Old World» Allowed materials & house rules

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The Old World campaign setting can be used with a number of different systems. Accordingly, the allowed materials list for player characters in the setting, and the applicable house rules, depend on the system being used for any given adventure.

Note: See also the section on magic in the Old World.

All systems

Races

See the Races page for information on available player character races, and their racial traits and qualities.

The setting background section describes what place each of the player character races has in the setting.

Feats

See the Feats page for information on new and modified feats that are available in the Old World campaign setting.

Pathfinder

Skills

The Knowledge (the planes) skill is not available. (See magic in the Old World for more information.)

When using the Intimidate skill to demoralize opponents, any bonuses to saves against fear (such as those granted by the bard’s inspire courage ability, or by the bless spell) apply to the Intimidate check DC.

Feats

The following feats from the Core Rulebook are modified:

The following feats from the Advanced Player’s Guide are modified:

Item creation

Classes

Barbarian
Rage

In the description of the barbarian’s rage class ability, replace this sentence:

If a barbarian falls unconscious, her rage immediately ends, placing her in peril of death.

With this:

If a barbarian falls unconscious while raging, then at the end of his next turn (or his current turn, if he falls unconscious on his own turn), his rage ends. While the ending of the rage causes the barbarian’s hit points to drop (due to the loss of the Constitution bonus granted by rage), this cannot reduce his hit point total below a value 1 point higher than his death threshold.

(Of course, the barbarian may continue losing hit points thereafter, in all the usual ways. Most commonly, if the unconsciousness was caused by damage which brought the barbarian’s hit points below 0, then—unless his condition stabilizes before then, or he regains hit points in some way—he will lose 1 hit point at the end of his subsequent turn, one round after his rage has ended; this, naturally, will kill him.)

Moment of clarity (rage power)

When the moment of clarity rage power is activated, the barbarian does not lose his bonus to Constitution from rage (and thus his hit point total does not change). (The ability otherwise works as written.)

Bard
Bardic knowledge

The following is added to the description of the bardic knowledge ability:

The sum of the bard’s ranks in a skill, and his bardic knowledge bonus, cannot exceed his character level. If this sum would be higher than the bard’s character level, then the bardic knowledge bonus is reduced so as not to exceed this limit.

The bonus to Knowledge skill checks from bardic knowledge applies only when answering questions related to a field of study, identifying monsters and their abilities, or otherwise determining what the bard knows. It does not apply to other uses of Knowledge skills, such as doing research or navigating during a sea journey.

Starting at 5th level, the bard also adds a +1 bonus to all research checks (regardless of what skill is used for the check); this bonus increases by +1 at every 5th level thereafter, to a maximum of +4 at 20th level.

Inspire resilience

Bards do not gain the inspire competence ability. Instead, they gain the following:

Inspire Resilience (Su): A bard of 3rd level or higher can use his performance to inspire resilience in his allies (including himself), making them resistant to physical attacks. To be affected, an ally must be able to perceive the bard’s performance.

An affected ally gains damage reduction 1/—. The damage reduction granted by this ability increases by 1 for every four levels the bard has attained beyond 3rd (2/— at 7th, 3/— at 11th, 4/— at 15th, and 5/— at 19th).

The damage reduction granted by inspire resilience stacks with a barbarian’s damage reduction (or with any similar ability). Inspire resilience does not apply to allies who are immobilized or otherwise incapacitated.

Inspire resilience is a mind-affecting ability, and relies on audible components.

Combine songs

Bards also do not gain the lore master ability. Instead, they gain the following:

Combine Songs (Ex): A bard of 5th level or higher can combine the effects of two performances. Once per day, a bard who is already maintaining one performance can start a second performance (taking the usual action required to start a performance) and gain the benefits of both. (Normal stacking rules for bonus types apply.) The bard can use this ability one additional time per day for every six levels he possesses beyond 5th, to a maximum of three times per day at 17th level.

Cleric domains

The following domains and subdomains are available for clerics of the deities worshipped in the Old World campaign setting. (Subdomains are listed in parentheses after the base domain. Unless noted otherwise, either the base domain or any of the listed subdomains may be selected by clerics who follow the given deity.)

Magus

The magus’s spell list is as follows (with spells from Ultimate Magic removed):

Ranger

The ranger’s favored enemy ability is modified as follows:

Favored Enemy (Ex): If a ranger spends at least a day observing, tracking, or otherwise interacting with creatures of some sort, he may designate such creatures as a favored enemy.

The ranger gains +2 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against his favored enemies. Likewise, he gets a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them. A ranger may make Knowledge skill checks untrained when attempting to identify these creatures.

A ranger may have one favored enemy at a time (that is, he may only designate one kind of creature as a favored enemy; if he wishes to designate another kind of creature as a favored enemy, he loses his favored enemy bonuses against any other kinds of creatures).

At every fifth level (5th, 10th, etc.), the ranger may have one additional favored enemy at a time. The ranger’s bonuses against favored enemies also increase by +2 at these levels.

Summoner

The summoner class is modified; see the Summoner page for details.

Rage prophet

The savage seer class ability is modified as follows:

Savage Seer: A rage prophet’s class level stacks with barbarian levels for determining the effect of rage powers, as well as for determining which rage powers he may select (should he gain additional rage powers, e.g. by taking more levels in the barbarian class, or gaining the Extra Rage Power feat), and stacks with oracle levels for determining the effect of oracle revelations and his oracle’s curse, as well as for determining which revelations he may select (should he gain additional revelations). This does not grant additional abilities.

The raging healer class ability is modified as follows:

Raging Healer (Su): At 2nd level, a rage prophet is able to cast cure spells on himself while raging, without having to use the moment of clarity rage power.

The ragecaster class ability is modified as follows:

Ragecaster (Su): Starting at 4th level, a rage prophet’s spells grow more potent when he rages. When casting spells while raging (e.g., by using the moment of clarity rage power, or via the raging healer or raging spellstrength class abilities), he adds his barbarian level to his caster level. At 7th level, he adds his Constitution bonus to the save DC of any spells cast while raging.

The raging spellstrength class ability is modified as follows:

Raging Spellstrength (Su): At 8th level, a rage prophet is able to cast spells with a range of “personal” on himself while raging, without having to use the moment of clarity rage power.

Spells

The following spells work differently in the Old World setting:

Weapons

Replace the descriptions of longbows (including composite and mighty composite longbows, which no longer exist) and shortbows (including mighty composite shortbows, which no longer exist) in the Core Rulebook with the following. (Range, damage, and other properties are unchanged. A heavy longbow’s price is double that of a standard longbow.)

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