The revisions to diplomacy and charm person are pretty cool, and I think would be relevant in game, but this is ultimately up to DM CD. Also just skimmed through your backstory additions Klinn and I will respond to them sometime later tonight! I must say that they do look great though :)
The IC thread is up! Find it here!
And I got to begin with a Lovecraft quote, so all is well!
Agh! Is there time to quickly make a character for this? *rushing rushing rushing*
Did you know that today is Lovecraft's birthday?
Did you know that today is Lovecraft's birthday?
I did not know that. Pretty interesting coincidence, isn't it? Or is it? Make a SAN check!
Agh! Is there time to quickly make a character for this? *rushing rushing rushing*
Sure, but I will introduce you at Oleg's Trading Post, the party's first stop in the Stolen Lands. We should get there within a few days to a week at the outside, so you have that much time to create your character if you want to get in on the first (official) encounters. We can work you in later if necessary, but this will be the most convenient approach.
DM, I'm still interested in hearing your thoughts about the link Klinn posted about the proposed diplomacy/charm person rule changes. I think it would be interesting, but you have the final say of course.
I saw it. It takes me a little while to review alternate rules.
That said, I'm inclined to give this ruleset a try. For the first part of Kingmaker we will use it. We can discuss how it worked once we finish part one, okay?
I finally got a chance to flesh this guy out today! I'm not totally done, but tell me what you think, or what I might need to change *gulp* (AH)
Looks good so far. I am going to veto your interpretation of the favored class option and the Heighten Spell + Versatile Spellcaster feats, however. I consider that favored class option to rely on base spell levels rather than modified ones (such as from metamagic feats or effects). As such, you may only add orisons to your list of known spells via the favored class option until you gain access to 2nd-level spells in the normal manner, at which point you may learn additional 1st-level spells via the favored class option, and so on. Points for creativity, though.
Your backstory suggests training in bluff, and possibly in disguise as well. You may wish to invest points in those skills.
Lack of bluff was an oversight. Looks like I have a skill point lying around now for it anyway, lol. I figured since PF Heighten Spell went out of its way to say the spell was literally higher level and not just a higher spell slot it was kosher, but I see how that goes against designer intent, and you're (obviously) well within your rights to ban that. Feats changed.
Oh, one more thing about the revised diplomacy rules. I think it makes more sense for the opponent's charisma to affect the DC than for wisdom to do so. Charisma represents the character's force of personality, so it seems more logical for that to serve as the measure of a character's conviction.
I'll clean up the missing bits by tomorrow. Just tell me when it's my cue to enter.
Oh, they'll pay for this. I'll make sure they regret the day they dared cross me. That is to say, sure.
Odd rules question: Can Awesome Display make low HD targets count as "negative" HD, and if so would affecting such a low HD target grant additional hit dice to "use" for spells like Hypnotic Pattern?
Odd rules question: Can Awesome Display make low HD targets count as "negative" HD, and if so would affecting such a low HD target grant additional hit dice to "use" for spells like Hypnotic Pattern?
No. That ability cannot reduce HD to an effective level of zero or below.
Oracle[/url] entry]In addition to the spells gained by oracles as they gain levels, each oracle also adds all of either the cure spells or the inflict spells to her list of spells known (cure spells include all spells with “cure” in the name, inflict spells include all spells with “inflict” in the name). These spells are added as soon as the oracle is capable of casting them. This choice is made when the oracle gains her first level and cannot be changed.
So I get my two normal spells (Blessed Aim, Command) plus the free Cure spell for that level. I suppose cure mod... Meh, moot now. Feats be changed. Anyway, to head off further concern, since Oracles don't "channel energy" like clerics, they don't need to spontaneously inflict due to "channeling negative energy." Evil Oracles can spontaneously cure, although they might use it to prolong torture...
Cool. I had totally forgotten about that. You're fine to join in once the party arrives at Oleg's.
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Because I can't bear to leave such a masterpiece unfinished. Now with footnotes!
Oh s**t! Get your trowels ready
Everybody in the place hit the f****n' hay
But stay on your motherf*****g toes
We running this, let's go
I'm in a barn (in a barn)
I'm in a barn (in a barn)
Everybody look at me
'Cause I'm waiting in a barn
I'm in a barn (in a barn)
I'm in a barn (in a barn)
Take a good hard look
At the motherf*****g barn
I'm in a barn, motherf****r; and I need to boast
Straight waitin' in this barn in this trading post
'Ll be bustin' some skulls, sis whippin' out their throats
You can't stop me motherf****r 'cause I'm next to goats
Write a ballad, bard! I'm in a barn, b***h!
