Heroic Variant

compatible with Pathfinder 2e

Utkarsh Gaur
 Heroic Variant

Speaking of new players, be careful when introducing

What is Heroic Variant? player-facing variant rules to them. Proceed slowly, and
roll back whatever feels too cumbersome to your players.
Much like other variant rules presented in GM Core, this You can, however, use the Monster Templates section with
document provides additional variant possibilities for impunity.
adjusting the style of game you can run in Pathfinder
Second Edition (trademark of Paizo, referred to from here If you are a GM who runs PF2e on FoundryVTT, make
on as PF2e). sure to get the free module that automates some sections
of this document. Two subsections in particular - Raw
Heroic Variant is a way to expand upon the types of Scars (under “Down but Not Out”) and Phalanx Bonus
narratives that can be told in this system. It is not a fix to (under “Monster Templates”) - are much easier to run on
the system, since the system is robust enough on its own. FoundryVTT than with pen-and-paper. See Appendix B
for more information on the Foundry module.
The options presented in this document shift the feel of
the game laterally, making it less gritty and more heroic.
For spellcasters especially, some of the variant rules can Summary of Contents
make them feel heroic sooner rather than later.
The following modules are present in the document:
Heroic Variant is modular. You can incorporate any section
or subsection from it into your game without needing to Teamwork Combos (pg 3)
include the whole thing. To help you decide, there are • A way for players to combine their turns for tactics
design notes after each subsection that explain why you and circumstance bonuses. Designed to encourage
might add it to your game. cinematic teamwork.

Epic Hero Points (pg 5)

Using this Document • Codified and diegetic ways of earning and resetting
hero points. Designed to reduce the frustration of a
First, read the “What is Heroic Variant?” section. After string of bad rolls.
that, the usefulness of this document depends on your • Additional ways to spend hero points, including an
game mastering experience thus far. option for casters.

If you are an experienced game master (GM) for PF2e and Down but Not Out (pg 7)
you run games of your own creation, you can then read the • Downed: a way to increase player engagement while
Summary of Contents and look up anything that piques their character is at 0hp.
your interest. Every section has the potential to be relevant • Raw Scars: an attrition mechanic attached to the
to you. wounded condition. It can be combined with Epic
Hero Points to create a push-your-luck mechanic.
If you are running an Adventure Path for experienced
players, then read up on Teamwork Combos, Epic Hero Post-Death Narratives (pg 9)
Points, and just the Downed subsection (under “Down but • Surgical Recovery: a risky and time-consuming
Not Out”). These specific sections are good at making your procedure for reviving the recently dead using non-
heroes feel more heroic. The other variants may not play magical means.
nicely with the expected sequence of events in an • Lingering Trauma: a way to heighten the mechanical
adventure path. and narrative consequences of recovering from death.
• Final Words: a narrative technique to allow departed
If you are a new GM for PF2e who is running a game of souls to say their last words.
your own creation, then I strongly recommend using the
Little Critters variant and the Energy Weakness variant Monster Templates (pg 10)
(both under “Monster Templates”). Any spellcasters or • Little Critters: a template to increase the threat of
alchemists in your party will feel more heroic with these low-level monsters. Designed to increase the
variants in play. You can revisit the other variants once you gameplay satisfaction of casters, area effect abilities,
have twenty or more sessions under your belt. If you try to and effects with the incapacitation trait.
add variant rules too early, the mental load of running the • Phalanx Bonus: an incentive for enemies to end their
core rules as well as these variants will be too much and turn adjacent to each other. Designed to reward
also may confuse new players. abilities that target adjacent creatures.
• Energy Weakness: a quick guideline on adding energy
weakness to a monster that does not have it.

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highest initiative score, though they can choose to pass the

Teamwork Combos role to another willing player.

This variant rule allows player characters (PCs) to combine The coordinator first declares which PCs are participating
their turns. Under the right conditions, PCs can interleave in the combo. This must happen before the first PC in the
their actions and give each other combo bonuses. combined turn takes any actions, including free actions.
No participant can be included in a combo against their
The motivation behind this variant rule is to create more will.
cinematic moments of teamwork in combat. The examples
section describes many such moments. In case of disagreements or uncertainty during combo
execution, the combo coordinator has final say.

Design Notes: The role of the combo coordinator

helps speed up decision making. If you find that your
players are quick at interleaving their turns on their
own, you can run combos without a coordinator.

MECHANICS OF THE COMBINED TURN

The combined turn begins at the start of the first action
taken by any of the participants and ends when all
participants have used up all the actions.

Participants can take their actions in any order,

interleaving one participant’s actions in between those of
another’s, if they so choose. In case of disagreements or
hesitation on the ordering of actions, the coordinator
RULES FOR COMBINING TURNS decides who goes next.

