Archade's page

In this particular case, I think it really depends on the level of the group. The Drow Noble abilities are really good if the PCs are 2nd or 3rd level, but up at 10th, they become much less valuable, and by the upper levels, that 1 level loss is a serious liability. Setting it at 2 would have helped the low level issue a bit, but would have made the mid to high level issue significantly worse.

For aasimar and tieflings, I assigned a 500 xp debt at 1st level. One of my players wanted to play a duergar, so I assigned a 500 xp debt at 1st level, and another 500 xp debt at 2nd level.

By doing this, I slow down progression at early levels, but by 10th level, that xp debt is negligible.

I'm still playing with this, but it seems like a scalable handicap for more powerful races without racial HD, and my players are satisfied with it.

I'm biased about this product, considering I was one of the contributors, but it's a great supplement for what happens when a knight is granted a fief.

It's got events that can happen, methods for generating serfs and skilled members of your population, and ultimately, how much money you reap from the harvest (or how much you lose because the Bishop of Olokand with his entire retinue comes and stays at your manor for two months...).

I used to worry about overpowered characters. Right from our first 3.0 game, the half-orc barbarian with a Strength 20 gave me trouble. Then I found ways to make a challenging game in spite of character strengths (or overstrengths).

It's not about the DM vs the players. Players want to have the occasional cake-walk, but most of them want to be challenged, and pushed to their limits.

1) Got a bruiser that can kill everything? Give them dozens of goons, so the rest of the PCs can deal with him. My favorite -- a chess board with 32 tiny animated marble objects. Sure, they only do 1 point of damage, but they have a hardness of 8...

2) If they are strong, use their strengths against them. That half-orc barbarian? Dominated by vampires. Suggestion spells to inhibit his fellow adventurers.

3) Use terrain. Sure the two-weapon fighter can moulinex through goons, but can he balance on a crumbling cliff?

4) Finally, use roleplaying and skill checks. Anybody can build a bruiser character. But can they convince the Archduke to give up a prized painting? Or get a canny merchant to give up some information? Ask the barbarian for a diplomacy check ... It doesn't matter how much damage their greatsword does in those circumstances.

Try not to hamper or harm characters, take away their magic items, steal their gold, or permanently alter their stats. That's mean, and is player vs GM mentality. Look at your players' character sheets and see what challenges them.

But occasionally, give them a cake-walk. It makes them feel heroic, and it changes the pace, so they know that after the cake-walk, the scary scenario is coming up ...

Hi all,

A quick question that came up in play tonight that a player of mine and I disagree on. I'd appreciate some feedback.

Under Masterwork Weapons on page 149, it states "the masterwork quality adds 300 gp to the cost of a normal weapon (or 6 gp to the cot of a single unit of ammunition"

Is that 6 gp per arrow, or 6 gp per 20 arrows?

In one of the Thieves' World novels, they refered to someone as a 'Hazard class mage'. Doesn't that sound awesome?

I've used in the past an 'order of magnitude' to describe levels of spells (ie 'i will sell you a scroll of any spell up to the second order of magnitude').

As for a +1 sword, you could refer to that as a 'simple enchantment' or 'base enchantment'.

Darn it, now you are making me think about this ... :)

I agree with the sentiments of this post. The problem lies in that 3.x is great for craft rules ... for anything up to about 20 gp. After that, it breaks down. It takes 157 weeks to make an adamantine dagger?!?

Never mind that a basketweaver and a cobbler and a shipwright all make the same amount of money per week, with equal skill checks.

I proposed the following during the playtest, and I am using it as a house rule:

CRAFT

Profession Checks: If you practice a low-risk craft (cook, groom, animal trainer, farmer, etc) and can make a DC 15 check you can earn your Craft check in gp per month. If you fail your check, you earn nothing this month.
If you practice a medium-risk craft (armorer, weaponsmith, mason, architect, etc) and can make a DC 20 check you can earn twice your check in gp per month. If you fail your check, you earn nothing this month.
If you practice a high-risk craft (alchemist, shipwright, etc) and can make a DC 25 check, you can earn 4x your check in gp per month.

