Trailblazer Houserules

As I continue to go over my TB print edition, a plethora of ideas explodes from my mind for an upcoming one-shot. They include:

Clerics get additional uses for Turn/Rebuke Undead depending on their domain choices. The domain of Healing, for example, allows the healing of living beings within range while the domain of War grants attack and damage bonuses.

At 5th level, druids have to choose if they want Wild Shape or continue with spell-casting. They cannot have both.

Fighters get two Combat Reactions at BAB +0, +6, +11, and +16 instead of the standard one. They also get Armor Training starting at 3rd level per The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook.

Wizards, at first level, gets to chose either bonus spell slots as per the sorcerer (which doesn't exist my game) or the standard bonus readied wizard spell. Once they've determined their choice, they cannot reverse it.

What houserule's are y'all considering/working on?

Well, one thing that I am considering is NOT giving the full sorceror/wizard spell list out to the arcane casters as it is written. It's a big boost in versatility and to me it just doesn't feel right. I'm going to build a few casters with the rules to see how it works out before implementing. It's a flavor thing to me, though.

miscreationist said:

Well, one thing that I am considering is NOT giving the full sorceror/wizard spell list out to the arcane casters as it is written. It's a big boost in versatility and to me it just doesn't feel right.

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You've been acclimated to think it doesn't feel right.

I encourage you to explore it, but from a balance perspective, "versatility" is a non-issue with the RAW. Wizards are limited only by their funds, which quickly translates into "not at all." Both wizards (and even sorcerers) already had all the versatility they needed through scrolls.

Let's pose the question another way. Are clerics and druids balanced by virtue of the fact that they have access to all the spells on their list?

If you answer yes-- what happens when you add another rulebook full of spells to your game. They get access to all of those, too. Are the cleric and druid now broken? (Note that we're not talking about individual spells which may or may not be broken-- your sense is that the class is balanced when it has a list of 100 spells to choose from but somehow it "doesn't feel right" if they have 200 to choose from.)

Everyone simply accepts the premise that the cleric and druid are balanced, and part of that play balance is what spells they choose every day. If you want to argue that the wizard spell list is so staggeringly superior to the cleric spell list (with regards to their problem-solving versatility) then I could certainly use the spell-by-spell comparisons to show why this is so.

What matters to a spellcaster is what spells they have readied (prepared) at the moment they are tested.

Again, you've been acclimated to think it's an issue, but the distinction has no basis in mechanical balance whatsoever.

And you can ignore every word I wrote above if it just comes down to a flavor issue for you!

(But I don't do "flavor balance." That's not clean design.)

Wulf Ratbane said:

You've been acclimated to think it doesn't feel right.

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Wulf Ratbane said:

And you can ignore every word I wrote above if it just comes down to a flavor issue for you!

(But I don't do "flavor balance." That's not clean design.)

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Yes, I should have elaborated on that. It is totally a flavor issue for me. The wizard thing has been to maintain a spellbook and collect or research spells as part of either downtime or adventures. It's one of those divine vs. arcane issues as I see it. As you said, the funds quickly make it a non-issue assuming that the players can obtain spells they want, and I agree that adding splats increases versatility vs. spellbook based characters in RAW. When I said it was a big boost to versatility, I totally forgot there was the readied spells and spell slots, so it is really just a flavor issue. Thanks for the perspective!

joela said:

Clerics get additional uses for Turn/Rebuke Undead depending on their domain choices. The domain of Healing, for example, allows the healing of living beings within range while the domain of War grants attack and damage bonuses.

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Cool ideas. I know we'll definitely include a turning damage variant in the Players' Option book.

joela said:

At 5th level, druids have to choose if they want Wild Shape or continue with spell-casting. They cannot have both.

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Be careful with this. I'm playing a druid right now and I'm convinced that we got the balance down pretty good.

The interesting thing we found with the druid's spell list is that it has a lot of restricted spells. That means a druid won't get a good chunk of them back with a 10-minute rest (unless he spends an AP). That's not insignificant.

I'm really enjoying Wild Shape, especially hybrid form, and I'm doing everything I can to break it. I even took a level of barbarian and often use rage + hybrid form but I still lag behind the fighter/barbarian. The druid doesn't have the BAB and feat slots needed to complete in damage output. The druid also has a larger demand on his ability scores and has to distribute them more evenly instead of loading up on strength.

