All optional and house rules active in the Estari campaign. These modify or extend the Pathfinder 2e ruleset for the 9th Era setting.
Each player takes on a role to keep the party organized. These are session responsibilities, not character abilities.
The leader makes sure everyone is doing their jobs and follows up on anyone who falls behind. When gaps appear (missed logs, uncounted loot, forgotten rations), the Party Leader fills them or delegates.
Responsible for submitting events to the group timeline. At the end of each session, the Time Keeper must update the timeline with everything significant that occurred. Every player can submit and edit events, but the Time Keeper is accountable for making sure it happens.
Keeps the group's shared loot up to date. Throughout each session, the Loot Keeper tracks items acquired, sold, or distributed and records them in the group inventory. They do not manage individual player character sheets, only the shared party loot.
Tracks everyone's ration usage across sessions. Food, water, and consumable supplies: the Resource Tracker keeps count so the party doesn't find itself starving three days into a crossing because nobody was paying attention.
Maintains the party's Hero Forge tokens so every character looks the way they actually are in play. When someone equips new armor, claims a signature weapon, loses an eye, gains a scar, dyes their hair, or is otherwise transformed by the events of a session, the Token Keeper updates that character's token to match. They are not responsible for building tokens from scratch, only for keeping existing ones current with items acquired, wounds taken, and changes the story has imposed on the party.
If you are playing an Estari character, you use the following creation process instead of standard point buy:
Estari use the Pathfinder 2e Dual Class optional rule with one additional restriction:
Your two classes cannot be directly connected on the Class Web.
On the Class Web, clicking any class highlights all classes directly linked to it by a single step, those are the classes you cannot choose as your second class. Your second class must be separated by at least two steps along the shortest route between them.
Non-Estari characters use the standard Pathfinder 2e character creation rules:
Divine healing can only affect targets who share the same faith as the caster, including the caster themselves.
A divine caster cannot heal someone of a different faith or someone with no faith. This restriction applies to all divine healing spells and abilities.
Primal healing cannot target the caster. It can heal allies normally without restriction.
This applies to all primal healing spells and abilities, regardless of range or targeting method. The caster is simply not a valid target for their own primal healing.
The four magic traditions form a closed cycle. Each type overcomes the next clockwise: Arcane overcomes Divine, Divine overcomes Primal, Primal overcomes Occult, Occult overcomes Arcane.
| Rule | Details |
|---|---|
| Counterspelling | You may use any spell slot of the same level to attempt a counterspell against any tradition. Counterspelling the type you overcome (clockwise neighbor) is automatically successful if your slot is equal level. |
| Detect Magic | Reads your own type and the type to the left (counter-clockwise). Detects nothing from the opposite type. |
Any number of casters may join a Collective Cast. Effects scale with the number of participants.
Additional casters overcharge the slot rather than the spell. Each one raises the effective rank by 1, and since the caster level cap is three times the rank spent, each caster buys three more levels of headroom. Two friends joining a 3rd-rank fireball make it a 5th-rank one: the cap moves from 9 to 15, so a 15th level caster gets 30d6 out of a slot that alone would have given 18d6. Casters below the cap contribute their bodies and their attack bonus, not their levels; the damage is still the lead caster’s.
| Parameter | Effect |
|---|---|
| Effective Slot Rank | Slot rank + 1 per additional caster |
| Caster Level Cap | 3 × the effective slot rank |
| Attack Bonus & DC | +1 per additional caster |
| Cost | 1 untyped damage to HP per participating caster |
All tool kits have 10 charges. Each charge is consumed when you make a check using the kit, regardless of success or failure.
Every being with a soul has at least 1 level by adulthood. This is a universal constant of existence in the 9th Era.
Taking multiple actions in a single turn draws on your Stamina pool. Your first action each turn costs nothing. Each additional action carries a mounting Stamina cost as your body is pushed further within the same breath of time.
| Action This Turn | Stamina Cost |
|---|---|
| 1st Action | 0 · free |
| 2nd Action | 1 Stamina |
| 3rd Action | 2 Stamina |
| 4th Action (if available) | 3 Stamina |
| 5th Action (if available) | 4 Stamina |
Each action beyond the first costs 1 more Stamina than the last. If you cannot pay the cost, you cannot take that action. Abilities that grant additional actions beyond the normal three (through feats, items, or special circumstances) follow this same escalating pattern without exception.
A critical hit does not double its damage. Roll damage as you normally would. That damage then bypasses the Stamina pool entirely and applies directly to Hit Points.
Stamina covers the ordinary exchange: the blows you turn, the ones that glance, the effort of staying on your feet. A critical hit is the one that lands properly, and no amount of breath left in you softens it. A target with an empty Stamina pool takes a critical hit exactly as it always would, so the rule costs nothing at the bottom of a fight and bites hardest at the top of one.
A damaging spell ignores its printed damage. Multiply the spell's heightening dice by your caster level instead.
Your caster level is your character level, capped at three times the rank of the slot you spend.
Fireball heightens at +2d6 per rank. A 6th level wizard casting it deals 2d6 × 6, so 12d6. The same wizard at 9th level casting it from a 3rd-rank slot deals 18d6, and that is where a 3rd-rank slot stops. Levelling past 9 does nothing for that spell until it is cast from a higher slot.
| Slot Rank Spent | Caster Level Cap |
|---|---|
| 1st | 3 |
| 2nd | 6 |
| 3rd | 9 |
| 4th | 12 |
| 5th | 15 |
| 6th | 18 |
| 7th and above | 20 · character maximum |
A slot of 7th rank or higher would cap above the level ceiling, so it is limited by your own level rather than by the slot. Spells that deal no damage are unaffected; their ranks, durations and areas work as written.
A proficiency bonus is still your rank bonus plus your level. The level portion now stops at a ceiling set by your rank, and each rank raises that ceiling by five.
| Rank | Rank Bonus | Level Contributes Up To | Maximum Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trained | +2 | +5 | +7 |
| Expert | +4 | +10 | +14 |
| Master | +6 | +15 | +21 |
| Legendary | +8 | +20 | +28 |
A 12th level character trained in Athletics adds +7: five from level, two from the rank. Under standard Pathfinder they would add +14. Reaching expert lifts the ceiling to ten and takes them to +14, which is the first point at which the change stops costing them anything. Levels below a ceiling still count in full, so a 3rd level trained character adds +5 either way.