Cinder Wolf

CaniestDog's page

41 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists.


RSS


Simple answer is to add new martial crossbows -

Name Category Price Damage Range Reload Bulk Hands Group Weapon Traits
Dwarven Tunnelbow Martial 10 gp 1d8 P 80 ft. 1 1 2 Bow Dwarf, Fatal 1D10
Dwarven Heavy Tunnelbow Martial 15 gp 1d10 P 120 ft. 2 2 2 Bow Dwarf, Fatal 1D12

This one is just for fun...
Dwarven Boltgunn Martial 25 gp 1d8 P 60 ft. 0 1 2 Bow Dwarf, Fatal 1D10, Punishing, Revolver
The Dwarven boltgunn is a rapid firing sprung weapon that propels crossbow bolts at deadly speeds.

New Traits:
Punishing: You add half your Dexterity modifier (if positive) to damage rolls with a punishing ranged weapon. If you have a negative Dexterity modifier, you add your full Dexterity modifier instead.
Revolver: Ranged weapons with the revolver trait carry 5 rounds of ammunition. It tales 3 actions to reload the revolver.

The only issue is it might give Rangers an unexpected power boost?


I'm not a big fan of Heightening Spells, no one I've gamed with has found it very pleasant to manage and track.

I'd rather spells gain the benefit of heightened effects based on your casting skill proficiency, although this would require a massive change to the games balance.

For example:

MAGE ARMOR SPELL 1 Abjuration
Casting Somatic Casting, Verbal Casting
Duration 1 day

You ward yourself with shimmering magical energy. While wearing mage armor, you use your unarmored proficiency to calculate your AC.

Casting skill Trained Proficiency: Gain a +1 item bonus to AC

Casting skill Expert Proficiency: The bonus increases to +2, and you gain a +1
item bonus to saving throws.

Casting skill Master Proficiency: The bonus increases to +4, and you gain a +3
item bonus to saving throws.

Casting skill Legendary Proficiency: The bonus increases to +6, and you gain a +5
item bonus to saving throws.


One thing I tend to do a lot is copy the stat block of a monster into my game notes so I don't have to flick through the monsters manual. This is particularly required if I am adding the Elite (or other) template.

A major source of annoyance for me is that the action symbols don't copy across. I would really like the action types to be included in the text for ease of use.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'd like to see the save DC's increase based on your crafting TEML level.

I'd also suggest prices are far to high for practical use, either they need to be more durable, cause damage on a failed save or be more economic.


I couldn’t see a thread that this would fit in..
I was thinking that there seems to be a lot of characters that once they go down, get up and down repeatedly in the same fight. Not sure if that’s a universal experience?

Anyway I was wondering if it would be better for a character that recovers to go to 50% of max hp rather than to 1 (maybe with a Heropoint spend). Sort of an adrenaline boost effect.


LordVanya wrote:

For sure, I agree with others that Treat Wounds DCs shouldn't be tied to the user's Level.

That is an obvious flaw.

However, by tying the DC to the target's Level, now the game is implying that treating the wounds of a more experience character is more difficult than treating a similar wound on an inexperienced character.
That still feels wrong.
Why should it be more difficult to treat a higher level creature?
The nature of the wound should dictate how difficult it is to treat.
Otherwise, it is gamey nonsense.

I submit that Treat Wounds should have a tiered DC based on how much damage the target has taken.
Perhaps add some more conditions besides Wounded.
If HP is below 75% they get the Hurt condition.
If HP is below 50% they get the Injured condition.
If HP is below 25% they get the Impaired condition.
Each condition would increase the base DC of Treat Wounds by an appropriate amount.

I would also tie the amount of healing to the severity of the condition.
None: Cannot use Treat Wounds. (This limits the use of Treat Wounds)
Hurt: Success, 1x Level; Critical Success, 1.5x Level.
Injured: Success, 1.5x Level; Critical Success, 2x Level.
Impaired: Success, 2x Level; Critical Success, 3x Level.

