known for over-reacting to provocation and many villages have been destroyed for insulting kobolds. Thus, they are a bit of a wildcard, in many places there is a tenuous peace and even trade, but also very common to encounter them as enemies.
---
Much of the cosmology of planes will be something for you to learn in game, but here is some common knowledge in-world, which may not be entirely correct.
The stars are different worlds, of which nine are the favored realms and first of the stars to be made. These worlds are material worlds.
The dead can't exist on material worlds without an anchor of some sort. Anchoring the dead to the world is usually evil, but a rare few accept this willingly, despite being considered a great sacrifice, including the famed Dreadwraiths, a military unit serving the empire of Sarvolka and regarded as the most terrible unit to face.
Once the dead have been separated from their body, nothing known can fix that, except a ancient myths claiming it is possible, which are generally regarded as false mythology.
---
There are the spirit realms, where many fantastic and dreadful things reside, including demons and angels.
Angels and demons are usually regarded as mythical, but some point out the existance of spirits as proof other such beings can exist, this is the stereotypical debate topic among theologians. There are a number of sayings about scholars proving demons exist.
---
They say the spirit realms are as many and varied. A few notable ones considered destinations after death. The abyss is a prison realm for the evil. The beads are floating paradise islands for the good. And the arena where warriors go to become champions.
So, the rules:
The below modifications should be generally applicable to either dnd or pf1. I intend to apply them to the ogl as a stand alone system someday, but I'm still writing the material out and organizing and stuff. There is a difference in that the below modifications use classes instead of swapping them out for class feats (which I'm not done with yet), and we will be using the Pathfinder classes. Ask about any supplemental classes outside the core book and APG, as I'm open to considering such things, but will accept them on a case by case basis.
These mechanics are not the game. The game has no mechanics. These mechanics are merely a tool that aid the gameplay experience. If you remove all mechanics, you still have the game, but the GM's job is harder and the experience may suffer problems depending on the thinking style of the players and GM.
The mechanics mainly serve four functions, communication, add tension/risk to decision-making, providing consistency, and giving inspiration.
-Communication
Communication can happen in multiple ways. For example, if you want to describe how strong a character is, "very strong" could mean a number of different things, could be a body builder, the real world's strongest man, Heracles, or a super that throws 45-ton tanks like they are toys. These are all very different levels of strength that might be described as "very strong." However, having a table of strength scores makes it easy to be on the same page with everyone else, by being able to simply say which row on the table is the character's strength, then everyone understands. And thus, you have stats about characters.
There is another way that communication is aided however. The mechanics themselves say things about the world. For example, the mechanic that ordinary people have 3d6 for all their stats sets the expectations for normal people in the narrative world. it is basically saying that 68% of all people have between 8 and 13 for their stats, which tells you what is normal for this world. Thus, a score of 15 doesn't just say what they can do with their strength, it also says they are stronger than 90% of normal people.
-Risk
Next, adding tension and risk. It is a wonderfully exciting thing to have tension and risk. It might not be cool to lose a character or suffer setbacks, but when you simply can't lose regardless of what you do, the fun is hollow and lacks satisfaction, and is a bit like having your choices not matter.
But when you in the face of possible or even probable failure, then victory is sweet, and close calls are memorable, and sacrifices are meaningful. This can't really be achieved very well when the GM has to decide whether you fail. Even if the GM is very good at being fair and unbiased, it can still feel like the GM is biased and unfair. Thus, using dice or similar to determine success/failure. It isn't really right to for everyone to have the same chances of success for everything. Obviously, a big strong guy should be more likely to break down a door than a scrawny weak guy. Thus, stats that have numbers to affect the outcome according to the character's capabilities. This can also be done in a way that allows the result to be descriptive beyond mere success and failure as well, tying into the communication aspect of mechanics.
This risk adds uncertainty to the outcome of choices, making choices meaningful about what risks to take and when, and adding a lot of emotion to the outcome.
-Consistency
Mechanics also help consistency. Not all players are the type to notice consistency issues, but for those are the type, inconsistency can easily break immersion and add confusion as they find they are unable to form good expectations about what to expect. Technically, everyone is concerned about consistency, but for some, they are about consistency of character, the emotions and motivations and personality of a character, while for others, it is consistency in how the world works.
-Inspiration
And lastly is that mechanics can bring a lot of ideas and lore and other things which can inspire ideas in the players, which is a very good thing.
In fact, the old ideas of rolling for stats was about this, being given an unknown set of stats and needing to figure out how to utilize it inspires a great deal of creativity.
-Final aspect
This has been my philosophy for the role of mechanics in a role-playing game in general, however, there is another aspect that isn't really about mechanics in general, but is what I personally find as the most useful thing about mechanics and that has been missing from more recent iterations of popular systems, associated mechanics.
Not only are the mechanics and choices of the player supposed to align with choices and decisions made by the character, but the mechanics should be associated closely with how the narrative milieu works.
Associated mechanics technically refers to the first, to the idea that a choice made by the player corresponds to a choice made by the character based on information the character has. A counter-example is minions in DnD 4e, that the mechanics of how to deal with minions drastically the tactics to use against them, but entirely for reasons that the characters know nothing of, leading to players making choices about minions that their characters would never make because their characters would never have reasons to make those same tactic choices. Another counter-example is a sports maneuver. If playing soccer and your character got a special ability that let them use a bicycle kick once per game, that would be a dissociated mechanic because the character is never ever going to decide to do a bicycle kick then believe they won't be capable of doing it again that game, and that means the character will never ever look at a bicycle kick as a limited resource to be conserved until the time is right.
The second aspect though, of the mechanics, numbers, and results of dice rolls being heavily descriptive and tied closely to the functioning of the milieu is my primary reason for using mechanics at all. This seems to be a niche desire among players though. My intent here is to achieve this while being fun for those who don't really care so much about this aspect. It is important to note however, that this leads to a naturalistic balance, not a gamist balance. It also makes it easier to deal with players thinking outside of the box and in-world, as opposed to thinking like a player at a gameboard.
This is my philosophy for the system design.
Power is a stat that basically sets the power level of the character. Things like caster level, maximum skill, and similar things they were based on character/class level, are now tied to power. Power generally corresponds to character level in dnd 3.x/pf1.
Thus a power of 1-3 is a gritty real world experience.
Power 4-5 is is the like the peak of what real world people are capable of.
Power 6-12 is supernatural, like the classic werewolf and vampire stories.
Power 15-20 is supers and demon lords.
Power 20+ is demigod power.
How this progresses depends on the type of campaign being run and can even start high despite low levels for new supers type stories.
In this particular campaign, Power will start at 1 for everyone and Power will only be improved by acquiring Soul Sparks. Power will improve by one for each power of two the character has in Soul Sparks. Thus, the character will need 4 Soul Sparks for Power 2, and 1048576 Soul Sparks to get power 20 (don't count on getting this high, at least not for a very very long time). Note: this naming scheme is not from the in-world perspective, but you'll have to discover that for yourself in game.
Anytime the mechanics I've posted refer to "Ranks," it is referring to a number that affects the dice rolled, while a "bonus" is used for static bonuses to the dice result even if they are normal additions. I use ranks because I have an alternate dice rolling method for in-person games, which I like better, has better dice curve, and is a bit more intuitive, but is also harder to type into a dice-roller tag and not all dice rollers can even do it. The median and maximum values are the same between the two methods, but the bell curve isn't, so the methods shouldn't be mixed, but neither requires adjustments vs the other.
Thus, the easy electronic version of the rules: roll 2 dice with a size equal to the ranks for the roll. For example, if you get 2 ranks plus 3 ranks plus 4 ranks, then you would roll 2D9.
