Prehistoric campaign options

[petermcleod117]

Any ideas for sources, official or otherwise, for a prehistoric campaign?
I'm primarilly looking for class options (what classes would fit etc)
I'm using Frostburn, Monkeygod Games' Frost and Fur, Green Ronin's Testament, Goodman Game's Broncosuarus Rex, the Complete Guide to Velociraptors, and the Complete Guide to T-Rexes
Any other ideas?

[Falontani]

Most dire animals work. Dmg has options for prehistoric weapons.
Phb: rogue (some skills removed), ranger, barbarian, druid, fighter, sorcerer (I'd either leave them as is, or drop specific levels of casting)
Replace cleric with oriental adventure's shaman
Replace paladin with Soulborn
Probably leave off Tob and most psionics.

Basically lawful stuff and intelligence based stuff would be harder to use

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by petermcleod117
Any ideas for sources, official or otherwise, for a prehistoric campaign?

How far back in time are you thinking? Is there a particular period you’re aiming for?

I can suggest two creatures you might consider including—the taer from Unapproachable East and quaggoths from Magic of Faerun. The taer are ferocious denizens of icy mountains; with their snow-white fur you might even call them abominable.

And the quaggoths are a favorite of mine, simply because they’re described as savage and bestial, but have the potential to be so much more.


Originally Posted by petermcleod117
…Monkeygod Games' Frost and Fur….

This has to be one of the most obscure sources I’ve ever seen mentioned here in the Playground. But I’m glad to hear about it, because it sounds like it’s everything that Frostburn wasn’t. And the cover art looks better than anything WotC produced.


Originally Posted by Falontani
…intelligence based stuff would be harder to use….

Why do you say this?

[petermcleod117]

How far back in time are you thinking? Is there a particular period you’re aiming for?

I can suggest two creatures you might consider including—the taer from Unapproachable East and quaggoths from Magic of Faerun. The taer are ferocious denizens of icy mountains; with their snow-white fur you might even call them abominable.

And the quaggoths are a favorite of mine, simply because they’re described as savage and bestial, but have the potential to be so much more.



This has to be one of the most obscure sources I’ve ever seen mentioned here in the Playground. But I’m glad to hear about it, because it sounds like it’s everything that Frostburn wasn’t. And the cover art looks better than anything WotC produced.


It's sort-of a mash-up of every idea people have had about prehistory since the Epic of Gilgamesh was written. This means dinosaurs, neanderthals, hobbits (yes, there were actual halflings in the ice age according to fossil records), a war between the gods mirroring the fall of satan from heaven, the birth of the nephilim giants, the flood, and the supposed "hyborean" age of Robert E Howard and Howard P Lovecraft. It doesn't necessarily correspond to an actual time period, but rather the idea of everything that happened before the advent of writing.

I'll check out the stuff you mentioned, see if I want to incorporate it.

Yeah, I'm a bit of a collector of obscure campaign supplements. Frost and Fur is really good; my only real issues with it are that the Artificer prestige class has an incomplete description, and the class abilities of the new base classes are listed in alphabetical order for some reason instead of the order in which they are accessed. Also, while I love that the Vikti has an entirely original spell list made up of rune combinations and with unique casting mechanics, the fact that all the spell names are in norse makes it a bit hard to navigate.
On the other hand, it has seven new base classes and a large number of class options for the player's handbook classes, as well as rules for how various spells and class abilities function differently in the cold, or even in different seasons of the year.
All in all, it's an excellent source, despite it's problems.




Edit: Couldn't find quaggoths in Magic of Faerun

[Falontani]

Why do you say this?

Prehistoric times are prehistoric because they predate written history.

I am not saying that our ancestors were not as capable of learning as we are (although if science is correct, this is actually a fact). I am saying that obtaining this information is vastly more difficult.

Storytelling traditions are amazing. I love listening to stories. However if you learned in one of 3 ways: actual experience, direct teaching, and storytelling then you will miss out on the big one that humans currently use: self taught research, which comes from countless ages of people accruing actual experience, sharing notes with others with actual experience, and storing this information.

Actual experience is the most assured way of retaining knowledge, whereas self taught research is one of the fastest.
The way to become a master at something is a combination of all 4. Actual experience being the most important, but learning from others, and experimentation being very valuable.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by petermcleod117
Couldn't find quaggoths in Magic of Faerun….

*forehead smack*

Sorry, I meant Monsters of Faerun, p. 75.


Originally Posted by petermcleod117
It's sort-of a mash-up of every idea people have had about prehistory since the Epic of Gilgamesh was written.

Okay, sounds like a lot of fun. If you want some further inspiration for the flood aspects, check out the flooding of the Black Sea around 5500 BC, as well as the freshwater lake that developed on the southern margins of the Scandinavian ice sheet in what is now the Baltic Sea.


Originally Posted by petermcleod117
…there were actual halflings in the ice age according to fossil records….

If you mean Homo floresiensis, this is hotly debated. (I’ve been at some of the conferences and seen the arguments firsthand; they can get pretty passionate.) The dating puts them in or out of various glacial periods depending on the study.


Originally Posted by Falontani
I am not saying that our ancestors were not as capable of learning as we are (although if science is correct, this is actually a fact).

This depends entirely on which ancestors you mean, i.e. how far back in evolutionary history. Since the OP isn’t keeping to a strict timeline, it’s less important for his purposes.


Originally Posted by Falontani
Actual experience being the most important, but learning from others, and experimentation being very valuable.

I’m not sure why these wouldn’t be equally effective in a preliterate society. You can certainly experiment with different woods to find the best one for a bow. I would call that “self-taught research,” which can then be shared with others by example and by language.

The one difference I’m seeing is that there wouldn’t be libraries in a preliterate setting, although you could make an argument that some petroglyphs and cave paintings could be a “library” in the sense that information is stored long-term in a visual medium. Even so, a true library has a far greater information density than a wall of petroglyphs, by many orders of magnitude.

But as you alluded to, the “libraries” in preliterate societies are those who embody oral tradition, such as druids and brahmins. It takes greater mental effort to memorize twenty thousand lines of an epic poem than to flip through pages in a book, so I’m not seeing how there’s any intelligence penalty in a society with an oral tradition instead of written text.

[torrasque666]

I’m not sure why these wouldn’t be equally effective in a preliterate society. You can certainly experiment with different woods to find the best one for a bow. I would call that “self-taught research,” which can then be shared with others by example and by language. That would fall under Actual Experience (you personally identifying the best material) and Direct Teaching (you directly teaching others the knowledge) Self-Taught Research is more of a "the information is out there, but its up to you to find the information. It won't be taught to you by the person who personally experienced it and you won't experience it until you try to act on the knowledge."


