Building my first long-term Pathfinder game. Advice for tropes and House Rules?

[Nishant]

Title is says it all really. I'm hoping to brew my own campaign, and I've quickly realized what a task that is, especially a long-term one. So I'd like to ask veterans in this field to impart advice on the subject matter. While combat is still a large part, my players, who would include my current DM, really like delving into NPCs, and exploring the world, and I like fitting those needs, being cut from the same cloth. This does, however, beget the issue of agency.. Should I not really focus on a specific overarching villain, or should I have adventures that they go through eventually weave into the same cloth?

An additional 'thread' that concerns me is making a volume of NPCs. I understand everything is OGC, and there's no harm in taking inspiration from other campaigns and other characters, be they romantically involved or not, (For example, my affection for characters like Nualia, a friend's love of Shayliss, and the party's not-sure-of-joking love of characters like Greta; Hey, if dragons can make babies with anything, why not?) but whats the limit there? I want to make this as original as I possibly can, but it's admittedly a bit overwhelming. Where should I start? What should I expand into? Towns, Factions, Storefronts?

The third set of course is more mechanical, and that's house rules. this actually doesn't feel to tricky, this is just advice on what you think works, and what you think doesn't. For example, the current house rules I plan on using are;

-No multiclass penalties(If there even is one in Pathfinder)
-natural 20 needs no confirmation
-natural one is an auto fail and has no confirmation
-You get your max HD with each level up
-Each character starts with 2 traits
-You may either use the 4d6 or 'High Fantasy' Point buy set to determine stats
-weapons with a 'race' name (i.e. Orc double axe, Dwarven Urgosh, Elven curve blade, etc.) are treated as proficient when used by the corresponding race.

What do you usually use? What would you stay away from? All advice is welcome.

[arixe]

Know your archetypes for your classes. Npc codex opens your eyes to whole new possiblities. I actually have been starting my players in npc classes so they feel that power progression even more

[Nishant]

Know your archetypes for your classes. Npc codex opens your eyes to whole new possiblities. I actually have been starting my players in npc classes so they feel that power progression even more

Oh? That sounds interesting. How do you figure that in? Don't they miss out on a lot of class features? Or do you give 'minor' versions via feats?

[arixe]

Really its just background fluff i let most of my players trade the leves after their origen even t
But alot of them enjoy the levels in expert reminds them of their black smith origens or their days as a guard as they prepair to venture into the abbys on their holy crusade

[AzraelX]

-No multiclass penalties(If there even is one in Pathfinder)
There aren't.

You pick a favored class, and gain an additional skill point or hit point whenever you take a level in that class.


-natural 20 needs no confirmation
-natural one is an auto fail and has no confirmation
Natural 20 doesn't need a confirmation to hit, it's an automatic success. Natural 1 doesn't need a confirmation to miss, it's an automatic failure.

A natural 20 is also a critical threat, which you confirm to land a critical hit. If you meant that you would remove this confirmation roll, I'd be interested in your reasoning; expanding the critical threat range of a weapon is a simple matter.

As for house rules, it's generally "the fewer, the better". Then everyone's on the same page, and the game experience will translate better between past and future games played by those involved.

[Honest Tiefling]

Should I not really focus on a specific overarching villain, or should I have adventures that they go through eventually weave into the same cloth?

Don't ask us, ask them. I've had a lot of luck and enjoyable experiences with games that set out a vague premise. Some people prefer one, others prefer the other. If you wouldn't mind the DM pitching a premise, do the same for them and see what results you get.


An additional 'thread' that concerns me is making a volume of NPCs.

Make a game that's in a semi-remote location. The frontier, or cut off from the world, or some plague hit. Leave enough room to introduce new NPCs if the first batch doesn't stick, but if you worry about this, don't delve into major metropolis. In many situations, even a large-ish town has enough people for some interesting NPCs to come from.

As for inspiration, I suggest the following: Take one NPC and strip off everything but the essential part of what made them good. Now take another and do the same. You really want a short description of what made them good. Now mash these two simple concepts together into one NPC. If you do it right, you can get some combos that will inspire you as well as NPCs that cannot be traced back to the source.

If the party liked a friendly, perky cleric, mix that together with the undead hunter that was pretty helpful. Now you have an undead hunter that uses humor to recover from the strain of hunting the creatures of the night as an example.

[Nishant]

Natural 20 doesn't need a confirmation to hit, it's an automatic success. Natural 1 doesn't need a confirmation to miss, it's an automatic failure.

A natural 20 is also a critical threat, which you confirm to land a critical hit. If you meant that you would remove this confirmation roll, I'd be interested in your reasoning; expanding the critical threat range of a weapon is a simple matter.
That's what I mean. No specific reason, really, other than its a familiar rule since I first started playing.