Crafting an Item: To craft an item, make an income check as above to represent a week’s worth of work. If the check succeeds, your income roll determines progress towards the market value of the item. If the result equals the price of the item, then you have completed the item. If the result equals double or triple the price of the item, then you’ve completed the task in one-half or one-third of the time. Other multiples of the DC reduce the time in the same manner. If the result doesn’t equal the price, then it represents the progress you’ve made this week. Record the result and make a new Craft check for the next week. Each week, you make more progress until your total reaches the price of the item.
You can attempt to construct an item more quickly by adding +10 to the DC check. If you succeed, you double your progress that week.
You can choose to make an item with only one-quarter the value of the item in raw materials, but you suffer a -10 to the check.

Wow. You folks are a bunch of sickos. Pigs and haversacks and zombies playing dead. :)

What I was thinking was adding a house-rule spell, a necromantic spell around 3rd level which is 'keep the dead dead'. Keep bodies from being animated as undead, or keeping corpses from being raised from the dead.

It's nothing sinister, just a flavor spell for my campaign, for my church of Madrael, the Angel of Death.

... But I really like the zombie playing dead idea ... :)

I have a question.

I was thinking of creating a necromantic spell that blocked or hindered the use of raise dead.

Does anyone know of an existing 3.5/OGL spell that already does that?

As for summoner, if the class will depend on a single creature or companion that improves as the class does, how about "Binder" or some synonym thereof?

With so amny disliking "Oracle", might I suggest "Prophet"? This is a title that is not synonomous (SP?) with divination. As a matter of fact the Prophets of the Old Testament (I am treading dangerous territory now) were men and women of God that (for the most part) were not ordanined clergy. The same could be said for the word "Apostle" due to the fact that they (the Apsotles) "spread the gospel" but were never (in my reading of the New Testament) ordained clergy, either. If my use of terms caused offense, then I apologize!

However, if you are looking for other ideas, there is Avatar, Demagogue, Disciple, Seer, Haruspex, Apostle, Harbinger, Envoy, or Channeller?

I've got players in my group that want to play non-human creatures.

I went with the suggestion in the Players' Guide for the Council of Thieves, and applied a 500 xp penalty at 1st level.

Then I had a player request a duergar character. In 3.5 it was a +1 ECL, but I thought it was a little more powerful than a tiefling, so I applied a 500 xp penalty at 1st level, and a further 500 xp penalty at 2nd level.

We're only one session into Pathfinder, but the xp penalties seem to be going well so far.

What made the bard feel more useful?

The player commented quite a bit, feeling like they had more of a role in the party with the small changes to the bard.

So, we kicked off our new campaign with the final Pathfinder rules, and the game felt a bit ... different.

On the player side, the party bard felt more useful, the extra hit points made characters a bit more durable, cantrips were used a fair amount, and the party was able to go through a fair number of encounters before retreating to rest.

On the GM side, I found the xp and treasure system interesting. I tracked the encounters, and kept an eye on the treasure I was handing out on the fly, and while I should have handed out 2000 gp of treasure, I only gave 1600. It's neat to see in the middle of the session whether or not I should give the party a boost, or reign back on the swag.

My rulebook is getting a bit of a pounding in our sessions, flipping to rules a lot until we get used to spells and other effects. It's holding up so far!

Works great with Shot on the Run.

Guys, is 2 points of AC really worth all this fuss?

Breastplates give +6, Heavy Plate gives +9. Breastplates are +1 better. Let's not even get into the fact that medium armors usually offer better Max Dex scores.

If it is, give higher level clerics extra gp in treasure so they can buy enhanced armor bettered by +2.

Or give the War domain a bonus Heavy Armor Proficiency.

But it isn't really worth this much passion -- it's only 2 points of AC over a career of 20 levels.

Well, we are starting our new campaign with the final rules on Sunday, so this session the players started mulling over options.

There was a great hue and cry over clerics losing heavy armor, and they think it's far worse than just (effectively) losing 2 points of AC. I told them wait and see.

The players seem pretty excited over the diviner specialty wizard of all things.

Someone mentioned they might play a bard, and they received a lot of leftover 3.5 incredulity. He might still go ahead with it, though.

Thanks Beastman!

Did the Pathfinder rules mistakenly omit this detail?

Hi all,

Our campaign just wrapped up and I'm looking at starting fresh with the Pathfinder final rules this coming Sunday, but I have a conundrum.

Where in the rules or on the SRD does it detail how much population is needed to have a Large City, Hamlet, metropolis, etc?