But as you alluded to, the “libraries” in preliterate societies are those who embody oral tradition, such as druids and brahmins. It takes greater mental effort to memorize twenty thousand lines of an epic poem than to flip through pages in a book, so I’m not seeing how there’s any intelligence penalty in a society with an oral tradition instead of written text.
Those would fall closer to a library than not, but it would still probably fall under an indirect teaching. its not the first hand accounts of the one experiencing the knowledge, and its not a mythologized or fictionalized retelling of the knowledge, but those brahmins and druids probably aren't also going out and acting on the knowledge that they are passing along, making it their own experience.

[Clementx]

Oral tradition is remarkably reliable for the essentials of human activity and culture. Science ie arcane magic practiced by wizards is the real shortcoming. Either remove wizards or reflavor their writing to pictgraphic or narrative-verbal based. Either sorcerers are all there is, or wizards recite epics as incantations to prepare spells. Perhaps they need totems or carved symbols to marshal arcane forces, making a medicine pouch their spell book.

As for weapons and armor, remove heavy armor and crossbows, make a few exotic s like blowguns or atl-atls martial, and don't worry about changing mostly balanced weapon stats for primitive materials. No one spends game time oiling their steel sufficiently to keep it from rusting now, so who cares about leather thongs and bone splinters?

[Maat Mons]

For the core classes:

Barbarian: Fine as is.
Bard: Make the Savage Bard variant standard.
Cleric: The Ancestral Speaker and Rage Cleric variants both seem fitting.
Druid: Fine as is.
Fighter: I guess it will do.
Monk: Maybe you can work something out with Chaos Monk and Wild Monk.
Paladin: I guess it will do.
Ranger: Fine as is.
Rogue: Make Wilderness Rogue variant standard.
Wizard: Only allow the Eidetic Wizard variant.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Clementx
Either sorcerers are all there is, or wizards recite epics as incantations to prepare spells. Perhaps they need totems or carved symbols to marshal arcane forces, making a medicine pouch their spell book.

I like this, especially the idea of wizards using totems and pictographs. They’re essentially proto-wizards, maybe shamans (in the cultural, not base-class sense) taking the very first steps into the world of arcane magic.


Originally Posted by petermcleod117
It doesn't necessarily correspond to an actual time period, but rather the idea of everything that happened before the advent of writing.

Bronze predates the earliest writing, so you’d be in the clear to include this as the only type of metal weapons. A bronze knife or axe would be a hero's weapon.


Originally Posted by Maat Mons
Make the Savage Bard variant standard.

If the OP is open to Pathfinder material, the Filidh archetype (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo-bard-archetypes/filidh-bard-archetype/) is absolutely perfect for this.

[Dexam]

I'm away from books at the moment, but from memory Arms and Equipment Guide has tables indicating which weapons and armour are accurate/appropriate (opinions may vary) for a Stone Age/Bronze Age-style campaign.

As for classes: Spirit Shaman (Complete Divine) is totally appropriate; and re-fluffing the Wu Jen, Shugenja, and/or Shaman classes from Oriental Adventures could work for "hyborean age" type spell casters.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I'll second the suggestion of Incarnum classes, especially Totemist.

[AnimeTheCat]

So, When I think of prehistoric I find it at odds with most assumptions and preconceptions of a high fantasy world. Most D&D worlds (with notable exceptions such as Dark Sun Campaign Setting) are medieval in nature, or medieval+ (the '+' being steampunk, Magitech, etc.). The good news is, reigning in a High Fantasy world (medieval) to a prehistoric one is as simple as removing what doesn't seem prehistoric to you. In my thoughts, prehistoric is literally just taken to mean before recorded history. That can go one of two ways, there isn't any means to physically record the history (no writing at all), or it's not widespread enough to be trackable as recorded history. In my thoughts below, I'm going with the second that there just isn't enough widespread recorded history.


You'll have to kind of decide how you want to set your game. For me, I'm invisioning a setting where all magic (divine, arcane, or other) is absolutely mystical and is largely not understood by the vast majority of the global population. This will make for the cliche nature veneration in tribal cultures (led by druids, spirit shamans or other divine spellcasters) by far the most prevelant religion. A prehistoric world is likely to have very little, if any written history. Maybe there are a few very secretive cabals, cloisters, temples, etc that chronicle some history, but they need to do it slowly and in-person sending out actual scribes to collect historical information and bring it back to the center. These convocations will likely be small, only numbering 20-30 people in total (scribes included) and led by 1-3 higher level clerics, wizards, or other uniquely literate class. Perhaps you'll want to include on rather large organiztion (100-150 people total) that are very difficult to find because they've bent magic to their will and obscured their center of knowledge from all those except other seekers. If a player wants to play a cleric or wizard, they should probably have some association to one of these types of organizations, and should be limited in their spell selection and utilization (more on that in Magic and Magic Items). Players who play a magical character should be viewed with awe by the global population, perhaps even with fear. There should absolutely be tribes or organizations that kill any child that display magical aptitued and detain and kill any outsiders who do as well. Groups like this will likely win by overwhelming force rather than cunning and would likely be some of the more "barbaric" groups.

On the note of barbarism, what kinds of cultures do you want to have? We've of course touched on tribal and the secretive small cabal, but what about a "forest keeper" kind of culture where they worship the forest and seek to protect it. Same sound as the cliche elven culture, but think a little less refined and a little more animalistic. Maybe these forest keepers are a nomadic group that are contantly patrolling the forest and only make small shrines to the forces they revere. The same could be done with dwarves with a sense of "the mountain provides". Less about building grand halls of gilded stone and more about protecting the spirit of their mountain home. Perhaps they have a small development at the heart of their culture, but in general they patroll the mountainsides. This culture may boast superior weapons and armor (more in equipment) which sets them apart from the "barbaric" tribes. These are very cliche, but have a different kind of feel to them in my mind (if I'm not conveying that well, let me know and I can expand more).

Does your setting take place in one single biome? Is the world encompassed in a never-ending winter brought about by a long-forgotten apocalypse that thrust the world back in to prehistoric times? Perhaps the only hold-outs were those few clerics and wizards that were able to retain a small collection of their ancient texts. Is this after the first forming of the material plane where nothing existed before? What the world feels like in terms of temperature and humidity or what the world looks like in terms of rocky, sandy, snowy, forested, volcanic, etc should have an explaination as to why or how or when it became that way. This can drive your cultures into creation and develop unique interactions between them. It's up to you to decide.



