Kirthfinder - World of Warriorcraft Houserules


Homebrew and House Rules

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Dark Archive

How is your opus coming along Kirth? I am deep in my GW rewrite, working on robot, cyborg and android character options and my head is spinning.

I have new found respect for you sir.

Kirth wrote:
However, I did manage to start with the Leopard stats in the Bestiary and independently derive the lion, tiger, dire lion, dire tiger, lynx, caterwaul, arctic cat, and swamplight lynx using existing templates and/or class levels.

That's funny. One of my players made an anthro Chameleon character - based upon powers/mutations assigned to his character I was able to write up deviations for alligators, crocodiles (slight diff between the two), monitor lizards, garden lizards, etc.

Once you get the machine going, it does seem to be much easier to feed - if like didn't get in the way.

Again, hats off to you sir. When it's done I would like to see the completed project.


I would appreciate an updated file as well please :)

Thank you in advance

e-mail:
mjb235@gmail.com


From the shadow bloodline what does the eldritch Blast mean when it says full damage? Does it mean when a player rolls max for damage or just when a save is failed? If its the second does it always apply to the non-shaped version.

Eldritch Blast (Sp): Your eldritch blast deals
nonlethal damage, and those who take full damage
are dazzled for 1 round. Improved blast: Blinding Spell;
greater blast: Fell Weaken.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Wow, looks like there's been a lot of activity on this thread since I last looked at it, which was when the "final" rules were initially sent out.

Anyone that's been keeping up with things willing to give me a brief overview on what's been going on since then?


@Talonhawke:
Full damage, I believe. Progressively more difficult to apply the more dice you have.

@ZZTRaider:
Well, Tahlreth, Kirth and I had some discussions, resulting in the below. What is added as errata and added to the game is marked with *.

0 - General Metamagic added, such as Spash Metamagic, Manifested/Mechanized Spell, and my own illusion-based metamagic.

*1 - Splash Metamagic and Alchemy being introduced into Kirthfinder by casting spells through potions. Very fond of our work on that, myself. It became errata. Link

2 - Introduced Mystic Blast, which is the standardized form Eldritch Blast in feat form. A sorcerer would gain Mystic Blast pre-adjusted as per their bloodlines, and get automatic improvements. One can adjust it with metamagic as long as the final level does not increase.

3 - Conditions being inflicted by attribute damage ultimately proved too tedious and was removed. Thought of adding new conditions to fill the condition track.

4 - Proposed adjusting the verbiage with regards to action economy over a flurry of blows discussion, promoting Kirth to begin development of a Combat chapter, but real life rears its ugly head.

5 - Examined changes for the illusionist's shadow magic ability, but didn't go as far as 1 - 2.

*6 - Detailed prototype mechanic for making firearm weapons via wands of a [Bullet] spell. Would function better if we also provided some reload or wand-recharge mechanic.

There is also misc errata under Egg of Coot, mostly for monks and mojo/numen costs. If I didn't miss anything, I think that is most of the ground we covered so far.


That honestly seems anti-thematic for this system. Having an ability go from a 1 in 6 chance of activating at 2nd level to a 1 in 60 at top end doesn't seem like it was how the rest of this system, which seems to focus on abilities getting better overtime, functions.


@Talonhawke:
You are correct. The chances become abyssal in a while. I myself altered it to proc more often, but YMMV.

My solution was a percentile dice. Not very elegant, but it was a 20% chance to dazzle for one round, increasing to a 50% chance in dim light. In deep darkness and bright light, it had no chance to dazzle.

With a fix to lighting dynamics, it can work thematically and quite smoothly--especially in conjunction with low-light vision or Darkvision. But that assumes the light rules are adjusted. As-is, they are clunky, contradictory, and tedious.


Sorry for the prolonged absence -- been driving cross-country with 2 cats in tow, then setting up a new household.

To clarify, "full damage" doesn't mean "maximum damage," and I'm not sure how it could be construed that way (Talonhawke's appeal to the system spirit is exactly on-target, even if his parsing of the word wasn't!). "Full damage" pretty much always means not reduced by resistances or a successful save, as in spells that allow a "save for half damage; otherwise take full damage."


