Azure_Zero's page

Seem nice!

I would also love to see a "blood of the dragon" companion :P

"blood of the dragon" would be cool.

Frankly the feat is the only real reason I ever see to be a human. the whole lack of darkvision or even lowlight vision is frankly debilitating with a smart GM and the extra favored class bonus choices, while nice, aren't enough to make up for the fact that other races gain large save bonuses and other such things

Just because a majority says that something should be done this way does not always make it right. Same thing with the minority. A filibuster is a legal weapon used BY BOTH SIDES and it is in the system for a reason. Can it be abused? YES!!! So can anything else that is in the legal system. If you do not like it, then either vote in someone that supports your views or run for government and change it yourself. ~shrugs~ Nothing in life is perfect. I would much rather have the filibuster rule in there so when it is needed to stop something that is detrimental, then it is there, than not have it there and let something go through that could have been prevented. Also, just remember, government is run by PEOPLE. Inperfect, flawed, opionionated, foolish, ignorant people. The problem is that you want PEOPLE to change and they will not.

You've got to keep up with the Newspeak, IQ. "Freedom from religion" has been rebranded as "discrimination against Christians."

I love the nature of adventuring. Adventuring has traditionally been a very dangerous if lucrative profession. Adventurers die, and die, and die some more. Some are lucky enough to only have to die once. What separates the adventurers that make it from the ones who were just another party that never returned? Well, I think creativity and preparation make the largest difference. I didn't think much about this sort of thing, until Peter Stewart said the following in another thread.

Honestly some of your tactics here have given me a great deal to think of for future characters. I'd be interested in a general thread on purchases you think are viable or needed at various levels, along with various tricks. A heightened continual flame hadn't even occurred to me, for instance.

My party could use some more asymmetrical means of combating such problems, as right now our tendency is to bully through them using brute force (usually taking tons of damage and expending tons of resources in the process). We're coming up on a long period though were we'll be able to resupply and reequip. :)

So since Peter asked, here's the beginning of a short advice column concerning D&D/Pathfinder and preparing for adventure. I'm cool with people asking questions or advice or tips on specific things; and I'll also answer questions concerning D&D 3.x as well (though I may have to reference the 3.0 SRD for particularly old school stuff, to make sure I'm not blurring too much).

As a simple disclaimer, I want to let everyone know that the advice below will assume that the standard rules are in play. It doesn't assume house rules or changes to the system. Just the goods, plain and simple. If your GM has any quirks concerning item availability, changes any spells, or otherwise alters something, YMMV.

Enough babbling, on with the tips!
========================================================================

Introduction: Adventuring is a hard life. Few take up its call. Those who make it, go down as legends, and retire wealthy and with many amazing stories. Those who do not, inevitably forge their own stories as the ones who just survived, or never came back, or was the one that didn't make it. Yes, adventuring is a hard life. A life that takes you by surprise. The key to surviving isn't just about whose muscles are largest or who knows the most spells. Preparation, and clever thinking, can lead you to greater degrees of success. Shall you brave the dangers and come out on top, or be another tavern tale of the ones who never came back?

The first installment covers some general adventuring equipment.

Motel 6: There are a lot of monsters and enemies who like to spam darkness spells (and deeper darkness). Creatures like tieflings, drow, shadow demons, darklings, and dark folk are notorious for this. Many people complain that this is unfair; especially since most of these creatures either care nothing about the lighting condition's drawbacks, or can see through them fine (such as in the case of darklings and dark folk). So what is an adventurer to do?

Light spells (that is, the light subtype) such as light, continual flame, and daylight pierce magical darkness spells that are a lower level than themselves. A good adventuring tool is to have an item or two that has had a heightened continual flame spell cast on it to at least 4th level. That costs 330 gp including the material component, to have it purchased by NPC spellcasting. Suddenly, the legions of darklings and dark folk are nothing to you, as your continual torch (be it a torch, amulet, or even your belt buckle) shimmers and provides light that is unquenchable by spells such as darkness or deeper darkness unless they are also heightened. Since spell-like abilities are the level of the spell they are mimicing, that means a 4th level continual flame is never overpowered by a creature's SLAs.

I'm most fond of having continual flame cast on the inside of a locket, so you can conceal or reveal the light easily enough, and carry it without having hands free.

We'll leave the light on for you!

First Aid: There's a lot of terrible things that will hurt you in your adventuring career. Poisons, disease, incorporeal touch attacks. A lot of this stuff can leave you weathered, or even dead. So how do you deal with these things? How do you prepare for them away from the comfort of civilization?

Buy potions of delay poison and lesser restoration for 50 gp each. Yes, you heard me, 50 gp. Both are 1st level spells at 1st caster level, thanks to Paladins and Rangers. That sets the price of these items at 50 gp. The magic item creation rules clearly state that the value of magic items are based on the lowest possible caster levels, regardless of who makes 'em; so even if a cleric makes either, they're still only worth 50 gp.

Both potions are useful for helping a party keep up and going. Delay poison makes you immune to poison for 1 hour and ends poisons, but won't cure any of the ability damage taken beforehand. Lesser restoration removes ability penalties, heals 1d4 ability damage, and removes fatigue. Good potions all around to have on hand during an adventure.

+1 Swords? We don't need no stinkin' +1 Swords: Magic weapons are expensive, but sometimes you just need one. DR/Magic is pretty common, incorporeal creatures are a pain, that wizard is getting you down with protection from arrows; but you don't feel like shelling out 2,000 gp for what amounts to +1 damage over a masterwork blade?

Well magic weapon oils are 50 gp, and they last 1 minute at caster level 1. The oil can be applied to a melee weapon, ranged weapon, or poured right into a 50-stack ammunition sack. This is one of the main methods for 1st-3rd level PCs to even be able to combat incorporeal creatures like Shadows with any hope. Works for monk unarmed strikes as well. Since you can decide which weapon to apply it to, it's less of a gamble; as if you need it on your melee weapon, you use it on your melee; if you need it on your bow, you use it on your bow; and so forth.

Lay off the Juice Son: Okay, so steriods aren't a to be abused, but oils were made for it. You can apply an oil to a willing target during your turn. Having several party members slather down the party's melee with cheap potion effects can turn a fight really fast. Have one PC slather him or her with an oil of enlarge person, then the rest of the PCs apply oils like protection from evil or shield (I recently checked, yes you can make potions of shield, as personal range spells still declare you as a target), and expeditious retreat (see commentary about shield, above), true strike (see above, yadda-yadda), and remove fear.

Suddenly, you have a juggernaut of destruction, at the cost of 50 gp per potion. Best yet, the person you apply the oil provides you with soft cover if you come in directly behind them in relation to the enemy, which means enemies cannot make AoOs against you for applying the oil. Notice I mentioned using enlarge person first? Well there's a reason for that. Your ally expands, providing cover to the other PCs who jump in to apply oils.

For a 200 gp investment, you can hit your main tank with up to 4 solid buffs all in one round, many of which normally are only available to mages. Screw aid another. 50 gp can get your party's fighter a +20 to his next grapple check, which can end a fight instantly (hint: the penalty to bind up an enemy during a grapple is -10).

Right to Freedom of Alignment: Ok, let's face it. Sometimes your alignment bites you on the butt. It's great being a good guy and all, except when you're trying to infiltrate that evil cult that has the "No Paladins" sign hanging out side. So what's the poor poorly aligned fellow to do? Drink a potion. 50 gp nets you 24 hours of undetectable alignment. Thanks bards!