For races, I don't see why all races can't be represented still. I think that the "Norm" of humans spralling everywhere should be contested, unless you want it to be humans that predate all of the other races. In my personal opinion, you'll probably want the majority of the races to be the more commonly "barbaric" races. Orcs, Neanderthals (Frostburn), Wild Elves, Jungle Elves (as hidden keepers of history), Jungle Gnomes (over PHB Gnomes for the removal of Craft: Alchemy bonus). Depending on the environment you're primarily basing your setting in, you could pick Arctic Dwarves and have them be very small, reclusive craftsmen of spoken legend, and work them up to be something of a quest in and of themselves to seek out. This ties in to a couple of other thoughts I have on Setting, Equipment, and Skills that I will get to later. Essentially, I see no reason why the primary races shouldn't be represented wholly. The only races I would be weary of using to any extreme would be races such as Illumans, Aasimar, Tieflings, etc. and other outsider or strange races, unless you're using them as forces of the good planes or "bad" planes (if you're even using this concept at all, which I will get into when I talk about Religion). I think you get the idea though. If you don't or you want more of my thoughts, just let me know.



For this, I'll just list the PHB classes and some notable exceptions. This, again, ties in a little bit to what I think about skills and equipment, but I think all in all I'll be able to encompass my reasoning within this section. In general, I think you should make most, if not all, classes illiterate without the option to spend skill points on literacy instead going on quests for somebody to teach them heiroglyphs if they really want to be able to read/write. Exeptions will be noted in my thoughts.
Barbarian: Pure gold for prehistory. For added flavor, make entire tribes that are devoted to a single totem and us that variant alone in that tribe, or make tribes venerate various thematically congruent totems and have them be represented in the tribe. Maybe a Lion tribe dominated the nearby Boar, Horse, and Jaguar (or Leopard) tribes and have brought them in to a single massive tribe and incorperated the veneration of those totems into their belief system. Or maybe they wiped them out and there are no more Boar, Horse, or Jaguar barbarian tribes left in the savannah. Either way, you can make it very flavorful by playing with the alternate class features.
Bard: I would say the only bard that you should allow is the Savage Bard (Unearthed Arcana) variant, and then go a step further and trim back on the knowledge skills the bard has as class skills to include History, Local, Geography, and Nature. For flavor, I would say that tribes would likely have either a Savage Bard and a few low level druids or spirit shamans leading their spiritual side, or a druid and some low level savage bards leading them. In some rare cases, I am sure there would be some bardbarians out there too. Just some flavor to consider.
Cleric: This is the first time it matters, but with the cleric I think you should limit the class to be the negatives of Cloistered Cleric (light armor only, no shields, d6 HD, Poor BAB, Bad Fort/Ref saves, Good Will save) but modify the positives to only include a selection of any 3 knowledge skills from the following list (Arcana, Geography, History, Local, Nature, Religion, Planes), do not grant the Knowledge domain automatically, and only allow them to pick 2 domains from the following list (Air, Animal, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Earth, Evil, Fire, Good, Healing, Law, Luck, Plant, Protection, Strength, Sun, Travel, Trickery, War, Water). For Flavor, I would say this class should be one of the few exceptions to the "all classes illiterate" concept. The caveat to this is that clerics are very very rare and often are high level (compared to the party or organization they're associated with), thus making them the anomaly. IF you want to include an organization of strictly clerics, make them VERY reclusive and secretive, almost like a small elite group that are only discussed with wonder and awe and in such a way that makes them seem like it's impossible that they even exist in the first place.
Druid: Almost perfect as it is. The only things I would change would be to make them illiterate, and then only allow them access to light armor with no shields with a d6 HD. Again, following with the idea of the cleric, but this time make the far more widespread and generally leaders in tribal cultures. Otherwise, I think you can probably see where I'm going with this one. For more warlike tibes, make the druids druidic avengers for extra killy-killy feeling and give them their medium proficiency back with shields.
Fighter: So, fighters probably don't have that much of a place in a prehistoric world if I'm being honest. They hardly have a place in a high fantasy world. If you want the players to have more feats, just give them quests to achieve bonus feats you grant them instead of burning a class level. Another reason I think fighters have no place is because of what I'm proposing to the equipment changes, so just look there to see why I think fighters should be avoided. However, if you want them as stand-ins for the NPC warrior class or if a player really wants to play a fighter, here's how I would change them. Drop Heavy Armor Proficiency (see equipment as to why), make the illiterate, give the d12 HD, and give them the extra skills from the thug list, the 4+Int skill points per level, and let them take their first level feat as normal (as in don't give urban tracking).
Monk: I guess these guys can come play in a prehistoric world. I would give them the same restrictions as Cloistered clerics as far as Knowledge goes and allow them to be any alignment. They don't really make sense, so I would keep them as the "mobs" in those elusive cloistered cleric temples, effectively standing in for elite NPC warriors in those settings. Otherwise, you could flavor the various fighting styles similarly to totems and the monk seeking "perfection" in the sense of perfect emulation of their totem, then throw them in to tribes as well. As for literacy, it depends on where they are. Tribal monks probably illiterate, temple monks likely literate. You could also use monks as scribes for the cloisters and have spread out all over the world bringing back their stories to the temples. I'll touch more on this in the setting section.
Paladin: Paladins don't really make sense in any capacity. Even reflavored as Soulborn they don't really make that much sense (although more sense). If you're going to use them, use Soulborn, make them illiterate, take away their heavy armor proficiency (see equipment), and stick them in temples as elite guards or as the elite body guard of a tribal spiritual leader. In general, I don't think these guys make much sense and should be generally avoided except for especially specific and flavorful situations.
Ranger: Nearly pure gold. Make them illiterate and limit their equipment to what I outline in the equipment section, and you've got pure gold for the setting. I would let them trade their combat styles and favored enemy for rage and indomitable will, and let them take the variant rage if they do so (basically, flip the Barbarian alternate class feature on page 58 of Unearthed Arcana to go both ways for the barbarian or ranger).
Rogue: As others have said, change the rogue to the wilderness rogue and make them illiterate. Fits right in after that. Pretty simple.
Sorcerer: Ah, the perfect arcane caster for the setting. As much as the druid are spiritual leaders for the nature oriented tribes, those that venerate dragons might be spiritually led by a sorcerer. Make them illiterate, give them the HD and BAB benefits of the Battle Sorcerer (d8 HD, 3/4 BAB), and let them wear light armor without Arcane Spell Failure penalty as the Battle Sorcerer, but don't restrict or hinder their spellcasting at all. They're the primary arcane spellcaster you're going to have in the game. I would go a step further and let them have their bloodline feats for free at the same levels a wizard would get bonus feats starting at first level with the first bloodline feat of their choosing.
Wizard: These guys don't make much sense. I would use them the same way you use Clerics in a setting like this. Rare, elusive, and high level in comparison to their surroundings. A wizard may also have monks or soulborn/paladins guarding them or seeking out the information they're recording. Treat them similar to oracles or mystics and limit their involvement or influence on the game. these guys would not be illiterate. On another note, specialist wizards shouldn't be a thing and the vast majority of alternate class features should also not be a thing as the diversity of wizards is likely to come from spell selection.

