House Rule Document (The Next Darkness)

Start 2nd character level.

Ability Scores

The maximum any ability score can be (before enhancement) is 18.

Bonus Feats

All characters begin play with additional traits as well as one bonus skill feat (preselected); in addition players have one feat to choose. Players can be proficient in any Profession, or Craft skill and can consider that skill to be at max possible ranks. 

Athletics 
Athletics is a Str-based skill that functions as one skill for all Climb and Swim checks. If the character takes a finesse feat, that character may choose to change the Athletics skill to a Dex-based skill. 

Short Rest

(Source: D&D 5e) A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.

A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a short rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. *Some characters may regain 1 resource point in their respective ability pool (martial flexibility, alchemist bomb, etc). 

Long Rest

(Source: D&D 5e) A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent short rest Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character’s total number of them (minimum of one die). For example, if a character has eight Hit Dice, he or she can regain four spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest.

A character can’t benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.

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Other

The campaign will occasionally use capital (Goods, Influence, Labor, and Magic) and characters will be calculating encumbrance and other resources when applicable. 

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Advantage and Disadvantage

(Source: D&D 5e) Sometimes an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw is modified by special situations called advantage and disadvantage. Advantage reflects the positive circumstances surrounding a d20 roll, while disadvantage reflects the opposite. When you have either advantage or disadvantage, you roll a second d20 when you make the roll. Use the higher of the two rolls if you have advantage, and use the lower roll if you have disadvantage. For example, if you have disadvantage and roll a 17 and a 5, you use the 5. If you instead have advantage and roll those numbers, you use the 17.

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Hit Points, Wound Points, and Death for the sake of game play, hit points (hp) represent superficial injuries to the character. Wound points (wp) represent deadly wounds taken from precision damage, critical damage or when your character suffers damage to zero hit points; at that instance he or she does not fall unconscious or begin dying, instead the character immediately begins suffering loss of wound points and deducts this excess damage from your wound point total.

Deadly Wound Points (wp) equals your CON score + 1 per character level (+1 per luck feat). Once your character has taken damage equal to or greater than this total, your character begins to die and has only moments to live. Deadly wounds are healed separately from hit point damage (see below). 

Wound points (wp) can only be healed with the treat deadly wounds use of the Heal Skill (DC 20, see below); milk of the poppy or white salve; or curative magic and potions after all hit points (hp) are healed. 

Critical Hits A confirmed critical hit no longer inflicts double weapon damage. Instead damage is rolled normally but deducted from the character's (wp) wound points.

Example Buster is a 4th level fighter with a 15 CON and Heroes Fortune (luck feat). (d10+2) x4 = 48 hit points (20 wound points = CON score + 1 per character level [+1 per luck feat]).

Non-Lethal Damage: when the game calls for non-lethal damage to be dealt, the damage is converted to half regular hit point damage, minimum 1 point.

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Heal Skill (*Modified)
First Aid: As a standard action, a person with the heal skill can spend one use of a healer’s kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6 plus 1 hit points per level of the creature being tended to. If you exceed the DC by 5 or more, add the healers Wisdom modifier (if positive) to this amount. A creature can’t regain hit points from this skill use again until it finishes a short or long rest. First aid also stops a character from losing hit points due to effects that cause bleed. Hit point damage is healed separately from (wp) deadly wounds. (DC 15, Standard action.)

Treat Deadly Wounds: When treating deadly wounds, you can restore wound points (wp) to a severely injured creature. Treating deadly wounds restores 2 wound points per level of the creature being healed. If you exceed the DC by 5 or more, add the healers Wisdom modifier (if positive) to this amount. A creature can only benefit from their deadly wounds being treated within 24 hours of being so injured and can’t regain wound points from this skill use again until it finishes a long rest. A healer must expend two uses from a healer’s kit to perform this task. (DC 20, One hour.)

Magical Healing: Magical healing restores lost Hit Points before Wound Points. 

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Automatic Bonus Progression (Pathfinder Unchained Page 157)

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Elemental Shards

Magic is categorized into five elements earth, water, fire, air, and spirit and energy is drawn from elemental planes. Player characters may endow a portion of their energy and bond themselves into a receptacle called an elemental shard. These fragmented elemental components can be any number of things but are classified into the following categories: plant/animal (organic) and rock/metals (mineral).

A player character can only bond with a number of elemental shards equal to their CON modifier plus one from the Fate’s Favored trait. Generally this bonding is done through ritual meditation that takes minutes = Con score and can be done during a short rest.

For the next 24 hours, as an immediate action, a player character may invoke an elemental shard for Advantage on the next d20 die roll. The type of Advantage depends on the elemental shard prepared:

Earth: Skill check, Water: Reflex save, Fire: Fort save, Air: Attack d20, Spirit: Will save.

After using the shard, it is lost. Unused prepared shards are not lost but must be prepared again. Gathering additional elemental shards is possible through adventuring and with 4 hours of dedicated foraging using Survival, Spellcraft, or Knowledge (Nature, arcana, or geography) skill checks. A player character is always guaranteed a random elemental shard when foraging, to find a specific type of elemental shard is DC10. 