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Arrius wrote:
But that assumes the light rules are adjusted. As-is, they are clunky, contradictory, and tedious.

Yeah, I wanted to codify them somewhat, and started on a draft section, but never got it quite where I wanted it. The idea was to have clearly-defined levels of illumination or "steps":

- Blinding light (to all sighted critters)
- Dazzling light (to sighted; blinding if light sensitivity)
- Bright light
- Normal light
- Dim light
- Darkness
- Supernatural darkness (impervious to darkvision)
- Eldritch darkness (impervious even to devils' "see in darkness").

Various spells/conditions would increase/decrease a set # of steps, usually with a built-in max/min. For example, outdoors on a clear midday is bright light; overcast or light forest reduces by 1 step, heavy canopy by 2 steps, etc., to a minimum of "dim light."


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Kirth Gersen wrote:
Sorry for the prolonged absence -- been driving cross-country with 2 cats in tow, then setting up a new household.

Welcome back, Kirth.

Kirth Gersen wrote:
To clarify, "full damage" doesn't mean "maximum damage," and I'm not sure how it could be construed that way (Talonhawke's appeal to the system spirit is exactly on-target, even if his parsing of the word wasn't!). "Full damage" pretty much always means not reduced by resistances or a successful save, as in spells that allow a "save for half damage; otherwise take full damage."

I see. The term is somewhat unused in this context, so there is where the confusion arose. I propose rewriting it as so:

Eldritch Blast: Shadow wrote:

Eldritch Blast (Sp): Your eldritch blast deals nonlethal damage. Your enemy is also dazzled if they suffer the effect of the blast (not reduced by spell resistances or successful save).

Improved blast: Blinding Spell; Greater blast: Fell Weaken.
Kirth Gerson wrote:

Yeah, I wanted to codify them somewhat, and started on a draft section, but never got it quite where I wanted it. The idea was to have clearly-defined levels of illumination or "steps":

- Blinding light (to all sighted critters)
- Dazzling light (to sighted; blinding if light sensitivity)
- Bright light
- Normal light
- Dim light
- Darkness
- Supernatural darkness (impervious to darkvision)
- Eldritch darkness (impervious even to devils' "see in darkness").

Various spells/conditions would increase/decrease a set # of steps, usually with a built-in max/min. For example, outdoors on a clear midday is bright light; overcast or light forest reduces by 1 step, heavy canopy by 2 steps, etc., to a minimum of "dim light."

I had it on a 5-step grade myself: Bright, Normal, Dim, Darkness, and Deep Darkness. You may find this useful.

Light Levels Rules:

Bright Light: Degree 5
Normal Light: Degree 4
Dim Light: Degree 3
Darkness: Degree 2
Deep Darkness: Degree 1
Humans see 4 upwards, suffering half penalties (concealment) at 3 (dim light), and full penalties (blindness) at 2 downwards (darkness & Deeper Darkness), while See In Darkness allows for all vision.
Dim light allows for no penalties at 3, and half penalty at 2*.
Darkvision allows for no penalties at 2, and half penalty at 1.
Then [Darkness] lowers Light by a number of degrees appropriate with its spell level as do [Light] spells.
Neither spells may move to levels 1 or 5 without being 3+ spell level, and spells of lower level cannot cancel out the effects of those of higher levels.
The Sun grants a flat +3 to all grades, and clouds/shadows inflict a 1-2 degree dip depending on density.

*As you notice, low-light vision grants a flat bonus to line-of-sight, by counting it +1 level higher as normal for the purposes of calculating penalties. This means that 'superior low-light vision' will become obsolete, as low-light vision no longer relies on circumstantial doodads.

Light Modifiers Table:
Opaque Surfaces
• Trees; -1 degree
• Walls/ceilings, etc.; -1 Degree per direction covered/cover

Ambient weather
• Fog/Mist/Rain; -1 Degree
• Storm; -2 Degrees

Fire
• Torches/lanterns; +2 Degrees
• Candles/Lava; +1 Degree

Celestial Bodies
• Sun (Magic); +3 degrees
• Moon/Planets/Stars; +1 degree

Magic
• Light/Darkness Spells (Magic)
Light spells increase light level, while darkness spells decrease it; degrees on Spell Level
+1 at spell levels 0 – 2
+2 at spell levels 3 – 5
+3 at spell levels 6 – 8
+4 at spell levels 7 – 9

Light is treated as a magical effect, and thus follows the rules of Cone 30', line 100' for the purposes of cover.
Anyhow, any interesting insights during your absence?


