DMing with Charisma

If I’m going to namedrop the cook, I might as well post it on Thanksgiving, right? Though I’m probably not posting the pirate, so what do I know.

Profession (cook) and its ilk are probably the second most popular Profession skills I see, after Profession (gambler) which doens’t actually replace Bluff and Sense Motive in the way my characters seem to think it does. D&D has a lot of information about how monsters fight, some about how they live, but almost nothing about how they taste. Given what I know about food now that I didn’t know ten years ago, I figure a character based on eating their way through the Monster Manual could actually be really interesting.

Also I’ve been reading a lot of Toriko and Food Wars. So there’s that.

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COOK
Almost everything needs to eat. Even in a world with great magic, fearsome monsters, and noble heroes, this universal constant holds. Whether you trained in a tavern, learned from a relative, or taught yourself, you know how to gather ingredients, separate the edible from the dangerous, and put together meals that not only keep people alive, but keep them healthy in ways they don’t even recognize.

Theme Skills: Appraise, Craft (alchemy), Heal, Knowledge (nature), Profession (cook), Survival
Theme Feats: Brew Potion, Great Fortitude, Master Craftsman Self-Sufficient, Throw Anything

Theme Quests

Novice Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 3rd tier.

• A strange plant appears in the local market. It seller insists it had magical properties if prepared correctly, but nobody knows how to do that. Learning its secrets may require tailing the seller to the plant’s source and investigating its habitat and the fauna who consume it.
• The cook happens across an unusual recipe, one with steps like “roast the meat using no fire under the light of a full moon”. It reads more like a ritual than a recipe, but one that requires cooking knowledge and skill to complete. The recipe does not say, however, what the final result will be, or even whether it is desirable.

Expert Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 6th tier.

• A food-borne illness is affecting a city. It affects people regardless of their district or social standing, so it cannot be something restricted to a specific tavern or vendor. Somebody needs to trace the source of the illness before it infects every person.
• There is a legend of a blessed knife, one that can remove all poison and disease from animals preparing using it. Though tales vary, it may even suppress poison in monsters struck by it or heal disease with a cut. Such a tool would be an invaluable asset for any dedicated cook, if he or she can find it.

Advanced Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 9th tier.

• A noble of great renown is demanding a meal prepared with the meat of an exotic, dangerous beast. Not only is the creature deadly to anybody who comes unprepared, but its takes great skill to prepare the meat in a way that makes it safe to eat, and doing so may require other unusual ingredients.
• A famous cook is in town. His dishes are world-famous and he makes them available to people of all social strata, but he is surly and almost impossible to work with due to his exacting demands. There are rumors that he is looking for an apprentice to teach some of his secrets, but a cook would have to greatly impress him for him to even give them the time of day.

Legendary Quest: A king, queen, high priest, or other powerful, public figure has fallen deathly ill with a very rare magical sickness. Its cure, lost to modern records, involves getting several herbs and ingredients from dangerous locations on the Outer Planes. Only a skilled, learned cook could gather them and create the cure before the public figure succumbs to the sickness.

Theme Abilities

Adamantine Stomach (Ex): Even when something in your system does affect you, your body can handle it. Whenever you take a penalty due to poison, disease, or an effect transmitted via smell or taste, you reduce to penalty by 1, to a minimum of 0. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the mithral stomach theme ability before selecting this ability.
Combat Cook (Ex): Your combat style reflects your kitchen experience. You gain a +1 theme bonus to damage rolls with knives and improvised weapons from a kitchen.
Esoteric Ingredients (Ex): You know how to get even exotic materials for your cooking. You gain a +4 theme bonus to Knowledge checks about cooking and ingredients and can make such checks untrained.
Failed Recipes (Ex): Though you can’t eat them, your worst dishes can still be useful. You can use Profession (cook) instead of Craft (alchemy) to make poison. If you do, the DC increases by 5, and rolling a natural 1 or 2 on the Profession check exposes you to the poison. You must be at least 4th tier before selecting this ability.
Home Remedies (Ex): You know which herbs and plants combat certain bodily afflictions. You gain a +2 theme bonus on Heal checks to treat poison or disease, and if you succeed the character you treat gains a +6 competence bonus on his saving throw.
Iron Stomach (Ex): Your body is resistant to harmful foods. You gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against poison.
Mithral Stomach (Ex): You’ve smelled and taste enough strange things to have built up a resistance. Your bonus to saving throws against poison increases to +4. In addition, you gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against any effect transmitted via smell or taste, such as a troglodyte’s stench. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the iron stomach theme ability before selecting this ability.
Trained Nose (Ex): You can pick up tastes from far away. You gain the scent special ability. You must be at least 7th tier before selecting this ability.

Advancement Abilities

Nourishing Meal (Su): Your cooking soothes the body more than most. At 4th tier, once per day you can spend one hour cooking a meal for up to one creature per theme tier. Large creatures count as two creatures, Huge creatures as four, and Gargantuan creatures as eight. Each creature must eat the meal within one hour of its preparation, and each creature can only benefit once from a single meal. When a creatures finishes its meal, it heals 2d8 hit points of damage +1 point per theme tier.
Nurturing Meal (Su): Your cooking can soothe both mind and body. At 7th tier, your nourishing meals heals 2d8 hit points of damage +1 point per theme tier. In addition, each creature who eats the meal can make a saving throw against any ongoing poison or disease effect and either heals 1 point of Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution damage or 1 point of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma damage (creature’s choice).
Stimulating Meal (Su): Your cooking can literally heal the soul. At 7th tier, your nourishing meals heals 4d8 hit points of damage +1 point per theme tier and heals 2 points of either Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution damage or Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma damage. In addition, each creature may make a saving throw against either one permanent negative level or one curse.

I’m really iffy about the name of this theme. “Acolyte” means different things to different people, and it doesn’t help that the first thing I think when I read it is “professional wrestler”. But it’s the least religion-specific word I could find that wasn’t already an in-game term.

I almost included a series of abilities for being a lapsed member of a particular faith, but after further thought I think that would be better as a separate theme. Putting it here didn’t make sense to me. Imagine the character progression: “I am trained in Pelor’s weapon of choice.” “Pelor gives me the strength to stand strong in the face of enemy magic.” “Never mind, screw Pelor! I get bonuses to opposing him.” “I take that back! Pelor aids my magic. I’ll keep those bonuses to fighting him, though.” It felt weird.

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ACOLYTE
You were raised as a follower of the gods, devoting your life to their study and service. Like many you may have joined a church or monastery and studied among those like you, or you may have just been a member of a particularly religious family. Whether your faith was the most popular in the country, an official religion begrudgingly accepted by its followers, or a secret cult constantly under threat of exposure, you held fast to your beliefs and use them as your guide to this day.

Theme Skills: Diplomacy, Knowledge (history), Knowledge (religion), Sense Motive, Spellcraft
Theme Feats: Blind-Fight, Eschew Materials, Improved Iron Will, Iron Will, Spell Penetration

Theme Quests

Novice Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 3rd tier.

• Ordinary people are starting to receive visions, purportedly from deities touching their followers’ lives directly. But the visions are instructing people to do things the deities in question normally would not support. Local priests and disciples are trying to instruct their flock on the proper ways to follow their deities’ teachings, but they cannot maintain order when they disagree with what seems like a god’s direct instruction.
• A small town has spontaneously converted to a faith opposed to the acolyte’s. It’s people seem unusually committed to the change, discussing their new faith in loud, awkward voices whenever they are in public. This may have something to do with the popular travelers who came into town right around the time of the conversion.

Expert Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 6th tier.

