D&D General P6 Codex - E6+Pathfinder

[Cadence]

P6 Codex is an implementation of E6 for PF. By limiting regular PC and NPC advancement to 6th level (feats are gained after that point) it allows the game to focus on the gritty and heroic stages... without worrying about what the super-heroic arch-mage and fighter a few blocks over are planning.

A .pdf of the Abridged P6 Codex is currently available in its beta version at P6Codex.com. It contains the P6 Codex rules for post 6th level advancement for players just interested in applying P6 to the Core Rulebook (without all of the extras from the non-Core books).

I'm looking forward to any comments, especially on places you think it might be missing its target.

The full P6 Codex rule set should be ready this fall. It will contain a carefully selected subset of the various Advanced and Ultimate options and contains new rules for NPC classes and non-adventuring advancement. Two supplements in the spring will cover all of the classes that the standard rules leave out.

Edit: The above link is to v0.1, v0.2 dated Nov. 7, 2013 is now available at: http://p6codex.com/AbridgedP6CodexV0p2.pdf.

 

[doghead]

I am currently running an E6 Pathfinder game here on the boards. At the moment the PC's are only second level, so the level six ceiling and post ceiling development hasn't come into play for them directly. Indirectly it has, through the NPC's they have or might interact with directly or indirectly.

One of the things I like about E6 is that it makes it easier in involve more powerful NPC's. In a regular setting, powerful characters would be in the double digit levels. They could walk all over second level characters, and the usefulness of those low level characters to them would seem to be marginal. To a sixth level character, a group of handy second level characters is still a useful resource, or a reasonable threat. To me, it makes a setting feel much more realistic.

As for the extraordinary characters in the setting, there is the post ceiling or Epic Advancement process as you call it. This still gives the option of adding something special to these characters, without making that small group of lower level characters irrelevant.

I have downloaded the Abridged Rules. Thanks for sharing. I'll have a read through and get back to you with my thoughts. But first impression - this looks like it will save me a lot of basic legwork. Which is beautiful.

thotd

 

[Cadence]

Those are a big part of my reason for liking E6 too. With the full blown PF, I have no trouble suspending belief as a player, but I always have trouble justifying how NPCs work when designing a campaign world. I look forward to any comments you have as you go through it.

One outright error was pointed out so far and I just updated the .pdf file to fix that -- over on Paizo's message boards, someone pointed out that the Improved Uncanny Dodge feat was a copy and paste error (it showed the bonus to sneak attack).

 

[Starfox]

Browsing the PDF, Greater Skillfullness seems very confused - is this based on 3.5's limits on skill ranks rather than Pathfinder's?

Edit: I like the idea of P6, or I wouldn't bother to read or post.

 

[Cadence]

Thanks for the question. Someone over on Paizo's board pointed that out too.

I was trying to give it a flavor similar to toughness where you didn't get all of the points all at once - so you got 5 right away and then get one for each epic advancement up to a level's worth (it doesn't increase the max for any single skill). I'm working on the revised wording and will post it here when I have it done. (I'm leaning towards combining it with Extra Skill Capacity so that you basically get a level's worth of skill ranks and can have up to 7 ranks in any given skill). Greater Toughness will have to be revised too.

The 2nd Beta version will also have a bunch of typos fixed and some wording cleaned up. The only other "large" changes so far are adjusting the Leadership feat (another poster on Paizo noted that a few more adjustments to Table 5-2 could be helpful) and adding a note on magic items so that the rule allowing a spellcraft roll to bypass a creation prerequisite can't make P6 breaking items.

 

[Cadence]

Over on Paizo's board a few posters made some arguments for giving additional signature feats (say one at every 10 epic advancements) -- it would cut down on a bit of system mastery need, make it so some of the less-combat-awesome-ones would be more likely to be taken, would give something extra to players in parties that kept playing for a long time, and would still make them pretty special.


Anyone have an argument against it?

 

[Cadence]

I finally have the revised Beta version of the Abridged P6 Codex posted at: http://p6codex.com/AbridgedP6CodexV0p2.pdf

I received a lot of (what I thought) were good suggestions over on Paizo's messageboards and incorporated many of them. The major changes were:
* An additional signature feat can be taken every ten epic advancements (the added flexibility for those playing that long seemed worth the modest power creep, and it removes a bit of the systems mastery optimization need)
* Leadership was modified to make it easier to get Followers and to lower the starting Cohort level
* Combat Improvement has a prerequisite of BAB +4 (so it matches what the characters actually get at 7th level)
* Extra Skill Capacity was rolled into Greater Skillfullness, which was also simplified
* Greater Toughness was simplified
* Intrinsic Bond was weakened for Druids (as several pointed out, not all 8th level granted powers are equal...)
* Legendary Craftsman was simplified and a list of all creatable magic items was added to the document
* Master of Forms was weakened
* The Signature Combat Feat was added, subsuming Improved Critical, Improvised Weapon Mastery, and Stunning Fist, and also allowing the 3/4 BAB classes the potential of obtaining +6 prerequisite combat feats as signature feats
* The rule for violating item creation prerequisites was modified

(V0p1 is still posted, with a cover sheet added -- just change V0p2 to V0p1 in the link).

I look forward to any suggestions you have on what the current document needs.

Right now I'm working on the unabridged parts (adding in selected pieces from the Advanced and Unlimited books) and will be posting sections as I go along.

 

[TwoSix]

Do you have any plans to add in the actual class information into the PDF? I'm not sure where that would fall in terms of the OGL, or whether you view it as too much and/or unnecessary work.

 

[Cadence]

Do you have any plans to add in the actual class information into the PDF? I'm not sure where that would fall in terms of the OGL, or whether you view it as too much and/or unnecessary work.

The unabridged version I hope to have out by New Years will be laid out kind of like the advanced/ultimate books that give all of the options assuming you have the core book in front of you (so the only one class that will be fully detailed will be the Magus that isn't in the core -- I'm leaving the other non-core classes for a different supplement and they won't get that nice of a treatment).

I'm thinking of doing an SRD type document that would have everything from both the core rule-book and unabridged version of the new rules together (and also downloadable in useful chunks). I'm not going to start that until I'm done selecting and editing the rules I want to add to the core though. An SRD or complete game should be fine based on the OGL and Paizo's community use agreement.

 

[TwoSix]

I'm thinking of doing an SRD type document that would have everything from both the core rule-book and unabridged version the new rules together (and also downloadable in useful chunks). I'm not going to start that until I'm done selecting and editing the rules I want to add to the core though. An SRD or complete game should be fine based on the OGL and Paizo's community use agreement.

Makes sense. I like having a one-stop shop I can hand to my players, but it is a large project.