Sources
Nearly all Pathfinder materials published by Paizo may be used in the campaign (with the exception of the Technology Guide).
Non-Paizo Sources:
The following books (and most of the material associated with them in companion books) may be used in the campaign:
- Ultimate Psionics
- Psionics Augmented: Mythic Psionics
- Path of War
- Path of War: Expanded
- Spheres of Power
- Mythic Hero’s Handbook
Rule Changes
General Play:Players roll all dice:
All values and rolls are adjusted so players will roll all the dice. For NPCs, any d20 rolls (for instance attack rolls, saving throws) will have the d20 replaced with a standing 10. For PCs, any value that normally had a standing 10 added to the PCs bonuses (for instance AC, CMD, spell DCs, etc.) will be replaced with a d20 roll.
Ultimate Campaign: The Red Wars campaign will make use of most of the systems included in Ultimate Campaign with some changes:
- Fame: Characters gain both a Fame and an Infamy rating that changes as they complete quests or do heroic / villainous things. The infamy rating will be used to determine the character's notoriety to those who oppose them, while fame will be used to determine their reputation among their peers and people friendly to their cause. Additionally all characters will gain a leadership score and will have the opportunity to detail story based NPCs into potential followers or cohorts depending on their relationship with those individual characters.
- War: The army mechanics found in Ultimate Campaign are not in use. Instead, a custom system will be in place, based on 4th edition D&D mechanics. The new system will be detailed below.
Skills:
Skill Unlocks: Skill unlocks are available, as found in Pathfinder Unchained (p. 82).
Background Skills: The background skills system is in use, including new skills (Artistry and Lore) and expanded skill uses, as found in Pathfinder Unchained (p. 46).
Feats:
Metamagic: All metamagic costs are reduced by 1 level. Because of this change all traits that reduce the cost of metamagic are unavailable for selection.
Variant feats: Variant feats used as part of the Vigor/Wound system (found in Ultimate Combat), and the Signature Skill feat (found in Pathfinder Unchained) are in use. The alignment feats from Unchained may also be taken, but keep in mind that they require your alignment to be tested by moral dilemmas fairly often.
Classes:
Fighter: Fighters add their Fighter level to their BAB to meet the BAB requirements for feats. So a 7th level Fighter counts as if they had a BAB of 14. They must still meet all other requirements of the feat.
Rogue: The Unchained Rogue is available.
Equipment:
Firearms: Firearms are available for purchase in the Red Wars game. Firearms no longer target touch AC within their first range increment. Instead they are given a Penetration Rating. This reduces the benefit the target receives from armour by the amount of the weapon’s PR. Enhancement bonuses add to PR.
- 1 Handed Simple Firearms: PR 2.
- 2 Handed Simple Firearms: PR 5.
- 1 Handed Advanced Firearms: PR 5.
- 2 Handed Advanced Firearms: PR 8.
- Light Crossbow: PR 1
- Heavy Crossbow: PR 3
Adamantine: Weapons made from adamantine will also have a Penetration rating, reflecting the material’s greater density. Any weapon made from Adamantine has PR 3. (This stacks with the penetration rating of the weapons above, so an adamantine bolt fired from a heavy crossbow would have PR 6.)
Magic Item Creation:
Characters may work on different projects throughout the day at no penalty, so long as none surpass the 8 hour limit.
Characters may work on a single project for 8 hours in a day without penalty. If they choose, they may continue working on that same project in 4 hour increments. Doing so deals 1 point of Wisdom damage per 4 hour session (or increment thereof) beyond the regular 8 hour limit.
Combat:
Descriptive Battles: Describing what you are doing in battle will give the PCs a bonus to the attack. The player may choose the apply +2 to damage, +1 to attack, or +1 to a spell DC. (The +2 to damage would apply once per attack roll made by the player.)
Sneak Attack vs. Concealment: Concealment does not negate sneak attack. Total concealment still negates sneak attack. This change allows rogues (and other characters with sneak attack) to perform their sneak attacks in places like dark alleys where they can see their target but perhaps not very clearly, without allowing them to do precision damage when they can’t actually see the target.
Vigor and Wound Points:
As per the rules in Ultimate Combat, with exceptions/additions added here.
Regaining VP/WP:
- Short Rest: Character level (class + mythic or class + bonus feats) * Con mod VP regained after a 5 minute rest.
- Rest: All VP regained after regular 8 hour rest. WP regained as per Ultimate Combat.
- Mythic Power: A mythic character with the Hard to Kill feature can take the full defense action and spend mythic power to regain vigor points. VP regained = class level (or class level and racial hd) * mythic tier * mythic power spent.
