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A thought experiment. Theory: Though originally inspired by Tolkien's work, D&D and Pathfinder have selected physical characteristics of what may be considered to be the "major races" of a given campaign setting based on a select few traits. In addition to the standard PC races we are familiar...

I've been thinking about how I might do a Pathfinder campaign set in the modern day or futuristic setting, adapting Pathfinder to a "d20 modern" or "d20 future" type of setting. I know there's a project already underway to "reimagine" Pathfinder along these lines, though the name escapes me for...

D&D 3.5 (and Mindscarred's Pathfinder conversions) include five psionics displays. (I include them in a spoiler block for the benefit of any who wish to read them over.) Auditory A bass-pitched hum issues from the manifester’s vicinity or in the vicinity of the power’s subject (manifester’s...

If anybody ever wanted to play around with the alignment system, there is room for change. Where D&D-style play (from AD&D 2E onward, except of course 4E) organizes nine distinct alignments, my playing experience implies there are at least twenty distinct alignments in practice, based on three...

Suppose one wished to import as much as possible the 3.5 Spell Compendium into a Pathfinder campaign. #1: Are the spells in the SC mostly compatible with Pathfinder rules? #2: If the answer to #1 is 'yes', how much conversion work would be needed to port them over? I would think there may be...

One of the nice things about PF is that it neatly eliminated the whole accounting mini-game that was built into the skill rank rules of 3.X. Unfortunately, we did not get a satisfactory substitute for the bean-counting exercise that is the encumbrance rules. Of course there are GMs and players...

For what it's worth, I like the notion of skill challenges, because there is only so much dramatic tension you can put into a single die roll. However, the implementation of 4E seemed to me unnecessarily complicated. Here is a possible alternative method. Let's call them "dramatic skill...

Suppose in order to give the feel that your world is slightly more advanced, you wanted the alchemists in your world to be able to "discover" a few extra elements. Not as many as the 92 natural elements of real life, but more than four, at least. You would also need to retrofit some spells and...

It makes sense to me that if there can be a paladin class, there should be an anti-paladin class. While it should be exclusive to NPCs outside so-called 'evil campaign', there should be a fully functional class antithetical to the Paladin. I also believe it is reasonable to have a holy/unholy...

I'm designing a campaign world where magic users are feared and hunted down, but I still want to be able to have PC casters who can still reasonably practice their art undetected. All my players who want to do a magic caster have an idea of what they're getting into, but I also want to give...

I want to run a Pathfinder game using firearms rules but I want to have in-game explanations for why they have not completely dominated international warfare, made fortifications and heavy armor useless, etc. While also allowing advanced firearms more or less as readily available as low- to...

Looks like Ultimate Equipment just got added to Paizo's online SRD. Awesomeness shall now follow.

What do you think of these house rules? This system is an attempt to make it practical for characters to reach beyond 20th level without getting absurdly powerful. This is done by essentially elevating archetypes to work almost like separate classes in their own right. In other words, all the...

What body slot should they occupy? They can be a permanent or semi-permanent magic item, but there are no ear, nose, or tongue body slots. It would seem odd to lump them all within the 'ring' item class if they are not ring-like in shape, and behave more like wondrous items. If a culture prizes...

Given the Pathfinder ruleset as written, and only as written, on Paizo's reference document page (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document). Not count anything that comes out of an artifact, what is the deadliest energy or attack type in the rules? By "deadliest," I mean the energy or...

I want to develop a wondrous item that fills the role of a generic "healing potion" but which does not draw on the power of a Cure X Wounds spell, nor is limited to 3rd level spells like a potion, but would store a cleric's channel energy for later use (by a single creature, the drinker). It...

Dragonstar was a pretty cool campaign setting even if publisher support for it didn't make it to the conversion to 3.5 D&D. If you were going to run a Dragonstar-themed Pathfinder campaign, how would you re-cast Pathfinder rules to fit the setting? Probably the most interesting issues (other...

Putting a different spin on why there are humanoid races that sweep the good/evil axis and then there are races that seem to be mostly evil... I was thinking that as part of a campaign world's mythos, these fallen races could have an origin in each of the seven deadly sins as defined in...

As far as I know, neither D&D 3.0/3.5 nor Pathfinder have such a thing except for the Ego conflicts that occur between characters and intelligent magic items. Moreover, one would think that artifact possession would come about as a process that occurs gradually and even imperceptibly (if...

After getting tired of switching back and forth across my PF books to find some good magic items to use, I decided to put together a document that merged them all together for easy reference. Having done this, I also decided to share the fruit of my efforts with anyone else who might see the...