Sarakos
2010-12-24, 11:37 PM
I'm trying to create a low magic setting with a kind of Dark Ages Britain feel. I had first attempted this with 3.5 and failed miserably and decided to try again now that our group is using Pathfinder and found it a great deal easier.
As far as low magic goes, think of Conan the Barbarian. That's what I'm aiming for, magic is somewhat common but rare enough to be treated with awe and in many cases with suspicion and fear. Below is what I've come up with so far and I'd like some feedback.
I have both Core book and the APG, I even have the Magus and words of Power test guide and would allow a player who would really like to try them out but that would be a bit of a stretch to allow and modify for this setting. Especially since the final version isn't yet out.
I'd also allow Equipment options and enchantments from various 3.5 sources such as Arms and Equipment guide since I've always been a big fan of large weapon and enchantment selection. Honestly i find the Pathfinder enchantments a little lackluster (APG has some interesting stuff but not as coll as some stuff you can find in the 3.5 books) these will mostly be approved on a case by case basis though id most likely ok anything that isn't like an item that grants continuous wishes :smallamused:
Races:
Races are pretty much all human. I decided against making various cultures represent the races and came up with a different idea that i dubbed the trait system (I came up with this before I got my hands on the APG and its own traits, possible renaming in order)
Since everyone is human, they all get a +2 to a stat of their choice, as an alternate for the more MAD classes like Paladin and Monk i would allow someone to pick two DIFFERENT stats to put a +2 in and i would roll a d4 to randomly determine which of the four remaining stats gets the -2 penalty
As far as my trait system goes, i noticed that each race gets about 3-4 abilities unique to its race (i.e. Human bonus feat, gnome bonus on craft skills, elf bonus to perception, etc.) I would compile all these traits into a list and allow a person to pick any three they want but they cant pick the same trait more than once (no human bonus feat for all the trait slots).
I'm pretty sure every player would go for the human bonus feat for one of their traits so I may just grant it as a freebie and allow the players to pick any 3 other traits. I'll also edit Weapon familiarity to be for any two weapons of their choice and possibly have it grant +1 to attack and damage at level one and scale to a +2 at level 10 to give some incentive to take the trait. Is that too powerful or too weak?
Classes:
Melee classes such as rogue fighter and monk will advance normally, full casters such as Sorcerer's and wizards would be limited to advancing caster levels half as quickly as normal. This means by level 20 Wizards, Sorcs, Clerics, and Druids are casting fifth level spells. Not extraordinarily powerful but of a high enough level to cast some of their better spells. All classes may also get a bonus 2+ Int mod of skills to play with so skills that aren't normally taken, such as craft might be used
I'm a bit stumped as to what to do with partial casters like Paladins, Rangers, and particularly bards. I'm sure i could adapt the Complete Warrior variant from 3.5 for Ranger and Paladin if i had to but I really don't know what to do with bards. Its only fair to reduce their casting as well but i feel like that's gimping the class far too much and they lose out on a lot of the fun and flavorful abilities that make them bards in the first place
Feats:
Nothing major here outside of many of the usual adjustments many others seem to play with. Roll TWF into one feat to come online as all the pre-reqs are met. Get rid of weapon finnese and let any normally finessable weapon be used with either strength or dex to hit at the players discretion.
Lastly I might make adjustments to the Master Craftsman feat. In its current incarnation (correct me if I'm wrong as I very well could be in this case) allows a mundane player to craft magical items using their craft skill in place of their caster level but they still have to spend a feat slot on Craft Magic Arms and Armor if thats what they want to make. I'd change this so that Master Craftsman functions as though they took the required item creation feat.
Equipment:
In this case the chart in Arms and Equipment Guide that says what kind of weapons and armor were common during certain periods (Stone age, Bronze age, Dark age, etc.)would come in heavy use for determining what gear my players can normally access or buy in a town. Because in a Dark Ages setting the players wouldn't normally have access to anything heavier than Medium armor I'll rule that they add half their character level to AC
In addition I would (with the original creators permission) use some of the homebrew rules for mundane weapons that he came up with here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180831)
I am unsure how to handle magic items and PrCs (allowing only the Pathfinder PrCs in the Core and APG books)
For Deities I will probably convert the Asgardian Pantheon in the 3.5 Deities and Demigods to Pathfinder, could use some help with finding or creating a representation of the Christian God though.