TL;DR - PCs that are next to each other in initiative can When the PCs decide to combine their turns, effects that
do a combo to mix and match the order of their actions. happen at the start of their turns happen at the start of the
You cannot combo with the same ally twice in an combined turn, and effects that happen at the end of their
encounter. turns happen at the end of the combined turn.

The rule above is all you need to start running combos. Once a combined turn begins, none of the comboing PCs
The three subsections below are only there as helpful can take the delay action. Any creature that is delaying its
clarifications and guidelines for running the rule above. turn cannot re-enter initiative while the combined turn is
happening and must wait until the end of the combined
ELIGIBILITY FOR COMBINING TURNS turn.
When two or more PCs would have sequential turns in
initiative order, they can choose to combine their turns. Design Notes: Teamwork Combos have been a big hit
at my table and also during playtesting. They
Any two PCs that have been part of a combined turn in the promote a lot more communication between players
current encounter cannot both be part of another than is usual in initiative-based combat. However,
combined turn in the same encounter. every table is different. If you find your table getting
too bogged down by negotiating a combined turn,
In case an unrevealed creature would break the initiative then the slowed pace of combat may not be worth the
sequence, the GM can let the players know that they are cinematic moments generated by the combos. This
unable to combine their turns unless one or more of the problem may be alleviated by having a combo
participants delay their turn. Alternatively, the GM may coordinator who can ensure that things keep moving.
decide to preserve the secrecy of the unrevealed creature
and delay the unrevealed creature’s turn until after the Since no two players can combo more than once in
combined turn. the same encounter, this encourages getting
everyone involved in the combos and prevents
COMBO COORDINATOR combos from becoming rote. The other way that they
The player of one of the comboing PCs becomes the combo are unlikely to become rote and samey is from the
coordinator. This is usually the player of the PC with the randomness of the initiative system. Players can of
course delay their turns to be closer in initiative, but

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keep in mind that the delay action cannot be used to Comboing also gives a way for any PC (including a
extend beneficial effects and it cannot be used to martial PC) to help out their spellcaster ally by
defer negative effects. imposing a penalty to saves. In return, it lets
spellcasters and alchemists help a martial ally trigger
Should you add this variant to your game? Yes, if an enemyʼs weakness to energy damage, even if only
playing with experienced PF2e players, if your players once per encounter.
trust each other, and if they can make decisions
rapidly. Should you use combo bonuses when running the
teamwork bonus variant?

Yes, if your players donʼt get too bogged by

SYNCHRONOUS AID mathematical analysis paralysis, and if your PCs want
to help out their fellow spellcaster.
Each comboing PC can use the Aid reaction as a free action
once during the combined turn and only to aid another PC There are also some good reasons to not run combo
in the combined turn. This does not change any other bonuses - players will need a reference sheet to check
requirements for aiding. the list of bonuses they can get. If you are playing on
FoundryVTT, this reference is included in a journal
Design Notes: This eases the action economy burden entry.
on the Aid reaction, but still requires the use of one
setup action. There are no downsides to including Additionally, if a player feels that they deserve a
this in your game as part of Teamwork Combos. combo bonus but the GM disagrees, it can cause
disappointment. If this happens frequently at your
table, remove the bonuses from your game.

COMBO BONUSES FOR CINEMATIC PLAY

When narratively appropriate, the GM should allow each COMBINING NON-PLAYER ACTIONS
PC in a combined turn to earn one of the following
bonuses: NPCs and monsters can also combine their turns but with
• A 10ft status bonus to one Stride or a Long Jump. some restrictions. To avoid significant disruption to player
• A 5ft status bonus to one Leap or a High Jump. tactics and game balance, their enemies can only combine
• A 15ft range increase to a ranged ability. their turns in the following ways-
• A +1 circumstance bonus of energy damage* to one • Only two NPCs can combine their turns at once.
attack that deals physical damage**. • An NPC can do a combo only once per encounter.
• A -1 circumstance penalty against one effect to one • NPCs do not get any bonuses during combos.
defense (AC, save, skill DC) of one of the PC’s targets.
• A +1 circumstance bonus to one of the PC’s skills for Design Notes: Usually it is too cumbersome for a GM
one action or activity. to combine NPC turns. GMs have enough plates to
spin, as it is. But it can be used as a fun surprise, for
A combo bonus can only be applied to one action or activity example to emphasize the military discipline of
done during a combo and cannot be extended in any way. hobgoblin soldiers.
Gaining a combo bonus does not require any reaction or
action from the PCs. It only needs a narrative justification,
even if flimsy, based on the actions of another PC.
EXAMPLES OF PLAYER COMBOS
The GM has final say on when combo bonuses make sense
and when they do not. See Examples section. Example 1
A sorcerer and a swashbuckler are combining their turns.
*Energy damage types include: Acid, cold, electricity, fire,
sonic, vitality, void, or force. Mechanically: the swashbuckler strides once to be within
**Physical damage: Bludgeoning, piercing, slashing. 5ft of a target and strikes it. The sorcerer casts Blazing Bolt
with 3 actions, gaining a 15ft combo bonus to the range of
Design Notes: Combo bonuses provide an additional one of the bolts. The extended bolt hits the target that is
layer of tactics and incentive for engaging in combos. within 5ft of the swashbuckler, and 70ft away from the
sorcerer. The swashbuckler leaps away from the target
with a 5ft combo bonus to leap distance.

