Pathfinder Unchained is to Pathfinder what Unearthed Arcana was to 3.5e Dungeons & Dragons, and yet it is also more than that. It contains both refinements of existing systems and classes alongside total overhauls of systems. As a continuation of my first article, “Pathfinder Unchained: Staying Classy”, I am going to take a look at Pathfinder Unchained’s second chapter; Skills and Options. This chapter contains variant rules for Pathfinder’s skill system as well as a variant to Pathfinder’s multiclass system.
Background Skills addresses a common concern of more roleplay oriented groups; do I gimp my useful adventuring abilities for a less useful Profession or Craft skill that fits my character’s background. The background skills variant cleaves the Pathfinder skill list in two; more adventure oriented skills like Survival and Perception are designated as adventure skills, while skills like Profession and some of the more esoteric Knowledge skills (history, engineering, etc) become background skills. A character is given extra background skill points that can only be spent on background skills, while their normal skill points can be spent on either background or adventure skills. This variant also adds two entirely new skills called Artistry and Lore that allow your character to amass artistic skills or specialized knowledge of very narrow subjects. I find this variant a great addition to the game. It expands on the original skill system without introducing complexity. It also includes a section about expanded use of existing skills, such as using Craft as a stand in for Appraise if you’re appraising an item you know how to craft, or using Profession (engineer) to determine the hitpoints of a structure. A lot of this stuff are things I’ve seen many GMs naturally allow these skills to do, but it’s nice having a list of examples for GMs and players to use when thinking of expanded use of background skills.
One variant in this section goes against the Pathfinder grade of increasing complexity and actually simplifies the existing skill system. The Consolidated Skills variant takes Pathfinder’s skill list of 35 and prunes it down to a slim and trim 12. It’s a fairly simple concept, several existing Pathfinder skills get combined into broader skills. Acrobatics eats Escape Artist, Fly, and Ride. Athletics combines Swim and Climb and the jumping parts of the old Acrobatics. Influence wraps Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate into one nice little Charisma based package. The section goes into the nitty gritty of converting classes, races, and feats over into the new skill system. To be honest, I feel like this variant appeals to the type of people who wouldn’t be playing Pathfinder to begin with. Paizo really seems to have embraced complexity with the Pathfinder system and this variant requires so much background work that any gains in simplicity were probably lost during preparation. Still not a bad variant, just one that seems out of place in Pathfinder.
Grouped Skills, the next variant rule, seems to gain all the benefits of the Consolidated Skills variant with less conversion work. In this system the existing skills are combined into skill groups of Natural, Perceptive, Physical, Scholarly, Social, and Thieving. A character chooses two or more of these groups, depending on level and Intelligence modifier, and gains bonuses in the entire group. The character also gains skill specializations which allow them to choose a specific skill to get a bonus in. This system does away with the concept of skill ranks and instead uses a character’s level to determine bonuses to skill rolls. This, in my opinion, quite elegantly modifies the existing skill system. Characters become broader, having more bonuses to more skills, but avoids hyper-specialization at low levels.
The next variant is probably the crunchiest of the skill section. Alternate Crafting and Profession Rules aim to make Craft and Profession more useful for the day to day adventurer. Craft, which usually measures progress in weeks of work, gets an overhaul to break down progression into day by day. This is better for the adventurer on the go and allows gear and items to be built slowly over subsequent downtimes as opposed to all at once in a flurry. The new Profession rules give mechanics for running your own shop, supervising labour, and various examples of shops and businesses. This sounds like gold for a campaign run around a business, with the PCs being owners or employees. If anyone ever wants to run that campaign, let me know, I’d make a great Gnomish salesman.
And lastly in this chapter is a variant rule that probably should have been in the last chapter. Variant Multiclassing significantly simplifies the existing multiclass system. Instead of trading level for level between classes you simply choose a secondary class. Upon gaining feats at certain levels you trade that feat for class abilities from your second class. This is a really nice system that adds a lot of options for characters wishing to make some flavourful builds. I find it especially nice for Fighters since they have so many feats that losing every second feat isn’t as big a deal to them. Multiclassing has traditionally been a bad idea in Pathfinder. I haven’t played with this new system yet, but I have a feeling this may make it more viable.
Like the chapter before it, I find Pathfinder Unchained’s second chapter to be a worthwhile addition to Pathfinder. Whether one seeks to simplify or expand the existing skill system, these variant rules give you multiple ways of doing both. They also really open up the possibility of skill-heavy campaigns where combat can take a backseat, and sometimes that’s a nice option. I will now return to dreaming of playing a Gnome salesman.
Grouped Skills, the next variant rule, seems to gain all the benefits of the Consolidated Skills variant with less conversion work. In this system the existing skills are combined into skill groups of Natural, Perceptive, Physical, Scholarly, Social, and Thieving. A character chooses two or more of these groups, depending on level and Intelligence modifier, and gains bonuses in the entire group. The character also gains skill specializations which allow them to choose a specific skill to get a bonus in. This system does away with the concept of skill ranks and instead uses a character’s level to determine bonuses to skill rolls. This, in my opinion, quite elegantly modifies the existing skill system. Characters become broader, having more bonuses to more skills, but avoids hyper-specialization at low levels.
The next variant is probably the crunchiest of the skill section. Alternate Crafting and Profession Rules aim to make Craft and Profession more useful for the day to day adventurer. Craft, which usually measures progress in weeks of work, gets an overhaul to break down progression into day by day. This is better for the adventurer on the go and allows gear and items to be built slowly over subsequent downtimes as opposed to all at once in a flurry. The new Profession rules give mechanics for running your own shop, supervising labour, and various examples of shops and businesses. This sounds like gold for a campaign run around a business, with the PCs being owners or employees. If anyone ever wants to run that campaign, let me know, I’d make a great Gnomish salesman.
And lastly in this chapter is a variant rule that probably should have been in the last chapter. Variant Multiclassing significantly simplifies the existing multiclass system. Instead of trading level for level between classes you simply choose a secondary class. Upon gaining feats at certain levels you trade that feat for class abilities from your second class. This is a really nice system that adds a lot of options for characters wishing to make some flavourful builds. I find it especially nice for Fighters since they have so many feats that losing every second feat isn’t as big a deal to them. Multiclassing has traditionally been a bad idea in Pathfinder. I haven’t played with this new system yet, but I have a feeling this may make it more viable.
Like the chapter before it, I find Pathfinder Unchained’s second chapter to be a worthwhile addition to Pathfinder. Whether one seeks to simplify or expand the existing skill system, these variant rules give you multiple ways of doing both. They also really open up the possibility of skill-heavy campaigns where combat can take a backseat, and sometimes that’s a nice option. I will now return to dreaming of playing a Gnome salesman.
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