As far as low magic goes, think of Conan the Barbarian. That's what I'm aiming for, magic is somewhat common but rare enough to be treated with awe and in many cases with suspicion and fear. Below is what I've come up with so far and I'd like some feedback.
I have both Core book and the APG, I even have the Magus and words of Power test guide and would allow a player who would really like to try them out but that would be a bit of a stretch to allow and modify for this setting. Especially since the final version isn't yet out.
I'd also allow Equipment options and enchantments from various 3.5 sources such as Arms and Equipment guide since I've always been a big fan of large weapon and enchantment selection. Honestly i find the Pathfinder enchantments a little lackluster (APG has some interesting stuff but not as coll as some stuff you can find in the 3.5 books) these will mostly be approved on a case by case basis though id most likely ok anything that isn't like an item that grants continuous wishes :smallamused:
Races:
Races are pretty much all human. I decided against making various cultures represent the races and came up with a different idea that i dubbed the trait system (I came up with this before I got my hands on the APG and its own traits, possible renaming in order)
Since everyone is human, they all get a +2 to a stat of their choice, as an alternate for the more MAD classes like Paladin and Monk i would allow someone to pick two DIFFERENT stats to put a +2 in and i would roll a d4 to randomly determine which of the four remaining stats gets the -2 penalty
As far as my trait system goes, i noticed that each race gets about 3-4 abilities unique to its race (i.e. Human bonus feat, gnome bonus on craft skills, elf bonus to perception, etc.) I would compile all these traits into a list and allow a person to pick any three they want but they cant pick the same trait more than once (no human bonus feat for all the trait slots).
I'm pretty sure every player would go for the human bonus feat for one of their traits so I may just grant it as a freebie and allow the players to pick any 3 other traits. I'll also edit Weapon familiarity to be for any two weapons of their choice and possibly have it grant +1 to attack and damage at level one and scale to a +2 at level 10 to give some incentive to take the trait. Is that too powerful or too weak?
Classes:
Melee classes such as rogue fighter and monk will advance normally, full casters such as Sorcerer's and wizards would be limited to advancing caster levels half as quickly as normal. This means by level 20 Wizards, Sorcs, Clerics, and Druids are casting fifth level spells. Not extraordinarily powerful but of a high enough level to cast some of their better spells. All classes may also get a bonus 2+ Int mod of skills to play with so skills that aren't normally taken, such as craft might be used
I'm a bit stumped as to what to do with partial casters like Paladins, Rangers, and particularly bards. I'm sure i could adapt the Complete Warrior variant from 3.5 for Ranger and Paladin if i had to but I really don't know what to do with bards. Its only fair to reduce their casting as well but i feel like that's gimping the class far too much and they lose out on a lot of the fun and flavorful abilities that make them bards in the first place
Feats:
Nothing major here outside of many of the usual adjustments many others seem to play with. Roll TWF into one feat to come online as all the pre-reqs are met. Get rid of weapon finnese and let any normally finessable weapon be used with either strength or dex to hit at the players discretion.
Lastly I might make adjustments to the Master Craftsman feat. In its current incarnation (correct me if I'm wrong as I very well could be in this case) allows a mundane player to craft magical items using their craft skill in place of their caster level but they still have to spend a feat slot on Craft Magic Arms and Armor if thats what they want to make. I'd change this so that Master Craftsman functions as though they took the required item creation feat.
Equipment:
In this case the chart in Arms and Equipment Guide that says what kind of weapons and armor were common during certain periods (Stone age, Bronze age, Dark age, etc.)would come in heavy use for determining what gear my players can normally access or buy in a town. Because in a Dark Ages setting the players wouldn't normally have access to anything heavier than Medium armor I'll rule that they add half their character level to AC
In addition I would (with the original creators permission) use some of the homebrew rules for mundane weapons that he came up with here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180831)
I am unsure how to handle magic items and PrCs (allowing only the Pathfinder PrCs in the Core and APG books)
For Deities I will probably convert the Asgardian Pantheon in the 3.5 Deities and Demigods to Pathfinder, could use some help with finding or creating a representation of the Christian God though.