Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide

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This variant removes the item bonus to rolls and DCs usually provided by magic items (with the exception of armor’s item bonus) and replaces it with a new kind of bonus—potency—to reflect a character’s innate ability instead. In this variant, magic items, if they exist at all, can provide unique special abilities rather than numerical increases. Favorable Terrain for the PCs: An encounter against a monster that’s out of its favored element (like a yeti encountered in a sweltering cave with lava, or an enormous dragon encountered in a tiny room) gives the PCs an advantage. Build the encounter as normal, but when you award experience for the encounter, do so as if the encounter were one CR lower than its actual CR. In Step 2, she starts by determining how many points she has to spend. She gains 2 dedicated Ability Points in Intelligence and Dexterity for being an elf, 2 in Dexterity for being a criminal, and 2 more in Dexterity for being a rogue. She also has 19 flexible points to spend: 15 plus 4 for the two ability scores she voluntarily lowered to 8. While the rules presented in the Core Rulebook are designed to give you and your group a baseline experience that’s easy to learn and fun to play, sometimes you’re looking for more customizable options. That’s where variant rules come in: options to alter the game’s rules to fit your needs. This chapter adds a collection of variant rules to your toolbox, often with additional options for how to use them. Most of the variant rules in this chapter involve characters, how they progress, and how those pieces fit together. The variants included in this chapter are divided into the following sections. Players using Skill Points have more flexibility to build characters with a broader range of skills in which they’re trained or better than normal, and this variant encourages that flexibility by increasing the cost of specializing. For instance, a 19th-level fighter could use Skill Points to be a master in seven different skills, or to be legendary in three skills. While this makes the variance in skills slightly less predictable, it shouldn’t have a big enough effect on a group’s capabilities that you need to make any significant adjustments when you run the game.

Classes with focus pools get all the Focus Points granted by all of them. These share one focus pool as normal, with the standard cap of 3 maximum Focus Points. Finally, decrease the skill DCs of most tasks to account for the level being removed. You can just subtract the level from the DC tables in the Core Rulebook, or you can reference Table 4–17: Simple Skill DCs (No Level) for a set of DCs that’s easier to remember. The new DCs make it a little harder for high-level characters to succeed than it would be when using the default numbers from the Core Rulebook, in keeping with the theme mentioned earlier. Combat outcomes will tend to flatten out, with critical successes and critical failures being less likely across the game. This is particularly notable in spells, where you’re less likely to see the extreme effects of critical failures on saves. Table 4-17: Simple Skill DCs (No Level) Proficiency Rank

Class Road Map

Stamina Points represent a character’s energy and readiness. They’re reduced by damage just like Hit Points, but a character always loses their Stamina Points first, and loses Hit Points only if they’re out of Stamina Points. If a character takes damage exceeding their remaining Stamina Points, the excess damage reduces their Hit Points. However, they lose any temporary Hit Points before losing Stamina Points. The default method of generating ability scores in the Core Rulebook can help you learn your character’s story along the way, while the alternative method, rolling scores, is a nod to tradition. But other ways to generate ability scores might better suit the story you want to tell.

General feats have the general trait and represent training or abilities that are available to every character regardless of ancestry, class, or skill training, including armor and weapon proficiency and physical toughness. General feats are gained at 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level. It should be noted that all skill feats have the general trait and can therefore be taken when a character gains the option of a new general feat.Special Types of SpellsA cantrip is a special type of spell that's weaker than other spells but can be used with greater freedom and flexibility. Casting a cantrip doesn't use up your spell slots; you can cast a cantrip at will, any number of times per day. A cantrip is always automatically heightened to half your level, rounded up. For a typical spellcaster, this means its level is equal to the highest level of spell slot you have. Consumables are used up when you activate them, and include ammunition, oils, potions, scrolls, and talismans, among others. Categories of items that are consumables but have specific rules, such as alchemical items, are presented separately.

Sometimes the story of your game calls for a group where everyone is a pirate or an apprentice at a magic school. The free archetype variant introduces a shared aspect to every character without taking away any of that character’s existing choices. It can also provide a lighter version of dual-class characters by giving everyone a free multiclass archetype. If the group all has the same archetype or draws from a limited list, you might want to ignore the free archetype’s normal restriction of selecting a certain number of feats before taking a new archetype. That way a character can still pursue another archetype that also fits their character. The proficiency rank progression in the Core Rulebook is designed for heroic fantasy games where heroes rise from humble origins to world-shattering strength. For some games, this narrative arc doesn’t fit. Such games are about hedging bets in an uncertain and gritty world, in which even the world’s best fighter can’t guarantee a win against a large group of moderately skilled brigands. In games like these, your group might want to consider removing the character’s level from the proficiency bonus. As PCs gain levels, the amount of treasure they carry and use increases as well. The game assumes that all PCs of equivalent level have roughly equal amounts of treasure and magic items. Since the primary income for a PC derives from treasure and loot gained from adventuring, it’s important to moderate the wealth and hoards you place in your adventures. To aid in placing treasure, the amount of treasure and magic items the PCs receive for their adventures is tied to the Challenge Rating of the encounters they face—the higher an encounter’s CR, the more treasure it can award. Haunted: A restless spirit haunts the item. This lingering spirit might be something that evokes sympathy from the PCs, such as a young child who died in a tragic way or a grandmother who was killed by her family so they could gain her fortune. Such spirits may be benevolent, allowing the characters to use the item without complication, but appearing upon the item’s use, reminding the party of the object’s brutal history and asking them to help grant the spirit peace. Alternatively, a nasty spirit could inhabit the item, in which case each use might require a battle of wills. In this case, the party might then seek the means to exorcise the spirit so that they could gain unfettered use of the item’s powers.Held Items include a wide variety of items you use with your hands but doesn't include more narrow categories of held items, such as weapons. Some elements of the game have a rarity to denote how often they're encountered in the game world. Rarity primarily applies to equipment and magic items, but spells, feats, and other rules elements also have a rarity. If no rarity appears in the traits of an item, spell, or other game element, it is of common rarity. Uncommon items are available only to those who have special training, grew up in a certain culture, or come from a particular part of the world. Rare items are almost impossible to find and are usually given out only by the GM, while unique ones are literally one-of-a-kind in the game. The GM might alter the way rarity works or change the rarity of individual items to suit the story they want to tell. Table: Character Wealth by Level can also be used to budget gear for characters starting above 1st level, such as a new character created to replace a dead one. Characters should spend no more than half their total wealth on any single item. For a balanced approach, PCs that are built after 1st level should spend no more than 25% of their wealth on weapons, 25% on armor and protective devices, 25% on other magic items, 15% on disposable items like potions, scrolls, and wands, and 10% on ordinary gear and coins. Different character types might spend their wealth differently than these percentages suggest; for example, arcane casters might spend very little on weapons but a great deal more on other magic items and disposable items. Affinities: The magical uses for a trophy in the construction of alchemical or magic items are listed here. When a trophy is incorporated into raw materials, its gp value is considered to be 20% greater than normal. Trophy Weight