Alchemy? Alchem-you!: Alchemical goodies can often be overlooked, but they can be pretty useful, especially at low levels; but some are useful even at higher levels. Turn some vicious villains into trivial trials with a clever splash of chemical supremacy!

Alchemical weapons such as alchemist fire or acid flasks are beautiful when used by the whole party. They ignore damage reduction and target touch AC. They're ranged weapons, so they benefit from feats like Point Blank Shot, and Rapid Shot. They can be dual-wielded as well. By having your party focus-fire on a single tough cookie, you can bring them down to size in short order. For example, let's say you're facing down an enemy NPC in banded mail and carrying a tower shield. His AC is easily 22-23 at 1st level. Excellent time for a BBQ wrapped in tinfoil! Have everyone toss an alchemist fire. A 4 person party can easily land 4d6 damage on round 1, and another 4d6 on round 2 (from the burning). Sucks to be that guy!

Tanglefoot bags are amazingly good. Chuck a few of these at people or creatures you just don't like. It's an auto-entangle, which is already a petty nice debuff, but also threatens to glue them to the ground, prevent them from flying, and forces tough concentration checks to cast spells. Worst case scenario, the critter is still slowed by 1/2 its speed.

Probably the most overlooked alchemical item is the humble smoke stick. Cheap, and surprisingly effective. Unless wind conditions are much against you, dropping one of these lets you use Stealth as if you were a Ninja Turtle collecting bells, gain total concealment vs ranged attacks, and ruins sneak attacks. Yes, ruins sneak attacks. You can't sneak attack a target with concealment. You can drop a single smoke stick at your feet and even if you're surrounded by 20th level rogues, blind, and in the dark, you're immune to their sneak damage. Excellent against dirty roguish sorts, and even prevents an assassin's Death Attack. Brutally efficient.

Holy water. The anti-shadow. At 25 gp a pop, this stuff is kind of like acid of alchemist fire for undead and evil outsiders. Incidentally, it specifically affects incorporeal creatures as well. It deals 2d4 damage as a ranged touch attack that doesn't provoke attacks (see item description) if you shake the water at the enemy. 2d4 averages 5 damage, which means a 1st level party can tear a shadow apart by just running up and splashing it with holy water. Statistically, 4 holy waters will outright kill a shadow (and less should force the shadow to flee for its unlife), and frankly, 100 gp for a dead CR 3 enemy seems entirely reasonable to me! The fact it also deals splash damage, and is party friendly is double the fun. Alchemists even get to add their Intelligence modifier to the damage, allowing them to take apart some truly nasty critters in short order.

Aw, Nets: Nets are arguably one of the strongest weapons in the core handbook. They deal no damage, but are a non-magical ranged touch attack (meaning even the -4 non-proficiency penalty isn't so bad usually) which inflicts the Entangled condition on the target, and all that implies. To escape it, you must spend a full-round action to even attempt to be free (either via a hard Strength check or a DC 20 escape artist), which means that either an enemy has to deal with it, or waste actions to be free. Hitting the same enemy with multiple nets in the same round almost ensures the condition will remain for the entire encounter; because no one wants to spend round after round trying to de-net themselves.

Who you gonna call?: A good investment for anyone who really hates incorporeal creatures is a +1 ghost touch net. Valued at 8,000 gp, it's not a terribly expensive tool if the entire party chips in to get it. Why is this tool so great? Well it has full effect on incorporeal creatures, who auto-fail on Strength checks to move away from you (allowing you to control how far they move away from you), and since it counts as both corporeal and incorporeal, you can prevent them from moving through objects while ensnared in your net. Entangled is also a sucky (if rare) condition for incorporeal creatures, as they rely heavily on Dexterity for both offense and defense (-2 to attacks and -4 Dex means -4 to incorporeal touch attacks and -2 AC) and most thrive on improved mobility which is outright denied in this case.

I'll try the 9 Iron: Golf-bagging is often a complaint by some of the casual gamers. Personally, I love golf-bagging. I like having that extra weapon on hand for a particular occasion. Ever look at the Pathfinder iconics? Loaded with seemingly random assortments of weapons, with obvious spares and backups. Golf bagging has lots of advantages.

Grab a cold iron, silver (or mithral), and maybe adamantine weapon. Carrying them allows you to bypass the DR of virtually anything. Definitely have an assortment of silver and cold iron arrows (they're cheap and easy enough to store/carry). It's cheaper to carry lots of +2 weapons of different materials than it is to carry one or two +3 weapons, and it makes you less of a target vs sundering or shattering (because who bothers with that when you've got a backup weapon in easy reach?).

You can go a very long way with just different material weapons and a greater magic weapon spell to keep your hit and damage top notch. It's also easier to rely on special materials for all the low CR enemies who require things like silver or cold iron to hit (such as imps, quasits, lycanthropes, or fey).

It's not magic, it's brains: There's a lot of very mundane methods for dealing with magical effects that suck. One of my favorites is the bag of chalk. A piece of chalk is 1 copper piece. A hundred pieces of chalk is thus 1 gold piece. Crush the chalk up into chalk powder and store it in cloth bags with a tie. Now you have the perfect weapon against invisible people. Have you ever seen the clingy puffy mess that chalk dust makes just when you're dealing with basic chalk erasers in school? Now imagine grinding up 100 pieces of standard issue chalk and scattering it through the air. You'd create a nice 10 ft. cloud of super clinging dust. Better than flour for spotting invisible creatures! Anti-invisible grenades, for 1 gp. Eat that Will o' Whisp.

Clay jugs are pretty heavy when filled, but are pretty useful. Their obvious use is for carrying large quantities of water or similar liquids (ideally packed on burden beasts such as mules, horses, or oxen), but can often be adapted for adventuring purposes. They can just as easily carry coins and the like, or you could place food in them, fill them with black powder to make a bomb (if your campaign has such fare), create weapons or traps with them (fill them with spiders, scorpions, snakes, or whatever), or even keep potted plants in them (carrying around your own plants makes the entangle spell useful in the most amusing places). At only 2 copper pieces, you can figure out what to do with them later. Flasks are 3 coppers with similar uses.

Keeping a few vipers in a state of sedation (via nonlethal damage, sleep spells, or other means) can be a good method of extracting lots of injury poison for the budding assassin, alchemist, or other poison using character. Just milk their glands for poison daily. Finding and keeping vipers isn't usually very difficult for adventurers. In fact, the clay pots can be useful storage devices in this case. If someone has a viper familiar, you could just ask nicely for venom.

His name is Babe: Paul Bunyan had the right idea. Oxen rock as animal cohorts. They're cheap at 15 gp and share statistics with aurochs. They are large quadruped beasts of burden with impressive strength, which means they can carry some truly astounding loads. They are also beefy and dangerous in combat. They have gore attacks for 1d8+9 damage and can even trample. Training them for war is not a bad idea for someone with Handle Animal. Have the party ride around on these strong beasts with high Constitution, and just dare something to try and harass your mounts while you rest. For a good 1-4 levels, the oxen will be more dangerous than your PCs. You can train 3 of them at a time, and cover them in leather or studded leather barding on the cheap.

Oxen cost 15 gp, have a 40 ft. movement speed, +9 Perception, low-light vision, scent, +7 gore at (1d8+9), trample (2d6+9, DC 17), and the following carrying capacity: 600 lb. light, 1,200 lb. medium, 1,800 lb. heavy, 9,000 lb. push/drag. Horses are so last season.

