Yamegawa
2019-03-12, 03:01 PM
Recently I ran a One-Shot where the PCs were monsters they chose from the bestiary (CR 1 or lower) with no class levels, instead they had a custom ability I though up.
Basically, any character could eat a part of a recently dead creature, and gain one of the following:
a) the creature's bonus to an ability score added to his own (after removing size modifications)
b) one of the creature's feats (treating ability to use weapons and armor as the corrisponding feats)
c) one of the creature's class skills (like sneak attack, channel energy, the ability to cast one of the spells he had prepared as a spell like ability 1-3 times a day, ecc...)
d) an anatomical part of the creature (natural weapons, armor, tail, wings, bite attack, breath weapon, senses, etc...)
e) a hit die
Yes, rather complicated, and extremely overpowered, but we all had a great time. They went from having to ambush goblins to steamrolling an adult dragon, and loved being able to grab whatever random thing they wanted from their enemies corpse and add it to their repertoire.
The main issue is that I have been asked to run a small campaign (no more than 8 sessions) based off this concept, and I am quite frankly out of my depth. I am by no means an expert on Pathfinder (been playing about a year and enjoy reading rules, but still lack a lot of experience) and them asking to play with this idea some more in a longer running setting was unexpected. Any help with making this work, or at least making something that's similar in base concept, is greatly appreciated.
My idea was to limit the evolution ability so that you can permanently store a number of things you steal equal to the number of hit dice, as well as two temporary slots that expire 24 hours after the power is gained. Permanent slots can be replaced by a temporary power, but the replaced power is lost. As for the options, remove the bonus hit dice option.
Help with this would be awesome.
The other thing that has me in trouble is the fact that most want to use custom monsters (either weaker versions of existing material or their own brainchild) and since in their place I would too, I would like to try and make it possible if it can be done. I have found a nice JavaScript program called MonsterGenerator that is a tool for creating monsters of a specific CR, and I thought I could just use that to help them create their monsters and still have some semblance of balance by the end of it. If anyone has any ideas how to make monster PCs, I would love to hear them.
Sorry for the wall of text, and I thank you for your help.
Basically, any character could eat a part of a recently dead creature, and gain one of the following:
a) the creature's bonus to an ability score added to his own (after removing size modifications)
b) one of the creature's feats (treating ability to use weapons and armor as the corrisponding feats)
c) one of the creature's class skills (like sneak attack, channel energy, the ability to cast one of the spells he had prepared as a spell like ability 1-3 times a day, ecc...)
d) an anatomical part of the creature (natural weapons, armor, tail, wings, bite attack, breath weapon, senses, etc...)
e) a hit die
Yes, rather complicated, and extremely overpowered, but we all had a great time. They went from having to ambush goblins to steamrolling an adult dragon, and loved being able to grab whatever random thing they wanted from their enemies corpse and add it to their repertoire.
The main issue is that I have been asked to run a small campaign (no more than 8 sessions) based off this concept, and I am quite frankly out of my depth. I am by no means an expert on Pathfinder (been playing about a year and enjoy reading rules, but still lack a lot of experience) and them asking to play with this idea some more in a longer running setting was unexpected. Any help with making this work, or at least making something that's similar in base concept, is greatly appreciated.
My idea was to limit the evolution ability so that you can permanently store a number of things you steal equal to the number of hit dice, as well as two temporary slots that expire 24 hours after the power is gained. Permanent slots can be replaced by a temporary power, but the replaced power is lost. As for the options, remove the bonus hit dice option.
Help with this would be awesome.
The other thing that has me in trouble is the fact that most want to use custom monsters (either weaker versions of existing material or their own brainchild) and since in their place I would too, I would like to try and make it possible if it can be done. I have found a nice JavaScript program called MonsterGenerator that is a tool for creating monsters of a specific CR, and I thought I could just use that to help them create their monsters and still have some semblance of balance by the end of it. If anyone has any ideas how to make monster PCs, I would love to hear them.
Sorry for the wall of text, and I thank you for your help.