Basically we are finding that the druid is a great support class. It can do a lot of things - melee, cast, heal, scout - but isn't going to eclipse any of the classes that are dedicated to a specific role. And that's exactly what we wanted.

joela said:

Fighters get two Combat Reactions at BAB +0, +6, +11, and +16 instead of the standard one. They also get Armor Training starting at 3rd level per The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook.

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That's a lot of reactions. Be prepared to have your fighters dodging every attack that comes their way.

I do like the Armor Training though. Wulf and I discussed (at length) giving fighters an Expert Armor Proficiency chain like we did for weapons. We could never really felt it was a strong ability though. Maybe we'll revisit it for the Players' Option book.

joela said:

Wizards, at first level, gets to chose either bonus spell slots as per the sorcerer (which doesn't exist my game) or the standard bonus readied wizard spell. Once they've determined their choice, they cannot reverse it.

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That's ok I guess if you don't allow sorcs. I know I would be making a specialist wizard with bonus spell slots though.

GlassJaw said:

Cool ideas. I know we'll definitely include a turning damage variant in the Players' Option book.



Be careful with this. I'm playing a druid right now and I'm convinced that we got the balance down pretty good.

The interesting thing we found with the druid's spell list is that it has a lot of restricted spells. That means a druid won't get a good chunk of them back with a 10-minute rest (unless he spends an AP). That's not insignificant.

I'm really enjoying Wild Shape, especially hybrid form, and I'm doing everything I can to break it. I even took a level of barbarian and often use rage + hybrid form but I still lag behind the fighter/barbarian. The druid doesn't have the BAB and feat slots needed to complete in damage output. The druid also has a larger demand on his ability scores and has to distribute them more evenly instead of loading up on strength.

Basically we are finding that the druid is a great support class. It can do a lot of things - melee, cast, heal, scout - but isn't going to eclipse any of the classes that are dedicated to a specific role. And that's exactly what we wanted.



That's a lot of reactions. Be prepared to have your fighters dodging every attack that comes their way.

I do like the Armor Training though. Wulf and I discussed (at length) giving fighters an Expert Armor Proficiency chain like we did for weapons. We could never really felt it was a strong ability though. Maybe we'll revisit it for the Players' Option book.



That's ok I guess if you don't allow sorcs. I know I would be making a specialist wizard with bonus spell slots though.

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Thanks for the replies, Glassjaw. I'll let you know how the houserules turn out in practice.

Autocrit

Fighters (and only fighters) don't need to confirm their crits. Additional effect of saving APs

EDIT: On second thought, maybe not. I can imagine folks multi-classing / dipping into fighter just for that ability alone.

joela said:

Fighters (and only fighters) don't need to confirm their crits. Additional effect of saving APs

EDIT: On second thought, maybe not. I can imagine folks multi-classing / dipping into fighter just for that ability alone.

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Yeah, this is the sort of house rule that you make into a campaign feature, where all the PCs have it. Maybe monsters and NPCs have to confirm, maybe not (depends upon how you want to keep PC turn-over down).*


One other houserule I'm contemplating is giving all PCs the Bound Item action point enhancement. It's insanely good, as written, and I'm tempted to remove the selection tax of acquiring it.


*Thanks, by the way. I'd been considering this for a while, with mixed feelings, but hadn't stumbled upon making it PC-only until I replied to your post. The many mysterious sources of inspiration.

confirm

ValhallaGH said:

*Thanks, by the way. I'd been considering this for a while, with mixed feelings, but hadn't stumbled upon making it PC-only until I replied to your post. The many mysterious sources of inspiration.

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No problem. And thanks for the source stuff. I'll check them out.

Another option for the fighter gets auto crit as class feature is to make it available at higher levels (6th?). That, or has to use one of his/her combat reactions. So many options...!

joela said:

No problem. And thanks for the source stuff. I'll check them out.

Another option for the fighter gets auto crit as class feature is to make it available at higher levels (6th?). That, or has to use one of his/her combat reactions. So many options...!

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You can always make it per rest for the fighter. So that once per rest he can auto-confirm. Maybe at higher levels he gets more. That way it isn't EVERY crit, but the fighter and only the fighter gets a freebie to free up APs while it not being way too much. And if you make it pegged at say 3rd level that will keep people from dipping in for it, but give it early enough that dedicated fighters can use it.