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I'm going to pause here for a moment. I'm not even finished with equipment, but I need a bit of a break. ^-^"

Tiefling Racial Traits - Updated

Page 4 of the recently released Pathfinder Player’s Companion: Blood of Fiends has a sidebar discussing tieflings arising from races other than human. It says “They gain any of the bonuses or penalties related to that size, but gain no racial bonuses except those of the tiefling; beyond size, their humanoid ancestry is purely cosmetic.” From a balance standpoint, this is reasonable.

But, with the trait system, I think we can do better than that.
Note: by “Rules As Written,” Tieflings cannot buy languages not listed on Bestiary I p. 264 – this would bar Tieflings buying human ethnic/regional languages even if the character originates from that ethnicity or region. Since I don’t think that is the “Rules As Intended” I have included racial/ethnic languages in these traits.
Of course, like all traits, these are optional.

Dwarf-Blood: Dwarf tieflings are virtually unknown and, outside of the Duergar, are usually smothered at birth. Should one survive, the tiefling would be short and heavily built, much like their dwarven parent. Hair (and beard if male) would be of an unnatural color.

Requirement: Tiefling

Benefits: A dwarven tiefling’s build enhances the characters stability. The tiefling gains a +2 trait bonus to their CMD when on solid ground. Dwarf Tieflings receive Dwarven as an additional starting language.

Special: Determine Height and Weight as a dwarf, but do not reduce the characters speed. Determine Age as a Half-Elf.

Elf-Blood: Despite their strong connection to nature, elves have a strong lecherous streak that can lead them into liaisons that would have been better avoided. Elf blooded tieflings tend to be tall, with the same long ears, almond shaped eyes, and large pupils that elves commonly have.

Requirement: Tiefling

Benefits: Elven Tieflings share some of the strong innate magic that Elves do. Eleven Tieflings receive a +2 trait bonus on all Spellcraft checks. Elf Tieflings receive Elven as an additional starting language.

Special: Determine Height, Weight, and Age as a Half-Elf.

Gnome-Blood: The chaotic and experimental nature of gnomes leads some to ill-considered matings. Disturbingly, in addition to the normal marks of their fiendish blood, gnomish tieflings tend to have pale skin and white hair.

Requirement: Tiefling

Benefits: Gnome Tieflings may cast prestidigitation once per day. Their caster level for this effect is equal to the tiefling’s level. Gnome Tieflings receive Gnome as an additional starting language.

Small Size: Gnomish tieflings are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks. They must also use Small weapons and compute their carrying capacity as small creatures. Do not, however, reduce their speed. Determine

Special: Height and Weight as a gnome. Determine Age as a Half-Elf.

Half-Elf: Use “Elf-Blood” above.

Half-Orc: Use “Orc-Blood” below.

Halfling-Blood: Halflings rarely mate with fiends voluntarily, As Halflings are frequently slaves, the sometimes find themselves forced to do so. Hafling Tieflings They appear as normal haflings, except as marked by the fiendish heritage.

Requirement: Tiefling

Benefits: Halflings Tieflings have the same keen senses as their halfling parent. They receive a +2 trait bonus on Perception checks. Halfling Tieflings receive Halfling as an additional starting language.

Small Size: Halfling tieflings are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks. They must also use Small weapons and compute their carrying capacity as small creatures. Do not, however, reduce their speed.

Special: Determine Height and Weight as a halfling. Determine Age as a Human.

Human-Blood: Human tieflings really far and away the most commonly encountered, and like Humans in general, they are the most varied. One constant however, is that they are mistrusted and persecuted by “normal” humans.

Requirement: Tiefling

Benefits: Human tieflings still share humanity’s adaptability, and thus they receive a +1 trait bonus to one save category (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will) of the tiefling’s choice. Human Tieflings receive the language of their human ethnicity as an additional starting language.

Exception: Chelaxians, Taldans, and other humans with only “Common” as their base language start with one language of their choice. (This does allow them a language not on the provided list for tieflings in the Bestiary.)

Special: Determine Height, Weight, and Age as a Human.

Orc-Blood: Vile and destructive creatures, Orc readily offer themselves for dark mating rituals in a mad pursuit personal power. With their magical powers and mental gifts, Orc-Tieflings often find a place of honor in Orc tribes.

Requirement: Tiefling

Benefits: Fiendish traits only add to the creature’s already terrifying mien. Orc-blooded tieflings receive a +2 trait bonus on Intimidate checks. Orc Tieflings receive Orc as an additional starting language.

Special: Determine Height and Weight as a half-orc. Determine Age as a Human.

Maena speaks quietly, allowing a softness into her voice for probably the first time, "You are right, Kiley. His later actions, no matter how likely, do not make it right."

Her voice grows harsher and her icy tone returns as she finishes, "It is his past actions that do. He murdered that man and his loyal dog, and now, this 'thing', as you call it, seeks justice for itself and its murdered master. A justice that is well deserved."

This is where it's fun to be the LN Asmodean. ;) Being killed by the angry skeleton of your own murder victim sounds just and fair.

Gary Teter wrote:

Vic: ok, this next change will either make everything work as intended and we'll be done, or it will screw up any number of things, most likely in big obvious ways...

For a program with N lines of code, there will be N+1 bugs.

Worse than code: routing tables. (And I'm not talking about woodworking.)

I kinda got into the same situation... I've been DMing for my friends since high school (5 years now), and I was part of a second group that was 10+ years my senior and much more into the game than my current group. My second group (in which I was both player and GM) loved to RP - but alas my group of friends never did. Because of my interest in the game, I finally convinced somebody else to take over as GM.

My first character back as player sparked more RPing in the group than had ever occurred before. I was a (gray area) LG cleric with a "bring to justice" list that grew every time he felt slighted. It made my group question LG and see it in a new light. It made them a bit more curious about their own alignments and how their character would react to situations.

My character had immense depth and personality, and the then-GM (my little brother, I taught him well) played right into it at every step. Once the group started seeing personal involvement at its finest, they started to step up their game.

I still have one player who is not very "into it"... But our next go around I'm providing big bonuses at character creation for backstory to try and motivate him a little more.

So, thats how I accomplished at least something without talking to my players. But you should still talk to them.

I don't see psionics as a gaping hole, more like a low spot in the yard that'll be just fine if left alone though if the neighbor wants to fill it then go for it (the neighbor in this analogy are 3rd party publishers like dreamscarred press).

Here is a prestige class that I've been kicking around as a replacement to the Dragon Disciple for Sorcerers. The Dragon Disciple still exists for other classes. It's also made to go side by side with my expanded half-dragon template which I've included here as well. Included within the HotD file is a small update to the Draconic Bloodline to account for the other True Dragon types that Paizo has released.

Heir of the Dragon PrC

Half-Dragon Template

So can you guys write a nice adventure path where all the gnomes get wiped out, and the world is a happier place for it? And then we could maybe get a better race as a replacement in the core rulebooks? :)

Sutter (while trying out my awesome Captain's chair): "Is this thing heated?!?"

Me: ...

Sutter: "Or is this... just... you?"

Me: ...

Sutter: *hastily scrambles out of my chair*

Here is an item that appears frequently, but never gets the write-up it deserves.

Until now ...

