Core Pathfinder Rule Changes

Paizo has done a decent enough job at creating a fun fantasy roleplaying game system. They've presented a number of awesome options for player characters that allow for a wide variety of characters in a high fantasy setting. Sometimes what Paizo gives us doesn't quite fit with what Valyar is aiming to achieve. Whether that comes from certain options that run counter to our themes, or comes from certain rules that don't mesh terribly well with the format we use. Below you will find all of the changes that we've made to the default rules. You will find additional optional rules systems that Paizo in the Variant Campaign Rules page. Be sure to check out the Character Options category for various more specific rules changes, 3rd party options, and homebrews available.

Base Rules
This section describes the various rules that have been changed for core rules. Check the Variant Campaign Rules for which optional systems we use, and how they're implemented.

Animal Companions
Any class feature that grants an animal companion (mount, divine bond, animal companion, etc.) can be 'reskinned' to any other animal. The only changes that are made to the animal companion's stat block is that the damage type of the granted natural weapons can be changed to be appropriate to the new skin. For example, a cavalier who would like to ride a tiger but does not wish to take Beast Rider could reskin their horse to be a tiger, keeping the horse stat block, but changing the hoof attacks that deal bludgeoning damage to claw attacks that deal slashing. All other stats and abilities remain the same.

Money Making Caps
No matter how you do it, you are limited in the amount of money that you can make in a month. Whether it is from selling mundane items, magical items, or just performing a trade (Craft, Perform, Profession, or the Earn Capital downtime action to earn gp). This represents the amount of actual wealth that you can extract from the settlements in a given month, but also is meant to act as a growth cap due to downtime. You may only make up to 30,000 gp per month.

Note: This does NOT apply to treasure awarded from sessions. The gold you receive from sessions is entirely independent of this cap, and is meant to be your primary source of income at later levels anyway. If a GM rewards specific treasure in the form of mundane or magical items and you chose to sell those, treat them separate from this cap as well.

Using Skills to make Money
The Craft, Perform, and Profession skills can all be used to generate gold directly. Instead of rolling to determine how much money you make in a day, instead you make a flat amount of gold equal to 50 times your modifier. As with mundane crafting, any feats that give you a bonus to these skills give you effective ranks for the purpose of determining how much gold you generate in a day.

Selling to NPCs
Whenever you sell items to an NPC vendor, you do so at 70% the market price of the item.

Familiars
When you receive a familiar, and gain the special ability of your familiar (i.e. Master gets +X to Y), you may select any special ability in place of what that familiar would normally grant. For instance, you may select a Raven familiar but select the Rat's +2 bonus to Fortitude saves instead of +3 bonus to Appraise.

Flat-Footed and Denied Dexterity to AC
Anything that would cause a creature to be denied its Dexterity bonus to AC also causes that creature to be considered Flat-Footed. Unless the creature has an ability that explicitly prevents it from being Flat-Footed (e.g. Uncanny Dodge), in which case that creature is still denied its Dexterity bonus to AC.

Fractional Base Bonuses
To avoid cheesing saves or attack bonuses, we use the Fractional Bonus Progression system. If you have gestalt levels, your class has the better of base saves and base attack bonus of the two classes. For example, if you have 3 levels of Rogue, and 2 Gestalt Fighter levels, count your first two levels as having a full BAB (d10 or d12) and good Reflex and Fortitude saves, but a poor Will save. Your 3rd level has a 3/4 BAB (d8) and good Reflex, but poor Fortitude and Will saves. This adds up to +2 ¾ BAB, +3 ½ Base Reflex, +3 ⅓ Base Fortitude, and +1 Base Will.

Immunity to Mind-Affecting Effects
Constructs, Plants, Undead, Inevitables, and Kami are no longer immune to mind-affecting effects. Instead they receive +4 bonus on saves made to resist mind-affecting effects. Abilities that allow a character to ignore immunity to mind-affecting effects ignore this +4 bonus. Creatures of these types and subtypes that have no Intelligence score receive the following ability:
 * Mindless: No Intelligence score, and immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects). If the creature gains an Intelligence score it loses this immunity.

Inherent Bonuses
Inherent bonuses to ability scores stack. These bonuses cannot exceed +5 for any individual ability score, but having multiple wishes or reading multiple books that grant an inherent bonus are added together rather than taking the highest.

Losing Control of your Character
Characters that lose control of themselves (e.g. an intelligent magic item, or medium's spirit influence) are under the GM's control during the session. After the session, said character is controlled by the player, but they should still act according to the controlling influence (e.g. a player can roleplay their medium character being controlled by a Champion spirit).

Story Based Prerequisites (Feats, Prestige Classes, and Traits)
Any option (most commonly Feats, Prestige Classes, and/or Traits) that have any prerequisites that are not purely mechanical (such as being from a particular region, or completing a particular task) are subject to approval. Ask (through application or simply in discord) before taking the option, as the story prerequisite may not be available in the world.