• The acolyte’s faith has been banned in a small area. This may be due to the political influence of the faith’s enemies, or because members of the faith have been causing problems. Normally this would be an upsetting but manageable problem, except this area contains a site important to the faith, and the ban is making life hard for pilgrims.
• Somebody is attacking places of worship, burning them to the ground in the night. Places that cannot be burned are collapsed, ransacked, or defaced. No one faith is affected more than any other, leading to widespread paranoia about what the aggressor’s goals are. Some say he or she wants to drive people away from worship entirely, while other suspect he or she is looking for something only found in places the gods are felt most strongly.

Advanced Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 9th tier.

• Two branches of the acolyte’s faith are having a heated argument over specifics of their theology. What began as lively debates have progressed to shouting matches during the rare instances when the branches are not shunning each other. Physical clashes may not be imminent, but the rift is growing rapidly, far faster than seems possible. In short order the branches may split entirely, creating a schism that will damage the faith far and wide.
• Word is spreading of a god or goddess who only recently ascended to the pantheon. His or her teachings are popular with the masses, the services and feasts are easy to follow, and the representatives of the faith are always willing to teach and help. But there remains something slightly off about their teachings, something only an expert would notice, and it presents the possibility that this is a smokescreen to drive people to accidentally worship a powerful, destructive entity looking to ascend for real.

Legendary Quest: Divine magic is failing. At first it affected only those on the fringes, like those advocating drastic, almost heretical changes to their faiths. Over time it began to touch casters closer and closer to the wills of their gods, leaving only the incredibly devout capable of using divine magic at all. The gods remain as active as ever, but they remain completely silent on this matter, as do their messengers. Only an extremely powerful effect could block even divine power, unless this is part of a test of faith or a game to which the gods agrees centuries ago.

Theme Abilities

Cultist (Ex): You’ve grown used to hiding your faith from others. You gain a theme bonus to Bluff and Disguise checks when actively hiding your faith. The bonus equals half your theme tier (minimum 1).
Defender of the Faith (Su): Your religious upbringing included martial training. You gain proficiency in your deity’s favored weapon, or proficiency in a weapon based on your alignment if you have no deity, as per the spell spiritual weapon. If you are already proficient in this weapon, you gain Weapon Focus for it.
Enemies of the Faith (Su): Your deity guides your blade when it strikes your enemies. You gain a bonus to damage rolls against creatures whose alignment is the opposite of your deity’s or, if you have no deity, your own. This bonus is equal to one-half your theme tier (minimum 1). If your alignment or your deity’s is neutral, select any one extreme alignment (lawful good, lawful evil, chaotic good, or chaotic evil) and apply the bonus to creatures with that alignment. Once you select this alignment it cannot be changed. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the defender of the faith ability before selecting this ability.
Conviction (Ex): You remain strong in dire circumstances. Whenever you take a morale penalty, that penalty is decreased by 1.
Hardened Spirit (Ex): You are resistant to fear. You gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against fear effects.
Iron Spirit (Ex): Things that would terrify a normal person barely affect you. Fear effects on you are reduced by one step: if you would be panicked you are instead frightened, and if you would be frightened you are instead shaken. You take no penalties from being shaken. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the hardened spirit theme ability before selecting this ability.
Power in Words (Ex): Your speech has magical ramifications. When you cast a spell with no verbal components, including a spell modified by the Silent Spell feat, you can add a verbal component. If you do, increase the spell’s caster level by 1.
Sacred Scriptures (Ex): Holy books lend you power. You can use any book of scriptures, prayer, songs, or a similar religious aid as a holy or unholy symbol as long as it aligns with your deity or training.
Theologian (Ex): The gods touch all things, as do their teachings. You can make a Knowledge (religion) check in place of any other Knowledge skill, but you take a -10 penalty on the skill check. You must be at least 4th tier before selecting this ability.

Advancement Abilities

Steady Will (Su): No mundane effect can sway you when the gods are on your side. At 4th tier, once per day as a swift action you can become immune to mind-affecting spells and effects. This lasts for a number of rounds equal to your theme tier.
Divine Inspiration (Su):Your teaching applies at opportune times. At 7th tier, once per day when you make an untrained skill check, you can make the check as though you had training in the skill. You gain a theme bonus equal to your theme tier on this check.
Divine Intervention (Sp): Your deity has a vested interest in you. At 10th tier, once per day you can cast any spell of 3rd-level or lower that does not have expensive material components.

If I was a character in Pathfinder and I had a theme, there’s about a 50/50 chance it’s either this one or tomorrow’s.

A problem I keep having when working on themes is how Pathfinder handles certain language. The timely advice ability is one example. What I want to say is “Normally the aid another action only pertains to enemies adjacent to you, but now you can use aid another to affect your allies’ AC and attack rolls even when the relevant enemy is a greater distance away.” I don’t know how Pathfinder says that. The language I ended up with can be interpreted by a sufficiently pedantic player to mean “you threaten in a 40-foot radius as long as you give up your standard action”, which is nowhere near the intent. I’ll happily accept suggestions.

Trivia bit: As of today the scholar is the wordiest theme, clocking in at 1,533 words my my count, mostly because its quests are so wordy. If that’s not the most appropriate thing in the world I’m not sure what is. Number two is yesterday’s, the criminal, and number three is the pirate. The shortest, at 1,095 words? The cook.

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SCHOLAR
You grew up believing knowledge is the greatest power. Information can slay dragons or make them your allies, builds kingdoms or topple them, and make even the most vicious enemy cower in fright. That information can be gleaned from musty tomes, a wise teacher, or your own observations, but the source of your knowledge isn’t important. It matters less how you know something than that you know something, and most important of all is how you use it.

Theme Skills: Appraise, Knowledge (any), Linguistics, Spellcraft
Theme Feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Iron Will, Magical Aptitude, Skill Focus

Theme Quests

Novice Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 3rd tier.

• Travelers are being attacked by a creature that fits no description of an existing monster, in looks or in abilities. It may be a previously unknown creature, or it could be that the travelers are subject to a hoax or being attacked by a creature who can disguise its powers. In any case, there is an opportunity to discover the truth and make it publicly known.
• A monastery is seeking help moving its vast collection of scrolls and books from an old, besieged temple to a newer, safer temple. They are willing to leave the temple entirely, sacrificing it to the invaders, but this would means losing the site and any secrets it holds. Whether the scholar chooses to help with the move or defend the temple, the invaders prove resilient enemies.

Expert Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 6th tier.

• Somebody is taking credit for something the scholar researched, published, or created. Worse, the plagiarist is gaining a significant amount of money and fame from their “discovery”. This could be something they’ve stolen, or it could be that they independently found the same information as the scholar and knew a way to market it.
• People are losing their intelligence overnight. Their friends and families notice nothing amiss about them, but come morning they are transformed into blithering idiots. They may be stalked and attacked by a creature that consumes their aptitude, or they may be leaking information in their dreams that leads jealous wizards to them. The exact cause is unknown, but the problem cannot be stopped until somebody learns what it is.

Advanced Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 9th tier.

• A powerful patron contacts the scholar seeking the answer to a great mystery. Once the scholar starts looking into it, he or she learns that the mystery is difficult for a reason and the consequences of solving it are dire. The patron makes it clear that failure is not an option, and rapidly moves from encouragement to impatiences and threats.
• The scholar has been offered membership in an elite, reclusive society of sages. It is a great honor, but through investigation or happenstance the scholar comes to learn that the offer may not be as goos as it seems. Either the society is involved with malign forces, or they are sending hundreds of invitations to gather people to power a dangerous ritual, or something even darker is afoot. No matter the problem, if left unchecked the society will bring great suffering upon themselves and the world.

