Leveling up, not gearing up

Background

Inspired by the thread, Evil Lincoln's Anti-Christmas Tree Effect on the Paizo.com forums, I've decided to try my hand at tweaking the Pathfinder level-up table for my home campaigns. This page memorializes my current thinking.

My motivations for this are several, a combination of my 1st/2nd Edition D&D roots and what works (or not) in my gaming group: the assertion that "the game is balanced assuming a certain 'wealth by level', much of which is pumped into 'level-appropriate' number-boosting gear" is high on the list of things of "not".

1. This assumption makes reading character stat blocks have a certain sameness, especially on the 'optimization'-centric parts of the forums. "+4 [item] of [stat], check. +3 primary weapon, check. +2 saving throw item, check."
2. That sameness doesn't even come with a benefit of making it easier to generate characters--in fact, it makes it harder by requiring bookkeeping to track item-based bonuses that are "assumed", rather than just, uh, assuming them.
3. The "bonus-buying" assumption adds several unnecessary steps to the end of every combat. "I loot the bodies--do I find anything with detect magic? Okay, I use Spellcraft to identify the longsword. +1? Thought so: it's what every villain at this level has." The GM and the party's bookkeeper (and identifier) are stuck spending time on this while the rest of the party's eyes glaze over.
4. Same same for the loot-liquidation and "shopping" process when the party gets back to town; lots of number-crunching and handing around huge piles of gold and then making people roll for availability of expected items (in the worst case, putting the action on hold because "we need to find a bigger town for this equipment upgrade")
5. Magic items should be fun and interesting, and characters should hold on to interesting loot they find because it's interesting--not just liquidate that Cloak of the scuttling rat because it's time to upgrade their +1 Cloak of Resistance to a +2.
6. Relatedly, when was the last time a character purchased a belt, headband, or cloak that wasn't one of the basic number-boosters? Pretty much "never", in my games, meaning that those items are in large part just rule-clutter that add to the tyranny of choice that turns off some players.

Evil Lincoln's proposed system addresses all of these points, pulling the "level-appropriate" number-boosting process out of the "treasure" bin and into a straight-up reference table. Problem #1 is addressed, because basic mechanical assumptions are no longer an issue of system mastery, but of...basic mechanics. #2-4 are not eliminated, but at least reduced by minimizing the number of items that need to be added during NPC generation, just to take up time in indentification before quickly being liquidated for cash to buy stat boosters.#5 and 6 are addressed because there's no need to sell off weird magic for basic boosters, nor to tie up magic item "slots" with them: magical items become more fun and unexpected.

As seen in the thread linked, everybody has slightly their own thoughts on how to space out the bonuses, how closely to hew to "wealth by level", how many total stat bumps to include over 20 levels, etc. My contribution, therefore, is limited to my own take on the table, and much credit is due to the participants in that thread.

The system

• Enhancement bonuses to character ability scores, saving throws, weapon attacks/damage, and armor cannot be purchased in magic items. There is no such thing as a +1 longsword.
• Characters receive automatic enhancement bonuses to these stats as they level up, according to the table below. (This table includes the every-odd-level feat and every-fourth-level ability score bump already in the Core Rulebook.)
• These enhancement bonuses do not stack with other enhancement bonuses--e.g., once a character has put +4 to their Con score, they can no longer benefit from bear's endurance.
• Magical items that have properties in addition to a bonus maintain their gold piece values, assuming the minimum possible enhancement bonus for that property--i.e. all flaming longswords are costed out as if they are +1 flaming longswords.
• No ability score can be increased more than +6 in this manner over the course of a character's career.
• At every fourth level, a "bonus personal" feat is listed. Characters may choose a feat that does not have any prerequisite other than ability score, skill ranks, race, or alignment--this cannot be a combat, metamagic, or item creation feat, not can it have (or assume, e.g. combat casting) a class ability as a prereq. The intent here is to allow/encourage feats that can round out a character, but are often overlooked. When in doubt, "common" feats are disallowed by intent.

Todo list / outstanding questions

• Masterwork weapons?
• Does a character's +1 weapon enhancement hit creatures with DR/magic?
• How much "other stuff" should a newly created NPC have?
• Testing, testing...esp the bonus "personal" feat thing.