Mistfinder: Pathfinder in Ravenloft

[Tobias Blackburn]

Pathfinder Caliban Conversion

+2 to Str, Dex or Con, +2 to Int, Wis or Cha, -2 to Cha: No two Caliban is alike due to the various occult forces that twist them into their hideous forms.

Medium: Calibans are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed: Calibans have a base speed of 30 feet.

Twisted: Calibans count as both humans and calibans for any effect related to race.

Hideous: Calibans can "absorb" a number of OR raising effects and situations equal to 5 before their OR starts rising.

Deformed: Calibans gain a Deformity Feat of their choice as a bonus feat at 1st level.

Hidden: Calibans live varied lives hidden away from society and often learn some skill to help them survive or keep them from going mad. They may chose a single skill from the following: Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, engineering, geography, history, local, nature, nobility or religion), Stealth and Survival. The skill becomes a class skill and the Caliban gains a +2 racial bonus to it.

Outcast Rating: Calibans have an Outcast Rating of 5. See below for further information on Outcast Ratings.

Languages: Calibans start knowing the language of their starting domain. Calibans with high Intelligence modifiers select other domain languages for their bonus languages.

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Outcast Rating: As described in the core Ravenloft books, a character's Outcast Rating affects a number of skills. InPathfinder, a character's OR is applied as a penalty to their Bluff, Diplomacy and Perform checks. It is added as a bonus to any Intimidation checks they make.

Optional rule: A character's OR is only added to their Intimidation check when they choose to emphasis what makes them different, monstrous or feared. When a character uses their Outcast Rating in this way against innocents or people who are accepted by a community, it causes their Outcast Rating to increase by 1 in that community. This makes it easier to scare people, but increases the changes that the community will be pushed into striking back. The GM should select a Tolerance Rating* for each community, which represents how high a character's OR can rise before the community starts looking to drive them out with pitchforks and torches.

(*Yes, I have more indepth rules for Tolerance Ratings. Once I dig them out and feel comfortable that they balance I'll post them too. If you haven't noticed yet, I have lots of notes for Outcast related material in Ravenloft. I don't use many terms here, so if it looks odd or that a term has a further meaning there's more in my notes.)

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Deformity Feats:
(Samples from older notes. Need a bit of balancing. More later.)

Deformity feats are a special kind of feat meant for outcasts. While only Calibans can take them normally, they may be accessed by others with either the Twisting feat or granted by curses or failed Dark Power checks. Each feat comes with a suggestion for how the deformity might manifest in a character, though the final decision is up to the GM and player.

Calibans with deformity feats have deformities beyond those mentioned in the feat. These other deformities simply do not have any "special benefit" other than giving them their base OR, or have yet to develop their full benefit yet.

Calibans are not restricted to taking deformity feats at first level, except where stated otherwise. This is due to the magical nature of their affliction and the possibility that their "Twisting" will continue.

Twisting [Deformity]
You has been infected by the same forces that create calibans.
Prerequisite: Non-caliban, must have been exposed to a great amount of magical energy or spent a significant amount of time in a fiend's Reality Wrinkle or hag's Aura of Corruption.
Benefit: You count as a caliban for the purpose of taking deformity feats. Your Outcast Rating raises by 2, and you can "absorb" any OR raising effect or situations equal to 2 before your OR starts rising further. You can hide your deformities with a Disguise check with a DC equal to 10 + twice your OR as long as your OR remains below 5.

Toughened Hide [Deformity]
Your flesh has hardened to protect you
Prerequisite: Caliban
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to Natural Armor. Your outcast rating increases by 3.
Suggested Deformities: Leathery or reptilian skin. Bone-like or cancerous growths.

Low-light Vision [Deformity]
Your eyes have developed to see better in dimly lit areas.
Prerequisite: Caliban
Benefit: You see twice as far in low-light as humans can. See Chapter 7 in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook for more information. You gain a +1 deformity bonus to perception checks. Your OR increases by 1.
Suggested Deformities: Widened pupils or overly large eyes. Strangely coloured irises.

Darkvision [Deformity]
Your eyes have developed for the lightless areas in which you dwell.
Prerequisite: Caliban, low-light vision
Benefit: You can see in the dark up to 60ft. Your deformity bonus to perception checks increases to +3. Your OR increases by an additional 2.
Suggested Deformities: Distinctly inhuman eyes, possibly a solid colour or being much, much larger than normal. Extra eyes.

Amphibious [Deformity]
You are just as happy in water as you are on land. Probably happier.
Prerequisite: Caliban
Benefit: You can breath in the water for up to 10 minutes at a time. You gain Cold Resistance 1. Your Outcast rating increases by 3.
Suggested Deformities: Gills. Larger, fishy mouth and eyes. Cool slimy skin.

Almost Human [Deformity]
Your deformities are minor. You don't have much difficulty passing as human with a little make-up and some well placed clothes.
Prerequisite: Caliban, must be taken at 1st level.
Benefit: You can disguise your Deformities with a Disguise check at DC 10 + twice your OR. If discovered though, your Outcast Rating is 3, not 5. This reduces the amount "absorbed" by the Hideous racial feature to 3 instead of 5 as well. You lose the benefit of this feat if your OR ever becomes 5.

There are more, of course. Claws, fangs, reach, blindsight, full conversions into horrific beasts and so on, but that's all I have time for at the moment.

[Tobias Blackburn]

Actually I like those changes.

Joel: Still, they don't seem enough for me to buy the book. I'll use the SRD.
When I said "it's not that different" I meant not so different in style or feeling from 3.5 than say Conan d20, or Wheel of Time d20.

That's pretty much how its meant to be. Its pretty backwards compatible to 3.5, so it won't be hard to convert collections (which was sort of the point).

