Houserules

Make a Survival roll to forecast the weather. The DC is 15 if you're familiar with the area's climate, or 20 if you're not. Higher DCs can occur if powerful magic is affecting the weather, or if you're not on the Material Plane.

Critical success: As failure, but the forecast covers today and the next 7 days.
Success: As failure, but the forecast covers today and the next 3 days.
Failure: You gain an accurate forecast for today's weather (if you forecast at dawn) or tomorrow's weather (if you forecast in the evening), including information on temperature, precipitation and wind.
Critical failure: You get an incorrect forecast which covers today and the next 1 to 7 days.

GM note: Yes, this means that weather will be a factor in the game! If you have a feat that interacts with Survival checks, we'll decide if it also affects the Forecast action.

Random Encounters

We'll be using a Tension Pool to determine when random encounters occur. Briefly: there's a pool of d6 in the centre of the table. Whenever you do something which is time-consuming, a die is added to the pool. Whenever you do something risky, the pool of dice is rolled. You also roll the pool of dice if a sixth d6 is added. If any of the rolled dice show a 1, a random encounter occurs (there's about a 66% chance of a 6 die pool producing one or more ones).

The more detailed version is:

Time passes: Add a d6 to the pool. Check if there are six dice in the pool.
Reckless action: Roll all the dice in the pool, and then return all dice to the pool. On a 1, a complication occurs. If there are no dice in the pool, roll 1d6 but do not add it to the pool
Time spent recklessly: Add a die to the pool, and then roll the pool
Long rest taken: Do not add or remove any dice from the main pool. Roll 6d6 separately; on a 1, a complication occurs
Six dice in pool: Roll all the dice in the pool, and do not return them to the pool. On a 1, a complication occurs.

The definition of 'time passes' varies with context. For example, in a dungeon crawl, every 10 minutes of rest counts as time passing, but when traveling overland, time passes after 12 hours of travel or rest.

The definition of reckless or risky behaviour should generally be self-evident. I'll always let you know if an action is risky before you take it. Sometimes you might be able to make a risky action safe - for example, kicking down a door in a dungeon is risky because it could alert nearby monsters. If you cast silence on the door-kicking barbarian first, then this action isn't risky any more.

This system is based on something I found on this website.

Recall Knowledge on Creatures

When you attempt a Recall Knowledge check on a creature, pick one of the following types of information: offensive abilities, defensive abilities, or other ability.

If you get a success on the Recall Knowledge check, the GM will tell you one thing from the relevant category. If you get a critical success, the GM will tell you two things.

If you asked to learn about offensive abilities, the GM will tell you about a single attack ability, including a narrative overview of its range, damage etc.

For example "the river drake can launch a blob of caustic mucus over a medium range, that does acid damage in a small burst" or "the wolf get a bonus to damage if it attacks a target that's adjacent to the wolf's allies".

Any power that hurts the PCs falls into this category, and the GM will start with the most dramatic/cooler powers first. An offensive reaction power (like attack of opportunity) falls into this category

If you asked to learn about defensive abilities, the GM will tell you about one of:

the creature's general HP, resistances and weaknesses in narrative terms. E.g. "it's not got very many HP for something of this level, but it's resistant to acid and weak to fire", or "this flesh golem is empowered by lightning and vulnerable to cold"
the creature's AC and saves. e.g. "it's physically very tough and hard to hurt, but weak-willed and slow, so focus on Reflex and Will!"
a defensive power, e.g. "the animated statue is hard to hit and resistant to damage - but once you break its armour, it's much more vulnerable. You can do that either with straight damage, or with a critical hit"

If you asked to learn about other abilities, the GM will tell you about a relevant type of ability.

Not all monsters will have these, but examples could be: "barghasts can take the shape of a wolf or goblin, as well as their natural form" or "ghosts often reform after being killed, unless you can fix the curse that anchors them".

If the creature has no other abilities, the GM will tell you something from the offensive or defensive category.

Gradual Ability Boosts

Each character gains one set of 4 boosts when they reach level 5, as described in the Core Rulebook.

Each character gains one ability boost when they reach each of 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th levels. These are collectively a single set of ability boosts, so a character can’t boost the same ability score more than once per set.

PCs also receive an ability boost at at 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th level (a third set); and at 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th level (the fourth and final set).

Free Archetypes

Each character receives an extra class feat at level 5 and at every even level thereafter that can only be used for archetype feats.

Notes

You may spend your normal class feats on the archetype you gain this way.

If you take an archetype feat which scales based on the number of other archetype feats you have, you may only benefit from a number of these feats equal to half your level.

If you already have an archetype, the free feats may be spent on that archetype. Alternatively, you may select a new archetype to spend the free feats on (this allows you to start a second archetype even if you have not taken enough feats from the first archetype to normally be allowed to take feats from another archetype).

Archetype Restrictions

If an archetype requires two ability scores, you only need to meet one of them to take the dedication feat (e.g. you need either Strength 14 or Dexterity 14 to take Monk Dedication, not both).

Many background-based restrictions on archetypes are lifted (e.g. you do not need to be a Knight Vigilant to take the Knight Vigilant Dedication). Please check with me first, as some still remain (e.g. for Hellknights).

Alchemist Dedication

Whenever your Advanced Alchemy level increases, you gain one free alchemical formula per level of increase. The new formula must be of a level you can create using Advanced Alchemy.

Retraining Spontaneous Spells

You can spend 1 week of downtime to retrain a spontaneous spell. You remove an existing spell from your repertoire, and add a new one (of the correct level and spell list etc).

Automatic Bonus Progression

This variant removes the item bonus to rolls and DCs usually provided by magic items (with the exception of armor’s item bonus) and replaces it with a new kind of bonus—potency—to reflect a character’s innate ability instead.

Every character automatically gains the following features:

Level 2: Attack potency +1
Level 4: Devastating attacks (two dice)
Level 5: Defense potency +1
Level 8: Saving throw potency +1
Level 10: Attack potency +2
Level 11: Defense potency +2
Level 12: Devastating attacks (three dice)
Level 14: Saving throw potency +2
Level 16: Attack potency +3
Level 18: Defense potency +3
Level 19: Devastating attacks (four dice)
Level 20: Saving throw potency +3

Attack Potency

Starting at 2nd level, you gain a +1 potency bonus to attack rolls with all weapons and unarmed attacks. This increases to +2 at 10th level, and +3 at 16th level.

Devastation Attacks

At 4th level, your weapon and unarmed Strikes deal two damage dice instead of one. This increases to three at 12th level and to four at 19th level.

Defense Potency

At 5th level, you gain a +1 potency bonus to AC. At 11th level, this bonus increases to +2, and at 18th level, to +3.

Saving Throw Potency

At 8th level, you gain a +1 potency bonus to saves, increasing to +2 at level 14 and +3 at level 20.

Staves

If you are a primary caster (right now, that's Tamlane and Fraxinus), one staff of your choice automatically levels alongside you. At level 14, your staff is able to cast 6th-level spells. At level 18, your staff is able to cast 8th-level spells. If your chosen staff doesn't have a published version for the relevant level, we will work to come up with a custom version.

Special Materials

Different grades of special materials still exist. Low-grade versions can only support a +1 attack and striking potency. You need to spend the normal cost to create standard or high grade versions to be able to use them with higher automatic bonuses.

Differences to Gamesmasteryguide Version

The version of these rules in the GMG also covers item bonuses to perception and skills, but those bonuses are unchanged for this game (for now, anyway!). Staves are also not covered in the GMG.

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