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Narratively: The swashbuckler runs up to the target, strikes Example 5

and leaps into the air with the force of the blow. The A halfling monk needs to get up a 5ft ledge to get to the
sorcerer casts two bolts at enemies and a third at the enemy archer. The dwarf cleric agrees to do a combo with
swashbuckler. The swashbuckler, mid air, angles their the monk.
buckler to reflect the bolt towards the target they just
struck and uses the ricochet moment to leap further away. The cleric moves to stand by the ledge. The monk strides
up to the cleric and then leaps. She gains a 5ft combo bonus
Example 2 to the leap as the cleric gives her a boost. She easily makes
A fighter, alchemist, and barbarian are combining their it onto the ledge without having to do a risky high jump.
turns. The fighter and barbarian are adjacent to an enemy
that has a weakness to fire damage. The cleric starts to stride away with a 10ft combo bonus to
his stride, but the GM interrupts. The GM asks the cleric
The fighter uses his first action to Aid the alchemist’s attack. player to narratively justify the bonus to their move speed.
Then, the alchemist throws a vial of alchemist’s fire against The player grumbles about their 20ft move speed, but
the target, catching the fighter and barbarian in the splash cannot think of a way to justify the bonus narratively, thus
radius. The fighter grants this attack an aid bonus with a forgoing it.
free action, thanks to synchronous aid.

For the remainder of the combined turn, the fighter and

barbarian can apply +1 fire damage (circumstance bonus) Epic Hero Points
to one weapon attack they each make.
This section is addressed to the players, except for the
Example 3 design notes, which speak to the GM. The rules in this
An inventor and a thaumaturge are both badly hurt while section apply only to player characters.
facing a hydra. They have not done a combo yet in this
encounter, so they decide to combine turns now for a
skirmish maneuver.

The inventor strides forward with a reach weapon, ending

their stride 10ft away from the hydra. Then, the
thaumaturge steps forward with their reach weapon so
that the hydra is flanked by both of them. They both make
one strike each against the hydra and then use their final
actions to step away from it.

They do not add any narrative flare in describing their

attack, thus forgoing any combo bonus. But they are MAXIMUM HERO POINTS
satisfied at having put the hydra in a tough position where
it can only attack one of them on its next turn, not both. The maximum number of hero points you can have
increases from 3 to 5.
Example 4
A fighter and wizard are combining their turns.
RESETTING HERO POINTS
The wizard rolls recall knowledge and fails. But the scraps
of knowledge she does remember grants the fighter a +1 • Hero points no longer reset when a new session starts.
combo bonus to Athletics as the fighter uses slam down • If you are playing without Raw Scars: All hero points
against their enemy. reset to 1 when you make your daily preparations.
• If you are playing with Raw Scars: When you make
The fighter flavors his slam down as a loud, distracting your daily preparations, you can choose to reset your
attack. This lets the wizard impose a -1 combo penalty to Raw Scars to 0, which also resets your current hero
the target’s will save, as she casts Laughing Fit. The target points to 1.
succeeds on its save. But because the target cannot take
reactions, the fighter can safely stride away from it with Design Notes: These changes to Hero Points can be
his last action. combined with Raw Scars to create a tense and
interesting push-your-luck mechanic: the more fights
you get into before resetting Raw Scars, the more
hero points you can save up for the final battle. But

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the longer you fight without resetting Raw Scars, the the failure of actions of another creature. The newly
more you risk having untreated wounded values. gained hero point can only be used on future rolls.