Legendary Quest: The scholar finds a set of instructions to a location of great intellectual merit, like an ancient library, but the instructions are part of a code. When the scholar decodes them, he or she finds out that the location is transient and about to disappear for a years-long dormancy. He or she must race against time to reach the location, competing with anybody else who has realized its importance, and gather as much information as possible before it disappears, imprisoning anybody inside.

Theme Abilities

Addling Mind (Ex): Trying to touch your mind is exhausting. Whenever you succeed on a saving throw against a mind-affecting ability, the creature who used that ability takes 1d6 nonlethal damage. In addition, whenever you take Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma damage, reduce the damage by 1. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the structured ability before selecting this ability.
Autopsy (Ex): You can learn a lot about a creature from its corpse. By performing an autopsy on a creature that died in the last 24 hours, you can discover information about that creature as though you rolled a 15 on the appropriate creature Knowledge check. This cannot give you information about an individual creature unless you could discover this information via an autopsy. For example, by performing an autopsy on a particular troll you can learn that trolls are vulnerable to fire and that the troll in question died from drowning, but not historical information about that troll’s family or tribe. Performing an autopsy takes one hour plus one hour for each size category the creature is larger than Medium. You can interrupt an autopsy as long as you finish it before the creature has been dead for 24 hours.
Defensive Studies (Ex): Your study of monsters focuses on their attacks. You gain a +1 theme bonus to AC and saving throws against against creatures you have identified with a Knowledge check. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the monster scholar theme ability before selecting this ability.
Labyrinthian Mind (Ex): Creatures who touch you mentally have a tendency to get lost in your mind. Whenever you succeed on a saving throw against a mind-affecting ability, the creature who used that ability must make a Will save or become confused for one round. This is a mind-affecting ability for which the DC is 10 + half your theme tier + your Intelligence modifier. In addition, your resistance to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma damage increases to 2. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the addling mind ability before selecting this ability.
Lecture (Sp): Your diatribes on scholarly topics are exceptionally boring. You can cast sleep at will, except that there are no somatic or material components, you can only affect targets who understand your language, the casting time is one minute, and the targets must hear you speak for then entire casting time. When you reach 6th tier you can cast deep slumber at will, subject to the same restrictions.
Magic Reader (Sp): Magical writing holds no mysteries for you. You can read magical inscriptions as though under a permanent read magic effect. If the effect is dispelled, you can reactivate it as a swift action.
Monster Scholar (Ex): You’ve studied the creatures of the world. You gain a +2 theme bonus to monster Knowledge checks.
Offensive Studies (Ex): Your study of monsters focuses on their weaknesses. You gain a bonus to damage rolls against creatures you have identified with a Knowledge check. The bonus is equal to half your theme tier. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the monster scholar theme ability before selecting this ability.
Spell Researcher (Ex): You have a knack for creating and researching spells. Subtract half your theme tier (minimum 1) from the DC when you make Knowledge and Spellcraft checks to research a spell.
Structured Mind (Ex): Your thoughts are too vast to be manipulated easily. You are immune to the fascinated and confused conditions.
Timely Advice (Ex): You can predict the flow of battle in time to help your allies. When you aid another, enemies within 5 ft. per theme tier are considered adjacent to you.

Advancement Abilities

Researcher (Ex): You can make the most of stores of knowledge. At 4th tier, it only takes you 1d3 hours to research when you have access to a library or similar repository of information. You can use this to reroll Knowledge checks you have failed, even checks you have failed by researching at the same library. This means you can take 10 or 20 in Knowledge checks; taking 20 requires the maximum amount of research time, or 60 hours. The DM may rule that a particular library can only assist with certain kinds of Knowledge checks or can only allow you to reach a certain DC.
Piece It Together (Sp): You have all the information you need to solve problems, even if you don’t know it. At 7th tier, once per day you can cast commune as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to your character level. Instead of speaking with a deity, you check information in your own mind, so the answers you receive always align with your interests alone. In addition, the time it takes you to research in a library is reduced to 1 hour, and taking 20 only requires 20 hours.
Smarter Than Reality (Ex): Your mastery of information is so great, even physics second-guesses itself when you disagree with it. At 10th tier, once per day you can change one creature’s attack roll, saving throw, or skill check into a natural 20 or natural 1. You must have line of effect to the creature. You can use this ability after the creature makes its roll but before you know the result. In addition, the time it takes you to research in a library is reduced to 10 minutes, and taking 20 only requires 3 hours 20 minutes.

I realized that I’m short on month and I have a lot more themes to go. So, buckle up.

The criminal presented an interesting dilemma in the general application of a specific theme. That is, criminals can be all sorts. The theme needed to cover highway bandits, second-story artists, smugglers, money launderers, members of organized crime, people who run confidence games, and so on. I wanted abilities and quests that could cover much, if not all, of the sorts of criminals players could be. Only one or two abilities miss this mark too badly, but I don’t expect every ability to apply equally to every player. If I did, I’d have written the Paizo vigilante.

The only things that absolutely must apply to every type of criminal are the advancement benefits. You’ll notice they’re somewhat uninteresting to read, but I think their table applications outweigh that.

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CRIMINAL
All your life you’ve been dodging the law. You may be a self-taught pickpocket, an heir to an organized “protection” guild, a con artist trained by an aging mentor, or a gentleman or lady thief whose targets deserve a bad turn. Your exact methods, goals, and reasons for living a life of crime are your own, and you may embrace your skills and history or keep it a secret as you now walk a more narrow path.

Theme Skills: Bluff, Disguise, Escape Artist, Perception, Sense Motive, Stealth
Theme Feats: Alertness, Deceitful, Fleet, Improved Initiative, Quick Draw, Run

Theme Quests

Novice Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 3rd tier.

• An old friend comes to the criminal, asking for his or her help for one last score. The target is out of the friend’s league and known to be unforgiving to trespassers, but he is insistent on going through with the attempt. He may have an ulterior motive for the crime, one beyond simple money.
• A new player is in town, committing the same crimes as the criminal in much the same way but in a much more public, noticeable way. The ensuing investigation comes dangerously close to home. The newcomer must be caught, silenced, or convinced to stop before the case of mistaken identity puts the criminal away, which may actually be the newcomer’s intent.

Expert Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 6th tier.

• A haggard man approaches the criminal asking for help hiding from the law. It may be an old acquaintance or just somebody with an excellent story, and he only needs to lay low for a couple of days. But the criminal hears rumors about how his crimes may be greater than he said. As the manhunt for him intensifies, the criminal must decide whether their fellow lawbreaker is worth saving.
• The city watch approach the criminal with an offer. They want his or her help investigating crimes similar to the criminal’s own, allowing some forgiveness of past misdeeds for assistance catching other criminals. Secretly they suspect the criminal of planning or committing a great crime, and they’re hoping this arrangement will give the criminal a change to slip and expose himself or herself. They’re so certain they have the right person that, in the absence of such evidence, they’re not above manufacturing it.

Advanced Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 9th tier.

• A new guild of thieves, con men, or other lawbreakers has moved into town, and they offer the criminal or her a position in their organization. Whether the criminal accepts or refuses, it soon becomes clear that the guild has a startling reach, operating in multiple places under different names, and that their leadership is mysterious, powerful, and politically untouchable. But the biggest problem is that the crimes are only one phase of a plan capable of changing the world for the worse.
• An order of paladins is asking questions about the criminal. One of his or her past crimes has been tied to a far greater sin, and the paladins look to apprehend the criminal to interrogate him or her about the crime and have him or her face justice when they are done. The order’s action are borderline masochistic, relying on more forceful measures than others, and a full order with a church’s backing is very hard to stop.

