http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20120109

Taking a leaf out of Paizo’s books they are consulting with their fan base at every step of the way. It’ll be very interesting to see what comes out of this – and particularly how Paizo responds to it all. After all, 5th edition could wind up being the 4th edition we always wanted.

What do this mean for Iourn?

Abolutely nothing. Nada. Squat. Zero. Bugger all.

I’ve had my fill of rules and new systems. I’m in the process of consolidation of the Pathfinder and Third Edition rules for Iourn. Iourn is run under a sub-set of the third edition rules. I won’t be converting the system or the PCs to anything.

Which is not to say that I won’t run some 5th edition games when the system is released, just that I’m not looking to change anything for the Iourn setting.

Still, food for thought.

BENEVOLENT SPELL [Metamagic]
You can cast spells that normally only affect yourself on other people.

Benefit: You can cast a spell that normally has a range of “personal” as if it was a touch spell. You are therefore able to cast such spells on another recipients. A benevolent spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell’s actual level.

Now it seems on the face of it, a completely logical metamagic feat. After all there are metamagic feats that let you turn touch attacks into ray attacks; there are metamagic feats that allow you extend spells and widen spells… so why shouldn’t you be able to turn a Personal spell into one you can cast on other people? At least that’s what I though then.

The truth is that Personal spells in D&D and Pathfinder are Personal for a reason. The mechanics of the game start to break down if you allow magic-users to cast them on other characters. Spells like True Strike and Shield are not supposed to be cast willy-nilly around a group of adventurers.

Now, we can argue whether or not a feat is over-powered until the cows come home, but I think there’s one incontrovertible point that backs up my decision to remove Benevolent Spell  from the game. The idea behind the feat is not revolutionary: it is very, very obvious. It’s the simplest and most logical extension of a metamagic feat I can think of… BUT in eleven years of 3.0, 3.5 and Pathfinder supplements an official version of this feat has never appeared.

That tells me there’s something wrong with the feat. And that’s why we’re going to be discretely putting it to bed.

HOWEVER, I am not (after all these years) going to force Ravenna to give up Benevolent Spell. She is such an established character, and she has used this feat so often that it just seems unfair to force this change. So Ravenna is the only character in the entire campaign world who can do this, and the secret dies with her!

Of course, I don’t follow this advice. There isn’t a rule in D&D that I have tinkered with or tried to change at some point in my history as a GM. I’ve been as bad as ever (if not worse) under the Pathfinder rules than under all previous editions of the game. However, even I realise that there are times when it’s better – for the sake of clarity if nothing else – to take the rules as written, even if you’re not 100% behind them.

In this post I present four rules or sub-systems that currently use my own rules instead of the rules as written. I am now starting to think that it might be better not to have changed these in the first place. So consider these four rules, think what is best, and then cast you vote in the polls below. I can’t promise I’ll follow through with the results, but it will give me food for thought. The four areas we are looking at are:

• Weapon Groups
• The Spellcasting Focus
• Casting Defensively
• Polymorph

If everyone ready, then we’ll begin:

Weapon Groups

Now, I use the rules for Weapon Group feats as presented in the third edition Unearthed Arcana and reproduced on-line at the d20 srd. This replaces the Pathfinder rules for Basic, Martial and Exotic weapons. I don’t propose to change this at all. The rules for weapon group feats have served me well since 2003, and I like them a great deal. What I’m proposing to change is the list of weapon groups themselves.

Pathfinder already has weapon groups. They aren’t used to determine proficiency in a weapon, but they are used to categorise weapons. Some of the fighter’s class features are tied to weapon groups. At the moment we have two lists of weapon groups in play: one derrived from the list of weapon group feats in Unearthed Arcana and one taken from the Pathfinder rules.

What I have done up until now is take the Unearthed Arcana list as the standard. I even changed some of the Fighter’s abilities accordingly. However, as time passes and Pathfinder starts to expand their list of weapon groups (as they have done in the recent Ultimate Combat) I am wondering if I haven’t made the wrong choice. Wouldn’t it be better to make the Pathfinder list as the definitive and change the weapon groups accordingly?

Here’s how the two lists stack up, side-by-side:

You can see that there isn’t very much difference. Claw Weapons are renamed “Close Weapons”; Picks & Hammers and Maces & Clubs are folded into the new “Hammers” weapon group – which makes kind of sense to me (although, I think that I would call it “Hammers & Picks” just to make it clear that picks are also included in this skill set). Natural Weapons and Siege Weapons are added as weapon groups. Small changes, you might think.

Well, yes and no. Firstly, Pathfinder doesn’t have a “Basic Weapons” category. This is simply because the Pathfinder weapon groups aren’t designed to be used as proficiencies. If they were, then undoubtedly they would keep something akin to Basic Weapons. Equally, we don’t see “Exotic Weapons” as a category either, or “Druid Weapons” for that matter.

If we consider that weapons can belong to more than one weapon group, and if we acknowledge the necessity of adding things like Basic Weapons and Exotic Weapons back into the list then I think the Pathfinder categories work rather well. I like separating Natural Weapons, and “Close Weapons” is a better grouping than “Claw Weapons” in my opinion.

The only place where this falls down a little is Siege Weapons. If “Siege Weapons” becomes a proficiency (Weapon Group: Siege Weapons) the we have to slightly revise the rules for Siege Warfare depicted in Ultimate Combat.  In those rules attacks with indirect siege engines (e.g. catapults and trebuchets) are made by rolling your Base Attack Bonus + either your Intelligence Modifier or your ranks in Knowledge (engineering) against the DC of the siege engine. Direct attacks (with weapons like arbalests) run of a normal attack roll with an escalating penalty depending on the weapon size.

Counting Siege Engines as a weapon group wouldn’t overtly change the maths at work here. The base attack would be rolled normally – with the exception that the -4 non-proficiency penalty would apply equally to direct and indirect fire siege engines. There’s no reason we couldn’t say that attack rolls were modified by Int (or ranks in Knowledge Engineering) instead of Str or Dex. So it’s not a great change: but one worth making.

So, based on these changes the Weapon Groups would look like this:

• Axes
• Basic Weapons
• Blades, Light
• Blades, Heavy
• Bows
• Close Weapons
• Crossbows
• Druid
• Exotic Weapons
• Flails
• Hammers & Picks
• Monk
• Natural
• Polearms
• Siege Engines
• Thrown

There’s still a few anomalies – whips fall under the Flails proficiency, for example – but these are anomalies of the Pathfinder game and not of my House Rules. Plus, we’re able to dispense with the Exotic Double Weapons feat, which always struck me as a bit odd. Also, none of the above stops me from adding further weapon groups if I want to – so Mariner Weapons, or weapons specific to certain clergies are still entirely possible. I’m leaning toward this change, however small it may be.

Cast your vote in the poll and be heard:

Take Our Poll

The Spellcasting Focus

Right, this is fairly straight-forward. In the hosue rules most spell casters use a focus to channel their magic. This mechanic has largely replaced spell components. That’s not going to change. However, the rules regarding how the spell focus (the wand, the ring, the holy symbol etc.) functions could well change. Here are my house rules on the topic:

Almost all spellcasters have a special focus that they used to direct their magic. Many traditions and character classes favour particular types of foci over others. Wizards, for example, are very fond of wands and gnarled staffs; druids have a penchant for mistletoe; and clerics use their holy symbol as their focus. However, these are simply conventions. The truth is that the spellcaster can choose any object as his focus as long as he abides by the following guidelines:

The construction of a focus is a complex and exacting task. It can’t just be any old thing: a wizard can’t unscrew the head of a broom and call the handle his magic staff. Only the best materials, harvested in just the right manner and brought together by a master of his craft, will result in an object that is capable of being used as a magical focus.

Each focus is created with a specific caster in mind. It is an inherently personal item that functions for the benefit of the caster, and only the caster. A wizard isn’t using some random staff, he’s using his staff. Each focus is attuned to a particular spellcaster, and cannot immediately be used by any other spellcaster.

In order to cast a spell to its fullest effect, the caster must have his magical focus. This focus must be held in his hand and presented in a forthright manner. As long as this is the case then the spell is cast normally as per the description of the spell.

Without a focus, spells can still be cast but spellcaster’s effective caster level is halved. In addition, he loses access to the most powerful level of spells he can cast until he regains his focus.

Advantages of Foci: Although foci seem to be the spell caster’s Achilles Heel, they are actually extremely useful things. Spellcasters can take a number of implement feats that change the way magical spells work when they are cast through a focus. Foci also exist as magical items, conferring even more interesting abilities onto spellcasters. Those few magic-using classes that do not have foci often wish they did.

Traditions and Foci: A focus is only good for one particular magical tradition. A multiclass cleric/wizard would need two foci: one for his divine spells, and one for his arcane spells. Switching between separate foci during combat would mean dropping one (a free action) and drawing another (a move action). The feat Combine Foci can help with this limitation.

Changing Foci: A spellcaster’s focus is bound to him and him alone. A wizard gains no advantage in picking up another wizard’s focus. In order for a focus to be of benefit to a spellcaster it has to be attuned. This can be done during a special ritual that lasts for one hour (and that all spellcasters know). Once a new focus is attuned to the spellcaster, the old focus can no longer be used. A spellcaster can have no more than one attuned focus at any one time – unless he takes the Dual Focus feat.

Enchanting Foci: Spellcasters have an easier time enchanting their own magical focus than other items. A spellcaster enchanting his own focus uses the standard rules with the exception that the ritual only costs half as much, and takes half as long. So if your focus was a ring, and you wanted to turn your focus into a Ring of Djinni Calling then you would follow all the usual steps except you would only need to find 31,250 gp (not 62,500) and it would only take you 500 hours (not 1000). The cost to maintain your lab, hire the right people and acquire the raw materials would still be the same. If you use these rules for enchanting your focus, you cannot have anyone else help you during the process. It is, after all, an intensely personal process.

However, Pathfinder has it’s own rules for spellcasting foci, or “bonded objects” as they call them. Of course, bonded objects are only supposed to apply to wizards who choose a focus instead of a familiar, however, there’s no reason they couldn’t apply more widely. Consider the rules as they appear in the description of the wizard from the Core Rules (edited slightly to remove all reference to the familiar):

At 1st level, wizards form a powerful bond with an object. The bonded object is an item a wizard can use to cast additional spells or to serve as a magical item. Wizards begin play with one bonded object at no cost. Objects that are the subject of an arcane bond must fall into one of the following categories: amulet, ring, staff, wand, or weapon. These objects are always masterwork quality. Weapons acquired at 1st level are not made of any special material. If the object is an amulet or ring, it must be worn to have effect, while staves, wands, and weapons must be wielded. If a wizard attempts to cast a spell without his bonded object worn or in hand, he must make a concentration check or lose the spell. The DC for this check is equal to 20 + the spell’s level. If the object is a ring or amulet, it occupies the ring or neck slot accordingly.

A bonded object can be used once per day to cast any one spell that the wizard has in his spellbook and is capable of casting, even if the spell is not prepared. This spell is treated like any other spell cast by the wizard, including casting time, duration, and other effects dependent on the wizard’s level. This spell cannot be modified by metamagic feats or other abilities. The bonded object cannot be used to cast spells from the wizard’s opposition schools (see arcane school).

A wizard can add additional magic abilities to his bonded object as if he has the required item creation feats and if he meets the level prerequisites of the feat. For example, a wizard with a bonded dagger must be at least 5th level to add magic abilities to the dagger (see the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat in Chapter 5). If the bonded object is a wand, it loses its wand abilities when its last charge is consumed, but it is not destroyed and it retains all of its bonded object properties and can be used to craft a new wand. The magic properties of a bonded object, including any magic abilities added to the object, only function for the wizard who owns it. If a bonded object’s owner dies, or the item is replaced, the object reverts to being an ordinary masterwork item of the appropriate type.

If a bonded object is damaged, it is restored to full hit points the next time the wizard prepares his spells. If the object of an arcane bond is lost or destroyed, it can be replaced after 1 week in a special ritual that costs 200 gp per wizard level plus the cost of the masterwork item. This ritual takes 8 hours to complete. Items replaced in this way do not possess any of the additional enchantments of the previous bonded item. A wizard can designate an existing magic item as his bonded item. This functions in the same way as replacing a lost or destroyed item except that the new magic item retains its abilities while gaining the benefits and drawbacks of becoming a bonded item.

Okay. A few provisos. I am not thinking of adopting the Pathfinder rules for bonded objects whole cloth. I’m most interested in what happens when a character loses his focus. Here are the differences:

• My rules: Without a focus caster level is halved and the caster loses access to the highest level spells he can cast.
• Pathfinder rules: Caster must make a concentration check (DC 20 + spell level) to  cast a spell without a focus.

 And that’s the choice I want you to make in this poll:

Casting Defensively

Okay, I’ll keep this one brief. In third edition it was called “casting defensively”, in Pathfinder it is called “casting on the defensive”. What it means is that characters who cast spells while in the threat range of their foes provoke attacks of opportunity unless they successfully focus on both the spell and the combat simultaneously. This is what the game says about casting on the defensive:

Casting on the Defensive: Casting a spell while on the defensive does not provoke an attack of opportunity. It does, however, require a concentration check (DC 15 + double the spell’s level) to successfully cast the spell. Failure means that you lose the spell.

Let’s spell this out. If you standing in combat with someone who means you harm and you cast a spell then you provoke an attack of opportunity. If that attack of opportunity hits, then you need to make a concentration check at DC 10 + the damage dealth + the spell’s level (because the attack hits at the moment you’re casting the spell). If your concentration check fails, then the spell is lost.

You can attempt to avoid provoking this attack of opportunity by casting on the defensive. This DC is probably slightly easier (DC 20 + twice the spell level), but no that much easier. You must make this roll before casting every spell that would otherwise provoke an attack of opportunity. If you fail this roll then your spell is lost, however you don’t provoke the attack of opportunity regardless of whether you succeed or fail.

There’s no Concentration skill in Pathfinder as there was in D&D 3.5. Your concentration check is 1d20 + your caster level + the ability score modifier that governs you spellcaster. The combat casting feat gives you another +4 to the roll.

My house rules are easier to remember, and much kinder to spell casters:

It simply isn’t possible for most spellcasters to cast a spell and pay attention to the battlefield around them. Casting a spell while you are within mêlée range of an opponent provokes an attack of opportunity from that opponent. If the attack of opportunity hits (and doesn’t immediately kill or bloody the target), then the spellcaster must make a special concentration check or the spell is disrupted.

The caster must roll 1d20 + caster level + relevant spellcasting ability score modifier (e.g. Intelligence for a wizards, Charisma for a bard or Wisdom for a cleric). The DC of the check is 10 + the damage dealt + the level of the spell you are trying to cast.

