For those not in the know, Pathwarden is my Pathfinder 2e hack. My challenge is to include all the necessary bits to the game in roughly 20 pages, and that’s no mean feat.
Currently the game’s overview is this:
- Reduced level cap to 10
- Removed attributes and classes in comparison to Pathfinder 2e (biggest change)
- Instead, there are Paths – Martial, Skill, and Magic. In character creation, you divide four points to these tracks, and on every second level you gain a new point to put into the tracks. The tracks provide feats, boons and higher proficiency ranks in things under their specific things.
- The standard Proficiency Rank (2/4/6/8) + Level scaling exists, and that is the scaling I use in the game. Base difficulty for checks is 10 + level. That’s a clean 60% chance to succeed when trained, increasing by 10% per proficiency rank.
- Skill system and Skill feats are tied to Skill Path, pretty much similar skills but some have been cut for brevity (such as combining social skills to Influence and combining stealth and thievery into just Skullduggery)
- HP bloat will be gone. HP scaling will be somewhere in the high 30s at best. It’s like 10/12 + level for most characters.
- Similarly, damage will be scaled down pretty hard. Big weapons still do 1d12 damage, but the flat damage is naturally lesser due to attributes being gone. I’m thinking maybe like +1 to +4 depending on your proficiency. Spells will do like upwards of 2d12 damage at highest.
- Equipment will be simplified, weapon lists are mostly just a few examples and a trait pool to choose from.
- Alchemy and Magic will kick my ass. I have no answers for them yet.
- Will implement a few mechanics from Shadow of the Demon Lord, most notably Fast/Slow turns and Spell themes.
- Daily attrition will be gone for the most part. Everything is focused on per-encounter basis essentially.
Currently wrestling with ideas such as:
→ Should proficiency ranks be tied to level (if you have 4 path ranks at level 3 you become Expert in stuff) or to path rank directly (if you have 4 points in a path you become Expert in stuff, for example)? Tied to level they enforce hitting the thresholds before a certain level where as level-independent enforces specialization in one thing.
→ I think the levels could actually work, if instead of a single point per 2 levels, you get one point per level.