Should you add this variant rule to your game? Yes, Examples
if you are also running the Earning Hero Points variant Each of the following earns you a hero point:
below. • You stride, then miss a (non-expansive) spellstrike.
• You cast fireball, and all targets critically succeed.
• You strike with your first action and miss.
• You strike with your first action and miss. You spend
EARNING HERO POINTS a pre-existing hero point to reroll the strike, which
also misses.
You no longer earn a hero point at the start of a session. • You make a secret recall knowledge check and gain no
The GM is no longer required to grant you hero points at information.
any particular cadence, though they may still award you a • You use Mixed Maneuver and you fail in your attempt
hero point for a sufficiently heroic action. to Grapple and critically fail in your attempt to Trip,
falling prone.
You can also earn hero points in the following ways.
Counterexamples
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS None of the following scenarios earn you a hero point:
Gain 1 hero point when you use the environment in a • You make two Strikes with two actions where the first
unique and non-repeatable manner to achieve your strike hits and the second strike misses. Since you can
objective. The GM should let you know before you take only earn a hero point from the first action or activity
the action if it will earn you a hero point. If your action or that requires a check, the failure of subsequent actions
activity requires a check, you only earn the hero point if is irrelevant and does not earn you a hero point.
you succeed on your check. • You make a strike, fail, and then use a pre-existing
hero point to turn the strike into a success.
GLORY IN VICTORY • You cast Slow and the enemy succeeds but does not
Gain 1 hero point after successfully completing the critically succeed on their save.
objective of an encounter of moderate difficulty or higher, • You cast fireball and all enemies critically succeed
or for succeeding on a goal via a subsystem (such as while an ally critically fails. [It may feel terrible to not
Influence, Infiltration, Chase etc.). The GM has the right earn a hero point for this, but rewarding hurting allies
to withhold the hero point if an encounter instigated by a is an even worse idea.]
PC is pointless or villainous, and only reward the • You cast Wall of Stone or Protector Tree anywhere on
completion of heroic objectives. the battlefield.
• As part of a Tumble Through action, you stride two
squares and then fail to tumble. The movement
counts as an effect on the battlefield, so you do not
earn a hero point.
• You make a secret recall knowledge check with
dubious knowledge. Since you always gain some
information (whether correct or not), you do not get
a hero point even if you fail or critically fail, to
prevent metagaming.

No Hero Point for Intentional Failure

The GM has full authority to not award a hero point for
LEARN FROM FAILURE Learn from Failure if they detect an intent to fail. Indicators
When you are in an encounter of moderate or greater for intent to fail include but are not limited to:
difficulty, you can earn hero points by learning from • Rolling with an untrained ability.
failure. You can only earn a hero point this way from the • Rolling with a low attribute modifier (2 or less).
first action or activity on your turn that requires at least • Rolling with a high penalty (-2 or greater).
one check. • Rolling with Assurance or Devise a Stratagem for a
check that is certain to fail.
You earn a hero point if that action or activity has no effect • Casting an area spell in an area without valid targets.
on the battlefield or if the only effect on the battlefield is
due to your critical failure(s). With the exception of a Design Notes: Situational Awareness is designed to
Summoner’s Eidolon, you cannot gain hero points from encourage clever and cinematic use of the

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environment. Glory in Victory lets players continue The circumstance bonus option is to grant
their momentum after fights. Learn from Failure is an Investigators a valid way of using Hero Points.
anti-frustration mechanic that helps counter the
anticlimax of a series of low rolls in a session. The extra action option is purposefully too expensive
to be commonly used, but should come in handy
Each player should be responsible for reminding the when a character wants to reposition for a powerful
GM when their PC is eligible for earning a hero point. three-action activity.

Should you add these new ways of earning hero Should you add these new ways to spend hero
points to your game? points to your game?

Situational Awareness and Glory in Victory can be You can pick and choose which ones you wish to add.
included in any game. If you have spellcaster PCs in your game but no
Investigator, then you may choose to only add the
Learn from Failure is more complex and should only first bullet point to your game.
be used if your players get frustrated by a string of
bad rolls. If your players enjoy roleplaying their If you are playing with experienced players, then you
failures, then you should ignore the Learn from can add all the options. If you play on FoundryVTT, a
Failure subsection. journal entry lists the available options, and you can
edit it and make it visible to your players.
Learn from Failure is also the greatest generator of
hero points among the variant rules. If you do not run
that subsection, then you may consider returning to
the base PF2e rules for earning and resetting hero
points. Down But Not Out
This section is addressed to the players, except for the
design notes, which speak to the GM. The rules in this
SPENDING HERO POINTS section apply to all characters that use the full dying rules,
and only to those characters.
In addition to the usual ways of spending hero points, the
following additional uses of hero points have been added.
• Spend 2 hero points to make an unwilling creature
reroll its attack or check against you or its save against
an effect you caused. This is a Misfortune effect.
• Spend 2 hero points to reroll your d20 check as
d10+10. 10 on the die counts as a natural 20, 1 on the
die counts as a natural 11. This is a Fortune effect.
• Spend 3 hero points on your turn to gain an extra
action. You can only use this action for a 1-action
activity.
• Spend any number of hero points before making a
check to gain a circumstance bonus to that roll equal DOWNED
to the number of hero points spent.
At the start of your turn, if you are unconscious only due
You cannot use multiple hero point options on the same to being at 0hp, you become downed instead of
check, nor can you use the same hero point option more unconscious. This applies regardless of if you are dying or
than once on the same check. just knocked out.