Legendary Quest: A revolution is in its pupal stages, where the fighting is intense and the government is on the brink of collapse. In some places the anarchy is greater than others, and thugs commit all manner of crimes during the watch’s and military’s inability to stop them. It is up to each person how much they try to thrive at the expense of others, but in the end even criminals must create and uphold a form of law to keep people alive.

Theme Abilities

Always Have an Out (Ex): You constantly keep on the lookout for ways to flee if things get rough. When you take the withdraw action, the square you start out and the first square to which you move are not considered threatened by any opponent you can see.
Cover Identity (Ex): You have an alter-ego you can use when avoiding watchful eyes. Pick a single, specific identity. Once you choose this identity it cannot be changed, and you cannot choose a person who already exists. When you use this identity you gain a +2 theme bonus to Charisma-based skill checks relating to the identity. You lose this bonus when interacting with anybody who knows you and your identity are the same person. You also gain a +2 theme bonus to a single Craft or Profession skill relating to the identity. If you are not normally trained in the Craft or Profession skill you chose, you are trained while you are in your identity.
Floor Fighter (Ex): You’re more comfortable attacking from below. You take no penalty to AC or attack rolls for being prone. If you hit an enemy while you are prone, you can stand as a free action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the scrappy fighter ability before selecting this ability.
Greater Cover Identity (Su): Nobody can see through your identities. Your bonus to Charisma-based skill checks and to Craft and Profession checks increases to +6. Anybody who uses a divination spell or effect on you automatically receives information about you identity unless you allow them to receive information about you. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the improved cover identity ability before selecting this ability.
Improved Cover Identity (Su): Your alter-egos are especially good. You can have one cover identity plus one for every three theme tiers you have. Your bonus to Charisma-based skill checks and to Craft and Profession checks increases to +4. In addition, anybody who uses a divination spell or effect on you must succeed on a caster level check to discover information about you. If they fail, they instead receive information about your identity. The DC for this check is 10 + your theme tier + your Charisma modifier. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the cover identity ability before selecting this ability.
Innocent Face (Ex): You know when you’re dealing with the police and act appropriately. You gain a +2 bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Perception, and Sense Motive checks when dealing with officers of law.
Lawsense (Su): You have a sixth sense for when police are nearby. You can automatically detect the presence or absence of officers of law within 15 feet. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the innocent face ability before selecting this ability.
Play Possum (Ex): You’ve feigned death to get out of multiple fights. When an attack drops you to fewer hit points them your theme tier, you can fall prone and make a Bluff check to play dead as an immediate action. You make one Bluff check for all creatures who can see you, and the DC for each creature is 10 + the creature’s Hit Dice + the creature’s Wisdom score. You can play dead for as long as you want as long as you take no actions. When you act, for one round all creatures who believe you to be dead are flat-footed against your attacks. You cannot use this ability more than once per encounter.
Scrappy Fighter (Ex): You can fight even from disadvantageous positions. You only take a -2 penalty to AC and attack rolls for being prone.

Advancement Abilities

Skirting Law (Su): Good criminals are difficult to catch, even magically. At 4th tier, you gain spell resistance equal to 5 plus your character level against divination spells and effects. In addition, you gain one of the following spell-like abilities, usable once per day: expeditious retreat, invisibility, or obscuring mist. You can switch which spell-like ability you have at the beginning of each day. The caster level for these spells equals your theme tier.
Escaping Law (Sp): An experienced criminal is almost impossible to pin down. At 7th tier, your spell resistance against divination spells and effects increases by 5. In addition, you gain one of the following spell-like abilities, usable once per day: air walk, dimension door, or haste. You can switch which spell-like ability you have at the beginning of each day. The caster level for these spells equals your theme tier.
Disregarding Law (Sp): You can’t be caught unless you allow it. At 10th tier, your spell resistance against divination spells and effects again increases by 5. In addition, you gain one of the following spell-like abilities, usable once per day: mislead, phase door, teleport, or wind walk. You can switch which spell-like ability you have at the beginning of each day. The caster level for these spells equals your theme tier.

I really should give examples of themes that work with the big four classes: fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue. These themes aren’t specific to or even intended explicitly for those classes, but I figure they’re the first place a player will go.

The soldier is an example of something that seemed too obvious to me to state explicitly before: sometimes multiple themes have the same abilities. Here, the solider has the same early to rise and light sleeper abilities as a farmer, because it makes sense that a character could get the same ability from more than one background.

Most abilities are unique to a single theme with just a little overlap. The only places I lean heavily on this is where the themes should strongly relate to each other. For example, the fiend theme is almost identical to the celestial theme. I reversed anything that leverages alignment and changed the quests, of course. I also adjusted the skills and feats and made a few changes to represent abilities fiends have that celestials don’t (like summoning rather than auras). If I do law and chaos themes they’ll probably be similar. Themes like draconic, however, will be fairly unique.

On a related note, I realized halfway through the month that most theme names are nouns. So technically I need a new word for heritage themes to differentiate them from the original creatures, like “celestialblood”. My spellcheck hates that, though.

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SOLDIER
Your formative years were spent in the military. You were part of a military household, or you were drafted or conscripted at a young age, or you ran away to become a soldier. Regardless of why you joined, your time in the service has taught you that attack can come from any direction but given you the skills you need to prepare for it.

Theme Skills: Climb, Perception, Ride, Sense Motive, Stealth, Swim
Theme Feats: Armor Proficiency (any), Athletic, Combat Reflexes, Defensive Combat Training, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Weapon Focus

Theme Quests

Novice Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 3rd tier.

• A town is organizing a team to kill or drive away a band of kobolds who have been harassing them. The team is willing, but young and inexperienced. They need a leader who can lead them to victory, but also train them to be ready in case the kobolds retaliate.
• The soldier’s former commanding officer appears, demanding the soldier’s help for a covert mission. The officer is vague about the details, but makes it clear that the missions but be kept secret, even from the soldier’s allies, and that refusing it will have dire consequences.

Expert Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 6th tier.

• A small group of soldiers has come into town, causing mayhem and damaging property. They use their status and shows of force to discourage anybody from standing against them. Somebody must set them straight before they do real harm, and without the situation escalating to armed conflict against a legitimate army.
• The soldier’s allies have formed an adventuring party, one whose methods do not align with the soldier’s own. This party has accepted a job that conflicts with one taken by the soldier’s party, and they try to use their shared history and an appeal to loyalty as leverage to convince the soldier to sabotage his or her own team.

Advanced Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 9th tier.

• Entire squads of soldiers are disappearing from military outposts. Whenever a squad disappears, it happens in the middle of the night, and they seem to take their gear and provisions for a few days but leave no indication where they are going or why. The remaining soldiers cannot determine whether they are deserting en masse, or if there is something more sinister happening.
• The payment system for an army has failed. Either the money disappeared, is being withheld, or never existed in the first place, but it’s driving existing and former personnel into a frenzy. The best possible result is a heavily disgruntled force with low morale, and the worst is an insurrection led and staffed by the country’s best-trained, most well-equipped citizens.

Legendary Quest: A disastrous and ill-advised war has started, in which a normally peaceful country is trying to invade a vastly superior opponent. The army hopes to excuse its lack of trained personnel by using a draft to fill the ranks with untrained peasants, which is leading to high casualty rates. The reasons for the war are unknown, but if it continues it will devastate the country’s population and potentially lead to its collapse.

