Setting a PF game in Skyrim

[Yora]

In my case, more pseudo-skyrim with the serial numbers filed off, but something with similar culture, inhabitants, environment, and creatures.

Races:
- Humans as Imperials, Nord, Redguard, and maybe Bretons.
- Half-elves as Bretons?
- Elves as Altmer, Bosmer, and Dunmer.
- Half-Orcs as Orsimer.
- Catfolk as Kajiit.

With Argonians I have no clue. Lizardfolk or Serpentfolk could work, but they seem far too powerful.

Classes:
- Barbarian
- Bard
- Fighter
- Inquisitor
- Ranger (Skirmisher and Trapper archetypes)
- Rogue
- Sorcerer
- Oracle

I think having only spontaneous spellcasters fits better, even though in Elder Scrolls games, you learn new spells from books.

The Thalmor Justiciars and the Vigilants of Stendarr would also make good Inquisitors, I think.

Monsters:
- Wight (template) for Draugr. The scandinavian draugr is actually the original wight.
- Morlock for Falmer, of course.
- Dragons only up to the Ancient or even Old age category, as Skyrim dragons don't seem to become super-huge and all powerful.
- Ankheg for Chaurus. Because that's exactly what a Chaurus is!
- Stone Giant for giants.
- Dire Rat for skeevers.
- Green Hag for hagravens.
- Troll should work just as it is.
- Advanced 8 HD Kodama as spriggans. It's a perfect match!

Any ideas for archetypes and unusual feats and spells to look into?

[kabreras]

I think mage would fit better than sorcerer, you "memorize" 2 spells to cast them, you learn spells from books.

Now you cant have a perfect match on everything but that look the closest for me

[Certified]

Wouldn't it be more in the essence of the Elder Scrolls to not have class restrictions. Well except maybe Gunslinger since they don't really exist in the setting. Even Ninja works for members of the Dark Brotherhood.

[jedipilot24]

Here's two different ideas for handling the Voice and the Dovahkiin.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224359

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228784

[Dsurion]

Here's two different ideas for handling the Voice and the Dovahkiin.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224359

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228784I attempted to expand on morph-bark's version, though whether I succeeded or not is up to you.

http://bardmoon.blogspot.com/2012/09/using-thuum-in-d-35.html

[Edenbeast]

I would give more options with the classes. In skyrim you're pretty much free to do whatever you want. There's alot of books in skyrim and like you said you learn new spells by getting the tomes, so wizard and magus are just as suitable as any of the spontaneous classes. The cleric is a priest of one of the divines (or one of the daedric princes). There's an alchemy skill tree, so why would you leave alchemist out?

Bretons, based on their background of being descendant of the aldmer and nedic people, are indeed pretty much half-elves.

Argonians I kind of imagined to be like Kobolds, but these are kind of weak. The Nagaji could work: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/uncommon-races/arg-nagaji
Or you can create or adjust a race using the race building rules.

[Slipperychicken]

Spell Tomes = Consumables which just add a spell to your spells known? Once they're read, the magic siphons into the reader and the book is destroyed.

Give fire elementals (Flame Atronachs) an "elemental blast" attack which is identical to their melee.

Frost Atronach = Large Ice Elemental. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/elemental/elemental-ice/large-ice-elemental)

Play down the Dragon spellcasting. Skyrim Dragons fit more into the "Big dumb lizards" interpretation, relying entirely on breath weapons and physical attack.

I could see Master Summoners (i.e. Conjurers) and Witches fitting in as classes. Witches might be redundant if you make the players aware of that Sorcerer bloodline which switches casting stat to Intelligence.

If Pathfinder has spell points and/or recharge-magic variants (steal them from 3.5 Unearthed Arcana?), that could be pretty cool to emulate magicka. After all, what true Dragonborn ever said "welp, I've blown my load for today, guess I'll just sleep here and kill King Olaf One-Eye tomorrow..."? Also lets you put your PCs through epic marathon combats without worrying about absurd Vancian magic limitations. Skyrim doesn't make you think "do I really feel like wasting a Fireball to save this child?", because that's silly; it's a game about epic heroes rushing into the fray, not concerning cowardly craven casters considering cost-benefit analysis (Alliteration x6 combo!) on magic use.