--- --- ---
Chainmail Bikini
Aura moderate conjuration and faint abjuration; CL 8th or higher
Slot body; Price 17,500 gp (base), 26,500 gp (+1), 37,500 gp (+2), 50,500 gp (+3), 65,500 gp (+4); Weight 1 lb.
Description
These items are a rather skimpy, matched brassier and loincloth, crafted of very fine mithral links. When worn they surround the character with an invisible but tangible field of force, granting her the same armor bonus as if she were wearing a chain shirt, which can be further enchanted with up to a +4 additional armor bonus. Both parts of this item must be worn for the magic to be effective, but as a garment rather then a true suit of armor, the bikini imposes no arcane spell failure chance, movement reduction, armor check penalty or maximum dexterity bonus. A member of any humanoid or demi-human race can wear the bikini, as it will magically resize as needed. The chainmail bikini and ordinary armor do not stack. If the creature wears any other armor or clothing, the bikini ceases to function.

The field of force created by the chainmail bikini has two important side benefits. In addition to the armor bonus, the force field also provides protection against the elements equivalent to a continuously operating Endure Elements spell, providing complete comfort in temperatures ranging from -50º to 140º Fahrenheit without having to make fortitude saves. The other, and occasionally the more useful, side effect is that field of force allows a female wearer to have a fuller, firmer figure adding a +2 circumstance bonus to all charisma based skills - but on a male wearer, the suit just looks silly, inflicting a -2 circumstance penalty to all charisma based skills.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, mage armor, endure elements, the creator must be 8th level to create the base bikini, and must be two additional levels higher for each additional plus to be added to the garment; Cost 8,750 gp (base), 13,250 gp (+1), 18,750 gp (+2), 25,250 gp (+3), 32,750 gp (+4)
Variation
A cleric can also create this item, substituting shield of faith for the mage armor spell. The item creation otherwise works identically with respect to level and cost requirements. The item's Aura would change to "moderate abjuration."

--- --- ---

As a side note, I play a Wizard in Gamer Girrl's CotCT campaign who would be capable to making this item. And I know a Half-Elven Priestess of Shelyn, a Half-Elven female Rogue, and a Human female Paladin who might actually benefit from one of these.

TheRedArmy wrote:

Not at all. It's a mixed world that's probably pretty close to real-world standards. One time a friend of mine even made a joke about an hour into the adventure; "Well, we haven't met a major female character yet, so either one of the males is actually a girl, or the villain we haven't met yet is a chick."

Heh. Seen similar jokes made before in games I've been in... at least once, I was playing the cross-dressed female character that everyone else still thought was male.

Ha! One time, when I made my most recent Paladin, I mentioned he would be male, and the same friend I mentioned above said "WHAT!? You're playing a Paladin male? The idea of the heroic female warrior flying around kicking peoples' asses is so cool! Paladin is the only class I would play a female in, and you're gonna play a male?! YOU!?!"

Really made me think hard about it, and I bounced back and forth for several days. He's right though - particularly for me, the idea of the angelic warrior, her eyes shining brilliantly, sword in hand, ready to strike down evil-doers - is something that deeply appeals to me.

Like right here. Don't care for the skimpy outfit, though. Never liked that.

Every time a potential player I have thinks they have a game breaking build one of the following usually happens:

A) A misunderstanding or misuse of the rules (I am looking at you Synthesist)

B) The build is actually not game breaking because the player didn't understand what the average power level of a character is to an encounter and grossly overestimated just how good there were going to be

C) Is using "Compatible" material from another source or 3rd party material

Reactions usually go somewhere along these lines:

A) "No it isn't against the rules look here!" Then I show the the errata, then they get mad. Another fairly common reaction is for the player to just leave after a few sessions or just never show up, blaming me or whoever is GMing for "Being a loser".

B) As soon as the player realizes they didn't do anything spectacular they ask, "Can I rebuild my character?" or "Can I make a new character?" If you do not let them, they will usually try to find a way to retire or kill the current character, cycle starts again at B.

C) "What do you mean 'X' isn't allowed?" Begs furiously to get material approved, pouts then quits if it isn't.

Six Player Kingmaker Conversions-

Chapter 1- Stolen Lands (Alexander Kilcoyne)

Forum Topic- Link

Conversion- Link

Chapter 2- Rivers Run Red (Alexander Kilcoyne)

Forum Topic- Link

Conversion- Link

Chapter 3- Varnhold Vanishing (General Chaos)

Forum Topic- Link

Conversion- Link

Chapter 4- Blood for Blood (General Chaos)

Forum Topic- Link

Conversion- Link

Chapter 5- War of the River Kings (the_minstrel_wyrm)

Forum Topic- Link

Conversion- Link

Chapter 6- Sound of a Thousand Screams (General Chaos)
Conversion—Link

I found Michael Jaeck's DeviantArt art gallery, which has tons of Pathfinder artwork.

Most of the artists who contribute to Pathfinder have DeviantArt accounts, such as Julie Dillon, Andrew Hou, Svetlin Velinov, Ben Wootten, and Kevin Yan. A search for "Pathfinder" brings up a lot of stuff, both official and fan-made.

Representing characters in digital format has been something I've attempted since the beginning of my programming life. Now with age, I've decided to look back and do it right.

Good software needs a good foundation. I am looking not at building any specific application (yet), but rather a framework for properly articulating PFSRD/PRD creatures.

In my pacing/brainstorming/wasting-time-should-be-doing-something-else-ing I have come to the conclusion that, in fact, two frameworks need to be created: PRDML for representing rules, and PRDStore for representing creatures created with those rules.

PRDML will need to be quite extensive. A "PRDCORE" listing will need to hold all the base rules (encumbrance tables, effects of character levels, etc.). Extra rule sets can hold specific classes. Such that each book (core, or otherwise) can be articulated in a manner that is universally understood.

PRDStore will be a much less comprehensive project. This should only hold arbitrary data that is not derived. So it would hold levels and feat choices, but not hold BAB (because bab is a derived stat from the rules).

This is not for a specific application goal, but rather a means of expanding PRD coverage to make open software design more feasible.

I'm looking at starting this on my own, but am curious if anyone else would like to join me in discussing this. If there is enough discussion we could go as far as starting a freenode irc channel or something and getting a better roadmap outlined.

In the end, the project should yield two specifications similar to http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/

I don't think this violates any of the policies, but if it does just flag it and a dev should delete it fast enough. Also if so my apologies in advance.

Here's my thought. We're a fairly "unique" (in a good way) community. Why not see if we can make some professional connections. Perhaps if you're looking for a particular employee or a particular job you could post it here. I know it's a long shot, but never hurts to ask. For the sake of clarity, lets follow the same basic format, but of course alter it to suit your needs.

I am a: Job seeker

Location:Atlanta, GA or Telecommute

What's the skinny?; I recently graduated (this month) with a Masters in Industrial Organizational Psychology. I'm looking to get into the field of Consulting and/or high level HR. I have a military background as well as some independent consulting with government agencies and non-profits.

What do you really want? Does anyone know anyone who is with a consulting company with a presence in Atlanta such as Deloitte, Boston consulting, etc.

Reply to this asking for resume or contact information if anyone knows anything/anyone. Thanks in advance.

My personal favorite demilich.

Dragon78,

3) Regarding spelling/grammar: It is a courtesy to anyone who reads your writing to write as clearly as possible. Anything less than that is sloppy and shows your respect for your audience is not as good as it could be.

4) No item has ever made it in or been forced out of the top 32 based upon imprecise pricing. As long as you get the order of magnitude correct, the judges more than likely won't blink an eyelid.

7) Not offering a description of your item is like eating a 3 hat meal with a blindfold on. You'll know how nice it tastes but you're missing the visual splendor that unites the entire presentation and experience. This doesn't mean going over the top but giving your audience a definite mental picture that they can imagine and build upon.

