Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide

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Mastermind: GMs work to keep a game’s momentum moving in directions that entertain all the players while exploring the stories and settings they desire. To such ends, a GM manipulates dozens of elements, from how narrative components unfold to what rules are used and how they function in every situation. Flexible Ability Points: Each character gets 15 flexible Ability Points, plus any gained for voluntarily lowering ability scores below 10 in Step 1. Intelligent: Give an item a spark of intelligence to make it more intriguing. Certainly, the player characters are used to intelligent weapons, but what about an intelligent folding boat? Once an item is imbued with intelligence, its use can no longer be taken for granted, instead requiring a diplomatic encounter or battle of wills. Can the PCs convince the boat to unfold? If so, can they then persuade or cajole it to allow them aboard to make their journey? Using an intelligent item can prove problematic if the PCs don’t appease it in some way—and woe to the adventurer to whom it takes a disliking.

Magic Item Variants contains rules deconstructing the magic item bonuses, allowing you to progress them automatically or via craftsmanship to more easily run a lower-magic game. Your modifier for a task is usually made up of your relevant proficiency bonus and ability bonus, though it may also include various other bonuses and penalties. Other bonuses or penalties come in three types: circumstance, status, and item (you can also have untyped penalties, but not untyped bonuses). If you have more than one bonus of the same type, you use only the highest bonus. Likewise, you use only the worst penalty of each type. Affinities Scales harvested from a protean seethe with pure chaos and can be used in the creation of any magic item that has a spell with the chaotic descriptor as a requirement. Qlippoth No-Limit StaminaIf you want a fast-paced, almost superheroic game, you can skip the Resolve Point component of this subsystem and simply make Taking a Breather and Rally free. This gives the characters a lot of staying power, meaning that the group will typically keep adventuring until they run out of spells for the day, rather than having the additional pressure of running out of Resolve Points. If you use this approach, omit the Steel Your Resolve feat, as it’s too powerful if there’s no cost to use it! Alternatively, if you want to keep it, you can require a character to Take a Breather before they can Steel their Resolve again.

Enemy Victory Points

Ability Score Variants includes an alternate ability score system that works entirely through Ability Points, plus ways to distribute what each ability score impacts more evenly. Players using Skill Points have more flexibility to build characters with a broader range of skills in which they’re trained or better than normal, and this variant encourages that flexibility by increasing the cost of specializing. For instance, a 19th-level fighter could use Skill Points to be a master in seven different skills, or to be legendary in three skills. While this makes the variance in skills slightly less predictable, it shouldn’t have a big enough effect on a group’s capabilities that you need to make any significant adjustments when you run the game. If you grew up with three or more family members, you had to mediate family conflicts and negotiate a crowded home. Add a Charisma ability boost and a Dexterity ability boost to your options.

Alignment-detecting effects don’t exist. In the moral intentions variant, you might replace such an ability with one that detects whether a creature is following its own intentions, or to detect others with similar intentions to the creature using the ability. Typically, specifying three intentions or loyalties works well to define a character. These personal intentions cover broad spectra of behavior and in large part define the subjective definition of good for that individual. Intentions could be as abstract as acting with honor or as concrete as devotion to the character’s mother. A person following their core beliefs or intentions feels like they are acting in a good manner, and they are likely to view actions against or restrictions to these beliefs as evil. For example, a character who believes strongly in the law would see allowing a crime to go unpunished as evil.

Table 4-3: Raising an Ability Score

Gems: Although you can assign any value to a gemstone, some are inherently more valuable than others. Use the value categories below (and their associated gemstones) as guidelines when assigning values to gemstones. Proficiency without Level changes the fundamental math of the proficiency system to tell stories where being outnumbered by weaker foes remains a challenge and high-level characters are less superhuman. If a character is dying at the start of their turn, their player can spend 1 Resolve Point to stabilize at 0 HP, gaining or increasing the wounded condition as normal for stabilizing. At the start of the character’s next turn, they gain 1 HP and wake up (unless they started dying again). The character can act on that turn. Consider this an optional rule best suited for groups that have little access to healing. When using this rule, you might remove the ability for characters to use Hero Points to stabilize.