[AzraelX]

Are your players familiar with it? If not, that's still not really a benefit of changing it. Considering combat mechanics are such a large part of the game, it might be better to opt for rules the players are used to instead; it'd probably be worth discussing their preference, at least.

Edit: On a side note, were you planning to apply this to enemy attack rolls as well? Because it'd naturally screw anyone who invests in AC.

[AnonymousPepper]

I've run every group I've done using max HP/HD. It helps me plan encounters as DM - because I don't have one player that's far squishier than they should be, especially compared to the guy who's got good rolls most of the time - and it's less frustrating for the players because there's enough RNG as it is by nature in all the d20 and damage rolls; nothing shafts a player more in the long run than bad HP rolls.

[Nishant]

Are your players familiar with it? If not, that's still not really a benefit of changing it. Considering combat mechanics are such a large part of the game, it might be better to opt for rules the players are used to instead; it'd probably be worth discussing their preference, at least.

Edit: On a side note, were you planning to apply this to enemy attack rolls as well? Because it'd naturally screw anyone who invests in AC.

We've all used it. And yeah, it's only fair that it goes both ways

[AzraelX]

it's only fair that it goes both ways
True story.

If everyone wants it, then have at it. I'd recommend also house ruling the elimination of every feat and ability that improves your ability to confirm critical hits.

As an example, I have a character who uses Critical Focus, which is an important CRB feat that suddenly does nothing if criticals are auto-confirmed. A player who would have taken it can't simply avoid it though, because it's a prerequisite for over a dozen other feats and feat chains.

That being the case, you'd need to find a use for this kind of feat, or remove it as a prerequisite from everything.

[KnightOfV]

Good luck on your game! On the story aspect, I would advise you to pick 3 things: 1) a monster you like, 2) an overall goal for players, and 3) a show/ video game/ novel to draw inspiration.

So pick your monster or two (drow, tieflings, dragons, orcs whatever) that you think is cool. Decide what they are doing in your world, and give the PCs a reason to care. Last game I ran, I had an evil wizard that had just taken over an isolated town. I like Tieflings, so i decided the wizard had hired a band of Tiefling mercenaries to do gruntwork for him, taking people to use for human sacrifices, and enforce his laws. That was the first thing the PCs had to stop, as the Tiefling slavers immediately wanted to kidnap one of the PCs. Of course the wizard had other monsters working for him as well, so it meant for a lot of variety, but with a clear goal at the end.

Then pick something to influence you. Lord of the Ring's style good vs evil with lots of paladins fighting orcs? Buffy style episodic adventures with overtones of Evil that can never REALLY be defeated, but lots of sarcastic jaded NPCs to lighten the mood? A zombie outbreak reminiscent of Resident Evil? Final Fantasy style mash up where you start small, then build up to a huge world shattering evil? Don't take the exact story but try to copy the feel of it- this will help you when you need to pull out a random NPC or think of a new fight.

[Scorponok]

An additional 'thread' that concerns me is making a volume of NPCs. I understand everything is OGC, and there's no harm in taking inspiration from other campaigns and other characters, be they romantically involved or not, (For example, my affection for characters like Nualia, a friend's love of Shayliss, and the party's not-sure-of-joking love of characters like Greta; Hey, if dragons can make babies with anything, why not?) but whats the limit there? I want to make this as original as I possibly can, but it's admittedly a bit overwhelming. Where should I start?

I run into this problem as well, and what I found helps is to rename characters so PCs don't realize who they are.

With Nualia, I take the letters and rearrange them, taking the syllables and reversing them, so Nualia becomes Lianu. Then you add letters to make it sound better - she becomes Liannan.

Shayliss with reversed syllables becomes Lisshay, or L'shayla. Greta, you rearrange the letters, drop the G, add more letters, and she becomes Taereen.

Your players will probably not make the connection that Liannan, L'shayla and Taereen are Nualia, Shayliss and Greta.

[Nishant]

True story.

If everyone wants it, then have at it. I'd recommend also house ruling the elimination of every feat and ability that improves your ability to confirm critical hits.

As an example, I have a character who uses Critical Focus, which is an important CRB feat that suddenly does nothing if criticals are auto-confirmed. A player who would have taken it can't simply avoid it though, because it's a prerequisite for over a dozen other feats and feat chains.

That being the case, you'd need to find a use for this kind of feat, or remove it as a prerequisite from everything.

I remove it as a pre-req, and classes that get this as a bonus feat (if any) receive a substitute. I do have to put my foot down on crit monster builds though.(roll a nine and you crit, really?). no crit confirm can make that real popular.

Also, thanks for the character advice, Tiefling and Scorponok