Welcome to Guidance, Private Sanctuary’s source for tips and techniques for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, we’re going to be looking at Alex’s WIP rules for character creation, dubbed the ‘Harrowed Character Building’ rules.

I mentioned this on a recent episode of Private Sanctuary, but I am prepping to start a Strange Aeons group for the players at my PFS location. I have a couple of pretty over-the-top character builders in the crew, and I wanted to try and dial back on some of the crazier sourcebook stacking that can often happen in a game that has matured as much as Pathfinder has. A few months ago, my friend Owen K.C. Stephens mentioned that he had a house rule that limited your available sourcebooks (Core Rules + three non-Core sourcebooks of your choice), and while I liked that idea I’m not a fan of flavorless limitations. If I’m going to limit my players, I at least want it to have some pizzaz. Then I remember KDN’s own Perram and his strategy of handing out “Special Snowflake” bonuses.

With these two ideas in mind, my brain began hatching the plan that blossomed into the Harrowed Character Building System.

Summary of the Rules

Player options are incredibly limited at the start, but are unlocked through a Harrowed reading that not only offers them additional options for their character building, but also gives them ideas for character traits, character history, and their general place in the party and the campaign world.

Because of this, you have to keep the lid on your player’s creativity until after the Harrow reading—in practice, this has been the most difficult part of the entire process for me, as my players all REALLY want to start putting their characters together both mechanically and historically. Ultimately it isn’t a bad thing if your players start fleshing out some race and class agnostic ideas, but you don’t want them to come with this crazy intricate saga. A huge part of the Harrowed CBS is that it gives the players a shared experience (the Harrow Reading) to build off of. This idea works especially well in the Strange Aeons Adventure Path because the AP mandates that the players have a shared history of a minimum of three months that they have little to no control over narratively.

While you can perform this reading without an actual Harrow deck, you really shouldn’t. Paizo offers two “styles” of Harrow card for you to use as a prop for this system, and I wholeheartedly recommend picking them up. I used to do a lot of amateur tarot reading in high school, so buying the Deluxe set was a no-brainer for me. Anthony tells me that the playing card set is a better prop for playing Towers, a szcarni game in Golarion. Which you get is up to you. Ultimately, you need to understand how to actually do a Harrow reading before you sit down to run this system for your players, and all of the Harrow deck products come with a little booklet that will help you do that.

Once you have the players together, the flow of the rules looks like this:

1. The question is presented. Typically, this is something like, “What is my role in the upcoming adventure?” or “What is my destiny?” The question needs to be something that makes sense for a “character history and future” reading.
2. Each player is assigned a “role” in the story. They are each dealt one Harrow card, and that card is recorded in the reading. The “role” card can be significant if the player (or a different player) draw it. For example, if James draws the Big Sky and Paul later finds it in his spread in the Negative Past position, the card’s placement could represent something that James’s character (or a person related to his character) did that slighted or outright harmed Paul’s character.
3. Next, one player is chosen and a 3 by 3 spread of Harrow Cards is dealt for that person. The GM then goes through the Harrow cards, using each card’s associations to spontaneously weave a narrative together that attempts to answer the question, “What is my destiny?” (or whatever you picked) for that one character. This does mean that you will need to do one reading per PC involved in your campaign, which can be time consuming.
4. Once the reading has ended, the player chooses three cards for his character. If that player’s “role card” is on the board, he has to choose it. The cards that the player chooses grant him special bonuses, as well as one penalty. The player is entitled to knowing some (but not all) of the benefits and stains that each of the cards gives. For instance, the player is allowed to know how card choice unlocks races and new classes, archetypes, and so on. The player is not allowed to know the benefits and stains associated with each card, however.

The Rules as Written

I’ve done a lot of summarizing up to this point, but now I think its time to just SHOW you the rules as I have them thus far. Since my players haven’t used the rules yet (and one of them is a blogger on KDN), I am not going to include the cards in this article—I’ll post the cards in their own blog post sometime in November.

Until then, enjoy the system!

Harrowed Character building

The Harrow Character Building system utilizes a deck of 54 harrow cards to determine the character options available to your character. The GM, taking the role of the half-Varisian, half-Garundi fortune-teller Ms. Marasaph, performs a harrow reading for your character. Initially, you the list of character options available to you is extremely limited, but you have unfettered freedom in building your character’s backstory. By consenting to allow the harrow help shape your character’s history, ambitions, hopes, fears, and flaws, however, you can dramatically expand the list of player options available to you.

When building a character, you always have access to the following character-building options, even if you choose to abstain from a fateful encounter with Ms. Marasaph.

Alignment: You may play any alignment except Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil.

Age: Your character can be no younger than the starting age for your race, and no older than the maximum age for the Middle-Aged age category. If you choose to be Middle-Aged, you gain the normal aging bonuses and penalties to your ability scores for your advanced age.