Thanks Kor! I'm seeing lots of little changes everywhere, and I'm being cautious in my assumptions ...

I always prefer to give the NPC an even break and I favor giving the NPCs the same bonuses as the PCs. I would even go as far as to allow all races to be able to choose an NPC class as an NPC's "favored class". Currently, only humans and half-elves can do this, giving their NPC hordes a huge advantage over other races. This would also provide the adept, the aristocrat, the commoner, the expert, and the warrior with a somewhat plausible reason for not multiclassing with PC classes.

NPC Classes: As NPC classes are far less beneficial than regular character classes, it is easier to advance forward in these classes – this is the reason NPCs prefer to advance in these classes, in order to gain skills and feats that advance their livelihood rather than gain abilities needed for adventuring.
Characters who take a level of Commoner gain immediately 50% of the experience needed to gain the next level.
Characters who take a level of Expert, Warrior, Adept, or Aristocrat gain immediately 25% of the experience needed to gain the next level.

Hey guys,

Looking here -- does point blank shot not benefit ray spells any more?

Point-Blank Shot (Combat)

You are especially accurate when making ranged attacks against close targets.

Benefit: You get a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at ranges of up to 30 feet.

Hi all,

I’m now going through the nitty gritty of the rules, and I have a couple questions on some hints that some things are different from 3.5, but I’m not entirely sure.

First, the feat Strike Back says that you can ready an action to strike at a foe with reach who attacks you. 3.5 (clarified by the FAQ, I think) allowed you to do this without a feat. Is this an intentional change?

The Arcane Trickster’s Surprise Spells ability allows them to add sneak attack damage to any spell that deals damage vs flat-footed opponents. Does that mean a rogue/spellcaster can’t naturally sneak attack with a spell? The rules don’t seem to address this issue. Again, 3.5 (clarified by supplements) allowed this action.

Lastly, the cleric domain powers often state you can “touch a creature” to grant a benefit. Can the cleric touch themselves as a valid target?

Thanks Jason & Co!

One of my first memories of a half-orc was in an AD&D adventure ... the artwork had a whip-thin, mean looking humanoid who was an inn's cook.

I saw another fix! A 10 foot ladder is 2 sp, and a 10 foot pole is now 5 cp. No more get rich quick schemes for Xuttah any more! :)

Even with the PRD up, no reason we can't keep noticing changes.

I downloaded and read my book last night, and saw a couple of neat things.

First, I saw that Jason used some of our group's suggestions in the final rules almost verbatim - thanks, Jason!

In equipment, sai says it gives a +2 to sunder attempts -- I'm pretty sure that's a typo, and should be disarm.

Nice change to Protection from Evil! Now if you cast it on someone charmed/dominated/etc, it doesn't automatically win, it just grants them a new save at +2. That makes sense, so a 1st level spell doesn't automatically trump a 5th level spell in place.

Detect magic now has an ultimate duration, not just concentration forever.

Reincarnate still looks like the can of worms -- what if you get reincarnated into a bugbear, with racial hit dice and no more level adjustment?

Wish got fixed - yay!

I think Diplomacy changed, becoming a DC for their current disposition, plus their Charisma modifier. Convincing angry dragons not to eat you is now officially harder.

Identifying magic items is now back with Spellcraft! Although Appraisers can still tell if an item is magic.

Looking good ... can't wait for our Beta campaign to finish in the next week or two, and get going on our new Pathfinder game!

1. Touched willing creature treats all attack rolls, skill checks, saving throws and ability checks as rolling an '11' for 1 round.

All hail the power of mediocrity!

To be honest, only 20% of our players' clerics ever wore heavy armor. It won't heavily impact our game, I don't think.

All this controversy seems to be over 2-3 points of AC. Of which, 1 point is clawed back by improving medium armor. With the extra gp levels for PC gear, we can just buy them a ring of protection or an amulet of natural armor (which they have a free slot for since the periapt of wisdom is now a headband).

Tempest in a full plate tea pot, I say. :)

What happened to Leadership?

I have a couple questions ...

1) What replaced the martial proficiency for humans? Anything?

2) Did any non-combatant rogue talents make the cut?

3) Did any shape changing spells (ie Beast Shape) get added so characters can become monstrous humanoids?

4) What happened with Reincarnate?

Ahhh..thanks! I saw the video that Eric was in, and wondered how Pathfinder would compare to the Ptolus book.