Design Notes: The misfortune option is to give You follow all the rules of being unconscious except for the
casters a valid use of hero points. following -

The d10+10 option is the codification of a common You become dazzled instead of blinded.
house rule to prevent the bad feeling of rerolling to a
low number. You cannot use reactions. The only free actions you can
use are Release and Delay.

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You can take any of these actions as normal: When you make your daily preparations, you can choose
• administer first aid, to reset your raw scars to 0, which resets your current hero
• avert gaze, points to 1.
• crawl (maximum of 5ft),
• escape,
• point out, Design Notes: Raw Scars have two primary purposes.
• raise a shield, Firstly, as mentioned in the Hero Points section, they
• recall knowledge, can be used with Epic Hero Points as a push-your-luck
• retch (to remove sickened), mechanic: the more fights you get into before
• seek, resetting raw scars, the more hero points you can
• sense motive, save up for the final battle. But the longer you fight
• take cover, without resetting Raw Scars, the more you risk having
• any appropriate action to remove persistent damage. untreated wounded values.

You can also take any other actions of your choice, but at a Secondly, raw scars also establish a class-agnostic
cost. After completing any action or activity that is not resource attrition. Now, even a party of full martials
listed above, your dying value increases by an amount will be incentivized to take a full nightʼs rest instead of
equal to the number of actions you spent plus the value of blazing through multiple levels of a dungeon in a day.
your wounded condition (if any).
A third minor benefit is that raw scars give more teeth
You cannot restore hit points (to yourself or others) by any to simple hazards that deal a lot of damage. Prior to
action you take while downed. this, hazards that knocked a character down to 0HP
were only a tax on time. Now, they take away another
If you take any damage while downed, you immediately resource, one that cannot be refreshed as easily.
become unconscious.
Should you include this variant in your games?
If you are playing with the Epic Hero Points variant from
this document, you cannot earn hero points by Learn from Only under one of two specific cases.
Failure while downed.
Firstly, if you are running a game in which daily
Design Notes: Downed increases player engagement attrition needs to matter but currently does not. For
when their character starts their turn with 0hp. example, when a party without any full spellcasters
tries to blaze through a mega-dungeon by running
Should you add this variant rule to your game? from room to room for days without sleep and by
using focus spells to heal up between combats. You
Yes, except with brand new players. Players will need can introduce Raw Scars to slow them down to a
a reference list of which actions they can take when realistic pace.
downed. If you play on FoundryVTT, a journal entry
lists the available options. Secondly, Raw Scar work well in conjunction with
Epic Hero Points as a push-your-luck mechanic, so
that is another reason to include it.

RAW SCARS
Raw Scars track the recent wounds healed on a player
character. The maximum number of raw scars you can
have is equal to half the number of hit points granted to
you by your class, excluding the Constitution modifier and
hit points gained from feats.

Each time you lose the wounded condition, increase your

raw scars value by the value of the wounded condition lost.
If your raw scars would increase past the maximum value,
then you continue to be wounded with a wounded value
equal to the overflow amount. While your raw scars are at
their maximum value, you cannot reduce your wounded
value by any means.

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Design Notes: Surgical Revival opens up many more

Post-Death Narratives post-death narratives.

This section is addressed to the players, except for the It may prevent a PCʼs story from ending due to an
design notes, which speak to the GM. These rules apply to anti-climactic effect like persistent damage. Even
all creatures in the game, though they are most likely to be TPKs may be salvaged, especially against low
used by player characters. intelligence monsters.

It opens up hostage negotiation narratives where the

enemy can threaten to decapitate a recently dead PC
and make demands that the PCʼs allies must respect.

It also opens up the narrative of desperately

searching for a healer, post-combat. For example, if
the PCs are deep in the woods with a recently dead
ally and they donʼt trust their own medicine checks to
treat their ally, then the GM could introduce a
powerful but evil hag who offers to perform surgery
on their ally but at a steep cost.

