cartel1982
2013-07-29, 12:37 PM
Hey everyone. This is my first post to the forums and I hope I don't step on any toes. You seem like a nice, accepting, and knowledgeable community, and I hope I can be a good citizen.
In a couple of months, I'm going to start running the Pathfinder "Kingmaker" adventure path, but for various reasons that I don't want to argue, I want to run it in 3.5 with a few modifications instead of Pathfinder.
There have been some posts on these forums about this before, but the questions have been about backporting Pathfinder monsters and encounters, and whether or not the city and kingdom building systems will work. This isn't what I'm concerned about.
My question is what guidelines and modifications to the character creation process should I have?
Here's my thoughts and questions so far:
The Pathfinder core book allows for more powerful characters than just the Player's Handbook and DM's guide do, so I should allow some extra 3.5 books, but throwing the library doors open and allowing every last splatbook results in overpowered and terribly unthematic builds. So I'm looking for suggestions as to what 3.5 expansion material should be permitted for a game that wants some power but doesn't want to feel too thematically different from a core book game. And since my players aren't experts at min-maxing 3.5 characters, any suggestions (or links to suggestions) as to what extra material is really essential for a fighter, rogue, cleric, wizard etc. would be appreciated.
Pathfinder gives characters higher stats through racial bonuses than 3.5 does. I want to use a point buy system for stats. What point buy should I use? I want this game to be a challenge, but I also want my players to have a good chance of survival. My instinct is to go with whatever is one tier above Standard Point Buy from the DM's guide.
The two elements I want to backport from the Pathfinder rules are the Combat Maneuver system and the system for handling class and cross-class skills. But, I want to use the 3.5 size chart (since a Halfling having only a -2 to grapple an Ogre is just silly in my mind) and I want to use the actual list of 3.5 skills, rather than all the combined Pathfinder skills that allow every skilly character to have everything they want at max level.
However, buying 3.5 skills results in some tough choices, and while I like that, it probably means nobody will pick any Craft, Profession, or Knowledge skills, and just skimming over the Adventure Path books, those look to be pretty valuable. I'm thinking about handing out 2 extra points at first level that can only be spent on Profession, Knowledge, or Craft, and also making some skills class skills for everyone -- I'm thinking Listen, Spot, Ride, Swim and Climb.
In Pathfinder (if I'm remembering correctly) a Wizard gets 2 spells of his or her choice at each new level, whereas in 3.5 all spells must come from spellbooks and scrolls. Are there enough sources of new knowledge in the Kingmaker adventures as written, or am I going to have to fudge in some extra books? I'm considering allowing the Wizard to start the game with some level 2 spells of his choice in his spellbook.
Anyway, that's just off the top of my head, I'm really interested in any experience people have running 3.5 wilderness sandbox games, and any experience anyone has running Kingmaker in particular and any particular skill selections, feat selections, character choices etc. that make a big difference in survivability.
In a couple of months, I'm going to start running the Pathfinder "Kingmaker" adventure path, but for various reasons that I don't want to argue, I want to run it in 3.5 with a few modifications instead of Pathfinder.
There have been some posts on these forums about this before, but the questions have been about backporting Pathfinder monsters and encounters, and whether or not the city and kingdom building systems will work. This isn't what I'm concerned about.
My question is what guidelines and modifications to the character creation process should I have?
Here's my thoughts and questions so far:
The Pathfinder core book allows for more powerful characters than just the Player's Handbook and DM's guide do, so I should allow some extra 3.5 books, but throwing the library doors open and allowing every last splatbook results in overpowered and terribly unthematic builds. So I'm looking for suggestions as to what 3.5 expansion material should be permitted for a game that wants some power but doesn't want to feel too thematically different from a core book game. And since my players aren't experts at min-maxing 3.5 characters, any suggestions (or links to suggestions) as to what extra material is really essential for a fighter, rogue, cleric, wizard etc. would be appreciated.
Pathfinder gives characters higher stats through racial bonuses than 3.5 does. I want to use a point buy system for stats. What point buy should I use? I want this game to be a challenge, but I also want my players to have a good chance of survival. My instinct is to go with whatever is one tier above Standard Point Buy from the DM's guide.
The two elements I want to backport from the Pathfinder rules are the Combat Maneuver system and the system for handling class and cross-class skills. But, I want to use the 3.5 size chart (since a Halfling having only a -2 to grapple an Ogre is just silly in my mind) and I want to use the actual list of 3.5 skills, rather than all the combined Pathfinder skills that allow every skilly character to have everything they want at max level.
However, buying 3.5 skills results in some tough choices, and while I like that, it probably means nobody will pick any Craft, Profession, or Knowledge skills, and just skimming over the Adventure Path books, those look to be pretty valuable. I'm thinking about handing out 2 extra points at first level that can only be spent on Profession, Knowledge, or Craft, and also making some skills class skills for everyone -- I'm thinking Listen, Spot, Ride, Swim and Climb.
In Pathfinder (if I'm remembering correctly) a Wizard gets 2 spells of his or her choice at each new level, whereas in 3.5 all spells must come from spellbooks and scrolls. Are there enough sources of new knowledge in the Kingmaker adventures as written, or am I going to have to fudge in some extra books? I'm considering allowing the Wizard to start the game with some level 2 spells of his choice in his spellbook.
Anyway, that's just off the top of my head, I'm really interested in any experience people have running 3.5 wilderness sandbox games, and any experience anyone has running Kingmaker in particular and any particular skill selections, feat selections, character choices etc. that make a big difference in survivability.