I've been playing with an idea for my usual group (we usually do pathfinder but I'm open to other ones if they work better) about doing a monster campaign were each player chooses a monster with less than 1 CR and they start in a giant dungeon (multiple floors, harder enemies on lower floors) and the goal is to become the strongest in the dungeon (after that its up to them tbh) Thing is I don't want to give them class levels. I want them to evolve so to speak. To go from one monster to the next monster that is a higher CR, but there is nothing written by paizo or third parties that have anything like that, so I'm looking for some advice on how I should go about it. (also sorry about the wall of text lol) Spoiler: Things I'm already thinking about putting in God's Blessings Adventurer Drops Template system
I'm not opposed to levels but I don't want to give them any to start with. like if they find a wizards book they become a Lv 1 Wizard, and things along those lines certain classes would be cut out like that but the majority would still be there
You'd probably end up with a form of XP system anyway. Could have them gain evolution points towards what they are trying to become, some gaining more (higher CR) but more importantly compatibablity with the new evolution. i.e Lizard becomming a basilisk, if they are eating kobolds they will gain some more evolution points than eating a goblin. (Kolbolds being "related" to dragons, dragons being in the lizardy,snakey group somewhat, though I'm sure they disagree) Though that could be a lot of work to figure out.
I was thinking something along the same lines as that, were if they are a skeleton they have to stick to the undead category if they are a beast they have to stick to beast. there will always be those situational scenarios were they can turn into something else but for the most part it would be one character - one type
It will require a lot of work on your part. You'll have to make conditions they have to meet, secret or not, and have lists of possible evolutions ready to go for that time. You could observe what they do in the game in order to give a list of evolution options. Probably three options. Or you can have some preset conditions for evolution and give them the option to evolve into that or wait till they meet other hidden conditions. Auto heal on evolution so that you can give the option of forcing path in an emergency. Make them only fight other monsters first. Probably themselves. Map out the area they are in ahead of time and make it huge. Probably a dungeon. It would explain the variety. The only way to gain stats is to evolve or find equipment. My thoughts off of the top of my head. You can make some dead growth paths if you want to hardball it. They can start from the beginning of they die. The adventure of discovering the paths should be fun. Don't make absolute conditions for evolution. Make like six and only need to fill three early evolution. Make fewer harder conditions later in evo path.
The work load was one of the first things I noticed about trying to do something like this but I think if I do it right at least it will be a lot of fun for them, which will make it fun for me. my plan is to have the game in a month or two so that I can get everything fleshed out and planned ahead so that it won't be chaotic the entire time. -Auto-heal upon evolution is a fantastic idea (seriously thank you ) -Evolution paths are also a great idea, will take a bit more work and I'll probably have to home-brew a few options but it should be fine -The Dungeon is already sorta mapped out (I've been thinking about doing this for awhile -What you said about the evolution paths I was thinking about applying to the God's Blessings from the beginning (secret requirements that only GM knows)
While auto-heal is fine, you might want to give them a degrading debuff as they adjust to their new form and they can perform certain actions to accelecerate the process.
Something along the lines of their skills falling to a low level would work with the debuff, to counter act that I could find a way so that they could train their skills -Example: Before Evolution, Perception Ranks 7 After Evolution, Perception Ranks 3 then let them train by doing a lot of perception rolls or something
You can have them all be reincarnated to show how they are different and how they can get along. The lack of stat increases outside of evolution and equipment is to lower complications for you.
I'm not going to lie. reincarnation was an angle I didn't even think about, its different from what I want but the easiest option Thank you!