Ghostfoot's Variant Rule Playtest [PF1] - level 15 Serpent's Skull

[Ghostfoot]

Warning: The main purpose of this game is to test out some ill-conceived house rules & variant rules. The game is intended to be fast-paced, roll-play not role-play, and will very likely be unbalanced & perhaps require tweaking “on the fly”.

We will run Hunter's Maze from Serpent's Skull AP, book 6

Spoiler: The Big 16

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1. What game system are you running (D&D, Call of Cthulu, Palladium, GURPS, etc.), and if applicable what edition (Original, Classic, Revised, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, etc.)?

Pathfinder 1E

2. What 'type' or variant of game will it be (i.e. "Shadow Chasers" or "Agents of Psi" for d20 Modern)? What is the setting for the game (eg. historic period, published or homebrewed campaign setting, alternate reality, modern world, etc.)?

Hunter's Maze from Serpent's Skull AP, book 6

3. How many Players are you looking for? Will you be taking alternates, and if so, how many?

4

4. What's the gaming medium (OOTS, chat, e-mail etc.)?

Here - GitP forums.

Ideally at least 1 brief post each day to keep things moving. Mechanics only, no fluff needed.

5. What is the characters' starting status (i.e. experience level)?

Level 15

6. How much gold or other starting funds will the characters begin with?

Standard WBL

7. Are there any particular character classes, professions, orders, etc. that you want... or do not want? What are your rules on 'prestige' and/or homebrewed classes?

Only official Paizo classes are allowed.
Must use Unchained variant where available.

8. What races, subraces, species, etc. are allowed for your game? Will you allow homebrewed races or species? 'Prestige' races or species?

PC must be Human only.
Cohort (see below) may be any official Paizo race.

9. By what method should Players generate their attributes/ability scores and Hit Points?

PF 15 point buy, with a range of 3-18 (That's right you can go below 7).
Humans have a maximum starting score of 18 after racial adjustments.

Max hp for 1st level. Half max + 0.5 (rounded up) thereafter.
You can buy extra maximum hp using retraining rules here .

10. Does your game use alignment? What are your restrictions, if so?

Yes and it is mechanically significant (see below).

11. Do you allow multi-classing, or have any particular rules in regards to it?

Standard rules. You may use variant multi-classing for your character (VMC) if you wish.

12. Will you be doing all of the die rolling during the course of the game? Will die rolls be altered, or left to the honor system? If players can make die rolls, which ones do they make, how should they make the rolls, and how should they report them?

All die rolls on the GitPs forums - either in the OOC forum or in spoilers in the IC forum please. I will roll initiative, saves and certain skill checks for you. Basically anything reactive I will roll in order to speed play up. You can do all of the proactive rolls for your character.

13. Are there any homebrewed or optional/variant rules that your Players should know about? If so, list and explain them, or provide relevant links to learn about these new rules.

2 traits allowed
1 drawback (+ 3rd trait) allowed

Major gameplay changes:

1. Bell-Curve Rolls (based on Alignment)
   
   • If you are Lawful you roll 3d6 in place of 1d20
   • If you are Neutral you roll 2d10 in place of 1d20
   • If you are Chaotic you continue to roll 1d20 as normal
     New Critical Threat ranges will be provided for Lawful & Neutral characters.
2. Damage Conversion (3.5 UA)
   
   • When damaged with an attack vs AC, an amount of hp damage = Armour bonus is converted to nonlethal damage
   • This damage (less hardness) is also incurred by the armour
3. Slower Magical Healing (3.5 UA)
   
   • Magical healing converts lethal damage to nonlethal damage.
   • Magical healing only heals nonlethal damage once lethal damage is completely healed (ie sequentially not concurrently).

Major character generation changes:

1. Cantrips are nerfed (details tbc). They can be cast as nerfed 0-level spells or as 1st level spells with normal effect.
2. Everyone gets Combat Stamina as a bonus feat
3. Every PC gets a variant Leadership as a bonus feat
   
   • PC Leadership score is (level + Cha bonus). -1 penalty if party is 4+ PCs. -1 penalty for each X/Y alignment step difference of PC vs Cohort.
   • If Leadership is 0+ then PC receives a Cohort
   • Cohort minimum level is ½ (ie level 1 NPC Class). Subject to the minimum, the maximum Cohort level is PC level -2.
   • Cohort has a 3 point buy (15 point buy once heroic classed)
   • Cohort can be any playable race
   • Cohort begins with 0gp wealth, clothing only. You must pay to equip them.
   • Half max + 0.5 (rounded up) hp (again, you may purchase hp for them)
   • Warrior class Cohort can swap Medium and/ or Heavy AP for Combat Feats
   • Aristocrat class Cohort can swap Medium and/ or Heavy AP for non-Combat Feats
   • Cohort is generally player-controlled - but in combat must roll Int or lower each round or GM determines action for that round
   • GM will determine Cohort Morale periodically as needed

Minor character generation changes:

1. Background skills are in effect.
2. Illiterate
   
   • Bonus literacy in (Half Int bonus rounded up) languages, or spend a Linguistics skill point
3. Knowledge skills don’t identify monsters
   
   • You can take untrained ranks in new skill Monster Lore (separate skill per creature type)

14. Is a character background required? If so, how big? Are you looking for anything in particular (i.e. the backgrounds all ending up with the characters in the same city)?