My reasoning to disallow the use of Treat Wounds on a character that has no damage condition is to prevent the over use of the skill.
This helps mitigate the 1 battle adventuring day while also assuaging the party from just taking an hour to heal back up to full after every battle, aka the stop-and-go adventuring day.

Additionally, the amount of time it takes to use Treat Wounds should depend on the most severely injured target's condition.
For example if at least one target is Injured, the time increases to 30 min.

However, I would also give the user of Treat Wounds the option to treat any target as if they were of a lower tier condition in order to save time and reduce the DC.

This approach would incentivize using a combination of magical healing and mundane healing, but still leave a...

I think there is the seed of a good idea hear, but it’s too complicated.

How about having a new condition:
Wounded
When reduced to 0 hit points for the first time, you gain this condition as “Wounded 1”. Each time you are reduced to 0 hit points after this time your Wounded condition increases by 1.

The Wounded condition is counted as a conditional penalty to treat deadly wounds.

The condition itself can be healed at the rate of 1 per 24 hours rest, 2 per heightened restoration or by casting regeneration.


If they introduce a limited use healing kit, I wonder if natural healing needs much change. Maybe just increase in the number of people you can treat?


8 people marked this as a favorite.

Yes please, drop potency runes and go straight to rune effects.

A +X to hit adds very little to the game, but a choice between cold damage and fire damage is huge. The +X is just a relic from the wargame era we don't need.

That said you could just limit the +X to 1 or 2 making the maths matter far less.

The only danger here is the risk of needing a golf bag of magic weapons so you can choose the best one for the encounter at hand. Although I guess that's not entirely new.


While I don't mind the rapid Hit Point healing of the medicine skill, I'm actually not that happy with the wounded condition. Purely because its soul purpose is a mechanical balance to the new healing rules.

I'd much rather make it a more substantial part of the game and have it represent actual difficult to heal injuries (something Hit Points don't even try to represent now).

My thought is that the condition would be changed something like this:

Wounded - Representing serious injuries received in battle.
• Having the wounded condition changes the point you die when using the dying system. When you gain the dying condition, add the wounded condition to it to determine the point of death. For example, normally death occurs at dying 4, if you have wounded 1 you instead die at dying 3 (wounded 1 + dying 3 = dying 4).

This tones the lethality in combat down a very small amount.

The big change:

• The Injured condition can be reduced by 1 for each full day of rest or by 1 after an 8 hour period of rest while being tended to by a healer who is trained in medicine. The spell Restoration if heightened to 4th will reduce the condition as described. The spell Regenerate will remove the condition at a rate of 1 per round.

The idea being this introduces lasting damage to our heroes, that's a little harder to remove without causing a significant negative effect to capabilities (which are rarely as much fun as they sound).

I've no idea if this is something that would be popular, it just appeals to my sensibilities.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

With the introduction of the new treat wounds ability in the heal skill, the Natural Medicine feat seems a little underwhelming.

Can it be updated to allow the use of Treat Wounds with the Nature skill instead of the Heal skill?

NATURAL MEDICINE FEAT 2
Prerequisites expert in Nature
You can spend 10 minutes applying natural cures to heal a creature, after which you must attempt a DC 20 Nature check. On a success, the target regains Hit Points equal to 1d8 plus your Wisdom modifier. If you’re a master of Nature, the target regains an additional 1d8 Hit Points. You can use this feat to heal a particular creature only once per day.

If you’re in the wilderness, you might have easier access to fresh ingredients, allowing you to restore an additional 1d8 Hit Points on a success or critical success, subject to the GM’s determination.

TREAT WOUNDS
Requirements You must use healer’s tools (see page 186).
You spend 10 minutes treating up to 6 injured living creatures (targeting yourself as one of them, if you so choose), then attempt a Medicine check. The DC is usually the medium DC for your level, though the GM might adjust this DC due to circumstances, such as trying to rest during volatile weather or when treating magically cursed wounds.

A given creature can be subject to only one Treat Wounds attempt per 10-minute period, so two characters can’t treat the same target’s wounds simultaneously.