The d20 is replace by Tier, which for player races is generally 4 ranks (goblins, monsters, and other entities can have different values for this, notably traps). This can actually be improved, but only through great roleplay during high risk moments, the sort of thing that rarely happens and shouldn't be expected. Think of it as the hero's journey step of overcoming the supreme ordeal in a way that requires a major shift in character. I see this a lot in stories, but have only seen it a few times in roleplaying.
Standard checks, you add the ranks from Tier and two ability scores for the dice to roll, then add other modifiers as static bonuses in general.
Note: Skills do not have default ability scores. Different ability scores will be called for in different situations. Certainly there will be commonly rolled checks that will generally be the same, but different uses of the same skill can easily require different ability scores.
If you are familiar with the "Players roll all the dice" variant rule from Unearthed Arcana 3.x, that is basically in use here, all such stats and checks are mentioned as if rolled. Which side actually rolls and which takes a static value (the average of what they would roll) will depend on the situation. For example, as a pbp game, if I initiate an action, I will generally roll against the player so I do not need to wait on a response before moving on. Likewise, players are encouraged to roll for when they initiate actions or when they know a response will be needed, like when the player takes action for which they are subject to an attack of opportunity, the player can just roll AC against it. Another example is spellcasting, when casting a spell that would require a save, roll for the DC. This is generally a "make sense" policy. By always establishing everything as a roll it is flexible and thus there is no need to worry about who is supposed to roll. If you forget or miss something, I can just roll it instead of asking for the check, likewise if you know a check will be coming, you can just roll for it.
That said, bosses and certain notable characters may roll even when the player rolls to make things a bit extra exciting and uncertain in those cases.
As stated, mechanics are supposed to be descriptive. With certain simplifications elsewhere, and the use of two ability scores for checks, and that ability scores affect dice sizes, I have made two alterations here.
First, ability score bonuses are calculated differently. Second, there are twelve ability scores.
Ability scores are calculated by this formula: rounddown ( (Score - 1) / 4 )
Thus,
Score modifier
1-4 0 ranks
5-8 1 rank
9-12 2 ranks
13-16 3 ranks
17-20 4 ranks
21-24 5 ranks
...
Thus, an average npc character would roll 8 ranks for 2d16 plus skill modifiers and other bonuses.
The twelve ability scores.
These are in 4 groups of three, each group being a type: Body, Mind, Social, Soul.
Body, the three physical scores are basically unchanged from dnd/pf.
Strength: Physical strength and power.
-At 0, the character dies by lack of heartbeat, or otherwise is unable to move.
Dexterity: Physical control, and flexibility.
-At 0, is unable to move, possibly petrified.
Constitution: Durability, endurance, healing/recovery, and general health/fitness.
-At 0, the character dies as everything about their body simply fails.
Mind
Intelligence: Memory, learning, and logic.
-At 0, the character is in a daze and unable to remember or think things through. They can't remember anything while in this state, nor remember what happened in this state if later cured.
Creativity: Problem solving, thinking outside the box, and creating new solutions.
-At 0, dumbfounded and unable to understand anything. Like a mindless automaton, they can still perform routine actions, but can't figure out why they should and problems cause them to stop in confusion. Can't figure out anything new.
Awareness: Like wisdom, this is awareness of what is beyond the direct, finding patterns, noticing the influence of what is hidden, etc.
-At 0, in a coma and unconscious.
Soul
Energy: How energetic someone is, and how much energy they can put into what they do, ability to carry on, etc.
-At 0, in a kind of stasis, unconscious and paralyzed.
Aura: The other part of wisdom, this is one's connection with the world around them, and how strongly connected with what is outside.
-At 0, is trapped in their own mind, unaware of what is happening around them. Their body still moves however, according to what the character is doing in their mind.
Willpower: This is force of personality and strength of one's sense of self and resistance to influence, willingness to overcome, etc.
-At 0, character collapses and, after 1d8 rounds, dies as they simply give up on life.
Social
Communication: The ability to communicate and understand what is being communicated.
-At 0, the character can not understand, nor be understood by, others, and their attempts at speaking/writing coming out as gibberish.
Empathy: To connect with others on a personal level, understand them as people, and understanding of how to evoke emotions in others.
-At 0, the character is apathetic to anything and everything.
Charisma: Social magnetism. The ability to set trends rather than follow them, to be seen with greater respect, be noticed, etc.
-At 0, the character is rejected or unnoticed by others and no one cares what they have to say (exclusive of previous well-established relationships). Everyone, even those familiar with the character, will feel like the character is constantly mocking others, being rude, embarrassing, and just generally comes across as a massive jerk all the time.
Saves no longer accrue bonuses from class levels. They are a pair of ability scores and add Power. They are easier to refer to this way and some feats can add bonuses to these. Saves represent reactions other factors that characters do not consciously decide nor choose.
I made concentration a save since it's use generally fits the above description of saves, and to reduce the number of unique check types to worry about.
Fortitude save: Strength and Constitution. The body's resistance to physical impairments, sickness, poisons, etc.
Reflex save: Dexterity and Aura. Notice something in time to usefully react to it, such as dodge out of the way.
Will save: Willpower and Awareness. Notice mental influence and resist it. A failed will save as often as not means not realizing that one's mind is being influenced. For example, if someone fails a will save against a charm effect, they fail to realize that they were charmed, and that does not change when the spell ends. A successful save against charm means they did realize someone tried to influence their mind and thus they didn't trust those feelings.
Concentration save: Constitution and Willpower. The ability to not lose focus on something when distracted.
Many non-skills are now skills, such attack rolls, and of note, magic now requires skill checks and thus has skills.
Skills are a flat bonus to a check just like normal.
Skills can specialize for an additional bonus for specific uses of the skill. For example, the perception skill can gain a specialization into Spot, Listen, and Smell (specializing into one thing does not prevent also learning other specializations). There is no specific list of specializations in general, though in a few places some examples are listed, but at no point should a list of specializations be considered exhaustive.
Split skills are those like Knowledge, where a collection of "sub-skills" only need a single description for how they work, but learning one sub-skill does not impact nor count as training for a different sub-skill.
Skill list,
- Acrobatics: Agility based movement skills, such as balance.
- Appraise: Can determine a value for an item in an area, or alternatively, can be used to determine traits of an item, inspect it, and otherwise study an item itself. Understanding is limited by experience though, so what kind of metal an object is made out of is unknown save it's value and common knowledge, but a smith can determine the metal's properties and how that impacts the item's use, etc.
- Athletics: Strength and endurance based movement skills, such as swimming or climbing.
- Combat: The general knowledge and practice of fighting. This skill when taken alone is basic combat techniques, like keeping a guard up and being familiar with the flow and pacing of combat. Specializes by weapon groups, when you have a specialization, then you count as proficient with weapons of that group, else you are non-proficient and take the -4 non-proficiency penalty. You can then specialize further into a specific weapon of that group, except exotic weapons which are each individual weapon both a group and a specific weapon.
Armor skills are used for AC, details in combat section.
[list]
- -Axes
- -Bows
- -Brawling (non-lethal barfighting type fighting)
- -Claw weapons
- -Crossbows
- -Double blades
- -Exotic (select a specific exotic weapon)
- -Flails
- -Grappling
- -Heavy blades (two handed weapons)
- -Lances
- -Light blades (one handed hefty weapons, like daggers and short swords)
- -Maces and clubs
- -Picks and hammers
- -Precision blades (Like rapier and epoc)
- -Spears
- -Stickfighting (sticks and staves and quarterstaff/bo-staff)
- -Unarmed martial art (lethal unarmed techniques)
- -Clothlike armor (gambeson, flexible leather, chain, etc)
- -Light plate armor (chestplate and grieves, etc, plate but cover only select body parts)
- -Heavy plate armor (half plate, full plate, and other plate-like armors that mostly cover the body)
- -Medium flexible armors (like scale, banded, brigandine, etc)
- -Shields
- -Arcana: Basically anything related to magic other than actually using magic, so magic creatures, natural magic phenomena, etc.