Some non-PHB honorable Mentions:
Spirit Shaman: Oh this class is great for a setting like this, and great for the party to pick with as rare as clerics should be. For Pathfinder players, this class casts spells like an arcanist, but has access to the full spirit shaman list as opposed to needing a spellbook. Really cool, very versatile. Make them illiterate, and poof, they're ready. Use them as supporters to a druid or as stand-alone spiritual leaders of tribes themselves.
Favored Soul: These guys are pretty great in a setting like this. Use them similarly to Sorcerers and give them access to a single domain then let them have that domain granted power and cast +D domain spells per day. Illiterate with Knowledge (religion) instead of (arcana) and now you've got another great cleric stand-in for the players to use. Make these guys relatively wide-spread and you've got prehistoric winner winner chicken dinner.
Shugenja: Make these guys exactly like Cloistered Clerics (or even use them in place of them) with the selecting 3 knowledge skills from the list, and they'll work great in the same capacity as clerics.
Warlock: Warlocks are great in a setting like this. Make them illiterate, and then you have another sorcerer type spiritual leader (only this time for more evil cults or tribes). Should you want them to be literate, make them be the scribes for wizards and send them out in smaller quantity to bring back information to their master. Protect them with a team of monks or soulborn.
Scout: Oh so perfect for nomadic tribes. Make them illiterate and give them the choice of knowledge (nature) or Knowledge (dungeoneering) and you've got a great blend of rogue and ranger for the party and setting.

As a note, I think it would be best to avoide psionics in this type of setting, unless they are also very few and far between. They don't particularly bring anything unique to the table in this particular situation and might cause more problems than they are worth. If you want to include them and want my opinion, let me know.



In general, most skills are fine. Here are skills I think should just be omitted and why:
Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering): Even in standard games, this skill sees little use outside of very niche circumstances. In a prehistoric setting, before great cities and structures have been built, this skill is likely to see even less use. Best just to roleplay out situations dealing with this as opposed to using dice to work through it.
Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty): Again, best just to roleplay out this skill. If a player wants to use it to try and indentify marking or "bannerment" of an enemy, let them use other skills like profession, or just make an int or wisdom check to intuit it or recall it and make the DC appropriate for a challenge of that variety (10 for simple, 15 for challenging, 20 for very challenging).
Use Magic Device: This will probably be the most controversial one on this list so make of it what you willl, but I think in a setting like this where the vast majority of the population is illiterate, you won't have prolific use of scrolls and (if you read the magic and magic items section) wands, staves, and rods are likely to be legendary items that require quests to obtain. In doing so, ideally the device gets either syncronized to the wielder or is uable by anyone who knows the command word rather than something that needs to be rolled for.

Some skills that may see use, albeit limited, could be:
Decipher Script: Obviously, if there are two different organizations that are recording history, there's no guarentee that they are using the same language. IF they created their own language, the cance is practially impossible. If they inherited their written language from a long forgotten apocalypse, they would likely be encrypting their written word so as to protect it from those who fear it or those who might want to finish the job and destroy it.
Speak Language: Clearly, not every culture will speak the same language. With spellcasters being less common (in theory), the likelihood of having someone to cast tongues or comprehend languages is lower. Different regions should probably have different languages or at least dialects, and there probably shouldn't be one umbrella "common" language. This skill may even increase in usefulness for a setting like this.



These share the same section in the PHB, so they can share here.
Alignments:
Define, BEFORE THE GAME, exactly what the alignments mean in your game. Tribal organizations may be chaotic, but they could also be lawful too. If a tribal organization follows a strict heirarchy of power and form what equates to a Theocracy under a druid or circle of druids, you should probably make most of the denezines of the tribe lawful, or at least neutral. In fact, I would even consider removing alignment restrictions entirely and just let people play the way they want to play. If a Barbarian wants to be cliche honorable and follow the rules let them. If a monk wants to be the outward effect of their inward chaos of self, let them. Certain things should stay in effect though, such as an evil cleric not being able to spontaneously cast cure spells, but that is the exception. Ultimately, you pick how big a role alignment will play and then stick to it, or just use it as a general guideline and don't be restrictive with it.

Religions:
You're probably best off playing without a pantheon to be honest. Maybe a very small collection of primordial deities of som kind, but in general I would keep the organized religion to a minimum. Organized religions that span civilizations is a very complex thing if you don't have a written history or a codefied series of beliefs and rules for a vast population to follow. I would keep things to domains, elements, and generalized forces of nature beyond "average" comprehension, or even powerful magical beasts (dragons and the like).

Background:
I touched on this in the setting, but your players should have a firm grasp on the culture they're from because that will strongly dictate their background. For instance, it makes little-to-no sense for a bear totem barbarian to come from a tribe of barbarians that venerate the wolf totem and have systematically been wiping out the bear totem tribes. Yes, you can make it work, but they should include in their background that it's been difficult to feel like a part of that tribe. Perhaps they came from that tribe but were exiled for worshiping a totem other than the wolf (don't know why they wouldn't just kill the character). Whatever they case, make sure it works in the narrative of the setting. If you have a strong line of evil is evil and good is good, maybe you shouldn't let someone play a good Drow or an evil Aasimar. If a player starts off being evil but graduates towards a less evil alignment, let them play that out. However, you see how I feel about alignment. Either define it beyond a shadow of a doubt and stick to it, or use it for flavor and not for rules. If you've got a character that has magic, make sure they feel special in the world because they should be. There should be very little in the way of magical characters in a prehistoric setting, and those that are magical should be leaders or treated like royalty.