If the check succeeds then the spell is cast normally. If the check fails then the spell is disrupted. A disrupted spell has no effect, but it still disappears from the mind of Acquired casters, and still prompts a languor check from Instinctive casters.

Spellcasters can defend themselves against these attacks of opportunity by selecting the Combat Casting feat. Spellcasters with combat casting do not provoke attacks of opportunity when casting their spells in mêlée.

However, even characters with combat casting may still find the spells disrupted by canny opponents. Any attack that strikes and damages the spellcaster during the moment of casting prompts a concentration as above. For spells that are cast as one standard action, the attacker must actively ready an action that is contingent on the casting of the spell. However, some spells take rounds or minutes to cast. Any attack during this time, whether readied or not, calls for a concentration check. In these cases, combat casting grants +4 to the concentration check.

Very different rules. My take is based on the way combat manouevres like Trip, Bull Rush and the like function in Pathfinder. If you have a feat that helps you (e.g. Improved Trip) then you never provoke attacks of opportunity from performing this action, if you don’t have the feat then you always provoke attacks of opportunity. That’s what I am hoping to achive with combat casting. Basically combat casting is to spellcasting, as Improved Grapple is to grabbing someone.

But is it too kind? Do you think that spellcasters need to be put throught more of a ringer than they are? Vote in the poll below:

Take Our Poll

Polymorph

Okay, we’ve been down this road before, but I’m still not satisfied with how polymorph – and spells like it – function at the moment in the House Rules. Please bear in mind that anything we decide here will also apply to Wildshape. Here is the full text of the house-rule version of the Polymorph spell:

Polymorph
Transmutation (Polymorph)
Level: Arcane 4, Divine (Change) 4
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

This powerful spell allows the subject to take on the form of another creature. When a spellcaster gains or develops this spell then he must choose two specific kinds of creature that he can transform into. Every time he casts the spell, he must choose which of these two creatures to become.

At any point after gaining this spell, the caster may attempt to add additional creatures to his polymorph repertoire. Simply seeing new creatures or knowing of their existence is not enough; the caster must research each additional creature using the same rules as an acquired spellcaster researching new spells. Once a creature has been researched it is added to the list of potential creatures that can be assumed. There is no limit to the number of different creatures that can be available through the Polymorph spell, as long as each creature follows the guidelines laid down below:

The new form may be the same type as the subject of the spell, or any of the following types: aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant or vermin. The assumed form cannot have more hit dice than your hit dice or caster level (whichever is lower), to a maximum of 15 HD at fifteenth level. You cannot assume a form that is Miniscule or Colossal with the Polymorph spell, neither can you assume an incorporeal or gaseous form. You may not take the form of any creature with a Template.

When assuming a new form you gain some, but not all of the new form’s abilities. Equally, you lose some (but not all) of your own abilities. This addition and subtraction of your character’s ability and statistics can be complex, and it is strongly suggested that players whose characters can cast this spell create full statistics for their characters in each of their available forms. If the player does not have such statistics immediately to hand, then the GM may rule that the spell cannot be cast at this time.

All characters have certain abilities derrived from their race, and certain abilities derrived from their class. Polymorph does not alter the abilities gained from the subject’s character class: therefore all your class abilities are available in your new form. The only exception to this rule is if your new form simply isn’t capable of performing the class ability. For example, if the assumed form cannot talk or hold a focus then it cannot cast spells. If the assumed form has no legs then the flying kick feat is useless. If the assumed form cannot wield a sword then it cannot make use of the suite of combat feats that depend upon using a sword. On the whole, these restrictions should be obvious. The GM and the player should discuss what they are each time a new form is added to the character’s polymorph repertoire.

The character’s racial abilities are significantly altered. However, Polymorph only affects a physical change to the character: it does not allow access to any of the magical or supernatural abilities associated with the new form. Neither does it affect your character’s mind or mental acuity. A summary of the changes wrought by the Polymorph spell are as follows:

Racial Features Gained:

• Gain the new form’s Type and Subtype (if any).
• Gain the new form’s Strength, Dexterity and Constitution scores. These changes modify your skills, attack rolls, saving throws, CMB and CMD, but not your hit points.
• Gain the gross physical qualities of the new form: this includes the creature’s appearance, colour, number of limbs, wings and so forth. Characters can decide the form’s more specific qualities such as height, gender and hair colour as long as it is within the norm for the race.
• Gain the mundane movement capabilities of the new form: including burrowing, climbing, walking, swimming, flying with wings. You speed can never be more than 30 ft. (swimming or burrowing), 60 ft. (on land) or 120 ft. (flying) regardless of what a normal creature of this race
• Gain the natural weapons of the new form, and proficiency in them. However changing form doesn’t give you any extra attacks. If you assume the form of a bear you don’t automatically gain its claw/claw/bite attack routine. If you only have one attack per round, then you still only have one attack per round in the new form, but you can choose which natural weapon to attack with.
• Gain any racial bonuses to skills.
• Gain the Natural Armour Bonus to armour class of the new form.
• Gain the Size of the new form. This may mean applying a size modifier to your Armour Class and attack rolls (but not to your ability scores).
• Gain the new form’s Exceptional racial abilities.
• Gain any bonus racial feats of the new form as long as those feats provide Exceptional advantages. Bonus feats that provide Magical or Supernatural advantages at not gained.

Racial Features Retained:

• Retain your Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores.
• Retain your own hit point total (do not modify your hit points even if your Constitution score changes as a result of the Polymorph).
• Retain your own Magical and Supernatural racial abilities.
• Retain your own base saving throws.
• Retain your own base attack bonus.
• Retain the ability ability to speak, as long as the new form is able to speak intelligbly – i.e. it has a decernible language, not just the ability to make sounds.

Racial Features Lost:

• Lose your Type and subtype (if any).
• Lose your Strength, Dexterity and Consitution scores.
• Lose your gross physical qualities – i.e. appearance and form.
• Lose your mundane movement capabilities (these are replaced by the new form)
• Lose your natural attacks (if any).
• Lose any Exceptional racial abilities that you possess.
• Lose any racial bonuses to skills (but don’t lose any extra skill points conferred because of your race – such as the bonus points granted to a human).
• Lose your Natural Armour Bonus to armour class (if any)
• Lose your Size (and any size modifiers to armour class and attacks).
• Lose any bonus racial feats you have (this includes the bonus feat that humans receive at first level). If the lost feat is a prerequisite for any other feats, then also lose access to those feats for the duration of the spell.

Upon casting this spell, you are effectively disguised as a member of the assumed race. If you want to disguise yourself as a specific individual, then the Polymorph spell grants a +10 bonus to the disguise check.

When the change occurs your equipment, if any, either remains worn or held by the new form (if it is capable of wearing or holding the item), or melds into the new form. Items that provide constant bonuses and do not need to be activated continue to function while melded in this way (with the excpetion of armour and shield bonuses, which cease to function). Items that require activation cannot be used while you maintain that form.

When you revert to your true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on your body they previously occupied and are once again functional. Any new items you wore in the assumed form and can’t wear in your normal form fall off and land at your feet; any item that you could wear in either form or carry in a body part common to both forms at the time of reversion are still held in the same way.

Any part of the body, or piece of equipment, that is separated from the whole reverts to its true form. Should the subject die when in the assumed form, then he immediately reverts back to his true form upon death.

In Pathfinder, you don’t actually take on the full stats of the creature you become. Instead you take on the form and appearance of the creature, and a number of special abilities if the creature has them, and if they are listed in the description of the spell. Polymorph has been replaced with the following suite of spells. Have a good read, and then come back to vote.

• Animal Shapes
• Beast Shape
• Form of the Dragon
• Giant Form
• Plant Shape
• Polymorph
• Shapechange
• Vermin Shape
• Undead Anatomy

So what do you think? Which version is better? My house rules are very much based on third edition D&D before the Great Polymorph Errata was imposed. Does this make it doubly broken? Consider how easy the rules can be implemented in play, whether they work mechanically, whether they work from a narrative perspective (i.e. the verisimulitude), and whether they just feel ‘right’.

Bonus Poll for Druids

Okay – finally. I don’t think all the rules for Wildshape work very well. Namely, the one about druids being able to change form as often as they like with an increasing chance of being stuck in that form forever. Here is the full text of those house rules: 

Although the druid can Wildshape at-will, his level governs the number of times he can safely attempt the change. The druid may wildshape safely 1/day at level five, 2/day at level six and gains one more safe use of wildshape at each even-numbered level to a maximum of eight safe uses at level eighteen. If the druid wildshapes beyond these safe limits then the following rules apply:

The first wildshape each day beyond the safe limit imposed by the druid’s level functions normally. However, the druid must make a special level check to revert to his original form. The check is 1d20 + the druid’s level + the druid’s Wisdom modifier. The DC of this check is 21. If the check succeeds then the druid reverts to his original form normally. He may then (if he chooses) attempt to Wildshape again. However, each additional Wildshape attempt adds a cumulative +2 to the DC of the level check to revert to his own form.

If the level check fails then druid is stuck in his creature form until dawn the following day. At this point he can make another level check (at +2 to the DC of the previous check) to revert to his original form. If he fails again then he remains stuck for another day, before he can try the check again (at an additional +2 to the DC). He continues making checks at an increasing DC each dawn until he either succeeds or fails four successive checks. If four checks are failed then the druid remains in his creature form forever and may take on the mentality and nature of the creature.

At twentieth level, the druid does not need to worry about  these checks, as he is able to Wildshape safely at-will with no penalty.

I have two problems with these rules. Firstly, they diminish the awesomeness of the druid’s 20th level ability to wildshape at-will, and secondly I think this rule has only come into play twice in the last eleven years (and that’s with a druid in practically every party). So I would propose to make a change thusly:

The number of times per day the druid can wildshape is definied in his class description: 1/day at level five, 2/day at level six and one further use per day at each even-numbered level thereafter to a maximum of eight safe uses at level eighteen. If needs be the druid can wildshape once more than this limit suggests – however if he does so, he is automatically stuck in his new form until after he takes an extended rest.

You know the drill by now:

I would also be interested to hear any thoughts about limiting the amount of time druids can spend in their wildshaped forms (as per the rules) as opposed to being able to remain in animal form indefinitely.

And there we have it. Long post – but stuff I’ve been ruminating on. Now let the comments commence:

The Iourn campaign has moved from third edition D&D (version 3.5) into Pathfinder. My weekly, and my twice-yearly campaign, are now using these rules. Both are at entirely different ends of the player-power spectrum so it’ll be interesting to compare how successful they are mechanically. Because I am an inveterate fiddler (when it comes to rules, at least) the campaigns also make use of a medley of house rules – many of which have already been discussed on this site.

I’m now posting the latest versions of all these rules to the blog for wider edification and comment. I doubt I’ll add any further PDF updates here, as I’m trying my best to get them into a format a can upload to the new Iourn.com. I’m hoping to have that site ready before next Spring. I can dream.

However, I do have some rule-related matters that I intend to discuss on the blog in the fairly near future. I’m also working on an updated version of the Swashbuckler class for Pathfinder that I’d like to run past everyone.

The New Rules

Below are links that will take you to PDF copies of my house rules. Please use the comments below to leave your thoughts if you feel so inclined.

Rules Miscellany

Character Classes

Magic

Spells

Feats

Cleric Domains (Excel)

Cleric Domain Power

Wildshape 101

On Iourn, the druid’s Wildshape ability has never followed the rules laid down in the third edition rulebooks. I’ve largely allowed druids to transform as often as they want and for long as they want. By-and-large I don’t think that this has caused too many problems. Certainly our local druid (Arvan) has taken to wandering around the wilderness as a club-wielding dire ape in case he gets mugged, but that’s not the form he decides to take while visiting dignitaries or having half a shandy at the local inn.

In our current house rules, the number of times per day that the druid can Wildshape is actually the number of times per day that the druid can safely wildshape. They can change form as often as they like, but once they change more in each day than their level normally allows they have to make a Will saving throw. Failure means they are stuck in that form for the following morning. If they succeed then they are fine… until they Wildshape again. That prompts another Will save (this one slightly more difficult) and so on.

The full rules are over at the old Iourn site. Please go over and take a look.

What I like about these rules is that they fit in well with my understanding of druids. Wildshaping is like a drug to a druid. Their senses are completely overwhelmed by the experience. Once they’ve wildshaped, they want to do it again, and again and again. There are stories of druids who turn into an animal and never come back.

I also find the restriction of wildshaping ‘x’ number of times per day drains a little of the flavour of the druid. I want the PCs to arrive at an isolated inn after miles of trudging through boggy, rain-soaked moorland and the druid character to be able to turn into a cat and settle down in front of the fire for a nap. And I want the player to have the freedom to do that without thinking he’s ‘wasted’ one use of his wildshapes for the day.

Ironically, fourth edition captures the flavour of the ability far better than third. Wildshape is an at-will power for a fourth edition druid. However, in fourth edition the ability of a druid to take on the other qualities of the creatures he becomes is described only in the abstract. The third edition rules are much stronger in that regard. If the druid turns into a rat then I want him to at least have the powers of a normal rat, not simply a druid in rat-form who can do something vaguely rat-like once per encounter. I want druids to become the animal, not just look like the animal.

Of course, the third edition rules have had some major problems with Wildhape over the years. Originally the power was based on the Polymorph Self spell, which was apparently too powerful. The official errata changed things so that the power now follows the rules laid down by Alternate Form (the distinction is subtle, to say the least). Then in Player’s Handbook II (the third edition one) they offered the Shapeshift class ability instead of Wildshape. This was an abbreviated ruleset that was designed to play more quickly at the table. In hindsight, these were the fourth edition rules in proto-form. If you have Player’s Handbook II to hand turn to p39 and have a read – it’s interesting stuff.

All these changes have been designed to speed up play. It’s the same arguments that have been used to attack Polymorphing and Shapechanging in general. It takes too long for a player to work out his stats mid-combat when he changes form. I think there is some truth in this. If a druid declares that he is turning into a giant squid, and he has never turned into one before…. well, there’s more than a little maths involved.

However, the answer to this is not to castrate Wildshape, but compel players to be more prepared. If you want to play a druid, and you have the Wildshape power then make sure you have the stats for all the creatures you want to turn into. It doesn’t have to be every creature in every Monster Manual…. just the ones your druid is comfortable and familair with. And if you have that information ready at the table, then Wildshape’s a doddle. It’s no more complex that swapping to a different character sheet.