- -Architecture: How buildings are laid out, interior design, and minor features, such as various doorway types, hidden passages, stylings (gothic vs greek), etc.
- -Cosmology: How the large world works, other worlds, planets and stars, etc.
- -Dungeoneering: Things that live underground, and the divine dungeons and the things inside.
- -Engineering: The study f physical designs and creating things that depend on material traits, structures and interactive systems, such as ships, mechanisms, buildings, etc.
- -Geography: Various natural biomes, the lay of the land, general weather patterns, etc.
- -High Society: Knowledge of proper behavior and how high society works and functions, the nobility/royalty if any, etc.
- -History: Learn from the past.
- -Local: Select a locale, this is knowledge of that particular area, it's culture, legends, and other information commonly know by the locals.
- -Mathematics: Mathematical concepts, everything from simple arithmetic to calculus and beyond.
- -Nature: Plants and animals etc.
- -Religion: Knowledge of religious rituals, dogma, etc.
- -The Planar Cosmology: The various planes, the creatures there, and how the planes work.
- -Actor
- -Comedian
- -Dancer
- -Musician (select an instrument or music composition)
- -Oratory
- -Poet
- -Alchemist
- -Bowyer
- -Fletcher
- -Smith
- -Armorer
- -Sailor
- -Soldier
[/list]
Levels are adjusted with the idea that you can 100 levels for the same kind of campaign that you would gain 20 levels in 3.x/pf1. This gives you more level ups, but each is a bit weaker and they don't really impact the maximum power nearly as much. If power is kept low, you could a level 100 character that is very skilled in many skills and yet is still fit for a pretty gritty kind of game.
Character levels give you skillpoints, and every 3 levels gives you a feat, and every 4 levels gives you ability score points.
Upon level up, select a number of skills equal to 3 plus your int rank, and put 1 skillpoint into each of those skills.
There are no class skills, any class can select any skill.
The bonus from a skill requires more and more points to improve, requiring a number of points equal to the bonus to be acquired to advance from the previous bonus. Thus to go from a +2 to a +3 requires 3 skillpoints, and thus requires three levels of selecting the skill.
Skills have a maximum bonus equal to 3+power. Beyond this maximum, the cost is triple for each improvement. If you gain power and your maximum bonus increases to the next bonus while you are part way through buying that next bonus, then the next point buys that bonus, and the next bonus starts counting points after that.
A specialization counts as it's own skill for the cost of improving it. Thus, to gain a +1 in a specialization costs 1 skillpoint. However, the maximum bonus for specializations is 1/2 the bonus of the skill being specialized rounded down, and this carries down into sub-specializations, so Combat skill with 6 ranks, can specialize in Combat(Precision Blades) up to +3, and then specialize further into Combat(Precision Blades[Epocs]) up to +1 for a total bonus of +10 when using Epocs.
Feats are handled the same as normal dnd/pf.
Every 4 levels, a character gains ability score points. They select one group of ability scores (body, mind, soul, social) and add 1 point-buy point to each of those scores, and when enough point buy points are achieved, the ability score is improved by 1. When you first create a character, your ability scores have the exact number of point buy points needed to achieve that score. The point buy costs are equal to 1+the rank for that score.
Thus,
score points total cost from 0
1 1 1
2 1 2
3 1 3
4 1 4
5 2 6
6 2 8
7 2 10
8 2 12
9 3 15
10 3 18
11 3 21
12 3 24
13 4 28
14 4 32
15 4 36
16 4 40
17 5 45
18 5 50
19 5 55
20 5 60
...
HP does not grow with level (see the health section below).
HD is from class as normal.
This game starts with 1 power. For each power a character has, they gain a class level.
A class level grants only the class abilities, Hit Dice (but not hitpoints), and bab, though bab is handled differently.
Bab is what martials get as a bonus over casters. Classes with 1/2 bab instead get no bab at all. Classes with 3/4 bab get 1/3 bab instead. Classes with full bab keep their full bab.
Bab is an ability that when activated, is treated as a magic enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls with weapons. This enhancement bonus does not stack with other enhancement bonuses such as the enhancement bonus from enchanted weapons. A character can spend 1 HP to activate this bonus for 1 minute. This is a supernatural ability.
A character with full bab can alternatively spend 1 HP to gain Bab as an enhancement bonus to AC and soak rolls for 1 minute. However, to gain bab as both an offensive bonus and a defensive bonus cost 3 hp.
This is similar to wounds/vitality.
Hit points represent a combination of things, importantly including fatigue, non-specific damage such as from poison or toxins, blood-loss, life-drain/negative energy, and is affected by morale (an npc mechanic).
A character has a number of hit points equal to Constitution score times their Energy score. Yes this is a massive amount compared to normal dnd/pf1. It is not intended for characters to normally die from losing all their hitpoints.
Hitpoints have a number called a "Benchmark." Every time a character loses an amount of HP equal to a benchmark, they make a fort save against DC 10 to stay in the fight. For players, failure generally means falling unconscious, however, npcs and especially animals can potentially run away or surrender instead if they beat the DC 10 but not DC 15. Regardless of the outcome, every benchmark worth of HP lost is a -1 on all checks. Many abilities and other factors cost HP, making this a bit of a balancing act. The real world warriors who fought naked to remain cool and thus have greater endurance, well that is now an actual thing, see below the section on uses for HP.
NPCs have morale, and their morale impacts their HP. A low morale NPC will die easier and be more likely to run away or surrender. For every 3 points above 10, an NPC has +1 to their benchmarks, and for every 3 points below 10, they have a -1 to benchmarks. I say this because I do allow hirelings and any animal companions/familiars/mounts/etc are all subject to morale.
Critical hits deal normal damage to HP.
When a character takes damage equal to one half their Hit Dice, or a critical hit that deals less than that, the character rolls a soak roll (roll all hit dice and add armor and any applicable resistances/dr). If the soak roll is greater than the damage dealt by the attack +5, the character suffers no additional effect beyond the HP lost. If the soak meets or beats the damage dealt, the character is dazed for a round. Else the character suffers an injury.
If the character gets hit with a critical that also deals enough damage for a soak roll, the soak roll auto-fails. If this happens with a weapon that has more than a x2 critical multiplier, add the critical multiplier as a flat bonus to severity, so bows with a x3 multiplier add +3 to severity.
When a character suffers an injury, they roll for where the injury is and how severe the injury is. Armor by location helps here, as the armor at that location reduces the injury's severity. So helmets are useful. Each injury must be healed individually, via a restoration or similar magic or by natural healing.
Location is simply a d40 roll, (odds left, evens right)
1-2 foot
3-4 ankle
5-6 shin
7-8 knee
9-10 thigh
11-12 hand
13-16 forearm
17-20 arm
21-24 shoulder
25-26 groin/hips
27-30 belly
31-36 torso (odds back, evens front)
37-38 head
39 face
40 neck
Severity is a d20 roll minus the armor value, damage types will modify.
0 or less, minor and inconsequential to the fight, such as a burn non-serious gash, etc.
1-5 minor, -1 to using that limb, or -1 to combat rolls for torso/belly, or -1 to all checks if head, face/neck is also a daze for a round.
6-10 moderate, -2 to using that limb, or -3 to combat rolls for torso/belly and 1 con damage, or -1 to all checks if head and 1 ability damage to a mental ability score, face/neck is also staggered for a round.