Success You treat the patients’ wounds. Each patient recovers Hit Points equal to its Constitution modifier × your level or equal to just your level, whichever is higher.
Critical Success As success, but increase the healing by your level × 3.
Critical Failure The patients are bolstered against your Treat Wounds.


The signature actions that monsters have are a great addition to the stat block and should definitely be brought forward to the final game.

All the fights my players remember and talk about are the ones that had monsters with distinctive and dynamic actions. Less impressive were things like the Mummy which had an underwhelming disease that was of no impact whatsoever.


Agreed they need to give you three options to choose at first level in your ancestry. Alternatively just give the current one ancestry feat at first and increase the number of fixed abilities you gain (to keep character creation simple).

High level ancestry feats ought to be comparable to high level skill feats imo. They shouldn’t really grant new powers, unless you somehow mutated..


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I’d like to see wererats as a player race as they turn up in almost every city, but also as I’d like to see how they implement more powerful ancestry options into the game.

I’d like to see regional ancestries as an early source book.. Andorran Kobolds, Chelish Stryx, Belkzen Orc, etc..


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I think the new system is better than the old, but just needs more choice within the dedication feat to allow you to select the additional class features that meet your concept.

I’d also like to see the option to use general (or skill) feats to buy these and archetype feat trees up. Or give more abilities outside of feat choices..


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Im really enjoying retributive strike, it has been vastly more useful than the fighters attack of opportunity, but I do think it locks the class into a very specific niche.

I’d really like to see a choice of Paladin styles, a bit like Sorcerers choose bloodline. So a 1st you’d choose a God or Theology and that choice would change retributive strike and a few other class powers to something else that fits the theme..


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Having watched my ranger struggle with a heavy crossbow in the last two games, I think the rules as written just sap the fun from the game for them.

They really need to alter crossbows to make them an fun and interesting choice regardless of if you are a ranger or not.

My preference would be to remove the loading time entirely, but give a penalty to hit with a crossbow unless you take an action (maybe two for a heavy) to aim.

If a reload time was still required I’d be tempted to allow an aim action to target touch AC just because the difference in a magical crossbow and a magical bow is pretty huge.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

My group had a half-elf in lost star and found it a great choice.


I like and use hero points (house ruled) and would like to use combat maneuvers more than we do. So much so I've been debating removing the AOO penalty from them.


As for how the taint is being handled, I'm currently looking at a variation of the insanity rules from horror adventures triggered as a corruption attack every time a spell is cast. Although I'm trimming it and simplifying it a little so it doesn't require a dice roll every spell. I'll post the full rules when I'm happy with my first draft..


I'm plotting a game where magic is actually pretty badly wrecked. It's become dangerous and unreliable to use because of a recent magical war where spells of mass destruction were used.

However it's going to be a bit pulp in feeling, strange races (all races will be ~20 point racial points), mad max style vehicles, and polluted magic. There are ways to resist the taint (such as channeling it into your familiar first or using alchemy to resist it) but the use of traditional magic is going to be quite dangerous.

As a result I'm looking for a way to give pure spell casters a bit more.. rather than simply replacing spells (might as well play a partial spell caster) or making them immune to the taint (making the taint less relevant), I'd prefer to give them more bang for there buck. What's the saying, burn bright, burn quickly? With great risk comes great reward is my thought process.


I'm working on a campaign where magic has been tainted (similar to Dark Sun or Wheel of Time) and using it I has become dangerous. I'm planning on introducing a corruption value when a spell is cast, but I'd like to balance this out with a reward.

So my question is, would reducing the 8 hours rest time before you regain your used spell slots to just 1 hour be too powerful a reward. Keeping in mind that just casting a spell will potentially corrupt the casters soul...

If you think it's too good, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on alternatives as well. Cheers.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I would love to buy direct from Paizo, but the shipping costs to the UK are just two much. I'm not sure why smaller publishers can supply direct at reasonable prices, and Paizo cannot?

If they made an effort to cut the costs down I'd subscribe.


It's a fairly standard trope for sci-fi gear to be DNA locked to the owner. Which means looting dead bodies becomes a tad hit and miss. I expect I will use this for evil corp mercy with overpowered gear I'm not ready for my group to get hold of.