[Squirrel_Dude]

Monsters:
There are also Draugr already designed in Bestiary 2. In case you hadn't seen them: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/additionalMonsters/draugr.html.

There all also ice and rock troll (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/additionalMonsters/troll.html) and skag (aquatic troll) variations on the troll. I definitely wouldn't use Pathfinder's spriggans, though. They're chaotic evil gnome subtype humanoids. >.>

As for dragons. I would agree to tone down the spellcasting, at least in terms of fireballs and such. Maybe self buffs before the fight wouldn't be terrible, as if it was just latent magic making them stronger. Consider giving more powerful dragons a swallow whole ability of some kind, or a very power bite attack. Cause... ya know... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmJsdyvNY8Q)

Alternate Rules
Armor as Damage Reduction (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/variants/armorAsDamageReduction.html)
Piecemeal Armor (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/variants/piecemealArmor.html)

Races
Remember you also have The Fallen as humans to think of. You can equip them with some primitive weapons (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/combat/primitiveArmorAndWeapons.html)

Classes
Magus should be allowed. A cool thing about skyrim was the ability to cast spells and swing your sword after all.

Archetypes
Barbarian
- Armored Hulk
- Invulnerable Rager
- Superstitious
- Titan Mauler
- True Primitive
Bard
- Archaeologist
- Archivist
- Arcane Duelist
- Court Bard
- Street Performer
Fighter
- Archer
- Armor Master
- Brawler
- Mobile Fighter
- Shielded Fighter
- Two-Handed Fighter
- Two Weapon Warrior
Inquisitor
- Infiltrator
- Spellbreaker
- Vampire Hunter
*Also look into Inquisititions and Subdomains
Magus (If you decide to allow it)
- Myrmidarch
- Spire Defender

Ranger (In addition to skirmisher and trapper)
- Deep Walker
- Urban Ranger
- Wild Shadow (Half-Elf Only, may open to wood-elves?)
- Wild Stalker
- Woodland Skirmisher
Rogue (AKA the long list)
- Acrobat
- Bandit
- Burglar
- Cat Burglar (Kajit/Cat-Folk only)
- Knife Master
- Pirate
- Poisoner
- Rake
- Scout
- Skulking Slayer (Half-Orc only)
- Sniper
- Swashbuckler
- Thug
- Trapsmith
Sorcerer
- Cross Blooded
- Seeker

Oracle
- Ancient Lorekeeper (Elf)
- Enlightened Philosopher
- Seer
- Stargazer

*You may wish to limit both bloodlines and mysteries.

Prestige Classes
Not all prestige classes may be a good fit for characters, but they might be good for NPCs.
Core and Advanced Players Guide
Arcane Archer
Assassin
Battle Herald
Dragon Disciple (At least as NPCs, but maybe not as players)
Eldritch Knight
Loremaster
Rage Prophet
Other sources
Arcane Savant
Collegiate Arcanist
Crimson Assassin
Cyphermage
Dark Delver
Diabloist/Demoniac (Which ever you think better suits Daedra)
Golden Legionnaire
Group Leader
Justicar
Liberator
Steel Falcon (Could easily be converted to Companions)
Winter Witch

[Slipperychicken]

If you want to encourage spellcasters to at least heed the divine (and further do away with silly material components), False Focus is one way to do it. They can dodge some material component costs if they use a holy symbol. You can add a fluff requirement that the spellcaster must loosely adhere to a supernatural entity's dogma (and do its quests, of course :smalltongue:) to gain the benefit (although one can switch which spirit he uses at the appropriate Standing Stone).

To allow players to use a functional "pure destruction mage" (a favorite playstyle of mine, but Skyrim has it nerfed so hard): Sorcerer with Crossblooded [Dragon and Orc] can do serious damage, adding +2 to each die of fire damage. Half-Orc Sorcerer favored class bonus further boosts fire damage (0.5 per level).