In addition to what everyone else is saying, I suggest you have a close look at each of the items that made top 32 in previous RPG Superstar competition. In particular, read the entire thread for each focusing on the judges comments. If you do this, you will have a really good idea of what the judges are looking for and what things will cause them issues.

Pay particular note that not that many entries go over the 20,000gp mark, let alone the 100,000gp mark and I don't think any have even gotten close to 200,000gp. In the RPg Superstar Seminar podcast, I think it was Sean that mentions that anything over 100,000gp really does not work that well as a wondrous item. I think it fair to say that the judges will always place a 300gp imaginative and tightly designed wondrous item over a 150,000gp uber item. It is not a competition to see who can create the most powerful item, but the most imaginative, useful and coolest one.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

Dragon, most of the answers you're looking for can be found in the Round 1 Rules and FAQ, Contest FAQ, or the Contest rules (all linked from the Superstar page) or Sean's advice thread (which is stickied.)

In summary:

1) No.
2) Yes.
3) You will not be disqualified (that requires an actual rules violation), but they do not help your chances to make the Top 32.
4) That's part of the challenge. You have to figure it out.
5) No.
6) It can.
7) What do the items in the Core Rulebook do?

So who can be the first to comprehensively link my most motivational posts?

I blame my need to be useful.

The Collected Wisdom of Clark Peterson

• Congratulating everyone who entered
  
• Advice to double-check and triple-check your word count before submitting <Not precisely motivational perhaps, but important...>
  
• Extra auto-reject advice
  
• About not trying to be perfect
  
• More auto-reject advice
  
• A bit of advice and cheerleading
  
• A bit of advice to folks who made it through the first round
  
• About the Paizo community being supportive
  
• About the increasing quality of items, year by year
  
• Why you should just give it a shot
  
• Another 'welcome' thread
  
• A piece of advice about how to grow from round to round
  
• Congratulations for those who entered
  
• Some advice about Clark's review process <Whether or not that's true for this year, I'm unsure.>
  
• A little bit of advice on posting in others' threads for the Top 32
  
• What could perhaps be regarded as the prototype for Sean's autoreject threads
  
• The 2008 congratulations thread
  
• Evidence that Clark has been using the word 'geeked' for years
  

Clark's Feedback Threads

• From RPG Superstar 2010
  
• From RPG Superstar 2009

I can't find a feedback thread from 2008 and it's time for me to give my 2-year-old a bath, so I'll leave that for a little later. Or someone else could have a look.

There's also a critique thread from last year (albeit not involving Clark as a critic, as far as I recall) that should be most instructive in preparing for this year. You can find that here. It will be especially useful for anyone who is under any illusions as to the ability of the judges to be kind and caring when they reject an item; they simply don't (and can't) have the time or the emotional energy. Still, I'm firmly of the belief that the harsh criticism is better than no feedback at all (which, really, is the only other option).

--Mike

I like the irony that WotC and Paizo prefer that the PC be good aligned, but they have a ****load more options for Evil characters... Most worlds/campaign settings seems to be overun by evil outsiders, where are the good ones?

I am finished to the point of usability (missing visual descriptions of other personas)

The Questions
1. Why are you in Sandpoint? Are you visiting or a local?
I am a local resident and have lived here all my life

2. Which NPC are you connected to (I am assuming story wise, * marks trait selection)?
I am a Half-sister of Shalelu* and look up to her, and she has taught me how to survive in the forest if need be. I also know Ameiko as a childhood friend.

3. How would you describe your personality?
That depends on the persona I use when disguised.
But as myself (the base persona), I am protective of my family and friends, Kind, polite**, observant, and love challenges.

As the Pai (Martial artist) persona, I am more tomboyish and reckless, and even more honorable when I fight***, I sometimes even swear, but have a dislike of the prefix honorific when being addressed.

As the Twin Tails (Thief) persona, I am more cautious, plan things out more, and show a dislike for women with average and above average busts (even though she has above average, the bandages make it look below average)

4. What will your character contribute to the group?
Skills in scouting, talking, and information. Supporting comrade combatants by flanking targets, and weakening targets with modified sneak attacks.

5. What are your plans for your character mechanically? I don't need to know a level-by-level progression, but where are you taking him/her?
My design is for the most part laid out all the way to 20th level.
I will dip into Monk(Martial artist) for either 2 or 4 levels, but the rest is all Ninja. The gaps are to allow for flexibility as needed.

6. What is your day job?
I work as a barmaid in the Rusty Dragon and I make cloths on the side as a seamstress. The barmaid job is so I can watch over Ameiko as part of the Yuki Ryu clan's orders.

**(Using Japanese honorifics when speaking in Tein, I read enough manga)
***restricts her ninja tricks

****Second batch of questions****

1b. Why would character consider leaving Sandpoint to travel to the other side of the world?
I have orders that, if Ameiko moves out of Sandpoint I am to follow and protect her.

2b. Are you already participating in a JR PbP game?
Nope, first AP Azure_Zero so far have ever entered for.

****GM questions****

A question for our generous GM
Do you consider Unarmed Strike a Natural Weapon?
(refer to weapon grouping in UC page 45)
If so, does it qualify for the Eldritch Claws feat(APG, page 158)

and in my profile will be a "DM eyes only" spoiler tags, revealing some secrets. (this will be up later today)

Has your dungeon crawl turned into exactly that, a crawl? Do you wish you could turn it into a dungeon sprint?! Well wish no more!

The rules are simple:
1. Be the first to open a door to a new room, or enter a new location (the DM is final arbiter of when a location is new), score 1 point.
2. Participate in combat (attack, buff, heal, etc), score 1 point
3. Whoever has the most points at the end of the session (and survives) wins.
4. Winning means you're awesome at the Dwarven Door Game, there is no greater prize.

Things to remember while playing:
-opening or closing a door is a move action.
-combat will usually score you less points than doors, but gathering a following of enemies will often result in death.

The Dwarven Door Game was invented by Trollbear Thundersnow, a dwarven barbarian, who was a little bored one day.

Disclaimer: The Dwarven Door Game is very exciting. You might get caught up in opening doors really fast. Side effects include:
- Death
- Total Party Kill
- Excitement
- Great Stories about your character dying
- Death

Feel free to try the Dwarven Door Game at home, no purchase required. Post stories about how you almost won the Dwarven Door Game, but died. Post variant rules that you've experimented with in your own game.

This is about as far as a previous discussion got. I fleshed it out rather a lot and it's seen some use since, but it never got finished.