Don't know if you've seen Pathfinder unchained or where you got the idea for the new abilities as you get more ranks in skills. But they might be watching.........*puts on tinfoil helmet*.


I notice that a lot of the ideas for the unchained rogue (status effects tied to sneak attack, skill ability unlocks) are right out of our playbook. And I'm totally OK with that, if it means the broader fanbase finally gets a playable rogue.


Yep still best wear one of these *offers Kirth a tin foil helmet.*

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

While I joked about the similarities when it released, I do understand that parallel design is a thing, and Paizo can come to the same conclusions as others. (Look up Trailblazer for another example released at the same time as the 1st printing CRB.)


Talonhawke wrote:
Yep still best wear one of these *offers Kirth a tin foil helmet.*

What good is tinfoil going to do? wear a leather-padded lead helmet.

As per kirthfinder, lead blocks divinations. No more mind reading.


TriOmegaZero wrote:
parallel design is a thing

Or convergent evolution.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Whatever the correct term for figuring the same thing out separately is.


So very curious question I've had.... How would you handle two pcs wanting to ride eachother in combat? (One is small the other large)


Like, a piggyback ride? No particular issue, except you'd then need to get super-careful in tracking encumbrance. Also, since there's no such thing as a bipedal saddle*, the rider would need a hand free to hang on, and the ridee would presumably be using both arms to hold up the rider, so what's the point? The mental image is awfully cute, though.

If the "steed" were a quadruped, there are no issues at all, however -- just follow the normal Handle Animal rules for riding.

*EDIT: Unless you keep him in a backpack, like a baby. But then he'd be facing the opposite direction, and you wouldn't be able to attack the same opponent.


Just Sovereign Glue your self to the big guy and pray he doesn't go over a cliff.


Kirth Gersen wrote:
Also, since there's no such thing as a bipedal saddle

Technically untrue, there are many saddles designed for bipedal dinosaurs. Their center of gravity does put them nearly horizontal though. I can't think of a good reason someone couldn't craft a saddle for such an occasion, think MasterBlaster.


I should hasten to add that, at 6+ ranks in Craft, you've left most pedestrian limitations behind, and at 11+ you can craft pretty much anything you can imagine. So a perfectly-functional bipedal war saddle that imposes no penalties on either combatant (save encumbrance on the mount) would be totally do-able -- just probably not at 1st level.


If someone were to be able to craft a bipedal saddle of sorts would it be more viable?


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Well replying at the same time doesn't help much :P


See above. If you've got the ranks in Craft, you've got the means to do so.
EDIT: Double ninja!


Sandwich I'll probably set your Check at around DC 25 to craft it. Don't forget you'll need the proper feats to cast and stuff and as far as actions you will be treated as mounted.


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A perfect example of what can be done with enough ranks in Craft:

Spoiler:
Then the Æsir made another fetter twice as strong, which they called Drómi, and bade the wolf test himself again against that fetter, saying that he would become very famous for strength if such a strong chain would not hold him. The wolf, however, was thinking htat, although the fetter was very strong, he had grown in might since he had broken Loeðing; it also occurred to him that he would have to expose himself to danger in order to become famous, so he let the fetter be put on him. When the Æsir said they were ready, he shook himself, knocking the fetter against the ground, and struggled against it, digging his feet in so hard that the fetter broke into pieces which flew far and wide; so he got himself out of Drómi. It has since become a proverb when anything is extraordinarily difficult that one gets loose from Loeðing or battles out of Drómi.