Ah, referred to so many times earlier and here it is. A prehistoric setting is likely to not have much of the expected equipment, especially when it comes to weapons and armor. Most classes should not have innate access to heavy armor proficiency, and most heavy armors should not really exist at large in the world, with a few notable exceptions. I'll break this down by weapon type and armor type and discuss how I feel it would fit in to the world.
Simple Weapons:
most of these are fine. I would suggest making the various maces different skins of club (light club, heavy club, Spiked club) and call daggers something different like just a basic knife, but keep the damages and categories the same. I would remove the sickle and crossbows as those are not really possible without higher levels of machining or metalworking. If you want them in your game, give them to the dwarves and if players want them, have them chase down legends of squat mountain men with brilliant craftsmanship.
Martial Weapons:
Converse to Simple weapons, most of these are not fine. I would limit this list to the axes (hand axe, throwing axe, battleaxe, greataxe), the Great Club, and the bows (though not composite bows and favoring slings over bows). Otherwise, if your players want these weapons uniquely, send them to the dwarves and have them quest for it. Essentially, these types of quests can easily fill up your lower levels without resorting to cliche fetchem quests or "go kill blah" quests.
Exotic Weapons:
For the most part, the only ones I see that really have any "normal" place is the whip and bolas. I would even consider making these simple or martial weapons and then forgetting that the exotic weapons even exist. Again though, if your players want them consider it strongly and then send the to the dwarves. I would recommend against things like the spiked chain as I think they are already on thin ice as a feasible weapon in a standard high fantasy setting. However, if you want them in your game by all means.

Light Armor:
All of this stuff is good and should be, by far, the most common armor available. The chain shirts should probably all be magical and should be restricted to only the highest ranking or even as "legendary" loot after some big quest.
Medium Armor:
Similar to Light armor, most of this stuff should be good. Make the scale mail be made of bone or thicker hide and it's golden. Again, make Chainmail or breastplates all magical and have them be limited to high ranking leaders and legendary quest loot.
Heavy Armor:
Limit this to only be available innately to dwarves. Really carve out their existence as masters of steel. However, even amoung dwarves, limit the Full Plate to key leaders or heirloom legendary loot, only having a few suits forged across the world. If a player wants it, let them seek it out in an epic journey. Don't require them to take a feat and I would even say don't let it invalidate any special abilities from their class (except arcane spellcasters... they should have extra steps to take to use it, but don't tell them no).



Ok, here's the thing with magic. It can and will utterly disrupt the setting and break immersion if it's not handled properly. To that end, instead of limiting the spells, the goal is to limit the number of spellcasters that can use those spells, and thusly limit the chance of them impacting the setting. Further, you'll need to dig through the list and reeeeeealy think about what spells belong in the setting. In my example, I would think that spells like explosive runes would probably not have any place simply because most people can't read and thus can't trigger the runes.

As for magic items, they should be incredibly rare and very difficult to get. For the most part, the item crafting feats should not be taken by most characters, including NPCs. Maybe there's a reclusive Dwarf Wizard that once crafted Amazing magical weapons, but hasn't been heard of for centures. Perhaps there was once a druid that was so powerful that she could bend wood to become as strong as metal crafted by the dwarves. All of this can serve as plot hooks or storylines. One thing that should be especially difficult to come by are scrolls. Specifically wizard arcane scrolls. Wizards should be limited in the spells they have and should receive scrolls as legendary quest loot.

Here's the thing with all of the equipment and magic items. The players basically get to tell you what they want, a la magicmart style, but getting it serves the baseline of your early questing. I suspect that levels 1-5 will likely be accumulating wealth and magic items similarly to what you would expect from a normal game, and later levels would be setting and world changing in their questlines. Levels 5-12 would probably be the players gathering "wealth" in a different form, such as by uniting tribes under their leadership and creating forces of their own. Payment in the form of, what equates to, landed titles and people. Then, in the later levels (12+) this is when they fight their big elder evil/satan's fall from heaven/etc. war where they PCs bring their "factions" to bear against these forces. Part of preparing for this can even include helping the dwarves get to a special place within their mountain so they can pump out magical weapons for their armies. There's a lot of fun and wiggle room to be had with something like this.


Hopefully this gives you a lot to think about and consider. The vast majority of it has worked for me in the past, either together or stand-alone. The real important part is to stress the rarity of magics and then make sure that your group understands and agrees to conform to your expectations of magic in your world.

[petermcleod117]

So, When I think of prehistoric I find it at odds with most assumptions and preconceptions of a high fantasy world. Most D&D worlds (with notable exceptions such as Dark Sun Campaign Setting) are medieval in nature, or medieval+ (the '+' being steampunk, Magitech, etc.). The good news is, reigning in a High Fantasy world (medieval) to a prehistoric one is as simple as removing what doesn't seem prehistoric to you. In my thoughts, prehistoric is literally just taken to mean before recorded history. That can go one of two ways, there isn't any means to physically record the history (no writing at all), or it's not widespread enough to be trackable as recorded history. In my thoughts below, I'm going with the second that there just isn't enough widespread recorded history.


You'll have to kind of decide how you want to set your game. For me, I'm invisioning a setting where all magic (divine, arcane, or other) is absolutely mystical and is largely not understood by the vast majority of the global population. This will make for the cliche nature veneration in tribal cultures (led by druids, spirit shamans or other divine spellcasters) by far the most prevelant religion. A prehistoric world is likely to have very little, if any written history. Maybe there are a few very secretive cabals, cloisters, temples, etc that chronicle some history, but they need to do it slowly and in-person sending out actual scribes to collect historical information and bring it back to the center. These convocations will likely be small, only numbering 20-30 people in total (scribes included) and led by 1-3 higher level clerics, wizards, or other uniquely literate class. Perhaps you'll want to include on rather large organiztion (100-150 people total) that are very difficult to find because they've bent magic to their will and obscured their center of knowledge from all those except other seekers. If a player wants to play a cleric or wizard, they should probably have some association to one of these types of organizations, and should be limited in their spell selection and utilization (more on that in Magic and Magic Items). Players who play a magical character should be viewed with awe by the global population, perhaps even with fear. There should absolutely be tribes or organizations that kill any child that display magical aptitued and detain and kill any outsiders who do as well. Groups like this will likely win by overwhelming force rather than cunning and would likely be some of the more "barbaric" groups.

On the note of barbarism, what kinds of cultures do you want to have? We've of course touched on tribal and the secretive small cabal, but what about a "forest keeper" kind of culture where they worship the forest and seek to protect it. Same sound as the cliche elven culture, but think a little less refined and a little more animalistic. Maybe these forest keepers are a nomadic group that are contantly patrolling the forest and only make small shrines to the forces they revere. The same could be done with dwarves with a sense of "the mountain provides". Less about building grand halls of gilded stone and more about protecting the spirit of their mountain home. Perhaps they have a small development at the heart of their culture, but in general they patroll the mountainsides. This culture may boast superior weapons and armor (more in equipment) which sets them apart from the "barbaric" tribes. These are very cliche, but have a different kind of feel to them in my mind (if I'm not conveying that well, let me know and I can expand more).