SURGICAL REVIVAL A GM can also use Surgical Revival to keep an

important villain alive.
If you died within the past ten minutes and your body is
still mostly intact, your allies may be able to revive you When a dead PC is undergoing prolonged medical
using surgery and medical care. care as part of surgical revival, the GM can choose to
provide optional objectives to the living PCs to
Firstly, within the first ten minutes after you die, someone improve the odds of each medicine check.
needs to succeed on a DC 15 medicine check (1 action,
manipulate) while adjacent to your body and while wearing Most enemies and monsters will not use the
or holding Healer’s Tools. If a minute passes without decapitation option on a dead PC. But assassins will.
anyone succeeding on this check, you can no longer be It is best to heavily telegraph which enemies will be
revived by this means. excessively deadly.

After a successful medicine check, you must receive Should you add this variant rule to your game?
prolonged care by a medical care provider with healer’s
tools. After every 2 hours of continuous medical care, the Yes, as long as you are not running a pre-written
care provider must make a medicine check against a hard module. There are few downsides and many upsides
DC for your level. On three successful checks, you awaken to adding the option of Surgical Revival.
as if raised by the Raise Dead spell (including all penalties).

If you are not reawakened this way within 13 hours of

dying, you cannot be revived by this means. LINGERING TRAUMA
LIMITATIONS OF SURGICAL REVIVAL When you have penalties as a result of being revived from
You become ineligible for Surgical Revival under any of death, those penalties do not disappear after a week if the
the following situations: creature responsible for your death is still alive. You can
• You died from an effect with the death trait. remove those penalties by defeating the creature that
• Your body is not mostly intact, for example by dying defeated you, or by other means as determined by your
to the disintegrate spell. GM.
• You died from massive damage, or your body suffered
massive damage after death. Design Notes: Lingering Trauma plays with the
• A creature that can make melee attacks used a single concept of a revenge arc. If you get taken out by a
action (no check required) to decapitate or rend you particular enemy, can you fight the odds to take down
while your dead body was in its melee reach. that enemy and reclaim your peace of mind? It also
gives the GM the option to introduce other quests as a
way of removing the lingering penalties.

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 Heroic Variant

Should you add this variant rule to your game? LITTLE CRITTERS
Maybe, and only if you are not running a pre-written To make the PCs, especially spellcasters, feel more heroic,
module. The penalties from Raise Dead are severe. If use this template on enemies:
they linger past a week, they can change the course of
the narrative, forcing the affected players to play as if • Take an enemy that is 3 levels lower than the PCs.
they are two levels down. • Grant the enemy a +7 circumstance bonus to its
strikes.
• Do not change anything else.

FINAL WORDS TIPS ON RUNNING LITTLE CRITTERS

Telegraph these creatures and their mechanical oddity. For
Within the first hour of its death, the spirit of a dead creature example, after a couple of goblin encounters in a cave, the
can choose to permanently die, removing all possibilities heroes run into three goblins wearing red headbands. The
of revival by non-magical or magical means. They sever all players find out that these goblins have weak defenses but
ties of life with the mortal world and allow a psychopomp high accuracy. Then, in a later fight, you can pit the heroes
to lead them to true death. In return, the psychopomp against six such goblins with red headbands for a truly
agrees to deliver any final words from the dead creature to challenging encounter, or have there be three red
up to three chosen living creatures. headband goblins alongside the final boss.

Only use the remastered rules for Grab, Shove,

Design Notes: Final Words are just a narrative way for Knockdown, and similar monster abilities. Do not use
a PC or NPC to say goodbye to their living allies. It also pre-remaster rules, otherwise the critters could prove to
lets the allies know that there is no way to bring them be overly challenging.
back even via spells like Raise Dead. A villain could
use Final Words to express remorse or spite, though As much as possible, try to end these creatures’ turns
the spiteful dead are rarely willing to relinquish all outside of the melee range of the PCs. This makes the
chances of returning back to life. creatures even better targets for spells and ranged attacks,
while making them more annoying to melee martials.
Should you add this variant rule to your game? Yes,
there are no downsides to running this rule in any When determining the encounter building budget and XP
type of PF2e game. to hand out, count these enemies as one level higher than
their actual level. But for the purposes of the
incapacitation trait, continue to count them as three levels
lower than the PCs.

Monster Templates Design Notes: Normally, casters with AoE are better
against hoards while martials are better against
All three of these templates are designed to make the PCs single / dual enemies. Given how PF2eʼs encounter
feel powerful and tactical. The first two templates make building works, hoards are rarely a threat because
monsters stronger and the third one makes monsters they are unlikely to hit, and deal little damage.
weaker.
As a result, it often feels like the Martials defeat the
real threats while casters and alchemists only clean
up the small fry.

The Little Critters template makes lower level

creatures feel like a real threat, and in turn it feels
rewarding to use up resources to take them out.
Taking out these enemies is easy, and it rewards the
use of abilities with the Incapacitation trait and Area
of Effect.

Should you add this variant rule to your game?