Wildshape is Polymorph (with bells on)

In Pathfinder Wildshape is based on a series of new spells that purport to make the adjudication of the ability simpler: the spells Beast Shape, Plant Shape and Elemental Body (the links take you to the Pathfinder PRD). I’m not following those rules. As far as I’m concerned, Wildshape is based on the Polymorph spell. Not the published version of the Polymorph spell, but my version. It’s appeared on the blog before, but (in true Paladium style) I’ll reprint here for your conveniece:

Polymorph

Transmutation (Polymorph)
Level: Arcane 4, Divine (Change) 4
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: None

This powerful spell allows the subject to take on the form of another creature. When a spellcaster gains or develops this spell then he must choose one specific kind of creature that he can transform into. Every time he casts the spell, that is the creature he becomes.

At any point after gaining this spell, the caster may attempt to add additional creatures to his polymorph repetoire. Simply seeing new creatures or knowing of their existence is not enough; the caster must research each additional creature using the same rules as an acquired spellcaster researching new spells. Once a creature has been researched it is added to the list of potential creatures that can be assumed. There is no limit to the number of different creatures that can be available through the Polymorph spell, as long as each creature follows the guidelines laid down below:

The new form may be the same type as the subject of the spell, or any of the following types: aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant or vermin. The assumed form cannot have more hit dice than your hit dice or caster level (whichever is lower), to a maximum of 15 HD at fifteenth level. You cannot assume a form that is Miniscule or Colossal with the Polymorph spell, neither can you assume an incorporeal or gaseous form. You may not take the form of any creature with extra racial hit dice, class levels or with a Template.

When assuming a new form you gain some, but not all of the new form’s abilities. Equally, you lose some (but not all) of your own abilities. This addition and subtraction of your character’s abilites and statistics can be complex, and it is strongly suggested that players whose characters can cast this spell create full statistics for their characters in each of their available forms. If the player does not have such statistics immediately to hand, then the GM may rule that the spell cannot be cast at this time.

All characters have certain abilities derrived from their race, and certain abilities derrived from their class. Polymorph does not alter the abilities gained from the subject’s character class: therefore all your class abilities are available in your new form. The only exception to this rule is if your new form simply isn’t capable of performing the class ability. For example, if the assumed form cannot talk or hold a focus then it cannot cast spells. If the assumed form has no legs then the flying kick feat is useless. If the assumed form cannot wield a sword then it cannot make use of the suite of combat feats that depend upon using a sword. On the whole, these restrictions should be obvious. The GM and the player should discuss what they are each time a new form is added to the character’s polymorph repetoire.

The character’s racial abilities are significantly altered. However, Polymorph only affects a physical change to the character: it does not allow access to any of the magical or supernatural abilities associated with the new form. Neither does it affect your character’s mind or mental acuity. A summary of the changes wrought by the Polymorph spell are as follows:

Racial Features Gained:

• Gain the new form’s Type and Subtype (if any).
• Gain the new form’s Strength, Dexterity and Constitution scores. These changes modify your skills, attack rolls, saving throws, CMB and CMD, but not your hit points.
• Gain the gross physical qualities of the new form: this includes the creature’s appearance, colour, number of limbs, wings and so forth. Characters can decide the form’s more specific qualities such as height, gender and hair colour as long as it is within the norm for the race.
• Gain the mundane movement capabilities of the new form: including burrowing, climbing, walking, swimming, flying with wings. Your speed can never be more than 30 ft. (swimming or burrowing), 60 ft. (on land) or 120 ft. (flying) regardless of what is normal for a creature of this race.
• Gain the natural weapons of the new form, and proficiency in them. However changing form doesn’t give you any extra attacks. If you assume the form of a bear you don’t automatically gain its claw/claw/bite attack routine. If you only have one attack per round, then you still only have one attack per round in the new form, but you can choose which natural weapon to attack with.
• Gain any racial bonuses to skills.
• Gain the Natural Armour Bonus to armour class of the new form.
• Gain the Size of the new form. This may mean applying a size modifier to your Armour Class and attack rolls (but not to your ability scores).
• Gain the new form’s Exceptional racial abilities.
• Gain any bonus racial feats of the new form as long as those feats provide Exceptional advantages. Bonus feats that provide Magical (Spell-like) or Supernatural advantages at not gained.

Racial Features Retained:

• Retain your Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores.
• Retain your own hit point total (do not modify your hit points even if your Constitution score changes as a result of the Polymorph).
• Retain your own Magical (Spell-like) and Supernatural racial abilities.
• Retain your own base saving throws.
• Retain your own base attack bonus.
• Retain the ability ability to speak, as long as the new form is able to speak intelligbly – i.e. it has a decernible language, not just the ability to make sounds.

Racial Features Lost:

• Lose your Type and subtype (if any).
• Lose your Strength, Dexterity and Consitution scores.
• Lose your gross physical qualities – i.e. appearance and form.
• Lose your mundane movement capabilities (these are replaced by the new form)
• Lose your natural attacks (if any).
• Lose any Exceptional racial abilities that you possess.
• Lose any racial bonuses to skills (but don’t lose any extra skill points conferred because of your race – such as the bonus points granted to a human).
• Lose your Natural Armour Bonus to armour class (if any)
• Lose your Size (and any size modifiers to armour class and attacks).
• Lose any bonus racial feats you have (human bonus feats are excluded from this proviso and not lost: it would be too complicated if they were). If the lost feat is a prerequisite for any other feats, then also lose access to those feats for the duration of the spell.

Upon casting this spell, you are effectively disguised as a member of the assumed race. If you want to disguise yourself as a specific individual, then the Polymorph spell grants a +10 bonus to the disguise check.

When the change occurs your equipment, if any, either remains worn or held by the new form (if it is capable of wearing or holding the item), or melds into the new form. Items that provide constant bonuses and do not need to be activated continue to function while melded in this way (with the excpetion of armour and shield bonuses, which cease to function). Items that require activation cannot be used while you maintain that form.

When you revert to your true form, any objects previously melded into the new form reappear in the same location on your body they previously occupied and are once again functional. Any new items you wore in the assumed form and can’t wear in your normal form fall off and land at your feet; any item that you could wear in either form or carry in a body part common to both forms at the time of reversion are still held in the same way.

Any part of the body, or piece of equipment, that is separated from the whole reverts to its true form. Should the subject die when in the assumed form, then he immediately reverts back to his true form upon death.

As I said before: the description is long but I think that it needs to be. At least all the relevent rules are together in the same place for the first time in third edition. However, although Wildshape is based on the Polymorph spell, it isn’t exactly the same as the Polymorph spell. The differences make druids better than a wizard with a polymorph spell when it comes to turning into animals. However, the wizard has the freedom to transform himself into many different weird and wonderful (and magical) creatures.

So without further ado, let’s look at the shiny new description of the druid’s Wildshape power:

Wild Shape

At fifth level, a druid gains the ability to turn herself into a Small or Medium Animal and back again. The druid can only take the form of a creature he is familiar with. For example, a druid who has never been outside a temperate forest could not become a polar bear. Wildshaping is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. There is no limit to the amount of time a druid can remain in his animal form. Returning to his original form is also a standard action.

The size and diversity of the creature the druid can become increases as the druid gains levels. He can become Large creatures at level seven, Tiny creatures at level nine, Huge creatures at level eleven, and Diminutive creatures at level thirteen. The druid expands his repetoire to include creatures of the Vermin type at level eight, the Plant type at level eleven, and the Elemental type at level fourteen.

Although the druid can Wildshape at-will, his level governs the number of times he can safely attempt the change. The druid may wildshape safely 1/day at level five, 2/day at level six and gains one more safe use of wildshape at each even-numbered level to a maximum of eight safe uses at level eighteen. If the druid wildshapes beyond these safe limits then the following rules apply:

The first wildshape each day beyond the safe limit imposed by the druid’s level functions normally. However, the druid must make a special level check to revert to his original form. The check is 1d20 + the druid’s level + the druid’s Wisdom modifier. The DC of this check is 21. If the check succeeds then the druid reverts to his original form normally. He may then (if he chooses) attempt to Wildshape again. However, each additional Wildshape attempt adds a cumulative +2 to the DC of the level check to revert to his own form.

If the level check fails then druid is stuck in his creature form until dawn the following day. At this point he can make another level check (at +2 to the DC of the previous check) to revert to his original form. If he fails again then he remains stuck for another day, before he can try the check again (at an additional +2 to the DC). He continues making checks at an increasing DC each dawn until he either succeeds or fails four successive checks. If four checks are failed then the druid remains in his creature form forever and may take on the mentality and nature of the creature.

At twentieth level, the druid does not need to worry about  these checks, as he is able to Wildshape safely at-will with no penalty.

Wildshape otherwise functions as the Polymorph spell.

The description here is a melange of my old house rules, the Pathfinder and third edition versions of Wild Shape. The house rules are slightly different in that I have opted to introduce a level check as opposed to a saving throw for the druid to regain his original form. I have done this for the same reason a level check governs a sorcerer’s spellcasting: it limits multiclassers taking advantage of the rules. Otherwise any character could take five levels in druids and then rely on a high Will save to Wildshape a number of times per day. I didn’t want that.

You will also notice that Wildshape doesn’t follow the restruction placed on Polymorph of there being a finite number of creatures available to the shapechanger. Druids don’t have a list of some animals they can change into, and some that they can’t. While I think this restriction works well for wizards and the magical shapechangers, I don’t think it really fits with the druid. I want them to have access to as broad an array of creatures as possible.

Which is why I have added Vermin into the types of creatures that druids can assume. It always seemed odd to me that druids could turn into animals, birds and fish but not insects. The restriction is entirely arbitrary and ripe for removal.

The changes to the druid progression in the Pathfinder rules is also marked. Druids gain Wildshape one level later (just as they did in third edition), but the progression of safe number of wildshapes per day remain the same. I have altered the progression of when druids gain access to different creature types, and when different sizes of creatures become available.

Pathfinder pushed forward acquisition of new sizes and forms the druid progression. For example: under Pathfinder, druids could turn into Huge elementals at level twelve, where they would have to have waited until level twenty in third edition. The House Rules take the middle road. Acquisition is later than in the standard Pathfinder rules, but nowhere near as slow as third edition.

Problems with the Druid Progression

The fact is that under the house rules, a druid gaining the ability to Wildshape at-will is not the incredible advantage as it is in Pathfinder. By 20th level most druids haven’t felt much of a limit on their wildshapes for some time. I therefore felt that there was some danger of level 12 being an obvious jumping-off point from the druid. Once they can turn into elementals, the time is ripe for players bid farewell to the druid class and multiclass into something else.

I have addressed that in several ways. Firstly, is the level-check mechanic for continuing to wildshape. Without levels in druid, that feature becomes less useful. Secondly, I have slowed down the acquisition of abilities so that the jumping off point is at least delayed to level 14. Thirdly, I have made sure that the druid gets interesting abilities in addition to Wildshape at levels 15, 17  and 19. That means introducing brand new abilities for the druid. You can see what they are in the forthcoming magic document.

The Warshaper

One last thing to addresss, and that is the Warshaper Class from Complete Warrior. Arvan has levels in the Warshaper, and I wanted to make a few things clear. The class is largely unchanged except for two points. Firstly, levels of Warshaper stack with levels of Druid when it comes to making your caster level check to regain your original form. A Warshaper is the consumate shapechanger, and it seems appropriate to make that change.

Second, is the description of the fifth level ability of the Warshaper (Flashmorph/Multimorph). In light of the new rules for Wildshape, changes need to be made to this ability. The new text is as follows:

Flashmorph (Su): At fifth level, a warshaper who changes shape as a supernatural ability can do so as a move action instead of a standard action. Additionally: Warshapers who transform a limited number of times per day (such as a druid) gain two additional uses of their shapechanging power. Acquired casters treat all spells of the Polymorph subschool as if they were favoured spells (q.v.). Instinctive casters gain a +5 bonus to languor checks against spells of the Polymorph subschool.

And there we have it. The new Wildshape rules for Iourn. Tell me what you think.

The Master Skills List

Below is a list of all the skills available in the game. This list differs slightly to that published in the Pathfinder book, so please pay attention! As there are more skills on this list than in the traditional Pathfinder game, I’m also going to give all classes some extra skill points. However, we’ll get to that in a moment.

Acrobatics (Dex): The skill of dodging, tumbling and balancing – indeed, this replaces the Tumble and Balance skills from 3.5. According to the Pathfinder rules, it should also replace Jump. However, I think that Jump is based more on Strength than Dexterity, so it is folded it into the new Athletics skill instead.

Athletics (Str): New skill! Consider this skill the other side of the coin to Acrobatics. If the physical feat you are attemping is dependent on Dex then use Acrobatics. If it’s dependent on Strength, then use Athletics. Athletics covers jumping, and general feats of strength such as bending bars, wrestling and so on. You can make an Athletics roll instead of a Constitution check when running and holding your breath - so it’s jolly useful.

Alchemy (Int): Under Pathfinder the skill is listen as Craft (Alchemy). However, I think that Alchemy is important enough that it merits a skill all of its own. I’ve not done much work with alchemy in the system so far, but I’m hoping that will change before the next weekly Iourn game. Alchemy is going to be bigged up.

Autohypnosis (Wis): This skill isn’t in the third edition PHB or in the Pathfinder rules. It’s in the Expanded Psionics Handbook and represents heightened mental discipline, and using the power of the mind to overcome the physical or emotional responses of the body. It’s an underused skill, and I’m happy to keep it in the game.

Appraise (Int): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Bluff (Cha): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Climb (Str): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Control Shape (Wis): A specialist skill from the third edition Monster Manual that hasn’t made it into Pathfinder. With this skill a character afflicted with lycanthropy can attempt to control his shape. I like this skill as it fits in very much with the way that lycanthropes work on Iourn. Those exposed to lycanthropy can be taught to control the affliction. I may get around the modifying the text of this skill at some point, but it’s important to note that it exists in the world. You could also use it to resist spells such as Baleful Polymorh or the touch of a Chaos Beast.

Craft (Int): Largely unchanged, but it would be a shame to let the massive amount of work I did on Craft skills to go to waste. I’ll integrate these into the final version of the rules, although it seems unlikely that many of them will see play.

Diplomacy (Cha): The third edition Gather Information skill is folded into Diplomacy in Pathfinder. However, I don’t agree with that. Instead I have introduced the new skill Streetwise (see below).

Disable Device (Dex): In Pathfinder this skill merges the 3.5 skills Disable Device and Open Locks. This seems like a good move to me.

Disguise (Cha): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Escape Artist (Dex): Unchanted from the Pathfinder rules.

Fly (Dex): A new skill for Pathfinder. It doesn’t let you fly, but it does allow you to expertly control your movement if you can fly.