As for making guards more of a threat, I'm waiting to see the final rules before I decide this is needed.


4 people marked this as a favorite.

I might buy a revised CRB, but it would have to be significantly updated and justified. I like the ever expanding options pathfinder is bringing us, and I have so much material now that Paizo would probably loose me as a customer if they released an incompatible 2nd edition.

That said, I think Starfinder is the way forward. I suspect it will be different enough to count as a new game and if it does well I believe we could see other "new game universes" with different rule flavours.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Chess Pwn wrote:

the only way is if you communicate with everyone in secret.

have player A tell you want he wants to do in secret, and then secretly tell each person what they see happen.

A slight change to the execution of this suggestion which might make it a little easier to run.

Prepare a list of doppelganger actions on cards in advance of the game and pass them out to the Players.
Each round have them make a will save and on a failure they are so confused they cannot act, but the player must turn over one card and perform the listed action, effectively have the player control his Doppler...


Use the same rules from the mirror image spell. So if you want to attack your own duplicate there is no issue, but if you attack the duplicate of a friend then there is a random chance of hitting your friend instead of the doppelganger.


I don't know the adventure, but have played a few single player games.

1 on 1 games allow you to break the rules of the game in new and interesting ways without upsetting other players. Its a great time to experiment with new house rules, systems of magic and 3rd party products.

The above applies to stories as well, one of my solo games has me spirit linked to Arodens death in the past and trying to resurrect him, all the while I'm slowly succumbing to my Vamparic heritage (long story).

From a power point of view, your NPC's could dominate the game. Its better imo to buff the player than add more than one or two NPC's. Hero points are a good start, Gestalt progression (allow levelling in two classes simultaneously) is great as are Corruptions from Horror Adventures.

Don't be afraid to focus on the player character. Just say NPC X & Y are having an epic battle while concentrating on the players epic battle.

A single character needs to be able to switch rolls, a normal party has a healer, a close fighter, a stealth expert and a magic user (broadly speaking). You will need to help your player by choosing or creating games that focus on the areas they are good at while allowing for his/her weaknesses.


So long as you are consistent in future uses.

I'd probably say it requires a spell craft check to get it right, but most spells require some sight on the area to be effected even if it's through a key hole.


I have four gaming groups, three have two ladies playing in them. I know of several other groups all have at least one and often more female gamers (both as players and GMs)


I'd say that it's the same attack, not a second attack, as a result you can only apply sneak attack once. All the feat does is closely duplicate the archetypes level 1 ability.


I'd say no to my player. Technically by the book I think you could do it, but I'd say it's against the spirit of the rules. As a compromise if my player was giving me grief I'd require it only apply to sneak attack damage from another source.


CaniestDog wrote:

I almost never use a map with minis, though I've played in plenty of games that have used them. Both are fun and have strengths..

Gut feeling and a lot of imagination is needed for mini-less games. It's important to let your characters know what they sense, so be descriptive and don't forget to think in three dimensions. I ask for combat manoeuvre checks a lot as part of move actions to allow players and monsters to get into favourable positions (flanking etc) and often ask for spell craft checks to allow spells to target enemies correctly.

For example a rouge and a fighter see half a dozen Goblins causing chaos in an open air market square. Players want to charge in and tackle the nearest one, rogue wants to flank while the fighter wants to hit it. Ask the rogue to make a CMB check to flank. Meanwhile the wizard on the roof wants to use fireball to get as many goblins as possible without hitting any villagers, if you think it can be done, I'd USA spell craft check to get it right. This sounds like a tough one to pull off to me so DC 20 to miss every friendly or DC 15 if he doesn't mind catching one or two friendly villagers (or heros?) in the spell effect.

I also some times allow my players hero points they can use to add extra favourable details to a scene I have described. For example the wizard could a Hero point to add in the large decorative flowerbeds in the centre of the market square, currently being smashed to bits by four goblins and otherwise empty...

Sorry I forgot to mention, acrobatics skill checks are often used in the place of CMB checks to get into position. Depends on the character...