Yes, unless your party is composed entirely of PCs

with primarily single-target abilities. In all other

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 Heroic Variant

cases, this rule can make multi-targeting PCs feel Design Notes: This is another way to make casters
more heroic. and alchemists feel powerful. As much as possible,
give non-humanoid enemies some energy weakness.

Should you add this variant rule to your game? Yes,

PHALANX BONUS if you have a spellcaster or an alchemist or a
thaumaturge PC.
When enemy NPCs that are working together are adjacent
to each other, grant them a +1 circumstance bonus to AC
and attack rolls. PCs and their minions or companions
cannot benefit from a phalanx bonus.
Appendix A: Encounter
Design Notes: This provides an incentive for enemies
to cluster together in adjacency, thereby making Balance
viable a whole bunch of player abilities, including:
Epic Hero Points, Teamwork Combos, and additional
• All alchemical bombs Energy Weakness make combat encounters easier on the
• Caustic Blast player characters. To a lesser extent, so does the Downed
• Scatter Scree condition.
• Timber
• Dragonʼs Breath On the other hand, Little Critters and Phalanx Bonus make
• The critical specialization of axes encounters more difficult for player characters. To a lesser
• Swipe extent, so do NPC combos and Lingering Trauma.
• Spell Swipe
Surgical Revival has no effect on encounter balance.
When going up against a lieutenant with minions,
phalanx bonus also provides an incentive to take out Depending on which subset of rules you use in your games,
or shove the little creatures that provide the you may have to adjust encounter difficulty accordingly.
lieutenant with a bonus to AC and to attacks.
But how to gauge encounter difficulty?
It also lets hoards of small creatures survive a little
longer. Also, this slight buff to the enemies helps a Difficulty in PF2e can be measured as a combination of PC
little in balancing out the greater power that PCs have resources expended (including HP) and the length of
when using Heroic Variant options. encounter. It is not recommended to measure difficulty
just by how many PCs are bloodied or downed, since PCs
Should you add this variant rule to your game? may spec into defensive abilities (like shield block) that
reduce the damage taken but increase the duration of the
Yes, if you are running a game on FoundryVTT. encounter. An encounter is only easy if it is over quickly
Otherwise, the bonus may be hard to track in a (within two full rounds) and without much resource
shifting battlefield, and impossible to do so if running expenditure.
theater of the mind.
Run a few different difficulties of combat encounters
Tell your players that you are running this variant against your PCs using your desired subset of Heroic
rule, so they are incentivized to pick abilities that Variant rules. Then, see if you need to adjust the difficulty
target enemies adjacent to each other. up or down by changing the XP in the default encounter
budget calculator. Even if you are not using Heroic Variant,
this is a good exercise to do to tailor the difficulty of your
game to your PCs.
ENERGY WEAKNESS
You should adjust the encounter budget gradually, until
For each non-humanoid monster that you run, if it does you achieve a satisfying difficulty level. You can do this by
not have any energy weakness, grant it at least one adding or removing monsters, or by applying the Elite or
weakness to an energy damage* type or to holy or unholy Weak template.
damage equal to half the creature’s level (minimum of 1).

*Energy damage types include: Acid, cold, electricity, fire,

sonic, vitality, void, or force.

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 Heroic Variant

This way, fundamental runes can still be relevant as a

Appendix B: The Free reward if the PC wants to save money or cannot find a
suitable trainer. Also, martials and spellcasters are more
Foundry Module aligned in their gold expenditure when compared with
Automatic Bonus Progression.
The foundry module for this variant rule automates a
subset of rules presented within.
BROAD RECALL KNOWLEDGE
• Hero Points are increased to 5 for all current and new
character sheets that use the player character As per the base rules, the PCs can ask any specific question
template. This option will show up on the character about a creature with a successful recall knowledge. As part
sheet under Ancestry Features as “5 Hero Points”. of my house rule, they may choose to instead ask one of
these three broad questions -
• The additional reroll options for Hero Points have
new options in the context menu, when the What are the creature’s main offensive abilities? [I might
requirements are met. Note that only the GM can do say, “It has powerful jaws, a fast claw strike, and an acid
the reroll for monsters, but they can do it on behalf of spray you need to watch out for.”]
a player character by selecting the PC’s token.
What are the creature’s defensive strengths? [I might say,
• Raw Scars will be added automatically when the “Fortitude is its strong save, it has resistance to fire,
wounded condition is reduced, and will prevent the immunity to poison, and a bonus to save against magic”]
reduction of the wounded condition when at max
value. What are the creature’s defensive weaknesses? [I might
say, “Will is its weak save, it has a weakness to slashing
• Little Critters is an effect that can be dragged and damage, and it has a special weakness that is triggered by
dropped onto monsters. exposing it to bright light.”]