Theme Abilities

Armor Familiarity (Ex): You’re more comfortable in armor than most people. Your speed increases by 5 feet when you are wearing medium or heavy armor, to a maximum of your base speed. You may sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued.
Combat-Ready (Ex): You know a fight can start at any time. You gain a +2 bonus to initiative checks, and you can draw a weapon as a free action during a surprise round or the first round of combat.
Early to Rise (Ex): You are used to waking at the crack of dawn. You only need to sleep for six hours to gain the benefits of a full night’s rest. You must still rest for eight hours to regain your spells and other abilities. In addition, you only take a -5 penalty to Perception checks while you are asleep.
Hardened Spirit (Ex): You are resistant to fear. You gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against fear effects.
Improved Armor Familiarity (Ex): You wear armor like a second skin. Your speed increases by an additional 5 feet when you are wearing medium or heavy armor, to a maximum of your base speed. You may sleep in any armor without becoming fatigued. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the armor familiarity theme ability before selecting this ability.
Iron Spirit (Ex): Things that would terrify a normal person barely effect you. Fear effects on you are reduced by one step: if you would be panicked you are instead frightened, and if you would be frightened you are instead shaken. You take no penalties from being shaken. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the hardened spirit theme ability before selecting this ability.
Light Sleeper (Ex): You wake before the dawn. You only need to sleep for four hours to gain the benefits of a full night’s rest. You must still rest for eight hours to regain your spells and other abilities. In addition, you take no penalty to Perception checks while sleeping, and you gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against sleep effects. You must have the early to rise theme ability to select this theme ability.
No One Left Behind (Ex): The sight of a fallen friend spurs you to new heights. You gain a +2 theme bonus to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, and AC when you are within 30 feet of an unconscious ally. This bonus increases to +4 if you are within 30 feet of a dead ally.
Perfect Loyalty (Ex): Nothing colors your actions unless you allow it. You gain the slippery mind ability as the rogue talent. If you also have slippery mind, you can only reroll your saving throw once but gain a +2 bonus on your reroll. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the undying loyalty theme ability before selecting this ability.
Undying Loyalty (Ex): You would never turn on your allies. You gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against charm and compulsion effects.

Advancement Abilities

Teamwork (Ex): You work better in concert with your team. At 4th tier, you gain a +1 theme bonus to AC and saving throws whenever you are adjacent to your allies. When you are flanking with an ally you gain a +3 bonus to attack rolls instead of a +2 bonus.
The Best Offense (Ex): You are well-trained in defensive combat. At 7th tier, you gain a +1 theme bonus to your Combat Maneuver Defense. In addition, when you take the total defense standard action you can still make attacks of opportunity.
Battle Veteran (Ex): Your cool head in battle is an inspiration to your allies. At 10th tier, once per day each ally of yours may reroll a saving throw. They may use your saving throw modifier instead of theirs for this reroll. In addition, allies who can see or hear you gain a +4 bonus to saving throws against fear effects.

I’ve divided themes into three categories: occupational, where a character continues in their pre-adventuring job, heritage, where a character’s bloodline gives them power, and “other”. The third category is a catch-all for lifestyles, philosophies, places of origin, and mostly anything that doesn’t fit in the above two. One such example is as follows.

The epicurean is kind of a combination of the modern definition, which is a sort of haughty hedonism, and the philosophical Epicureanism, which is more about tranquility and knowledge. They both focus on happiness as the most direct form of good, and I tried to make the theme varied enough to let characters look for it however they want.

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EPICUREAN
The greatest goal in life is pleasure. Your background is one of sensory experiences, whether a hedonistic life of debauched physical joys, a meditative focus on mental and emotional expansion, or something in between. You always look for the next great adventure, seeking things you’ve never seen or done before and pushing yourself into ever more exotic situations.

Theme Skills: Appraise, Fly, Linguistics, Perception, Use Magic Device
Theme Feats: Diehard, Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Improved Initiative, Iron Will

Theme Quests

Novice Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 3rd tier.

• A traveling sideshow sells a tonic that promises to open the minds of those who imbibe it. While it does grant mental benefits and is safe on first use, it is a powerful, addictive narcotic, and the symptoms of withdrawal include violent hysteria. The sideshow must be stopped, or withdrawal symptoms eliminated, before anybody else dies.
• A caravan has gone missing, along with the valuable art it was transporting from a noble’s collection to a public gallery. If the caravan has disappeared, never to be seen again, it would be a great loss to the art world. But the gallery cannot afford to hire adventurers to return it, and the noble is suspiciously unconcerned about her missing property.

Expert Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 6th tier.

• The epicurean finds a recipe for a food or drink thought lost to history. Making and consuming it would be a unique experience, but it calls for strange ingredients from dangerous places and requires a skilled cook to bring it all together.
• A cult is starting to gain momentum with its doctrine of enlightenment through pain. Laborers and royalty alike are looking into it if not already privately participating. The influence it has over its followers is alarming, and there is talk, albeit quiet, of making it the state religion.

Advanced Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 9th tier.

• A severe-looking man is peddling a service to the rich and powerful. For a great fee he offers to take them away for a week and let them experience things they never have before and never will again. A few nobles have tried it; they all agree it was a perfect, life-changing week, and each of them suddenly gained experience in strange things they had no way of knowing before, like exotic fighting styles or stories from unknown cultures. But none can articulate exactly what happened, divinations around them all fail, and their personalities all start to change in subtle ways.
• An aged explorer asks for the epicurean’s help. Before she dies she wants to see a specific place, one she could never find during her lifetime. This place is difficult to find and is guarded by creatures and effects dangerous enough that she has never been able to convinced a group to help her look for it. But the place, if is exists, has been untouched by outsides for centuries, and visiting it would be one of the rarest experiences possible.

Legendary Quest: One day, pain stopped existing. Physical aches no longer hurt, emotional traumas disappear, and even fear is a thing of the past. Everybody has attained the sort of happiness of which an epicurean could only dream. But almost immediately, the consequences of an entire world living without pain begin to appear, as injuries go undetected and people act free of their mental limiters. Whether this is an evil plot or the accidental effects of a benevolent but short-sighted entity, it has to stop before every living thing drives itself to ruin.

Theme Abilities

Adamantine Stomach (Ex): Even when something in your system does affect you, your body can handle it. Whenever you take a penalty due to poison, disease, or an effect transmitted via smell or taste, you reduce to penalty by 1, to a minimum of 0. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the mithral stomach theme ability before selecting this ability.
Eidetic Scholar (Ex): Your thirst for information gives you a wide range of knowledge. You gain a +2 theme bonus to Intelligence and Knowledge checks made to remember information.
Emotion Enhancement (Ex): You feel more strongly than others do. Whenever you gain a morale bonus, that bonus increases by 1.
Hardened Spirit (Ex): You are resistant to fear. You gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against fear effects.
Iron Stomach (Ex): Your body is resistant to harmful foods. You gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against poison.
Iron Spirit (Ex): Things that would terrify a normal person barely effect you. Fear effects on you are reduced by one step: if you would be panicked you are instead frightened, and if you would be frightened you are instead shaken. You take no penalties from being shaken. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the hardened spirit theme ability before selecting this ability.
Let Me Try (Ex): Whatever your allies can do, you can at least attempt. You can study an ally as a move action. If the ally makes a Strength- or Dexterity-based skill check in the following round, you can make a skill check with the same skill on your next turn, using your ally’s bonus to the check instead of your own.
Liver of Life (Ex): You cling to closely to life to fear death. You gain a +4 theme bonus on savings throws against effects with the death descriptor. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the emotion enhancement theme ability before selecting this ability.
Mithral Stomach (Ex): You’ve smelled and taste enough strange things to have built up a resistance. Your bonus to saving throws against poison increases to +4. In addition, you gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against any effect transmitted via smell or taste, such as a troglodyte’s stench. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the iron stomach theme ability before selecting this ability.
Seen It Before (Ex): Your short-term memory is alarmingly good. You gain a +2 bonus to saving throws against any spell or effect for which you have already made a saving throw in the same encounter, regardless of the course of the effect. You must be at least 4th tier before selecting this ability.