11-15 major, lose 2 hp every round to bleeding plus double the moderate effects.
16-20 break/disable the body part, which means blind/deafen if the head, or decapitation/snapped neck if the neck. Otherwise double the major injury effects.
20+ lost limb, or death if torso/head/neck.
Con damage reduces the benchmark size appropriately.
Natural healing works like normal except 10 times faster for HP, but healing at normal rate, reduce the severity of an injury by 1 for every 5 points healed.
Positive energy healing magic, like the standard cure spells, heal 1 HP per power of the caster, every round till it has healed however many HP it would heal normally, Multiple sources stack increasing healing speed. However, if a character gets treated with positive energy healing spells while recovering from an injury, they can heal at double the speed set above, this costs one cure spell every 4*SL hours, potions that were masterwork made work for +1 hour.
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In this particular game, as everyone is now an outsider spirit, lost limbs turn into a mist of dim sparkles and thus can't be recovered to be reattached. This reduces the character's soul sparkles, roll 1d4*5% of the character's Souls Sparkles are lost and are floating in the cloud of mist that was once the limb. If the character no longer has enough soul sparkles to have power 1, they die and turn entirely into mist.
A character that dies turns into a mist of dim sparkles.
A character that touches a mist of dim sparkles absorbs 1d4 soul sparkles per round, 1d6 if immersed, until all the dead character's sparkles have been absorbed. Soul sparkles left alone will dissipate around 1d4 sparkles an hour.
This is your soul, death is the elimination of a character from existence. If a spell is not cast to recover you from the state of being mist within 3 rounds, there is no coming back from the dead, period.
Further, every death, whether dying as a living thing, or dying as an outsider spirit comes not only loses power, but has a chance of being irrecoverable instantly, at least for NPCs. I will grant PCs plot armor from this aspect, but not hirelings, animal companions, etc. The chance is 5% when dying as a living thing, or 10% if dying as an outsider spirit. However, if an outsider "dies" while on the material plane, they are simply ejected back to the outer plane they were summoned from.
I added a little bit to damage types to make them different in behavior. Should only come into play in certain situations, usually injuries, but it does add a bit of strategy in choosing which damage type to use.
Physical damage has Force, take your character's weight and divide by 10 (mark it next your HP tracker or something, along with half that value), if damage exceeds this, then the character is forced backward a 5' step from the impact and makes a balance check to remain standing (if that would be over an edge or into a hazard, get reflex DC = damage dealt to avoid the hazard). Half that much force and the character is halted from moving forward if they were hit from the front while trying to move somewhere, this is how a fighter blocks others from moving past. Bludgeoning deals double damage for this purpose, so compare it to the half value you marked down.
Note: There is gameplay math, and chargen math. The idea here is that you write down those values so the math is done in chargen/downtime, and active gameplay needs only make a comparison. This is more technique than a rule, but shifting gameplay math to chargen/downtime is always helpful.
Bludgeoning damage is doubled for determining Force, and halved for soak rolls. Hopefully making it a good non-lethal or control option.
Piercing damage is halved for force, and doubled for soak rolls.
Slashing is just even all around.
Energy damages don't cause force except Sonic explosive.
Sonic is either tonal or explosive, both are still sonic damage and resisted by sonic resistance. Both are also very loud, having a DC to hear of -100*dmg DC to hear (thus 10 damage has a 0 DC to hear at 10000' away and a DC 10 to hear at 20000' feat, meaning that an outside sonic spell of 10 damage can be heard by ordinary people nearly 4 miles away [This might seem excessive, but most of that distance is not ear-shatteringly loud. As a kid, my mother and I heard the explosion of a power plant nearly 30 miles away from inside the house.]). Sonic never causes specific location damage without extreme circumstances except for the ears. Any injury result that isn't ability damage or blindness/deafness, is con damage instead.
Tonal is half the normal damage listed in the base game, but causes a separate fort save against stun/disorientation.
Explosive can deal force like a physical damage type, but is always an instant burst/spread type effect that deals full damage at the origin point but the damage reduces by 1 die every 5' radius, adjusted for confined spaces.
Fire is actually just heat. It doesn't really penetrate armor as a burst, though it can still ignite flammables. However, most magical defenses, like mage armor and shield, do not block it. Additionally, heat damage reinforces itself over time, so DoT damage, or repeated damage every round actually adds the number of rounds of being hit by fire/heat damage to the damage dealt that round. (environmental source goes by how often damage is taken rather than by rounds). Magic can sometimes cause a bit of a momentary reddish glow, hence the naming conventions.
Cold works like heat, but it also slows the target, and deals 1 dexterity damage every time period.
Electricity deals half the normal damage, and it can only be a line or touch/ranged touch attack. Both ends of the line must be within line of effect of the caster. Electric damage requires a fort save against being stunned, and has +10 to reflex save DC to avoid being hit by it (in the case of AoE). Electricity can have other AoE area shapes at a +5 to cast, but in those cases, it randomly selects spaces in that area to strike (character's in the space have 50% to be hit unless wielding a metal weapon in which they are certainly hit), and isn't controllable by the caster, and the effect's damage is evenly divided among all the things it hit, roll a d6 for every space in the area, 6s get hit. Metal weapons attracting electricity damages the wielder, but most heavy armor doesn't, as the under armor layers insulate the target and the electricity follows the armor to ground.
Acid/chemical damage is always DoT. If the effect would normally not be dot, the target takes one damage every round for each die of damage plus static bonuses to damage, the dice of damage rolling how many rounds that recurring damage lasts. Acid is never magical, as any magical effects simply create non-magical acid. Anti-magic can still prevent the magic from creating the acid.
Magic force damage, such as from magic missile, by default acts like bludgeoning damage except counts as magic/spell/etc for bypassing resistances, but also never bypasses force effects providing protection.
Negative and positive energy are ethereal damages, and are unaffected by non-magical protections.
Casting magic requires a spellcraft check to cast a spell. The DC is 5 + 5*spell level. This means that a caster capable of casting 7th level spells is a world renowned caster in the material plane. Any medieval nation is lucky to have a single one, and casters that can cast 5th level spells are basically grandmasters.
Slots
Magic does not require slots, but can use them. When not cast using a slot, they consume HP instead. This is how a non-casting class can learn and cast magic. Slots can power a spell with an HP cost up to 1 Benchmark of the caster's HP, witjout actually consuming the caster's HP.
This also means that if a caster is out of slots, they can still spend HP to cast magic.
Slots are basically mental magic items. A caster can spend 4 hours of meditation to refresh all their slots, or they can go into a special sleeping trance to refresh slots and gain all the benefits of sleep. This sleeping trance state leaves the caster unaware of the outside world except for the most obvious disturbances, like shouts or being vigorously shaken/injured, and while in this state, they are semi-conscious in a dream-like world of their own mind, where the occasional dream-like thing will happen around them, but not really interfere with what they do, and most religious casters take the things seen as signs of some sort, or echoes of the day's events. In either case, if they are interrupted, they must start over from the beginning.
Casting
A spell has a base cost of 3*SL in HP. This base cost gets the spell with a CL of 1 (the minimum caster level aspect of 3.x/pf1 is ignored).
Spells have Basic Aspects {Range, Duration} and Advanced Aspects {number of targets, size of target area, damage dice, individual effects based on CL, number of uses (i.e. chill touch having multiple touches, etc}.
The Basic Aspects, {range} and {duration}, cost 1 HP to increase the CL by the Caster's Power, up to a maximum CL equal to Power squared (so a power 3 caster can increase the CL for range up to 3*3=9 by spending 3 HP, and 3 more HP to increase Duration by the same amount). Basic Aspects are increased this way independently, thus HP spent to increase one does not increase the other. This does not increase the DC to cast the spell. Obviously, if range or duration do not increase by CL, then that aspect can't be improved this way.