Besides, the core book is big enough to kill someone (if it were possible to throw). If you only want to print off the parts you like and want to use from the SRD, you're not going to have much trouble.

EDIT: And just updated my post before this one with some more Caliban material.

[Jester of the FoS]

esides, the core book is big enough to kill someone (if it were possible to throw).

Yes it is. And yet it's the second biggest d20 book in my collection.

If you only want to print off the parts you like and want to use from the SRD, you're not going to have much trouble.

GRD. The SRD is WotC.

[Tobias Blackburn]

esides, the core book is big enough to kill someone (if it were possible to throw).

Yes it is. And yet it's the second biggest d20 book in my collection.

You have The World's Largest Dungeon, don't you... Did you shell out the extra cash to get the limited edition forklift to move it around?

[alhoon]

I'm also interested of which is the LARGEST D&D book in the Jester's collection.

[Algaris]

Well since he said D20 book I'm betting on Ptolus.

[Jester of the FoS]

It is Ptolus. Which is an absolutely frickin' amazing product.

[alhoon]

What is Ptolus, and how large it is?

[Jester of the FoS]

It's a settting/city done by Monte Cooke (the one he used in his homegame). The main book is 672 pages and was advertised as the "most deluxe roleplaying product ever published".
Page-wise it's a tad smaller than the World's Largest Dungeon but it does live-up to the hype.

It's well-bound with an embossed cover and has 3 ribbon bookmarks sewn in. It also comes with four cardboard bookmarks you can punch out and a fold-out poster map.
The chapters are colour-coded with tabs that you can see from the side, so you can eye-ball where you need to open the book it, and every page has sidebars with extra information and cross-references (with page numbers). It also comes with a CD that has the entire book on PDF (split into sections) and a player's guide (essentially the first chapter) that can be given to players to help them get a feel for the setting. The CD also contains a mega-adventure and accessory which were previous published for the world. Plus campaign journals of Monte Cooke's games.

It's an impressive book.

[Ornum]

It's a settting/city done by Monte Cooke (the one he used in his homegame). The main book is 672 pages and was advertised as the "most deluxe roleplaying product ever published".
Page-wise it's a tad smaller than the World's Largest Dungeon but it does live-up to the hype.

It's well-bound with an embossed cover and has 3 ribbon bookmarks sewn in. It also comes with four cardboard bookmarks you can punch out and a fold-out poster map.
The chapters are colour-coded with tabs that you can see from the side, so you can eye-ball where you need to open the book it, and every page has sidebars with extra information and cross-references (with page numbers). It also comes with a CD that has the entire book on PDF (split into sections) and a player's guide (essentially the first chapter) that can be given to players to help them get a feel for the setting. The CD also contains a mega-adventure and accessory which were previous published for the world. Plus campaign journals of Monte Cooke's games.

It's an impressive book.

I had always heard good things about Ptolus, but I never actually got my hands on the book. If it's that good, I may look into finding a copy somewhere. I'll check my usual shop for it (you would be amazed at the sheer amount of used 2e and 3e material that can be found there). If that's a no-go, then I may be forced onto Ebay.

[Jester of the FoS]

It's gone out of print so it can be pricey on eBay. If it's not something you plan on using I wouldn't spend too much, but if you can find an excuse it's excellent and a wonderfully detailed city crammed with NPCs, hooks, locations, etc.

[Joël of the FoS]

Well made, Tobias. Interesting Deformity Feats.

I won't change a thing in my game, except put -4 Cha instead of -2 to Cha. They are known to be somehow hideous and they have a lot of flexibility over the +2s so it has to be paid somehow

Optional rule: A character's OR is only added to their Intimidation check when they choose to emphasis what makes them different, monstrous or feared. When a character uses their Outcast Rating in this way against innocents or people who are accepted by a community, it causes their Outcast Rating to increase by 1 in that community. This makes it easier to scare people, but increases the changes that the community will be pushed into striking back. The GM should select a Tolerance Rating* for each community, which represents how high a character's OR can rise before the community starts looking to drive them out with pitchforks and torches.

Fun!

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Something else should be adapted for RL?

From a first browse, the RLCS guidelines apply well to the Pathfinder RPG to adapt it to RL.

[Tobias Blackburn]

Well made, Tobias. Interesting Deformity Feats.

I won't change a thing in my game, except put -4 Cha instead of -2 to Cha. They are known to be somehow hideous and they have a lot of flexibility over the +2s so it has to be paid somehow

That's actually a pretty good idea. Extra choice and flexibility, but an increased penalty.

I may have to steal it for my game.

Optional rule: A character's OR is only added to their Intimidation check when they choose to emphasis what makes them different, monstrous or feared. When a character uses their Outcast Rating in this way against innocents or people who are accepted by a community, it causes their Outcast Rating to increase by 1 in that community. This makes it easier to scare people, but increases the changes that the community will be pushed into striking back. The GM should select a Tolerance Rating* for each community, which represents how high a character's OR can rise before the community starts looking to drive them out with pitchforks and torches.

Fun!

Glad you like that one.

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Something else should be adapted for RL?

From a first browse, the RLCS guidelines apply well to the Pathfinder RPG to adapt it to RL.

I think Pathfinder will work with very minor conversion. I think I'll need to see the Beastary before getting started on the whole of it (to see what they've done with different creatures, powers and templates).

[The Giamarga]

How does the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game improve on the core 3.5 fantasy system?
You don't have to scrounge through secondhand bookstores to find the rulebooks. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game releases on August 13th, 2009 in game stores everywhere.

But, but... scrounging through used bookstores is fun.

[The Giamarga]

Starting up a game of it now actually. Just finishing tweaking the Half-Vistani.

Care to post your PF half-vistani?