Advancement Abilities

Ignore Pain (Ex): The most obvious pleasure is absence of pain. At 4th tier, you gain DR 1/— against nonlethal damage and a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against spells and effects with the pain descriptor.
Ataraxia (Su): Divine influences affect you less. At 7th tier, you gain spell resistance equal to 5 plus your character level against divine spells and effects. In additional your DR against nonlethal damage increases to 3/—.
The Last Great Adventure (Sp): Even death holds few mysteries for you. At 10th tier, you can make a special elixir that costs 25,000 gp to create. When you drink this elixir, you die. While dead you can speak with spirits as with commune, except there you can communicate with any deceased creature, no matter how long ago they died or where they are, and you can receive answers as long as a short sentence. You cannot communicate with a creatures whose soul no longer exists. The caster level for this effect is your character level. When the duration of the spell ends, you come back to life with no negative levels.

There are a few ways to manifest an extraplanar background in Pathfinder, and they’re all kind of weird. For example, say you want to play a celestial. You can be a sorcerer or bloodrager with a celestial bloodline, but that’s just two classes. Ain’t no celestial druids. You can be a divine caster reskinned as a divine being, but reskinning at that level doesn’t always agree with everyone. And of course you can be an aasimar, but races like that are narratively problematic. It suggests all celestials are Wisdom- and Charisma-based, as though half of angels don’t have a Constitution higher than their Charisma. It suggests celestials are powered by light, though few have light-based abilities. And it means you’re a different race from your siblings, parents, and grandparents because of the way the race works. An aasimar raised as a dwarf by dwarves is an aasimar, with all of the racial features and ability scores of an aasimar. It’s nature over nurture to the highest degree. Thanks, Monte.

A theme seems like a natural way to express heritage for a few reasons. Most directly, it can apply equally to characters of any race without rewriting the race itself. A celestial dwarf can still have stonecunning, a celestial elf can still be a jerk, and so on. Second, it means a character can be of any class. A celestial can be a wizard or fighter without sacrificing their core ability scores. Third, a theme means the character can explore their heritage, tapping into their natural power over time, without being a member of a class that explicitly works with it and without knee-deep reskinning.

Here “celestial” applies to all good-aligned outsiders, because having different themes for angels, archons, agathions, etc. seems too specific. I have “infernal” and “abyssal” penciled in as different themes, but they can probably be “fiendish” and will look a lot like this theme but alignment-swapped. Law and chaos…could work but I haven’t delved into it yet. I also have orc on my heritage list, by request, and dragon, because of course. I’m willing to hear any other ideas.

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CELESTIAL
Like an aasimar, you have a good outsider somewhere within your genealogy. For you, though, your blood isn’t a gift, but a calling. You seek to learn about celestials, to follow them, and to work towards the same goals they do. In time, and with effort, you may even walk among them.

Theme Skills: Fly, Heal, Knowledge (planes), Knowledge (religion), Perception, Sense Motive
Theme Feats: Alertness, Combat Casting, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Weapon Focus

Theme Quests

Novice Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 3rd tier.

• A sorcerer has been posing as an earthbound celestial, using his minor magic to convince people of his story and gain favors. He has tricked one too many people and some of them want him dead. If he is killed, it could cause a crisis of faith for the people who know him.
• A tiefling approaches the celestial, asking for help in seeking redemption for past wrongs. She is vague about what sins she has committed and lapses easily into her old ways, but her intentions are good and she genuinely wants to change. If the celestial can convert her she could be a powerful ally.

Expert Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 6th tier.

• A noble family is pushing for a new law, banning any celestials from civilized areas because they challenge the local government’s jurisdiction. Few know that fiendish blood runs thick within the family, and this is the first step in their plot to control the country.
• A rift to a good-aligned Outer Plane opens at the same time and almost in the same location as a rift to an evil Outer Plane. If left alone, fiends will have an excellent foothold form which to launch an attack, to say nothing of the devastation the battles will wreak upon the area near the rifts.

Advanced Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 9th tier.

• A mighty angel appears in the middle of a major city, announcing that judgement is upon it. The angel will find all evil citizens and put them to the sword or transport them to an unknown location. Is this a real reckoning, a dangerous hoax, or the enthusiastic attempts of a misguided judge?
• Spells with the (good) descriptor are failing, wreaking havoc for adventurers who rely on them. They cannot be cast in a small but rapidly growing area, which seems to be centered on the former meeting place of a long-defunct cult.

Legendary Quest: Fiendish influence is spreading. Entire towns are changing into devils, demons, and stranger creatures. Despite the sudden, often violent transition, people seem to maintain their original memories and personalities. Is this a sign of impending invasion, where fiends are masquerading as the people they replaced, or does this magic have a mundane source that fiends are manipulating to their own ends? In either case, how can it be stopped?

Theme Abilities

Blessed Blade (Su): The energies in your blood affect your weapons. As a swift action once per day per theme tier, you can cause your next weapon attack that turn to deal damage as though it was a holy weapon.
Celestial Resistances (Ex): Your body can resist the energies employed by fiends. You gain resistance 5 to an energy type of your choice and a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against petrification. You can gain this ability multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you select this ability, you gain resistance 5 to a different energy type.
Fiendsense (Su): You are attuned to the subtle energies of fiends. Select one type of evil outsider, such as devils or demons. You can detect that type of outsider as with detect evil.
Greater Fiendsense (Su): Finding fiends is as easy for you as breathing. You no longer need to concentrate to use fiendsense; it is always active. You can switch between detecting in a radius or a cone as a swift action. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the improved fiendsense theme ability before selecting this ability.
Improved Celestial Resistances (Ex): Your body is impressively resistant to unnatural attacks. Your resistance to one energy type from celestial resistances increases to 10, and your bonus to saving throws against petrification increases to +4. You also gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against poison. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the celestial resistances theme ability before selecting this ability.
Improved Fiendsense (Su): You can sense fiends even when you cannot see them. Your fiendsense can detect evil outsiders in a 5-foot radius per tier instead of a 60-foot cone. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the fiendsense theme ability before selecting this ability.
Lesser Truespeech (Su): You speak with the voice of a celestial. One minute per day per tier you can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell. You can divide the duration however you like, but it must be in one-minute increments. The caster level for this effect is equal to your level.
Planar Traveler (Su): You can mitigate the most pervasive effects of the Outer Planes.. You take no penalty due to being on a planes whose alignment does not match yours.
Suppress Nature (Su): You know people aren’t always comfortable around celestials. As a swift action you can suppress your aura of good for one round. While your aura is suppressed, spells and effects detect you as though you had no alignment. You must be at least 4th tier before selecting this ability.

Advancement Abilities

Heavenly Aura (Su): Your very presence shakes evil creatures and bolsters your allies. At 4th tier, you have a powerful aura of good, as a cleric of your character level. As a standard action you can manifest either an angel’s protective aura or an archon’s aura of menace, except that the radius is only 5 feet. This protective aura does not grant the benefits of magic circle from evil or lesser globe of invulnerability, and you do not gain the +2 racial bonus to the DC of the aura of menace. You can sustain this aura for up to one round per day per tier. The caster level for this effect is equal to your level.
Angelic Flight (Su): You can soar through the heavens. At 7th tier, for one minute per day per tier you can grow wings and fly with a speed of 60 feet (good). You can cause the wings to appear or disappear as a move action. Your clothing and armor reshape themselves to allows the wings to grow. to You can divide the duration however you like, but it must be in one-minute increments. The caster level for this effect is equal to your level. You select the type of wings when you gain this ability and you may not change them afterward.
True Ascension (Ex): You become the celestial being you always knew you were. At 10th tier you are treated as an outsider with the (good) subtype for the purpose of spells and magical effects. You gain darkvision out to 60 feet and you no longer need to eat or sleep. Additionally, you gain damage reduction 5/evil.