Classes and Options: You may gain levels in any base class in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook (barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, or wizard), as well as the unchained versions of the barbarian, monk, and rogue (Pathfinder RPG: Pathfinder Unchained). Additionally, you may gain levels in any prestige class in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. You cannot select class options for your class that are not from the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, Pathfinder RPG: Pathfinder Unchained, or a product that you have gained access to via an attunement power or a gift from a harrow card. If you gain an animal companion or a familiar, your companion may come from any Pathfinder RPG source (provided it is available to your class), but the creature must be native to the region in which you possess regional affinity (see below). You may also select creatures native to Ustalav, even if you don’t have regional affinity to Ustalav.

Feats: You may choose any feat whose prerequisites you meet from the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, except Leadership, and Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea World Guide. You may also choose Additional Traits (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide).

Races: You may choose half-elf, half-orc, or human as your race. In addition, you may choose any race listed on the Additional Races List if you have selected a harrow card whose suit matches each of the race’s ability score bonuses (see Step 2—Select Your Cards).

Regional Affinity: You must choose one regional affinity for your character. Your regional affinity represents where on Golarion you grew up. Your regional affinity can be as general as a nation (such as Cheliax) and as specific as a settlement (Westcrown, Cheliax). If your race has a list of languages that you can learn from having a high Intelligence score, you may add all regional languages spoken in your area of regional affinity to the list of languages that you can choose from. This does not allow you to add secret languages (such as Druidic) to this list.

You cannot select region traits, feats, or prestige classes that require you to be from a specific region unless you have regional affinity with that region.

Spells: You may learn to cast any spell on your class’s spell list from the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook or Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea World Guide, as well as any spell stored within a spell completion or spell trigger magic item that you or a member of your party acquires or crafts.

Traits: You gain two traits at 1^st level—one of these traits must be a campaign trait from Pathfinder Adventure Path: Strange Aeon’s Player’s Guide, and the other must be one of the following sources: Pathfinder RPG: Advanced Player’s Guide, Pathfinder RPG: Ultimate Campaign, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea World Guide, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods, or Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Races. You cannot select the driven by guilt campaign trait (Pathfinder Adventure Path: Strange Aeon’s Player’s Guide) as your campaign trait. If you have a regional affinity (see above), you may choose any region trait that is associated with the region that you have regional affinity with, subject to GM approval. In addition, you may gain a third character trait by forgoing all gifts granted by your harrow cards (see Step 3—Gain Your Attunement Powers and Gifts).

Additional Races

Golarion is filled with a colorful assortment of races, and while they are often a minority compared to the human populations of the Inner Sea and beyond, members of other races are just as likely to rise to greatness. In order to choose one of these races for your character, you must have selected one harrow card whose suit matches each of the desired race’s ability score bonuses. In order to select a race with an ability score bonus of +4 or greater, you must select two harrow cards whose suit matches that ability score bonus, in addition to any other ability score bonuses that the race possesses. If a race has an alternate racial trait (such as changelings) or variant versions of the race (such as aasimars) that alter the race’s ability score bonuses, you may use the race’s modified ability score bonuses to qualify for the race instead of its standard ability score bonuses, provided that the alternate racial trait or variant race is a legal choice for you.

Common: These races are common on Golarion, be it in the Inner Sea region, on far-off Dragon Empires, or on other continents. You do not need to give up any attunement powers to play as a common race. The common races are dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, kitsune, nagaji, ratfolk, samsaran, tengu, vanara, wayang.

Uncommon: Though often heard of, these races tend to have localized presences on Golarion. In order to play as a member of an uncommon race, you must give up one attunement power from one of your harrow cards. (This doesn’t prevent you from using the card to qualify to play as a member of the race). The uncommon races are catfolk, changeling, gillman, skinwalker, vanara, and vishkanya.

Rare: Whether few in number or difficult to find, these races are decidedly rare in virtually every region across Golarion. In order to play as a member of a rare race, you must give up one attunement power from two of your harrow cards. (This doesn’t prevent you from using the card to qualify to play as a member of the race). The rare races are aasimar, ganzi, ifrit, oread, suli, sylph, tiefling, and undine.

Extremely Rare: The following races are either impossibly rare or so predisposed against being protagonists in the campaign that they might as well be impossibly rare. In order to play as a member of an extremely rare race, you must give up all of the attunement powers from all three of your harrow cards. (This doesn’t prevent you from using the card to qualify to play as a member of the race). The extremely rare races are galthlain, ghoran, goblin, kobold, lashunta, monkey goblin, orc, and traxian.

Ability Attunement By Class

Each base class and prestige class not mentioned above is attuned to one or more ability scores, based upon its class features. A class is attuned to an ability score if it has a class feature whose benefits, rounds per day, or uses per day are determined using that ability score. Additionally, all character classes with a base attack bonus equal to their class level or to 3/4 their class level are to both Strength and Dexterity. An archetype is always attuned to the same ability scores as the standard class. An archetype’s class features or specific character options (such as a bloodrager’s bloodline or a psychic’s discipline) can alter which ability scores its base class is attuned to, as if its features were class features. For instance, if you draw a card from the Suit of Crowns (Charisma), you could treat the psychic class as if it were attuned to Charisma provided that you pick a discipline whose phrenic pool is keyed off of Charisma, such as the reborn discipline.