Handle Animal (Cha): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Heal (Wis): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules, although I should mention that the Heal skill is more potent now and can actually restore hit points.

Intimidate (Cha): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Knowledge: The Iourn system removes Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Knowledge (Local) and Knowledge (The Planes) from the game. However, it adds knowledge skills in Aberrant, Ancients, Draconic, Elemental, Fey and Undead. That’s a new gain of three knowledge skills. Read on!

Knowledge [Aberrant] (Int): New skill for the Iourn game. This is the knowledge of Aberrations, as well as the environments that aberrations tend to live in. It also tells you information about the Far Realm on a high enough roll.

Knowledge [Ancients] (Int): In the Iourn setting the Ancient races are the first races that came into existence after the dragons. Angels, devils, demons, guardinals, eladrin (proper second edition eladrin), genies, rakshasha, geherleths, yugoloths and the slaad are examples of Ancients. If they were classified as an Outsider in third edition then they are probably Ancients on Iourn. This skill tells you all about those Anceints, as well as the planes on which they dwell and the Astral Plane.

Knowledge [Arcana] (Int): This is the same as Pathfinder. Knowledge of the Weave, magical traditions in general, artefact, constructs and other magical beasties.

Knowledge [Architecture & Engineering] (Int): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules, although I might increase the utility of the skill when I finally finishe my rules on siege warfare.

Knowledge [Draconic] (Int): Knowledge of all dragon races, dragon myths and dragon believes – as well as the planes closely associated with them such as the Maw of Io.

Knowledge [Elemental] (Int): Knowledge of the elemental realms, and the creatures that dwell there. Knowledge of Elementals also gives you an understanding of the nature and the power of the Moon Gods (from a non-dogmatic perspective), as well as the role the elements play in the six humours that make up all life.

Knowledge [Fey] (Int): Knowledge of fey creatures (pixies, nixies, sprites, nymphs, elves) and their planes of existence such as the Feywild.

Knowledge [Geography] (Int): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Knowledge [History] (Int): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Knowledge [Nature] (Int): This is the knowledge of natural (Animals, Plants, Vermin) creatures and the natural environments in which they live. As there is no Dungeoneering skill in the game any more, Knowledge Nature encompasses subterranean realms as well – as long as those realms are not compeltely alien.

Knowledge [Nobility] (Int): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Knowledge [Religion] (Int): Pretty much unchange from Pathfinder except that a knowledge of religion no longer gives you any understanding of the Undead. Knowledge Religion is designed to grant an understanding of the dogma and beliefs of specific churches as well gods in general.

Knowledge [Undead] (Int): This is the skill for knowing all there is to know about the undead. It also covers lands such as the Land of the Dead and the Shadowfell.

Linguistics (Int): I’m in two minds about this, as I’m worried that it will shake the current status quo a little too much – however, we’ll give it a whirl and see how things turn out. In Pathfinder the Linguistics skill plays two roles. Firstly it is the new name for the third edition skill, Decipher Script. Secondly, it is a measure of the number of languages characters can know. In Pathfinder all characters can speak a couple of languages determined by their race and additional languages equal to their Intelligence ability modifier. They also know one additional language for every rank they have in Linguistics. I am keeping the distinction between learning spoken languages and learning written scripts that I have always used so there is definitely a great choice for PC linguists. It will be interesting to see how this works in play.

Lucid Dreaming (Wis): The ability to be aware of your own dreams, master your own dreamscape and enter the dreams of others. An uncommon ability to be sure, but a skill that has been available in the campaign for a long time, I’m not going to change it now.

Perception (Wis): A combination of third editions Spot and Listen skills. Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Perform (Cha): Pathfinder returns to the version 3.0 description of Perform. It is a number of separate skills (they list act, comedy, dance, keyboard, oratory, percussion, strings, wind instruments and singing). The character has to put ranks into each one separately. This seems to be a tax on the bard, but it does make logical sense.

Profession (Wis): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules, but as with Craft all the HD&D work on the Profession skill will not be in vain.

Ride (Dex): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Sense Motive (Wis): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules but I might wind up taking a leaf from 4e and calling it Insight, as that’s a much cooler name.

Sleight of Hand (Dex): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Spellcraft (Int): Largely unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Stealth (Dex): The Move Silently and Hide skills combined into one package. And very sensible too.

Streetwise (Cha): New skill that folds together the third edition skills of Knowledge [Local] and Gather Information. This sits better with me than shoe-horning these skills into Diplomacy. There is no Urban Tracking feat as there was in third edition, but any one with this skill can attempt Urban Tracking if they wish.

Survival (Wis): As Pathfinder. It’s worth mentioning that there is no Track feat in Pathfinder. Instead everyone with this skill can use it to track. However, Rangers get a stonking bonus to tracking rolls – so Brack may be even better than Arvan under Pathfinder.

Swim (Str): Unchanged from the Pathfinder rules.

Use Magic Device (Cha): I was on the verge of dropping this skill from the game, as I can’t remember when I have ever used it. However, in the end I decided that it fills a niche that no other skill does – and there might be occassions when a rogue wants to cast a spell, or a sorcerer activate a holy relic of an alien faith.

Skill Ranks and Class Skills

There are 36 skills in standard third edition. In Pathfinder there are only 26. In my system above, there are 34 listed skills. When you consider that I have also introduced more Knowledge skills, I think you’ll agree that PCs in this system need more skill points than in traditional Pathfinder. Below are listed the skill points for each of the eleven core classes as well as any prestige classes patronised by my players. I also update the class skills for each class.

Barbarian

Class Skills: Arcobatics, Athletics, Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge [Nature], Perception, Ride, Survival, Swim
Skill Ranks: 6 + Int Mod

Bard

Class Skills: Acrobatics, Appraise, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge [all], Linguistics, Perception, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Stealth, Streetwise, Use Magic Device
Skill Ranks: 8 + Int Mod

Binder

Class Skills: Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge [arcana], Knowledge [history], Knowledge [religion], Knowledge [any one], Linguisitcs, Profession, Sense Motive, Streetwise
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int Mod

Chameleon

Class Skills: Athletics, Bluff, Craft, Disguise, Knowledge [any one], Profession, Sense Motive, Swim, Use Magic Device
Skill Ranks: 6 + Int Mod

Cleric

Class Skills: Appraise, Craft, Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge [arcana], Knowledge [history], Knowledge [nobility], Knowledge [religion], Linguistics, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft. Cleric gain additional class skills depending on their choice of Major Domains.
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int Mod

Druid

Class Skills: Athletics, Climb, Craft, Fly, Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge [fey], Knowledge [georaphy], Knowledge [nature], Perception, Profession, Ride, Spellcraft, Survival, Swim
Skill Ranks: 6 + Int Mod

Fighter

Class Skills: Athletics, Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge [engineering], Knowledge [choose any one], Profession, Ride, Survival, Swim
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int Mod

Glorious Servitor

Class Skills: Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge [history], Knowledge [religion], Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, Streetwise, Survival
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int Mod

Monk

Class Skills: Athletics, Acrobatics, Autohypnosis, Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge [history], Knowledge [religion], Perception, Perform, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Stealth, Swim
Skill Ranks: 6 + Int Mod

Paladin

Class Skills: Athletics, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge [nobility], Knowledge [religion], Knowledge [undead], Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Spellcaft
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int Mod

Pious Templar

Class Skills: Athletics, Climb, Craft, Heal, Knowledge [religion], Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, Swim
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int Mod

Ranger

Class Skills: Athletics, Climb, Craft, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge [geography], Knowledge [nature], Perception, Profession, Ride, Spellcraft, Stealth, Survival, Swim
Skill Ranks: 8 + Int Mod

Rogue

Class Skills: Athletics, Acrobatics, Appraise, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge [any one], Linguistics, Perception, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Streetwise, Swim, Use Magic Device
Skill Ranks: 10 + Int Mod

Sorcerer

Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Disguise, Craft, Fly, Intimidate, Knowledge [arcana], Knowledge [any one], Perception, Profession, Sleight of Hand, Streetwise, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Survival, Use Magic Device. Sorcers also gain an additional class skill depending on their Bloodline.
Skill Ranks: 6 + Int Mod

Soulknife

Class Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Autohypnosis, Climb, Craft, Hide, Knowledge [aberrant], Knowledge [arcana], Perception, Stealth
Skill Ranks: 6 + Int Mod

Spellsword

Class Skills: Athletics, Climb, Knowledge [all], Profession, Spellcraft
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int Mod

Swashbuckler

Class Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Knowledge [any one], Profession, Sense Motive, Streetwise, Swim.
Skill Ranks: 6 + Int Mod

Warshaper

Class Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Climb, Craft, Disguise, Escape Artist, Stealth, Swim
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int Mod

Wizard

Class Skills: Appraise, Autohypnosis, Craft, Fly, Knowledge [all], Linguistics, Profession, Spellcraft
Skill Ranks: 4 + Int Mod

And that’s about that. Back to the adventure writing!

Now, I’m not a big fan of Concentration checks and I’ve been wanting to simplify the system for some time. While I still think that you should be able to disrupt spellcasting, I don’t think the rules for Casting Defensively work particularly well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spellcaster fail that check, and it’s just another die roll clogging up an already crowded combat system. So here’s my alternative:

Concentration and Disrupting Spells

It simply isn’t possible for most spellcasters to cast a spell and pay attention to the battlefield around them. Casting a spell while you are within mêlée range of an opponent provokes an attack of opportunity from that opponent. If the attack of opportunity hits (and doesn’t immediately kill or bloody the target), then the spellcaster must make a special concentration check or the spell is disrupted.

The caster must roll 1d20 + caster level + relevent spellcasting ability score modifier (e.g. Intelligence for a wizards, Charisma for a bard or Wisdom for a cleric). The DC of the check is 10 + the damage dealt + the level of the spell you are trying to cast.

If the check succeeds then the spell is cast normally. If the check fails then the spell is disrupted. A disrupted spell has no effect, but it still disappears from the mind of Acquired casters, and still prompts a languor check from Instinctive casters.

Spellcasters can defend themselves against these attacks of opportunity by selecting the Combat Casting feat. Spellcasters with combat casting do not provoke attacks of opportunity when casting their spells in mêlée.

However, even characters with combat casting may still find the spells disrupted by canny opponents. Any attack that strikes and damages the spellcaster during the moment of casting prompts a concentration as above. For spells that are cast as one standard action, the attacker must actively ready an action that is contingent on the casting of the spell. However, some spells take rounds or minutes to cast. Any attack during this time, whether readied or not, calls for a concentration check.

Other distractions: Inflicting physical damage is the most common way to disrupt spellcasting, but it isn’t the only way. The spellcaster might be hit by a non-damaging spell, they might be grappled, bundled to the floor or riding a rollercoaster. In these circumstances a concentration check is called for, although the DCs for the checks differ slightly. See the table below.

 Maintaining Spells: The effects of some spells last for “as long as the caster maintains concentration”. What this means is that the caster is spending some of his attention on maintaining a spell effect. Spending concentration in this way is usually a free action, but this concentration can be disrupted in the same way as normal spellcasting.

And here’s the text of the Combat Casting feat:

Combat Casting [General]
Once you start casting a spell, it is very difficult to disrupt or distract you.

Prerequisites: Spellcaster
Benefit: You may cast spells without provoking attacks of opportunity from enemies in mêlée range. You also gain a +4 bonus to concentration to defend against attacks that try to disrupt your spellcasting.

Analysis

So what we’re left with is a much shorter explanation of the Concentration system – which can only be a good thing. Casting spells in melee combat becomes an either/or situation: you either don’t have combat casting and provoke attacks of opportunity, or you do have it and don’t provoke attacks of opportunity. There’s no middle ground here.

This fits in with the way that ranged weapons (such as bows) work in melee combat. If you use a bow when there’s someone within melee range of you, then you provoke an attack of opportunity. There’s no roll you can make to mitigate that, you can’t “pull bowstring defensively”. The only way you can use a bow in melee combat is by way of a special ability. The same is now true for spellcasting: you need to have the feat.

The rest of the rules are pretty much undisturbed. I can still ask for a concentration check if I think there is something afoot to distract the spellcaster, and wily fighters can still disrupt the spellcasting of powerful wizards if they are quick and patient enough.

On the whole this change feels right. The number of times as a GM that I have forgotten to ask PC spellcasters to make concentration checks, and forgotten to have my NPC spellcasters make these checks is enormous. I just can’t seem to remember the rule, and the times I do remember it the results are a foregone conclusion. If that’s how the rule for casting defensively is working in practice, then that’s a good enough reason to get rid of it. Yes?

Saving Throws

Third edition uses the same saving throw table for all core classes and all prestige classes. I’m sure you’re very familiar with it, but let’s take a quick look for old times sake:

The standard third edition table gives character a +2 bump in their good saving throws at first level. Arguably, if it wasn’t for this small advantage the character wouldn’t be able to hold his own in the game world. A fighter without +2 in Fortitude at 1st level wouldn’t be the robust powerhouse of the party (in relative terms, of course).

The problem comes when a player multiclasses into lots of different classes that give him the same 1st level bump to the same saving throw. A 4th level character who has 1 level in fighter, 1 level in paladin, 1 level in cleric, 1 level in monk has a +8 base fortitude saving throw, and +2 in Reflex and Will. It’s an extreme example, but extrapolated over a number of levels you have the problem that a character can be almost certain to succeed at one saving throw, and almost certain to fail the other two.

To be honest, as long as you allow multiclassing there’s not much you can do about this except to try and put it off for as many levels as possible. And that’s what Pathfinder does. It keeps the original third edition saving throw table for the core classes, but when it comes to prestige classes it uses a completely different one:

It’s quite a difference isn’t it? The Poor Save for prestige classes is slightly improved, but the Good Save is significantly less… well, Good, than it used to be. You can see why they’ve done this. Pathfinder has taken out the XP penalty for monstrously multiclassed characters, so they’ve found other ways to penalise such builds. Players who take on too many prestige classes will find themselves with lower saving throws than someone who only has one class.

The trouble is that I don’t think this is a very good solution. In my experience, the main problem with multiclassing doesn’t come from a character taking on an insane number of prestige classes: it comes from taking levels in multiple core classes. And these rules do nothing to stop that. In fact by making the saving throw progression of prestige classes unattractive, they encourage more multiclassing between core classes.

Let’s look for a second at dear old Elias Raithbourne. I keep trotting him out as an example of an overclassed character – but to be fair this choice of classes perfectly reflects how Marc has played him over the years, and I have no problem at all with his choices. Anyway, Elias is currently a (deep breath!) Sorcerer 1, Fighter 2, Rogue 2, Paladin 5, Pious Templar 4, Glorious Servitor 3. He has four core classes and two prestige classes. These rules aren’t as harsh on him as Pathfinder probably intended.

