Automatic Bonus Progression Redux

Below is the revised, house edited version of the Automatic Bonus Progression system from Pathfinder Unchained pg. 156

In order to face the dangers of the game, characters in the Pathfinder RPG normally need items that grant bonuses to their statistics. With this variant, characters instead gain those bonuses automatically as they increase in level, allowing them to use magic item slots for more interesting items.

Decrease character wealth by level to half the normal amount (see Progression Table: Wealth by Level). This reflects the fact that the bulk of wealth spent on, or acquired from, magic items has typically been the “big six” items. The automatic bonuses are often more beneficial than that reduction in wealth, but characters have less flexibility, so the advantages and disadvantages balance out. Items that only grant bonuses to AC, saving throws, and ability scores don’t exist in this variant, and wish and similar spells never grant inherent bonuses to ability scores. Magic weapons and armor do exist, but grant only special abilities, not enhancement bonuses. Instead, your character gains the bonuses as follows on the table (see Progression Table: Bonus Gained). The values in the table are not cumulative, rather when the bonus to something increases, it replaces the prior lower bonus:

Progression Table

The entries below describe the bonuses characters gain.

Armor Attunement

The character can attune herself to one suit of masterwork armor and/or one masterwork shield in her possession; she can change that attunement once per session. If she selects a set of clothing as her armor, it counts as having an armor bonus of +0, and attunement bonuses to AC will apply to the clothing. For the purposes of attuning, armor and/or clothing with other magical properties is assumed to be masterwork.

• At 3rd level, the attuned suit of armor gains a +1 enhancement bonus.
• At 6th level, she can grant a suit of armor or a shield a +2 enhancement bonus; or she can grant each of two items a +1 bonus.
• At 9th level, she can grant a suit of armor or a shield a +3 enhancement bonus; or grant each of two items a +2 enhancement bonus.
• At 12th level, she can either grant a suit of armor or a shield a +4 enhancement bonus or grant each of two items a +3 enhancement bonus.
• At 15th level, she can either grant a suit of armor or a shield a +5 enhancement bonus or grant one armor/shield item a +4 enhancement bonus and another a +3 enhancement bonus.
• At 18th level, she can grant one armor/shield item a +5 and another a +3 enhancement bonus, or grant each of two items a +4 bonus.

Note that armor AC is the bonus gained by wearing physical armor, or from items like Bracers of Armor, or the Mage Armor spell, that specify you’re getting an armor bonus, and these still function as written in the SRD. The attunement bonus replaces the magical enhancement bonus (eg, +X plate armor) atop of the physical armor bonus of mundane armor.

You may attune a pair of Bracers of Armor and apply enhancement bonus to them, but the bracers themselves can only be enchanted with armor qualities, not an enhancement bonus and thus it is not required to have at least +1 enchantment on the bracers to enchant them with qualities.

The armor bonus from a Mage Armor spell cannot be attuned to, and thus the AC gained from the spell will overlap, not stack, with your ABP bonus, which would be considered attuned on a suit of armor, clothing or pair of bracers you wear. Thus the benefit of a Mage Armor spell falls off until it’s no longer beneficial after level 12-15, but this is still a lot of mileage to get out of a 1st level spell.

Shield AC is AC gained by the physical wearing of — or magically affected presence of — a shield (including a Shield spell) and these function as written in the SRD. The attunement bonus replaces the magical enhancement bonus that would otherwise stack on a shield’s flat AC bonus (a +X large shield is 2+X shield AC). A spell granted shield bonus cannot be attuned. However, an item granted shield (like a Ring of Force Shield) can be attuned by attuning the item that spawns or transforms into the shield.<back to table>

Weapon Attunement

The character can attune herself to any one or two masterwork weapons in her possession, and can change that attunement once per session.

• At 3rd level, the attuned weapon gains a +1 enhancement bonus.
• At 6th level, she can grant a weapon a +2 enhancement bonus; or she can grant each of two items a +1 bonus.
• At 9th level, she can grant a weapon a +3 enhancement bonus; or grant each of two items a +2 enhancement bonus.
• At 12th level, she can either grant a weapon a +4 enhancement bonus or grant each of two items a +3 enhancement bonus.
• At 15th level, she can either grant a weapon a +5 enhancement bonus or grant one weapon a +4 enhancement bonus and another a +3 enhancement bonus.
• At 18th level, she can grant one weapon a +5 and another a +3 enhancement bonus, or grant each of two items a +4 bonus.