Furthermore, shards are also required as spell components for spellcasters. To cast a spell a player must use one shard per level of the spell in their corresponding element. 

Examples of elemental shards: 

Spirit: obsidian, clear quartz, mugwart leaf, doom weed, or the pineal or pituitary gland of a harpy or a unicorn

Air: silver, citrine, tourmaline, Euphorbia root, Dawn Leaf, or the thyroid gland of a giant eagle or a small stirge

Fire: amber, geodes, or ferrous metals, silver tree bark, smoke from burning sage, adrenal gland from a dragon or a dire bear

Water: Moonstone or peridot stones, Seadew frond, purified water from a sacred pool, thymus gland from a sea serpent or a hippocampus

Earth: Fluorite or tourmaline stone, petrified wood, Acacia leaves, gonads from an ankheg, wood wode or sand worm

D20: 1-4 earth 5-8 water 9-12 fire 13-16 air 17-20 soul/spirit.

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Next Level Elemental Shards

Being touched by the elements and being Fate’s Favored, this combination of traits grants the characters the ability to bond with elemental shards. These ‘shards’ are components that all spell casters and alchemists use, but only those whom Fate and the Guardians have chosen can utilize for advantage/disadvantage on certain D20 rolls. Character’s Elemental-Touched and Fate’s Favored Traits are further developed at 4th level. (They get another at 7th and 10th). 

Boren: 

At character creation: Boren can spend One  Spirit Shard as a free action to create the Life Drinking Weapon Augmentation Crystal effect upon any weapon he wields. (each time you deal damage an opponent you gain +1 point healing up to 10 hp max/day) 

At 1st level: Boren may spend One Spirit Shard as a free action to confer the Remedy quality on a garment, shield or armor for 24 hours. (Remedy special ability works against a specific weapon attack, [short sword, arrow, natural weapon, or unarmed strike] which is defined when the ability is used. Against the specific weapon attack, the remedy armor grants DR 3/–)

At 4th level: Boren may spend Two Spirit Shards as a free action to create a Spiritual Dagger and immediately grant it Hoarfrost. 

At 7th level: Boren may spend Two Spirit Shards as a free action to create the Life Drinking Weapon Augmentation Crystal effect; each time you deal damage an opponent with that weapon you now gain +3 points healing up to 30 hp max/day. (as per the lesser version of the weapon crystal, this ability is an upgrade to the ability gained at character creation)

Brim

At character creation: Brim can spend One Fire Shard as a free action to create the Fire Assault Energy Weapon Augmentation Crystal effect upon any weapon he wields. (+1 point fire damage)

At 1st level: Brim can spend One Fire Shard as a free action to use Touch of Flame (Su) one additional time per day. 

At 4th level: Brim can spend Two Fire Shards as a free action to Remove Fear as per the cleric spell. 

At 7th level: Brim can spend Two Fire Shards as a free action to consecrate a weapon as per the Consecrated Weapon property. When activated, Brim charges a weapon with positive energy so it deals extra damage when it hits a target. This functions like the Channel Smite feat, except the additional damage is equal to half the Brim's channel energy damage (the target makes a Will save as normal, based on the cleric’s channel energy DC). The weapon remains charged with this energy until it successfully strikes a creature or 24 hours pass, whichever comes first. Creatures other than Brim are able to use the charged weapon. (*Adventurer's Armory) 

Lobo

At character creation: Lobo can spend One Air Shard as a free action to create the Cold Assault Energy Weapon Crystal effect upon his natural weapons or any weapon he wields. (+1 point cold damage) 

At 1st level: Lobo can spend One Air Shard as a free action to use your Shifter Aspect for an additional one minute per day. 

At 4th level: Lobo can spend Two Air Shards as a free action to Negate Aroma as per the druid spell. 

At 7th level: Lobo can spend Two Air Shards as a free action to create the Cold Assault Energy Weapon Crystal effect; the cold damage on the weapon is increased to d6. (as per the lesser version of the weapon crystal, this ability is an upgrade to the ability gained at character creation) 

Mon

At character creation: Mon can spend One Water Shard as a free action to create the Fiendslayer Energy Weapon Augmentation Crystal upon his natural weapons or any weapon he wields. (+1 damage to elementals) 

At 1st level: Mon can spend One Water Shard as a free action to confer the Elusive quality on a garment, shield or armor for 24 hours. (AC provided by an Elusive garment, suit of armor, shield or protective device is 1 higher against ranged weapon attacks)

At 4th level: Mon can spend Two Water Shards as a free action to Create Water, Heightened (+1) as per the druid spell. 

At 7th level: Mon can spend Two Water Shards as a free action to create the Fiendslayer Energy Weapon Augmentation Crystal upon his natural weapons or any weapon he wields; the bonus damage to dark folk, outsiders (eternals) and elementals is increased to d6. (as per the lesser version of the weapon crystal, this ability is an upgrade to the ability gained at character creation)

Willow

At character creation: Willow can spend One Earth Shard as a free action to Change the Damage Type of a weapon from S to P, P to B, B to S, and so on. 