So here’s my compromise. It’s a new saving throw table that is the same for Core Classes and for Prestige Classes. It walks the middle line between the original saving throw table, and the new Pathfinder one. It makes all multiclassing equal. Here it is:

The class you take at first level gains a special one-time bonus to its good saving throws. For example if Fighter is the class you take at first level, then you gain a special +1 bonus to your Fortitude saving throw. Anyone multiclassing into Fighter after first level doesn’t get that bonus. This preserves the necessary +2 bump to good saving throws at 1st level, but prevents anyone from getting that bump later on by multiclassing.

The rules should be obvious, but here are the bonuses that each of the eleven core classes (and the warlock, because I likes warlocks) get at 1st level:

Barbarian: +1 Fortitude
Bard: +1 Reflex, +1 Will
Cleric: +1 Fortitude, +1 Will
Druid: +1 Fortitude, +1 Will
Fighter: +1 Fortitude
Monk: +1 Fortitude, +1 Reflex, +1 Will
Paladin: +1 Fortitude, +1 Will
Ranger: +1 Fortitude, +1 Reflex
Rogue: +1 Reflex
Sorcerer: +1 Will
Warlock: +1 Will
Wizard: +1 Will

Characters who used the Version 3.0 rules for apprentice characters (and therefore have two classes at first level) must choose which of those two characters get the saving throw bonus. They can’t have both.

So how do these changes affect Elias – who has become the benchmark of all multiclassing in the game. Well, in terms of his base saving throws (not allowing for ability scores, inherent bonuses or magic items) this is how Elias works out in each of these three systems:

• D&D Version 3.5: Fortitude +12, Reflex +6, Will +10
• Pathfinder: Fortitude +11, Reflex +6, Will +10
• New Rules: Either Fortitude +10, Reflex +5, Will +9 or Fortitude +9, Reflex +5, Will +10 (depending on how Marc assigns saving throw bonuses as an apprentice character)

In some respects, this isn’t a fair comparisson. Pathfinder makes Will a good saving throw for a paladin (which is something that third edition didn’t do). If that wasn’t the case then Elias’s Will save would have dropped to +7 in Pathfinder, and +6/+7 under the new rules.

Anyway – the results here are clear. The saves in Pathfinder are slightly worse than in 3.5, and my proposed amendments lower Elias’s saves still further. The question we face is whether this is a fair change or not. Personally, I believe it is. Compare Elias’s saving throws with a straight 16th level paladin (which is the nearest pure class to Elias’s multi-faceted nature). A single class paladin under Pathfinder would have saving throws of Fortitude +10, Reflex +5, Will +10. Stonkingly similar to the saving throws that years of multiclassing have given Elias.

But I don’t want Marc to feel as though I’m picking on Elias (I do enough of that in game). Let’s compare the old, new and would-be base saving throws of all the members of the Chosen of Narramac (and their hangers on) and see what happens. I have to say that I owe Marc an apology, Elias isn’t the character I should have been holding up as an example of over-twinkedness: it’s Syrah.

Arvan Walker-in-Shadows (Druid 11/Warshaper 4)

• D&D Version 3.5: Fortitude +11, Reflex +4, Will +8
• Pathfinder: Fortitude +9 Reflex +4, Will +8
• New Rules: Fortitude +10, Reflex +4, Will +8

Brack Ogrebane (Ranger 11/Fighter 3)

• D&D Version 3.5: Fortitude +10, Reflex +8, Will +4
• Pathfinder: Fortitude +10 Reflex +8, Will +4
• New Rules: Fortitude +9, Reflex +8, Will +4

Diablo Trent Cortez (Rogue 3/Wizard 3/Arcane Trickster 7)

• D&D Version 3.5: Fortitude +4, Reflex +9, Will +9
• Pathfinder: Fortitude +4 Reflex +8, Will +8
• New Rules: Fortitude +4, Reflex +8, Will +7

Elias Raithbourne (Fighter 2/Sorcerer 1/Rogue 2/Paladin 5/Pious Templar 4/Glorious Servitor 3)

• D&D Version 3.5: Fortitude +12, Reflex +6, Will +10
• Pathfinder: Fortitude +11, Reflex +6, Will +10
• New Rules: Either Fortitude +10, Reflex +5, Will +9 or Fortitude +9, Reflex +5, Will +10 (depending on how Marc assigns saving throw bonuses as an apprentice character)

Nicos Tannesh (Cleric 10)

• D&D Version 3.5: Fortitude +7, Reflex +3, Will +7
• Pathfinder: Fortitude +7 Reflex +3, Will +7
• New Rules: Fortitude +7, Reflex +3, Will +7

Ravenna Malbraeve (Sorcerer 11/Fighter 1/Spellsword 3)

• D&D Version 3.5: Fortitude +8, Reflex +4, Will +10
• Pathfinder: Fortitude +7, Reflex +4, Will +9
• New Rules: Fortitude +6, Reflex +4, Will +9

Raza de Luna (Monk 15)

• D&D Version 3.5: Fortitude +9, Reflex +9, Will +9
• Pathfinder: Fortitude +9 Reflex +9, Will +9
• New Rules: Fortitude +9, Reflex +9, Will +9

Syrah Pendragon (Paladin 2/Ranger 2/Bloodhound 4/Dragon Shaman 1/ Dragon Devotee 5)

• D&D Version 3.5: Fortitude +16, Reflex +8, Will +4
• Pathfinder: Fortitude +13 Reflex +7, Will +8
• New Rules: Fortitude +12, Reflex +6, Will +6

Weapon and Armour Proficiencies

Thinking along the same lines as the above (but this time with no intention of picking on Marc) I want to look at weapon, armour and shield proficiencies. For the last eight years or so I have been using the rules for Weapon Group feats from the Unearthed Arcana. I still prefer that system, and I won’t be changing it any time soon.

In third edition all characters start with a number of bonus Weapon Group feats, Armour Proficiency Feats and Shield Proficiency feats. This reflects their mastery of arms and armour when they begin the game. This is all well and good, but the rules also state that anyone multiclassing into another core class automatically gets the same weapon and armour proficiencies on top of all the weapon and armour proficiences he already has.

That’s crazy. The rules as presented in the Pathfinder rulebook mean that a 1st level wizard who multiclasses into fighter at level two actually has more weapon proficiencies than a 2nd level fighter. We can’t be having that can we?

I have two thoughts here. We can say that these bonus weapon, armour and shield proficiency feats are only available at first level. After that multiclassing gets you nothing, and you have to buy any other such feat you want with one of your finite feat slots. That’s the easiest solution, and its the way prestige classes work.

The alternative, is that characters who multiclass into a core class gain some (but not all) of the weapon, armour and shield proficiency feats that a 1st level character in that class gained. For example, a 1st level fighter gains Basic Weapons + any four other Weapon Group Feats, Armour Proficiency (Light), Armour Proficiency (Medium), Armour Proficiency (Heavy), Shield Proficiency and Tower Shield Proficiency. It’s quite a list. A character multiclassing into fighter after 1st level doesn’t gain all that, instead they gain one weapon group feat of their choice, and either one armour proficiency or one shield proficiency feat of their choice.

Here’s a summary of all the feats in tabular form:

A multiclassing character still needs to be qualify for the feats he is selecting. So a character who multiclasses into barbarian can only select Armour Proficiency (Medium) if he already has the feat Armour Proficiency (Light). If a character already has the specified feat then they don’t get any other benefit. A Fighter multiclassing into barbarian would get knowledge of an additional weapon group feat, but wouldn’t get either armour proficiency because he already has both armour proficiencies.

I hope that these rules go a little way to balancing some of the insanity of the D&D multiclassing rules. As you will remember, one of my goals in HD&D was to make multiclassing equitable. Well, these rules don’t do this. They’re a patch, not a solution. However, I think they might eliminate some of the excesses of multiclassing whether intentional or unintentional – or at least postpone them for a few levels.

Before I begin, I want to state that none of the following changes the way that magic items work in D&D. All the magic items that your characters have access to remain completely unchanged. What I am changing (or what I am proposing that we change) is the mechanic used for creating new magic items, and also the way we manage magic items in the game. This is all to the benefit of the players. Honest.

Inherent Bonuses

The D&D game assumes that player characters acquire increasingly powerful magic items as they advance. The threats that characters meet are balanced against the assumption that they have the right magical kit for the job. A CR 10 monster is only an appropriate challenge for a party of 10th level adventurers, if those 10th level adventurers have the right magical weapons and trinkets.

After all, if the game assumes that a Fighter should have a +2 sword by level 10, and that fighter doesn’t have a +2 sword, then he’ll hit less often and deal less damage than the game assumes he will. As a result he will not stand up against his enemy as well as he should, which could have any number of painful ramifications.

Now this system works well enough as long as the GM continues to hand out level appropriate magical items as the characters continue to advance. I think my players can see where I’m going with this…

I don’t hand out magic items even half as quickly as the game assumes I should. Magic items just aren’t that common in the Iourn setting, and I’m seeking to preserve a certain integrity by not giving every leering henchman a +1 club. I think that magical items should be potent storied items. There is little room for something as utilitarian and boring as a +2 ring of protection. But I know that without a handful of rings of protection the saving throws of the characters won’t keep pace with there they need to be at a given level.

So what am I to do? Well, fourth edition introduces a concept called Inherent Bonuses (it’s on p138 of DMG2). Designed for low or no magic campaigns, the basic idea is that as characters advance in level they gain the bonuses they otherwise would have got from magic items. These bonuses overlap (do not stack) with magic item bonuses. So a 12th level character might have a +2 inherent bonus to attack and damage rolls. If he picks up a +3 sword then he uses the higher value - gaining a net +1 to attack and damage rolls in this case.

My intention is to divide 4e’s “inherent bonuses” into Offence and Defence modifiers that characters get a different levels. Observe:

Defence Modifiers: The character gains a +1 enhancement bonus to Armour Class, and a +1 resistance bonus to saving throws at level 4. This bonus increases to +2 at level nine, +3 at level fourteen, +4 at level nineteen, and +5 at level twenty-four. The defence modifier does not increase beyond +5. The defence modifier does not stack with the enhancement bonus gained from magical armour, or the resistance bonus gained from rings of protection. If the character has access to these magical items then take the higher value.

Offence Modifiers: The character gains a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls at seventh level. This bonus increases to +2 at level twelve, +3 at level seventeen, +4 at level twenty-two, and +5 at level twenty-seven. The offence modifier does not increase beyond +5. The offence modifier does not stack with the enhancement bonus gained from magical weapons. If the character has access to magic weapons then take the higher of the two values.

Yes, yes. I know. It’s all horribly gamist and smacks royally of fourth edition. It demeans the importance of magical items, and these are bonuses that can’t be readily explained in game - which is largely something I want to encourage. Why would I want to do this?

My best defence of this system is that it is necessary. Especially as PCs edge into high levels, characters are going to need to have the best equipment available to them. I know that I don’t normally spend a lot of time balancing encounters, or worrying whether villain X is a match for the PCs, but this is how D&D works. It would be very nice for me if I still didn’t have to worry about this sort of thing, if I knew that the PCs  – stripped naked and armed only with fruit – would still be able to punch their weight. This isn’t something I would have done in HD&D, but we’re not pursuing that any longer. The d20 system is flawed in its approach to magic items. These rules are a patch.

To be honest, I also think that this system has the potential to lead to more innovative magic items. From this point on, what makes magic items special is not the static bonuses they given to your saving throws or attack rolls – that’s fairly dull anyway – what makes magic items special is what else they can do.

Example: Elias is currently wielding Andel’s sword. It’s a +4 bastard sword. Well, Elias is 16th level so he already has an inherent +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls. The sword is only giving him a net +2. But the bonus isn’t what makes the blade special. What makes the blade special is the blue metal used in its construction, the way it can shed pale blue light and the way that its hilt is shaped like an owl with wings spread. That owl is a miniature construct that can disconnect itself from the sword and fly off on reconnaisance missions. It can observe locations as a greater prying eyes spell, and then return to Elias to report. The bonus to hit and to damage is the least of what the magic item does.

Here’s a few other things to consider:

• Offence and Defence bonuses are based on over-all character level; not on any one class level.
• The bonuses gained with these rules aren’t magical. Elias may have a +2 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls, but that doesn’t mean he can strike creatures that have “xx/magic” Damage Reduction.
• Enhancement bonuses to damage apply to all attack rolls, but they’re not added to damage from magic spells. I’ve already introduced Spellpower – anything else is probably a step too far.
• Defence Modifiers only overlap with the enhancement that can be applied to armour. They stack with armour bonuses, natural armour bonuses and even magical armour bonuses. The defence modifier would apply to a character wearing nonmagical armour, wielding a magical shield or wearing brancers of armour.
• The rate at which defence and offence bonuses are acquired lags behind the bonus granted by a magical item of that level. Elias has a +2 offence bonus, but a +4 sword. The bonus doesn’t, therefore, replace the magic item – it shores up a deficiency in those who don’t have magic items at all.
• However, offence and defence bonuses apply across the board to all characters – even those characters who may not bothered to acquire such bonuses. A 29th level wizard has a +5 offence modifier for melee attacks with his non-magical dagger.

So please have a deep and long think about this. I think it’s a behind-the-scenes change to the game. Most characters aren’t going to notice their offence and defence modifiers at the moment. It will most benefit characters that don’t have magical items improving their attack rolls, damage rolls and saving throws: I’m looking at you, Raza.

Creating Magic Items

My goal in writing these blog entries is to hammer the game into shape for the next Roleplaying Retreat, therefore I only really want to concentrate on game elements that will see play in April. The rules for creating new magical items probably isn’t one of those elements. Therefore, this entry is more of an overview of my intentions for the system than polished rules.

Although it does have some relevence for PCs choosing new feats.

My plan is to inject a heavy dose of the 2nd edition game into the rules for making permanent magical items. Instead of using the feat system for magic item creation, we will use the spell system instead. What I’ve come up with is something similar to the ritual system in 4e, but with a little more options. Bear with me, and I’ll talk you through my intentions.

Existing Item Creation Feats

Ignoring Scribe Scroll and Brew Potion (which I’ll get to in a moment) – there are six item creation feats in the core game: Craft Magic Arms and Armour, Craft Rod, Craft Staff, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item and Forge Ring. The level at which you can gain these feats differs between third edition and Pathfinder (with Pathfinder being more forgiving). If I was using this system, I’d probably stick to the core third edition rules.

Once you have a feat, you can create magic items of the assigned type. All you need is the raw materials, the required gold, and access to the spells required in the item’s construction. As long as the creator succeeds a Spellcraft check then the item is made after a certain amount of time has passed.

