Advice on rule changes for a musketeer-style campaign

[kliyo]

I'm starting an Epic6, very low magic, renaissance/enlightment era, urban adventure (kinda musketeer-style) using pathfinder and I would like to hear your opinion on some rule decisions I'm planning:

1) CAMPAIGN SETTING CONSIDERATIONS

I feel that, in that context, running around in anything heavier than studded leather armor would be socially unacceptable for anyone except the townsguard. The same goes for heavy weaponry, so they are limited to light weapons or what they can conceal or disguise as tools. Swords may be common as a status symbol and fashion accesory for the rich. Early firearms are available in military and criminal backgrounds, but gunpowder is hard to come by legally.

2) ARMOR AND AC

Under those circumstances, I feel like tying the progression of AC to armor is not ideal, and a lvl-dependant dodge AC bonus and "Armor as DR" would be preferable , but I'm not sure how to go about it. I think adding BAB to CA as a dodge bonus would do the trick, but the difference between normal AC and touch AC would be only shield bonus, which is not frequently used in this context. Most spellcaster classes will be banned for campaign setting reasons, so this won't be that much of an issue, but it is something I would like to solve.

3) VITALITY AND WOUNDS SYSTEM

I really like the wounds/vitality system for campaigns with little recovery magic, because recovering vitality after a short rest doesn't break immersion, yet it keeps the potential for long term damage. Critical hits under this system do not multiply, but simply bypass vitality. This makes armor DR more valuable, because it can prevent the one-critical-hit kill. The problem I see is that higher crit-multipliers are ignored. The best solution I could think of is giving weapons with a crit-multiplier higher than x2 the ability to bypass 2x(CritMult-2) points of armor DR (so x3 weapons bypass DR 2 and x4 weapons bypass DR 4). I think this works with many of the weapons that get the higher crit (warpicks, axes, spears), but not so much with others (scythe, crossbow), so it may need some tweaking.

4) FIREARMS

The last think I would like to run by you is firearms. First, I REALLY don't like the possibility of reducing reloading time to a swift action, so I'm limiting it so reloads are at least a part of a move action that causes attack of opportunity (reload on the run). Second, I'm not sure about the damage. I think I should bump it up a bit (perhaps a size category) to compensate for low rate of fire. I don't remember where, but I read somewhere the proposal of making the firearm damage dice exploding, so to acount for the bullet bouncing arround inside the body (yeah, nasty). Lastly, I'm also changing the touch attack within the first range increment into +4 points of armor DR bypass within the first range increment. In regard to misfire, I'm perfectly OK with it, it makes for interesting moments.

What do you think? Am I complicating it too much? Any obvious breaking points I'm not seeing? Any suggestions?

[Geddy2112]

1. This is not really a rule issue, just a setting thing. Just make it clear to your players that openly wearing armor or carrying around/brandishing weapons is frowned on if not outright illegal in most societies. Even weapons that double as tools look funny out of place I.E. a lumber axe in polite society.

2. Armor as DR rules for pathfinder can be found here (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/variants/armorAsDamageReduction.html). I have used it before, and it is okay, but scaling BAB quickly outruns most enemy AC, meaning that after a few levels most characters will always hit(and always be hit). So adding a scaling AC might be okay. Overall my table liked it, but not enough to use it again.

3. Use the rules for starfinder, it has vitality and short rest rules that are fully compatible with pathfinder.

4. Not hitting touch still won't matter much if your make armor count as DR, so adding a bit of piercing is maybe acceptable. If you are going to limit firearms to one round a shot, bumping damage is probably required as most gun builds rely on throwing down tons of shots. Do beware of the artillery team (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/artillery-team-combat-teamwork/) feat and how ratfolk can abuse this. With guns getting an additional size boost this can be really powerful.

[Elkad]

1 - rules for being armed in town are really setting-independent. It's the town that makes the rules. Just like RL, where being heavily armed in Afghanistan is no more than uncommon, being lightly armed in rural Virginia is completely normal, but being armed in Boston will get you some shiny bracelets and a ride. Armor is the same. Some towns forbid it, some allow it.

2. Bumping dodge bonuses is probably a good idea. Even something as extreme as "you get your BAB to Dodge" wouldn't be out of line.

3. Vitality/Wounds. Are you using the PF system or the 3.5 system?
High multiplier weapons are covered right in the 3.5 rules. They get converted to high threat range instead. So that x4 Scythe turns into a 18-20 Scythe. (making it mechanically identical to the much-pricier Falchion).
The dying rules are broken in the 3.5 WP system. You can beat on a creature at 0WP for many rounds and have it keep making it's Fort saves (flat DC15). Don't use them. Just set death to -10WP, or -con WP or whatever.

The PF system looks fine. 2xCon in WP, staggered when half are gone, dead at 0. And crits don't bypass directly, they just do regular damage (including multiplier), plus additional WP damage equal to the multiplier number (so a scythe would do 8d4VP + 4WP). I've never used it though, so I may be missing something.

4. Exploding dice. Like any save-or-die, it leads to instant kills, and eventually a PC will be the recipient. Do you want full health PCs to get headshot and drop instantly? It's realistic. Is it fun? Depends on your group. Ignoring DR at close range (even with a multiple range increment falloff instead of all-or-nothing) seems fine. Applying it to firearms only seems odd, after all you could take an arrow or rapier to the brain just as well.