Pathfinder Unchained Questions

[andhaira]

One thing that bugs me about Pathfinder is that magical items are required at certain levels so that PCs keep up with the math. I have heard that Pathfinder Unchained provides rules to disengage PCs from requiring magical items, kind of like D&D4e provided options to give inherent bonuses at certain levels instead of magical equipment that granted bonuses to attack and AC.

Can anyone confirm this, and can you give an example of how P-Unchained handles this, if it does?

[Susano-wo]

Yeah. here it is: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/automatic-bonus-progression

Seems pretty nice to me, though I have only gotten 1 out of 3 current campaigns to agree to it--one declined due to the lack of flexibility (you don't get to decide when you get a certain bonus, or to invest more heavily in, say defense vs offense), and the other that declined did so due to that and the worry that you could find magic weapons or armor (in a sandboxy campaign) that you could potentially not use. The one that accepted it contained 2 basic newbies to whom the idea of not worrying about stat and defense boosts was appealing.

I am actually interested if anyone has implemented this and how it worked for them. I wonder, for instance, if some of the abilities are included too late? (magic item attunement, for instance)

[Sayt]

The main objection I've heqrd in my group is that some classes get significantly less value out of it than others. For example, wizards and non-CoDzilla clerics are left somewhat in the cold.

Now, arguably these are already powerful classes and they can suck it, but thst is liable to cause ill-feeling.

For these classes the first two alternatives that came to mind were: 1) casters get metamagic rods with gp equal to the weapon enhancement, or 2) the wizard loses 1/4, rather than 1/2 their wbl.

[Florian]

The main objection I've heqrd in my group is that some classes get significantly less value out of it than others. For example, wizards and non-CoDzilla clerics are left somewhat in the cold.

Now, arguably these are already powerful classes and they can suck it, but thst is liable to cause ill-feeling.

For these classes the first two alternatives that came to mind were: 1) casters get metamagic rods with gp equal to the weapon enhancement, or 2) the wizard loses 1/4, rather than 1/2 their wbl.

Interestingly enough, the same thing came up when we did a test session using ABP rules and the caster players voiced the same concerns.
Proved to be somehwat infounded, as the remakning WBL is still sufficient to outfit a caster well.

[sleepyphoenixx]

I am actually interested if anyone has implemented this and how it worked for them. I wonder, for instance, if some of the abilities are included too late? (magic item attunement, for instance)

I've used it in a few shorter games and i'm thinking of converting my current long-running campaign to the same system.
It works out pretty well, and getting items with flat bonuses has always been boring no matter how effective and necessary it is. This system gets everyone on the same baseline and i can focus on giving my players cool stuff instead of worrying that someone needs another +X somewhere to keep up with the enemies.

Yes, you could probably be more effective by customizing those attributes yourself. But players are still strong enough to be competitive, and the classes that arguably lose the most are those that usually focus on a few stats to the exclusion of everything else, which is pretty much only T1 casters, who can afford it without losing their status at the top of the foodchain.

[Psyren]

Indeed, ABP is an elegant solution to the christmas-tree problem.

If the "weapon attunement" being useless for casters is an issue, I would consider letting them get consumables of comparable value. Like they can attune to a staff and put spells in it roughly equivalent to the gp value of the weapon they're not enhancing instead. The nice part of that is that they will probably pick some situational/utility stuff they wouldn't normally prepare or choose as a spell known that can nevertheless save the party's bacon on occasion.

[stanprollyright]

Wow! I'd never heard of that before and now I want to only ever use it. I hate the necessity for wealth/items just to remain competitive.