New Item Creation Spells

In the proposed system a wizard (could be a cleric or any number of other classes, but we’ll say wizard) still gathers the required materials for the magic item. The spellcaster still needs a masterwork item to enchant, and he still needs to lay down the requisite gold to pay for the constuction. This gold represents the esoteric components required to make a magical item. The caster can substitute residuum for gold – as in the standard fourth edition rules. Some items might require very specific components that must be quested for. A Spellcraft check is still needed at the end of the process to make sure everything works, but no experience points need to be burned.

In the new system I propose a new third level spell called Enchant an Item. A wizards casts this spell upon an item to open it to enchantment. He then uses the necessary components and casts the relevent spells to create the magical item he desires. Finally, he must seal the enchantment by casting a Permanency spell. Without pemanency the magic from the item will leak after a number of days equal to the caster level of its creator. As permanency is a 5th level spell, the creation of permanent magic items is put back to ninth level at the earliest.

In addition to the spells normally associated with creating an item – an additional spell in place of the old item creation feat needs to be cast. At the moment I’m torn regarding this spell should be. It could be something as prosaic as a spell version of craft magic arms and armour, or it could be something very specific such as craft keen weapon. I’ll stick with the former idea in the following example:

For example: Fouchard the Fairly Sinister wishes to create some eyes of doom as a wedding gift for his favourite witch. First he commissions a pair of crystal lenses to be made, and gathers the requisite materials in his lab. In all the cost of the raw materials is 12,500 gp. Fortunately, Fouchard has 5000 gp worth of residuum left over from the time he destroyed a holy avenger, so he only needs to pay 7500 in gold, and make the rest up in raw magical essence. He then casts enchant an item on the lenses, followed by the new spell craft wondrous item, then by the required spells (doom, deathwatch and fear) and then finally he casts permanency to seal the magic. Now all he needs is a presentation box and some wrapping paper.

All magic items in the Pathfinder game have Caster Level prerequisites. So there will be some items that you cannot attempt to make until you are a certain experience level. The third edition Magic Item Compendium goes a step further and lists a level for each magic item, so a GM knows at which level this sort of magic item should become available. At the moment, I’m not sure which of these rules I will use. Maybe both.

On the whole, that is that… except to say that I don’t rule out requiring PCs to jump through a few more colourful hoops in their creation of magic items. This quote from the second edition DMG should always be bourne in mind: “…the final steps in the enchantment process… are defined by the DM… The character might have to take the enchanted item to the peak of the highest mountain to expose it to the rays of the dawning sun before it will be ready. He could have to immerse it in the distilled sorrows of nightingales…”.

Disenchant a Magic Item

We’ve discussed the economics of magic items and magic item shops at length in the past. I don’t really want to get into that discussion again here. However, the price to create magic items is so astronomical that even minor items are out of the price range of most spellcasters – there isn’t that much gold in existence. The currency of magic items therefore isn’t in gold – it’s in residuum. This is the raw essence of magic that can be subsituted for the gold piece cost of items – as seen in the example above.

Residuum can be purchased, but as 1 gp’s worth of residuum costs 1 gp, it isn’t cost effective if you want a large amount. By far the best way to gain residuum is by destroying other magic items. We have a new third-level spell, Disenchant a Magic Item, which allows a caster to draw the residuum out of a magic item. Disenchant a magic item only works on items of your level or lower, so you can’t disenchant the Hand of Vecna unless you’re also a demigod.

Let’s take the holy avenger from the example above. According to the Pathfinder rules the Holy Avenger has a market price of 120,630 gp and a cost to create of half that amount (60,630 gp) – it’s the same cost in third edition if you were wondering. Now, the “market price” is absolute kibble as these things would never be for sale, so let’s concentrate on the cost to create the item. If you are a high enough level to cast Disenchant a Magic Item on a holy avenger (you would need to be 18th level, by-the-by) then you could destroy the sword and gain 60,630 gp’s worth of residuum.

So the magical item economy is actually a separate entity to the conventional economy. The gold piece value of such items is seldom realised as hard cash, but simply passed from one magical item to another. As certain magic items are consumable, and others are destroyed without their residuum being reclaimed, there are actually less and less magic items available as time passes.

Scribe Scroll and Brew Potion

A final word on scrolls and potions. These minor magical items are among the few such items that are commonly for sale in magical boutiques and shady markets. I’ll be approaching these slightly differently: again to the benefit of the players.

Scribe Scroll: This ability remains as a feat, but has a much wider application than before. All spellcasters can potentially use this fear to record their spells in some fashion – using exotic inks or dyes or other items to hold the magic in place. I’ll be writing a lot more about scrolls in the final post on magic, but the nature of the ’scroll’ will vary from tradition to tradition, and class to class. Sure, it might be a scroll for a wizard or a cleric, but its more likely to be an expertly sculpted crystal for a psion, or a bag of beaver entrails if you’re druid. Instinctive casters might have any number of ways to record their spells – many won’t bother to take the feat at all. Whatever the method, the game mechanics are identical. Creating “scrolls” will cost money or resources from the party, and will usually be dependent on a caster having a least a few ranks in an appropriate skill.

Brew Potion: This ability remains pretty much unchanged in the new game. It is still a feat with the same prerequisites. Anyone with the feat can brew a potion of any spell he can cast as long as it is third level or lower. There is still a cost involved in so doing. So for those of you who have the brew potion feat nothing has changed.

What does all this mean to players?

In the short term, these changes to the magic item creation system won’t mean a very great deal to my existing players. You can tell the new rules haven’t been properly fleshed out yet, but it isn’t something I’m inclined to look at before the Roleplaying Retreat.

What it does mean is that anyone who has an item creation feat (except Brew Potion or Scribe Scroll) doesn’t need to have that feat any more. This frees up the feat slot for something else – perhaps something that will get more use in play. I am (after all) introducing quite a few new feats to take advantage of the recharge and languor magic systems, and I want characters to feel as though they are able to take them.

And that is the real reason behind these changes. I have come to think that making item creation dependent on the feat system is a mistake. Feats are a limited resource, even in Pathfinder. Even a wizard who wants to dedicate his life to making magical items, is not going to spend all his time doing so. Creating such items is usually an off-stage activity – spending a great deal of time on one player creating magic items isn’t really fair on the rest of the group.

And if the character is only ever using all these feats off-camera, then why make them feats in the first place? Feats should be flash and showy. They are third edition’s ultimate means to customise your character. Even the stogiest of wizards should have the freedom to be flambuoyant (or take that Skill Focus feat he’s always wanted).

Thoughts?

I don’t think I’ve ever made a secret of my fact that dislike the way that relatively low level characters can use Divination spells to circumvent the plot of an adventure. High level characters simply need different adventures in order to take account of their access to divination magic. Something needs to be done to rein in these spells, and that’s something I’m going to look at in this post.

Before I begin I want to emphasise that I have nothing against clever play. Characters who use their abilities, resources or their allies to get one over on the current villain are to be encouraged. I want players who approach problems from unexpected angles; who surprise me with their solutions. What I’m talking about here is the lazy way in which these spells can be used instead of thinking. I don’t have a problem using this spells when they need to be used, I do have a problem when using them gets in the way of roleplaying. That’s an unforgiveable sin.

Scrying Subschool

Let’s start with a few words about the scrying subschool. This was introduced in version 3.5 of D&D (it wasn’t in version 3.0) and is carried over into Pathfinder. It seeks to present consistant rules on how to apply scrying effects in the game. I’m not making any changes here, but I want to reiterate how Scrying spells work just so we are all clear.

Spells of the scrying subschool create an magical sensor that sends the caster information. This information can be purely visual, purely audible or a combination of any number of senses. The sensor is normally invisible, but this may not the case for every scrying spell – as always the spell description trumps the basic subschool definition. The level of visual acuity of the sensor is the same as that of the caster. That means that a wizard with a low perception skill is going to create an equally myopic scrying sensor. Magical effects don’t carry over the sensor. A wizard that casts darkvision on himself can’t use darkvision through the sensor; but a drow wizard who has darkvision as a racial trait, can use that darkvision through his scrying sensor.

The sensor counts as an independent sensory organ for the wizard. So even if he has his eyes gouged out he can still see through his scrying sensor. Unless otherwise noted, the feedback from a scrying sensors doesn’t distract the caster. He doesn’t need to close his eyes to concentrate on what is happening through the sensor, and he can act perfectly normally while aware of what is happening at his current location, as well as the location of the sensor. However, he might need to take specific actions to move or manipulate the sensor in some fashion.

The creature you are spying on is able to notice the scrying sensor by making a perception check with a DC equal to 20 + the spell level. This is a change to the rules in Pathfinder, and certainly better than the Intelligence check that third edition demanded. Scrying sensors can be dispelled, but they can’t be damaged by weapons or energy (even magical ones). Plenty of spells guard against scrying, as we’ll see below. Scrying spells are also stopped by lead.

Finally, for those of your confused by the multiude of editions I’m talking about: there is no Scrying skill in D&D anymore. This was introduced in version 3.0 of the game, but was abandoned in the 3.5 revision. It isn’t in Pathfinder either.

Divination Spells

What I’m going to do now is have a look at the Divination spells that appear in the third edition Player’s Handbook and see whether the modifications already made to them in the Pathfinder game are sufficient for my purposes. For the most part, the spells will stay the same. However, in some cases they will have a radical overhaul. Ready?

Analyse Dweomer

Divination
Level: Arcane 6, Divine (Magic) 6, Song 6
Casting Time: eight hours
Range: close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Targets: one object per caster level
Duration: instantaneous
Saving Throw: none or Will negates (see text)

Casting this spell requires eight hours, and access to a magical laboratory or similar space dedicated to the study and research of magic. The ritual requires the use of magical paraphenalia such as lenses, dyes and reagents commonly found in magical or alchemical laboratories. Analyse dweomer is used to determine the specific magical properties of magical items, and the caster may examine a number of such items equal to his level with one casting of this spell.

After eight hours has passed, the caster learns the following about each magic item: its functions (including any curse effects), how to activate its functions (if appropriate), and how many charges are left (if it uses charges). Intelligent items may attempt a Will save to resist the casting of this spell. If the save succeeds, you learn nothing about the object except what you can discern by looking at it. An object that makes its save cannot be affected by any other analyse dweomer spells for 24 hours.

Analyse dweomer does not function when used on an artefact.

The official version of Analyse Dweomer allows it to be cast as a standard action, and instantly reveal the properties of any active spell or magical item on one target. This new version lessens the potency somewhat, and relegates the spell to a back-room activity. It’s not the sort of spell you cast in the field. This is a theme of many of my changes to divination spells. More often than not, I have increased the casting time to make sure that such spells can’t be used repeatedly.

To my mind most divinations work better as lengthy rituals. They’re more evocative that way. If you’re calling down the avatar of the god of Knowledge to discover a secret lost for three millennia, you don’t want to be able to do it to kill the time while dinner is cooking. In this case, I prefer the idea of a party acquiring new magical items or weapons, and then retiring to their castle or tower to conduct the proper rituals to find out what they do. And considering how infrequently I give away magic items, I think this seems to work reasonably well. Incidentally – no moaning about the lack of magical items in the campaign. I’ll address that in a future post. It’s all about divination this time around.

So what about a wizard clicking his fingers and finding out all about magical auras as a standard action? Don’t worry. That element of analyse dweomer hasn’t been lost entirely. Read on and you’ll see.

Arcane Eye

Read Pathfinder description

No changes here. The only thing I want to underline is that the arcane eye cannot enter another plane of existence. I’ll take this to mean that you cannot send the eye through a teleportation portal, even if the portal links two places on the same plane. Because all teleportation goes through the Astral Plane, the eye would not be able to make the journey.

Arcane Sight/Greater Arcane Sight

Read Pathfinder description

No changes here either, but still something to say. Originally I had envisaged having two versions of analyse dweomer: one cast as a standard action that worked like an augmented detect magic spell, and one cast as the eight hour ritual that is described above. Then I read the description for arcane sight. Arcane Sight is already an augmented detect magic spell. It is everything that my version of analyse dweomer would have been if I’d left it castable as a standard action. In fact, I’m not entirely sure why third edition bothered to have both to be honest. In short, any utility that you think you have may lost in analyse dweomer is present here, in arcane sight.

Augury

Read Pathfinder description

I’ve never been completely happy with augury as a spell, but I felt that on balance I might as well leave it as it is. It takes 1 minute to cast the spell, so it’s not something that can be whipped out in the middle of combat. Additionally, the utility of the spell isn’t that hot. It only provides a weal/woe response to an event that is to take place no more than 30 minutes into the future. In those terms, I don’t have a problem with it.

Clairaudience/Clairvoyance

Read Pathfinder description

Remarkably, I didn’t feel the need to change this spell either. I must be getting soft. The casting time of 10 minutes, the limited range of 400 feet + 40 feet per level, and the general Achilles heal of all scrying spells (that it may be noticed) are all enough to stop Clairaudience from breaking the game. Once more, I should point out that you can’t use clairaudience/clairvoyance to see what’s on the other side of a teleportation portal.

Commune

Divination
Level: Divine (All) 5
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level

You contact the extraplanar agents of your deity, and may ask questions of them. A divine caster with no particular deity (such as a mystic) appeals to an equivalent entity. You may ask one question per caster level, and the spell ends when he final question is answered. If you delay, discuss the answers or go off and do something else, the spell also ends.

The amount of information gained from a commune spell is entirely dependent on the knowledge of the entity that you invoke. Some may be more helpful than others in certain circumstances. For example, if the party wishes to know more information about an uncharacteristic increase in volcanic activity, a commune spell cast by a priest of Calafax is more likely to summon a being who knows useful information, than if the spell was cast by a cleric of Sharrash.

The entity invoked by this spell is played as an NPC by the GM. These beings have their own personalities and goals which will colour any answers that the caster receives. Depending on the questions asked, the entity may be deliberately duplicitous or genuinely eager to help. Entities conjured by the commune spell are not omniscient, and there may be some questions that they simply cannot answer.

Okay, big revisions to Commune. In the original description you summon your deity or proxy and ask them a question that can be answered with yes/no replies. With this revision, the spell is altogether more interesting. We get to have a meaningful  conversation with the summoned entity (whatever it may be) and the questions you ask are limited by the knowledge of this being. So if you summon an archangel from the sixth mount of Heaven and ask them “which one of these people stole my wallet” the archangel will be able to reply “How the @#!?@# should I know?”.