• The Phalanx Bonus effect will automatically be added The above three questions are available specifically for
and removed as the npcs move around the battlefield. Recall Knowledge checks, and not for abilities that give
you information as if you succeeded on a Recall
All the automation can be toggled on or off from the Knowledge check (such as Diverse Lore).
settings. After a setting is changed, a refresh / restart of the
game instance will be required for the setting to take effect.
SPELL RECOVERY
This is an exploration activity designed to prevent early
Appendix C: My House game frustration that casters feel after using their limited
spell slots. It is analogous to the wizard’s Drain Bonded
Rules Item, except that it only works on 1st rank slots, requires
10 minutes, and can be used any number of times.
I have numerous house rules in my home game to adjust
the style of the game I run. Here, I present the three biggest SPELL RECOVERY
ones, in case others find them useful. I have not included Concentrate, Exploration
them in the Heroic Variant section, because I do not think Requirement: You have cast a 1st rank spell using a spell
they are as broadly applicable. slot since you last recovered a 1st rank spell slot from daily
preparations or Spell Recovery.

PAID TRAINING BONUS PROGRESSION You spend 10 minutes in quiet mindfulness, book learning,
or practice to tap deeper into your magical reserves. You
I run a variant of Automatic Bonus Progression. Instead of regain one of your 1st rank spell slots. You can do Spell
the progression being automatic, you pay a trainer once to Recovery as part of any other refocusing activity.
train you. The cost of training is equal to the cost of the
fundamental rune. When you complete the Spell Recovery activity and have
regained a spell slot, if you have more currently active 1st
For example, you pay a trainer 35gp for a +1 weapon rank spells (from a spell slot) than the number of expended
potency training. Once the training is complete, that bonus 1st rank spell slots, choose one of those spells to
applies to all weapons you use. immediately end. [This prevents long duration spell

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 Heroic Variant

abuse, such as preventing one caster from having six active Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Patchen Mortimer, Dennis
Ant Haul spells on six people by using spell recovery on the Muldoon, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Mikhail Rekun,
same slot six times.] David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Kendra Leigh
Speedling, Mark Thompson, Clark Valentine, Andrew
If you are a prepared caster, you can choose from any White, Landon Winkler, and Linda Zayas-Palmer
expended 1st rank spell slot. Regaining the slot will
automatically prepare the same spell into that slot that you Pathfinder GM Core © 2023 Paizo Inc., Designed by Logan
had cast with that slot. Bonner and Mark Seifter. Authors: Amirali Attar Olyaee,
Logan Bonner, Creighton Broadhurst, Jason Bulmahn,
After completing spell recovery, you take a -2 untyped James Case, Jesse Decker, Eleanor Ferron, Fabby Garza
penalty to all checks with the attack trait, except for spell Marroquín, Jaym Gates, Matthew Goetz, James Jacobs,
attacks and the escape action, until your next daily Brian R. James, Jenny Jarzabski, Dustin Knight, Jason
preparations. [If you can rely on other abilities than spell- LeMaitre, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Stephen
slot casting, then you don’t really need the spell recovery Radney-MacFarland, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark
option and you shouldn’t be using it.] Seifter, Owen K.C. Stephens, Amber Stewart, Clark
Valentine, Landon Winkler, and Linda Zayas-Palmer

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Attribution product include all elements designated as Reserved
Material under the ORC License. To avoid confusion, such
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Marching Order (Cover Art) - Eric Pommer proper nouns (characters, deities, locations, etc., as well as
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Big shoutout to the playtesters: Chris, Collin, David,
Jacob, Shajesh, and Tegan. Additional gratitude to all Expressly Designated Licensed Material: This product
who engaged with the preview material and provided contains no Expressly Designated Licensed Material.
feedback.
Pathfinder is a registered trademark of Paizo Inc.
Special thanks to Nathanaël Roux's Layout Template for
getting me started on understanding layout.

ORC License
This product is licensed under the ORC License to be held
in the Library of Congress and available online at various
locations including paizo.com/orclicense, azoralaw.com/
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forth therein.

Attribution: If you use material from this product in your

own published work, please credit me in your product as
follows:
Heroic Variant, © 2024 Utkarsh Gaur

This product is based on the following licensed material:

Pathfinder Player Core © 2023 Paizo Inc., Designed by

Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-
MacFarland, and Mark Seifter. Authors: Alexander
Augunas, Kate Baker, Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn,
Carlos Cabrera, Calder CaDavid, James Case, Eleanor
Ferron, Steven Hammond, Joan Hong, Vanessa Hoskins,
James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, Erik Keith, Dustin Knight,

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