After that the Æsir feared that they would never be able to get the wolf bound. Then All-father sent one called Skírnir, Frey's messenger, down to the World-of-dark-elves to some dwarfs, and had made the fetter called Gleipnir. This was made from six things: the noise a cat makes when it moves, the beard of a woman, the roots of a mountain, the sinews of a bear, the breath of a fish, and the spittle of a bird. The fetter was as smooth and soft as a ribbon of silk, but as trusty and strong as you are now going to hear. When the fetter was brought to the Æsir they thanked the messenger very much for carrying out his mission. Then the Æsir, calling to the wolf to go with them, went out on to an island called Lyngvi in a lake called Ámsvartnir. They showed him the silken band and bade him break it. They said it was a bit stronger than it appeared to be from its thickness and passed it from one to the other, testing its strength with their hands, and it did not break. They said, however, that the wolf would be able to snap it. The wolf's answer was: "This ribbon looks to me as if I could gain no renown from breaking it--it is so slight a cord; but if it has been made by guile and cunning, slender though it looks, it is not going to come on my legs." Then the gods said that he would soon snap so slight a ribbon of silk, when he had broken great fetters of iron before, "and if you don't succeed in snapping this cord you need not be afraid of the gods; we will set you free again." The wolf said: "If you bind me so that I can't get free, then you will sneak away so that it will be a long time before I get any help from you. I don't want to have that ribbon put on me. But rather than be accused of cowardice by you, let one of you place his hand in my mouth as a pledge that this is done in good faith." Each of the gods looked at the other then and thought that they were in a fix, and not one of them would stretch forth his hand, until Týr put out his right hand and laid it in the wolf's mouth. Now when the wolf began to struggle against it, the band tightened, and the more fiercely he struggled the firmer it got. They all laughed except Týr; he lost his hand.


Hey a quick question Kirth

Sandwich stay out this is for our game:
Is there any way to apply metamagic to a supernatural ability such as a Hell hounds breath weapon? Creating a Draconic Hell hound for my Red Hand of Doom Conversion and would prefer them do be doing Electricity Damage over fire.


Talonhawke wrote:

Hey a quick question Kirth

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
Yes. Remember that every supernatural ability is a spell-like ability with the Supernatural Ability feat tacked onto it, which swaps the saving throw formula and (generally) makes it usable fewer times per day. So take the (Su) ability, de-apply the Supernatural feat to make it a (Sp) ability like you'd get with the Magical Talent feat, and then apply metamagic -- making sure that the final (modified) spell level is one you're able to handle, given your CR. Then re-apply the Supernatural Spell feat and you're done.

---

Example: The hell hound is a CR 3 monster with a breath weapon, which is equivalent to receiving Magical Talent (Heightened burning hands, in essence) and Supernatural Ability as bonus feats. Deconstructing that breath weapon into its base SLA, it's jet of fire (0 level) + Shape Spell (ray to cone; +2 levels) + Widen Spell (30 ft. to 15 ft.; -1 level) = 1st level (damage cap 5d6). Applying the Versatile Evocation feat (electricity; +0 levels) keeps the spell level at 1st, which is still OK for a CR 3 monster. With 4 ranks in Concentration, you'd be able to use it 3/day as a SLA. For a Supernatural ability, think of 4 HD as 4 virtual ranks in Concentration, but remember that 3/day (Sp) abilities become 2/day (Su) abilities when the Supernatural Ability feat is re-applied. The damage should actually be 4d6 (Reflex half), given its virtual caster level.

For an a 1/1d4 rounds, unlimited-use kind of thing, you'd want the base SLA to be usable at will, which means a 0-level spell for the hell hound. That's do-able by also applying the Reduce Spell feat (-1 spell level), but that would reduce the damage cap to 1d6, which isn't really enough to make anyone too worried. So I'd recommend sticking with a 2/day breath weapon instead.


Okay sounds good I had forgotten the whole supernatural ability thing.


Link to my conversion thread if anyone wants to read over what I have and make suggestions. Sandwich continue to stay away.


Another Question under the Amberite what is the Walk in Shadow Skill?

Edit I'm making the guess it should be planer sense but not sure.


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I believe the Walk in Shadow skill got turned into an Arcane feat called Power Over Shadow, which scales with ranks in Planar Sense.


Yep, Talreh's got it. Thanks for the heads-up, Talon.


So an Amberite's ranks from skilled should go in planer sense then I would suppose.


Talonhawke wrote:
So an Amberite's ranks from skilled should go in planer sense then I would suppose.