At 1st level: Willow can spend One Earth Shard as a free action to create one additional Herbal Bomb 1/day. 

At 4th level: Willow can spend Two Earth Shards as a free action to create the Greensight (UW) effect as per the druid spell. 

At 7th level: Willow can spend Two Earth Shards as a free action to emulate the Elemental Spell metamagic feat for 1 round. Doing so replaces the spell’s normal damage with acid or split the spell’s damage, so that half is acid and half is of its normal type. *expenditure of Two Earth Shards plus One Shard from another element (three total shards) will change the spells damage as described above to the second element. Thus Two Earth Shards and One Fire will replace the spells normal damage to fire. 

Any Character

Spend 3 air shards as a swift actin to gain +5 on athletics checks and expend 3 water shards as a swift action grants a hero +5 on acrobatic checks. 

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NEW FEAT

Touchstone [General] 

You forge a link with a supernatural, elementally aligned location: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Spirit*; referred to as a Touchstone site. Touchstones are conduits of the Source and can be any number of things and places from the sacred Godswood in Winterfell to the Oasis of the gods in Dorne. Touchstones are scattered throughout the world. 

Prerequisite

Character level 5. Knowledge (varies), depending on the nature of Touchstone site. For example, Earth Touchstones require skill in Knowledge (nature) but in some circumstances other skills may be used. 

To attune a link between yourself and the Touchstone, you must also spend 8 hours in ritual meditation at the location and spend one or more elemental shards that corresponds with the Touchstone’s element.

Benefit

By spending an elemental shard you gain the base ability associated with the touchstone to which you are attuned. Usually an elementally based spell-like effect or situational benefit unique to the location. If you attune to a matched elemental location, you may tap into a higher-order ability, as described for that touchstone. 

When you encounter a new touchstone location you may chose to attune to the new site as described above, abandoning all ability associated with the previous attuned Touchstone. You may also re-attune to an abandoned Touchstone by visiting its physical location again and fulfilling all requirements. 

Special

You can take this feat as many times equal to your constitution modifier. Each time you do, you are able to align to one more Touchstone gaining that site's base ability. If a character aligns with a Touchstone that corresponds with his own elemental aspect, a higher-order ability is discovered. 

Example: 

Boren takes the Touchstone feat at 5th level and successfully attunes with the Godswood in Winterfell (an Earth Touchstone) gaining its base ability Deflection Aura: By spending an Earth elemental shard (standard action) the character can emit a 20’ deflection aura for a number of rounds equal to his character level. Allies within the aura gain a +2 deflection bonus to AC and CMD

At 7th level Boren takes Touchstone feat again. Retaining his link with the Godswood, Boren also successfully attunes with the Obelisk in High Hermitage, (a Spirit Touchstone) gaining its base ability Remote Viewing: By spending an Spirit elemental shard (full round action) Boren can use clairvoyance/ clairaudience for a number of rounds equal to his character level.

Furthermore, the Obelisk is a Spirit Touchstone that matches Boren’s element; this discovery unlocks the higher-order ability: May use his Spirit Surge ability one time without taking a point if influence. Furthermore attuning to a Touchstone aligned with your element takes half as long (4 hours). 

Touchstone sites can be attuned, abandoned, re-attuned as long as the Touchstone is visited and all requirements are met. 

Known Touchstone Sites (its element) and their base ability

Godsprings at Sandstone (Air Touchstone) – Wind Blast: By spending an Air elemental shard (standard action) the character can unleash a blast of air in a 20’ line. Make a CMB against each creature in the line, treating the results as bull rush attempts. 

Higher Order Ability: Range of wind blast increases to a 30' line; user may designate a single opponent who was bull rushed to take 1d6 + Cha modifier in energy damage.  

Godswood in Winterfell (Earth Touchstone) - Deflection Aura: By spending an Earth elemental shard (standard action) the character can emit a 20’ deflection aura for a number of rounds equal to his character level. Allies within the aura gain a +2 deflection bonus to AC and CMD

Oasis of the gods (Water Touchstone) - Desert Native: By spending a Water elemental shard (full round action) and drinking of the water the character gains the Endure Elements spell for the next 24 hours.  

Obelisk in High Hermitage (Spirit Touchstone) – Remote Viewing: By spending an Spirit elemental shard (full round action) gain the use clairvoyance/clairaudience for a number of rounds equal to your character level. 

The Lighthouse at Sandstone (Fire Touchstone)- Blinding Flash: By spending a Fire elemental shard (standar action) the character can emit a flash of light from a focus item 20’ out from you. Creatures less HD are blinded for 1d4 rounds unless they succeed at a Fort save DC10 + CHA. All other creatures are dazzled for half your character level rounded down. 

*All Guardians of the Source are sworn protectors of Touchstone sites.