Drinkin' water from a catfish though it makes me sick.
Got my longspear, and my eidolon,
Preppin' violence; you in the courtyard
Straight sittin' on the lawn.
I'm next to the horses, there are some cows too
The horses whinny, and the cows go "moo"
But I ain't Old MacDonald; I'm as real as it gets
I'm in a barn motherf****r, don't you ever forget.
I'm in a barn and, it's really big and
I'm waiting for the signal to start the plan
I'm the king of the world, in a barn like Jesus
If you in the courtyard then you sure not me, yes.(1)
GET THE F**K UP, THIS BARN IS REAL!
F**k outside, I'm in a barn, motherf****r
F**k sky, I look at rafters, motherf****r
I'm in the barn with some sheep, motherf****r
Most of the sheep are asleep, motherf****r
Hey ma, if you could see me now
Holdin' my longspear next to this cow
I'm gonna turn this barn into a golem somehow
Like a Rank 0 diety,(2) anything is possible
Yeah, never thought I'd be in a barn
It's is really quite large
Erastil,(3) look at me
Never thought I'd see the day
With a big barn all full of hay
Believe me when I say... I f****d a mermaid!(4)
I'm in a barn (in a barn)
I'm in a barn (in a barn)
Everybody look at me
'Cause I'm waiting in a barn
I'm in a barn (in a barn)
I'm in a barn (in a barn)
Take a good hard look
At the motherf*****g barn
(1)Probably the worst rhyme in here.
(2)Rank 0 is the lowest tier of dieties, but still possessed of the ability to alter reality.
(3)God of farming
(4)Yeah, still a mermaid. Doesn't matter that they're not in barns, because Klinn's that awesome.
Awesome
As a heads-up, we'll soon have another player joining us. Michael L. has expressed interest, and says he should have a character up and running in a few days.
Couple things to note:
1) Your base intelligence score should be 12, I believe.
2) You need to list your feat selections.
3) You're missing a skill point.
4) You gain a bonus language due to your intelligence score - what language is it?
5) You're chaotic neutral. You give off an aura of chaos rather than an aura of good.
6) Point-Blank Shot only boosts damage and attack rolls with ranged weapons when you are within 30 feet of your target.
7) There's no way your damage rolls with a rapier are 1d6 + 4. 1d6 + 1 is all you can do with a strength of 12 and no other boosts. Weapon Finesse applies only to attack rolls, but not to damage rolls.
8) The charming trait only applies when the other party is or could be sexually attracted to you.
9) I want to see a full list of your wealth and how you invested it.
10) Create a character alias for Vlad, and include these details in it, as well as a physical description of him and a basic backstory .
And he'd probably have detect law and smite law too.
Hehe, a champion of chaos and Nitina might have... interesting interactions.
Given that his backstory is entirely about doing whatever it takes to get revenge on some bandits, I let him keep detect evil and smite evil. He seems to be going for the chaos/evil versus evil approach.
Homebrew Alert!
So, the lack of light and advanced firearms has been bugging me slightly. Yes, I know that recoil makes the term "light" rather unlikely, but smaller caliber firearms have less recoil and are easier to use. Also, I'm inclined to treat the "Guns Everywhere" setting as having the equivalent of pre-1900 technology for firearms. Also, fantasy world!
So, to refine the published rules a bit, here is some more homebrew stuff for this game. I introduce a number of new firearms and attempt to pre-emptively clarify a few potential rules questions. All of the firearms described below are considered advanced firearms.
The Derringer
Base Cost: 5000 Gold
Damage: 1d6 (1d4 if small)
Critical: x4
Range: 10 feet
Misfire: 1
Capacity: 4
Weight: 2 lbs
Type: B and P
Special: +4 bonus to SoH when concealing this weapon. This is a light weapon.
A derringer shares weapon focus, weapon specialization, and gun training with the revolver. Note that this weapon has 4 barrels, much like the pepperbox rifle.