Does your setting take place in one single biome? Is the world encompassed in a never-ending winter brought about by a long-forgotten apocalypse that thrust the world back in to prehistoric times? Perhaps the only hold-outs were those few clerics and wizards that were able to retain a small collection of their ancient texts. Is this after the first forming of the material plane where nothing existed before? What the world feels like in terms of temperature and humidity or what the world looks like in terms of rocky, sandy, snowy, forested, volcanic, etc should have an explaination as to why or how or when it became that way. This can drive your cultures into creation and develop unique interactions between them. It's up to you to decide.



For races, I don't see why all races can't be represented still. I think that the "Norm" of humans spralling everywhere should be contested, unless you want it to be humans that predate all of the other races. In my personal opinion, you'll probably want the majority of the races to be the more commonly "barbaric" races. Orcs, Neanderthals (Frostburn), Wild Elves, Jungle Elves (as hidden keepers of history), Jungle Gnomes (over PHB Gnomes for the removal of Craft: Alchemy bonus). Depending on the environment you're primarily basing your setting in, you could pick Arctic Dwarves and have them be very small, reclusive craftsmen of spoken legend, and work them up to be something of a quest in and of themselves to seek out. This ties in to a couple of other thoughts I have on Setting, Equipment, and Skills that I will get to later. Essentially, I see no reason why the primary races shouldn't be represented wholly. The only races I would be weary of using to any extreme would be races such as Illumans, Aasimar, Tieflings, etc. and other outsider or strange races, unless you're using them as forces of the good planes or "bad" planes (if you're even using this concept at all, which I will get into when I talk about Religion). I think you get the idea though. If you don't or you want more of my thoughts, just let me know.



For this, I'll just list the PHB classes and some notable exceptions. This, again, ties in a little bit to what I think about skills and equipment, but I think all in all I'll be able to encompass my reasoning within this section. In general, I think you should make most, if not all, classes illiterate without the option to spend skill points on literacy instead going on quests for somebody to teach them heiroglyphs if they really want to be able to read/write. Exeptions will be noted in my thoughts.
Barbarian: Pure gold for prehistory. For added flavor, make entire tribes that are devoted to a single totem and us that variant alone in that tribe, or make tribes venerate various thematically congruent totems and have them be represented in the tribe. Maybe a Lion tribe dominated the nearby Boar, Horse, and Jaguar (or Leopard) tribes and have brought them in to a single massive tribe and incorperated the veneration of those totems into their belief system. Or maybe they wiped them out and there are no more Boar, Horse, or Jaguar barbarian tribes left in the savannah. Either way, you can make it very flavorful by playing with the alternate class features.
Bard: I would say the only bard that you should allow is the Savage Bard (Unearthed Arcana) variant, and then go a step further and trim back on the knowledge skills the bard has as class skills to include History, Local, Geography, and Nature. For flavor, I would say that tribes would likely have either a Savage Bard and a few low level druids or spirit shamans leading their spiritual side, or a druid and some low level savage bards leading them. In some rare cases, I am sure there would be some bardbarians out there too. Just some flavor to consider.
Cleric: This is the first time it matters, but with the cleric I think you should limit the class to be the negatives of Cloistered Cleric (light armor only, no shields, d6 HD, Poor BAB, Bad Fort/Ref saves, Good Will save) but modify the positives to only include a selection of any 3 knowledge skills from the following list (Arcana, Geography, History, Local, Nature, Religion, Planes), do not grant the Knowledge domain automatically, and only allow them to pick 2 domains from the following list (Air, Animal, Chaos, Death, Destruction, Earth, Evil, Fire, Good, Healing, Law, Luck, Plant, Protection, Strength, Sun, Travel, Trickery, War, Water). For Flavor, I would say this class should be one of the few exceptions to the "all classes illiterate" concept. The caveat to this is that clerics are very very rare and often are high level (compared to the party or organization they're associated with), thus making them the anomaly. IF you want to include an organization of strictly clerics, make them VERY reclusive and secretive, almost like a small elite group that are only discussed with wonder and awe and in such a way that makes them seem like it's impossible that they even exist in the first place.
Druid: Almost perfect as it is. The only things I would change would be to make them illiterate, and then only allow them access to light armor with no shields with a d6 HD. Again, following with the idea of the cleric, but this time make the far more widespread and generally leaders in tribal cultures. Otherwise, I think you can probably see where I'm going with this one. For more warlike tibes, make the druids druidic avengers for extra killy-killy feeling and give them their medium proficiency back with shields.
Fighter: So, fighters probably don't have that much of a place in a prehistoric world if I'm being honest. They hardly have a place in a high fantasy world. If you want the players to have more feats, just give them quests to achieve bonus feats you grant them instead of burning a class level. Another reason I think fighters have no place is because of what I'm proposing to the equipment changes, so just look there to see why I think fighters should be avoided. However, if you want them as stand-ins for the NPC warrior class or if a player really wants to play a fighter, here's how I would change them. Drop Heavy Armor Proficiency (see equipment as to why), make the illiterate, give the d12 HD, and give them the extra skills from the thug list, the 4+Int skill points per level, and let them take their first level feat as normal (as in don't give urban tracking).
Monk: I guess these guys can come play in a prehistoric world. I would give them the same restrictions as Cloistered clerics as far as Knowledge goes and allow them to be any alignment. They don't really make sense, so I would keep them as the "mobs" in those elusive cloistered cleric temples, effectively standing in for elite NPC warriors in those settings. Otherwise, you could flavor the various fighting styles similarly to totems and the monk seeking "perfection" in the sense of perfect emulation of their totem, then throw them in to tribes as well. As for literacy, it depends on where they are. Tribal monks probably illiterate, temple monks likely literate. You could also use monks as scribes for the cloisters and have spread out all over the world bringing back their stories to the temples. I'll touch more on this in the setting section.
Paladin: Paladins don't really make sense in any capacity. Even reflavored as Soulborn they don't really make that much sense (although more sense). If you're going to use them, use Soulborn, make them illiterate, take away their heavy armor proficiency (see equipment), and stick them in temples as elite guards or as the elite body guard of a tribal spiritual leader. In general, I don't think these guys make much sense and should be generally avoided except for especially specific and flavorful situations.
Ranger: Nearly pure gold. Make them illiterate and limit their equipment to what I outline in the equipment section, and you've got pure gold for the setting. I would let them trade their combat styles and favored enemy for rage and indomitable will, and let them take the variant rage if they do so (basically, flip the Barbarian alternate class feature on page 58 of Unearthed Arcana to go both ways for the barbarian or ranger).
Rogue: As others have said, change the rogue to the wilderness rogue and make them illiterate. Fits right in after that. Pretty simple.
Sorcerer: Ah, the perfect arcane caster for the setting. As much as the druid are spiritual leaders for the nature oriented tribes, those that venerate dragons might be spiritually led by a sorcerer. Make them illiterate, give them the HD and BAB benefits of the Battle Sorcerer (d8 HD, 3/4 BAB), and let them wear light armor without Arcane Spell Failure penalty as the Battle Sorcerer, but don't restrict or hinder their spellcasting at all. They're the primary arcane spellcaster you're going to have in the game. I would go a step further and let them have their bloodline feats for free at the same levels a wizard would get bonus feats starting at first level with the first bloodline feat of their choosing.
Wizard: These guys don't make much sense. I would use them the same way you use Clerics in a setting like this. Rare, elusive, and high level in comparison to their surroundings. A wizard may also have monks or soulborn/paladins guarding them or seeking out the information they're recording. Treat them similar to oracles or mystics and limit their involvement or influence on the game. these guys would not be illiterate. On another note, specialist wizards shouldn't be a thing and the vast majority of alternate class features should also not be a thing as the diversity of wizards is likely to come from spell selection.