A character who chooses to use an Amulet of Mighty Fists, Handwraps, or Body Wrap of Mighty Strikes may choose to apply their attunement bonus to these rather than a manufactured weapon, in which case their attacks use the single weapon attunement bonus. The same applies for improvised weapons wielded with Gloves of Improvised Might and thrown weapons and ammo used with Gloves of Knife Throwing. These items require at least a +1 weapon property in order to confer your ABP bonus. These items cannot have a higher total of weapon property bonuses than +5, regardless of total weapon property allowance granted by your ABP bonuses and weapon allotments. <back to table>

Deflection

The character gains a +1 deflection bonus to AC at 5th level (like from a Ring/Cloak of Protection); this bonus increases to +2 at 8th level, to +3 at 11th level, to +4 at 14th level, and to +5 at 17th level.

Mental and Physical Prowess

• At 4th level, the character gains a permanent enhancement bonus of +1 to apply to a mental ability score (Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma) and one physical ability score (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution) her choosing.
• At 6th, 8th and 10th level, the character gains another +1 permanent enhancement bonus to a physical and mental ability of her choosing.
• At 12th level, and every 2 levels thereafter, the character gains another +2 permanent enhancement bonus points to a physical and mental ability of her choosing. to a maximum of +12 bonus points each to assign between physical and mental ability scores.

Note that no ability score can be raised more than a total of 6 points by these increases. Much in the way you could decide to change which stat you modified with a magic item, you are allowed to change your point distributions among abilities once each time you level up. However physical ability bonuses cannot be applied to mental ability scores or vice versa. <back to table>

Natural AC

At 2nd level, the character gains a +1 enhancement bonus to natural armor. This bonus increases to +2 at 5th level, to +3 at 9th level, to +4 at 13th level, and to +5 at 17th level.

An enhancement bonus to natural AC stacks with innate natural armor from a racial trait, polymorphs, or any other transmutation spell or item that says it grants natural armor rather than an enhancement bonus. Bonuses granted by spells like Barkskin or now non-existent items like an Amulet of Natural Armor are enhancement bonuses, and thus overlap with this automatic bonus. Thus Barkskin, for example, will still grant an edge to a character of +1-2 in their natural AC score up until 16th level when the +5 cap of Barkskin is equal to the automatic bonus of the character. <back to table>

Resistance

At 3rd level, the character gains a +1 resistance bonus on all saving throws (as if from a Ring or Cloak of Resistance). This bonus increases to +2 at 6th level, to +3 at 9th level, to +4 at 12th level, and to +5 at 15th level. <back to table>

Legendary Gifts

The character gains three legendary gifts at 19th level and five more at 20th level. Select these legendary gifts from the following list.

In this system, magic weapons, armor, and shields never have enhancement bonuses of their own; those bonuses are granted only through attunement. Any weapon, armor, or shield special abilities on attuned items cannot exceed the attunement bonus of the weapon. For example, if your weapon attunement is +1, you could have a sword with the Flaming property (a +1 bonus), but not the Flaming Burst property, which is a +2 bonus. Adding abilities to armor and weapons does not lessen your enhancement bonuses on the armor or weapon as per the original ABP rules on the Pathfinder SRD.

If you choose the two-weapon or weapon/shield split attunement bonus (the +X/+X option), then the bonuses between the two weapons or the armor and shield combine to determine the maximum properties you can add between both items (so having the +1/+1 attunement bonus would, for example, allow for a Flaming Burst — a +2 property — weapon in one hand, so long as there’s no other special properties on the other weapon; both weapons would, however have only their +1 enhancement bonus).

In this system, adding bonus-equivalent special abilities to items costs significantly less because you are paying only for the special abilities, not for a base enhancement bonus (see the table below). To use weapons or armor from the magic items list, remove the enhancement bonus and determine the item’s adjusted cost by calculating difference between the original total bonus cost on the table and the new total bonus cost. For example, a flame tongue is a +1 flaming burst weapon normally worth 20,715 gp (with +3 base modifier, or 18,000 gp), but under this system, it would lose its +1 enhancement bonus, making it a +2 base modifier (8,000 gp), and thus its price would be reduced to 20,715-18,000+8,000 = 10,715 gp.