The Advanced Aspects (which includes any part of the spell effect that increases with CL), are initially set to CL 1 at the base cost of the spell. Increase the spell's cost by 2*SL for each additional CL, with a maximum CL equal to Power. Each Aspect is improved independently, in a sensible way.
An exception: bursts, such as fireball, have an affected area based on the damage. Within 5' of the origin, full damage is dealt, then subtract one of the damage die, and that amount of damage is dealt to targets an additional 5' out from the origin. This repeats extending the affected area at one less damage die each 5' until no more damage dice remain. If the area is constrained, such as casting a fireball in a hallway, count the 5' cubes in each range segment (I.E. eight 5' cubes within 5' radius, 32 within 10' radius, etc) That number of spaces will be filled with the spell's effect, closest spaces get highest damage, until all the spaces are spent. If there are no available spaces left, but you have more spaces to place with damage, deal double damage to the walls/doors/etc preventing the burst from continuing outward. If that opens up a way for more accessible spaces, starting filling in from there, otherwise, start overlapping spaces starting with those closest to the origin.
The basic metamagics,
-to eliminate components (verbal, somatic, etc),
-to extend the range (by one range category, or double if not a range category, or go from touch to close range),
-to extend the area when selecting targets that must be close enough (double the distance between targets and between targets and spell origin),
-To increase casting speed by one step (the feat allows this to quicken up to swift instead of reducing penalty)
-to take any spherical or cone shaped area and tighten the area's borders to extend the radius. I.E. A sphere can be reduced to a 90 degree cone extending the radius of teh spell within that cone.
can be used by any trained caster by default by adding +5 per SL cost to the DC, while the feats for these reduce this DC increase to +3 per SL (except Quicken spell reduces casting time further instead of reducing penalty). This is instead of costing higher SL slots. Eschew Materials can be utilized the same way except the penalty is normally +3 DC, and the feat eliminates any penalty.
The metamagic feats
-Empower (+50% numerical effects)
-Extend (double duration)
-Maximize (maximize variable effects)
-Widen (when used for AoE effects, doubles the are covered by a spell)
-Heighten (Increase SL for effects including save DC)
All can be used by increasing the casting DC like the basic metamagics listed above, except they double the cost in HP to cast. Heighten increases the HP cost by 100% per SL increase. These extra HP costs are in addition to the higher casting DC. The feats reduce this extra HP cost by half.
Bubbles
All magic things have a bubble that is generally the shape of the item but extending beyond the item. This includes all creatures. Magic effects that select targets, need only contact the bubble and it will effect everything inside. Bubbles also have scale, so effects too small won't have any effect. The Sun has a magic bubble that encompasses the whole solar system, but is too big in scale to affect mortals casting magic. This is important to consider, as when a spell effect affects a target and their gear, it really only affects everything within that character's bubble. So a pole sticking for out from a character that is teleported, will leave part of the pole behind. A character trained in spellcraft can consciously expand their bubble to cover such cases, but must concentrate to do so. They can not reduce their bubble smaller than normal though. Many touch attacks need only touch the target's bubble, hence using touch AC.
Not all mechanics are intended to be used all the time. Some mechanics will be ignored by default, even if they move theoretically apply, until the story would be benefited by their inclusion for an arc.
For example, a long chase would call for the consideration of how heavier armor and encumbrance would be more exhausting.
I generally create rules for these things like they are world rules that always apply, but then only use them at appropriate points in the game.
It is a notable consideration if you plan on taking a long trip for which wilderness survival might be an important factor, partake in a long chase, or other such cases.
In all cases, the rules are applied equally to both players and NPCs when they apply. (The exception being morale, for which players are unaffected by morale except by magic effects).
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This all looks great! I love playtesting things, so I'm really looking forward to this! A few questions:
*What are the new racial bonuses to the newly added stats? Are we just using the seven races? Do half elves exist? How about half dwarves?
*What's our starting point buy? You might have mentioned it, but I could have missed it.
*3+int skills/lvl? For every class? A nice bonus to the fighters of the world, but the poor rogues! Especially with all the extra skills that have been added. I wouldn't mind being able to do things other than invest in being able to whack people well. Maybe add background skills?
*What sort of action is it to activate your BaB? I'm hoping not more than a swift action?
*Do we get more HP as we level up outside of trying to increase CON/ENE?
*Correct me if I'm wrong, but soak rolls are about to be very common, as half of first hit die means that any damage we take has a sizable chance to cause an injury of some sort?
*I get a yucky feeling about force, and the ability to get ping ponged around the battlefield, but I'm ready to give it a shot
*I like all the different energy types, how would you like us to mark our various defenses to them?
*Correct me if I have misinterpreted, but the spellcasting and to hit system puts a disproportionate burden on classes that rely on having higher level spell slots as their features. Wizards in particular being notable as not having a ton of features outside their slots, favoring classes with external abilities, such as bardic performance, inquisitors bane, favored enemy, etc. A level one Barbarian is not any worse a spell caster than a level one wizard, excepting one or two spell slots, which seem to be less overall relevant, but they keep the ability to rage. I know this may be a lot of work, but have you considered trying to adapt the words of power optional magic system to this campaign instead? It might have an effect closer to what you are looking for.
*How many traits? Are drawbacks allowed?
*What about Variant Multiclass?
*Favored Class Bonus? Extra skill points seem quite valuable.
*Would you mind putting a sample character for us to see? (I know you put one in the other thread, this is mostly for those who weren't in that one.)
I'm really looking forward to applying for this! I hope to get a character sheet up as soon as I can. I'm sorry if any of these questions came across as confrontational, that was not my intention in the slightest!
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See, I knew I'd get yelled at for forgetting something. :)
To answer questions,
-Racial Ability Adjustments
Physical scores remain the same.
Intelligence can be applied to Intelligence or Creativity.
Wisdom can be applied to Awareness or Aura.
Charisma can be applied to Charisma or Willpower.
-Half-elf/half-dwarf
These aren't really races of their own, but the mechanics can be used. IC would see these as humans with unusually pronounced traits of their heritage, usually from their ancestors being mainly either elf or dwarf with few ancestors of the other, nor human.
-Skills
This is a wider level range, 1-100, instead of 1-20. Fewer skill points per level, but lots more levels. It is a valid point that rogues are supposed to be particularly skillful. I'll think on that tonight.
-BAB
Free action to activate, but still requires being able to take actions.
-HP leveling
You do not gain HP from leveling, but you can select the toughness feat multiple times (the feat needs rewriting now that I think of it. Toughness: Increase HP per benchmark by an amount equal to Power, minimum 3.)
-Force
It takes powerful moves to accomplish. A normal human will need to take like 10-20 damage to be affected. If it gets out of hand or bothersome, it can be removed/reworked.
It is supposed to represent all those cases in stories when a character gets knocked back into a wall or something, or getting hit by a giant, which doesn't make sense for you to not get moved back, and things like telekinesis can use it in a unified way, especially if someone wants to play Mass Effect with the system.
-Damage Types
The defenses against dmg types are not any different than before.
I talk about the physical dmg types in the same way as energy types, especially with resistance, but they have always functioned the same way in the d20 rules, it was just a difference in talking about them, the terminology, probably because in the core game any source of resistance to a physical dmg type was usually resistance to all physical dmg types (Undead being the prominent exception). Still seems silly to me to use different terminology for it. So I just unified the terminology.