Exactly so.


Command Word Activated: 900 x spell level x
caster level. If limited (4 or fewer) uses per day,
multiply cost by (1/uses per day).

How does calculating uses per day work out it seems like 4 uses would be cheaper than 2 if I am reading it right.


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Since that entry says "(4 or fewer)," I'd say the cost should be multiplied by [uses per day/5], and have '5 uses per day' count as 'at-will.'


Yeah, that was an egregious typo on my part -- I think someone spotted it a few hundred pages ago, but who can remember that far back? Tahlreth has it exactly correct.


Thanks again guys.

Liberty's Edge

Pretty hard to assume Paizo came up with the idea independently, seeing as the idea has been discussed on this thread, on their site, for quite some time now.


Also the incremental wound rules seem kinda suspicious. *Starts making more tinfoil helmets.*


There are only so many good ideas, after all. What's more, the human mind seems hard-wired to see a coincidence and instantly spin it into a conspiracy.


I mentioned convergent evolution because, for some problems, when you try different solutions you eventually find that one of them works better than the others, for that particular problem, regardless of which ones you try or in what order. With "Kirthfinder," we've gone through so many rules iterations now that I can't think of them all -- every time throwing away things that sounded good on paper but didn't work in practice, and comparing the new idea against what we were trying to accomplish, and why it wasn't being accomplished.

Paizo seems to have done much the same with the rogue. First they threw a bunch of lame talents at it, but since they'd hamstrung his combat potential by nixing the blinking flask hurler, those weak talents and d8 HD didn't do a lot to fix that. Then they tried a bunch of archetypes, which mostly sucked except, coincidentally, the vivisectionist -- which isn't even a rogue archetype. So then they started playing with alternate classes to fill the rogue's role: the investigator and so on, in the Advanced Class Guide, which were arguably better in combat and had fewer lame options. But the main problem was still that the rogue, in addition to being weak in combat, wasn't really all that skilled, because skills << magic in Pathfinder. That's why the vivisectionist was good: he had extracts (aka spells). But Paizo is obsessed with non-spellcasting rogues and monks, so the obvious next step was to give rogues a way for their skills to duplicate spells, but call them something different.

So, yeah, they ended up in a similar place, but it looks to me like they took a different path to get there, although the process itself was similar. Much how a shark and a dolphin, both inhabiting niches in which it pays to be a fast, medium-sized carnivore, ended up looking quite similar -- even if one evolved from a small, heavily armored fish and the other from a pig-like mammal.


Out of curiosity, why is the social training feat different from the strength and stamina training?


I believe its because of the extra gain that could be had from and increased mental stat for a caster. Notice that moral training is the same way. It could also be because it is easier to train the body than the mind.


Ah... I missed moral training looking through the feats


Also, there's no Intellect Training feat -- you just take Open Minded.
But, yeah, casters benefit more from a higher primary stat, so the feats boosting those cost more.


Earlier in this thread we went over examples of mundane items built using spells. Going over that bit again, I took note of this entry:

this thread wrote:
Holy Water: Cure light wounds (1st) + Planar Channeling (+0 levels) + Splash Evocation (+0 levels) = 1st level; damage on a hit is 1d8 + 1, rather than 2d4.

What rules do/can we follow for adding feats onto the effects of spells?

Also, if say a player wanted to replicate the X-Men character Magneto. Would it be reasonable for them to learn spells pre-modified with Creature-Specific Spell (metal; -2 levels)?


As referee, it's almost always reasonable to use Creature-Specific Spell, unless it's grossly inappropriate and/or relies heavily on metagame knowledge (e.g., the party is all humans and high elves, and the monsters always have civilized humanoid-specific spells; that's just being a jerk).

For the player, as in almost all things, referee and group agreement is the meter stick for applicability. Personally speaking, it seems entirely appropriate for an Incarnate of metal to pick metal-specific spells as spells known; I might define the category as "creatures made of metal (e.g., iron golems) or fully armored in metal (e.g., a knight in full plate)." Having done so, though, the referee is now obligated not to metagame that knowledge -- for example, giving metal armor to critters when it's wholly inappropriate for them, just to give extra use to the spell and make the player feel better.

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