Repeating Rifle
Base Cost: 12,000 Gold
Damage: 1d10 (1d8 if small)
Critical: x4
Range: 80 feet
Misfire: 1
Capacity: 6
Weight: 14 lbs
Type: B and P
Historically, the first repeating rifles saw use during the American Civil War in the form of lever-action weapons. As this is a fantasy game and guns are just fluffed to be pre-1900 tech, you can describe this weapon's repeating mechanism, as well as that of the repeating carbine, as lever-action, bolt-action, or semi-automatic. Heck, you could even say that it uses a revolver-style rotary mechanism.
The repeating rifle shares weapon focus, weapon specialization, gun training, and related feats with the rifle and pepperbox rifle, but not with carbines or shotguns.
Repeating Carbine
Base Cost: 10,000 Gold
Damage: 1d10 (1d8 if small)
Critical: x4
Range: 50 feet
Misfire: 1
Capacity: 6
Weight: 10 lbs
Type: B and P
Special: May be fired one-handed, albeit at a -2 penalty to hit.
As this is a cut-down rifle, it may be described as having the same repeating mechanisms as a rifle. As an example, Zoe's gun from Firefly is lever-action.
The repeating carbine shares weapon focus, weapon specialization, gun training, and related feats with carbines and pepperbox carbines.
Repeating Shotgun
Base Cost: 25,000 Gold
Damage: 1d8 (1d6 if small)
Critical: x2
Range: 20 feet
Misfire: 1-2
Capacity: 5
Weight: 14 lbs
Type: B and P
Special: Scatter
Repeating shotguns also existed prior to 1900. The earliest lever-action shotguns were designed in 1885, while the first pump-action shotguns were designed in 1893.
Repeating shotguns share weapon focus, weapon specialization, gun training, and related feats with shotguns and double-barreled shotguns.
Rules: Of these new weapons, only the Derringer may be selected as a granted firearm. The revolver, rifle, carbine and shotgun are the other choices in a game with advanced firearms. All of the repeating weapons described above (save for the derringer) have a single barrel.
As a heads up, I have shared an exploration map with you all via google docs. If you didn't get it, let me know.
Format-wise, the color of the shape(s) in the small squares represents the type of terrain that is present in each hex. Light green indicates plains, aquamarine indicates swamps, dark green indicates forests, blue indicates water (I'll draw in a blue line to represent any rivers or streams you might encounter), brown indicates mountainous terrain, white indicates snowy terrain, and tan indicates desert terrain.
As you explore more of the greenbelt, I will reveal more of the map to you.
Also, the red dot indicates where you currently are.
A red dot. How apropos.
Would've been a green dot, but then I figured that your characters aren't that socially conscious.
Just so I've got this right can through three hexes or explore one in one day (I know we only had 3 hours and were tracking the first day on the trail)? Can we get to a hex and explore it in one day? Also, I'm assuming no difficult terrain. Clearly, if we were climbing a mountain, it might take us more than a day to explore a hex.
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You are correct. Plains are the easiest terrains to explore in terms of time required to do so, and your party's speed is the other factor in how quickly you can explore and travel.
Also note that you need to explore a hex to have any ability to locate features that aren't landmarks. Simply entering a hex will not reveal a feature that isn't massive and/or immediately obvious.
The lesson? Keep your horses alive and in good health!
Reprinted from Kingmaker #1: Stolen Land:
Traveling (Time to cross 1 hex)
Party Speed --- Plains --- All Other Terrains
15 feet --- 11 hours ----- 16 hours
20 feet --- 8 hours ------- 12 hours
30 feet --- 5 hours -------- 8 hours
40 feet --- 4 hours -------- 6 hours
50 feet --- 3 hours -------- 5 hours
Exploring (Time to fully explore 1 hex)
Party Speed --- Plains --- Forest/Hill ---Mountain or Swamp
15 feet -------- 3 days ----- 4 days ----------- 5 days
20 feet -------- 2 days ----- 3 days ----------- 4 days
30 feet -------- 1 day ------ 2 days ----------- 3 days
40 feet -------- 1 day ------ 1 day ------------ 2 days
50 feet -------- 1 day ------ 1 day ------------ 1 day
Generally speaking, I will allow you to enter and explore a hex in one day so long as you can move quickly enough.
Man, it is a good thing that Arastine is planning on progressing as a Wizard. We have been quite short of spells all over the place...
Considering the fact that you, Karina and Pete can cast spells, I'm not too worried. Also remember that if everyone sticks with their current plan, Nitina and Arastine will cast spells soon, while Vlad will get them at 4th level.
And once we get out of the low levels I'll be able to cast the non-cure ones, yay!