Wildblooded (Sage) is the Sorcerer archetype which replaces Cha with Int, allowing for the settings more bookish court-wizards to do their thing. This should be a very common archetype for Sorcerers in your Skyrim knock-off setting.

Knife Master Rogue may allow PCs to dual-wield slightly more effectively.

I'm curious as to how we'll deal with healing here.

[Postmodernist]

Don't forget to make stats for skooma!

[Certified]

The Magus and Oracle using Words of Power along with their archetypes may work very well for the free form nature of Skyrim.

[Slipperychicken]

Only thing I can think of for Argonians is if you could hammer Lizardfolk (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/humanoids/lizardfolk) into a playable race. Remove the racial hit dice, cut the natural armor to either +2 or +0, and improve their "Hold Breath" into straight water breathing. +2 to any one ability score (otherwise, +2 Dex, -2 Con), immune to nonmagical disease, no bonus feat.

Argonian

Humanoid (Reptilian)

Size: Argonians are Medium.
Speed: Land 30ft, Swim 15ft.
Ability Scores: +2 to any one ability score.
Special Defenses: Argonians are immune to all nonmagical diseases.
Special Qualities: Argonians can breathe water as well as air.
Skills: Argonians have a +4 racial bonus to Acrobatics
Languages: Common, Draconic

What do you think? Too strong?

[Darius Kane]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/genericClasses.htm

[Squirrel_Dude]

Only thing I can think of for Argonians is if you could hammer Lizardfolk (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/humanoids/lizardfolk) into a playable race. Remove the racial hit dice, cut the natural armor to either +2 or +0, and improve their "Hold Breath" into straight water breathing. +2 to any one ability score (otherwise, +2 Dex, -2 Con), immune to nonmagical disease, no bonus feat.

Argonian

Humanoid (Reptilian)

Size: Argonians are Medium.
Speed: Land 30ft, Swim 15ft.
Ability Scores: +2 to any one ability score.
Special Defenses: Argonians are immune to all nonmagical diseases.
Special Qualities: Argonians can breathe water as well as air.
Skills: Argonians have a +4 racial bonus to Acrobatics
Languages: Common, Draconic

What do you think? Too strong?There are a couple of reptilian races in pathfinder, but I'm not sure how well any of them fit.

Nagaji (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/uncommon-races/arg-nagaji)
Vishkanyas (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/uncommon-races/arg-vishkanyas)

Edit: Oh, and lizardfolk. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/more-races) It's hidden in other races, as it was built with the race builder. They only have 8 of the 10 point standard, so you could even give them some more stuff. *cough* Amphibious costs 2 points *cough*

There is a third party (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/3rd-party-races/paizo-fans-united/lizardfolk) version as well.

[Slipperychicken]

So... if we built Argonians as a Standard race (10 RP) with the Race Builder:

Humanoid (reptilian): 0RP

Standard Move: 0RP, 30ft land speed
Swim Racial Trait: 2RP, 30ft swim, +8 Swim, speed prereq for Amphibious
Amphibious: 2RP, breathe water
Healthy: 2RP, +4 Fort saves against disease & poison
Flexible: 2RP, +2 Con, +2 Dex
Darkvision: 2RP, 60ft

[Certified]

So... if we built Argonians as a Standard race (10 RP) with the Race Builder:

Humanoid (reptilian): 0RP

Standard Move: 0RP, 30ft land speed
Swim Racial Trait: 2RP, 30ft swim, +8 Swim, speed prereq for Amphibious
Amphibious: 2RP, breathe water
Healthy: 2RP, +4 Fort saves against disease & poison
Flexible: 2RP, +2 Con, +2 Dex
Darkvision: 2RP, 60ft

Do you think you could bring a Breton in at that same level considering their 25% Spell Resistance in Skyrim? The Drow may be the most comparable race at RP 14, but the Breton's are of Human and Elven blood so a Half Elf would be a logical race.

[Squirrel_Dude]

Spell Resistance, Lesser (6 + character level) is worth 2 points. You could probably build something around that.