Aasimar of Gollarion – Alpha 1

Variant Aasimar Heritages
Angel (Standard Aasimar are assumed to have angelic parentage)
+2 Wis, +2 Cha
Azata
+2 Dex, +2 Int
Archon
+2 Str, +2 Cha
Agathion
+2 Con, +2 Wis
Titan
+2 Str, +2 Con
Lillend
+2 Dex, +2 Cha

Variant Aasimar Abilities
The blood of aasimar is of many varied backgrounds. Given that sometimes multiple generations between contact with planar parents and the aasimar may take place, it is difficult to predict what abilities a particular child might exhibit. The abilities presented here replace an aasimar’s daylight spell-like ability, with a caster level equal to its class level.

d% Ability
1 You gain the ability to understand and speak with all creatures. You possess the truespeech ability of your angelic forbearers.
2 You have feathered angelic wings that grant you a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics checks made to jump. In addition, you can use you wings to save yourself from a fall, no matter the height. If you were to become unconscious your wings automatically stiffen in an open position negating all but 1d6 of falling damage. These wings are not strong enough to allow you flight or gliding.
3 You gain immunity to petrification of any sort.
4 When attacking an evil outsider or evil undead you deal +1d4 points of damage.
5 Once per day your eyes can emit a ray of light that deals 2d12 points of damage, this bypasses all damage reduction.
6 Once per day you may change into any canine form as though using beast shape II.
7 Your body is covered in a feathery down. This effectively masks your true physical size and precise shape, granting you a +2 bonus to CMD.
8 A divine power considers you a favourite great-great-great grand-child and subtly provides aid when you most need it. You suffer only a 40% miss-chance against creatures with full concealment, including those who are invisible.
9 Your spirit is less bound to your home plane than your body. This allows you to use a teleportation effect once per day to relocate yourself up to 30ft as a swift action. This requires line-of-sight and is a Supernatural Ability.
10 You are non-existent to fey. They cannot see or hear you and will generally never attack you. If a fey attempts to move into your space (or vice-versa), it becomes aware of an obstruction and may become curious or angry, but cannot understand your nature.
11 Gravity doesn't have the same attraction for you that it does for other mortal creatures. You weigh 1/10th what you should. This reduces the DC for Climb checks you make by 5 and grants you a +2 bonus to Acrobatics checks to jump.
12 Distant ancestors were committed to holy war against fiends and your body has racial memories of this. You are proficient with all martial weapons.
13 Your body repels water and you can never become wet (strangely, this trait extends to your clothing as well). A side-effect of this already unusual ability is that you cannot drown in water - you simply do not need to breathe when immersed.
14 People find your appearance comforting and are disarmed around you. When making Bluff checks, you may roll 2d20 and take the better die of the two as your result.
15 It is phenomenally difficult for you to become inebriated, intoxicated, or otherwise mentally unclear. You gain a +2 bonus against all mind-affecting effects.
16 When traveling by foot, tracks you leave behind vanish 10 minutes after you make them.
17 Your proprioceptive sense is highly unusual and your sense-of-self can be cast outside of your body at will. You may look around 90-degree corners up to 5ft away from you as if you had ducked your head around.
18 Your body repels those of opposed faiths, granting you a +4 deflection bonus to your touch armor class against melee touch attacks made by creatures who oppose your alignment on one or more axes.
19 Mother always knew you were special. Her doting care has left you more confident than most others, granting you a +2 morale bonus to one Strength or Dexterity-based skill you select at 1st level.
20 You are what you are. A reincarnation spell always creates a body identical to your original.
21 Everyone who looks at you sees a different face which subconsciously reminds them of someone they have fond memories of. You never be accurately described. Thus nobody can identify you unless they have seen you before. (This for instance makes it very difficult to hire an assassin to kill you, or send a guardsman to arrest you, or a messenger to deliver something to you.)
22 There is a touch of immortal blood within you. Once per day you may defer any amount of normal damage you take from a single attack or spell until the end of your next round (or current round, if taking damage during an attack of opportunity).
23 Your skin gives off a mild electric current. Any creature that attempts to use the swallow whole ability on you vomits you up one round later. Also, creatures larger than you take 1d4 electricity damage any time they bite you. Strangely, smaller or same-size creatures are unaffected by this energy.
24 Writing, including magical writing, has atypical behaviour around you. Attempts to erase or obscure non-magical writing within 30ft of you unexpectedly fail. Additionally, any scroll you cast has a 10% chance to not be consumed, remaining completely usable thereafter as if having never been cast.
25 Cursed items have no effect whatsoever on you. When handling such an item, you feel an empathic sense of intense frustration emanating from the object.
26 Spirit brothers and sisters you cannot see are frequently trying to help you. Once per day you may roll a skill check for one skill, and treat that skill as if it was a class skill which you had maximum ranks in. You select which skill to apply this ability to at the time of rolling.
27 Nobody expects the Chellish Inquisition. Once per day you may substitute a sense equivalent to discern lies in place of a single Sense Motive roll.
28 Your presence projects deeply into adjacent planes, anchoring you. You cannot be successfully subjected to a Bull Rush.
29 You always know when someone within a mile of you speaks your name. Additionally, you telepathically "hear" the next five words that person speaks. This does not give you the ability to understand the language spoken if you don't already have it.
30 Once per day as a standard action you may summon a swarm of doves. This swarm surrounds and follows you for one minute per class levels you possess and functions in all ways as obscuring mist with two exceptions. First, you can always see through the swarm unimpeded. Second, the swarm is unaffected by winds. The swarm remains vulnerable to such spells as fireball, the application of which leaves a rather depressing sight involving tiny charred avian bodies and peaceful incinerated birds for your benefit.
31 You may channel energy once per day but are limited to positive energy to heal living creatures. Treat your number of hit dice as cleric levels for purposes of determining the damage healed.
32 What's inside you isn't quite the same as most mortals. You may ignore bleed damage for a number of rounds per day equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). These rounds need not be consecutive.
33 At times of intense stress, your body may become limned in a holy light and strange sounds not unlike that of a choir surround you. This is naturally distracting to others. Once per day upon rolling for initiative, you may roll 1d8 and apply it as a penalty to one other creature's initiative roll. This ability can be used on friends or foes alike, but the creature selected must be able to hear or see or the ability has no effect and is consumed nonetheless.
34 You may consciously control the glands responsible for pheromone release. This allows you to avoid being tracked by scent if you so wish. Additionally, you may release scents pleasing to animals. If you succeed at a Knowledge (nature) check with a DC equal to 10 + the target creature's CR, it starts off an encounter one step friendlier towards you than it normally would.
35 A sixth sense allows brief flashes of insight regarding your surroundings. Once per day you may close your eyes as a free action and gain blind-sight to a distance of 40ft. This ability lasts for one round, during which you must keep your eyes closed.
36 Your hands are imbued with a touch of the heavenly planes your ancestors hail from. This grants you access to a personal extra-dimensional space that you may store a single object in. The stored object may be no larger than a weapon sized appropriately for you and may not be a living or deceased creature, undead, or construct. Storing or withdrawing the stored object is a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. This extra-dimensional space is accessible to you wherever you are, but you must be able to reach into it to store or withdraw an object.
37 Due to your unusual heritage, you form a deep bond with the creatures you meet. Once per day you may send an image of whatever you see as a mental snapshot. This snapshot may be sent to any willing creature you have ever met, as long as they are on the same plane as you when you attempt this sending. The recipient retains a perfect memory of what you send them, allowing them to recall and describe it afterward as if they were looking at a perfect painting.
38 You have perfect pitch and a versatile voice to die for. This grants you a +2 bonus on Perform (sing) or Perform (oratory) checks (you choose one at 1st level) and gives you the ability to perfectly imitate the voice of any humanoid creature you have heard speak.
39 Much to your parents' dismay, you have always had an unnaturally hearty set of lungs. Once per day you may shout, performing a Sunder attempt and add your Charisma bonus (if any) to your CMD for this attempt. This ability does not provoke attacks of opportunity even if you lack the Improved Sunder feat. This is a verbal effort, not using any wielded weapon.
40 Fate itself seems to conspire to protect you for reasons you are too wise to question. Whenever reduced to less than zero hit points (but not killed), at the start of your turn each round, you heal one hit point of damage. This healing ceases once you are brought to 0 hit points or more by any means.
41 There is something deeply abnormal about your connection to the material plane. While you appear completely normal outwardly, you and all your gear are invisible to scrying effects. Your area can be remotely observed, but you and your actions remain completely unobservable to the person attempting to spy on you.
42 Recorded in no tome, documented in no library, and spoken by no mortal exists a language so primal that it is literally the language of the creation of all things. You unconsciously tap knowledge of that language. Whenever using the Craft skill, you gain a +5 bonus to your checks. Additionally, if you fail a check by 5 and would normally ruin materials, you may re-roll your check once. If you fail your check the second time, the standard consequences apply as your ineptness momentarily reaches cosmic proportions.
43 You have an unusual affinity for and understand of inanimate objects. Once per day you may whisper soothing words of consolation to a damaged object you hold. This process requires one minute of concentration and repairs the item in question as per the make whole spell. This cannot be used on constructs or on intelligent magic items.
44 You have access to a universal language of truth. Once per day you may use any ability that is normally language-dependent (such as casting command) while muttering in tongues and your target understands you as if you shared a language. This ability does not function when used with targets that have no language or are otherwise unable to understand you (for instance if they are deaf).
45 Creatures exude a sense of identity which appears to you as a tangible and readable aura. Upon seeing any creature within 30ft you may use a swift action to learn that creature's name. In the case of a creature with more than one name (or title for instance), you learn only their most commonly used name. This ability has no additional utility - for instance not giving you the ability to discern illusions due to lack of name; in this case you would learn the name of the creature the illusion represents.
46 Deep in your ancestry lies a divine warrior of the holy host. As a swift action you may imbue one held weapon with the flaming property for one round. You may use this ability once per day for every class level you possess.
47 Your body can emit a flash of brilliant holy light. Once per day as a free action you may create a blinding burst of light centered upon you. This light causes sighted creatures within 5ft of you to reflexively avert their gaze, allowing you to avoid attacks of opportunity for 5ft of your movement. This may be used at any point during your movement.
48 One of your progenitors was the divine* soul responsible for inventing the hideous laughter spell and you have inherited a fraction of their brilliance. Once per day you may afflict one creature with 30ft with hideous hiccups as a standard action. The afflicted creature suffers a -2 penalty to attack rolls and suffers a -10 penalty to concentration checks involved with casting spells that have verbal components. This ability lasts one round per class level you possess.
*Note: some believe hideous laughter and your special variant are in fact of diabolic nature. You know better.
49 You occasionally exhibit a benign stigmata. Once per as a swift action you may trigger this. Your wrists begin to bleed though no visible wound exists. You may proffer your wrist to another living creature who may drink of your lifeblood, gaining Fast Healing 1 for one round per class level you possess. Once you reach 10 hit dice, the rate of healing doubles to Fast Healing 2.
50 Creatures of angelic background suffer the stereotype of being less physically passionate than their fiendish counterparts. You are an exception to the generality. Once per day you may bestow a passionate kiss upon a willing recipient. This kiss automatically removes a single negative level the recipient suffers that was inflicted by a succubus' energy drain ability within the last 24 hours.
51 You are not anchored in time in the same manner as most mortal creatures. As such, once per day when rolling initiative you may roll an additional die (same as your largest hit-die) and treat the sum as your initiative roll. You may choose to use this ability after seeing the result of your d20 roll.
52 Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Once per day you may cause a single creature within 10ft of you to fall asleep as per the sleep spell with no limitation on maximum hit dice. This ability may not be used in combat situations. If your target fails its Will save, it falls asleep for one round per class level you possess.
53 You have a dove companion. This functions as a wizard’s familiar would.