-Slots
I'm avoiding Words of Power since those aren't ogl. I want to publish this someday, so I'm sticking with ogl and custom content in the long run. I might rework my own version someday, but that's close to ready.
I realize a shift in terminology might help here, so a spell slot holds a number of SpellPoints equal to the caster's HP benchmark per SL of the slot, which can be used to power a spell instead of HP.
A 1st SL slot for an average joe mage has 10 SP, and thus can spend 10 SP on their spell for that slot, without spending any HP. That's a big advantage there. The barbarian will want to minimize the HP spent on casting spells, especially when confronted with combat, while a wizard/sorcerer will want to use as much of the SP as they can because any left over unused in a slot are essentially lost.
I.E. Magic Missile, avg joe mage lvl 1, can cast magic missile with 10 SP, so 3 for the base cost, and 7 spent on range, for a 170' reach. The barbarian would need to be extra careful to judge how far the target is because reaching 170' costs more than double the HP of reaching 100' and spending 10 HP on the spell is 10 HP not spent on absorbing an attack, and also brings the barbarian really close to that first -1 to all checks, no small consideration there.
It is also why I'm going with PF classes, because the PF casters have more stuff beyond mere slots, though I still think the slots are a big advantage over martials. Especially at higher SL. A 2nd lvl spell has a base cost of 6, and increasing the CL of a main effect, such as damage costs 4. That adds up quickly.
Anyone trying to cast high level magic without a slot is either desperate, or doesn't expect to be in danger for a while.
-Character Creation
I plan on working through building a character each step of the way, with me building an example character.
This allows me to work with players more deeply on who their characters are, what they have and know, their background, etc.
It also catches things that might be missed or forgotten.
This Sunday till the following Sunday, each night I'll post a step in building the example character.
Some notes though, characters are starting at lvl 6. Lvls 1-5 are basically childhood/adolescent years. Lvl 6 is when a character reaches adulthood and journyman status of whatever profession they studied. That is also when Power reaches 1 for living creatures.
Ability scores are a cross between point buy and rolled. Basically you get a set of points, but where those points go is through a random card draw, similar to the dnd three dragon ante generation system (Dragon magazine #346).
PDF on using 3DA for generating characters.
I obviously needed to customize the process though.
So, for the moment, character concepts and questions.
I'm not in a hurry, so if some would like to watch us work through creating characters before deciding whether to play, that's okay.
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Ah, finally remembered what I was forgetting that bothered me all day.
Size categories are purely relative. For example, a small creature gets a +4 to hide from a medium creature but not from other small creatures. Damage dice grow or shrink per size category of difference. But otherwise this mainly means characters are built as medium creatures with no size modifiers at all regardless of their size, then when creatures of different sizes interact, then the size modifiers come into play for that interaction.
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I’m traveling atm. The rules are a lot to take in, and I’ll need time to understand. As for a character concept, would this work:
Character: First born son of a Dwarven-King out of three. A society ruled by the perception of honor, he was being groomed for rulership. As part of this he was given control of a colony to manage, as a test-run to managing an entire kingdom. The safety and security given being a direct reflection of the amount of trust given to a prince. For this prince, the area was supposed to be safe, without any serious competition. The colony was to be under friendly human lands, ripe for trade agreements to be struck and deals to be made. In managing the colony, he did abit too well, for his was murdered while touring newly dug mines. Officially the investigation said that the prince and his royal guard were killed by abberations. In truth, his location and schedule were leaked to the enemy by a court faction which had interests in a different son succeeding to the throne.
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Would something along those lines work? And if so, how much creative license would I have in fleshing out the kingdom he came from?
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You have a fair bit of freedom in fleshing out the details.
That said, the game starts with the events that kill you, as all the PCs are taking a trip across a sea. So no need to explain your death.
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I see, I see... I don't quite follow but I'm happy to see that playing a caster is still good :D
However I'd like a fix to the skill ranks per level so the rogues and the likes aren't useless
As for the fluff/lore... Do our character remember their former lives or are clueless?
Are cities or towns in the abyss? It may be a weird question but There are cities in the Pathfinder Abyss o.o
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I'm not going to lie, I've always hated that the Abyss had cities. I get that their alignment is closer to Evil/Chaotic, instead of the Chaotic/Evil, but I never really saw demons as the type to do that. Devils on the other hand...
A few more questions:
How do spontaneous casters differ from prepared using this system? The flexibility of a prepared caster seems... not present here, which is fine, but it feels like arcanist casting for the most part.
Are spell lists not really a thing?
Character backstory, lets see. I'd like to know Grumbaki's dwarven king. But what are we taking the trip across the sea to do? That feels somewhat limiting considering the grandeous scale of this adventure. But I can make it work.
The world had been made anew once in the past. This is known. She designed the known worlds in her image. This too is known. It stands to reason that this could happen again, given the right circumstances. And who would be fit to mold this new something, deliver it from the silence of nothingness? Only King [Grumbaki], the one true Dwarven lord is even worthy of consideration. This humble servant will serve him well, teach him, guard him, lay down their very soul for him, should it prove necessary, and pave the way for his great ascension. He may not know it yet, for none of the 9 have told him, but we have decided that he is destined for greatness beyond that of any dwarf before, whether we must punch a hole in this universe for our lord to travel to a place to make his own, or we need to tear this cosmology to the ground, one plane at a time. The abyss seems as good a place as any to start on either account.
Too much?
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My take on alignment is informed by my studies in psychology. James Jacobs leans quite a bit in the chaotic direction, though thankfully not evil. Would you think it odd for a bunch of people like him to avoid forming societies and cities?
Truthfully, chaotic people tend to act more as the glue holding society together, while lawful people tend to make society stable and efficient, avoiding things like riots, failed logistics, etc.
Additionally, this Abyss is filled with bad guys but not really aligned towards chaos. I call it the Abyss, because it is quite literally a bottomless canyon. And consider the powerful seek command of minions. Get enough minions, especially if they have minions of their own, and you get a city.
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Ah see, my take on alignment comes from my sociology major, where I see basically everyone as being lawful or neutral. We don't like truly chaotic individuals in our society, it messes things up.
But I'm not here to debate about alignment, we could be here all day if we did! What were your thoughts on both my character backstory, and the questions I had?
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Oh I'd love a discussion on alignment, at another time and place. Suffice it to say that consider "lawful" and "chaotic" to be misleading names.
The reasons for crossing the sea I leave to the players, leaving it open gives lots more room for character concepts.
The differences between spontaneous and prepared casting are largely in the classless system I'm building, hence my not really going into it.
A prepared caster in this game, casts the spells ahead of time into the slots, and then unleashes the spells later. This means they aren't rushed in casting and can thus "take 10" on the spellcraft check, and without the penalties accrued during the day, but that also means choosing ahead of time many of the choices made, like how many points to put towards range vs duration, number of targets, etc.
But, a Wizard casting a spell with HP rather than slots must cast in the moment and when casting this way, is rather like the arcanist.
Spontaneous casting, like a sorcerer, uses a different technique with two kinds of slots. Some slots hold power, and others hold patterns. A sorcerer can put a spell into a pattern slot and cast it using any power slot high enough, and do so however often desired as long as power slots are available. But the pattern slots are difficult to change and basically need to be crafted from scratch. Note, a caster can not power a spell not placed in a pattern slot with a power slot, and likewise, a caster can't cast a spell in a pattern slot using HP. Spontaneous casting techniques however, retain a bit of flexibility and the caster can make some choices at the time of use, such as choosing more range or more duration or other choices about simply paying more SP, though when spells say they can be used in multiple ways, such as creating a wall vs a dome, or a protection from [something] spell, then that is chosen when put into the pattern slot and can't be changed.
When not using slots, every caster is like arcanists, but when using slots, they are like wizards or sorcerers.