I figure if I’m going to introduce themes as “what if you want to play a farmer?” pretty universally, it’s only proper for that to be the first theme I post. A few things to keep in mind throughout these examples:

• These are still an untested alpha. All mechanics are subject to change, expansion, or removal.
• Themes are mean to flavor a character, not make one work. Abilities are low-powered intentionally, and a character will only receive five or six of them over their career. So if you see an ability tree and think “I don’t see how this makes my wizard build better”, good.
• I am terrible at HTML formatting.

And with that:

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FARMER
You grew up as many do, working the fields to provide food for your family and others. You know the job isn’t glamorous or easy, but it is necessary and rewarding. Whether you dealt with crops, livestock, or a more exotic commodity, you have an appreciation of hard work and a better understanding than most about how to sustain a nation.

Theme Skills: Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge (nature), Profession (farmer), Survival
Theme Feats: Animal Affinity, Endurance, Great Fortitude, Improved Great Fortitude, Toughness

Theme Quests

Novice Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 3rd tier.

• A swarm of insects is consuming crops almost ready for harvest. If nobody intervenes, they will eat entire farms’ worth of goods.
• Livestock is acting strangely, escaping their pens and wandering into precarious situations. Their owners suspect the local fey have something to do with it.

Expert Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 6th tier.

• A blighter is taking his revenge on a farming family who wronged him in the past. The blighter must be defeated or dissuaded from attacking their land, but the effects of his attacks linger long beyond he stops.
• Farmhands are disappearing for days at a time, coming back haggard and dangerously distracted. The only command thread among them, unknown to anybody, is that they all visited the same tavern the night before their disappearance, a tavern owned by the family who used to own most of the land in town.

Advanced Quests: These quests are appropriate for advancing through 9th tier.

• An army of treants is invading all of the farmland adjacent to a large forest, intent on reclaiming the land from civilization. Stopping them will be a long, dangerous endeavor, during which many people are going without food.
• A normally rare, valuable commodity is flooding the market, drastically affecting the local economy. Somebody needs to find the source of the influx, determine whether it is legitimate, and possibly halt it.

Legendary Quest: Hundreds of acres of farms are being devastated by inclement weather. Torrential rain and tornados are the most common sights, but even they don’t follow any known weather pattern. The source of the change must be found and stopped, and in the meantime an entire nation must be fed. Even after the treat has passed, the land is devastated and may no longer be viable without significant effort.

Theme Abilities

Animal Whisperer (Su): You understand beasts in a way few can without magic. You can make a Handle Animal check to improve the attitude of creatures with an Intelligence of 1 or 2. This otherwise works like a Diplomacy check. You must be at least 4th tier before selecting this ability.
Early to Rise (Ex): You are used to waking at the crack of dawn. You only need to sleep for six hours to gain the benefits of a full night’s rest. You must still rest for eight hours to regain your spells and other abilities. In addition, you only take a -5 penalty to Perception checks while you are asleep.
Home Remedies (Ex): You know which herbs and plants combat certain bodily afflictions. You gain a +2 theme bonus on Heal checks to treat poison or disease, and if you succeed the character you treat gains a +6 competence bonus on his saving throw.
Improved Home Remedies (Ex): You’ve seen enough mundane sickness to know how to treat it. Your bonus to Heal checks to treat poison or disease increases to +4, and if you succeed the character you treat gains a +8 competence bonus on his saving throw. In addition, you gain a +2 theme bonus on saving throws against poison and disease. You must be at least 4th tier and possess the home remedies theme ability before selecting this ability.
Light Sleeper (Ex): You wake before the dawn. You only need to sleep for four hours to gain the benefits of a full night’s rest. You must still rest for eight hours to regain your spells and other abilities. In addition, you take no penalty to Perception checks while sleeping, and you gain a +2 theme bonus to saving throws against sleep effects. You must have the early to rise theme ability to select this theme ability.
Market Expert (Ex): You know how to make money at the market. You gain a bonus equal to your theme tier on Appraise and Knowledge checks when dealing with the crops or livestock you handle.
Never Burdened (Ex): No amount of weight can keep you from making your rounds. You are not encumbered by medium armor or a medium load. This does not effect class abilities based on your armor or load, such as a monk’s AC bonus or a wizard’s spellcasting. You must have the pack mule theme ability to select this theme ability.
Ounce of Prevention (Ex): Your everyday activities lend themselves to stopping sickness before it starts. Your theme bonus to saving throws against poison and disease increases to +4. In addition, once per day you can allow an ally within 30 feet to reroll a saving throw against poison or disease. You must be at least 7th tier and possess the improved home remedies theme ability before selecting this ability.
Pack Mule (Ex): Whether through clever positioning or sheer brute strength, you can carry more than it seems you can. You can add your theme tier to your Strength score when determining your carrying capacity.

Advancement Abilities

Adventuring Farmer (Ex): Your understanding of farm life colors your adventuring choices. At 4th tier, select either animals or plants. You gain a +2 theme bonus to Knowledge checks and weapon damage rolls against creatures of the type you chose. In addition, you gain Simple Weapon Proficiency as a bonus feat. If you already have it, you gain a +1 theme bonus to attack rolls with simple weapons.
Crop Master (Su): Your familiarity with nature borders on the magical. At 7th tier, you can spend eight hours tending to an area of fields or natural plants. This duplicates the enrichment effect of plant growth, except the target is a 10-ft radius per theme tier. In addition, you can tolerate hot and cold temperatures as though under the effects of a constant endure elements.
Golden Crops (Su): The animals and plants you produce are the stuff of legend. At 10th tier, once per day you can take one hour to create a meal for up to twelve creatures, using only food you have raised. Large creatures count as two creatures, Huge creatures as four, and Gargantuan creatures as eight. Any creature who eats this meal gains the benefit of one of the following spells, except that the duration is 24 hours: bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, eagle’s splendor, fox’s cunning, owl’s wisdom, or resist energy. You decide which spell to use, and any specifics like the energy type for resist energy, when you create the meal. Your caster level for this spell is equal to your character level.

I have a few key points to keep in mind as I work on themes:

• They can’t be too strong. The point is not to give players a significant power jump or suddenly allow new game-breaker builds. Themes must be significant enough to matter, but not so much that their overshadow classes (or, heavy sigh, races)
• They have to be flavorful. “+2 to Heal checks” is boring. “+2 to Heal checks because you’re using the home remedies your grandparents taught you” is much better.
• They have to inform, but not dictate, the character. They have to be general, like “soldier” rather than “military brat” or “draftee” or “trained in swordplay by an elven master”. Similar themes would overlap too much, and very specific themes restrict a player’s ability to make them relevant to their character.
• They can’t just be another way to say “adventurer”. A theme designed for rogues and only rogues is worthless. We already have a mechanic for that: the rogue. A single theme needs to apply to multiple classes. This isn’t to say every theme needs to apply equally well to all classes; a wizard will get more out of the scholar theme than a barbarian, but the barbarian will still be able to use it (and probably be awesome.)
• They have to adhere to reasonable mechanic design. You know, low levels should offer less powerful abilities than high levels, there should be no dead levels, the abilities can’t be meaninglessly specific or too-good-to-not-take broad, etc. I think points like this are obvious, but they may only be obvious to me.

