Bellona's page

Last year I found one essay with a blatant example of plagiarism. Instead of failing the student I announced in class "I've found an essay that was plagiarized. I won't say anything more about it. If you think it was yours, you have until midnight to resubmit by email."

Half the class was pissing themselves in fear. The other half were pissing themselves laughing.

10 out of 30 students resubmitted.

I just about died laughing when I read that!

On a more serious note, it reminded me of a saddening experience. I was in a classroom situation as a student less than 5 years ago. It was at the post-graduate level, with an international student body being taught in English. Our Marketing instructor had given us an assignment: look up a particular franchise on the internet, and write a report about it, answering certain questions which she had posed us.

When our instructor returned our assignments, she said: "These reports were done in one of three ways. Most of them were cut and paste jobs. A few paraphrased the original website content. Only one person did the assignment which I gave you."

Ouch. Out of a class of about 25, that hurts.

(By the way, 'twas I who did the assignment correctly.)

Great stuff, David! Thanks for doing all that work in filling out the holes left in 3.0's "Deities and Demigods" book.

That said, where are Tlazolteotl and Metzli? Did I miss them somewhere in the articles and/or post?

It's a great alternate class feature, maybe a little cheap but the fighter doesn't have a lot of things to give up at first level.

Here is the class feature slightly altered to remove Golarian fluff:

Pathfinder Gazetteer wrote:

Fighters who attend a martial college learn additional class skills and gain additional skill points. Taking this option replaces the bonus feat gained upon taking the first level of fighter.

Class Skills: A fighter trained at a famous war college or fighting school gains the following class skills (in addition to the normal fighter class skills): Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (architecture and engineering) (Int), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) (Int), Sense Motive (Wis).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

I like that write-up, but would add Knowledge (history) - assuming that the system has kept that particular skill (I'm no expert in Pathfinder) - to cover the study of historical battles and famous tacticians. (The Sun Tzus, Julius Caesars, and Napoleons of the setting.)

There might be an argument for adding Spellcraft too, as battlefield magic is important in most settings. For example, if your character sees that incoming "bead", he might recognise the Delayed Blast Fireball and react appropriately. Or order his archers to target that one particular enemy spellcaster which he has identified as being about to unleash some extremely unpleasant magic on the troops.

An alternative to Spellcraft being a class skill would be just to suggest that such a tactician character take some ranks in Spellcraft, despite it not being a class skill. (Personal house rule: non-class skills don't cost double, but they cannot be bought up to more ranks than the current cross-class skill maximum.)

That high INT requirement which Indago suggested would also be a good addition. While many people could have attended a martial school, not all of them would have benefited to the extent that they could take this particular feat. Only a dedicated tactician would put the points into INT instead of the usual fighter stats.

As for giving up things like armour proficiencies ... maybe the Heavy Armour Proficiency. I like to think of the Tower Shield as being a tactical option.

Just my two-cents' worth! :)

You could also check out David Schwartz' own adaptation of the Aztec deities to 3.5. They can be found in the Class Acts (Divine) section of Dragon issues 352, 354, 356, and 358 (February, April, June, and August 2007, respectively).

It's not quite Maztica, but the flavour is similar, and nicely described a pantheon missing from the 3.0 version of Deities and Demigods. Thank you, David! :)

Favourite settings? That depends on the genre. Let's see ...

Fantasy: Forgotten Realms ... as envisioned during 2e (connected to Kara-Tur, Al'Qadim, Maztica, Spelljammer, Planescape, Greyhawk, etc.), but with some "homebrew" twists and 3.5 rules.

Gothic: Ravenloft ... both for a "weekend in hell" and for a longer campaign.

Cosmic horror: Call of Cthulhu ... d20 Cthulhu may be an acceptable substitute. The jury's still out on Trail of Cthulhu.

Personal horror: World of Darkness (old version).

"Historical" mixed with magic: Ars Magica.

Sci-fi: Traveller ... even though I didn't get to play a lot of it.

As for nostalgia moments, for me as a player the best-remembered D&D dungeons were some of the old Greyhawk adventures plus a few others:
GDQ 1-7
White Plume Mountain
Egg of the Phoenix
Desert of Desolation series
Night Below
Ravenloft (original module)

and some great CoC campaigns like:
Masks of Nyarlathotep
Spawn of Azathoth (although I have a small bone to pick there)
Horror on the Orient Express

Anyon remember a good one from Dungeon mag?

I want to interject it in AOW AP, for when the PCs go into Mistmarsh toward blackwall keep.

Also, is there anything like a dungeon index with adventure locations/levels of all the adventure?

( I remember seeing this, but it would so help at least having the issue number to ease my search)

The last print issue of Dungeon - # 150, Sept. 2007 - has an index which does part of what you're looking for. Sub-divided into game editions and campaign settings (although with an error or two), it also gives the expected level of the party.

As for the actual terrain type covered by an adventure, I'm not sure where you'd find that.

Bellona wrote:

I just turned 40 this year, and I'm female. Don't know what that does to the Dungeon-reader statistics at this point...

Yay! More female gamers! Welcome!

Thank you!

Statistically-speaking, the really weird thing about my original group was that at least 50% were female. Another (more recent) group had a male GM and 5 female players (one of whom was his wife). When the GM mentioned this fact in a local gaming store, he was asked to be generous and share his players. On the other hand, I'm sure that - once in a while - he has regretted his decision to GM that particular group! ;)

B.A. (history) in Toronto, Canada.
Unfinished Master's equivalent in Denmark.
Post-graduate diploma in hotel and restaurant administation in Switzerland.
Currently unemployed.

I just turned 40 this year, and I'm female. Don't know what that does to the Dungeon-reader statistics at this point ...

The red box was my first exposure (I bought it way back in 1980), but because I was at a girls' private boarding school at the time, actual gaming did not materialise until I started university in 1986 (1e AD&D). Since then I've gone through 2e, 3.0, and 3.5, with a focus on the Forgotten Realms. Currently I'm running 3½ games and playing in 2 others - and yes, it does eat up a lot time! Not to mention bi-monthly Arkham Horror sessions (all expansions) on the side. :)

While I do have a 4.0 PHB, I have no intention of DMing in "D+D Lite". If someone in my circle of friends wants to run it ... (shrugs shoulders) ... maybe I'll play it.

Just my 2-cents' worth about PC-creation for the Adventure Path ...

If you have access to "Lords of Madness" (and like using splat books), then there are some interesting feats therein.

Aquatic Spellcasting: lets you overcome some of the pesky problems with casting spells into water, as well as using Fire descriptor spells.

Banemagic/Bane Magic: originally was only focused against Aberrations, but in "Heroes of Horror" it was extended/changed so that (when choosing the feat) one could choose to focus its effects on any one specific monster type. In general terms, ones' spells become a bit more effective against that one particular monster type, but the feat is no help vs. Spell Resistance. Note that there seems to be a slight discrepancy between the two feat descriptions with regard to how they work.

If you have a taste for the exotic, consider making/allowing a character who uses Aberrant feats. Waterspawn (one of the later ones) is very useful in a seagoing/sort-of-aquatic campaign. Just imagine a PC whose bloodline descends from the Far Realm fighting the horrors of the Abyss!