Sure, but the summoner is no primary caster. Summoners are great because you can mix spells with summoning/eidolon, but they have very limited spell slots. Pete can control the field pretty nicely and Karina will fill in that roll as well later, assuming she doesn't add too much gunslinger. More than anything, I think it will be necessary to have a wider variety of spells when we have a wider variety of tasks to accomplish. Right now, surviving and taking care of pretty minor problems the good ol' fashioned way seems to be our focus (appropriately, since we are level 1).
Also, I think the game has been going great. We've got a couple of objectives, at least my character still believes he has a handle on the situation (little does he know!!) and the encounters haven't been out-of-this-world difficult (While I think either of the encounters could be more difficult without a party kill, we would not have survived the second encounter had the first been much harder. The main issue with players getting a lot of damage is our limited amount of magical healing in a dangerous environment, but I think you have done a good job balancing). I'm also glad that since we are primarily doing out-and-about adventuring, you are willing for some days to be relatively calm with nothing particularly strange happening. After a week or two of encounters 2x per day, I would be concerned for the mental health of any character.
Heh, if this game modeled mental health in a realistic manner, I'd be asking for Vlad (disemboweled - TWICE - by lizards) to roll a save against PTSD and for Nitina to roll against developing a fear of centipedes!
Anyway, the random encounter tables can be fickle. The centipede hit hard enough that it could one-shot most of the party with ease, but the snake lizards only hurt so much because of their criticals and good rolls. It's not so much me keeping things calm as it is the (relatively) small chance of random encounters. I'm honestly surprised you got two CR 4 encounters in such a short time span!
Haha, that is very true. I find it amusing that a character can be like "Oh I got disemboweled by monsters last round but got healed... so now I'm going to stand up and move back to square X7." Of course, in real life you'd freak the f*~* out about that happening.
I've liked the combat difficulty so far. The snakes were just about the perfect difficulty level that we've faced so far. I do have to say, however, that gunslingers rolling against touch has really helped us out, especially against the centipede. With some luck, Nitina will heal up her dex damage quickly and we'll be in good fighting shape soon.
I've been really impressed by the activity of the party so far. The game really hasn't lagged at the potentially slow parts. I've liked the mix of combat and roleplay too. All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about things so far, and hoping to be able to survive past the critical rocket tag/CR 9001 random encounters that level 1's can face in Kingmaker.
I, too, must congratulate you all on how smoothly and quickly this is going. And I have to laugh - you got another random encounter, although this time probably not nearly so challenging as those you have faced before.
Lol, what do you suppose the DC for avoiding PTSD is? DC 17 Will save? Somebody should write up a table of psychological miladies and their respective saves.... :)
Noooo! Don't give the psych major homework!
Heh, I just checked and the nearest thing to a table of mental disorders is the madness table!
I think it's slightly behind the times...
NM, I think you underestimate Summoner spellcasting. Sure, endurance is a problem, but you get an excellent selection of battlefield control spells, many at about the same time a wizard can access it.
I think any issues we have with magical healing endurance go away with a Wand of CLW or a Wand of Lesser Vigor, which hopefully we can get from our noble patrons at some point. Also, leveling up means less going unconscious, so less need for immediate healing (which prolongs combat, which increases necessary healing, whereas buffs/offensive spells decrease combat length).
IMO it's more fun just to roleplay our characters' quirks generated from near death experience; no need to roll on a table.
Anyway, fun times so far. I'm glad I have some time to keep up with this onslaught of posts. Idea: Assuming everyone is in the same area at some point, might it be possible to organize a live session of this to complement the PbP?
Heh, no need to worry. I wasn't going to implement rules for near-death experiences. You may roleplay them as you see fit.
In honor of this game's speed, I was inspired to look at the rates of play in all the games from our group. Here's a graph! As I suspected, this game is something else, though Unrest also deserves attention for not plateauing after ~100 posts the way most other games have.
I'll cross-post to Unrest, which I think will let everyone see.
Huh. That is impressive. I'm glad this game seems to be holding everyone's interest thus far!
That is seriously awesome it looks like an exponential increase curve!
That's a lot of PbPs you're all doing. How do you collect the stats on that? Is it something special to these boards?
I wish. No, I just recorded the date of the first post, and then the 50th, 100th, 150th, ... most recent, which is easy since it's always 50 posts to a page.
So basically you're lazy. Do it counting each post! The heavens demand it!