When not using slots, spells are recorded in some way, or memorized via the spell mastery feat. Characters can "know" any number of spells in this way, which is known as their "spellbook," even if it isn't actually a book.
Casting a spell without slots needs to either have access to the spellbook, or have the spell memorized.
Thus, slotless casting is more accessible and flexible, but takes more to perform, while using slots are easier to use in emergencies and battle but at the expense of flexibility.
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Wasn't supposed to post yet. I just ran out of time and will be back to continue.
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Class spell lists dictate,
A) the sort of spells a character is presumed to figure out in little downtime moments and thus generally selectable at level up.
B) the sort of spells a character is most familiar with and able to figure out how to use magic items that use those spells.
Spells can be learned from off the class list, but require finding them or explicitly researching them in-game. Generally will be more difficult DCs to learn though.
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The bg seems okay as long as you the player realize he'll never achieve that ultimate goal.
Also, I do tend to have greater integration of kingdoms and cultures. Some but very few nations/cultures will be truly mono-racial. Nations that are a large majority of a single race are more common, and some may even be divided socially by race, but finding a nation that excludes other races is rare and usually geographically isolated.
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To clarify, the goal of becoming a god capable of creating a new universe is unattainable. That'd require rivalling the Allmother in power, and she's a Divine Rank 36. Becoming a demigod and carving out an underdark or something like is attainable but beyond the scope of the campaign.
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So... How about becoming a legendary archivar? We all know that high level wizards are almost gods mechanically, it will be interesting to see how that turns out in your system.
More mechanical questions:
How Metamagic works if it does exist? You pay more SP or burn extra slots? Or something completely different?
Is anything similar to 5e or Pf2e cantrips? A reliable yet weak source of damage for casters, i really hate to have my sorcerer/wizard/Mage/whatever attempt aim a crossbow... It feels terribly mundane x.x
Maneuvers are send work as in PF? Trip, shove dirty trick and the other ones.
How would you handle summonings? A difficult question I know, the different mechanics means that any monster taken from the bestiary will need at least some work and that sounds Hella annoying to do on the annoying x.x
So... Would you allow a summoner? Or that's just too much at the moment?
Back on spellcasting, are spellbooks necessary or everyone memorizes their Spells? Do spontaneous casters have a limit on how many spell they can know? With so much leveling up I think they will get a lot of Spells or perhaps like HP They need to take a feat for that?
Also, we start as spirits that look exactly like we did in life or Slightly different? And let say we level up using a bunch of demon souls, that would make our character more demoniac? Like in the old digimon games were your mons evolve depending on what kind of exp they gained from let's say dragon's roar or nightmare soldiers..? One gives you a draconic evolution and the other a nightmarish one? O.o
Or we just grow stronger and turn into angel or demons depending on ourselves and no outside influence?
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A legendary archiver? A high level wizard I'm guessing, which is achievable, and in fact 10-12th level spells are available again, minus the mantling a god spell. That said, if this continues as long as say an AP, you'll end up mid-level characters. It'd take two or three AP length campaigns to get near equal to standard pf1/3.x lvl 20 equivalent. But it is achievable.
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Metamagic is discussed in the magic section OP. Some simply require a higher DC to cast, others increase cost as well.
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Everyone needs spellbooks, but as there is a feat to master spells to not need a spellbook for them, anyone can do that.
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Spontaneous casting is purely in regards to slots, and requires some spells be put into "pattern slots" which is the sorcerer's spells known list. A spontaneous caster can only use slots to cast spells they have in pattern slots.
Thus, using slots is basically like 3.x/pf1, but you have more options available in spending HP.
This includes the fact that some classes can spend cantrips endlessly. Though, narratively the cost is merely cheap rather than non-existant.
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You gain lots of basic levels which give you skills, feats, etc, based on xp. But you only gain class levels by gaining Power, which as spirits can only be gained by collecting from others. (only living things can gain Power through leveling, and 100 levels woukd only reach power 5)
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As spirits, you like your mental image of yourself at first. Your image will drift based on your personality and long-time emotional state. Being hateful all the rime will make you ugly and demonic, being evil and selfish will make you devilish. Etc.
Soul energy is neutral regardless of who you take it from.
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There are two kinds of summoning, contract summoning and spritecraft summoning.
Contract summoning forms a bond with a spirit, then you obtain a body either by magically creating, or making a golem, or taking a dead body, then you link the spirit into the body where it can act for you. The standard summon spells from the core books are the "create a magical body" option hence their short duration. However, spirits have minds and desires of their own. Thus most contract summoning binds animal spirits, which are easier to deal with and control/train, but being animals, are limited in what you can ask of them. That said, as your power grows you can make more powerful versiins of the spirit's body for them to inhabit. Most dire animals are actually just augmented summons.
Spritecraft summoning is basically the same, except instead of a spirit, you craft a sprite which is like a video game AI and only as good as you program it to be, which is too say simplistic, but it is easier to make it do specific tasks and you don't need to find a spirit and convince it to be bound. Just like with contract summoning, you need to provide a body for the sprite.
This is actually the basis for undead. Dead bodies are naturally accepting of control and last a long time, but you need negative energy to make them move around and keep a stable link with the spirit or sprite. Spirits find it extremely uncomfortable in many cases, hence zombies being the way they are. Intelligent undead are just smarter, even sentient, spirits.
If you want to summon, you'll need a spirit or sprite to bind. Sprites require a physical object to be created within, which you can use as often as desired. Spirits can not be summoned from the same plane they exist on, but simply require your bond instead of a focus. Spirits are like companions or hirelings though.
I'm not particularly familiar with the summoner class, so if that is your interest I'd need to look more closely at what it does.
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Race: Dwarf (Expired Prince)
Class: Swashbuckler
Noble Fencer
Inspired Blade (Rapiers replaced with one handed picks)
Will get better background up soon
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Step one: Character Concept
This is not a race/class combo. In fact, class, if you even select one, should be chosen based on what best represents the character, not as the base of that character. Despite using rules, this is still a narrative driven game, and I don't mean the narrative drives plot and pace, no, but rather that everyone is supposed to be making choices based on what is narratively known as opposed to simply looking for a mechanical solution. Find an in world solution, then represent that with the mechanics. That is what I mean by narrative driven.
This applies to me as well, and enemies are not computer AI mooks that randomly appear, act stupid, then die. No, all enemies act as if they are people with a goal, even if they are just a bandit looking to steal from passersby. So enemies will try to run, survive, save their friends, serve their boss, take revenge, show mercy, or whatever else may fit their personality and reasons for acting.
This also means that you might encounter things best left alone rather than fought.
This also means that character creation starts with narrative questions and the randomized elements of character generation.
I will be making an example and using the ooc and b tags to make the example blue and bold.
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The randomized element here is ability scores and traits that can, but don't have to, imply things about the character. The goal here is to have randomness while also having a sort of control so that everyone has a similar point buy style equivalence, and at the same time give inspiration to flesh out a character's... well, their character.
Thus, using dice in a tarot like fashion to say things about the character and also spread a set of points around.
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Now, I will be using these completely like generating a totally random character, but some early steps can be chosen to fit the character concept you want to go with.
The first dice rolls are Focus. These rolls tells us the character's focus.
Roll 3d6 (alpha). The lower it is, the more the character favors emotion and action over logic and contemplation.
Roll another 3d6 (beta). The lower the score, the more the character is grounded in what is tangible, obvious, and perceived with eyes and ears, as opposed to abstract or intuitive.
Together these two scores will favor the spread of ability scores (i.e. being even across the board, or having a group like the body scores being higher than others).
You can choose the results of these two rolls if you desire.