Aasimar Feats

Celestial Heritage
You possess a strong tie to your celestial ancestors, granting you favourable abilities.
Prerequisite: Aasimar, must be taken at 1st level
Benefit: Your celestial bloodline proves particularly strong, being tied to a particular celestial race. Rather than taking an aasimar’s usual racial ability modifiers, choose one of the aasimar heritage modifiers presented above. In addition you may roll on the Variant Aasimar Abilities table three times and choose the most favourable ability.

Tight Grip of Fate
The powers that spawned you have a plan and expect you to be instrumental in this plan. Your blood has unusually high saturation of celestial power.
Prerequisite: Aasimar
Benefit: You gain access to a second ability from the Variant Aasimar Abilities table. Roll an additional percentile and add the resulting ability. If you have the Celestial Heritage feat, you may roll three times and choose the most favourable ability.

This is AWESOME. As soon as I got the player's guide I sat down and brainstormed how to come up with a fitting Belmont whip-wielding vampire killer - and finally settled on Inquisitor. They have enough martial prowess to make it work, and enough divine magic to fit the flavor. I mean...you can make your own holy water.

The biggest win though was the ability to add the "bane" ability to your weapon. Using it is about the only way I could imagine making the whip (even scorpion) not completely suck - and it can make it great against undead AND other monsters.

And as far as music goes, check out OCremix. Loads of great free Castlevania music:
NES Castlevania
NES Simon's Quest
NES Dracula's Curse
SNES Super Castlevania IV
PS Symphony of the Night

Sara Marie looks at chat transcript to see what was censored.

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Sara Marie wishes she hadn't looked.

MapTools is a great program with chat, dice roller, and virtual tabletop all built in. It takes a little know-how to mess with port forwarding and firewalls but it definitely pays off as it is much, much faster than PbP, albeit a bit slower than face-to-face.

It strikes me as a bit odd that there would be so many vocal opponents to having a constant non-player member of the party who is actively engaged. Both Serpent's Skull and Jade Regent are heavily based upon NPCs that are [arguably] so heavily written into the story that they might as well become GMPCs if they are truly given life as you're supposed to.

Of course, there are many different playstyles so that could be part of the difference too. For example, some groups see the "story" aspect of an RPG as an incidental byproduct of what they see first and foremost as a game. From that standpoint, I can certainly see a GMPC garnering enmity.

However, I know that there are more than a few GMs [myself included] who run a game primarily because they love the story aspect. Speaking for myself, I see the rules as more of an aid to help with the storytelling than the main focus. When they get in the way they get put aside for a while.

By the same token, there are several types of stories/tropes that are best served by having a constant NPC/GMPC. In the case of my own Serpent's Skull/homebrew PbP, in the most basic sense, you could take the premise of Jade Regent (escort a noble across the world, develop strong relationships) and swap out Ameiko for Alis.

Is it somehow 'ok' when Paizo does this and Wrong Bad Fun™ when a GM does it? That seems rather arbitrary to me.

I would agree though that GMs and players need to be up-front about their expectations. I've tried to be exhaustive in enumerating mine, but it's always interesting to learn more about such things — namely when they show up in contrast against those of someone else. Live and learn...

Since everyone who is anyone in the Pathfinder multiverse comes here. Would you host a looking for group board?

Those of us who live in the midwest have a tough time finding groups some days.

Maybe you can put up one for each state? or even take cities

I would like that as well, but add on Countries as some of us are in Canada, UK, Germany, etc..

Sara Marie: Wow, this customer is like, right next door!

Ross: For deliveries that close, we should have a "Catapult" delivery method. It's free, but we aren't responsible for damages.

(I hope this is the right forum for this.)

Contests. Open calls. Standard submissions (with or without query). On spec assignments. Taking writing resumes.

I started a thread under Paizo General about writing for PF, and the majority of the response pointed toward "write for a 3rd Party Publisher." Okay. I'll buy that.