None.

15. Does your game involve a lot of hack & slash, puzzle solving, roleplaying, or a combination of the above?

Hack & slash, no RP. This is an experiment.

16. Are your Players restricted to particular rulebooks and supplements, or will you be allowing access to non-standard material? What sources can Players use for their characters?

1pp Paizo

Party roster

Player	Character	Alignment	Race	Class	Cohort
samduke	Serenity Azalea	CN	Human	Slayer 15	Human Unchained Rogue 10
Yas392	Darren & Blitz	N	Human	Unchained Summoner	Halberd & Nocturne
Talivan	Rowan	LG	Human	Unchained Monk	?
Qazgir	Venser Holdane Elk Wolf	LG	Human	Paladin	?

[paradox26]

I will express interest in this game, probably as an unchained barbarian character. Putting dibs on the first slot for the game, having noted in the discord that the first four to express interest are selected.

[samduke]

Interested would love to play with p26, and if p26 has unchained barbarian, i am thinking unchained rogue ...

@GM
Monster Lore - what attribute is this associated with ( INT) ?

RE: Alignment
If you are Lawful you roll 3d6 in place of 1d20
If you are Neutral you roll 2d10 in place of 1d20
If you are Chaotic you continue to roll 1d20 as normal
New Critical Threat ranges will be provided for Lawful & Neutral characters.

Q: what if my alignment is one of these (CN or LN) what would be used?

RE: Cohort
Cohort has a 3 point buy (15 point buy once heroic classed)

Q: so how many levels of the NPC class are needed before one can take a normal Heroic class (IE: Warrior becomes Fighter)

RE: unchained rogue - Can I take talents associated with the normal rogue ?
edited

[Infernally Clay]

I think this thread might have been posted in the wrong subforum but if you've got an Unchained Barbarian and an Unchained Rogue, I can always throw an Unchained Monk into the pot. I've never played one so it could be fun.

[Ghostfoot]

Interested would love to play with p26, and if p26 has unchained barbarian, i am thinking unchained rogue ...

@GM
Monster Lore - what attribute is this associated with ( INT) ?

Yes, INT

RE: Alignment
If you are Lawful you roll 3d6 in place of 1d20
If you are Neutral you roll 2d10 in place of 1d20
If you are Chaotic you continue to roll 1d20 as normal
New Critical Threat ranges will be provided for Lawful & Neutral characters.

Q: what if my alignment is one of these (CN or LN) what would be used?

LG, LN, LE = 3d6
NG, TN, NE = 2d10
CG, CN, CE = 1d20

[QUOTE=samduke;25932929]RE: Cohort
Cohort has a 3 point buy (15 point buy once heroic classed)

Q: so how many levels of the NPC class are needed before one can take a normal Heroic class (IE: Warrior becomes Fighter)

For the purposes of this game just use the Cohort level from the Leadership feat. So a 15th level PC (with no adjustments to Leadership score) has a 10th level heroic-classed cohort.

RE: unchained rogue - Can I take talents associated with the normal rogue ?
edited

Please use this list for unchained rogue Talents

[samduke]

Yes, INT

Okay thanks for the input, i think i will have the cohort go unchsined rogue then and go a slughtly different route pc

[samduke]

sorry for the double post but not covered in the big 16 that I see, but how many traits / drawbacks if any are we allowed

Serenity Azalea Should be Complete

Human Slayer 15

Cohort
Human Unchained Rogue 10 ( under Contacts / Friends area )

edited

[Ghostfoot]

sorry for the double post but not covered in the big 16 that I see, but how many traits / drawbacks if any are we allowed

Sure, you can have some:

2 traits allowed
1 drawback (+ 3rd trait) allowed

[Infernally Clay]

Still working on my unchained Monk, but her cohort will almost certainly be a 9th level Bard who is kinda just... following her around because he finds her exploits remarkably inspiring, regardless of how annoying she finds him to be.

[Yas392]

Posting interest as unchained summoner.

[Ghostfoot]

Posting interest as unchained summoner.

Nice. That's our party filled then.

[Ghostfoot]

Any requests on what you would like me to run? A particular PF1 dungeon, or an Adventure Path I can pull a dungeon from?