Certainly, this lessens the impact that commune can have in the game. If the PCs are searching for a werewolf, they can’t use a commune spell to unmask the villain. They need to ask the sort of questions that the invoked entity is likely to know. So asking an angel “How do we cross the Weirlands” would be a reasonable question.

Commune with Nature

Read Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Comprehend Languages

Read Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Contact Other Plane

Divination
Level: Arcane 5
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Concentration

You send your name to another plane of existence in an attempt to answer a perplexing and unknowable puzzle. The great powers you contact by means of this spell resent the intrusion of mortal minds upon their time. At best the answers they give are terse and to the point. At worse, they deliberately lie and may feeblemind the spellcaster. No arcane caster attempts to contact other plane on a whim. It is likely the spell of the last resort, when all other avenues of enquiry prove fruitless.

The further the caster sends his mind, the more likely the entity he finds knows the answer to his questions. However, the further the caster sends his mind the more likely he is to suffer a disastrous reduction in his mental faculties, and a loss of his spellcasting power. It may also result in other – unavoidable – side effects.

When this spell is cast, you must decide where you are sending your mind to seek out an answer to your current dilemma. You can only visit one plane with one casting of this spell, and you may not ask the same question more than once. You must concentrate on on maintaining the spell (a standard action each round) in order to ask questions. You may ask questions at a rate of one per round.  A question is answered by the power in the same round. You may ask a maximum of one question per two caster levels.

Every time you ask a question, the GM (secretly) rolls percentile dice and consults the following table:

Plane Contacted	Avoid Int/Cha Decrease	True Answer	Don’t Know	Lie	Random Answer
Elemental Plane	DC 9/1 week	01-40	41-80	81-90	91-00
Astral Plane	DC 12/2 weeks	01-50	51-80	81-90	91-00
Outer Plane	DC 15/3 weeks	01-60	61-80	81-90	91-00
Far Realm	DC 18/5 weeks	01-70	71-80	81-90	91-00

Plane Contacted: The elemental planes of Iourn are the planes of Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Life and Death. They are the domains of the Moon Gods and their elemental servants. They are the closest and least mind-bending of the planes of existence. The Astral Plane (or Astral Sea) is the great silvery realm of magic and the mind. The outer planes are the realms of gods, and other powerful entities that drift in the void beyond Iourn – the Feywild, Arvandor, the Shadowfell and Ostoria are all outer planes. The Far Realm is a plane outside reality, full of entities and intelligences that simply shouldn’t exist.

Avoid Int/Cha Decrease: When contacting this plane, the caster must make an Intelligence of Charisma check (whichever is higher) at the specified DC. If he fails then his Intelligence and Charisma scores are reduced to 8 for the duration indicated. You only have to make one ability score check regardless of the number of questions you ask.

True Answer: The entity knows the answer to your question and answers as briefly as possible. If it can answer with one word then it does, otherwise it speaks a short phrase.

Don’t Know: The entity doesn’t know the answer to the question, and tells the caster that is doesn’t know.

Lie: The entity knows the the answer to the question, but chooses not to impart it to the caster. A result of “lie” provides dangerously misleading information – the sort of information that is more likely that not to get the caster killed.

Random Answer: The entity doesn’t know the answer, but doesn’t want to admit its ignorance. It gives the caster an incorrect answer that it thinks is likely. This answer won’t be maliciously intended kill the caster, but it won’t be all that helpful either.

On rare occassions, this divination may be blocked by an act of certain deities of forces.

In addition to the chance of feeblemindedness, loss of spellcasting and gaining the wrong answer, using contact other plane repeatedly gains the notice of certain entities that the spellcaster would probably rather didn’t notice him. Sending one’s mind into the Far Realm is seldom without its consequences. These are left to the imagination of the GM.

This is the arcane equivalent of the Commune spell. While Commune summons the spirit of a helpful entity to answer questions, contact other plane sends the spellcaster’s mind into the great beyond to try and find the answers that he seeks. A wizard casting this spell has a much broader collection of entities to consult and can theoretically find the answer to anything. However, it’s not without its dangers.

And what dangers they are! I altered the table for the spell – reducing the number of options to reflect Iourn’s cosmology – and also slightly modifying the DCs and percentage chance of getting the right answer. Even sending your mind to the Far Realm has just a 70% chance of finding the information you seek, and you need to make a DC 18 Intelligence check or lose all spellcasting powers for five weeks.

But then, you CAN use this spell to discover the impossible. You can use this spell to find out the password to the thieves guild’s underground hideout, or the location of a fabled artefact or the colour of Karatath’s underpants. No answer is completely beyond the power of contact other plane, it’s just a question of whether you want to take the risk of asking.

Detect Animals or Plants

Read Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Detect Chaos/Evil/Good/Law

Read Pathfinder description

The descriptions of these spells don’t see much if any change, but how the spells are adjudicated and implemented in the game is going to change a great deal. Why? Well, there’s no such thing as Alignment in the game any more. I hate alignment: always have. It’s a pointless crutch for roleplaying, and I hate the way that it’s been hard-wired into the D&D rules. So all alignment has disappeared. You can’t use this spell to identify an evil man or a cutpurse. It just doesn’t work that way.

However real, tangible evil does exist in the Iourn setting. It’s called Taint and it’s present in areas of terrible infamy such as Thannassanoir. Certain truly horrible creatures such as demons, thinking undead and so on possess this taint. So from now on <i>detect evil</i> doesn’t locate the rather wishy-washy concept of “evil”, it instead locates the presence of Taint. Mass murderers, evil despots and petty thieves don’t have Taint. Tainted creatures are almost always sources of supernatural evil.

These are, to be fair, much the rules I have been using for years. However, I want to take the opportunity to underline them here. I’m more than happy with a paladin being able to sense the presence of a vampire in a room – I’m less happy with him being able to torpedo every whodunnit plot by just squinting at the subjects.

So do Good, Lawful and Chaotic equivalents of Taint exist? Are the angellic beings of Aduro shot through with Rapture that can be detected and warded against? Are the changelings rampaging through the Underdark dripping with Entropy? Well, maybe. Why not? Strikes me as more of a story-related issue we should deal with in-game.

Detect Magic

Read the D&D 3.5 description

Unchanged, but I want to be clear that we’re going with the 3.5 description of detect magic and not with the Pathfinder one. The main difference is that the Pathfinder version of detect magic allows you to use the cantrip to identify the properties of magical items. I would prefer to keep detect magic working the way it has always worked in the game – a successful Spellcraft check reveals the school of the magic, which might give you an educated guess to the properties of the item.

Detect Poison

Read the Pathfinder description

Not to be confused with the Sharrashan clergy’s Detect Poisson; otherwise unchanged.

Detect Secret Doors

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Detect Snares & Pits

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged. 

Detect Thoughts

Divination [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Arcane 2, Song 2
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 60 ft.
Area: Cone-shaped emanation
Target: You
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (see text)

You detect surface thoughts. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject.

1st Round: Presence or absence of thoughts (from conscious creatures with Intelligence scores of 1 or higher).

2nd Round: Number of thinking minds and the Intelligence score of each. If the highest Intelligence is 26 or higher (and at least 10 points higher than your own Intelligence score), you are stunned for 1 round and the spell ends. This spell does not let you determine the location of the thinking minds if you can’t see the creatures whose thoughts you are detecting.

3rd Round: Surface thoughts of any mind in the area. A target’s Will save prevents you from reading its thoughts, and you must cast detect thoughts again to have another chance. Creatures of animal intelligence (Int 1 or 2) have simple, instinctual thoughts.

Detect thoughts provides only the most general information about a target’s mood and intent. It is used in the field to assess the danger or pliability of large groups of individuals. The surface thoughts revealed are raw emotions such as hosility, anger, fear or curiosity. There is no sense of a coherent narrative in the thoughts detected, this spell couldn’t be used to find a pass-phrase or code word.

If used while interrogating a specific creature, then detect thoughts can offer valuable insight into the state of mind of the subject. Are they nervous? worried? Are they likely to respond to kindness or threats? What the spell won’t do is read thoughts that the subject wants to remain hidden (even if the saving throw is failed). You can’t use this spell to drag out the identity of a murderer or reveal the location of a hidden treasure.

Each round, you can turn to detect thoughts in a new area. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.

Detect thoughts is one of those spells that is designed for one purpose, and then promptly used by players for something quite different. Its built in the same way as the various detect magic clones that we’ve just covered: concentrate on an area for three rounds and discover the presence or absence of thoughts or magic or alignment or poison or traps and so on and so forth. In practice everyone uses it to interrogate the bad guys.

And as a spell that third level characters can get their hands on, it shouldn’t be used to that end. We all know how it’s used don’t we? If someone tells you not to think of a banana, what’s the first thing you think of? Players often use the same tactic on NPCs with this spell. “What do you know about the death of Earl Smurfhammer?” – instantly the surface thoughts of the NPC will turn to the murder and in that second the canny character with detect thoughts running discovers the truth!

Well, I don’t like that. I prefer the PCs to turn their hand to some honest detective work – you know: going and out talking to people, interacting with the NPCs, roleplaying… the sort of things that make the game fun. The way I have rewritten the spell, detect thoughts is still useful during interrogations. It can offer insight into the mental state of the NPC, and it can used to guide the questions asked: “Mary the milk maid felt ashamed when you mentioned her brother, maybe we should pursue that”.

So the ill-defined “surface thoughts” from the original spell description is defined as a target’s intent and emotions. Less powerful to be sure, but easier to cope with in the game and much more in keeping with a 2nd level spell.

Detect Undead

Read Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Discern Lies

Divination
Level: Divine (Justice, Knowledge) 4
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Will negates

You concentrate on one target, who must be within range of this spell. You know if the target deliberately and knowingly speaks a lie by discerning disturbances in its aura caused by lying. The spell does not reveal the truth, uncover inintentional inaccuracies, or necessarily reveal evasions. A target that succeeds on its saving throw cannot be affected by further discern lies spells cast by the same caster for 24 hours.

One a couple of small change to the description. Firstly, the spell now only works on one specific creature, as opposed to one creature per level of the caster. Secondly, targets that succeed on their saving throw can’t be affected by the spell until the following day – this prevents characters repeated casting discern lies on a target until it fails its saving throw.

Beyond that, this spell is pretty much as it has ever been. You can tell if a creature is lying, but you can’t tell if it’s speaking the truth. Even a target that fails its saving can simply answer “I’m not going to tell you” to any question. Discern lies works best at determining innocence rather than guilt, as its the innocent who are more likely to submit to the spell and speak freely.

I would also add that the fact that discern lies exists is proof enough that detect thoughts shouldn’t be able to be used for the same purpose.

Discern Location

Divination
Level: Arcane 8, Divine (Knowledge) 8
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: Unlimited
Target: One creature or object
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None

A discern location spell is among the most powerful means of locating creatures or objects. A mind blank or equivalent spell, or the direct intervention of a deity would be required to prevent you from learning the exact location of a single individual or object. Discern location circumvents normal means of protection from scrying or location. The spell reveals the name of the creature or object’s location (place, name, business name, building name, or the like), community, county (or similar political division), country, continent, and the plane of existence where the target lies.

To find a creature with this spell, you must possess an item of significance to the creature or a part of the creature (such as a lock of hair, toenail clipping etc.) In order to find an object, you must either have a part of the object or you must have handled and examined the object carefully at some point.

This is almost the same spell description. Discern location is a very powerful and game breaking spell. “Help! My daughter has been kidnapped!” – “She’s at number 42 Broad Street in Uris, in a back room on the second floor. She’s currently eating an apple”. But it is an 8th level spell, it should be powerful. And as mind blank (also an 8th level spell) is still capable of countering it, the GM does have a legitimate means to keep objects and individuals hidden when he doesn’t want them to be found.

The modification to this spell comes in the second paragraph. The standard text of the spell reads: “To find a creature with the spell, you must have seen the creature or have some item that once belonged to it. To find an object, you must have touched it at least once.” Now, simply knowing a creature is not enough to find the creature – you need an object that belonged to that creature. And not any object either – it has to be something significant. It’s all very well to be handed a diamond necklace that belonged to the princess, if that necklace meant nothing to her then it won’t work as a component for this spell.

Oh, and I’m increased the casting time from 10 minutes to 8 hours. This really isn’t the sort of spell I want players to be able to use repeatedly. Work out what you want to do, cast the spell and then move on to something else. If the spell doesn’t work, then Plan B shouldn’t be simply casting the spell again.

Divination

Read Pathfinder description

No change here. Divination is just an augury spell with a little more poke. As a GM it might be annoying to come up with a cryptic rhyme at the drop of a hat, but on balance divination can add to the mystery and the interest of a game rather than circumventing it.

Find the Path

Read Pathfinder description

Unchanged. What? Find the path? The most broken spell in the game? Surely I want to completely rip the guts out of this spell? Sadly, I can’t – Paizo got there first. Look at the 3.5 version of the spell and then reread the description of the Pathfinder version. See the difference? I have no problem with the Pathfinder version.

Find Traps

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Foresight

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged. However, I will happily take advice on the level of this spell. I always thought that Foresight was underpowered as a 9th level spell. Would it be better as an 8th level spell, or even 7th?

Guidance

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Identify

Read the D&D 3.5 description

Unchanged from version 3.5. Because detect magic allows the identification of magic items in Pathfinder, the identify spell just grants a +10 bonus to Spellcraft checks. As we’re using the 3.5 version of detect magic, we must also use the 3.5 version of identify. So it takes 1 hour to identify the properties of one magical item, but you don’t have to roll to do it.

Know Direction

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Legend Lore

Divination
Level: Arcane 7, Divine (Oracle, Knowledge) 7, Song 5
Casting Time: See text
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: See text
Saving Throw: Will negates (see text)

Legend lore brings to your mind legends and stories about an important person, place or object. If the person or object is at hand, or if you are in the place in question, the casting time is only 8 hours. If you have only detailed information on the person, place, or thing, the casting time is 8 days. If you know only rumours, the casting time is 8 weeks.

The usefulness of the lore gained by this spells is dependent upon your existing knowledge of the subject. The more familiar you are with the subject, the more esoteric gems this spell will reveal. If you know the subject extremely well either because you are friends with a  living subject well, or because you have researched and discovered a great deal about the place or object, then you can gain specific and directed information about the legends surrounding the subject. The less familiar you are, the less complete and specific the information the spell reveals.

For example, if the only thing you know about the god Calafax is his name, then casting legend lore would reveal the role of the god, and his place in the Moon Pantheon. If you are a worshipper and know many of the teachings of his religion, then legend lore might reveal older and less well known information such as the process through which Calafax intervenes to annoint Firewalkers. If you are a learned scholar of the deity, then legend lore might reveal the deepest and darkest information – such as that Calafax has been a name taken by many divine entities in the history of Iourn.

