Zerg Cookie
2011-07-18, 05:51 AM
Me and a friend from school are writing a Pathfinder campaign to run next year.
The world in which the campaign takes place is a world torn apart by an arcane war blah blah blah, quite classic.
Now the thing is, we don't want the spellcasters to be too much ahead of the rest of the group in combat, as is the case without homebrewing things in to boost martial classes.
I had an idea for a battlefield stat called "Reality".
Flavor-wise, you draw the power of reality itself and channel it into your abilities.
Mechanics-wise, the battlefield itself (Or parts of it individually in case the battlefield is very big) has a number of "Reality points" that do not belong to any one character. Said points are consumed during the course of a battle in order to boost the characters (PCs and NPCs alike).
You are allowed to consume as many points as you wish*, but doing so provokes a will save which is harder the more points you try consuming. In case you fail your will save, you suffer some backlash effect depending on how badly you failed your save, the amount of reality points you tried to consume, and the ability you tried to use*.
The use of reality points is done through feats, and I might write a class which focuses on that (Probably inspired by the monk). For example:
Reality Strike[General]
Prerequisites
Int 13, base attack bonus +6
Benefit
Add +1 to your attack roll for each reality point channeled into a single attack.
Reality Consumption DC: 10 + 3 per point
Special
A fighter may select Reality Strike as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Consuming reality is a free action.
In case there are not enough reality points on the part of the battlefield the character trying to consume is, the character fails the save automatically with increased backlash.
The reality stat is hidden and so are the will save rolls.
As a side-effect, consuming reality might provoke a reaction from the battlefield itself.
*Will probably get changed
Now here's the thing. I'm looking for general constructive criticism, and in case someone feels like writing some feats with this mechanic, I'd appriciate any help.
Edit: Before anyone says that this thing can't balance real spellcasting, let me say that it's not the only additional thing martials do in our world.
The world in which the campaign takes place is a world torn apart by an arcane war blah blah blah, quite classic.
Now the thing is, we don't want the spellcasters to be too much ahead of the rest of the group in combat, as is the case without homebrewing things in to boost martial classes.
I had an idea for a battlefield stat called "Reality".
Flavor-wise, you draw the power of reality itself and channel it into your abilities.
Mechanics-wise, the battlefield itself (Or parts of it individually in case the battlefield is very big) has a number of "Reality points" that do not belong to any one character. Said points are consumed during the course of a battle in order to boost the characters (PCs and NPCs alike).
You are allowed to consume as many points as you wish*, but doing so provokes a will save which is harder the more points you try consuming. In case you fail your will save, you suffer some backlash effect depending on how badly you failed your save, the amount of reality points you tried to consume, and the ability you tried to use*.
The use of reality points is done through feats, and I might write a class which focuses on that (Probably inspired by the monk). For example:
Reality Strike[General]
Prerequisites
Int 13, base attack bonus +6
Benefit
Add +1 to your attack roll for each reality point channeled into a single attack.
Reality Consumption DC: 10 + 3 per point
Special
A fighter may select Reality Strike as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Consuming reality is a free action.
In case there are not enough reality points on the part of the battlefield the character trying to consume is, the character fails the save automatically with increased backlash.
The reality stat is hidden and so are the will save rolls.
As a side-effect, consuming reality might provoke a reaction from the battlefield itself.
*Will probably get changed
Now here's the thing. I'm looking for general constructive criticism, and in case someone feels like writing some feats with this mechanic, I'd appriciate any help.
Edit: Before anyone says that this thing can't balance real spellcasting, let me say that it's not the only additional thing martials do in our world.