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View Full Version : Combining race, magic items, and level adjustments



Roxxy
2013-10-08, 01:31 AM
This idea is specific to my woefully neglected campaign setting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304892). Within this setting I do not use magic items. I compensate for this by letting players pick inherent bonuses as they level up (these bonuses can mimic most of what you can do with magic items). The explanation given for this is that enchanting people is a lot easier than enchanting objects. The reason for the change is that the Christmas Tree Effect is thematically inappropriate to this setting, as treasure hunting and dungeon delving are not the sorts of games I'm designing it for. I also love the idea of a modern setting that has squads of magically enhanced soldiers and marines duking it out all over the battlefield.

I also don't particularly like racial attributes. I prefer race as purely fluff. What I want to do is combine the race building system with the personal enchantment system, so that they are one system. Race points are basically your starting enchantments, and you get more points as you level up.

With a system like this, the level adjustment system (which I loath) could be thrown out in favor of a system where the abilities of, say, a vampire (I use the creatures heavily in this setting, and in a way where a vampire PC would be considered thematically appropriate) would cost you some of your enchantment points instead of costing class levels. This should be a more fitting trade off, as the abilities of a vampire are more comparable in value to a mix of racial abilities and magic items than to class levels. The party power level should theoretically balance out far better than under level adjustment, and it should be more fun to play powerful races or use templates when you don't have to sacrifice BAB and spell progression. Another good part is that I like to start off with a party at around level 6, not level 1, so there is some room for players to utilize such a system at character creation.

Any thoughts? I just thought this up walking home from school, so it probably has rough edges somewhere.

Freddrick
2013-10-11, 11:04 PM
Check out http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/creating-new-races

You can give the party 10-20 points and they can spend them as they want.
Each options represents a different upgrade that player received. You can even give out more points later on as rewards.

Hope this helps.
-Freddrick