During the casting, you cannot engage in other than routine activities: eating, sleeping, and so forth. When completed, the divination brings legends (if any) about the person, place, or objects to your mind. These may be legends that are still current, legends that have been forgotten, or even information that has never been generally known. If the person, place, or thing is not of legendary importance, you gain no information. As a rule of thumb, characters who are 11th level and higher are “legendary”, as are the sorts of creatures they contend with, the major magic items they wield, and the places where they perform their key deeds.

If the subject of this spell is a person, and if that person is still in existence (either living or undead) then he is entitled to a Will saving throw against the spell’s effects. On a successful saving throw, the caster gains no information about the subject.

The GM controls the amount of information gained through legend lore and the type of legends and information that are imparted to the caster. If there are many legends, the caster may only discover the most significant of them. Casters should attempt to narrow down results of legend lore with their own independent research before casting the spell.

Once a caster casts legend lore on a particular topic, then every time he casts legend lore on the same topic in the future he will get the same result. Only if the caster discovers more information about the subject, (through more research, or gaining access to the subject itself) will futher castings of legend lore prove effective.

Of all the spells in D&D, legend lore is the one I dislike the most. The ease with which it could be cast, and the way it can be used to discover information that the GM and (indeed) other players would prefer to remain hidden is terrible. Something as significant as legend lore can’t be just excised from the game, but I have taken some steps to limit its use, and reduce its utility somewhat.

Firstly, I’ve upped the level at which it can be cast. It is now a 5th level song spell (not 4th), and a 7th level arcane spell (not 6th). The divine version remains the same level. The casting time of the spell if you have the subject present is increased from 1d4 × 10 minutes to 8 hours. I have given living (or unliving) subjects a saving throw against its effects – which is largely there to protect PCs. I have underlined that multiple attempts to cast the spell don’t get different results if your knowledge of the subject remains the same. Finally (and most importantly) I have said that the amount of information you gain about a subject depends on your existing knowledge of the subject.

To me, legend lore should be used to gain that extra little bit of information about the subject. The caster still has to do the research in esoteric libraries and in the field to find out all he can about a subject. Only when he has a firm understanding of what it is he wants to know, will legend lore prove to be of value. Casters who know this spells should always think: do I know enough information about the subject to make the casting of legend lore worthwhile?

Or to put it in campaign terms: if the Chosen of Narramac cast a legend lore on the entity Faust now, then would learn significantly more about him than if they cast legend lore when Faust was first mentioned by the Saldarím back in session seven.

Locate Creature

Read the Pathfinder description

This spell is unchanged, but I think the description requires a fuller explanation. As it stands the spell reads thusly: “The spell can locate a creature of a specific kind or a specific creature known to you. It cannot find a creature of certain type.” This is all well and good, but requires you to understand the terms “kind” and “type”. And Pathfinder doesn’t actually have a definition for “kind”.

“Type” is much easier to get to grips with. A creature’s Type is found in the stat block of every creature in the game. Types include Aberration, Animal, Construct, Dragon, Fey, Humanoid, Magical Beast, Monstrous Humanoid, Ooze, Outsider, Plant, Undead and Vermin. Type is the broadest possible method of defining creatures.

“Kind” is a little trickier to define. There is a pseudo-definition in the text of the Familiar’s ability to speak with animals of its kind its kind – but that doesn’t work very well in this context. Therefore, I’m going to rule that “kind” in this context means creatures of the same species. So you can define cats, dogs, grey dragons and so forth.

To put it into a D&D context you could cast locate creature and look for wolves (but not animals), or pit fiends (but not devils), or beholders (but not aberrations). Is that clear? Obviously, if you’re looking for a specific individual then that works too – to the limit of spell’s power, naturally.

Locate Object

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Moment of Prsecience

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged. But I think that this 8th level spell points out how much the 2nd level spell Divine Insight (as seen in Complete Adventurer and the Spell Compendium) is broken. I’ll be looking at Divine Insight when I get around to the Cleric in the upcoming magic document.

Prying Eyes/Greater Prying Eyes

Read the Pathfinder descriptions

The wizard’s very own magical CCTV system. I’m not changing the description of prying eyes or greater prying eyes as they appear in the Pathfinder rules. However, because I have changed the description of true seeing some of the effects of these spells may not be quite as potent as they once were.

Read Magic

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Scrying

Divination (Scrying)
Level: Arcane 4, Divine (Knowledge, Oracle) 4, Primal 4, Song 3
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: See text
Effect: Magical sensor
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will negates

You can observe a creature at any distance. Casting this spell requires a still pool of water (for primal casters) or an elegent and elaborate mirror (for all other casters). You only need the most basic knowledge of a target to attempt a scrying. The magic instantly seeks out the target, as long as they are on the same plane of existence as the caster.

When the spell is cast, the subject must make a Will saving throw to adjudicate the success of the spell. The difficulty of the save depends on how well the caster knows the subject and what sort of physical connection (if any) he has to the subject. The will save is made using the following modifiers. All applicable modifiers stack:

Knowledge	Will Save Modifier
None (you must have some sort of physical connection if you have no knowledge of the subject)	+10
Secondhand (you have heard of the subject)	+5
Firsthand (you have met the subject)	+0
Familiar (you know the subject well)	-2

 

Connection	Will Save Modifier
Likeness or picture	-2
Possession or garment	-4
Body part: lock of hair, bit of nail etc.	-6

If the save fails, you can see and hear the subject and its surroundings (approximately 10 feet in all directions of the subject). If the subject moves, the sensor follows at a speed of up to 150 feet. A subject who fails the saving throw is unaware that they are being scried.

As with all divination (scrying) spells, the sensor has your visual acuity, including any magical effects. In addition, the following spells have a 5% chance per caster level of operating through the sensor: detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law and message.

If the save succeeds the target is aware of the attempt to scry upon it. You also you can’t attempt to scry on that subject again for at least 24 hours.

Scrying is the sort of spell that gets a lot of use in campaigns. On the whole it hasn’t been too bad, and I’ve only really tweaked the spell rather than changed it wholesale. There are three small changes: 1) it doesn’t work across planar boundaries, 2) I’m reduced the penalties you can impose on a target’s saving throw, 3) if the target makes its save it is aware of the attempt to scry on it.

Greater Scrying

Divination (Scrying)
Level: Arcane 7, Divine (Knowledge, Oracle) 7, Primal 7, Song 6
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: See text
Effect: Magical sensor
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will negates

This spell functions as scrying except where noted above. Additionally, greater scrying will function across planar boundaries, although the subject gains a +5 bonus to their saving throw if this is the case. All the following spells can be cast through the sensor with total reliability: detect chaos, detect evil, detect good, detect law, message, read magic and tongues.

The only benefit of the higher level version of scrying is that it can be cast across planar boundaries and there is a slightly longer list of spells that can be cast through the sensor. Otherwise it remains the same as scrying including the duration and casting time. Greater Scrying under conventional rules was cast as a standard action and lasted one hour per level. I think that is excessively overpowered, so I’m happy to remove those options.

See Invisibility

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Speak with Animals

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Speak with Plants

Read the Pathfinder descripton

Unchanged.

Status

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged. Just to say that this spell gives you an idea of your companion’s relative position to you – not his exact location. You may get the result that they are twenty miles north, not that they are in the oven of a m’canti witch. At its best, a running status spell can lead you to the general vicinity of a companion, but it’s not a find the path spell. It’s not going to show you how to get around a raging river or bottomless ravine.

Stone Spell

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged

(Rary’s) Telepathic Bond

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged, although I will point out that regardless of that the SRD or Pathfinder rules say I will always endeavour to use the third edition name of a spell. So it’s Rary’s Telepathic Bond and not just Telepathic Bond.

Tongues

Read the Pathfinder description

Tongues grates on me slightly. In a  setting with no common language, players are encouraged to spend their skill points on learning a large number of different languages. Tongues undermines that somewhat. What’s the point in having specialised linguists if any fifth level wizard can understand any language by snapping his fingers?

However, Tongues has been in the game for a very long time. And the reason its been in the game for so long is because a situation where the PCs can’t communicate with the NPCs is normally undesirable. Yes, it’s fun in the short term to have the PCs washed up on an isolated atoll and have to pantomime their desires to the natives – but it isn’t long before it becomes tiresome and gets in the way of the plot. Without talking, advancing the story is very difficult. That’s the strongest case for tongues that I can think of.

True Seeing

Divination
Level: Arcane 6, Divine (Knowledge) 5, Primal 7
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will neagtes (harmless)

You confer on the subject the ability to see through all magical attempts to hide, deceive or bamboozle the senses. You see things as they truly are: not how magic might make them appear.

The subject sees through magical darkness (but not normal darkness); notices secret doors hidden by magic (but not by mundane means); sees the exact locations of creatures or objects under blur or displacement effects; sees invisible creatures or objects normally; and, sees illusions for what they are – the illusion is still visible to the subject, but they are aware of its unreal nature. the subject can focus its vision to see into the Ethereal Plane (but not into extradimensional spaces). The range of true seeing conferred is 120 feet.

True seeing also has a limited ability to reveal the true form of polymorphed, changed or transmuted things. As long as the transmutation was caused and sustained by magic then the true form of a creature of object is visible as a ghostly image overlapping its current form. True seeing does not reveal the true form if the transformation is a natural (or supernatural) ability, or if the transutation effect is permanent. Therefore, true seeing will reveal the true form of a wizard polymorphed into a dragon, but will not reveal anything if directed at a werewolf in its humanoid form, or a statue that is actually a petrified prince.

True seeing does not penetrate solid objects. It in no way confers X-ray vision or its equivalent. It does not negate concealment, including that caused by fog and the like. True seeing does not help the viewer see through mundane disguises, spot creatures who are simply hiding, or notice secret doors hidden by mundane means. In addition, the spell effects cannot be further enhanced with known magic, so one cannot use true seeing through a crystal ball or in conjunction with clairaudience/clairvoyance.

What I have tried to do here is reposition true seeing as a magical means to detect magical disguises. It’s still pretty powerful in what it can reveal to the caster of the spell, but now it isn’t the spell of choice to torpedo every “hunt the werewolf” plot that has ever been written. Yes, it’s less powerful – but I think all of you were expecting that by now.

True Strike

Read the Pathfinder description

Unchanged.

Vision

Divination
Level: Arcane 8, Divine (Oracle) 8, Primal 8
Casting Time: 1 standard action (see below)
Range: Touch
Target: Willing creature or object touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)

The caster touches a person or an object and immediately gains a vision of the target. The vision is always something of great importance (although the importance may not be immediately apparent). The vision may be a scene from the past or from the future. If cast as a standard action the caster has no way to control the vision or what the magic reveals.

The casting of a vision spell is often the springboard to a quest or campaign, as the caster tries to work out the significance of what they saw.

Casters of vision spells often rely on complicated rituals involving animal entrails, tarot carts, tea leaves or other items befitting their tradition. While, technically, these materials are unnecessary when casting the spell (you either have the Gift of Sight or you don’t) casters who rely on them believe they are more able to direct the vision. They still can’t control what they are seeing, but they can control when they are seeing it.

If vision is cast as a ritual lasting not less than 1 hour, the caster states a specific point in the past or in the future for his vision. He then makes a caster level check (1d20 + 1 per caster level to a maximum of +25). The further removed from the present his vision is, the more difficult the check:

Level Check DC	Effect
20 or less	DM fiat
21-25	1 month
26-30	1 year
31-35	10 years
36-40	100 years
41-45	1000 years

All visions must be fixed to a particular person or object. There’s no point touching a young boy and then having a vision to see what he’s doing 1000 years from now: regardless of what you roll for your spell level check, the boy will still be long dead.

You cannot cast a vision spell on the same person or object more often than once per month. If another such spell is cast (by the same caster) during this time, then the results are always the same.

Right, pick this one apart at your leisure. In the Pathfinder rules, Vision is just an augmented version of the legend lore spell. As it stood, there was absolutely no way that vision would ever have been included in the game. Rather than just jetissoning the spell wholesale, I kept the name and wrote a completely new spell description. I think that’s fairly evocative, and (as it can’t be called upon very often) has the potential to open up adventure paths that may not have otherwise been apparent.

Anti-Divination Spells

No, I’m not proposing an “anti-divination” category of spells. That would be silly. But I do what to have a closer look at those spells designed to vex and protect characters against divination magicks. Not all of these are Divination spells, some are Abjurations. I think I’ve covered all the main ones here, but if I’m missed any then please feel free to point it out.

Detect Scrying

Read Pathfinder description

The description fo this spell is unchanged, but I just wanted to underline its properties if could. Casting this spell wards an area with forty feet of the caster for twenty-four hours. During that time, the caster becomes instantly aware of any scrying attempts. The caster of this spell, and the foe behind the scrying sensor immediately make opposed caster level checks. If the caster of detect scrying wins, then he can see through the sensor and note the location of the originator.

Detect scrying does not prevent the scrying from working, it merely let’s you know if someone is trying it on. It is a 4th level spell, which is a level higher than clairaudience/clairvoyance. For a while in the game, therefore, your character’s ability to guard against scrying doesn’t keep pace with his ability as a scrier. However, detect scrying works against any spell of the Scrying subschool, regardless of level and with no saving throw to avoid its effects. It certainly punches above its weight for those who can cast 4th level spells.

One change I am considering in the long term is adding detect scrying to the limited number of spells that can be made Permanent with a permanency spell. I’ll discuss permanency more when we get onto the post about magic items.

Nondetection

Read the Pathfinder description

This is your best low-level spell to avoid divinations. It’s a 3rd level spell that lasts one hour per caster level. During that time any divination cast on you must succeed at a caster level check DC 11 + caster level of the caster of nondetection (or 15 + caster level, if nondetection is cast on you and by you). You have to go all the way to 8th level and discern location to find a spell that can automatically nondetection.

Mindblank

Read the Pathfinder description

An 8th level spell with a duration of 24 hours that guards against pretty much any form of divination and scrying. There’s no reason for high level wizards not to have this spell running on them all the time, and no reason why non-spellcasting NPCs with enough money or influence couldn’t have this spell cast upon them.

Undetectable Alignment

Read the Pathfinder description

So, no alignment in the game. However, as a logical progression from our discussion about the detect evil family of spells, undetectable alignment still has a role to play in the game. Creatures that have Taint could use this spell to mask its presence. So a vampire could use this spell to hide himself from the gaze of a paladin.

Conclusion

Well, this has been thorough. I have no desire to micro-manage any other part of the D&D game as much as I have divinations. Most other spells can go hang, as long as I can rein in the excesses of this particular branch of magic. Now, what do you all think?