I can sleep at night now.

;)

This reminds me of the Cities of Harn supplement from waaaaay back. And it's exciting me now like the other product did back then!

Yay, Cities of Golarion!

I'd love to see what Paizo could come up with to solve this.

For my home game, I came up with the following feat...

Wizard's Apprentice [General]
You have studied under an accomplized mage, and have learned some magic aptitute.
Prerequisite: Int 11. 1 rank in Spellcraft, no levels in wizard.
Benefit: You gain the ability to cast 3 0-level wizard spells per day, with an effective caster level of 1.
If you later take a level in Wizard, you lose the ability to cast 3 0-level wizard spells, but gain +1 to their effective caster level in one school of magic.

I'd be interested in

1) Post-AP high level adventures that could be run in or out of an AP path.

2) Parallel adventures to an AP that would let the PCs play (if they took pregenerated characters) important NPCs doing things off stage (a la Rosencrantz and Guildenstern), but could run as standalone adventures with regular PCs.

3) Wacky one-offs would be fun (BREE YARK).

We had a meeting yesterday discussing the role of the Pathfinder Modules line and how we can improve it. We kicked around a few ideas, but we'd like your input as well (especially subscribers and people who would become subscribers if the Modules line gave you more that you were looking for).

Crap ... how do I get a copy of this font?

Well thought out, needs a smidge of editing, but I'm impressed. I didn't once get a pitchfork vibe.

Of course, I don't envy corporate managers at WOTC with the conundrum -- as a business, they need to produce new books that people buy, so do they publish 3.51, 3.75, 3.99, or a radical 4th edition switch? Not a fun decision for them.

The interesting thing now, is if 4th edition sales start to slump (and I'm not saying they will, but hypothetically, if they do), what's the next hard decision for WOTC? If they've painted themselves into a corner with 4th edition, how do they get out of the situation?

Of course, if 4th edition does attract a new customer base, and sales stay strong, a game that plays like a MMORPG on paper might be a new style of RPG game that other companies follow down the road.

Time will tell ...

Well, I use a few things.

1) I use my laptop on the side with DM Genie running (a great reference tool for spells, feats, and magic items, never mind monsters on the fly).

2) We have a small pedestal/smaller table on top of our gaming table, leaving a 6 inch gap below where people can stow stuff.

3) I use an initiative chart which is available at dmtools.org thanks to Lilith.

4) I am a fan of tac-tiles and alea tools magnets!

This is something in 3.5e that has always bothered me as a DM - spell-like abilities have no material, verbal, or somatic components, yet still provoke AO's. I can rationalize why they would provoke (they have to take a moment to concentrate), but for some reason it just seemed silly to me.

A creature can attack with its natural attacks without provoking; a spell-like ability (being a part of a creature's innate abilities) would seem to be an extension of that. Especially "at will" abilities since they're just a part of what makes monster X a monster X. I kinda hope AO's for spell-like abilities gets nuked in PFRPG.

It also gave a small boost to silent or stilled spells...

I don't mean to sound offensive, but I do not understand why is there this sudden sense of gloom and doom pervading the forum.

First, we don't have a full sense of perspective. We don't know the wording of the Turn Undead feat, or some details that may matter. And secondly, a lot of these changes are based on *playtest feedback*. We can be armchair generals, or try playing it and see how it works.

I'm excited about the changes, for one.

As a GM, I always cringe when "fleeing" effects come into play. Tracking all those runaways was a horror. I wonder if PFRPG changes the shaken/fleeing/panicked rules ?

Hey ... how does a dwarf get favored class ranger? I thought they got Fighter and Cleric.

10 hit points for 1st level
55 hit points for the next 10 levels
33 hit points for Con bonus (11 x 3)

That leaves 11 hit points from somewhere, but no Toughness, so ...

Whoo!

Maneuver AC lives in CMD! I feel all appreciated as a playtester.

Thanks Jason for using some of our collective ideas!

Hey all! I saw a post on Paizo that linked to the Cartographer's Guild, and I have to say it's a great site to help you make a professional map.

They recommended and have a tutorial for GIMP, a free drawing program, which let me develop this ...

Western Marches Map Step 10

I'm still plugging away, but I should have a professional map before our next gaming session ...