With those in mind, here are the general rules for themes:

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Themes work in tiers, not unlike mythic power. All characters have a theme and begin in the 1st theme tier. Your theme tier is separate from your class level and cannot be advanced with experience points. Instead, you increase your tier by completing quests specific to your theme. Each theme includes examples of such quests, but you can work with your DM to create quests that work with your campaign, setting, and character. You can use a single quest to advance themes for multiple characters as long as the quest is relevant to each theme. The point is not that you gain a tier after having so many adventures or gaming sessions, but that you advance whenever you work with your theme and improve within it.

Every character gains abilities based on their theme. These abilities are gained based on the character’s theme tier.

Theme Tier	Theme Abilities
1st	Theme ability
2nd	1st theme skill
3rd	Theme ability
4th	Expert advancement, theme feat
5th	Theme ability
6th	2nd theme skill
7th	Advance advancement, theme ability
8th	Theme feat
9th	Theme ability
10th	Legendary advancement, 3rd theme skill

Theme Ability: As you advance within your theme you find ways to use your expertise in your adventuring career. At 1st tier you gain a theme ability. You gain another theme ability for every two tiers beyond 1st. You cannot select the same ability more than once unless otherwise specified within the ability. Once you select a ability you cannot change it.

Theme Skill: Your experience within your theme applies in limited ways to the skills you use as an adventurer. When you reach 2nd tier, select one skill from your theme’s skill list. You gain a +2 bonus on checks with that skill. At 6th and 10th tier you may select an additional skill. In addition, at each such interval, the bonus for any skill you chose (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by +2.

Expert Ability: You have gained great skill or prestige, enough to be recognized by others who share your interests. You gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks when interacting with characters who share your theme. In addition, you gain an ability based on your theme.

Theme Feat: When you reach 4th tier and 8th tier, select one feat from your theme’s feat list. You gain this feat as a bonus feat. You must meet all prerequisites for the feat.

Advanced Ability: You are renowned within your field, and it is likely that other characters have heard of you even if they do not share similar interests. Your Diplomacy bonus when interacting with characters who share your theme increases to +4. In addition, you gain an ability based on your theme.

Legendary Ability: You are legendary within your field, perhaps more famous for your theme than you are as an adventurer. You gain your theme’s legendary ability.

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This is still an alpha, so it’s subject to change. I’m really not sure about giving characters a theme ability at T7, when they’re already getting an ability from advancement, and only a feat at T8. Switching them is probably better design. I also don’t much like that characters only get one ability between Expert-level at T4 and Advanced-level at T7. But there’s a persnickety part of me that really wants to say “you get an ability at every odd-numbered tier.” I haven’t reconciled it yet.

Unless I completely redesign something, that’s it. Themes don’t take several pages of rules or a whole bunch of cross-checking to figure out, by design. If a player has already put together the several flowcharts and footnotes they need to understand occultist spellcasting, they don’t want to crack open three books to see how to be an urchin.

And since that’s the full set of rules, for the rest of the month I’ll probably be posting the themes themselves. Right now I have five done and a sixth this close to done, so I’ll have a good list of themes from which to pick.

So what, exactly, is a theme?

D&D and Pathfinder make a clear difference between PCs and NPCs. PCs are heroes, the stuff of legend, several cuts above the average person. PCs are stronger, faster, braver, and all around better than a farmer or village priest or even royalty. While NPCs ostensibly use the same system as PCs, they’re restricted to different, lesser classes, ability scores, equipment, and opportunities.

This is mostly because D&D and Pathfinder are games about adventuring, and PCs are adventurers. A PC is expected to dedicate their life to whichever cause is relevant to the game, whether that’s promoting the interests of a guild, saving the kingdom, uncovering arcane secrets, or even just accumulating wealth and prestige. They’re better than other people because they throw themselves wholeheartedly into this cause, forsaking other interests and pursuits to advance their career with single-minded commitment.

To that end, all non-adventuring interests fall by the wayside except as they apply to adventuring. A blacksmith who taught herself swordplay and became a fighter isn’t a blacksmith any more, except in that she may choose to increase her Craft ranks. A lesser noble born with magic in his blood is a sorcerer, and his nobility is only relevant as a single social trait and perhaps an opportunity for later adventuring hooks. Even a character who owns and operates a current, functioning, persistent business can only manipulate it during her downtime, using optional rules that apply to the space between traveling and killing.

This is because, as far as the system is concerned, everything that isn’t directly relevant to adventuring isn’t worth a focus. It’s a single skill check at best and a background footnote at worst. This is why there are six Knowledge skills that cover monsters, but only one Profession skill to cover every type of crop a farmer could possibly grow. The things a character did before they became a PC are irrelevant, and when they become a PC they reject all outside interests. Life is adventuring, and adventuring is life.

This is bull.

A real character has interests outside being an adventurer. They have hobbies that don’t fit as common skill checks. They have beliefs besides those that manifest as a class’ spellcasting. They have relationships beyond NPC boons. They have backgrounds that mean more than a +1 bonus to a single skill. A person is more than their occupation, and a character should be more than an optimized murderhobo whose only relevant personality trait is where they stand in a party formation.

This is what themes are, a mechanic for the parts of characters that don’t fit neatly into a race/class structure. They allow these backgrounds and interests to be part of the game, not a line on a character sheet about which a player can quickly forget. With themes a character can not only use their non-adventuring passions as a way to help them as adventurers, they can also advance in said passions without sacrificing resources, like skill points and funds, that they need to keep pace with the system’s expectations. They bring backstory to the table in a tangible way.

What I’m looking for is something like what existed during a phase in the 5E playtest, where a character’s background advanced as they did. For example, a 1st-level farmer may have gotten a bonus to working with crops, but at 5th-level also did better in the market or dealt better with livestock. This occurred regardless of your class, and it showed that even as you fought kobolds and raided dungeons, you were still a farmer and you were expected to be working on that as well. It meant a wizard-farmer had different abilities from a wizard-thief and neither felt they were worse at wizardry for having come from a different background, and that colored the characters and the classes in ways that mattered during play.

Instead, 5E ended up with backstory, which gives players a benefit at 1st-level and allows them to choose from a list of relevant character traits for the opportunity at a +2 bonus at some point after the DM decides you are playing the character appropriately (the especially astute might gather that I think dimly of this mechanic, and they are correct). Besides that the backstory has no effect. It’s done. You’re not a thief any more, you’re a ranger, and your thievery is static unless you choose to sacrifice ranger abilities for it.

While I think I run in circles who have a much stronger opinion about the “character=person” approach than is standard, I still think there’s an opportunity here for the game to work with us instead of against us. We shouldn’t have to cobble together ways to make our characters fit the rules in a system ostensibly designed to handle anything you can throw at it. The intent of a theme is to fill this void, and allow characters to let their background progress in a way concurrent with, but separate from, their class level.

I know that by adding a new system I’m increasing complexity, and I’m okay with that. I also know this increases the power level of play because it gives characters abilities they wouldn’t otherwise have, and I’m okay with that too. I am trying to keep the power jump relatively low because these are supposed to be supplemental rules rather than a subversion of the class system. I’m also letting the DM mitigate the rate of progression in a theme and how much it’s likely to come up during gameplay. I’ll discuss that later around theme quests. I suppose an enterprising (read: insufferable) player could still game the system by choosing a theme designed to matter in a campaign more than the other players’, but I contend that’s actually the DM’s fault for naming it the “The Corn Isn’t Coming Along Sufficiently” campaign in the first place.

Over November I plan on posting these about themes as I write them, including the alpha-test structure for a theme, what the bits of it are, and a few varied examples. As I said before this is more of a “see what I can do” activity than a “write 50,000 words” activity, so I don’t know exactly how often I’ll be posting or what those posts will contain, but the goal is to have enough for you to sink your teeth into.