[Mechanics] Character creation and house rules

[Jondera]

Character creation:

Level 6, 25 point buy. HD rolls are modified slightly - d4+2 instead of d6, d5+3 instead of d8, d6+4 instead of d10, and d7+5 instead of d12. Two traits of choice (from Paizo sources, or others with approval).

16,000 gp worth of gear, no one item may be worth more than 8,500.

Medium advancement speed, so everyone's starting with 23,000 XP.

House rules:

Vitality and Wound Points, as mentioned in the advertisement thread. Note that the chart of VP dice in that link isn't accurate (since it was written for 3.5) - we will be using Pathfinder HD for VP. Also, healing spells won't work as stated in that link - each healing spell (or potion) can heal up to the caster level in WP, and all other healing restores lost VP. So a Cure Light Wounds cast by a level 4 cleric would heal 1d8+4 points, up to 4 of which could be WP, and the rest VP.

Additional house rules:

- Additional attacks from a high BAB are never less than 5 points of BAB below the main attack. So a level 20 fighter would have a BAB of +20/+15/+15/+15. The total number of attacks does not change (BAB/5, rounded up)

- Eschew Materials no longer exists, because Material Components with a negligible cost no longer exist. The only material components that anyone EVER has to worry about are those that actually cost money (like the Onyx for Animate Dead).

- Power Attack and Combat Expertise are no longer feats - they are available for use to anyone with a BAB of +1 or higher. Any feat or ability with Power Attack or Combat Expertise as a prerequisite has that requirement removed.

- Item Creation feats are now broken up into 3 separate feats: Craft Magic Item (Lesser, Moderate, & Greater). Lesser allows crafting of Scrolls, Potions, and Wands, up to Caster Level 10, and has a Prerequisite of Caster Level 3. Moderate allows crafting of Wondrous Items, Magic Arms & Armor, and Rods, up to Caster level 15. Max caster level for (Lesser) items is also extended to 15. It has a prerequisite of Caster Level 7. Greater allows crafting of Rings, Staves, and Constructs, and uncaps the max Caster Level of all crafting. It has a prerequisite of Caster Level 12. In addition, any charged item (wands, staves, etc...) can be recharged by somebody who has the appropriate item creation feat by losing prepared spells or spell slots (for spontaneous casters) equal to the number of charges to be regained, all equal or higher level than the spell stored in the item, and using material components equal to 10 gp multiplied by the spell's level per charge. For example: recharging 10 charges of a normal wand of fireball would require 300 gold in material components and the loss of 10 prepared spells or spell slots of 3rd level or higher.

- The Heighten Spell feat is removed - the benefits of the feat are automatically granted when casting a spell from a higher level spell slot. In addition, spells with capped damage dice have that cap increased by 2 for every 1 level higher of the spell slot it is cast from. For example, casting a Fireball from a 5th level spell slot would raise it's level to 5 for the purpose of DCs and overcoming spell immunity, and would raise the damage cap to 14d6. Spells which deal a set amount of damage (such as Magic Missile or Scorching Ray) have that damage increased by 1 die per 2 levels by which the spell level is raised, so a Magic Missile prepared in a level 3 slot would deal 2d4+1 damage per missile.

- All metamagic feats have their level adjustment reduced by 1, to a minimum of 0.

- The mobility-restricting effects of medium and heavy armor/loads are switched: you can only run at 3x normal speed in medium armor or with a medium load, and your base movement speed is slowed by 10 feet with heavy armor or a heavy load.

- Any pole arm with reach (longspear, for example) can be used as a quarterstaff at close range with a -2 to hit.

- Composite shortbows only cost 20 gp more per point of strength mod. Composite longbows only cost 30 gp extra per point of strength mod.

- The Toughness, Run, Endurance, and Diehard feats are all gone. They are replaced by the following feat:

New Feat Toughness Prerequisite: Con 13+ Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves: Constitution checks made to continue running, Constitution checks made to hold your breath, Constitution checks made to avoid damage from a forced march, starvation, or thirst, Swim checks made to resist damage, Fortitude saves made to avoid damage from hot or cold environments or from suffocation, and Fortitude saves to avoid being stunned when taking WP damage. You may run up to 5 times your speed as a full-round action, and retain your Dex bonus to AC while running. You automatically stabilize if reduced to negative hit points. You gain 1 WP per Vitality die. Also, you may sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued.

Also, if there's something you want to look at (alignment restrictions, altered class features, whatever), just ask and we can probably work something out.

[Mal Radagast]

Replaced my character thread post with her actual background, so I suppose these go here? To kick things off, a few of my most bothersome questions...

1 - Is CG alright with her monkishness, given that she's following Cayden Cailean? For that matter, can she multiclass freely? I don't know whether Pathfinder kept that restriction.

2 - Could we drop the BAB prereq on Punishing Kick? I like it a lot, but it doesn't seem very powerful at all, particularly at once per day.

Edit - I don't know whether you consider this a step too far, but the hungry hungry ghost monk variant replaces Stunning Fist with Punishing Kick. The Zen Archer replaces Stunning Fist with Perfect Strike. I'd be alright replacing Perfect Strike with Punishing Kick, as per the hungry hungry ghost monk.

3 - What is your ruling on traits? I was looking at Fortified Drinker - and then hoping for a Decanter of Endless Ale.

[Jondera]

Originally Posted by Malleus Malaprop

1 - Is CG alright with her monkishness, given that she's following Cayden Cailean? For that matter, can she multiclass freely? I don't know whether Pathfinder kept that restriction.

Yes, CG is fine, and yes, you can multiclass freely.

Originally Posted by Malleus Malaprop

2 - Could we drop the BAB prereq on Punishing Kick? I like it a lot, but it doesn't seem very powerful at all, particularly at once per day.

Edit - I don't know whether you consider this a step too far, but the hungry hungry ghost monk variant replaces Stunning Fist with Punishing Kick. The Zen Archer replaces Stunning Fist with Perfect Strike. I'd be alright replacing Perfect Strike with Punishing Kick, as per the hungry hungry ghost monk.

Since the prerequisites for all those various feats (stunning fist, punishing kick, perfect strike, etc...) are pretty much the same, I'm not going to change the prerequisites for one of them. Also note that they're usable once per day per monk level, and once per day for every 4 levels of non-monk classes.

As for trading Perfect Strike for Punishing Kick, I'm going to say no, because it doesn't thematically make sense for an archery specialist to get a bonus feat for kicking things. If you want to take Punishing Kick (once you meet the prerequisites), you can, or you could change your concept from an archer to a melee type and take the Hungry Ghost Monk archetype, and get Punishing Kick that way.

Originally Posted by Malleus Malaprop

3 - What is your ruling on traits? I was looking at Fortified Drinker - and then hoping for a Decanter of Endless Ale.

That would be something else I forgot. Yeah, everyone gets 2 traits of their choice.

[Jondera]

New house rule:

All Summon spells (Summon Monster, Summon Nature's Ally, Astral Construct, so on and so forth) have their duration changed from 1 round/level to Concentration + 1 round/level.