*incorporating my SCA title*

Lord Miklos Vizjec, Beacon of Oldenfeld
Constable and Chronicler,
Barony of Oldenfeld, Kingdom of Trimaris
Son of House Penarthmor
Keeper of the Old Ways (Ed.1 & 2)
Member of the Order of Sages of the Old Greyhawk
Master Cartographer, Summoner of the Great Lilithid and Creator of the NPC Stat Block Bank
Master of Old Dungeons, Parties of Evil
and Castle Chin
and its defending hordes (including 2 dogs and several fish)

M

Archade, Lord High Logisticator, RBDM

Charm isn't a mind-control spell. It just changes perspective.

The Beholder doesn't have to order the Fighter to do anything. The fighter will see his very good and beloved friend being attacked by his companions, and he'll try to break up the fight.

If anything, the fighter wouldn't want to stay out of the fight, because his 'friend' is in danger.

There was an article up on Charm waaay back when, and it said imagine that your charmed subject treats you as your best buddy from college that you've run into again. What would you and wouldn't you do for that person?

I'm in! Where's the punch bowl and my jump suit?

Are you using -10 or -Con as the benchmark for dead? The cleric might also want to consider Breath of Life if he's high enough level for it.

His character had a Con of 11, if I recall correctly. He was just over the negative hit points needed to stay alive, and that was after a quick Close Wounds.

To answer the other poster's question, we had put a DC 30 Heal check could revive someone reduced to negative hit points as a house rule way back, and this is the first time it came into play.

Tonight’s playtest had the intrepid heroes pushing deeper into Amberwall Castle. They fought a horrible undead lord festooned in scrolls inscribed with foul runes, and explored the depths of the Star Tower, losing their sinister allies to to keeper of the Star Tower. They went below, and fought the foul underground gugs, and upon seeing the holy sword Serithial were set upon by a foul twisted guardian of the sword …

Tonight the mummy lord used slay living, and I have to say the spell seemed very weak to me, a 5th level spell doing 30-40 hit points of damage from a 10th level caster.

As well, we had a character reduced to -12 hit points, and I allowed a DC 30 Heal check to revive him at -9 hit points, within the same round, and it worked well.

So, our intrepid adventurers fought their way deeper into Amberwall, making their way to the upper level of the castle, and after fighting the Chained Spirit, beating a hasty retreat. They realized that there are four spirit anchors that need to be destroyed or released, and found one up on the third floor. Zellara's song suddenly makes sense to them, and they have newfound purpose ...

In our playtest this week, not a lot came up ... the evil NPC cleric tagging along with them has been utterly useless with his Channel Negative Energy, and negative levels scare the heck out of the players (although I was using a similar mechanic for permanent negative levels pre-Pathfinder).

The poor cleric with the Int of 7 is still upset that concentration checks are done with Spellcraft (an Int-based skill), although he was somewhat mollified when I told him one of the things Jason was considering was a Will save.

And our beguiler has taken the prestige class Shadowcraft Mage, and is using a shadow evocation version of Celestial Brilliance from BoED to weaken the undead ... duration 1 day/level?!?! Wow ...

Archade wrote:

Also another weirdness – a cleric who gives off a burst of positive energy while invisible stays invisible, unless there’s a foe in range, in which case he becomes visible. It’s weird … okay, but weird …

Not sure I follow you on this one. Is that because it does damage to undead it counters the invisibility? What if the targets were living and not excluded with selective channeling?

Like I said, weird ...

So, this session, the group was minded to travel to Amberwall, far to the north. They travelled overland to Oriador, and while they sought to commission or purchase a skiff to take them across Bael’s Deep, they were approached by Larendarae and Sial, both of the Church of Bolthamogg and known to them from prior events. They grudgingly agreed to travel north, and attempt to force their way into Amberwall in search of the sword Serithial. They forced their way through the gatehouse, across the causeway, and have now entered the haunted halls …

The characters leveled up to 9th level, and the party’s spiked chain fighter thought Disruptive was a great feat to take (we’ll see how it plays in).

Through the session, there was an issue where the invisible cleric/barbarian was shot while summoning a monster, and had to make a Spellcraft check – it wasn’t easy for him with his 7 Int and a lack of ranks in the skill.

Also another weirdness – a cleric who gives off a burst of positive energy while invisible stays invisible, unless there’s a foe in range, in which case he becomes visible. It’s weird … okay, but weird …