[samduke]

Any requests on what you would like me to run? A particular PF1 dungeon, or an Adventure Path I can pull a dungeon from?

nothing particular on requests from me.

[paradox26]

I don't know of any real dungeon adventures, so if you have one in mind feel free to run with it. I am flexible.

[Ghostfoot]

I think probably The Hunter's Maze from Serpent's Skull 6, or alternatively The Ruins of Vashliq from Reign of Winter 6.

[paradox26]

WIth regards to the Reign of Winter one, will we need to purchase cold protection gear?

Either of those sounds good.

[Ghostfoot]

Whichever we run, I'll give you a chance to rejig/ fill out your equipment choice (within reason).

[paradox26]

Thanks. Admittedly, at high level getting cold protection is no big deal.

[Yas392]

No preference. Am flexible.

[Ghostfoot]

Okay I think we'll go with The Hunter's Maze from Serpent's Skull then. I'll write up an intro tomorrow.

[Ghostfoot]

I have set up an IC thread for our game, once you're all ready to go (I still have a bit of info to add to that first post).

OOC chat here can cover off questions and also any feedback that you have on these variant rules

[Yas392]

Going to build my summoner and heal bot cleric cohort now since we lack one. Can we take campaign traits?

[Ghostfoot]

Going to build my summoner and heal bot cleric cohort now since we lack one. Can we take campaign traits?

Yes that's fine (campaign traits). I can't imagine any traits will break things too much at level 15

[Yas392]

Putting summoner & cohort sheet up which are WIP.

[samduke]

I have set up an IC thread for our game, once you're all ready to go (I still have a bit of info to add to that first post).

OOC chat here can cover off questions and also any feedback that you have on these variant rules

When i get done with new years i will read and see if i have questions

edited, Okay it does not look like anything new was added in the first post here, I did notice the recruiting post.

Serenity Azalea will speak in blue

Bell-Curve Rolls (based on Alignment) roll 1d20 as normal
* No questions here

Damage Conversion (3.5 UA)
When damaged with an attack vs AC, an amount of hp damage = Armour bonus is converted to nonlethal damage
this damage (less hardness) is also incurred by the armour
*this seems to me that it will mean that we will need to replace armor, eventually (hardness/hp of armor is not that good)

Slower Magical Healing (3.5 UA)
Magical healing converts lethal damage to nonlethal damage.
Magical healing only heals nonlethal damage once lethal damage is completely healed (ie sequentially not concurrently).
*if one takes nonlethal does it convert to lethal as per normal rules, thus then healing converting it back ?

Cohort is generally player-controlled - but in combat must roll Int or lower each round or GM determines action for that round
* having to roll versus intelligence or lower in order to have the cohort do what we want, is that the cohorts Int or the PC Int we are rolling ?

**
Not sure if I have any other questions but I am sure they will come up as the game goes along

[Ghostfoot]

@all how are your characters coming along?

Slower Magical Healing (3.5 UA)
Magical healing converts lethal damage to nonlethal damage.
Magical healing only heals nonlethal damage once lethal damage is completely healed (ie sequentially not concurrently).
*if one takes nonlethal does it convert to lethal as per normal rules, thus then healing converting it back ?

Yes...possibly the logic breaks, and incurring non-lethal damage due to magical healing may need to take non-lethal damage beyond maximum (a la a regenerating creature).

Cohort is generally player-controlled - but in combat must roll Int or lower each round or GM determines action for that round
* having to roll versus intelligence or lower in order to have the cohort do what we want, is that the cohorts Int or the PC Int we are rolling ?

That roll is based off the Cohort's Int.

[Yas392]

Working through them steadily and having trouble deciding whether to take archetype or not for summoner.

For monster lore skill, is it a background skill?

How are we doing saves and BAB if we prestige out or multiclass? Fractional or standard adding numbers to saves?

Do familiars get feats?

WIP Sheets for Eidolon and Cohort's Familiar

[paradox26]

I have been helping my brother move house the last few days, and will probably be for a few more at times, so I am still at a very early stage.

[Ghostfoot]

For monster lore skill, is it a background skill?

No (note the existing background skill Lore is available and provides similar information albeit for a much more specific creature range).

How are we doing saves and BAB if we prestige out or multiclass? Fractional or standard adding numbers to saves?

I would normally do fractional, but I'm relaxed.

Do familiars get feats?

I don't believe so, no

I have been helping my brother move house the last few days, and will probably be for a few more at times, so I am still at a very early stage.

No problem. I have holidays for another couple of weeks or so. Still plenty of time to run the playtest before things start to get busy again.

[samduke]

well I am going to post IC and then if nothing happens post wise... guess the play test will be done