Some non-PHB honorable Mentions:
Spirit Shaman: Oh this class is great for a setting like this, and great for the party to pick with as rare as clerics should be. For Pathfinder players, this class casts spells like an arcanist, but has access to the full spirit shaman list as opposed to needing a spellbook. Really cool, very versatile. Make them illiterate, and poof, they're ready. Use them as supporters to a druid or as stand-alone spiritual leaders of tribes themselves.
Favored Soul: These guys are pretty great in a setting like this. Use them similarly to Sorcerers and give them access to a single domain then let them have that domain granted power and cast +D domain spells per day. Illiterate with Knowledge (religion) instead of (arcana) and now you've got another great cleric stand-in for the players to use. Make these guys relatively wide-spread and you've got prehistoric winner winner chicken dinner.
Shugenja: Make these guys exactly like Cloistered Clerics (or even use them in place of them) with the selecting 3 knowledge skills from the list, and they'll work great in the same capacity as clerics.
Warlock: Warlocks are great in a setting like this. Make them illiterate, and then you have another sorcerer type spiritual leader (only this time for more evil cults or tribes). Should you want them to be literate, make them be the scribes for wizards and send them out in smaller quantity to bring back information to their master. Protect them with a team of monks or soulborn.
Scout: Oh so perfect for nomadic tribes. Make them illiterate and give them the choice of knowledge (nature) or Knowledge (dungeoneering) and you've got a great blend of rogue and ranger for the party and setting.

As a note, I think it would be best to avoide psionics in this type of setting, unless they are also very few and far between. They don't particularly bring anything unique to the table in this particular situation and might cause more problems than they are worth. If you want to include them and want my opinion, let me know.



In general, most skills are fine. Here are skills I think should just be omitted and why:
Knowledge (Architecture and Engineering): Even in standard games, this skill sees little use outside of very niche circumstances. In a prehistoric setting, before great cities and structures have been built, this skill is likely to see even less use. Best just to roleplay out situations dealing with this as opposed to using dice to work through it.
Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty): Again, best just to roleplay out this skill. If a player wants to use it to try and indentify marking or "bannerment" of an enemy, let them use other skills like profession, or just make an int or wisdom check to intuit it or recall it and make the DC appropriate for a challenge of that variety (10 for simple, 15 for challenging, 20 for very challenging).
Use Magic Device: This will probably be the most controversial one on this list so make of it what you willl, but I think in a setting like this where the vast majority of the population is illiterate, you won't have prolific use of scrolls and (if you read the magic and magic items section) wands, staves, and rods are likely to be legendary items that require quests to obtain. In doing so, ideally the device gets either syncronized to the wielder or is uable by anyone who knows the command word rather than something that needs to be rolled for.

Some skills that may see use, albeit limited, could be:
Decipher Script: Obviously, if there are two different organizations that are recording history, there's no guarentee that they are using the same language. IF they created their own language, the cance is practially impossible. If they inherited their written language from a long forgotten apocalypse, they would likely be encrypting their written word so as to protect it from those who fear it or those who might want to finish the job and destroy it.
Speak Language: Clearly, not every culture will speak the same language. With spellcasters being less common (in theory), the likelihood of having someone to cast tongues or comprehend languages is lower. Different regions should probably have different languages or at least dialects, and there probably shouldn't be one umbrella "common" language. This skill may even increase in usefulness for a setting like this.



These share the same section in the PHB, so they can share here.
Alignments:
Define, BEFORE THE GAME, exactly what the alignments mean in your game. Tribal organizations may be chaotic, but they could also be lawful too. If a tribal organization follows a strict heirarchy of power and form what equates to a Theocracy under a druid or circle of druids, you should probably make most of the denezines of the tribe lawful, or at least neutral. In fact, I would even consider removing alignment restrictions entirely and just let people play the way they want to play. If a Barbarian wants to be cliche honorable and follow the rules let them. If a monk wants to be the outward effect of their inward chaos of self, let them. Certain things should stay in effect though, such as an evil cleric not being able to spontaneously cast cure spells, but that is the exception. Ultimately, you pick how big a role alignment will play and then stick to it, or just use it as a general guideline and don't be restrictive with it.

Religions:
You're probably best off playing without a pantheon to be honest. Maybe a very small collection of primordial deities of som kind, but in general I would keep the organized religion to a minimum. Organized religions that span civilizations is a very complex thing if you don't have a written history or a codefied series of beliefs and rules for a vast population to follow. I would keep things to domains, elements, and generalized forces of nature beyond "average" comprehension, or even powerful magical beasts (dragons and the like).

Background:
I touched on this in the setting, but your players should have a firm grasp on the culture they're from because that will strongly dictate their background. For instance, it makes little-to-no sense for a bear totem barbarian to come from a tribe of barbarians that venerate the wolf totem and have systematically been wiping out the bear totem tribes. Yes, you can make it work, but they should include in their background that it's been difficult to feel like a part of that tribe. Perhaps they came from that tribe but were exiled for worshiping a totem other than the wolf (don't know why they wouldn't just kill the character). Whatever they case, make sure it works in the narrative of the setting. If you have a strong line of evil is evil and good is good, maybe you shouldn't let someone play a good Drow or an evil Aasimar. If a player starts off being evil but graduates towards a less evil alignment, let them play that out. However, you see how I feel about alignment. Either define it beyond a shadow of a doubt and stick to it, or use it for flavor and not for rules. If you've got a character that has magic, make sure they feel special in the world because they should be. There should be very little in the way of magical characters in a prehistoric setting, and those that are magical should be leaders or treated like royalty.