- Fast Healing: Fast Healing heals VP damage, but not WP.
- Regeneration: Regeneration heals both VP and WP damage, with WP damage regained first.
Wound Thresholds:
We will be using the Wound Thresholds system presented in Pathfinder Unchained.
Mythic Rules:
Mythic characters gain Mythic Powers with each tier, gaining one universal power and one Path power every Tier.
Hard to Kill: Characters with the Hard to Kill ability do not gain its regular benefits. Instead, when they are Wounded (less than half WP) and have no VP remaining, they take ½ damage from all sources.
Immortal: The need for an artifact to kill the character at 10th mythic tier is moved back to Ascension tier 6.
Races of the World:
The Red Wars campaign will be using different versions of the standard races, as well as adapting many of the monsters found in the Paizo Bestiaries to better fit the world. Many of the standard PC races have different histories, cultures, and characteristics than found in regular Pathfinder campaigns. Please see the accompanying documents detailing the various races of the world.
Level Progressions
Non-mythic characters:The souls of these mortals are still raw, insufficiently refined by the cycle of reincarnation. As such, the limit of how much power they can usually gain is lower than many others.
Mythic characters:
Mortals whose souls have been successfully refined through the cycle of death and rebirth, they are on the verge of ascending upon their death. However, the most powerful among them can actually join the ranks of the immortals without dying, shedding their mortality to join the immortals with all their power intact. (See Ascension Paths document for rules on Ascension.)
Monster Characters:
Certain monsters have abilities that are simply unbalanced for player characters to possess for certain games. GMs are free to modify monster abilities as they wish to better balance the game or simply disallow certain monster choices entirely.
Non-mythic monster characters:
Non-mythic monster characters use the same table as non-mythic characters. The base creature starts with a character level equal to their CR. Upon gaining their next character level, they advance in either class levels or other bonuses according to the right hand column of that table, up to the current maximum.
For instance, a hill giant is CR 7. This would make them character level 7. Their regular abilities replace what would normally be gained by a player character up to and including their current character level. When they gain enough experience to advance to character level 8, they check the table and determine an 8th level character gains a bonus feat, so that’s what they gain. A 9th level character gains a class level, so at 9th level the hill giant gains their 1st class level. By the time they reach 20th level, the hill giant will have the regular benefits of their race (8 hit dice), plus 4 class levels and 9 bonus feats.
Some combinations of monster levels and class levels are very beneficial, while others leave the monster very weak. At the GM’s option, the monster may sacrifice every 3rd bonus feat gained to replace a racial hit dice with an additional class level. Any abilities tied to those racial hit dice (including BAB, saves, caster levels for spell-like abilities, certain ability DCs, etc.) are reduced accordingly.
For instance, if the above Hill Giant had taken levels of sorcerer, they would only have 4 sorcerer levels, 8 giant hit dice and 9 bonus feats by 20th level vs. a human sorcerer who would have 10 class levels and 10 bonus feats. With the GM’s permission, the hill giant could sacrifice their 3rd, 6th, and 9th bonus feats (gained at character level 11, 16 and 20) to replace 3 of their giant hit dice with levels of sorcerer. After doing so, they would have 7 sorcerer levels, 5 giant hit dice, and 6 bonus feats.
Mythic monster characters:
Certain powerful monsters also possess the rarefied souls necessary to advance them beyond their peers. Treat their CR as their character level to begin play. From there, allow them to gain class levels, mythic tiers, and ascension tiers as if they were regular mythic characters.
However, certain monsters may not qualify for certain abilities. Special exceptions should be allowed to accommodate these inequalities between monster types and designs.
Immortals:
In general, the immortal races have no need of the ascension tiers that mortals gain. They are already immortal, and granting them ascension tiers to become what they already are makes little sense. Instead, replace the character levels where they gain ascension tiers with bonus feats.
For instance, a balisse angel is CR 8. Starting at character level 8, that leaves them with 32 character levels on the mythic track. Were they to follow this track directly, they would reach character level 40 with 10 outsider HD, 16 class levels, 10 mythic tiers and 6 ascension tiers. However, those ascension tiers would be a waste, as they are already one of the immortal races ascension tiers are designed to emulate for a character. Instead, they would gain 6 bonus feats instead of ascension tiers.
High CR creatures:
Alternately, a GM may allow creatures to sacrifice a mythic tier to transform one racial hit die into a class level. Any benefits from that racial hit die are removed (such as BAB, saves, caster level, etc.), replaced with those of the class level gained. The maximum number of class levels remains capped at 20.