These two rolls act like grid coordinates on a square with each corner being one of the ability score groups, body, mind, social, and soul.
Body is the lower left is the focus of a character when both rolls are really low, opposite that in the top right corner is soul for when both rolls were high. In the top left when beta is high and alpha is low, is the social group, and opposite that is the mental group.
A character gets a number of big tokens, (24 for normal characters, and 32 for elite characters such as the PCs and Rorin), evenly divided between each group ( I like to use a card for each group with one of the four elements on it, fire for soul, water for social, air for mental, and earth for body).
If beta/alpha roll is 4-6 or 15-17, then 1 token will be shifted from one pair of cards to the other. If the roll is 3 or 18, then 2 tokens will be moved.
Next, for each group (body, mind, social, soul):
-Roll 2d4 and discard the highest. "Draw" that many "cards" and remove twice that many large tokens. For each of the remaining large tokens, place a small token on each ability score in that group.
-For each double token, you'll "draw a card." Roll 1d6, reroll sixes, to get the suit, and then roll another d6 for the set, and a d2 for positive or negative. The suits are Fire (energy), Air (thought), Earth (material), Water (emotion), and Ether (space). The sets are Stability, Flexibility, Connection, Destruction, Motion, and Structure.
The set determines the key ability, and the suit determines the distribution.
Stability and structure indicate that Constitution/Intelligence/Communication/Willpower is the primary stat.
Primary stat gets 6 (Ether) or 4 (anything else) small tokens.
If Earth/Air suit, Strength/Awareness/Charisma/Aura gets 2 tokens
If Water suit, If social, empathy gets 2 tokens, else the other two suits get 1 token
If Fire suit, Dexterity/Creativity/Energy, if social 1 token the other two stats
Flexibility and motion indicate that Dexterity/Creativity/Charisma/Energy is the primary stat.
Primary stat gets 6 (Fire) or 4 (anything else) small tokens.
If Water/Air suit, Strength/Awareness/Empathy/Aura gets 2 tokens
If Earth suit, the other two suits get 1 token
If Ether suit, Constitution/Intelligence/Communication/Willpower
Connection and destruction indicate that Strength/Awareness/Empathy/Aura is the primary stat.
Primary stat gets 6 (Air) or 4 (anything else) small tokens.
If Earth suit, Constitution/Intelligence/Communication/Willpower gets 2 tokens
If Water/Ether suit, the other two suits get 1 token
If Fire suit, Dexterity/Creativity/Charisma/Energy
Now that all the stats have minor tokens, each minor token is worth 3 point buy points. If a stat has extra points, collect all the extra points and place them as desired, or roll a dice to select a stat to spend points up to the next score, and repeat until all points are spent. As a reminder, the point buy costs of a stat is 1 plus the rank for that score.
score cost total
1 ,1 , 1
2 ,1 , 2
3 ,1 , 3
4 ,1 , 4
5 ,2 , 6
6 ,2 , 8
7 ,2 , 10
8 ,2 , 12
9 ,3 , 15
10 ,3 , 18
11 ,3 , 21
12 ,3 , 24
13 ,4 , 28
14 ,4 , 32
15 ,4 , 36
16 ,4 , 40
...
Things to think about and consider how they impact your character.
Family
Who were your parents and siblings?
What were your parents professions and what did you learn from that?
Why leave?
Home
What kind of climate and geography was it? What kind of knowledge, skills, or experience was normal or even required there?
Had you ever seen the sea before this trip? What about snow, mountains, or marshes?
Childhood
What was your childhood like and what did it teach you? Did you get an education?
Early life
What kind of significant events happened to you? How did that affect your beliefs, views, or the choices you make?
Relationships
What kind of contacts have you made? Any lovers? How about enemies, mentors, allies, pupils?
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Holy cow, typing takes way too long. Whew. :)
Let me know of any unclear spots, and how I can improve it.
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I'll be honest, all of these rules make my head spin. From skills, to stats, there are so many categories and so many numbers. I've read the character creation twice now and it's just not clicking for me.
I'm sorry, but I don't think that I'll be a good tester for this system. I'm going to bow out, but I wish you the best with this and know that I have admiration for the amount of work you've put into this.
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Well, I'm trying to make something like the three dragon ante chargen, but it seems I need to work on it before using it.
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Well, since no one else has anything to say on it right now, and I'm not going to halt everything for a week trying to rework it, just roll 4d6 drop lowest, and give a quick character summery.
Aside from generating scores, I put in some inspiring questions in the above you may consider, but that is all they are, inspiring questions, so feel free to just skip that post I guess.
Right now, character concept and ability scores.
Let's see if my error scared everyone to four winds or not.
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I'll admit, I'm not sure why the previous section seems so complicated. It is a little bit more complex because I couldn't exactly post 84 cards and have players draw them, but in any case, I hope this next section shows just how simple this can be.
Though I figure not many, if anyone, will actually read this far, I'm posting it for reference and for the off chance someone actually still wants to see what I'm doing with the system.
This segment is about feats and skills, so simple I can do them both in one post.
Now, starting characters start at level 6. Levels 1-5 is like one's childhood years. Level 6-17 is journeyman status, for folks who know what they are doing well enough to do the job but not yet an actual master of it, thus level 6 is the normal starting level.
Feats
You get a feat every three levels, so 3, 6, 9, 12,..., plus one for each point of power you have. This means starting characters get three (humans get an extra one for their racial ability.).
Given that we are using the pathfinder base rules, most of the feats that have level requirements, treat power as character level for the purpose of meeting requirements. Also, Spell Mastery simply requires being trained in spellcraft and allows the casting of those spells straight from memory, or to prepare/craft slots of those spells from memory.
Skills
Every level, a character selects 3+int skills to improve. Each of those skills get one skillpoint that level. The first skillpoint raises a skill's bonus to 1, and makes the character count as trained in that skill. The character gets the next +1 skill bonus after 2 more skillpoints, as each +1 to the skill bonus costs as many skillpoints as the bonus will become. Thus 1 skillpoint is a +1 skill, 3 total skillpoints is a +2, 6 skillpoints is a +3, etc.
Specializations are improved exactly the same as base skills, starting at +1 for 1 skillpoint.
Skills have a maximum bonus equal to 3+power. Specializations have a maximum bonus half that of the current bonus of the skill they are a specialization of, rounded down. Thus if Perception is +7, then Perception (Search) maxes out at +3.
Shortcut
Here is a quick shortcut that also works for 3.x/pf1 when creating characters above level 1. Select a number of skills equal to the skillpoints you get every level and consider those skills as having maximum skillpoints, then you can select a number of those skills and instead choose twice as many at half the maximum skillpoints, some of which can be chosen to be twice as many at 1/4 maximum skillpoints, etc until you are selecting skills to put one skillpoint into. This makes it a bit quicker and easier to place all your skillpoints and making it easier to make sure your highest priority skills are taken care of.
Admittedly, you did lose me with trying to figure out some of the rules concepts given. :(
That being said, you might want to try making up your own Stat-Gen card-based ruleset since I doubt that WOTC's Three-Dragon Ante could be considered as being OGL though.
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That is basically what I did.
I had hoped that referring to the existing 3da set would add helpful context, particularly given that it is established and presumably written more clearly than what I can achieve.
Drawing cards and moving tokens might be similarities between them, but that alone is hardly enough to be infringement of any sort. That's like saying "roll dice and add modifiers then compare to a target value" is infringement. Custom cards and positions, and how the tokens move about are details that differ. Well normally anyway. I figured trying to make a custom card list was too much for the limited use in this situation.
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The real question is what parts are confusing. Aside from the generation of ability scores, this is simplified version of what is normally done in chargen.