These two variants massively change how the alignment system works. In fact, one removes it entirely!Alignment restrictions no longer exist in either major variant. You can replace them with edicts and anathema, if necessary, and make the following other adjustments. Affinities Residual material harvested from a slain elemental can be used in the creation of magic items that have spells with specific descriptors, as summarized in the table below. Feats and Features shows how to build characters who gain feats and class features in different ways, from dual-classed characters with all the options of two classes to characters with a free archetype or more ancestry feats. If a rule depends on a character’s alignment, disregard the “fully” and “somewhat” distinctions. A protection spell keyed against evil works against both somewhat and fully evil characters. However, some spells, like detect alignment, might give more precise information. Table 4-4: Changing Alignment 1 Affinities A demon’s heart contains the essence of sin. It can be used in the creation of any magic item that has a spell with the evil descriptor as a requirement. Devils

Treasure and the cost of items in the Core Rulebook are designed to make it as easy as possible for you to build encounters without worrying about awarding too much or too little treasure based on whether you use creatures who carry items. However, using this variant, the PCs might defeat a creature 5 levels higher than they are, or even more! Too many encounters with higher-level foes can wind up giving the PCs more treasure than you expected, or vice-versa if they’re fighting weaker foes that put up more of a fight but still have poor treasure. You can nudge this in the right direction by making periodic adjustments if the PCs’ treasure drifts too far from expectations. Making it so they can’t easily sell or buy magic items will mean it’s harder for them to exploit treasure they gain. To sidestep the treasure economy entirely, you can use the automatic item bonus progression. Some classes, including the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, and wizard, get access to spellcasting as part of their class features, but other classes can also gain spellcasting ability from their class feats, by taking certain archetypes, or by taking certain ancestry feats that grant focus spells, innate spells, or cantrips. Spellcasting can be either prepared or spontaneous; If you’re a prepared spellcaster—such as a cleric, druid, or wizard—you must spend time each day preparing spells for that day. At the start of your daily preparations, you select a number of spells of different spell levels determined by your character level and class. Your spells remain prepared until you cast them or until you prepare spells again. If you’re a spontaneous spellcaster—such as a bard or a sorcerer—you choose which spell you’re using a spell slot for at the moment you decide to cast it. This provides you with more freedom in your spellcasting, but you have fewer spells in your spell repertoire, as determined by your character level and class. When you make your daily preparations, all your spell slots are refreshed, but you don’t get to change the spells in your repertoire. In this variant, gear can provide bonuses even if it’s not magical. This is useful for games and settings that set out to give fine, non-magical items the same prominence as magic items. High-quality gear requires the corresponding proficiency rank in Crafting to Craft. Runes modify armor and weapons when etched onto them. This section includes fundamental runes for weapons ( weapon potency and striking) and armor ( armor potency and resilient). Coins: Coins in a treasure hoard can consist of copper, silver, gold, and platinum pieces—silver and gold are the most common, but you can divide the coinage as you wish. Coins and their value relative to each other are described at the start of Equipment.Many character options will have traits listed with them, which look like this: Trait. A trait is a keyword that conveys additional information about a rules element, such as a school of magic or rarity. Often, a trait indicates how other rules interact with an ability, creature, item, or another rules element that has that trait. All the traits used in this book are listed on the Traits tab on the sidebar, roughly organized by type. Alchemical items are powered by the reactions of alchemical reagents. Almost all alchemical items are consumable items that are used up when you activate them and this category includes bombs, elixirs, poisons, and other alchemical tools. The alignment system has a long history in roleplaying games, and it helps define several aspects of Pathfinder’s worlds and characters. Yet it doesn’t work well for all games or groups. Altering or removing it offers new opportunities for your game. Certain spells are natural to your character, typically coming from your ancestry or a magic item rather than your class. If you have an innate spell, you can cast it, even if you aren't a spellcaster or it's not of a spell level you can normally cast. You can't use your spell slots to cast your innate spells, but you might have an innate spell and also be able to prepare or cast the same spell through your class. You also can't heighten innate spells, but some abilities that grant innate spells might give you the spell at a higher level than its base level or change the level at which you cast the spell. Determine Scores: After the other steps, you apply four more ability boosts of your choice. Then, determine your ability modifiers based on those scores.