Ah, referred to so many times earlier and here it is. A prehistoric setting is likely to not have much of the expected equipment, especially when it comes to weapons and armor. Most classes should not have innate access to heavy armor proficiency, and most heavy armors should not really exist at large in the world, with a few notable exceptions. I'll break this down by weapon type and armor type and discuss how I feel it would fit in to the world.
Simple Weapons:
most of these are fine. I would suggest making the various maces different skins of club (light club, heavy club, Spiked club) and call daggers something different like just a basic knife, but keep the damages and categories the same. I would remove the sickle and crossbows as those are not really possible without higher levels of machining or metalworking. If you want them in your game, give them to the dwarves and if players want them, have them chase down legends of squat mountain men with brilliant craftsmanship.
Martial Weapons:
Converse to Simple weapons, most of these are not fine. I would limit this list to the axes (hand axe, throwing axe, battleaxe, greataxe), the Great Club, and the bows (though not composite bows and favoring slings over bows). Otherwise, if your players want these weapons uniquely, send them to the dwarves and have them quest for it. Essentially, these types of quests can easily fill up your lower levels without resorting to cliche fetchem quests or "go kill blah" quests.
Exotic Weapons:
For the most part, the only ones I see that really have any "normal" place is the whip and bolas. I would even consider making these simple or martial weapons and then forgetting that the exotic weapons even exist. Again though, if your players want them consider it strongly and then send the to the dwarves. I would recommend against things like the spiked chain as I think they are already on thin ice as a feasible weapon in a standard high fantasy setting. However, if you want them in your game by all means.

Light Armor:
All of this stuff is good and should be, by far, the most common armor available. The chain shirts should probably all be magical and should be restricted to only the highest ranking or even as "legendary" loot after some big quest.
Medium Armor:
Similar to Light armor, most of this stuff should be good. Make the scale mail be made of bone or thicker hide and it's golden. Again, make Chainmail or breastplates all magical and have them be limited to high ranking leaders and legendary quest loot.
Heavy Armor:
Limit this to only be available innately to dwarves. Really carve out their existence as masters of steel. However, even amoung dwarves, limit the Full Plate to key leaders or heirloom legendary loot, only having a few suits forged across the world. If a player wants it, let them seek it out in an epic journey. Don't require them to take a feat and I would even say don't let it invalidate any special abilities from their class (except arcane spellcasters... they should have extra steps to take to use it, but don't tell them no).



Ok, here's the thing with magic. It can and will utterly disrupt the setting and break immersion if it's not handled properly. To that end, instead of limiting the spells, the goal is to limit the number of spellcasters that can use those spells, and thusly limit the chance of them impacting the setting. Further, you'll need to dig through the list and reeeeeealy think about what spells belong in the setting. In my example, I would think that spells like explosive runes would probably not have any place simply because most people can't read and thus can't trigger the runes.

As for magic items, they should be incredibly rare and very difficult to get. For the most part, the item crafting feats should not be taken by most characters, including NPCs. Maybe there's a reclusive Dwarf Wizard that once crafted Amazing magical weapons, but hasn't been heard of for centures. Perhaps there was once a druid that was so powerful that she could bend wood to become as strong as metal crafted by the dwarves. All of this can serve as plot hooks or storylines. One thing that should be especially difficult to come by are scrolls. Specifically wizard arcane scrolls. Wizards should be limited in the spells they have and should receive scrolls as legendary quest loot.

Here's the thing with all of the equipment and magic items. The players basically get to tell you what they want, a la magicmart style, but getting it serves the baseline of your early questing. I suspect that levels 1-5 will likely be accumulating wealth and magic items similarly to what you would expect from a normal game, and later levels would be setting and world changing in their questlines. Levels 5-12 would probably be the players gathering "wealth" in a different form, such as by uniting tribes under their leadership and creating forces of their own. Payment in the form of, what equates to, landed titles and people. Then, in the later levels (12+) this is when they fight their big elder evil/satan's fall from heaven/etc. war where they PCs bring their "factions" to bear against these forces. Part of preparing for this can even include helping the dwarves get to a special place within their mountain so they can pump out magical weapons for their armies. There's a lot of fun and wiggle room to be had with something like this.


Hopefully this gives you a lot to think about and consider. The vast majority of it has worked for me in the past, either together or stand-alone. The real important part is to stress the rarity of magics and then make sure that your group understands and agrees to conform to your expectations of magic in your world.


One of the major theme of my campaign is that humanity is just beginning to come into dominance; other species have already formed civilizations that are in decline. The fey (basically buffed versions of all the Player's Handbook races except humans and halflings) are beginning to lose their magic, the Velociraptors are beginning to die out due to lack of sufficient food to sustain their higher metabolisms, etc. The gods, while they exist, are currently locked into a great civil war which the Abrahamic faiths would call The Fall and the Norse would refer to as the First War. The only real sources of divine magic would thus be druidic/shamanistic in nature, taught by the ancient Treants, before they fell asleep. The fey races (and the nephilim giants) at this time are the only wielders of arcane magic, and they only produce spontaneous spellcasters.

The setting takes place across the world from the home of the neanderthals and fey in ice-covered europe to the north-african planes that are slowly being swallowed by the sahara desert to the jungles of south africa and the fertile lands of Mesopotamia, China, and Egypt. A few civilizations are beginning to form, such as early china, egypt, and babylon. Think of these early civilizations as being somewhat similar to the decadent civilizations in Conan the Barbarian. After the flood, the tower of Babel will be built and subsequently destroyed; prior to this, everyone will speak the same language (assumed to be some variant of aramaic). There is a city just off the coast of the pillars of heracles populated by civilized neanderthals called Atlantis. True humans are confined to africa, the middle east, and china. Velociraptors are found everywhere (though their clans typically meet in mongolia during astronomical events), as are playable outsider races representing to earliest gods; both of these are avoided if possible by everyone else simply because they are incredibly intelligent, imposing, and deadly. Given that the Raptors are starving and the gods are fighting a war, avoiding their wrath can be extremely difficult, and many human and neanderthal villages have been razed to the ground by hungry packs and heavenly skirmishes.

Magic items are indeed very rare, except among the fey and the gods (the fey and the gods have a higher level adjustment anyway, so if you are playing as them you are already on an entirely different level than the mortal races). The dwarves do most of the crafting and enchanting; the elves are almost exclusively warriors and battle-mages, and gnomes protect communities using illusions. The barbaric human/neanderthal tribes are limited to stone tools, while the few cities might have access to bronze; only the people of south-east africa have access to steel weapons, and they are not willing to share their secrets, though even then the environment of the region basically precludes the use of steel armor. Raptors, despite their intelligence, do not have opposable thumbs, so tool use is almost impossible for them. Either way, magic users among mortal races are so rare that those few who practice the craft see enchanting items as utterly beneath them.