Pathfinder Beginner Box Hack

Scheduling issues have delayed the beginning of our next campaign. A couple of the players (Bridgett and RJ) are going to be missing pretty much all of October. So last week we did a little one shot with the start of my Beginner Box Hack…the Deadly Mine from the Beginner Box GM Kit actually. Folks enjoyed the session.

This week, I had made a number of changes to my BB Hack and Austin, Rachel, and Todd were joined by a new player, Jim, to start a short mini-campaign/adventure for the next few sessions. Before getting to the session write-up (which I’ll do in a later post), I figured I should lay out the BB Hack we’re using.

I suppose I should start with the caveat that this is all to make the game play better for myself and my group of players…others, of course, will be perfectly happy with the Beginner Box as is and with the full Pathfinder ruleset. We, on the other hand, want a D&D type game that is a bit less “crunchy” and less bookkeeping than even the Beginner Box. And, of course, because players like to be inconsistent, they also want more options than currently in the Beginner Box.

As a compromise, we’ve stuck with the three races (dwarf, elf, and human) from the Beginner Box but I’ve expanded the classes. We’ve included bard, paladin, and ranger in addition to the four core classes of cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard. I’ve largely “borrowed” these additional classes from EdOWar’s write ups, although with a few changes. I’ve also added some feats, skills, and most spells from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, although in the simplified format from the Beginner Box.

Clerics and wizards prepare spells each day but can “spontaneously” cast those prepared spells (e.g., a wizard with two 1st level spells per day that prepares magic missile and mage armor could cast each once or either one twice). I’ve dropped domain spells and the additional spells from specializing in an arcane school. Instead, a cleric picks a domain (from those appropriate to their deity) and a wizard picks an arcane school. Each gets a special ability (i.e., a power from the domain or school).

Sneak attack for rogues is changed too but I’ll get to that later. I think that covers the main changes in classes.

The other changes to the system are largely inspired by our time playing Savage Worlds.

We are collapsing all of the different situational modifiers in Pathfinder to one of three. If a character has a minor advantage or disadvantage, they get a +2/-2. If the advantage/disadvantage is major, it is a +5/-5 modifier. If the advantage/disadvantage is overwhelming, it is a +10/-10 modifier. The Difficulty Classes are pretty much the same but since we’re limiting things to five levels, we don’t have to worry about making sure DCs “scale” up enough to make things challenging for those high level characters.

We’ve dropped the whole “economy of actions” system with standard, move, etc. actions. Instead, like in Savage Worlds, a character gets to move as a “free” action and still get to take an action in the round (e.g., make an attack, cast a spell, etc.). A lot of move actions are simply rolled up into the free move and, depending on the activity, may cost some of the character’s movement in the round. It is a little more free form and will likely require some judgement calls as we play. Characters can also move part of their move, take an action, and then finish out their move.

Initiative is, you guessed it, also based on Savage Worlds. We’re using the card based initiative system which everyone that’s been in the group has greatly enjoyed. It also eliminates a lot of bookkeeping during combat. We’re even using the rule for jokers…you get +2 on pretty much every roll on your turn. Most things from Pathfinder that last a round now last until the start of your next turn.

A number of the “grid-dependent” things have been dropped (even though we’re still using a battlemat). Flanking, for example, has been dropped. Instead, we’re using the “gang up” approach from Savage Worlds but you get a flat +2 bonus on attacks instead of getting a +1 per ally attacking the same target.

Since there is no flanking per se, we’ve also modified a rogue’s sneak attack. A rogue can still sneak attack if their target is flat-footed (with either a melee or ranged attack). If in melee with a foe and one of the rogue’s allies strike at the foe, then the rogue may be able to exploit an opening created by that attack to make the sneak attack. In game terms, the rogue needs to be “on hold” with their initiative and then immediately attack after their ally has.

Although we’re not adding attacks of opportunity wholesale, a character engaged in melee cannot simply move away from a foe with impunity. If a character wishes to move away from such a situation, they must use their action to withdraw or their foe(s) get a free attack (i.e., an attack of opportunity).

We’ve also eliminated negative hit points. Once you hit zero hit points, you are unconscious and dying (a la older editions of D&D). If you have not been brought back to positive hit points by the end of the “encounter” in which you were brought to dying, you have to make a Fortitude save. If you fail, you are dead. If you succeed, you have stabilized. This is basically inspired by the Aftermath rules from Savage Worlds and eliminates some bookkeeping during combat (have I mentioned that some of my players are slightly math-challenged).

Assuming that our eventual campaign lasts long enough, we’re capping levels at level 5 using a version of the E6 rules.

I think that covers the main “hacks” we’re using. I may have missed a couple of minor things and have not detailed all of the changes that ripple out (e.g., the Improved Initiative feat is, obviously, altered given the SW initiative system). Things worked pretty well in our first session…everything is pretty familiar after all…but we’ll likely have to tweak some stuff as we go.