RhoTheWanderer
2019-04-18, 10:51 PM
Background: I have, slowly but surely, been fiddling around with building a 3.5e D&D setting for probably about 8 years now. I usually avoid the responsibility/headache of DMing for the most part, so I've only ran a few dozen actual sessions in it over the years. That said, the tabletop rpg group that I usually play with recently started a Pathfinder game; and when we were still initially discussing starting it, humblebundle coincidentally had a massive bargain for a bunch of Pathfinder PDFs, so I picked those up. I've yet to fully digest most of the material, but I've liked what I've seen and played so far. As a result, I'm looking at fully converting my old setting over to Pathfinder.
The problem: Due to my lack of familiarity with Pathfinder (and Pathfinder's number of options [classes, archetypes, feats, and so on] seeming to be almost as daunting at first glance as the number of options in 3e/3.5e), I could use some help finding some things to match up with certain PrCs or campaign ideas. The goal here is to stick with Pathfinder material as much as possible, and to only try to ham-fist things straight from 3.5e when much of the flavor or crunch can't be adequately recreated otherwise. That said, any suggested straight conversions/rewrites will be accepted for consideration.
1. Mage of the Arcane Order (Complete Arcane, page 48).
A nifty 3.5e PrC that piqued my interest enough that I thought, "If I ever roll Wizard in a 3.5 game, I'm using this. And regardless, I MUST work this into my campaign somehow!"
2. Graphomancy: Runesmith (Races of Stone, page 118) and Geometer (Complete Arcane, page 39).
Within my setting, early practitioners of magic inscribed (or in more permanent cases, engraved) various geometric designs on the ground around themselves to aid in gathering, focusing, and channeling magical energies; this almost ritualistic method of casting a spell was known as "graphomancy". "Modern magic" within the setting is less reliant on the use of graphomancy, but such a technique could still be used to enhance the power of a spell. Albeit, it was usually fluffed as taking a little longer, but...meh. /shrug Regardless, although I've never had it officially codified, I've generally toyed with using these two PrCs as a halfway decent way of injecting some of the general flavor. Runesmith is dwarf-flavored, which is an added bonus as one of the first races in my setting (besides dragons and elves) to experiment with magic was a race of dwarves.
3. Blood Magic?
For a very, very long time, I've had the idea in my head of a form of magic that mostly worked as follows: You use a small amount of blood as a material component in your spells, and it enhances the power of your spells. Good- or neutral-aligned users of blood magic would either cut themselves to use their own blood for this purpose, or they'd take blood from an animal or a willing subject. However, within my setting, legends persist of Eeevil spellcasters sacrificing hundreds of sentient beings at a time for unspeakably Eeeeeevil near-apocalyptic magic-spell-magibabble-stuff. And this is where I run into a slight problem: I have yet to find something quite like this in 3e or 3.5e. So, here's to hoping that PF has something vaguely representative of this, cheers!
4. Bonus round: Group Magic.
The story goes like this: Long ago (4000+ years ago), during the later years of the 2nd Age, when knowledge of magic was at its peak, a deep divisive disagreement occurred between the leader of the Dark Elves and the other Elf leaders. This resulted in a gigantic war in which some of the most powerful magic the world ever saw was utilized on the battlefield. This magic often involved several lesser spellcasters working together to cast spells of nearly god-like power. The world has never seen such magic used in battle ever since, partly because the elves outlawed its use (at least among themselves, and later as part of international agreements with anyone they traded or allied with) after finding that such powerful spells being used repeatedly in a given region over the course of 200+ years caused the area to become contaminated with residual magic energy (random spell effects just happening out of nowhere, spells not always behaving in their usual predictable manners, spells with the Living Spell template from the Ebberon campaign setting just running around, people and things from other planes or even other time periods randomly appearing, etc). To represent this ancient "group magic," probably the closest thing I've found is the Red Wizard (Dungeon Master's Guide, page 193). Again, I call group magic the "bonus round" because it might appear once (if ever) in the entire campaign.
Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any suggestions!
The problem: Due to my lack of familiarity with Pathfinder (and Pathfinder's number of options [classes, archetypes, feats, and so on] seeming to be almost as daunting at first glance as the number of options in 3e/3.5e), I could use some help finding some things to match up with certain PrCs or campaign ideas. The goal here is to stick with Pathfinder material as much as possible, and to only try to ham-fist things straight from 3.5e when much of the flavor or crunch can't be adequately recreated otherwise. That said, any suggested straight conversions/rewrites will be accepted for consideration.
1. Mage of the Arcane Order (Complete Arcane, page 48).
A nifty 3.5e PrC that piqued my interest enough that I thought, "If I ever roll Wizard in a 3.5 game, I'm using this. And regardless, I MUST work this into my campaign somehow!"
2. Graphomancy: Runesmith (Races of Stone, page 118) and Geometer (Complete Arcane, page 39).
Within my setting, early practitioners of magic inscribed (or in more permanent cases, engraved) various geometric designs on the ground around themselves to aid in gathering, focusing, and channeling magical energies; this almost ritualistic method of casting a spell was known as "graphomancy". "Modern magic" within the setting is less reliant on the use of graphomancy, but such a technique could still be used to enhance the power of a spell. Albeit, it was usually fluffed as taking a little longer, but...meh. /shrug Regardless, although I've never had it officially codified, I've generally toyed with using these two PrCs as a halfway decent way of injecting some of the general flavor. Runesmith is dwarf-flavored, which is an added bonus as one of the first races in my setting (besides dragons and elves) to experiment with magic was a race of dwarves.
3. Blood Magic?
For a very, very long time, I've had the idea in my head of a form of magic that mostly worked as follows: You use a small amount of blood as a material component in your spells, and it enhances the power of your spells. Good- or neutral-aligned users of blood magic would either cut themselves to use their own blood for this purpose, or they'd take blood from an animal or a willing subject. However, within my setting, legends persist of Eeevil spellcasters sacrificing hundreds of sentient beings at a time for unspeakably Eeeeeevil near-apocalyptic magic-spell-magibabble-stuff. And this is where I run into a slight problem: I have yet to find something quite like this in 3e or 3.5e. So, here's to hoping that PF has something vaguely representative of this, cheers!
4. Bonus round: Group Magic.
The story goes like this: Long ago (4000+ years ago), during the later years of the 2nd Age, when knowledge of magic was at its peak, a deep divisive disagreement occurred between the leader of the Dark Elves and the other Elf leaders. This resulted in a gigantic war in which some of the most powerful magic the world ever saw was utilized on the battlefield. This magic often involved several lesser spellcasters working together to cast spells of nearly god-like power. The world has never seen such magic used in battle ever since, partly because the elves outlawed its use (at least among themselves, and later as part of international agreements with anyone they traded or allied with) after finding that such powerful spells being used repeatedly in a given region over the course of 200+ years caused the area to become contaminated with residual magic energy (random spell effects just happening out of nowhere, spells not always behaving in their usual predictable manners, spells with the Living Spell template from the Ebberon campaign setting just running around, people and things from other planes or even other time periods randomly appearing, etc). To represent this ancient "group magic," probably the closest thing I've found is the Red Wizard (Dungeon Master's Guide, page 193). Again, I call group magic the "bonus round" because it might appear once (if ever) in the entire campaign.
Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any suggestions!