I almost never use a map with minis, though I've played in plenty of games that have used them. Both are fun and have strengths..

Gut feeling and a lot of imagination is needed for mini-less games. It's important to let your characters know what they sense, so be descriptive and don't forget to think in three dimensions. I ask for combat manoeuvre checks a lot as part of move actions to allow players and monsters to get into favourable positions (flanking etc) and often ask for spell craft checks to allow spells to target enemies correctly.

For example a rouge and a fighter see half a dozen Goblins causing chaos in an open air market square. Players want to charge in and tackle the nearest one, rogue wants to flank while the fighter wants to hit it. Ask the rogue to make a CMB check to flank. Meanwhile the wizard on the roof wants to use fireball to get as many goblins as possible without hitting any villagers, if you think it can be done, I'd USA spell craft check to get it right. This sounds like a tough one to pull off to me so DC 20 to miss every friendly or DC 15 if he doesn't mind catching one or two friendly villagers (or heros?) in the spell effect.

I also some times allow my players hero points they can use to add extra favourable details to a scene I have described. For example the wizard could a Hero point to add in the large decorative flowerbeds in the centre of the market square, currently being smashed to bits by four goblins and otherwise empty...


Boomerang Nebula wrote:

Interesting rules presented in the opening post.

I haven't played the game but Unknown Armies has interesting psychology rules that you might find useful for inspiration. Call of Cthulhu is obviously another good source to look at and the fright checks mechanic from GURPS is another one you might want to use.

Cheers I'd not heard of Unknown Armies before, it's pretty cool.


Nice work, looking forward to the game.

If you're looking for map ideas, maybe a cross section of a gass giant or a non-spherical world?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I've run for 1 player and 2. Both are fun, but require some careful adjustments. I'm in the middle of an Ustalavian campaign in a one player, 1 GM group (my girlfriend and myself). A lot of npcs get involved, but it's going really well.

Such low player numbers suit horror and investigation stories better than pure combat and I highly recommend hero points.


Kahel Stormbender wrote:

Ah, looks like PF changed sleep and lightning bolt. Sleep is now a flat 4 hit dice worth of creatures, and lightning bolt no longer reflects back if it hits a wall. Hadn't used those in PF yet so hadn't been aware of the changes to those particular spells. I generally play a fire based sorcerer when I make a caster. But the sleep spell STILL says it affects lowest HD creatures first. So an ogre and 3 level one PCs in the radius, players have to make their saves THEN it can affect the ogre, assuming there's enough HD left to do so.

Huh, looks like they reduced the radius of a fireball too by a bit. I'd still stand by a ruling of a fireball in a 5 foot wide hall and a backstop 10 feet beyond the target is going to spread back and affect someone standing 40 feet away from the target. Normally, the caster and company would be safe. But in that situation, the fireball's spread is channeled towards them.

Some if not all of these rules are from second edition DnD :p


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I like the Ultimate Alignment idea Moto suggested.

We have so far..

Magic
Combat
Intrigue
Equipment
Campaign

Ultimate Faith?
- how to build your own religions, gods and heavens. Examples of real and imagined mythologies.

Ultimate Story?
- how to weave player focused story into adventure paths and how to build characters with great stories that a GM can work with.


I'm hoping that we'll get to see some creative use of magic. One of the features you tend to see as technology advances is increasing complexity or refined simplicity. I'd like to see this happening with magic, rather than see the old pathfinder spells..

I'm thinking that more complicated magic might be available at lower level etc.


My gaming group are planning on running a horror themed game and rather than wait for the new horror book we came up with our own rules for insanity and madness. I was curious if the collective wisdom here thought they were fair and workable...

Suggested Insanity rules

When your GM requires it, a Will saving throw maybe required to resist mental damage. This save is normally the result of encountering “The Others” the creatures that don’t make sense in our world or when encountering particularly powerful supernatural events and effects.

The save DC is 10 to 55 depending on the source of the insanity as determined by the story teller.