A quick list of base classes (and their ability score attunements) has been provided below.

Strength: alchemist, antipaladin, barbarian, bard, bloodrager, cavalier, cleric, druid, fighter, gunslinger, hunter, inquisitor, investigator, kineticist, magus, medium, monk, ninja, occultist, oracle, paladin, ranger, rogue, samurai, shaman, skald, slayer, spiritualist, summoner, swashbuckler, warpriest

Dexterity: alchemist, barbarian, bard, bloodrager, cavalier, cleric, druid, fighter, gunslinger, hunter, inquisitor, investigator, kineticist, magus, medium, monk, ninja, occultist, oracle, paladin, ranger, rogue, samurai, shaman, skald, slayer, spiritualist, summoner, swashbuckler, warpriest

Constitution: barbarian, bloodrager, kineticist

Intelligence: alchemist, arcanist, investigator, magus, occultist, psychic, witch, wizard

Wisdom: arcanist, druid, cleric, gunslinger, hunter, inquisitor, monk, psychic, ranger, shaman, spiritualist, warpriest

Charisma: antipaladin, arcanist, bard, bloodrager, cleric, medium, ninja, oracle, paladin, psychic, skald, sorcerer, summoner, swashbuckler

Using the Harrow Character Building System

Using the Harrow Character Building system to create a character occurs in four steps: participating in the harrow reading, selecting your cards, gaining your attunement powers and gifts, and acquiring your stains. You don’t have to participate in the Harrow Character Building System if you don’t want to. If you choose to abstain from the system, your character building options are limited to those outlined at the beginning of this section.

The steps to participating in the Harrowed Character Building System are described below:

Step 1—Participate in the Harrow Reading: Your GM will conduct a harrow reading for your future character. This reading is designed to help you flesh out your character’s ambitions, hopes, fears, abilities, and flaws. Knowing these traits in advance will help the GM tailor the campaign and its denizens to your unique character. Both you and your GM should record the results for consultation and reflection as the campaign progresses.

First, at the start of the reading the GM (playing the role of Ms. Marasaph) will will shuffle the deck and lay all of the cards face down in front of you and ask you to select one card. The card you reveal represents your character’s destined role in the campaign. Once your role has been chosen, the GM will shuffle this card back into the deck, then pass you the deck to shuffle yourself. Once the deck has been shuffled twice, the GM will deal out night cards face down in a three-by-three pattern. First, the GM will turn over the three cards in the left column and explain their significance to your character. Next, the GM will turn over the three cards in the middle column and explain their significance. Finally, the GM will turn over the final three cards in the right column and explain their significance.

Step 2—Select Your Cards: Once the harrow reading is complete, you must choose three of the cards displayed upon the table. If any of the nine harrow cards is the card that represents your destined role (see Step 1), you must select that harrow card as one of your three. If any remaining harrow cards were true matches or misaligned, you must choose those cards—up to two true matches and up to one misalignment (if you have true matches or misalignments beyond these numbers, you may choose which to select).

Each harrow card is associated with a number of special powers and abilities as well as a penalty, but the GM cannot disclose any harrow card’s powers and abilities to you until Step 3, after you have have chosen your three harrow cards. The only exception to this rule is if you draw the harrow card representing your destined role—since you are required to select that card, the GM may disclose its attunement power (but not its gifts or stain) to you immediately. In addition, the GM will inform you that in order to create characters of certain races (as determined by the GM’s Additional Races List), you must have selected at least one harrow card that belongs to a suit that matches each of the race’s ability score bonuses. For instance, in order to create an elf character you must have selected at least one card from the Suite of Keys (Dexterity) and one card from the Suite of Tomes (Intelligence). If you wish to create a character from this list that has a +4 bonus (or higher) bonus to one of its ability scores—such as a goblin—you must have selected at least two harrow cards that belong to the suit that matches that ability score. For goblins, this means having selected two cards from the Suite of Keys (Dexterity).

Step 3—Gain Your Attunement Powers, Gifts, and Stains: After you have selected your three harrow cards, the GM will help you determine your character’s attunement powers, gifts, and stains. First, the GM will inform you of the three attunement powers that each of your harrow cards possesses. Once she has finished, you must choose one attunement power from each harrow card so your character has a total of three.

Next, you choose two of the harrow cards to be gifts one of them to be a stain. If any of your cards were true matches, you must choose those cards as your gifts. If one of your cards were misaligned, you must choose that card as your stain. Otherwise, you may assign the chosen cards as you please. The GM will not inform you of what benefits or hindrances each gift or stain grants until after all three harrow cards have been assigned, and once assigned they cannot be changed.

Step 5—Create Your Character: Once the harrow reading has been completed and you have gained your attunement powers, gifts, and stains, you may begin to build your character and her backstory.