So, who's hiring? I know many 3PPs are one-or-three man operations done as a labor of love, but some of you have to be open to submissions or be willing to give assignments. And I am certain that I am far from the only one on this board to be interested in such work.

So here's your chance. Let us know.

I've skimmed through the 1000 Tiefling quirks thread and I was wondering if there was a similar thread. A (very) quick search showed me that there wasn't, so I decided to start my own. One of my players wants to play an evil Aasimar. Yes, that's right. an evil Aasimar. I'm looking for some nice suggestions for him.

1. A faint halo floats above your head. (Yes, it's from the bestiary, but I really like it)
2. When people are near you, they hear the faint sound of a choir of angels.

Like anybody, I enjoy threads that recount the unexpected (and inexplicable) turn of events that sometimes occur in games or those that expose the mind-nubblingly dumb things that PCs (or DMs) occasionally do.

A little less common, in my experience, are the stories that recount ridiculously unlikely deductions, leaps of logic or unintended accidents which have lead PCs to solve mysteries, prematurely defeat bad guys or stumble out of a problematic situtation before they're even aware of being in it. These are the events that leave lesser GMs weeping on the floor, their carefully plotted storyline in disarray and with no idea of how to pick up the pieces. Here's one such example from the other thread:

Champions game. Until that point in the game, it had been very classical super heros. Fighting other supers, lots of tech and such. So, the GM pulls each of us aside in turn, and I'm 3rd in line. As I'm bored, I start thinking to myself, what is the most stupid plot line I could think of, given our game style. I hit on throwing in werewolves or vampires. As I'm thinking about how bad of a clash this would be, I devise a joke to play on the GM. When he pulls me back in the other room, I count to five as he starts talking, and then carol out in a loud voice. "VAMPYRES! Are you Serious?!" The GM looks shocked, and several people look back into the room. He looks so shocked I feel bad, and apologize, saying it was just a joke.

To this day he still thinks I cheated and looked at his notes or was listening to the two people that went before me. We were attacked by vampires. :) And it was as bad as I thought it would be, it clashed horribly, and we killed the head vampyre, rather than capture him to find a cure, so the GM had to come up with a wierd cup ritual to undo the vampirism he spread to half of us.

How about you? Ever had a PC unexpectedly kill your disguised BBEG while trying to read a campaign's opening boxed text?

I'm looking for really good examples of the extremes of GMing — those situations that arise in which there are no good precedents in the rules. These things do happen, and it falls to the GM to make the call, often without enough time to practice solid game design.

What is the toughest ad-hoc GM ruling you've had to make in Pathfinder RPG? What was the situation? How did you rule in the end? Are you happy with the ruling? What would you rule today if faced with the same situation?

Also, I'd like to keep this specific to Pathfinder RPG.

1. Vestigal bat-like wings grow from the character's shoulders. They flap instinctively and uselessly whenever she jumps or is falling.

2. The character has two eyes, but also a third pupil that seems to float across the surface of his eyes independent of whatever he's looking at.

3. No nose. The character's face is completely smooth and blank where she should have a nose.

4. Shark-teeth. The character's teeth may look normal. Or they may be triangular shark's teeth. Either way, he always has rows of replacement teeth ready to replace his old ones, sometimes even forcing old ones out if they are not lost in a span of five years.

5. Any tattoos, scars, freckles, or other markings this character has seems to rearrange themselves whenever no one is watching, including herself.

6. The character has a small, snake-like something under the skin of his shoulder which shifts about if touched.

7. Popeye arms. The character's forearms are thicker and far more developed than her biceps. Her hands are larger than the norm as well.

8. The character is always warm to the touch, but not alarmingly so. However, people looking at him note that there's always a heat distortion effect outlining his form.

Personally instead of a plethora of subraces for every situation, I'd like to see something I've only ever seen even attempted in Rolemaster, because frankly, it's a good idea.

Separate Race, Culture, and Climate.

That way there's no need to elaborately work in (making the assumption that the gm wont allow custom houseruling of races - which is true in 85% of games) why my dwarf raised by elves knows how to dodge giants, and halforcs raised by gnomes wouldn't likely be taught to use orcish weapons.

Race: What you're born with, your potential, and abilities that develop with age, through no effort or training whatsoever.

Climate: The climate you grew up in. This could determine the skills you get for race, or maybe some climate specializations. Things you'd need to have picked up in such a climate.

Culture: Things you are taught by your society, things everyone learns in this culture while growing up, etc. Weapon Proficiencies and Dwarven combat training falls into this area.

And theoretically, you could still modify your race if they've been living in a situation so long that their racial capabilities have changed. You could make "hardy" races, "cunning", "intellectual", etc. The GM would be the only one doing this part most likely though, because if the PC says "I'm an elf racially adapted to be fireproof" the GM can say, that doesn't exist in this setting. (But if it *DOES*) then it's really easy for the GM to just plug it in and use it, without having to worry alot about "well I just made some stuff up. it looks like a comparable power level, I hope it is."

So: In a theoretical setting, let's say we're building a character where these are separated. I'm going to assume instead of having 3 separately balanced categories that you're picking from, they came up with a system of substitutions (3 different balanced things would be better, but for simplicity I'll do it this way)

So: I'm an Elf, From the Arctic Wilderness, who was raised by Human Vikings.

So I start with the Base Elf
+2Dex, +2Int, -2Con, lowlight vision, elven immunities, elven magic, keen senses, and elven weapons.

What's Racial?
Everything but weapons and elven magic..

So, assuming we're using a substitution system.
Replace Identify bonus with: +2 Survival in a cold northern climate (Climate (Arctic Wilderness)
Replace SR bonus with: +1 Hatred toward trolls and frost giants. (Culture (Viking))
Weapon Familiarity: longswords, battleaxes, medium shields, light crossbows. (elven weapons stay as exotic). (Culture (Viking)).

It would be nice to have a bunch of different climate and cultural packages - and it would be an effective and simple way to customize races for a setting without a million and one subraces needing to fill all that page space.

Ive already started laying down building blocks for a community build megadungeon although I put it as accesible by dimension door from anywhere in the world...

megadungeon thread

Here are the assorted idea boxes(card decks)

100 random rooms

100 unexpected traps

100 unusual treasures

100 special discoveries

100 Monster encounters

I'd like to hear some of the funny stuff said/done at the game table (in game please) that made the whole table laugh.

When my gaming group had just started, we had this kid (senior in HS getting ready for college) who wanted to play a halfling rogue. Because he was terrible at naming in general, we looked the other way when he named his character "Skeeve" (Robert Aspirin Myth- books, for those who don't know), so we're leveling along, doing our thing, listening and /facepalming to all the goofy stuff Skeeve comes up with.

In the course of adventuring, we meet an old knight. Positively ancient. And a little crazy too. I know my DM, and I figured this was his Don Quixote-type guy, who wanted "one last adventure..". I forget what we were fighting, but the knight does this Majestic Charge™ (like something out of the movie Excalibur) and hits his mark, but in the process is run through by two pikes, killing him instantly. Our DM gave us this moment by moment accounting of the knight's passing, how heroic it was, how serene he looked in the face of death, how he went out as he intended...and Skeeve interrupts by saying: "Dibs on the armor.." The knight hadn't even hit the ground yet.

It may not seems so humorous in type, but I swear to any God you place in front of me, we were in hysterics. I still remember that was the one time I laughed so hard that I cried, my sides were killing me, and I had to leave the room...

Is there any chance of us getting more specific templates for half-fiends and half-celestials (as in half-glabrezu, or half-lillend, for example).