Other Magic Item Property Costs

Items that solely grant an ability bonus, a resistance bonus to saves, or deflection or natural AC enhancement bonus are no longer part of the magic item list; they don’t exist (no Headband of intellect, Belt of Strength, et al). For any other magic items that include one of these bonuses in their abilities, the rest of the item’s properties work as written, and the cost of the item is lessened by the value of the bonuses that are removed (see table):

* If a resistance bonus is only to a single save, rather than universal, this value is halved.

<back to table>

Magical Spell Effects Changes

Some spells are made obsolete because of the changes in ABP. Since ABP grants everyone a deflection bonus and resistance bonus, the option of relying upon one’s spells or abilities for these bonuses and choosing other equipment around them is no longer an option. Rather than making these effects irrelevant, these are easy guildelines to modify spells, abilities, etc on the fly without unbalancing the mechanics of the game:

Deflection AC, resistance: Effects granting deflection AC or resistance to saves are modified based on the origin of the effect.

• If the effect comes from an arcane spell or ability, the bonus is a luck bonus.
• If the effect comes from a divine spell or ability, the bonus is a sacred or profane bonus.
• If the effect comes from a bardic performance, the bonus is a morale bonus.

The rule that you can’t stack a bonus that comes from the same source still applies in this case, ie, in a case such as a Wizard and a Cleric both cast Protection from Evil, even though the bonus to AC is a luck bonus and divine bonus respectively, because they are technically from the same source, they do not stack. The same applies for any communal, mass or magic circle version of the same spell — all are considered the same source if someone is the recipient of different iterations, communal or AoE versions of the same spell.

Enhancement AC to armor or natural armor: These spells function as written with enhancement bonuses. Barkskin scales at a better rate than the ABP for natural AC. Spells such as Magic Vestment or Greater Magic Weapon do not, but they do allow for enhancing an item separate from one you attune with a better bonus than attuning two. <back to table>

Cohorts, Companions, Familiars

Cohorts: Under the leadership feat, it states:

The cohort should be equipped with gear appropriate for its level.

Cohorts being sentient, self directed folk who came to follow the player in their own path of (relative) success, should have their own ABP bonuses determined by their character level, and otherwise equipped with non-ABP gear according to an NPC’s wealth by level, which is also halved per ABP guidelines. Should a PC desire, they can further equip the cohort from their own funds.

Familiars: Extrapolating from the familiar guidelines of being half the hitpoints of its master, the familiar may gain ABP bonuses with no contribution from the player’s funds, of a PC half the master’s level (rounded down), limited by the equipment conditions below.

Companions, Mounts: Companions and mounts can gain the ABP bonuses of a PC equal to 2/3 of their hit dice (rounded down) with no contribution from the player, noting the conditions below.

• Non humanoid associates and armor: Unless a companion can (and does) wear armor/barding/clothing (at the player’s expense), they cannot gain attunement bonuses for armor. Note: A druid’s companion may not wear metal armor, just like the druid.
• Nonhumanoid associates and weapons: Unless a companion can use a manufactured weapon, or can be equipped with an Amulet of Mighty Fists with a non-enhancement bonus-equivalent weapon quality (at the master’s expense), they do not gain the weapon attunement bonuses. Do note that a permanency of Greater Magic Fang is also an option out of the player’s expense, at the listed rate, if all you want is the enhancement bonus.
• Companions with scaling natural AC increases (animal companions, mounts) the ABP enhancement to natural AC does stack with the scaling natural AC of a companion, which is an innate natural AC bonus.
• Companions with scaling or ability granted deflection bonuses (some improved familiars etc) do not gain the ABP deflection bonus to AC.
• Companions with a natural or scaling save bonus (almost always a resistance bonus) do not gain the resistance bonus to saves.
• Incorporeal companions (The shadowdancer’s shadow, et al) do not gain any ABP bonuses.

Bonus contribution by player: A player may, if she chooses, grant one or more of their own ABP bonuses to their companion, forsaking it for themselves. This can also take form in the split enhancements of the bonuses. So if for example, a paladin reaches the point of having the option of +4/+4 armor attunement vs. +5, they can opt to keep one +4 attunement bonus for themselves, and grant one to their mount’s barding. Or if a player wished to take points from their character’s ability increases and transfer them to the companion, they may do this. The limitations of certain bonuses as above still apply. <back to table>