When encountering the supernatural:

10 + CR if of this world but using the supernatural
15 + CR if not of this world
15 + (2 x CR) if notably more horrific/alien

If you pass the save you feel stressed and uncomfortable but suffer no long term effects.

If you fail the save you suffer insanity damage: 1 point and move down the fear tree one step.

If you roll a 1 on your Will save you critically fail. As a result you suffer 1D4 insanity and move down the fear tree one step.

Insanity Damage

The higher the damage the more unhinged a character becomes, to the point that they have a true insanity. A human can suffer insanity damage up to the total of their Wisdom score (not modifier) at which time they gain a Mental Affliction.

A character who gains Insanity Damage equal to twice their Wisdom Score suffers a second Mental Affliction and so on.

Mental Affliction’s
When insanity points equal or exceed your Wisdom score they suffer a Mental Affliction selected to match the current events or rolled randomly on the insanity tables. The Mental Affliction cannot be removed as long as your insanity score remains equal to or higher than your Wisdom score.

d% Mental Affliction
1–11 Amnesia
12–48 Mania/Phobia
49–68 Multiple Personality Disorder
69–78 Paranoia
79–84 Psychosis
85–100 Schizophrenia

Healing Insanity Damage

You can use the Heal skill to Provide Long-Term Psychiatric Care. The DC for this check is 15 + Insanity point damage.

Providing long-term care means treating a psychotic person for a day or more. If your Heal check is successful, the patient recovers insanity damage at the rate of 1 insanity points per level for a full 8 hours of rest in a day, or 2 insanity points per level for each full day of complete rest.

You can tend as many as six patients at a time. You need a few items and supplies (drugs, pleasant environments, therapy, and so on) that are easy to come by in settled lands. Giving long-term care counts as light activity for the healer. You cannot give long-term care to yourself.

Action/Time: 8 hours or 24 hours.

Retry? Varies. Generally speaking, you can’t try a Heal check again without witnessing proof of the original check’s failure. If you retry without changing your therapy you suffer -4 to the roll.

Spells to heal Insanity

Lesser Restoration heals 1 insanity damage.
Restoration heals 1D4 insanity damage.
Greater Restoration, heal, limited wish, miracle, or wish immediately heals all insanity damage.

Removing Mental Affliction

If your Insanity points are reduced to below your Wisdom score then each week of rest you may make a Will save against the DC of the Mental Affliction to remove it.

You can use the Heal skill to Treat Mental Affliction

To treat a Mental Affliction means to tend to a single afflicted character. Every time the afflicted character makes a saving throw against Mental Affliction, you make a Heal check. If your Heal check exceeds the DC of the Mental Affliction, the character receives a +4 competence bonus on his saving throw against the Mental Affliction.

Action/Time: 10 minutes.

Retry? Varies. Generally speaking, you can’t try a Heal check again without witnessing proof of the original check’s failure.

Restoration adds your caster level to the next save to over come a Mental Affliction.
Greater Restoration, heal, limited wish, miracle, or wish immediately removes all Mental Affliction’s.

New Traits

Strong Minded
Your training and force of personality has left you less vulnerable to the insanity the supernatural and alien forces cause.

Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus on any saving throws against confusion, insanity, madness, and Mental Affliction.

Psychiatric Healer
Your skill at healing the mind surpasses your skill with the body.

Benefit: You gain a +2 trait bonus to Heal checks to treat Mental Affliction’s, and Heal is always a class skill for you.


Forget worrying about experience for cr, its paperwork for the sake of it, level your players when it feels right (or at set times in the adventure you are running). In my experience this makes for better stories as I can throw challenges at my players and not worry about level creep...

I feel that DC's should both relate to the game world I.e. Be set at a a level that is reasonable; and occasionally offer a challenge. Part of that is forward planning. Make sure to allude to legendary challenges in advance for example. In the case of traps, most should match established DC rules and be a walk through, but there should be a place where they still challenge, just once in a while...

It makes you're player feel good if they know they can deal with ease traps that would kill a normal individual and still not be dull because they know that they are one of a very few capable of attempting to get through the dungeon made by, say Nethys.