[Slipperychicken]

Do you think you could bring a Breton in at that same level considering their 25% Spell Resistance in Skyrim? The Drow may be the most comparable race at RP 14, but the Breton's are of Human and Elven blood so a Half Elf would be a logical race.

Well, here's a link to the race builder (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/arg-creating-new-races). It's basically a racial point buy. I know it's very easy to abuse, I'm just using it to emulate the abilities these guys should have.

"Lesser" spell resistance gives SR=6+level and costs 2 RP. This gives a 30% chance to resist SR-applicable spells cast by a caster of equal level. Magic resist is analogous to Spell Resistance for our purposes.

Breton

Humanoid (Human)

Human Heritage: 0RP, +2 to any one ability score of the player's choosing
Lignuist: 1RP, start with Common, whatever bonus languages you want.
30ft base land speed (standard): 0RP
Gift of Tongues: 2RP, +1 on Bluff and Diplomacy, learn 1 more language with each Linguistics rank.
Arcane Focus: +2 Racial bonus on Concentration checks to cast Arcane spells defensively.
Lesser SR: 2RP, spell resistance = [6 + level]. Bretons may voluntarily lower their spell resistance for 1 round as a Standard action. Additionally, a Breton's spell resistance never interferes with its own items, spells, or abilities.
Focused Study: 4RP, gain Skill Focus as a bonus feat at 1st, 8th, and 16th level.

[Yora]

Does anyone have experience with Armor as DR? It's more drastic than in 3.5e and the rules for stacking different types of DR are confusing me. Especially the part about very large reatures ignoring it under conditions that don't seem to be accuratly defined.

[Raven777]

You might want to add the Magus to your class selection, for those people who like to equip a spell in one hand and a sword in the other.

[Slipperychicken]

Does anyone have experience with Armor as DR? It's more drastic than in 3.5e and the rules for stacking different types of DR are confusing me. Especially the part about very large reatures ignoring it under conditions that don't seem to be accuratly defined.

[reads it]

My god, this thing is poorly written but, I think I've got it. You get total DR from adding Natural Armor, Armor, and "old-school DR" all together.

To determine what the hell bypasses it, you use the tables.

If you have only Armor (no regular DR, no Natural Armor), you just look at "armor composition and DR", and anything in the appropriate row bypasses it.
If you have Natural Armor and Armor, you just use the "armor composition and DR" table to determine what bypasses it.

If you have both "regular DR" and Natural Armor (or only Natural armor), you consult the Natural Armor Conversion to DR.

If you have Armor and "regular DR", you consult the "Armor composition" table for the armor, and the normal DR bypassed separately.

If you have all three (natural armor, armor, and DR), then find the results from both tables and take the better of the two.

DRs other than those listed on the tables (i.e. not epic, admantine, or magic) are bypassed separately, like in the skeleton example.

It appears to make all attacks against Touch AC + Shield, and pretty much mandates +1 Adamantine in the struggle to bypass enemy's DR and not have them bypass yours. If you don't have the appropriate weapons to bypass DR, you're completely boned against Dragons.

Spellcasters should be largely unaffected by Armor as DR, particularly considering they don't wear as much armor and magical attacks automatically bypass DR anyway.

[Yora]

I think I just stick with D&D armor as DR. :smallbiggrin:

[Yora]

People of the North and Land of Eternal Winter look like they could have a bunch of character options and creature that might fit well. Isn't all the crunch from such books in the SRD anyway? Anything I should look up?
(For setting books to a setting I dislike, even the pdfs are too expensive just to take a peek.)

[Edenbeast]

I've build my own setting based on the south pole, or at least the outer rims of the southern polar region, and I'm using these:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/environment/wilderness/climatic-zones/polar-regions
They might be useful for the northern parts of Skyrim, like The Pale and Winterhold.

[Edenbeast]

As for the books you mention, Irrisen is a cold setting, but doesn't really resemble Skyrim. Based on atmosphere I would say you're probably better off with Lands of the Linnorm Kings or Midgard: Northlands. The information is maybe a bit scattered. The Linnorms you can find here: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/dragons/linnorm
I think they resemble more the dragons in Skyrim than the standard true dragons.